They would have rolled out the red carpet I'm sure. Named for some guy who invented a process for preserving timber using arsenic and molasses, although god knows this isn't sugarcane country. Didn't work but the name stuck. Also famous for some of the biggest logs in Australia - the town that is, not me
Wine tasting around the Yarra valley for a couple of days - some nice dry rose and cool climate pinot noir, but nothing we are willing to pay for so far
Low energy lifestyle, only she's not that stable on the ground, let alone up a tree, and usually smells of lockets rather than eucalyptus
Koala reserve on Philip island - off to see the little penguins later...
Scary watching the news from Queensland on the rain and floods. Having been through those areas it seems so much more personal - the tornadoes that hit Bundaberg hit where we camped to see the turtles, and ripped the roof off one of the local restaurants we were near.
Now we just need the pestilence....
As we roll into Victoria for the first time. Free camping on the banks of the Snowy river. We have also turned the corner so are now heading back west for the first time instead of due south, and will be looking out at the Southern ocean rather than the Pacific for the next couple of months...
Can't see any smoke any more but according to local radio the fire is still uncontrolled to the north of us, and water bombers, including an Iroquois, are at is again this afternoon, refuelling every couple of hours at the local airport.
It has claimed 2 homes but no casualties, and roads reopened about 10pm last night
We pulled onto site off the Princes highway outside Merimbula at about 1:00pm and someone pointed out a whisp of smoke about 2 km to the west. That has now turned into a full on bush fire with helicopter water bombers and multiple fire trucks.
Wind is from the south and has driven the fire north and cut the princes highway north of us, but we are good where we are for now. Can see smoke through the trees but no flames, and we are on open land so it can't get to us even if the wind changes. A tree has also blown down south of us on the highway, so even if we wanted to get out we may have difficulties...
Cooler weather and rain should be coming in from the south tonight, but driving through the Bega valley this morning it was over 40 again.
Day tripped up to Canberra yesterday - like Milton Keynes with attitude, but the was memorial and museum is really good. Came back over Clyde mountain and it was stunning - oil vapour from the gum trees was bluer than the blue mountains, and some of the hairpins were 2nd gear, and that was without the rig on the back. Interesting .
Shrek and donkey off on another whirlwind adventure....you can guess which one is which
Collected the van from storage on Friday and towed it to Berry, about 130 km south of Sydney, then went back into the city on Saturday, and picked Sam and Gav up from the airport and handed them back their flat this morning.
We needed to restock the van and someone told us about a fruit and veg and meat place as we were driving down. Whole rib eye steak fillets for 8 bucks a kilo, so be bought 2 - cheaper than Woolworths chicken. At least it gives us an excuse to drink all that red wine we bought in the hunter valley :-)
We are starting to firm up our plans now for the next leg of the trip. We have abandoned the idea of going to Tasmania - its just too expensive to get over there. Makes crossing the English channel seem like a bargain. We are also not going to see Knees and Clive in south Australia as they will only be there visiting family for a couple of days, so we'll just meet up with them in WA. So, our itinerary looks a bit like this:
January - work our way round the south east coast toward Melbourne, with maybe a daytrip up to Canberra
February - a week or so around Melbourne, then up the coast via Adelaide for a few days, then a long haul inland to the underground opel mining town of Coober Pedy - famous from Priscilla.
March - back to the coast and a few days on the Eyre peninsular, then start heading west across the Nullabor again. When we get back to WA we want to spend a few days in Esperence on the south coast where we bought the rig - we saw it in winter and it was beautiful, so think it should be even better in late summer.
We then aim to get to Albany on the south west corner on maundy Thursday, leave the van and run up to Perth on Good Friday to see Jenny and Harry as that day is J's big 5-0. Knees and Clive fly into Perth on easter Saturday so we'll pick them up and shoot back down to Albany for a couple of days with them, and then on to Margaret River for a couple of days before being back in Perth for the joint 50th party on Saturday April 6th.
I'm exhausted just writing it :-)
Berry is about 40 km north of the bush fire that crossed the Princes highway south of Nowra (next town down) earlier in the week. We have not heard anything about that particular fire for a couple of days so assume its been brought under control, and there have been a couple of fairly heavy showers this afternoon, so hopefully that has helped the firefighters and it should all be sorted by the time we are ready to head on. This is just the start of the bushfire season, and I'm sure that we will be close to others in the coming months. All anyone can do is listen to the radio and react accordingly - planning to avoid them is an exercise in futility as they can break out pretty much anywhere at any time...Just make sure you have marshmallow handy if the worst comes to the worst.
Only state that doesn't currently have bush fires is WA, and they are about to get a cyclone. Never a dull moment :-)
Interior...scorchio. subterranea...not too bad :-)
5th hottest day on record for Sydney at 42.5, and worst fire risk day in the states history. Lots of fires south of Sydney past where we were last Friday: we are heading down that way when we reclaim the rig, but should all be out by then as cooler weather should be coming in overnight.
We stayed up in the blue mountains last night and went to jenolan caves today where underground it was nice and cool and damp. Outside at about 1000m altitude it was about 30 and a strong wind so not too bad, but when we came down from the tablelands it was like standing in front of a fan oven. we didn't see any fires on our route, but it sounds like its been a pretty bad day. We had also toyed with the idea of going to Tasmania this week while the van is still in storage but glad we decided against that one, as they have had it really bad down there for the last week or so.
Having a couple of days up in the blue mountains staying in katoomba near the 3 sisters. We've done Sydney so are covering off the surrounding area for a few days before hitting the road again. Been getting warmer and they are forecasting 43 tomorrow, so might go and hide in jenolan caves ...
