Phillip Island - Adelaide

Hello from Adelaide

I'll just update you on our tours to date - then maybe flesh out the details later. We'll be heading off to Kangaroo Island tomorrow, so I probably won't have much time then.

From Melbourne we got ourselves on a tour of Phillip Island to watch the nightly migration of hundreds of "Fairy" or "Little" penguins - the world's smallest penguins. As part of the tour we also visited a local winery (OK but not great) and a wildlife park (we got to feed wallabies and kangaroos - and got to stroke a baby wombat).



On this tour was a middle-aged Czech woman who was rather enthusiastic and tried to engage each of us in the tour at various times in her rather broken English (although her English was better than my Czech). Just as our guide was out of the bus to get our tickets, she decided it was too cold for shorts and that trousers were a much better idea. Unfortunately, she also decided that she didn't need to bother with privacy - so she dropped her shorts in the very front seat of the bus and began putting on her trousers. It didn't take long before everyone in the bus had noticed. We were all trying not to laugh, but the tour guides expression when he got back on the bus made us all crack up laughing.

That evening we watched the penguins come ashore in "rafts" of 6-12 and climb the hill behind the beach in search of their nests. Some of them had bulked up in preparation of moulting (they stay ashore for 7-10 days without feeding) and so were very fat and clumsy. No photos were allowed so unfortunately we have no pictures of that.

We are now in Adelaide having taken a 3 day tour of the "Great Ocean Road". The scenery was lovely and we met some very nice people. We passed by loads of cool rock formations caused by the erosion of the coastline including the famous 12 apostles (although there were only ever 7 - go figure...) and London bridge. We also saw temperate rainforests and the oddly familiar Grampian mountain range.



Our tour group was only 8 people - 2 Swiss, 2 Germans, 2 English girls, plus us two Scots(!) - so there was a very relaxed atmosphere and we enjoyed the trip immensely.

Here we all are inside a giant gum tree.



Next up - despite a minor timetabling error - we are going to get a tour to Kangaroo island (no comments from Mr. Kangaroo please!) after which we are headed back to Melbourne and then on to Tasmania.

Catch you all later!

Melbourne

Melbourne is HOT! Wow it is hot. It's been as high as 40 degrees centigrade over the last few days - I think it's time for somewhere colder next :-)

So after we got here, we made a big list of all the stuff we wanted to do in Melbourne and have been gradually getting through it. We have also managed to take in some impromptu events that we only found out about when we got here too.

Here's what we've been up to:

- City Tour

We have spent a certain amount of time looking around the city itself. There are many parks and public spaces in Melbourne and I think that we've covered most of them by now.

- Further travel planning

We've managed to arrange tours and travel to get to Adelaide in Southern Australia. This means that when we get kicked out of our current digs at the end of the week, we'll have somewhere to go!

- Sustainability festival

We found that there was a "Sustainable Living"festival happening on our doorstep in Federation (or "Fed") Square. Aside from having cool ideas to save energy, live music and delicious curry, they also offered free unlimited internet acces, although I may have mentioned this earlier?

- Veg curry

We have managed to find LOADS of places which serve veg curry - from small local places to larger, fancier places, including a large restaurant on St Kilda beach.

- St Kilda

St Kilda is a small suburb of Melbourne with a lovely beach. We went down there for a day on the tram and dipped our toes in the ocean. We also looked around the local cafes and shops - very chilled!


- Wildlife (Zoo & Wild)

Melbourne Zoo is a really nice place with Indian elephants, orang-utans and some very energetic and mischievious tiger cubs. They also have a pretty full compliment of Aussie wildlife including both types of monotremes [the spikey echidna and the oddly shaped, venomous - but incredibly cute - platypus], various macropods [kangaroo and wallabies mainly], koalas, wombats and the velociraptor-esque cassowary.

We have also seen WILD swamp wallabies. This is not really anything to write home about as such as they are common as muck over here :-) Ah well...

- Observatory (Saturn, Betelgeuse, Jewel Box, Alpha Centauri)

While in the botanic gardens, we found a night-time observatory tour. We were shown around the observatory and gardens and got to look at Saturn, and various nearby stars in the night sky - though a telescope installed specially for the transit of Venus in the 1800s.

I'll give you a detailed description of our latest trip to Phillip Island soon, but in the meantime we are off for a tour of the "Great Ocean Road". Unfortunately we only got a couple of hours sleep last night :-)

Hang on in there!

Cast of Characters

G'day! I want to add some info about our journey from the US to Oz. It was so cool and included a great cast of characters.

Right after we boarded the ship in Los Angeles, we were brought up to the bridge to meet the captain. He introduced himself as Trevor (no need to call him sir or salute or suchlike), so it was informal from the start. He's a Kiwi and a very talkative, funny one at that. He entertained us with various stories and his take on world events/situations at nearly every meal. He also gave us some cool pics of the ship and crew. The deputy captain is from Russia but now lives in NZ. He told us a lot too, and at the end of the voyage he wrote up his own recommendations for sights to see in Moscow and St Petersburg (cheers, Mikhail!). The chief engineer, Christian, is German but now lives in South Africa. He loves to travel as much as we do, as well as watching the amazing sunsets only visible at sea. Here's hoping he got to see some dolphins after we left the ship! Here's a picture of Iff and me with Christian (left) and Trevor during the barbecue:


The voyage itself was such an experience, so different from our one cruise. We were the only passengers on the freighter (compared to 2,000 on the QM2), there were only 26 crew members (compared to the QM2's 1,000 crew members), we got food that tasted like home cooking (including a barbecue on deck one Saturday evening), we got to wear jeans/shorts all the time, we had a cabin suite much bigger than the one on the QM2, we could go all over the ship (provided we didn't get in the way of the crew), we could visit the bridge the whole time, and we even got a tour of the engine room. There weren't lessons on how to fold napkins and tie scarves and the assorted musical atrocities which were committed on the QM2. Each night we saw so many stars, which we just don't get to see in any city. And we got to sit on the edge of the bow of the ship to watch for dolphins as the sun set. Genius! Plus the weather was almost always perfect...hardly any rain and only one day of medium-heavy rolling. What a brilliant introduction to the southern hemisphere, the South Pacific, and the Southern Ocean. Here's a lovely picture Trevor gave us of a sunset seen from on board (better than the sunset pictures we took ourselves!):


The voyage and crew were nice and informal, and that didn't stop when we got to the Melbourne port. The Ozzie immigration and customs guys came on board and were so friendly, nice and relaxed -- all smiles, as opposed to the usual immigration and customs officials we've encountered at every airport we've ever been to. One of them even came up to our cabin to search our backpacks. He was a lovely Melbourne native who happily gave us advice on things to do and see in his city. Miles away from the usual customs experience! So right off the bat we got a great impression of Oz. Once we left the boat, we got a taxi into town. When our taxi driver found out it was our first time to Melbourne, he pointed out all places of interest on the way to our hostel. It was so cool!

Now I'll leave it to Chris to post an update about our time in Melbourne. It's all good!!!

Photos - finally!

Please note - I am inserting photos into old posts - slowly but surely...

Hold on? What? It's TRUE! Check it out...

San Diego - Los Angeles - Melbourne

G'day.

We have just arrived in Melbourne. It's a beautiful day here and all is well.

Just before leaving San Diego, we did finally manage to get to the "World Famous" zoo and see the pandas, hippo and so on.


After leaving San Diego we spent a couple of days in LA getting ready for the trip over to Oz (buying books, food etc). When we got to the port of LA it was quite intimidating. The freighter industry is not geared towards passengers (obviously) - so there was none of the usual creature comforts of people to meet you and guide you through a check-in procedure - instead we arrived at a gate where we signed in and they put us on a bus which took us to the dock. It was a struggle getting ourselves and our luggage up the gangway without falling into the sea, but we managed it somehow!


Once onboard we were given a brief orientation and then left to our own devices. The cabin was nice - a bedroom, a dayroom and a bathroom. It was put on the ship so the owner would have somewhere to stay in case they decided to check up on how the ship, and presumably cargo, crew etc, was doing.


Meals were pretty good on the whole - although generally meat based, so we ended up eating rice, potatoes and/or side veg a lot. I'm just glad we brought a few extra bits and pieces. There wasn't a huge amount to do onboard, but the sunsets were wicked!


We ended up spending a lot of time playing cards, reading and sleeping. It was a pretty good time in general - it was very relaxing watching the ocean and feeling the rocking of the boat. We did get a tour of the bridge and the engine room - which were cewl!


So now here we are in Melbourne. All I need to do is find a USB equipped PC that actually allows me to browse the USB stick I put in it and then I can show you what I'm talking about! :-)

Iff