Down Under

Whilst Ben has been doing a grand tour of Australia, my Mum and I have been travelling at a much more relaxed pace, taking time to visit the Blue Mountains and have a good walkabout (!) and to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the World, Sydney.

3 Sisters in the Blue Mountains

To try and understand more about Australia’s history, we visited an Aboriginal cultural centre. The history of this group of people is devastating and there is still much to be done to improve their equality. However, I was really surprised to learn the following interesting facts; firstly, that boomerangs are not just nifty frisbees that come back to you, but are actually used as a weapon to hunt with, and secondly, only men are allowed to play the didgeridoo because it is very dangerous for women to play when pregnant. Random, but interesting!

Didgeridoos (well, they will be after a bit of sanding and painting!)

In Sydney, we were fortunate to visit many of the cities beautiful beaches; Manly, Bondi and Camp Cove (another great name!). Two of which are reached by taking a ferry across the harbour allowing you to take in the full wonder of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

To try and add a bit of culture to our trip, we went to see stand-up comedienne, Judith Lucy, perform at none other than the infamous Opera House. I have to say the play was slightly aimed at the more mature members of our group (aka my Mum loved it!) but she did have a brilliant take on life and what it’s like to be getting old.

Now we’re onto the next chapter of our trip; Thailand, so stay tuned for more adventures soon!

Lau x

Walkabout

Hello again!

Backpacking, it would seem, is not without its subtle touches of irony. For example, following my speeding misdemeanours, my parents and I were divinely gifted a bright red Ford XR6 rental car to razz around the sleepy, rain forest roads of Port Douglas.

Neither fast, nor furious

There, we stayed in a rain forest tree house, which served as an idyllic base as it sounds for our stay in the monsoon country. Unfortuntaely, the hospitality offered to us by our host was of the over-imposing and intrusive nature that sends you running at the nearest window… or off the nearest balcony, as it were, into the snake infested canopy below. I concede however, it was a fair trade for the breakfast views.

Our trip to the Great Barrier Reef whilst in Port Douglas was like coming face to face with God’s creation process during those first 7 days, when he still had all his colored crayons left. He obviously used up all His fun neon ones first on Australian fish because they all look like they’re on the way to a rave in Ibiza.

Our final stop on our Australian walkabout – well, manic romp would be more accurate – was in the original, Crocodile Dundee outback in Queensland to visit the Uluru-Kata Jtuta national park, home to the infamous Ozzy landmark, Ayers Rock. As soon as we arrived, amongst the sizzling heat and sanity testing flies, I was as overwhelmed as every other tourist, helpless against letting the parochial insect wildlife cruise into my open mouth.

We even absurdly braved a 4.30am wake up call to have breakfast whilst watching the sunrise over Uluru. The colours were amazing enough, but I’m not sure if I was just seeing the blood vessels from inside of my knackered eye lids. In my opinion though, it was Kata Jtuta, or the lesser known Olgas, that were the most inspiring. So I will sign off with a photo of my favorite view.

Until next time readers!

Bonjamon

Parental guidance

It’s not every day that you see a grown man throw up on himself, or a savage fist fight, or Australia lose at cricket, but we managed all three in one afternoon from our seats with the bogans at the first of the one day tests against South Africa at the MCG. We also braved the 40 degree heat at the Australian Open for Lau to hang out with her new bezzie, Gilles Simon

Six months ago, chatting to my parents over a beer in London, driving the Great Ocean Road together with Laura’s mum sounded like an inspired idea. However, barely half a week after their arrival, lying in a hospital bed with a $230 speeding violation fine in my pocket, I was beginning to have my doubts. But they were very short lived indeed.

I recovered quickly from my gastro-entiritis – a highly polite way of describing my tummy’s mis-behavior – and paid my speeding fine… although it had crossed my mind on several occasions to not pay and flee the country as a fugitive. How ironic, I thought, considering the origins of our Antipodean ancestors.

The Great Ocean Road, built as a memorial for those who served and died during the First World War, which stretches down the South coast from Melbourne, is by far the most spectacular coastal scenery I have every seen. The Twelve Apostles, Lock Ard Gorge and London Bridge are all truly beautiful structures, skillfully sculpted out of the mainland by the Bass Sea.

We also braved our own little safari trip into a dormant volcano crater called Tower Hill to try and spot some Kangaroos in their natural environment. It took well over 15 minutes of noisy blundering to realise that we we actually surrounded by about a dozen of them, all curiously watching us stumble through their home in thoroughly unsuitable foot-ware.

Roos

We even had a stare off with an Emu, which it won hands down by chasing us back into our car, after we tried to provoke it to stand in a cute pose for our photos.

We are now taking a short break from the intense pressures of car navigation and communal cooking, and will reconvene on Bondi Beach. Until then readers…

Bendy x