Saturday 30 July 2011

Barbed wire, cows and rolling tyres.

After the bus driver had abandoned us standing at the side of the road like the backpackers we were (having assured us that he has dropped people off there before and they have eventually been picked up) we did realise that we had in fact arrived before the scheduled time so we resigned ourselves to a bit of standing around in the cold and dark. Eventually, however, we gave in and rang the people who we were supposed to be staying with. We managed to get through to Fiona who was at home and informed us that Rohan had left ages ago and should already be there which naturally led to a spot of confusion. Eventually it was established that the buses aren't hugely consistent in exactly where they stop and Rohan had in fact been waiting in his car a couple hundred metres round the corner! We were rather thankful when Rohan eventually arrived, as 40 minutes standing in the cold and dark hadn't exactly been the most auspicious start to our farming experience. All negative thoughts were very quickly dispatched when we arrived at their farm and were introduced to the family, Rohan & Fiona, their lovely 2 year old daughter Eden, the cats Suki & Nook and the dogs Polly & Lucy. After a much appreciated hearty farm dinner we hit the sack pretty early in preparation for our first day of hard farm labour.

When I agreed to do some WWOOFing I wasn't really sure what it would entail, especially as I hadn't really spent a huge amount of time on farms, but it took very little time for me to fall in love with the lifestyle, the place and the whole experience.

The farm that Rohan, Fiona and Eden live on is located in a valley called Gleneden, next to Binjour in between Gayndah and Mundubbera (if you aren't up on your Australian geography then it is about 3 hours due west of Hervey Bay and Fraser Island). The farm has been in Rohan's family for ages and covers something like 300 acres. It isn't a commercial farm, rather they use it to be as self-sufficient as possible. They have a range of different animals (cows, pigs, chickens, horses) and an impressive garden where they grow a lot of fruit and vegetables. Rohan is also a Bullocky which means he drives bullocks as they would in the days of yore, he does this primarily for displays and currently has a team of 6 bullocks (Arthur, George, Edwin, Stanley, Rupert & Colin), all of which answer to their names and are very impressive when seen in action.

We had an absolutely fantastic time and both agreed it was probably the best 2 weeks we'd had in Australia (in fact we weren't originally going to stay that long, but we were having such a great time that we changed our plans). We were always very busy but loved being able to help out and try lots of wonderful new experiences. We were extremely lucky with our hosts as well, I was a little bit apprehensive at the idea of going to live with strangers, but Rohan, Fiona & Eden were lovely and made us feel incredibly welcome.

Every morning we would be up somewhere around 6:30am (often somewhat reluctantly) to see to the animals. We would feed the pigs and chickens and then have to go out into the fields to go and find the cows (Tinkerbell, Melissa, Teddy, Pitch, Duncan and the Bull) who could often prove to be a little elusive. Once they were in the yard we separated them so Tinkerbell could be milked and the calves (Duncan, Pitch and Bea who was kept in the yard overnight so she didn't drink all the milk) could be fed, before they could all be let out to wherever they would be spending the day. After checking all the relevant animals had enough water we would head back inside for breakfast (often porridge). They had a fine old wood-burning stove to keep the house warm (although it may have been winter it often actually ended up being nice and warm anyway) which required feeding in the morning and evening with wood (which I still bear scars from chopping).

During the day we would generally just do whatever needed to be done. This varied from heading into Gayndah to building a website, to housework or to something slightly more exciting (I shall elaborate shortly), generally with a healthy break for a remarkably healthy lunch with most of the produce being homegrown. Around 4pm we would have a fun excursion to bring the cows in, which sounds simple enough except for the fact that they were often left to wander down the drive and a dead-end road. Unfortunately they would often get adventurous and head off down the road out of the valley which meant we spent most of the day keeping an eye out for them and then having an occasional mad dash in the ute or by bike to go and turn them around. Added to this, they were often rather disinclined to actually head in the right direction and could take quite a bit of persuasion. This led to one escapade in which we were having to herd the bullocks back in the dark with only torches and the ute's headlights to guide us after having lost them up the road. Never a dull moment.

One of the more interesting projects that we engaged in was restoring and old dunny which Rohan had acquired from some friends so that he could use it when giving Bullock Displays as part of a true historial Australian experience. When we arrived it was upside-down looking rather sorry for itself. Clearly this meant we were going to have to flip it upright, onto the posts that Rohan had already measured and driven into the ground in the appropriate place. Using a system of pulleys, some levers, brute force and the power of the ute we first successfully managed to turn it onto it's side with surprisingly little difficulty. Next we rearranged the pulleys and prepared to use a similar method to bring it upright onto the posts. Being the forward thinkers we are we considered that it might be a good idea to cushion the impact with the posts somehow to try and prevent us from causing more damage than necessary so we got a big tractor tyre (which Daisy very adeptly manouvered into position) and put it under where the dunny was supposed to be landing. All seemed to be going well until the final movements of the attempted flip when the dunny came down, landed on the tyre, bounced off the tyre and fell sideways in a heap. We were not disheartened, however, and eventually righted said dunny and began reconstructing it. After two weeks it had complete walls, a new roof, a repaired floor and a fresh coat of paint and was certainly a pleasing sight to behold.

In those short two weeks we learned a number of new skills for our CVs (and I still have scars to prove it) including barbed-wire fence repair, cheese-making, rooster-plucking, cow-chasing and dunny-repairing. It was a huge amount of fun, even when things didn't proceed quite as planned and we ended up running around in circles trying to catch animals. It was a fantastic new experience and we were both gutted that we eventually had to leave. If nothing else it was great to live in a proper home for a couple of weeks and it was amazing to be able to eat home-cooked fresh food every day (and help in the preparation) and we'd both love to go back some day.

Monday 18 July 2011

Dido, Diving, Beaches and Lagoons

We awoke on the morning of our first day in Cairns (after only a few hours sleep) to the sound of Dido coming from the reception area beneath our room (this was to become a bit of a pattern as no-one could or would change the morning playlist). Fortunately things very quickly improved. After a week or so in Melbourne we were rather sick of the cold, wet weather which was far too much like home and so it was great to finally have some sun and warmth. Tropic Days, the hostel we were staying at, is a nice family-run place a little way out of the centre with a great atmosphere. They have a swimming pool, hammocks and a great bunch of people, so much so that it was very easy to spend days not really doing anything in particular. We would spend our time lounging around by the lagoon (which is basically just a big outdoor public swimming pool) down on the waterfront in the sunshine or relaxing on hammocks reading books (I have in fact managed to spend quite a bit of money on books after getting hooked on a series) followed by a spot of socialising in the evening.

We did actually try and do some interesting things as well though, on Monday we walked all the way over to the Botanic Gardens and back which was quite nice and invigorating as well as interesting followed by a BBQ night at the hostel organised by the legend Gabe. We had plenty to eat including kangaroo, emu and crocodile. Afterwards we headed in to town for a great night out. I think what really made Cairns such a fantastic experience were the people we met there, like Pontus, Eddie, Eva, Emma, Tom and Vicky, they were all so lovely and we had a great time getting to know them.

We had both really been looking forward to Wednesday when we boarded a boat with our new friend Pontus and headed out to the Great Barrier Reef. It certainly started off pretty well with the sun out and not a cloud in the sky! I went scuba diving for the first time (and enjoyed it so much that I did a second dive) and loved it. It was amazing and I loved getting up close and personal with some of the marine life. We stopped at 3 different sites during the day doing a mixture of diving and snorkelling around and had a fantastic lunch in between. We saw all sorts of exciting things from a sea turtle to reef sharks. It was quite nervewracking diving for the first time, but on my second dive I had relaxed a lot and it felt a lot more natural. I think I'd definitely like to go diving again, maybe in the Philippines where I met loads of people who said it was phenomenal. We had hired an underwater camera for the day so we could take full advantage of the experience and hopefully get some great photos to remind us of it, and in the end we did get some good pictures, although they definitely don't really convey the true amazingness of it.

We were pretty exhausted after the previous day's excitement so after having packed most of Thursday was spent relaxing and enjoying our last day in Cairns before our overnight bus down the coast to Airlie Beach with our new friend Eddie. Cairns is definitely one of my favourite places in Australia because we had such a great time there. It's not the biggest place and there aren't a particularly large number of things to do there but we ended up being really lucky with our choice of hostel and the people we met there that we didn't really care. And to be fair it's quite hard to argue against the merits of spending your time just relaxing in the sunshine, and of course the trip out the the Great Barrier Reef just made it all the more fun. After our all-you-can-eat pizza night we were feeling a little bit full and just sat around the hostel waiting for our taxi (we were feeling pretty lazy by this point) to take us over to the Greyhound bus stop. It wasn't the best journey we've had, but eventually we arrived at our new destination, Airlie Beach.

Airlie Beach is one of three towns that are basically all connected up and the main reason for tourists to visit is to go out to the Whitsundays. We arrived at our hostel and after checking into our surprisngly good room we went out for a wander. It isn't a very big place so we spent most of the day just lounging around by the lagoon (it seems to be a bit of a theme on the coast), reading, relaxing and eating icecream. For dinner we headed next door to the Down Under Bar & Grill where we could get discounts because of the hostel we were staying at. After a tasty bit of food we decided to spend the rest of the evening there, and in the end we were grateful it was just round the corner from where we were staying.

To be honest, the next day ended up being fairly similar, Eddie decided to head out on a boat trip but Daisy and I had another lazy day, although we did have a little stroll around the local market, where Daisy was fairly captivated by the sight of Camel Rides on the beach (even if the average age was about 10). For lunch we had a spot of fish & chips before spending the rest of the afternoon doing basically nothing. Eddie came back early in the evening and we went out to dinner together (where I decided to have steak yet again) before we had to bid him farewell as he was spending another night in Airlie Beach and we were leaving that night for Agnes Water & The Town of 1770. It was another of those lovely overnight buses where we got very little sleep, but come morning we found ourselves at our new destination.

Our new hostel was aptly named Cool Bananas and it seemed like a proper surfers' hostel with a really chilled out vibe, hammocks and a lovely beach just a short walk away. It was really quite a picturesque little place as we discovered soon after we arrived when we walked up to a lookout point on a headland which provided a stunning view of the endless beach, deep blue ocean and cloudless skies. Heading back we walked down to the 'town' (it was quite hard to call it a town considering how small it was) where we grabbed some supplies from the supermarket, and after a 5 minute walk around the 'town' (that's all you needed to see everything of interest) headed back up to the hostel. In the afternoon we went for a stroll along the beach which just seemed to go on forever. The weather was perfect and it really felt quite isolated down by the water. Back at the hostel we discovered that there was a guy who came over every evening to cook a proper meal in the kitchen so you could just write your name down on a list and get a proper home-cooked meal for a very reasonable price. We opted to have the beef stew that was on offer that night before retiring to watch a movie and eventually go to sleep as by this point we were pretty damn fatigued.

We had heard that 1770 was a really good place to learn how to surf, although this idea was quickly shot down when we were told there wasn't really any surf to speak of at the moment. Instead we discovered that you can do a Castaway experience where you get flown out in a small group of people in a little plane and basically abandoned on a little island with some supplies and stuff where you spend a night in proper isolation, although when we tried to book it turned out that there was no availability until after we had moved on. Mostly unpeturbed we instead decided to do a sunset se kayaking trip, although when we first enquired we were told it wasn't actually going to be on today. Fortunately our run of bad luck did not continue and we were told not long after that it was going to happen after all that evening. So later on we were picked up in a minibus and driven round to the town of 1770 (which incidentally is named because Cook landed there in the year 1770) where we all got set up in our two man kayaks and were led out down the estuary towards the sea. There were something like 10 of us in total and it was great fun kayaking out round the headland (if a little bit tiring). It all looked pretty picturesque as the sun got lower in the sky and we even managed to spot a mother and baby dolphin swimming around us! On our way back we stopped off on a beach looking out at the setting sun drinking what is affectionately known in Oz as 'goon' (cheap box wine) and indulging in some rather nice cake. Just before the sun set completely (as we would be a bit lost otherwise) we headed back on up the estuary to where we had started and got a lift in the minibus back to our hostel. Eddie had also arrived from Airlie beach that day so we hung out with him and again had a lovely meal cooked for us and watched the film that was on in the communal area. I did have a bit of a stress dealing with STA trying to rearrange the rest of my flights (as the next one was originally scheduled for the next day) but I got it all sorted and headed to bed feeling very contented.

We did aim to do something on our last day there but unfortunately it was a Tuesday which meant the museum was closed so we ended up basically doing nothing other than relaxing on the beach and having a nice easy day and a fairly early night before having to get up at the crack of dawn the next day to get the bus. Being me, I hadn't properly packed the night before like a sensible person would have done so I had the fun of packing by torchlight and hoping that I hadn't managed to forget anything. We checked out and the 3 of us (Eddie, Daisy and I) wandered down to the bus stop just as the sun was making it's first attempts at rising. After another really really fun bus ride we reached Maryborough where we waved farewell to Eddie who was carrying on to Brisbane and had a fun few hours waiting at a bus stop for our connecting one to head inland to a tiny place called Binjour where we would hopefully be met by Rohan and Fiona who we had arranged to go and stay with on their farm as part of the WWOOFing scheme. After getting some lunch from the nearby supermarket and the next book in my addictive series from a bookshop the bus eventually arrived. There were only 4 of us on the bus and it was a fairly uneventful journey and after a 30min stop in Gayndah (which is only about a quarter of an hour from Binjour) and a slight worry about an oil leak, we were abandoned in the dark by the side of the road in Binjour, hoping someone would turn up and take us in...

Thursday 14 July 2011

Trains, Wine, Cheese and some Apostles

We were quite excited, if a little apprehensive at the prospect of a 2-day train journey across the country, so we rocked up at the station in Perth in plenty of time to catch the train. Too much time as it turned out, but better safe than sorry. Being backpackers, we had bought the cheapest seats, a reclining seat each for our almost 48 hour journey. Fortunately they were actually pretty comfortable and reclined most of the way back with plenty of leg-room (especially for little people like Daisy and I). In the end it was quite a fun journey, we paid a little extra for access to the lounge and free tea and coffee, made friends with some of the staff members and enjoyed some surprisingly good food at surprisingly good prices. It really brought home quite how vast a country Australia is and how much of it is empty, we could wake up after several hours sleep to see that the scenery was exactly the same as when we fell asleep.

We had a few stops on the way, in Kalgoorlie (where we arrived in the middle of the night and had a rather interesting bar experience), in Cook (which has a population of 4), and a super short stop in Port Augusta (again in the middle of the night). It wasn't the most eventful journey but you got to see a lot of the country (and a lot of nothing) and it ended up being quite an enjoyable experience and 40-something hours later we arrived in Adelaide.

Arriving feeling like true backpackers we decided that we would walk the 'short' distance to a hostel. It wasn't quite as short as we had estimated and it felt even longer due to carrying big backpacks and not having had a huge amount of sleep on the train... We did get there eventually though and it turned out to be quite a nice hostel with a decent bar and a lively enough atmosphere (especially on the night of the free BBQ!). After having dumped our stuff at the hostel we wandered down to the Central Market which was full of delicious-looking (and smelling) food (although still Australian prices =( ). We also discovered a second-hand bookshop which both of us had really got a taste for so I purchased the sequel to one I had discovered in Perth. After popping back to the hostel to check-in properly we headed out on a walking tour of Adelaide. We began by walking through the shopping district stopping at a few of Daisy's favourite shops (super-tacky souvenir shops selling everything from inflatable kangaroos to garish clothing plastered with the Australian flag) before heading over to the Museum of South Australia and the neighbouring Art Gallery, which although good (and full of screaming schoolchildren) really made you appreciate the quality of museums and galleries we have in the UK. From there we walked past the 'Migration Museum' which neither of us were inspired by up to the river and along to the Adelaide Oval which is supposedly one of the most pretty cricket grounds in the world. After being suitably impressed and looking around the Don Bradman museum which is housed there, we had a delightful stroll along the river up to the Botanic Gardens and then on to the National Wine Centre which had a remarkably good exhibition on wine, how it's made, where it comes from and some of the science behind it all. Afterwards we felt like true wine connoisseurs and decided to put our new found skills to the test with a spot of wine tasting which was definitely enjoyed by all. It also turned out that it was Tuesday which meant cheap pizza at Domino's which we gratefully indulged in (and even got an extra free pizza because they took so long with it). After consuming it with the help of a couple of reasonably priced drinks from the bar and a chat with some other people who where staying there we retired to real beds for the first time in what seemed like ages.

We had sort of planned to go on a tour of wineries in the hills around Adelaide the next day but we were discouraged by how expensive they were (and too disorganised to do anything about it). Instead we wandered through the city to a collection of galleries adjoining part of the university. There we saw some... interesting... works of art and were captivated by a group of people engaged in glass-blowing to create some incredible works of art. Some of what was on sale there was truly amazing and we both wished we could take some home with us. From there we headed south across the city to Haigh's Chocolate Factory where we saw (and smelled) people making some very tasty treats. Daisy managed to wangle us some free chocolate buttons and so we had a sit down with complimentary tea and coffee in order to consume them. It was good. That evening there was a free BBQ (which we obviously partook in) and a pool competition in which we both were rather average. We also met some cool travellers, among them Natasha and James who had a car and were driving west all the way across the country. As they were still looking for another person to join their epic trip they offered to take us on a trip into the Adelaide Hills the next morning.

The next day, after a brief grand tour of all the backpacker hostels in Adelaide so they could drop off some advertisements to try and find another person, we headed up into the hills with Natasha, James, Coco and Tony. First stop was an animal sanctuary where we got fairly up close with some kangaroos and wallabies and tried in vain to spot the elusive platypus and koalas. It was still a lovely place for a walk and a great start to the day. From there we headed over to Hahndorf, a German town, where we had a bit of an explore and tried some rather excellent local cheese. Next we visited an unexpectedly upmarket winery where we felt like right yobs trying a few wines and leaving straight away. After a stop at a chocolate factory (next to a cheese place that was unfortunately closed) we proceeded to have a nice scenic drive up to Mt. Lofty to see the sun set over Adelaide. It was a great view, just a little bit cold to enjoy it properly...

That night we took an overnight bus down to Melbourne. Arriving before the sun had risen we journeyed through the city on the tram to find our next hostel, 'The Ritz' (for backpackers), which is nice apart from being above a pub that regularly has rather loud (although fairly decent) music late into the night at weekends which can at times make sleeping a bit of a challenge. After a bit of a power nap we headed back into the city centre to sample the sights and sounds that Melbourne had to offer. That evening we had booked to go and watch a Super 15 rugby match between the Cape Town Stormers and the Melbourne Rebels which was great fun, especially as we were sitting right by one of the corner flags! The match ended up being rather one-sided as the Rebels were soundly beaten (but at least this made Daisy happy since she had already seen the Stormers play when she was in SA) but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

On Saturday we had arranged to meet up with Higgy, a friend from Girton who is now studying in Melbourne, who had very kindly offered to give us a personal guided tour of Melbourne. After he met us at our hostel we began the tour by going up to the Skydeck where we had a splendid 88th floor view down onto Melbourne in the sunshine and could see all the major landmarks all the way out to the suburbs. After taking a few photos we took the lift back down and crossed the city to visit the Victoria Market which seems to sell a bit of everything, from clothes to food to tacky souvenirs. Here we popped into the food court for lunch before heading back to Federation Square to visit the Gallery of the Moving Image which is mainly devoted to the history of things like film and television. It was actually a really good museum with lots of interactive exhibits and interesting takes on fairly familiar subjects. It also turned out that we were there during the Melbourne Jazz Festival which meant they had regular free open-air concerts, one of which we listened to a bit of on our way out of the gallery.

Next we headed over to the War Memorial which was set in a nice garden with splendid views from the roof balcony and while we were there was quite a moving 3 minute service of remembrance. It was a very peaceful place and the building itself served as a fine reminder to the sacrifices made. From there we wandered through the Botanic Gardens and around the lake there. By this point we were becoming experts on such things and decided that this was certainly one of the better gardens we had visited. We then hopped on a tram to take us back out to St Kilda. We decided to have a fun night out and went to a lovely and surprisingly cheap Italian place just down the road from where we were staying. Afterwards we moved on to a slightly upmarket-looking bar for a few beverages which was pretty darn fun before retiring for the night.

When looking around the city we had wandered into the cathedral and had decided that it would be quite nice to attend a service on Sunday morning. Having done a fair amount of singing back at Girton, we couldn't help but compare the cathedral choir to choirs in Cambridge, especially since they were in fact singing music we had sung while studying (A mass by Schubert if you were wondering). It ended up being quite an enjoyable service and comfortingly close to the kind of service we were used to back in England. The rest of the day was fairly relaxed, consisting of a return visit to Victoria Market and a visit to an Art gallery. We headed back to the hostel fairly early to make some dinner and to try and decide on where our adventure was going to take us next.

Monday began with a fun morning of sorting out things like tours, flights and hostel bookings before we headed out around lunchtime to explore St Kilda where we were staying. It turned out to be a rather splendid day of walking along the seafront, looking in interesting little shops and generally having a nice, relaxed afternoon. We walked past Luna Park, an old turn-of-the-century theme park, which, although closed for winter, did look quite quaint if maybe a little garish. After finding our favourite thing, a pub with a good deal on, for lunch we moseyed back down the streets eyeing up cool and exciting things in shops which were too expensive, too big, or both. We popped back into our hostel for a bit and that evening caught the tram down to where Higgy lives for supper. Higgy and Jess live with another couple in a lovely house (it's even got a white-picket fence) with another couple and their dog Clifford (who is most certainly not Big or Red). It was quite hard to believe that they were students and yet were living in such a nice place. Higgy had prepared a real feast for supper, starting with Kangaroo Steak Kebabs, followed by Lasagne and then Crunchie Ice Cream for dessert! It was really nice to have such a wonderful home-cooked meal and we followed it up by watching a spot of TV in a proper living room (it's amazing how much of a luxury it can be). Just in case things were going too well, thanks to a misreading of the small print on a tram timetable, we ended up missing the last tram back and being true cheapo backpackers we opted to walk back in the cold and dark. It wasn't quite the end to the evening that we might have hoped for but it was OK since we were still on a bit of a high.

Waking up on Tuesday morning and looking out of the window wasn't the most fun experience ever as the weather was pretty miserable, although fortunately this was the first time we hadn't had pleasant weather during our Australian travels. Since it clearly wasn't a day to be spending too much time outside we headed up to the Melbourne Museum to gain some more culture points. It turned out to be a very interesting (and big) museum, including such things as an indoor rainforest and a big section on evolution. We again discovered that Australian museums often seem to be a little bit more modernised and interactive, especially when it comes to the use of technology. I really enjoyed an exhibition on the human brain, covering everything from what it is made up of to the way we think and why we dream. After enjoying most of what the museum had to offer (including the ubiquitous groups of noisy schoolchildren), we departed (after of course looking in the shop and being subjected to a spot of Rolf Harris) and walked back through the city. On our way back we couldn't help but stop in nearly every bookshop we could find (despite the fact that books in Australia are outrageously priced) as well as a number of shockingly tacky souvenir shops. A quiet evening followed in preparation for the next day's excitement of the Great Ocean Road.

We woke once again to less than perfect weather, but refused to be downhearted as we were leaving early for our trip along the Great Ocean Road. We had ended up booking onto the same tour as our two American roommates, Mark & Bryn, and set off full of anticipation. Our first stop was Bell's Beach which is very famous for surfing although we didn't actually see anyone braving the grey, chilly weather, so we had a spot of tea and snapped a few quick photos before jumping back on the bus as the heavens opened. This set an example for the rest of the day. Next we headed to Memorial Arch where there is a big sign saying 'Great Ocean Road' over the road. More photos were taken here before heading off again. We passed through towns such as Lorne and Anglesea we stopped at a little wildlife place in Kennett River where we managed to see Koalas in the Eucalyptus trees and a plethora of brightly coloured birds that would land on you if you happened to have any bird-seed on you. It was great to get so up close and personal with animals and get some amusing photos, but we once again making a bit of a dash for the bus as the rain started once again. Our next stop was Apollo Bay for lunch (which was definitely needed) in a nice Greek place where I had Souvlaki. Just to mix things up a little we stopped next at a rainforest for a short little (wet) walk around which was quite a nice change of pace. As we were leaving it got pretty torrential on our way to the famous 12 apostles (even though there have never actually been 12 of them) which are a series of limestone stacks just off the coast. It was quite an adventure just trying to get out to the viewing platform, it was very wet and windy, so by the end we were really quite bedraggled. A kindly fellow called Wayne from England took pity on us generously bought us a hot drink in the little kiosk to try and regain some feeling in our extremities. Even though the weather wasn't quite what we might have hoped for it didn't detract from the spectacle and is definitely something to look back and laugh about (especially when looking at some of the pictures of us). Once back on the bus we stopped at a couple more sights, namely Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge (the story goes that a couple were camping out there to hide from prying eyes but the 'bridge' of rock collapsed and left them stranded and the ensuing press excitement rendered their attempt pretty useless) before a long drive back to Melbourne via inland roads and a stop for dinner. Ultimately it was a great day, even the weather didn't dampen our spirits too much.

After such a big day we decided to follow it up with a more relaxing day. We spent quite a lot of it wandering around the Melbourne International Art Gallery which is huge and probably the best gallery we've been to. It had a great range of different kinds of art, from Oriental pieces to classical European pieces, to a lot of contemporary art. Every time you think you have come to the end you turn the corner and discover a whole other exhibition. We ended up a little bit tired from all the walking around and headed into the CBD for some food (and to take some more photos of the city before we left) before returning to the hostel for a fairly quiet evening and a meal at the same Italian place we had visited before.

Friday was our last day in Melbourne before a night flight up to Cairns (and hopefully some better weather) and the Great Barrier Reef. Most of it was just spent sorting out a few things and packing up. We spent some of the time having a last little wander around St Kilda and getting a few provisions from the supermarket before getting a shuttle to the airport in the evening and arriving in the 'Budget Terminal' (in true 'budget' style it was little more than a shed really). Our backpacking experience was then enhanced by our flight being delayed, but eventually we managed to get on the very 'budget' airline (Tiger Airways, which has since been told it can't fly people in Australia due to safety issues) and arrive in Cairns at around 3am. From there we had a relatively pain-free transfer to our hostel where we managed to find our way to our beds in the dark and crashed out at around 4:30am, which was extremely welcome.