FOOTAGE : SPIDER ON THE TENT!

CAMPSITE # 52 - Ned's Place - Sandringham, VIC

I know, I know, Tom's family back in England will cringe when they see this photo but believe me, it was all for a good cause.
We realised we had been waiting for nearly six months for news of Tom's permanent residency application. And while it worked out to be a great excuse, it meant that he couldn't work during the time that he was on his bridging visa. We knew this when we left for the trip and figured we would take the plunge and just keep our fingers super crossed and pray that he wasn't denied and therefore needing to leave the country within 28days... kinda hard to do a trip around Australia together without him if you know what I mean.

Immigration advised us that it would take a predicted six months until we heard from them with their decision. As we were quickly approaching the six month mark, we figured it was best to give them a call. While Tom was talking to them on the phone, I was eagerly trying to figure out the meanings of the "Yes, I have", "No, didn't" "Oh really" "Oh, OK, interesting"... come on Tommy thumbs up or thumbs down??? But like most men, my darling Tommy struggles to do two things at one time. It wasn't until he hung up the phone that he advised me "They've already made their decision. They sent through the decision via email on the 8TH OF OCTOBER LAST YEAR!!!" All of this time, we could have known. From all of the advise we were given, we were waiting for something via snail mail, we never expected to get it by email and so were never diligent in checking for new mail.
As the excitement of finding out sunk in, I quickly realised that he could infact have been denied and therefore have been in the country illegally for the last 5 months. Tom was given some details to access the decision online and we sat there ... with all of these emotions running through us. As we read through the page "Name" "DOB" "Passport Number" yeah, yeah, yeah get to the good stuff, together we read "Permanent Residency Status" ... "Effective". That little word had no idea how much it meant. We were officially off the hook and thankfully, Tommy was not getting deported. He was allowed to enter and exit Australia as frequently as he likes.

And, I'm still trying to figure out if it was a good thing that we can now work. Yay, work. The one thing I miss most about being on the road.... working to make somebody else more money. (Please ensure that you read this in an extremely monotone and uninspired tone).

Permanent Residency could not have come at a better time for us both with Australia Day & our two year anniversary due to be celebrated all on the same day. Last year for our one year anniversary, we wined and dined at the amazing & exclusive fine dining seafood restaurant in Brisbane called Lure. This year, as we are retired and on a budget, we celebrated our anniversary in a food court indulging in a cheesecake for Tom, a muffin for me and two coffees... and it was lovely. I kept teasing Tom that he's lowering the bar a bit but of course we're so much happier being on the road doing what we're doing and that lovely little anniversary morning tea, while it may have been with a bunch of fast food junkies, was a real treat. 

We figured, given recent news, Australia day officially deserved even more reason to celebrate & drink beer. We caught up with Ned & Tren, two friends we made in Eden NSW when we were stuck there for 10 days waiting on a Toyota part. Ned & Tren live in Melbourne and they very kindly invited us to join them for a bike ride & fish and chips by the beautiful Half Moon Bay and off then to celebrate Australia Day at a friend's barbie in Brighton. 

We had an absolute cracking time... and it just proved that this is what travelling is all about. Meeting great people that you will keep in touch with for years to come and creating some rather random and exciting stories to tell. 

CAMPSITE # 51 - South East Holiday Park, Melbourne

In a bid to never ever stay at my most dreaded trailer park trash caravan park that we stayed in last time we were in Melbourne, I was 100% determined to find a better alternative. And for a park within 45mins to the CBD of Melbourne, South East Holiday Park was quite passable... as nice as an inner city caravan park could possibly be.

Even if you never saw a map, you would always be able to pick the parks that are near a major city, mainly thanks to the people staying there. The ones that I can only assume are experiencing some 'difference of opinions' with their partners so, in protest, they go and sleep in their car in a caravan park and the single mothers with three kids living out of a tent to save money (and spend it on 'booze & fags' instead).


Tom and I made a pact, that if we removed all of the non-essentials off of the roof, we were allowed to get a couple of bicycles. Initially, we thought we would be best hunting down some second hand bikes but when we saw the price tags... HOLY MOLY!!! There's a serious market in reconditioning old bicycles and selling them off for $200 PLUS! I figure, these brand new ones with a one year warranty from BigW for $98 each will be worth at least $298 in 15 - 19 years time. We're really excited to take these babies for a burn. Because we purchased identical bikes & helmets, our biggest challenge now will be finding enough stickers & accessories to decorate them to make them a little more individual. I'm all for a cheesy girls basket on the front and tassels hanging off the handle bars.  Now, we have the opportunity to set up camp in a lovely town for however long we want and jump on the bikes to go into town. These days, if we want to go anywhere further than somewhere within walking distance we have to pretty much pack up the entire camp.

The day after Australia Day (also known as our anniversary) we're jumping on the Spirit of Tasmania for a 9 hour journey over Bass Strait to then spend 5 weeks in Tasmania. We're really looking forward to it, even more so with our new wheels!!!

CAMPSITE # 47 - Melbourne Airport Tourist Park VIC

As we drove from Ballarat towards Melbourne, we decided to flick on the local radio to touch base with the goings on in wet & flooded Brisbane. After we had been updated by Brisbane's aftermath and cleanup missions, the news then proceeded to inform us that Ballarat had also flooded. We had no idea.. and it was faaaantastic. Well, not so fantastic for the manager of one of the local CARAVAN PARKS(!!!) who had to evacuate his entire park during the middle of the night as the rush of the water had begun uprooting the static caravans. We made a great decision to stay at the backpackers as, unlike those staying in the caravan park, we had a dry & uninterrupted night's sleep.

One thing's for sure, we weren't sending Christian home on a 36 hour long journey in stinking wet clothes & luggage. I think we were all pretty scarred by the down pour at the Grampians that when I suggested we booked a cabin in a Caravan Park, the boys were very obliging... to no great surprise.

Once again, we were able to be privileged enough to live like normal people, if not for just one more day.

I think Christian could have hugged the girl at reception when she told us they had a pool in the complex. Chris was able to sneak in a few cheeky hours under the sun & around the pool afterall, you can't return home from a 2 week summer holiday in Australia back to cold old Europe without a tan!! He was determined... maybe even a little too determined!!

Somehow, the last two weeks with our friends managed to fly by so quickly. We were now at a point where we had to farewell our final visitors and consider returning to the trio of just Tom, Charlie  and I. But there was one thing playing on our minds, one thing that had been bothering us both for the last few days. We decided to put it on the back burner and weigh up our options after we had farewelled our friends.

CAMPSITE # 46 - Sovereign Hill - Ballarat VIC

The boys have officially retired from guest posting and you're back with yours truly. Rest assured, the cricket banter is officially over.

We had originally planned to stay at The Grampians the entire week, right up until the Friday and then drive straight back to Melbourne to deliver the boys to the airport on the Saturday. Just like a lot of Eastern Australia, we were severely rained out. We didn't quite realise the extent of it until I stumbled across this footage of the main strip of the local town in The Grampians called Halls Gap - absolutely remarkable and it was only taken just 24 hours after we had left it.  We were wet and smelly and over the rain. Everything was soaking and disgusting, after a two hour drive in the Troopie, the stench trapped inside the car would have even made a homeless person dry retch. We needed a washing machine, stat. We needed somewhere dry, stat. We needed a roof over our heads, STAT!!! More rain was due and I certainly wasn't going to crawl back into a stinky & disgusting wet tent only to sleep on top of a stinky & disgusting wet mattress.

We were heading to Ballarat, home of Sovereign Hill and we were heading straight for cover. It's funny how to Tom & I nowadays, staying at a YHA backpackers is like staying at the Sheraton... OMG clean sheets!!! Running water!!! A Roof!!! ELECTRICITY!!!

For $26 per person per night, we had a dorm to ourselves and somewhere to spread out the mess. I hijacked the washing machine for what felt like eternity and we were able to cleanse ourselves.

The YHA at Ballarat is right on Sovereign Hill, an  entertainment village re-enacting an old gold mining town in the 1850's. It was quite entertaining. 

The three geologists were absolutely in their element when we went on the underground adventure. It didn't help that it was pelting down with rain outside so left the tunnel with a lovely smell and loads of puddles everywhere. The boys were even challenging the tour leader during question time which was quite a laugh.

I hated the 60 seconds downwards in pitch black. I wouldn't be surprised if Tom has some serious bruises on his forearm!


The Tour Leader tried to convince us that this was real gold. The boys, in their professional wisdom did not concur.

All in all, Sovereign Hill was quite entertaining. Tom even said that it was a lot better than what he was expecting. They had some great demonstrations including my favourite the confectionery making AND the gold pouring of a bar of gold worth $140,000. Tom spoke to the guy after the demonstration and he proceeded to tell Tom that that same bar of gold is melted & poured 7 times a day and has been done so far the last 14 years. The boys were busy plotting the best ways to pocket the bar themselves as we were all surprised at how few security measures were taken to protect it.

Panning for gold was the highlight for Tommy, he was certainly the most patient out of all of us. I would say that it paid off as he found 4 specs of gold but when we later found out that they were worth approximately 5 cents each, we quickly realised that we probably shouldn't have paid $1 for a jar of water to store them in.

Matt was the naughty boy in the back row distracting all of the other students... while the star student Christian scored himself an A++

Sovereign Hill was quite an adventure, even for the adults. They had loads of demonstrations & actors to give it a true 1800's feeling. At $42 entry per adult, you're guaranteed a full days entertainment, it's definitely worth visiting if you're travelling through Ballarat.

FLASH FLOODING AT HALLS GAP

We left Halls Gap on Wednesday the 12th. This is footage I found that was taken on Thursday the 13th. No wonder why we were evacuated!! Holy Cow!!!

CAMPSITE # 45 - The Grampians by Christian Moebius

We left Surfside camp at 10 o’clock. The drive took us through hilly countryside, grasslands spotted with little eucalyptus woods in between. The vegetation soon enough changed to woodlands of the Grampian national park, where we intended to spend a few days. The tourist information desk advised us on the different options for camp. Luckily there was a free one just 10 km away from Halls Gap.

The camp site turned out to be the lucky winner of the week and for free too!  Big lots, and there was hardly anybody on the ground. The facilities were sporadic but in good conditions because the camp had recently been set up. The shower was “model 1889”, a bucket with little holes pierced through the bottom. The bucket would be pulled up by a cord and the whole set up would make a great shower as amy was to report the next morning.

After we set up camp that first night and ran a brief recce to “great canyon”- a little canyon 20 metres across and walled by sidewalls perhaps 20 metres high. Of course the perception always is that the walls to the side are higher than the width of the gully. 

Matt Tom and I had our brief stroll, looked at rocks a little bit and left the “pinnacle lookout” which was signposted there untouched so to discover it the next day. The night proved to be a rather rainy one and it took a while to get started the next day.

Eventually it was the strong desire for a bath that drove us out and we took a short hike to a creek that had several little pools carved into the solid, massive sandstone that the water was flowing over. As a special treat we even used a little bit of shampoo- which wasn’t completely environmentally responsible because shampoo- as many other washing and cleaning agents alters the ph content of water. 

Our clean and non stinking bodies were then to be shown off at a public place which was the aboriginal museum of the grampians national park. We later took a drive up north for about 40 minutes to take a look at some rock art – shapes and colours applied to the rock by aboriginal people. The landscape was quite surreal with sandstone slabs and domes with trees and bushes in between giving the area a very prehistoric look.

Later that day Tom made a special meal on the camp oven for us and it was quite a f’ing thing. The evening ended with a poker game. It was rainy all along and we decided that if things weren’t looking better the next morning we’d have to make a decision and move on to a different place. That night all hell broke loose. 140 ml of rain is something and we were all happy the next day to open our tents and find that we were still in the same place and not washed down somewhere on a river making our way to the southern ocean. It wasn’t before too long that the park ranger came around and demanded we shall vacate the premises, the whole area was to be evacuated because of the floodings caused by the last 2 days of rain.

None of us doubted his words or was upset, we packed up and left and stopped at the tourist information center in halls gap to see what could be done in the park before we would leave once and for all, but to no avail. Pictures of destroyed roads underlined the staffs urging request to leave the area as soon as possible, and so we were; on the road again.

CAMPSITE # 44 - Warrnambool by Matthew Davies

There aren’t many places in world when you can wake up, walk outside and see 40 plus Kangaroo’s in their own habitat, Princetown is one place where you can and I think this was one of the reasons we were drawn back to same site we camped at two years prior.

That said it was time to move on. We were now five friends camping having waved Thompson off the day before.

The next stop was Warrnambool; on the way though there was plenty to see, this stretch of the Great Ocean Road is probably the most famous for its sights.

So we set off team Toyota – Charlie Troop Charlie and Binko Tiger (I feel like a fag writing this but I can get away with it because its not my blog).

First stop the twelve apostles, the famous limestone rock stacks that have been isolated from the rugged coastline over the last 20 million years by the rough seas of the southern ocean.

Although there are only 7-8 Apostles remaining, they are still a spectacle and attract the crowds bigger than the most Halifax town football matches.

We took a few tourist photo’s and discussed who should jump the fence and head past the no access steep cliff faces and possible death sign but this once we were all too chicken.

The sign made us laugh ………  

And so we moved on to the next lookout London Bridge, although the beauty of the drive was not really appreciated by Binks and myself as we were too busy listening to English crucify Australia at Cricket… in the end the English went on to win the series 3 – 1.

London Bridge named for obvious reasons….

Arriving in Port Campbell we stopped for a beer and some nacho’s (which I was to regret later). Described to us by a local as having a good surf beach, I think the Brisbane River had more surf… so we decided to head on Warrnambool.

On the way to Warrnambool with Amy leading the pack, Tom and Christian little to the knowledge of Binks and I were tucking into a bottle of Oban Whiskey and regaling tales of on Kerrera where they did their mapping project at university. They also recorded a tribute to “Last plane out of Sydney” which when viewed supports the large consumption of alcohol during the vogage to Warrnambool.

 You can watch the view of Tommy Barnes here.

Meanwhile Binks and I had out shirts off a bit of Oasis… Standard! No pictures unfortunately but I am sure you get the idea.

Arriving in Warrnambool (Camp site 44 – Surf Side we were shocked at the amount of people camping here, the tents and caravans we packed in like sardines and they were still charging $47 a night… on the up side it was hot as hell and the beach was only 300m away.

That night we decided it would be nice to check out the bright lights of Warrnambool… it started off pretty dull to be honest but then we found this small place, The Whalers Pub, with a live band. After a defeat on the pool table we moved onto the dance floor and got amongst it… the photo’s tell the story.

The highlight of the evening was Christian behaving inappropriately with the Jimmy Bean girls, our only consolation prize some jimmy bean sunnies which I got given by one of the girls as an apology for her spilling my beer and hers over my jeans.

It wasn’t home time yet though, there was another bar over the road. Unlike English clubs where they radio other bars when you get kicked out, we walked straight in with shorts, flip flops etc…

The walk home was an interesting one too… by this point Tom, Binks and I had decided it was time to break out into song and with the Ashes series coming to a close earlier in the day (3-1 England) this was the obvious choice… Amy you are a very good sport by the way :)

Been the classy lad that I am, I was down to my undies in minutes and getting the attention of most passers by in the form of “WEEEHEYY or the sound of a car horn, needless to say I was quite drunk by this point. However in my defence I did manage to complete a kids maze on the park without a single wrong turn in under 30 seconds.

The songs continued all the way back to the camp site, however our singing was not taken kindly by a few of the patrons who ere uttering “ssssshhhhhh” from inside their tents and motor homes. 

The damage had already been done on the cricket field… so we respected their wishes and strolled home quietly.

 

The next morning we woke up fairly early to wave Binko off and book another night on our camp pitch so we could go to the rodeo. Apparently the site we had already was booked so we had to move to a new pitch a few hundred metres away. We decided to just de peg the tent and pick it up to move it, so I removed the pegs and Tom and Chris carried it to the new pitch dropped it off and went back to pack up the rest of the gear.  We had a few funny looks on the way and also on the way back (yes, we carried it back as well). While I was pegging the tent down the guys managed to secure another camp site for free, which was next door to the one we moved off. Pretty annoying but at least we saved our selves some beer money. In the end the guy who was kind enough to let us have the site for free, got several tent poles by Tom and Amy in exchange so we were winners all round really.

That evening we headed to a rodeo just out of town. It was a great laugh, and very interesting too!! You can watch a video from the rodeo here.

FOOTAGE : EMU CHARMING

FOOTAGE : WARRNAMBOOL RODEO

FOOTAGE : TOMMY BARNES

FOOTAGE : MOB OF KANGAROOS AT PRINCETOWN

Gaffer Tape - The glue that holds us together

Dear Mr Gaffer Tape,

We at Oz360 use your services on a regular basis.

Without you, our lives would simply fall apart.

Much love & regards,


Tom & Amy.