Leaving Sydney

Manly is home to Simon 'Spiff' Reed, who we met on Beachcomber Island in Fiji, so we headed over on the ferry for a few schooners of ale.
Spiff has been working over here as a construction consultant for the last 9 months and hails from Playa Del Preston, oop North.


After a few beers at the Manly Wharf Hotel, we headed over to Spiff's local, The Steyne.
It was great to catch up with him again and hopefully will meet up when he's over in the UK this summer.

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New Years Eve

After getting stocked up on picnic food, we headed over to Mrs McQuaries Point. We were there around 1ish and the queue was unbelievable.
There was a strict no bring your own alcohol policy and they really were enforcing it apparently.

We started to drink the wine we'd thought we'd able to smuggle in, whilst in the queue. I managed to hide the wine well enough for it not to spotted, the others weren't so lucky though.
The 4 litre box lasted about an hour and then it was back and forth to the bar from then on.

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Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve was very different this year - it was 30 degrees for a start!

We went out with Pip and Rodg (who we'd met in the YHA) and headed straight to the Scubar, who were having a Christmas Orphans party.
We were given presents of Chistmas hats and after a few beers, decided to head out down George Street and show them off.

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Wednesday 22nd December - Friday 7th January [ Sydney ]

We'd heard that GMTV were doing a live link from Mrs McQuaries's Chair in Sydney, so we made a banner and headed up there.
We were amazed at how many people were there already and it was difficult to get towards the front. We 'think' we were on the TV as the cameras were on us a few times.
It's been taped for us, so we'll have to watch it and see if we spot ourselves.

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Friday 17th December - Sunday 19th December [ Canberra ]

We left Melbourne and headed inland to Australia's capital, Canberra. A lot of people had said there's not much there, but we'd decided to go and see it anyway.

There wasn't that much to do, but we liked the place. We had a look at the parliament buildings and also the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, which has stood on the grounds in front of the parliament house for 27 years.

After spending an hour or so in the shopping mall, we set off for the 300Km journey to John and Laraine's in Sydney.

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Monday 13th December 2004 [ Neighbours tour and Meet The Stars night ]

Neighbours is filmed in Melbourne, so we just had to go and see Ramsey Street and Erinsborough High.

There's also a 'Meet The Stars' event every Monday night at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in St. Kilda, so we booked the tour for Monday to coincide with the 'Meet The Stars' night.

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Wednesday 8th December 2004 - Friday 17th December 2004 [ Melbourne & St. Kilda ]

We had a lazy few days at the YHA in North Melbourne, spending 1 entire day watching 4 films ( The Castle, The Craic, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and something starring Ben Stiller ).

The car had to get it's rego (road tax) sorted out, so we did that in Melbourne as it's much easier to sort out in the state of Victoria. Different states, different rules.

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Saturday 4th December 2004 - Tuesday 7th December 2004 [ Great Ocean Road & Cape Otway ]

We drove from Adelaide to Robe, where we spent the night and then onto Warrnambool for the next night. Warrnambool is the start of one of the world's most spectacular drives, the Great Ocean Road.
It's a road by the ocean and it's great.

After stopping at The Grotto, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge, we finally got to the Twelve Apostles. You can only actually see seven of these amazing rock stacks from the viewing points, so you feel a tad cheated.

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Friday 26th November 2004 [ Coober Pedy - Quorn ]

Our days in the outback are getting less and less. In just a couple of days, we'd be back in the big smoke of the cities.
Adelaide would be the first major city we've been to in weeks.

The drive to Adelaide was a little too much, so we decided to head to Quorn for the night and to do the short hop to Adelaide the next day.

250Km south of Coober Pedy, we stopped at Glendambo to refuel. A sign said : "Welcome to Glendambo. Population... Sheep - 22,500. Flies - 2,000,000. Humans - 30." That pretty much describes it!

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Thursday 25th November 2004 - The Coober Pedy Mail Run

The night before we'd met a group of travellers at the hostel, one of which was from oop North and knew a few people who we did. Small world eh?
After, stupidly, consuming way too much beer and wine, we weren't the eager beavers we should've been in the morning.

The mail run left at 08:00 and armed with a big bottle of water and a box of paracetamol we jumped aboard the custom built 4WD OKA van.

We had to cover over 600Km today and as Thursday is also fresh food day, we had a bit more to deliver.

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