Coach Bristol -> London
Pub
Primrose Hill
Greek restaurant
Back to Marcus'
Back to Steve's
Greasy breakfast
Game On at Barbican collapse on sofa
Halo
Pub again
Ken Hom restaurant
Bit of a lie in
Met Ian, exchanged software
Spent too much at Piccadilly Circus
More Halo
Eight Legged Freaks
Flight left Heathrow 2225
Really crap pictures of North London:
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Mostly slept.
Flew over Afghanistan. Wasn't shot down. Much relief.
Flew over India. Waved to Ritu.
Clouds marinated in sun over Singapore, late afternoon:
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Stopover in Singapore for a couple of hours. Humidity like sledgehammer.
The cactus garden at Sing. Airport, with the tailplane of my plane
Arrived at Melbourne
More rubbish night city from air shots:
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Met Kate at airport.
Taxi to hotel; manager off-puttingly friendly. Wondered what was going on - after a few days, realised that Australians are like this.
0900: clearly time for bed
1200: time to get up
Captain Cook's Cottage, and some flowers
A waterfall in Fitzroy Gardens
My new favourite tree: the strangler fig, which grows from its seed halfway up another tree, enveloping it with its roots, and eventually choking it to death, leaving only the fig with its gnarled, Giger-esque roots metres high out of the ground.
Melbourne at sunset:
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Attempted panorama compilation - stupid bendy trees and stupid clouds. Why can't they just stay still?
Victoria Market
Bought Chinese worry balls; cue bad "dropped balls", "playing with balls", etc. jokes for remainder of trip.
Melbourne Zoo
Ring-tailed Lemurs:
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Polar bears:
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Lions:
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Crash landed tortoise
Iguana
Jesus Lizard (so named because it can walk on water)
Phillipines Clawed Dragon Thingy:
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Bison. Or buffalo. I can never remember.
Zebra
Koala
Echidna, just before hurling itself face first into a log:
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A typically motionless wombat
Emu up close
Walk-in Kangaroo enclosure; one nibbling contently on some emu droppings
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Kate obviously not as interesting as fresh faeces
Kookaburra
Melbourne Zoo's newest primate exhibit
Manic depressive orang-utans:
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A vulture like orang perched ominously before a grim sky
Slightly more active orang-utan:
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Hippo and bird
Gibbons
Black and white colobuses, or macaques, maybe:
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Lorikeets a.k.a. "noisy bastards"
Melbourne from the observation tower:
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hi-res
Full moon over Flinders St. Station clock tower
A trip to Healesville Sanctuary, courtesy of Claire Bickell. Thanks once again!
Tasmanian devil. Entirely unlike the cartoon; most disappointing.
Slightly obese kangaroos
'roos can recline like no other species
More random 'roo shots:
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If anyone can work out what this is, please e-mail me. I haven't a clue.
Lizardy thing, with cunning tail disguised as head.
Birds with patches of brilliant pearly plumage:
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Kite in flight (dramatic music flares, kite swoops from foliage, immediately buggers off again, leaving park keepers staring dejectly into sky):
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A different raptor, whose name evades me for the time being:
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The raptor breaking open an egg by dropping a stone on it - apparently, not learned behaviour:
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Wedge-tailed eagle:
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4 (fairly spectacular)
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6 (ohholyshDUCK!)
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Pretty garden
A classically reclining roo
A rather less majestic roo on its arse
More of the lazy buggers
Echidnas. Not red and no gloves - Sonic Team, you lied to me!:
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Wombat. We petted this one - remarkably solid, so it's not surprising the damage these can do to cars.
Tiny brushed tailed marsupial
Fruit-bats
Dingoes
Lorikeets, in an enclosure packed with the deafening birds
Koalas:
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A walk down Healesville high street, rounded off by art shop with basement that belonged in the 1950s.
Back to Claire's parents' place for a good meal and eccentric conversation.
Claire, Kate, and Lucy(?)
Melbourne Museum
Blue whale skeleton
Kate, unaware of the danger from the pythons lurking behind the glass
A huge crab, along with a sea dragon
Bandicoot, lyre-bird, echidna, and more (mental note - next time, use the flash, idiot)
Prehistoric croc chasing prehistoric emu
Plasticky dino
Banksia flowers
Blurry echidna and sharp reflection of the author
Kate and the famous (apparently) Phar Lap
Crocodile head-dress
Shark head-dress
St. Kilda...strolling along a gorgeous beach next to gorgeous houses with a gorgeous sunset. And this is winter.
Sun and sea from the breakwater
Looking back at central Melbourne
View back down the pier
Luna Park, a rather aged theme park with a rickety wooden rollercoaster. Frightening not because of the speed but because it was liable to collapse any second.
"Action" (i.e. wonky) shot
Lens flare
Either sunset or a nuke
The rather disturbing entrance
Another sunset shot
Stopped at newsagent to discover that the Cadbury's selection of chocolate here is far superior to that in its home of England. Cherry Ripe, Peppermint, Almond...I'm definitely going to have to move here now.
Great Ocean Road day trip
Bell's Beach (from and not from Point Break - it was set there but not filmed there):
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Kate snapping me (will try to link to her angle if it gets online...there's a few more of these for which I'll do the same)
High lookout near Anglesea, I think:
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The lighthouse used to film kids' show Round the Twist:
absurdly far and
just about visible
The entrance to the Great Ocean Road. Time for the history lesson, kids: commissioned after the Second World War as a project for the returning soldiers. It was partially inspired by the road which follows the California coastline. That's about all I remember from our coach driver. Onwards with the endless pictures...
Another lookout:
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Koalas in their natural habitat of eucalyptus forests :
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Kate frolicking dabbling at Apollo Bay beach:
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One day I will get the hang of not taking photos of people directly into the sun
Purty little rainforest
Apparently these ferns are edible. We didn't try them.
Purty little waterfall
Gurt big tree:
Top and
bottom
Dead tree trunk. Looked like a good superhappyfunslide, but you couldn't get out the other end...
Slightly ethereal twisty moss covered tree
Sun gleaming over some of the Twelve Apostles:
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An apostle, with birds (not really visible) nesting
Outcropping
More apostles
Another spectacular shot of the sun over the apostles
Fantastic warning sign
Yet another silhouette of Kate
Ah! Some facial features visible!
Couldn't resist one more apostles snap; one of the best
An archway at Loch Ard Gorge, site of a famous shipwreck.
Sunset silhouetting trees on skyline
The cave from which a sailor swam out to rescue the ship's doctor's daughter, the only other survivor of the wreck
More tree silhouettes, with an archway to the sea
Strata and sea
Er...sea. I'm sure it looked good when I took the picture
Probably the best tree shadow shot I got in this set
Waves crashing against rock formations
Weird rocks
More rock erections (*snigger*)
Kate, the ever-enthusiastic geologist, checks out stalagtites
Fiery red sunset at the site of London Bridge
The red glow illuminating the (broken) bridge
Back to the sunset
And another
And another
I'd skip these if I were you - yet more sunset, attempting a progression, but it's more of a spot-the-difference:
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Departed Melbourne at some silly hour in the morning. Driver named "Puddles" - never found out why, but a nice chap nonetheless.
First stop: Sale. Suddenly transported back to America, with sterile malls and Target stores.
Wine tasting. Very cheap at AUD2 a head - shame I hate wine. Only vaguely palatable one was the muskat.
Arrived Gelantipy, a little ranch in the hills. Showed off my l33t sk1llz on the climbing wall, although the hardest track foiled me. Night-time animal spotting drive, including wallabies, kangaroos, wombat and, er, a cat and some cows.
Stopped in the absolute middle of nowhere to see the Milky Way; first time I've ever seen it. If you can't see it, that's definitely a problem with your monitor and/or eyes and/or brain and absolutely nothing to do with my photography. *cough*:
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Departed Gelantipy at silly hour in morning. Again.
Managed to leave my ring on the kitchen sink there - fortunately, realised before we'd got too far and the infinitely kind people there drove up with it.
Mist enshrouding the Buchan Valley. A stunning view of which I only photographed glimpses, unfortunately:
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An echidna employing its defense mechanism: hiding:
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A rocky beach. You lucky viewers can experience it without the smell of dead shark pervading the area:
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Arrived in Canberra mid-afternoon, and toured the various embassies.
The old parliament building in Canberra:
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A needle like tower
The old parliament building from the new one
The rather flaccid flag
A mosiac, pond, and our bus, "Riley", on the far right
The colourful Aboriginal Tent Embassy
Canberra panorama, taken just after it got too dark:
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Panorama compiled and brightened; Anzac way leading to parliament buildings visible in centre
Stopped at stretch of coastline east of Canberra, which had a rocky area with strange crater like marks:
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, a beautiful sandy beach (as modelled here by the lovely Kate)
and a little kangaroo enclosure full of tame 'roos to pet:
We were assured this was perfectly innocent
Send in your humorous captions
Happy snapping
Close-up
It's just feeding on its mother's milk, okay?
Joey just visible poking out
Me hiding in the shadows
At Kiama, there was a geyser-like blowhole where water would shoot up as the surf rolled in:
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Arrived in Sydney. Collapsed exhausted into bed at the "Wake-up" hostel - should have guessed from the name that our sleep would not be entirely restful. A speaker in our room blared announcements of promotions and events throughout the evening. We Were Not Impressed.
The plan for the day:
IndoormarketChineseGardenMarketStreetHydeParkWarMemorialAustralianMuseum
Lunch
StMarysCathedralBotanicalGardensOperaHouseObservatoryHillHarbourBridgeManlyFerry
Meet Martin and Radhika for dinner.
We managed it too.
The Chinese Garden
Dragon Wall (slightly marred by the hotel behind)
A goanna staring at the tranquil lake
Reflections
The goanna basking in the, er, rain
Koi under reflected Chinese roofs:
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Circular entrance
Waterfall
Kate hiding behind a pillar
Giant lantern
Flower wood carvings
Another little waterfall
Rabbit shaped monolith...
...although completely different from another angle
Bonsai gardens:
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At the gardens, there was a little dress-up shop. Kate and I couldn't resist.
As a couple outside:
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Kate before the waterfall
Me getting carried away with the wooden sword:
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Kate by the dragon wall
Me by the dragon wall
As a couple inside:
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The Australian Museum
The Chinese Dinosaurs exhibit:
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Echidna and platypus skeletons (rather shaky, sorry)
Lion skeleton
Man astride a horse:
back,
front
A cosy domestic scene
Fishies
A rather startled looking turtle
Iridescent butterfly
Goanna biting off perhaps more than it can chew
Pre-humans under attack from sabre-tooth
Giant wombat ancestor
Aboriginal interpretations of the birth of Christ and the Last Supper
Botanical Gardens
Sun glaring over skyscrapers and trees
Shaded pathway
Fruit-bats hanging from the trees (they were swooping over our heads at points)
Sunset from Observatory Hill
Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill
The Opera House from Sydney Harbour Bridge:
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A series of barely recogniseable shots of Sydney from the JetCat ferry:
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We had a delicious if rather too amply proportioned Mexican meal with Martin and Radhika, followed by a night-time stroll down Bondi Beach. Unfortunately, no visual record of the event remains.
A day trip to Newcastle, to visit my grandfather's cousin and her large family, whom I didn't even know existed until a few months ago. We took the train (note: had the best train seats ever - they can flip forwards or backwards. Genius design) up the coast going through a dozen picturesque little fishing villages on lakes, before being picked up at Broadmeadow station. We realised upon arrival that neither party had no idea what the other looked like, but thankfully Graham picked us out. He took us on a tour of the docks and coast, pointing out that this was the dock of the British destroyer which ran aground nearby. Unfortunately we didn't see it, so we couldn't point and laugh. Went for lunch at the customs house; I had a lovely steak, and chatting to *cogs grind* Richard(?) about elliptic curve cryptography.
Left to right: me, Kate, Annette, Dawn, Graham, and May. I would explain the family links but I'm rather confused about them myself:
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Back to May's house for some delicious baked slices and embarrassing baby photos of me (the most recent they had). Afterwards we were taken to a National Park by Annette, and went through the one-letter-away-from-brilliant-photo-opportunity town of "Catherine Hill".
Ended up at on a small peninsula for brilliantly coloured sunset:
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Set off from Sydney for Cairns. First stop was a lookout on the Great Dividing Range.
The view
Me giving Kate a heart attack by fooling about on the rocks:
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Ended up at the Dag Inn, a sheep station named after what I believe are otherwise known as "tag-nuts". The food there was appropriate to the name - boiled slop which was just about identifiable as lamb and root vegetables. Entertainment for the night was sheep-shearing - I declined the offer to try for myself, seeing the red gashes already inflicted on the poor dumb animal. We retired to bed early but could clearly hear cheezy disco staples such as YMCA blaring from the bar. Oh, joy...
Only notable stop today: Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia.
Our destination was Bingara, where we arrived early to get a couple of hours of horse-riding in.
Teacher: "Would you like a fast or a slow horse?"
Me: "Er, a slow horse, please."
Teacher: "Right then, you're getting our fastest horse for being so cheeky."
Me: "Bu...whu...uhh!?"
I was then given their most sociopathic horse, who insisted on either trailing behind or dashing ahead, and also seemed to glean much satisfaction from kicking other horses then running away. We were also not warned quite how deep the rivers were, and regularly ended up with flooded shoes. Considering my last horse experience was about 15 years ago, when I was bitten, kicked, and pushed over, something tells me I won't be repeating this again for quite some time.
In the brief moments I had vague control, I grabbed these shots of Kate trying to look like she was enjoying herself:
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First stop was Glen Innes, where we took a look at sapphires, some lovely star-stones, a slightly dodgy sword in a stone and a not-as-good-as-the-real-one Stonehenge.
Next up was Raspberry Point, looking across the Great Dividing Range:
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Arrived at Byron Bay and planned out our madcap dash up the coast to make it to Airlie Beach with time to spare to look at the reef. Had some Rocky Road Pie which instantly doubled my cholesterol: marshmallows, nuts and cherries melted into a huge hunk of solid milk chocolate.
After passing through Surfer's Paradise (more Japanese than Australians there) and Brisbane, got to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Despite the rather tacky frontage and shop, the zoo itself was quite nice.
Massive python - my hand doesn't quite give scale, as it's about a foot away from the beastie (and on the other side of some thick glass
Kookaburra close-up
Otters:
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Skink
A goanna lurking in the shadows
Wedge-tailed eagle. *wedge tail not visible
Koalas, also lurking in the shadows (it was a very hot day)
Crocs:
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Bird with backwards knees...or maybe they're just ankles.
My best koala photo
Camels, clearly enjoying a good, long urination session:
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A thoroughly relaxed kangaroo
Croc feeding time
The croc leaping out of the water to grab food:
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Finally ended up in the excellently named Mooloolaba. Just trying to pronounce it entertained us for most of the evening.
Yes, we need to get out more.
Note: our arses just about stopped aching from the horse riding session at this point.
Another great town name: Gympie.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to stop at Hervey Bay to check out Fraser Island. Will have to next time around.
The Oz Experience bus dropped us off at Bundaberg, where we had the afternoon to kill before our Greyhound bus took us away. Ended up trudging for far too long to get to a rather dull Botanical Gardens; then returned to check out the cinema, which had its doors wide open but wasn't showing any more films for the rest of the day and had no staff there. The stop wasn't entirely wasted, as I picked up a lovely iridescent butterfly similar to the one in the photo from the Sydney Museum from a little shop on the high street (and Kate got puzzle key-chain which lasted her all the way to dinner at a pizza place). The Greyhound up to Airlie Beach was practically empty, so there was plenty of space to stretch out and sleep.
Day trip to the Whitsunday Islands. A little too touristy, but still fun.
Hamilton Island
The major form of transport on this island was golf-carts for some reason. Great fun; I almost ran over some pensioners, nearly threw Kate out the side with some aggressive reversing, and took certain liberties with speed limits and one-way systems.
The view from the top of the island, with perfect blue water and green forests:
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A pretty wooden church
More views over the islands:
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Kate playing with some putty we found lying in the cart
Went to Whitehaven beach, which is apparently 97% silicon and thus retains very little heat. Made a rather sloppy sandcastle, got buried, the usual.
One of the islands seen from the ferry
Clear blue sea
The perfect sunset (apart from the power lines)
The perfect sunset (no power lines, thanks to the magic of Paintshop!)
Day trip to the Great Barrier Reef (well, a tiny beach that's part of it). Went out on the apparently world famous Maxi yacht "Condor", built in Cornwall, and which has won all the major sailing events. Got to the beach around 1200. It was incredibly painful to walk upon, being mostly pieces of coral several centimetres long. I strapped on the mask, pulled on my fins (too tight), stuck the snorkel in my mouth, waded in, and instantly almost drowned, and dragged myself out again. After repeating this half a dozen times, I eventually got the hang of it and started to bask in the wonder of the living reef - multi-hued fish darting everywhere, soft coral waving in the currents, and sunlight glistening through the waves. It's fortunate I got used to this apparatus by then, because it was time to scuba dive, when accidentally breathing through the nose would have been even more problematic. We got to go down to around 6 metres, where all sorts of life teemed, including a giant clam, parrot-fish, and many others I couldn't begin to identify. I only wish we had had more time down there, but it was time to return to the surface and get thoroughly sunburnt on the way back to shore.
Departed Airlie Beach. First stop was Townsville; largely dull but with a good aquarium, called "ReefHQ".
Giant clam
Clam in close-up
Fish and coral
A selection of fish:
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A puffy faced fish pressing its face against the glass
Sea anenomes
Seahorses:
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Sharks:
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Er...not sure exactly what this is, but it was really cool, walking along on hundreds of tiny pod-feet: spiky thing
Word of warning - don't try the touch pool there. It's really, really icky. I mean it.
Arrived at a resort in Mission Beach. Had to wait half an hour in line for dinner, then another ten minutes when they assigned us an already full table. Not impressed. Still, I battled their all you can eat buffet for all I was worth, having at least two of each course and enough food overall that I could barely walk the 50 metres back to the room.
Stopped at a waterfall. Watched a bunch of idiots from the bus leap in, despite the warnings about dangerous bacteria. Tried the optical illusion where you stare at the waterfall for 30 seconds, then look around for wibbly fun.
Wandered around Kuranda to look at all the tacky tourist souvenirs, then took the mildly alarming Skyrail over the rainforest and down to Cairns.
Went into Cairns for a brief shop, before taking Kate to the airport and seeing her off.
Walked from the airport, to see the mangrove boardwalk which was rather alien and creepy, especially with thousands of tiny crabs scuttling around and snapping shrimp making popping noises all about. Continued down the airport's drive, not realising that it was 2.5km long. Walked to the Flecker Botanical Gardens, then up to a vantage point 100 metres up where spectacular views of the airport, the sea, and Cairns weren't quite reward enough for my aching feet. A glutton for punishment, I continued down to a rainforest walk, and eventually collapsed onto a bus back to the hostel. Had a relaxed evening, watching the rather dull U-571.
Most of the day spent in the air; some fantastic views of the Barrier Reef from the air, blocked only by a few light clouds. Arrived in Singapore to be greeted by my grandmother.
Breakfast: vegetarian noodles, with chillis. Woke me up better than a dozen expressos. Followed up by a seaweed jelly drink which was like drinking tadpoles.
Took my aunt Linie out shopping for a computer in Sim Lim Square and the Funan Centre. Literally hundreds to choose from and as bewildering for me as it was for her. Met university friend Walter for dinner; had a fun dinner which was served on its own flame to keep it warm during eating. Dessert was ice kachang with durian fruit...rather too sickly for my tastes, although it was admittedly pretty.
Quick trip to Orchard St. to pick up a supply of mooncakes, Chinese barbecued sliced pork (the most delicious meat on the planet), and dried mango, which I would never even dream of bringing into this country due to its illegality. Back to the flat, played some truly awful duets on the piano with my 10 year old cousin Jolyn (awful due to me, not her), and then dinner with some more of the family. Left to right: Aunt Dewi, cousin Jolyn, Uncle Litek, cousin Melvyn, Aunt Linie, and grandmother Molly.
