Sydney

Ok, the reality is I've been back home longer than it is until i go off on another trip to Turkey. So this really is playing catch-up! (At this rate, expect a write up of climbing in Turkey over new year sometime late spring!)

The last 5-day leg of my trip to Australia was to the city of Sydney. Once again i was cursing a lack of research into this trip as my arrival in Sydney coincided with the last week of term and a whole host of school kiddies booking out all the cheap accommodation. After phoning around I managed to find a room in the city centre YHA for the first night, but there after it looked like I might have to swap dorm-room/hostels/hotels each night until flying home.

A last minute saviour was found in the form of my long lost cousin, Stacey. A Sydney resident for the last few years, but I hadn't seen face to face for many more. I was massively grateful to Stacey and fiance Dennis for offering to put me up for the remainder of the trip, but I was equally massively embarrassed to discover it had been 22 years since we'd last seen each other at Melanie's wedding!

My time in Sydney was spent at a more relaxed pace than the previous 2.5 weeks with more museum/art gallery/stately home visits than you could shake a stick at; walking huge distances each day despite having bought 5day travel passes to the tube/train/ferry/bus network.

The first use of the travel pass was to take a ferry under the iconic harbour bridge.

My top 5 Sydney attractions:

1) Maritime Museum: Lots of interesting exhibits including a 1960s destroyer and Submarine to go aboard and explore

2) The harbour - bridge/opera house and all that: Iconic views; need I say more?


3) Elizabeth Bay House: A 18th century folly that bankrupted the governor who built it. Needless to say it's a very fine example of Georgian architecture and the view from the lawn across the bay is almost peerless. I also enjoyed winding through the newer high-rise buildings to find a stoney grotto and koi pond which were part of the original house gardens.



4) Fish markets: Dennis dropped me at the fish markets on his way to work one day, and I ate a massive fish supper of calamari  snapper, crab sticks and salmon all deep fried and served with chips.

I really could have done with a lie down afterwards, but carried on walking around town and found...

5) Sydney Art Museum: An unexpected bonus as I stumbled upon a late night opening to celebrate the life of Francis Bacon. I'm normally an art philistine, but really enjoyed the displays of aboriginal and modern art.


Some other photographic highlights of Sydney:

Coming second in the pub quiz; Australians seem to think that asking questions about Europe makes their  quiz difficult, when in reality it just means that ex-pat teams take the prizes... (Me, $40 gift certificate and Stacey (+random)

$7 BBQ yourself steak - hmmmm....

A spectacular waterfall seen whilst on a daytrip to the Blue Mountains - The one bit of climbing i did here on a boulder above the path quickly deposited me back on my bum with a broken hold in my hand.

Feeding the colourful parrots on Stacey's balcony on the last morning (Rainbow Glories?)

Eventually the trip had to come to an end, and predictably I turned up late for this one too. Checking in with 45min to spare on a 26hr flight is not to be recommended but somehow I made it through security in time and settled in for the long flight home, via a brief 1hr stop in Singapore airport.

Arriving back to a dark Heathrow morning and 2 Celsius was thoroughly demoralising, and work on Monday morning all the more so, which just leaves one question...

...When to go back?

Cairns

The reality is, that I'm actually back home now, so in an effort to write up the whole trip, i'll try and condense the last 10days of the trip into just two final posts about Cairns and Sydney.

The main highlight of the 5night stay in Cairns was scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef (see separate post) but the remaining days also proved entertaining; visiting among other things:

Cairns Tropical Zoo: 

Salt water crocs are huge. Don't mess with them.

Petting Koala's and Lizards doesn't seem right - they're not fluffy lambs like at the kiddies petting zoo at Chessington world of adventures. This establishment definitely fell on the "zoo" side of the sliding scale between animal exploitation zoo & environmentally sensitive research/conservation zoo (ZSL as an example)

Cairns Museum:

This was an unexpected treat, with my own personal guided tour from one of the volunteers, Clint, who told us many anecdotes about the local history and made us pose for photos with some of the exhibits!

Koranda

Kuranda is an old gold rush town and was originally accessed via a trainline, that is now only used as a scenic route. The journey up took just over an hour and weaves its way through a multitude of tunnels, tight bends and cuttings. The train slows at each view point to maximise the photo opportunities  for the passengers with the best coming at a wide gorge crossing.

Barron Falls - as I saw it....

The train also stops for 10mins at the Barron Falls which claims to be the highest/biggest volume of waterfall in Australia - these claims seemed a bit far fetched for what I got to see of the falls!

...and how it looks in the rainy season

After arriving in Kuranda and having a light lunch, I was then left to explore Kuranda at length;
- I went off on a long walk along the river side and through the rain forest which left me feeling very de-hydrated from the suffocating heat and humidity.
- Upon returning to the town itself, I sought out a refreshing banana smoothy in the "world famous"  hippy markets which were all CND insignia and brightly coloured tie-die fabrics - Think Camden Market with a heavy fog of blue smoke and "herbal" aroma. There was even a pipe-whistle dance troop that shuffled about with "far-out" look in their eyes... whilst occasionally tripping over their own feet
- Once I'd extracted myself from this stoner heaven I finally found some real culture (as opposed to the "alternative" culture scene that comes across as being identical in every hippy hang-out/traveler destination i've ever been too). This came in the form of a Aboriginal Arts Co-Op where i fought my natural philistine instincts and admired the canvases and sculpture available. Maybe I'd inhaled a bit too much of the herbal aroma earlier, as i even found myself buying a small canvas depicting a crocodile to bring home with me....

Descended via the Skyrail; which was a glorified ski-lift over the jungle with 2 stops/nature walks on the way down. I wasn't allowed out at these stops due to a threatening electrical storm so had to ride all the way down to the road head and get the bus back to town. I struggled to understand how this has been voted as Northern Australia's premier tourist attraction for the previous few years based on this experience.

Hand feeding Kangaroo's at the Cairns Zoo. The fence between the 'roo enclosure and the crocodiles looked pretty flimsy and i wondered if any of them had strayed in and been munched previously?

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

When planning this trip away, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef was one of the "must do" mentioned by most people i asked. Logistically, this really shouldn't have posed any problems as there are a huge number of dive outfits operating from Cairns. However, I managed to stack the odds against myself...

1. The Solar Eclipse
When booking flights to Cairns, 6 weeks before flying I noticed a massive difference in prices between Tuesday and Wednesday, so plumped for an extra day in Melbourne before flying to Queensland. Once I'd got to Australia I started to hear brief radio and press announcements mentioning of the upcoming Eclipse. However, it wasn't until a few days before I flew north that I checked when exactly it was going to occur. Yep, you've guessed it, early Wednesday morning, right when I was scheduled to be airborne! Mild panic ensued when hearing that Cairns was getting so busy with tourists/astronomers that supermarkets were running low on essential supplies. This last story was actually a bit of a media exaggeration, as it turned out that only bottled water and potato chips (crisps to the British reader) were the main items lacking stock.

I used up half a day in Melbourne arranging accommodation in Cairns, settling for the only available cheap hotel, which failed to mention it's out of town location and the fact that the airport shuttle bus didn't go there.

Overall, the Eclipse meant that Cairns and the surrounds were super busy and all the but one of the dive operators fully booked until the day before flying back south, meaning I was stuck with Hobson's choice and paid $175 each to join a trip to Hastings reef and Breaking Patches.

What I missed - the front cover of the local newspaper the day after arriving in Cairns

2. Sea-sickness
I have been known to turn a pale shade of green on-board small boats, so I made sure i had a supply of motion-sickness pills for this trip. Boy was i glad of these; paying $175 to spend the day filling up little brown paper bags as one poor chap did would not have been fun! (You're not allowed to spew in the ocean and upset the local eco-system).

The diving itself was wonderful with a massive diversity of coral and fish; so much more than my last dive trip to Cambodia were the visibility was low and seeing a dozen fish was considered a good dive.

Highlights were seeing "Frank" the resident Maori Wrasse (nearly 2m long - a whole lotta fish) and "Nemo" (clown fish) at the first dive site, and a group of a dozen Humphead Parrot fish and a white tipped shark at the 2nd site. I doubted the effectiveness of my waterproof camera for "proper" diving so don't have any photos on these dives. This doubt was proven well founded when i took said camera snorkeling and it managed just 7 photos before dying. Thankfully the baking hot sun dried out the camera on the return journey to Cairns while at the same time baking me a brilliant shade of lobster pink!

A Maori Wrasse - Frank looked a lot like this (image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maori_wrasse )

Humphead Parrotfish - the same type as we saw on the 2nd dive at Breaking Patches (image pilfered from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_humphead_parrotfish )

Another type of Parrotfish - the big teeth allow them to bite off chunks of Coral which is their staple diet. The last photo before my camera temporarily died.

JAWS! aka Triaenodon obesus the Whitetip Reef Shark (image from wikipedia again)

Melbourne

Monday 12th November 2012

At the old Melbourne Gaol was our first stop I cunningly blagging a 50% discount on entry for being  a National Trust member (without even being asked to provide corroborative evidence) and sallied forth into the main exhibit.

Cell after small cell, there was a unfortunate life story to embrace, that each ended on the prison gallows for their crimes. Gruesomely, each cell also had a eerie plaster cast "death mask" for each unfortunate courtesy of the then emerging science of Phrenology - the science of studying facial and skull shapes in an effort to identify the characteristic features of the criminal mind.

The Old Melbourne Gaol is also famous/infamous for its part in the tale of Australis favourite anti-hero, Ned Kelly, who spent his final days here before being executed. I couldn't help imitating ...

his crimes...

and his punishment (on this very gallows).

A more interactive side attraction to the gaol was a recently decommissioned (1994) holding station for more weekend drunkards and other arrestees.


Tuesday 13th November 2012

The next day I took the option of the later train in to Melbourne. Just outside the train station I discovered that a sunscreen company was offering free UV photos, just like you see on those terrible Channel4 "embarrassing bodies" type TV shows.

These allow you to determine the level of sun damage you'd done to your skin and the Aussies seemed well taken by this, which isn't surprising really, as the ozone hole means that the sun is fiercely strong "down under" and many Aussies sported leather hide like skin.

Not wanting to turn down anything that was free, I immediately got a place in the queue; do you think I have sun damaged skin?

Slightly shocked by the result (only slightly better than the average Aussie) I took the free sunscreen samples and plastered my face against the ravages of further UV exposure. This lead to all photos taken that day having an odd appearance as in my haste to protect my skin, I'd failed to realise that i was smearing my face in a not so invisible, "SPF30+ invisible foundation". Oops, not my manliest moment by a long shot!

Later that morning I visited the Immigration museum and tried to work out whether Australia would give me permanent visa: I scored 90% on the citizenship test with no revision (75% pass threshold) and so would be allowed to enter if i had a company sponsor or desirable career profile.

I also sat through an interactive video quiz and correctly accepted the 1930s couple into Australia (a pair of teachers/aspiring farmers with growing family) and rejected another (actor and travel agent in 2012) according to policy of the day.

At the end of the day I popped into the Victorian Parliament and was enchanted by the gold plated chambers, decorated at the height of Gold Rush optimism. These were modeled on the British parliament system (green chairs for the lower chamber, red for the upper), but unlike the entertaining political barracking that occurs once a week in PMQs, here in Oz the politicians seemed strangely tongue tied for a nation not known for their quiet ways. (Think gentile village church committee AGM instead of jeering and foot stamping).

Just inside the entrance to the Parliament of Victoria - you're not allowed to take photos in the actual chambers

I finished off the day with a boat trip down the Yarra, with some great bridges and view of the Rod Laver arena (of Australian Open fame).

Mt. Arapiles

After an early start to get the hirecar and get underway from Melbourne, i was finally making my way to Arapiles. The loan of a satnav made the journey up to Horsham relatively easy, boosted along by a Cadbury's Dairy Milk and cola induced sugar high. From the outskirts of Natimuk, the satnav seemed to want to take in off down a side road so i reverted to my back-up plan.

The back-up plan was a fuzzy photo of the guidebook "getting there" pages I'd snapped in Outside, Hathersage whilst discreetly reading the book with zero intention of purchase (40 pounds on a guidebook for 2 days use didn't seem like good value!)

Arriving at the pines campsite i was hopeful of getting some tips of where was the best bit of the crag to find a partner. Precisely the first group i walk up to pick the brain of and i find not only the desired info, but a partner who's keen to get going there and then. Awesome! Julian was on "domestic leave" between jobs and had a whole month to climb in Oz. Unfortunately he'd not got to climb outside for a while, but gave the impression he'd be a capable partner.

First off we hit the Organ pipes and climbed a classic 2pitch grade 16 (VS?) before then walking over to Fang buttress to tackle what was previous Arapiles test piece. Julian took over the lead and battled valiantly with the roof crack. A quick slump on the rope was taken, but the impression given was of a tradesman at work; up and over with the minimum fuss - no need to get too pumped on your first day trad climbing in months.

After seconding this roof crack (soft E1 5c?) I took a shine to a line of bolts to the right. Now, this didn't turn out to be sports climbing by any definition; 1st bolt at 25ft and only 2 more in the remaining 45ft of the route. I racked up with a light rack of nuts and a couple of cams. The 1st bolt was a sod to clip up right of a sloping hold, so i was glad of the cam I'd slipped in below. I then engaged sport mode and cranked through a steep boulder problem before stopping again to place more gear. Another bolt and another boulder problem followed above before the route traversed out right. Here i was faced with a dilemma: Go high and clip the next bolt from slopey holds, or stay low and hope i could stretch back and clip it from the better holds a good distance out right? I took the pansies option and stood up, only to realise i couldn't get a hand off to clip. Faff ensued trying to reverse the tenuous, slopey moves I'd made before eventually pumping out and taking the ride. 25ft later (a good 12ft farther then i expected) my stretchy new skinny sngle rope came tight and i swung gently in the air.

Ergonomic (Grade 26, 7b+, E6 6b?) turned out to be a simple redpoint with the gear in place and after finding a hidden foothold on the low traverse option, but it taught me a good lesson about what Arapiles was all about - slopey holds that respond more to technique than thuggery, and bolts only where you need them. Elsewhere it was obvious where trad gear went with the placements frequently being bomber nuts or cams.

The next day we indulged in ticking as many 3* classics as we could:
Kaiser/Resignation
Scorpion Direct
Quo Vadis (best route of the trip, E2 5c ish and absolute class)
Missing link
Eurydice
Dramp (not 3*, but convenient to the campsite)

Bizarrely, as i returned to the campsite, i bumped into a friend I'd not seen since uni. At this point i twigged that the suspiciously familiar faces in of the Brits next door were exactly that; familiar because they'd all lived in Bristol at the same time as me (1999 - 2005) and shared many mutual friends without knowing each other directly. Blimey, it's a small world sometime!



The Organ Pipes - home of my first route at Arapiles

Morning view of Mt. Arapiles from the Pines campsite

Bluff buttress - home to the classic Quo Vadis (in the sun on the left) & Missing Link (hidden around to the right in the shade) 

Summit of the Bluff with new found friend - Julian

Great Ocean Road - Road trip Aussie style

Bit of a quicker post to try and get content uploaded before loosing access to the internet when flying up to Cairns tomorrowe morning:

Wed 7^th November

Early start to miss the traffic at start of road trip down to Great Ocean Road.

At 8am we stopped Pancake breakfast – and then drove on down the very scenic highway which alternates between cliff-top and beach front driving. We stopped to dip our toes and write our names in the beach just short of Apollo Bay.

Skipping lunch we drove on to the highly photographic Twelve Apostles. Here, below one of the 12 sea stacks I scattered the ashes of Emily Goodman, my late partner who i was with for 9 years at and after we met whilst studying at Bristol Uni.

Fiddling with my camera whilst taking a photo of where i scattered Emily's ashes

Next we drove to a treetop walk, where we hoped to finally get some lunch. However, it now being 4pm this plan was scuppered and we completed the walk (along with kiddies dinosaur trail) with grumbling bellies.

Me verses T. Rex - No Match!

Karen high up amongst the trees whilst on our tree-top walk on the Otway Peninsula

After this, we finally found food in the form of delicious fish and chips and settled into a sea facing hostel in Apollo Bay for the night.

Thu 8^th November



Drunk/stoned koala - they get high on Ecalyptus leaves!



The Otway Lighthouse

The next day we visited the Otway Lighthouse and enjoyed tales of drunken lighthouse keepers and their huge families (nothing much else to do in the wilderness apart from having "indoor adventures" as Karen put it!). We also found wild koala bears at the road side, who looked almost as drunk as the fabled lighthouse keepers... 

We then walked to Triplet Falls, which was impressive once found the right spot.

Then we drove back to Melbourne, arriving late and formulating our plans for the next few days.

Antipodean Adventures

Sorry for the delay in a follow up post after the quick fire posts about Hong Kong and Macau. All that means is that I've been super busy in Melbourne and not had time to sit down and write anything about our adventures.

So, here's a quick summary of our 10 days in Melbourne staying an old house mate Karen, who has been an amazing host, driving us around all the attractions and letting me stay in her spare room.

Sun 4^th November

The last day in Hong Kong saw me walking down to the harbour side to witness the noon day gun being fired. This very gun was immortalized in Noel Coward’s song, whose lyrics are:

“Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun”
“In Hong Kong, they strike a gong and fire off a noon day gun, to reprimand each in- mate, who’s in late.”

The "Noon-day Gun"

In a typical fashion, a walk around Kowloon, and a visit to the very good Hong Kong cultural museum meant i was very short on time to get back to the hotel, collect bags and get back to the airport, thus adding Quantas to the growing list of flights I've nearly, but not quite missed.

Mon 5^th November

I arrived at Tullamarine airport at 8 am to find Karen and her father, Steve, had kindly crossed the city at the crack of dawn to collect me. Never a better sight after having been stuck with the least desirable seat in pleb class; that of the reduced legroom, heater under the seat in front near the back of the aircraft. I crashed out in Karen's new "unit" - Aussie for a compact bungalow - for a couple of hours before then going out to the Dandenong hills where we completed a maze at the lookout and then walked up 1000 steps path which is dedicated to the Australian troops who fought on the Kokoda trail in Papua New Guinea during WWII. 

Tue 6^th November

The next day was a national holiday in Australia - Cup Day. We went to a local pub to eat lunch and watch the race. In the headline race, The Melbourne Cup, the horse Karen had placed bets on came in 2nd and she had another placed horse in the next race; drinks on Karen! I didn't win anything :-(

A day trip to Macau

I'd spotted a leaflet advertising the old Portuguese colony of Macau as a day trip destination. The leaflet showed photos of quaint colonial properties and a large temple complex, and further reading in the Hong Kong Lonely Planet guide revealed that the old centre of Macau is a world heritage site.

I decided to take the plunge and use one of the remaining days in Hong Kong to make a daytrip to Macau, but instead of taking the 11 hr organised tour I thought I'd make my own way there and set my own agenda.

After a jet lag induced fuzzy start to the day I made it down to the harbour pier to catch the fast ferry to Macau. $130 secured a return ticket (or so I thought - more later) and quickly cleared Hong Kong customs before boarding the madly swaying "TurboJet" ferry. Thankfully, once up to speed the catamaran/hydrofoil glid over the choppy seas and made for a smooth 1 hr crossing to our destination.

On arrival, I realised that the Lonely Planet guide might have been a little out of date when it said that Macau was becoming a popular gambling destination as before me lay the SE Asia equivalent of the Las Vegas strip. Garish neon lit hotel/casino complexes were multiple, and in true Las Vegas style there was even a "greatest wonders of the world" theme park complete with Roman coliseum and fully functioning volcano (erupts twice a day like clockwork; why can't the real ones be so predictable?)



A view of the 'vegas-esque Macau skyline

Exiting the ferry pier (via Macau customs and a new stamp in the passport) and ignoring the casino touts I set out on foo and came across the entrance to a bizarrely empty theme park, and with no entry fees walked in an wandered around the exhibits.

With mad dog and Englishman enthusiasm I then set out on foot from here under a blazing sun hoping to reach the A-Ma Temple using the tiny street map in the rear of the Lonely Planet guide. With sweaty brow I stopped in on the plush looking Cultural Museum and picked up a better tourist map and cooled off in their air-con.

I walked on to lunch in the Macau Tower - home to the highest bungy jump in the world (764ft!) which i was partially tempted by before quested off again on foot to the temple. This was probably 1.5miles of walking in total, and would have got a cab if it wasn't for the strange state of affairs Macau seems to have found itself in. There seems to be a huge amount that has been spent on infrastructure, but very few occupants so i was were able to walk along plush dual carriageways with hardly any traffic disturbing me.

Eventually I arrived at the temple, where i was harassed by a green Chinese dragon and my clothes absorbed large quantities of strong smelling incense smoke. The temple itself was a strange mix of Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu deities and carvings, but all based around a folk story of a storm lashed fishing vessel finding safe harbour in the bay below the rocks and the ships survivors raising a temple to show thanks to the spirits that has sparred their lives. 



Monster coils of incense at the A-Ma temple.

The neighbouring maritime museum was an interesting, and cheap way to spend an hour (entrance fee $10 = 80p/each) before continuing the walk along to a large Mandarin house that had been recently renovated. This thankfully turned out to be the start of a honey-pot of different World Heritage sites and a hugely pleasant change to the hideous mock glitz of casino world.

Throughout the afternoon and evening I wandered freely through the old town before coming across the piece de la resistance the remains of St. Paul's church, of which only the front wall is left standing.

The remainbs of St. Paul's in central Macau - busy!

Walking back out of town I sampled numerous slices of sweet cured pork/beef jerky which was advertised as "the number one souvenir from Macau" before my legs couldn't take anymore and hopped on a bus back to the ferry terminal. The bus route took me back via many other casino's I'd not seen earlier in the day, confirming that Macau is now the centre of gambling for all of  SE Asia before I got back to the ferry pier.

Here, it turned out the return tickets were in fact singles and was forced to fork out another $130 to get back to Hong Kong, before eventually arrived back at the hotel a short while before midnight.

Hong Kong

A night-time view of Hong Kong from my plush hotel

After a typically last minute pack and re-pack i was finally under way with a quick taxi to Manchester airport and flight down to Heathrow.

Hong Kong seemed like a very mild introduction to the 24-7 lifestyle that seems normal for other large Asian cities, but with none of the conmen, beggars, flithy taxi's or all pervasive smell of sewage that Bangkok offered. 

The first evening was spent wandering around town close to the hotel (4* Park Lane Hotel - booked through work at discount corporate travel rates) where i found a "wet" market with numerous fresh wriggling crabs and fish being chopped up seconds after being pulled from their watery homes.

The next day - the first full day in Hong Kong - I wanted to take the tram up to The Peak to view the city from above but with crowds massing decided to walk through the aviary gardens first. This made a very worthwhile distraction and photographic opportunity before finally taking the plunge and standing in-line for 60minutes waiting to get on the tram. Thankfully the view was worth the wait, but with the crowds again queuing to back down on the tram I decided to walk back, which takes you through the mid-levels and on to Sheung Wan.

Colourful resident of the HongKong aviary

In Sheung Wan I came across lots of stalls selling a variety of Chinese medicines and alternative food products including Ginseng root and Swallows nests. Most shocking of all was peeking over a white washed glass fronted shop and seeing dozens of sacks, each filled with hundreds of sharks fins. Seeing all these in one place was a pretty stomach churning sight; thinking that for each 5 or 6 fins a shark had been thrown back in without the ability to swim and an inevitable death from drowning.

Some of the hundreds of sharks fins seen behind a white washed window

Thankfully, dinner wasn't such a sombre affair and a fair amount of hilarity ensued whilst trying to decipher the tick box menu with the couple sitting next to us speaking as little English as I spoke Cantonese...