Aaaah, back home to Noosa

Checkout was at 11am, so we had a good sleep and a leisurely breakfast before making our way via ferry and bus back to Central Station. The first-class cabins on the train to Brisbane had comfortable seating, and bathrooms between each pair of sleepers. This time Murray was next door, and his cabin was the same size as ours.



Our attendant surprised us with a "welcome aboard" snack pack that kept us going till dinner time. The meals were nothing like the standard of the Indian Pacific, but perfectly edible. The scenery was mostly suburban as we headed north from Sydney, past lakes and boats and expensive-looking houses, and graffiti-covered falling down buildings near the stations, and on into the countryside. The full moon looked amazing, but as usual the image doesn't do it justice.


The train was more modern and travelled much more smoothly on the lines. However the beds compensated for that - the mattresses bearing quite a resemblance to slabs of concrete. It was almost a relief when we heard the tap on the door at 4am, time to have a cup of tea and raisin toast before disembarking at Roma Street Station in Brisbane at 4.53am.


The two hours till our Greyhound bus at 7am seemed to go quite fast, assisted by moving around the transit centre and finding a good coffee. Murray's son arrived I to pick him up and we were on our own for the last part of our journey. The bus was very comfortable, complete with USB ports and wifi at every seat. Not bad for $16.50 each. After Caloundra we were the only passengers, something the driver said will change dramatically as the summer approaches.

Our rental car was waiting for us at the Noosa Junction station, and we made good use of it stocking up on supplies while we filled in the time before we could pick up the key to the apartment. It was our most efficient shopping ever, with a shopping list for Dan Murphy's, the Reject Shop, the supermarket and the butchers already prepared. Great to have the car to transport it all, and then the car was collected from the apartment the next morning.


Opening the door and looking through to the river brought a shared sigh of contentment. Now for some serious R&R.

Ann-a-Gram
😎

Darling Harbour

Next day was Murray's birthday, so we arranged to meet him at the Opera House and have lunch together. Our journey over on the ferry was not as eventful as the first one. The seas have calmed down quite a lot since we arrived. The trip to/from Manly takes you straight past the Opera House and close to the bridge, so there are always lots of people taking photos.



We were early, but Murray found us at the Opera bar and joined us for his first birthday drink. Then we caught the ferry round to Darling Harbour, right under the bridge this time. Darling Harbour seemed to be a never-ending row of cafés and restaurants, and since it was Friday lunchtime they were all busy. There wasn't much evidence of the drop in the stock market having any impact on Sydney's diners.


Later we headed back over to Manly and enjoyed a glass of wine or two with takeaways on the hotel balcony. The hotel may have been expensive, but we didn't spend money on eating out.


Ann-a-Gram
😎

A day in Manly

Next day we enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in for a while in our super comfy bed. When we arrived at the restaurant for breakfast (included in our room deal), just after 9, the restaurant manager said "good afternoon", and told us to enjoy our brunch! Which we certainly did.

We explored Manly, checking out the cheap prices in the Corso, walking for miles along the beach, and stopping for a beer at the wharf. We ate a sandwich for lunch on our balcony - no restaurant has a better view!


We had thought about hiring some bikes, but Graham's knee hasn't fully recovered since his swim in the Murray river, so we sought out the free Hop, Skip and Jump bus instead. Free bus services have been going downhill since the excellent one in Perth. This was a minivan, used by some very strange locals. An elderly gentleman who was obviously a regular chatted away to our first driver as he was extracting himself from the driver's seat at the end of his shift. He was so rotund that this took some doing, and then when he finally managed it he could barely walk.

Our new driver was a lovely young woman who, several stops later when two women had been on and off the bus, turned to us and said, "Did that lady smell?" Apparently she had been told not to let her on the bus as there had been numerous complaints about her. Next there was an elderly gentleman with a walking frame. When Graham got up and offered to help him, he refused the help and then promptly fell on top of his frame which was half on a seat and took some time to get himself up again. And then there was the young man who was clearly several sandwiches short of a picnic who sat behind us muttering unintelligible things with his tongue flipping in and out of his mouth. By then we had had enough and made a hasty exit at the next stop, walking rather further than we had intended back to our hotel.


We picked up a delicious pizza for dinner and enjoyed the view from the balcony as we dined, feeling virtuous after our 16,700 steps.


Ann-a-Gram
😎

Location:North Steyne,Manly,Australia

Manly Beach

The train chugged into Sydney Central just before midday. We had a coffee while we sorted out the best way to get to Manly, said goodbye to Murray for a couple of days and headed for Platform 21. After carrying our bags down lots of steps, then dragging them through a tunnel and along a long corridor we reached a sign pointing to Platform 20. That was the end of the corridor. Around the next corner were stairs going back up, and a sign pointing to Platforms 1-25. So we lugged our bags back up the stairs, and eventually on to the train.


Once at Circular Quay, we saw that the Manly Ferry was F1, so we set out for Wharf 1. We walked along past Wharf 2, and were almost at the Opera House before it finally dawned on us that there was no Wharf 1. We asked a local who told us we could catch the regular ferry at Wharf 3, and the fast ferry at Wharf 6. Even though it was further to walk, we thought the fast ferry would be good, so we walked all the way back to Wharf 6. But.... the fast ferry is run by a different company than the buses, trains and other ferries, so we couldn't use our newly purchased Opal cards. Back to Wharf 3 it was. Lots of steps though.


We found our hotel with no problems, and it was just what we had hoped for. A beautiful view straight out to the beach. There was a big storm a couple of days ago and the surf is good, in fact the ferry was quite exciting at the headlands. There were huge numbers of surfies lurking in the water. We are right opposite the beach volleyball courts, so young couples kept us entertained playing volleyball while we ate our fish and chips on the balcony.


Ann-a-Gram ;-)

Adelaide to Sydney

Although our taxi was late, we arrived at the station in time for a coffee before boarding. The only stop on this part of the journey was Broken Hill at 5pm, so there was time for an afternoon nap. The tour was aptly described as a whistle stop tour. We did a quick round of some of the 19 remaining hotels (there used to be 78), including the one where Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was filmed. Then it was up to the miners' memorial. There have been over 800 miners killed in the mine, but very few this century. In fact the bulk of the accidents happened late 19th and early 20th century.



The view out the window was certainly greener than the Nullarbor, but the red earth was still very evident.


After the tour we had another lovely meal and then a nightcap in the bar. I guess someone has to be the last to leave!

The night was long and noisy as we chugged slowly uphill and down dale. We passed through Parkes at about 3am. When daylight dawned, we were travelling through Bathurst and on into the Blue Mountains. It was misty and raining through the mountains.

We thought we must have had a learner driver, the number of times we were jolted to a halt. Still, it is a more relaxing way to travel, and having food and drinks included is pretty good.

Ann-a-Gram ;-)

Adelaide

Next morning, guess what? No water! We called Bob again and headed for the marina. He directed us in to a mooring where we could fill up so that we could shower before the transfer back to Adelaide.

We were all packed up and ready to go when the van arrived at 11am.


When the van arrived, we said goodbye to our home for the last few days and headed back to Adelaide. This time we avoided the motorway and travelled through the suburbs. Our impression of Adelaide was that it has some beautiful old houses made of stone with lovely intricate latticework around the balconies.

We dropped Steph and Gary off, checked in at the apartment and set off to explore the city. We clocked up about 14,000 steps for the day, found the malls and had a good look around. Eventually we found the free city loop bus and did a circuit. The buses were not as frequent or well promoted as in Perth, but once we were on board the trip gave us a good overview of the CBD.

Later we met up with Denise and Greenwitch for nibbles, which meant finishing off the lovely cheese and crackers Bob had provided. No one felt like going out, or even ordering in, so Denise cooked up the bacon and eggs we had planned to have for breakfast instead.

Ann-a-Gram ;-)

Last day

We had another big day of travel to get back to Mannum. Like yesterday, although we didn't have a roster for lunch, people created great things out of leftovers. Yesterday it was bacon and eggs on the top deck. Today was a bit colder, so we had meat patties and leftover lasagne downstairs in the lounge.






We moored up in Mannum and went for a wander through the town. We sat and had drinks and nibbles and told stories. Although we had banned religion and politics, somehow the conversation kept coming back to one or the other. We went from talking about church to farts in one step.

Later Bob came and cooked us a beautiful meal. He also brought a fantastic bottle of local Shiraz.



This was the view out our bedroom window on our last day.

Ann-a-Gram ;-)

Heading back downstream

After the vineyard tour it was our turn to cook. Fortunately the weather was a little warmer so everyone joined us on the top deck while we barbecued.


We had picked up a large piece of fillet steak at the market, and it looked pretty impressive. To our relief it cooked up rather well too.

When we awoke in the morning, after some people had showers, we found we then had no water at all. Bob received another call. It turned out that we really had run out of water this time. We were able to fill up when we moored for the night, so crisis averted.

Today was a full day of travel. Steph and Gary managed to fit in a kayak downstream before we set off.

Some of the crew sunbathed out the back of the boat, while the rest of us watched the never ending display of wildlife. We saw pelicans, cormorants, galahs, eagles, and fish jumping.


Denise did her best to catch a fish, but to no avail.

While we were travelling, we often played music. When I forgot to put something on, someone would ask me to. Fortunately we all have similar tastes in music. We also played charades. Denise thought she was clever giving me "Free Willie" to do. They came up with all sorts of names, but Willie wasn't one of them.

Ann-a-Gram ;-)

The Barossa

After dinner we had a crazy time hooning around paddocks with a spotlight, seeking out kangaroos and wombats.


There were plenty of them, and was a lot of fun.

Next morning we discovered the only water we had was cold, and then only in the hand basins. We had to flush the loos with buckets of river water, and some people had a spa in lieu of a shower. So Bob the boatman was called.

We were picked up by boat and transferred to the vehicle that was taking us to the Barossa valley.


It was great to watch the looks on people's faces as they stepped inside and realized the van was set up with a bar and screens for DVDs and karaoke. It had taken Graham some time to make contact with the company but it was well worth it.

We drove to our first vineyard, Yalumba, singing along with the BeeGees.


At Yalumba we found that Ozzie winemakers are putting their Chardonnay in oak again, yay! So we tasted some nice Chardonnays as well as good reds, including a Grenache.

We had a scrumptious lunch, Graham and I both had kangaroo pie, and then visited two more vineyards.


The final one was a boutique vineyard and we were the only people there. So Gary decided to introduce us the wines. Our host was a little surprised, but she played along with him, grabbing a glass and a seat on the other side of the counter.

We sang karaoke all the way back to the boat, with everyone joining in except for Gary, who for some reason felt driver needed company.

We found Bob on the boat when we returned, and eventually water was restored with one pump doing all the work. Thank goodness for Gary and David the Big Bend man. Otherwise we would have still been without water.

Ann-a-Gram ;-)

More adventures

We headed on upstream towards Big Bend, our destination for the night. Greenwitch and I noticed a shed with the number 229 on it as we cruised on by.


We travelled past huge cliffs around a bend that was obviously Big Bend, but Denise's GPS showed the town as being further on, so we kept going. After we had been going for quite a while, we realized we must have missed it. We called the Big Bend by Night people, and found that we were well past our destination. We did an abrupt about turn and went full steam ahead into the gathering dusk. It was quite dark by the time we arrived, but our host was on the riverbank with a torch to guide us in.


Thank goodness we did make it, as the meal and spotlight tour were a real highlight. We had beer-can chicken after having a look at the Ozzie animals, an emu, a wombat and of course a kangaroo. The emu loved the attention it received.


We were taught how to crack a whip. I was told I was a natural at it. Steph was keen to have a go and managed the more complicated maneuvers.

After our main course we had dumplings with quandom sauce. Some of the team were a little disconcerted to be asked, "Would you like cream with your quandom?"

There is a place to comment below people. Not sure if you need to be logged in or anything, but it would be great to know that people were reading this.

Ann-a-Gram ;-)

Man overboard!

Murray cooked a huge meal. We had crayfish appetizers, followed by pork bones and seafood chowder and then a chicken main.

This is the view we awoke to the next day.


We travelled back to Walker Flat to moor up and go for a walk. We managed to get ourselves totally stuck between a tree and a submerged log, side on to the river bank. Fortunately, after several fruitless attempts at extracting ourselves, another houseboat steamed up the river and moored up beside us with great aplomb. We talked nicely to their Captain, he came aboard and had us moored up in no time.


The guys gained some tips from the experience about mooring up in a strong wind.

When we stopped for lunch, the wind was still quite strong. In our haste to get the ropes tied, no one paid enough attention to keeping the boat close to shore, so it slowly drifted out. Unfortunately Graham was on the gangplank at the time and slid gracefully into the water.

Gary and I were there in a flash and were very relieved to find him sitting in knee-deep water. Lots of bruises and scratches, and maybe a pulled muscle, but it could have been a lot worse. And we were lucky we had the cabin boy /ambulance man with us.



Ann-a-Gram 😎

Murray River Day Two

Today was Murray's day to cook dinner. He spent most of the day in the kitchen. He found the pirate hats, and for a while we all wore them.


Murray had a single cabin on the train. We loaned him one of our Onya back packs to take a change of clothes onboard as he only had one large bag that he needed to check in. However, when he appeared the next day wearing the same clothes, it emerged that the Onya had been filled with leftovers from the apartment - rolls of toilet paper, butter, potatoes and carrots that he thought would come in handy on the boat. Unfortunately, crossing state lines meant a quarantine of all fruit and vegetables in Adelaide, so he had to leave them behind and start afresh at the markets. But, since we'd been teasing him about it, Murray was very pleased to inform us that the butter was still good.


The sunrise was beautiful. The cabin boy had taken orders the previous night and delivered cups of tea to those who asked. All rooms have their own ensuite so there was no queuing for the bathroom.

After a leisurely breakfast, we were on our way upstream. We chugged along for a couple of hours and then moored up for lunch.



We passed a lot of red cliffs. We had been told that the river was quite busy, but we saw very few boats.

We moored up for lunch, a little more successfully than yesterday. Then we found Bow Hill, with a welcome sign, a shop that sold alcohol, and a jetty, so we moored up and hopped off to stock up our supplies, just in case!


By the time we reached our planned destination, Walker Flat, it was late afternoon. We saw signs for houseboat parking, but when we were closer there was another sign saying no overnight parking. We continued upstream till we found a spot that looked like a good mooring place. We figured that no entry didn't mean no mooring, and it was getting dark so that was our parking spot.

Ann-a-Gram 😎

The Murray River

We took our luggage to the apartment where Denise and Greenwitch were staying, then headed to the markets to buy our fresh produce and meat.

There were plenty of choices, and the produce was lovely and fresh and cheap.

Our driver arrived right on time at 10am, and after an hour's drive and some time filling trolleys at the supermarket, and brown paper bags at the bottle store, we were on our boat. We walked around with our mouths open for a while. The boat looked amazing on the website, but it was even more so for real.



Steph organized lunch while the boys were shown the ropes and got us on our way up the river.



What a great way to spend an afternoon, cruising up a river with good friends, music and wine.

It was agreed that whoever was in charge of the boat at any time would wear the Captain's hat. Denise appointed Murray as cabin boy, and he took orders for morning cups of tea.

Mooring up was an adventure. We finally arrived at Young Husband, where we planned to spend the night only to find there was no overnight mooring.

We continued up river to where a number of boats were moored. We spied a suitable tree and Denise was ready to jump off with the rope, but we became stuck in the mud before we were anywhere near close enough.

Our second attempt was more successful, though Gary had to take his jeans off to get rid of the ants crawling up his legs after he'd tied us to a tree.



This is the view of the sunset from our bedroom.

The evening was spent getting to know each other, as no one on the boat knew all of the others. We had a scrumptious spag bol cooked up by Denise and Greenwitch. We were all so busy talking that Denise forgot about the garlic bread. Fortunately it was rescued before the boat caught fire, and we all complimented Denise on her garlic charcoal.

Ann-a-Gram 😎

Kalgoorlie to Adelaide

The train sped through the night to make up time. This made us remember that train travel did have its down side as it was very difficult to sleep.



The view from my bunk when we opened the blind wasn't a lot different from when it got dark the night before.



And when we stopped at Cook a few hours later. This used to be a good sized town with a school and all, but now has a population of four who refuel the train and top up the water.


The town is almost derelict, but one of the few towns across the no trees Nullarbor.

We passed the border from West Australia to South Australia and lost a couple of hours, so the day went by very fast.

Ann-a-Gram 😎

The Indian Pacific

Our train was waiting for us when we arrived at the East Perth station. We were soon settled into our Gold class cabin. It has a comfortable couch and a good sized ensuite. It wasn't long before were in the Outback Bar to have the first of our unlimited free drinks. This is the way to travel!


Lunch and dinner were of exceptional quality, and the wee nap in between was good too.

As with rail everywhere it seems, freight trains have right of way. And there were a lot of them, and they were loooong! Murray counted 75 carriages on one.



So our planned stop at Kalgoorlie took place later than expected, and it was after midnight when we arrived back at the train. It was an interesting tour, with a view of the huge open-cast mine, a glimpse into the view of a dump truck driver, and a tour of the town with a lively commentary.


Ann-a-Gram 😎

Perth Day Three

We had planned to take a cruise on the river today, but then we found that none of the boats had outdoor seating, and we remembered that soon we would be spending a week on a boat so we decided to stick to walking and buses.



We thought of you Dean when we saw this Segway park with lots of obstacles to maneuver around.



The bell tower is one of Perth's claims to fame. The area around it at Barrack Street jetty made us think we were back in Christchurch. In fact there were construction sites and roadworks all over the city.



This was our lunchtime spot, very quirky with great food. It was called Mother Hubbards and had a "hidden bar".

After all our walking, only 14,000 steps today, we enjoyed our last night in Perth out on the balcony, watching the entertainment across the street. Friday and Saturday nights were party nights there!



Ann-a-Gram 😎

Fremantle two

Once the GPS finally realised that we were in Perth and not Sydney, we had no problem driving to Fremantle. It took us quite a while to find a park, as it is obviously a very busy little town, or is that suburb?

We had fish and chips for lunch, apparently a must do in Fremantle although we only discovered that later. We roamed around the markets and hopped on and off the free buses. We found E Shed, which was a more interesting market than the original, and bought Perth baseball caps for $2.50 each.

There were statues everywhere, many of famous immigrants clutching their cardboard suitcases. At the maritime museum, there is an impressive memorial to the immigrants. Fremantle was a major port for the arrival of immigrants.

On the way back to the apartment we drove through Cottlesloe and along the beach. There are some beautiful beaches to the north of Perth, but apparently the sharks think so too.


Ann-a-Gram
😎

Fremantle

Friday was spent having a look around Fremantle.









Ann-a-Gram 😎

Perth Day One

Somehow we managed to get through customs into a taxi and to the apartment.

We had a glass or two of duty free, but it had been a long day so we were in bed early. Which meant we were awake very early the next morning.



Eventually, even though it was still dark, we decided to get up and go for a walk. We headed for the East Perth waterfront and found some lovely cafés by the water. Slowly but surely the dawn broke, we were joined by more and more joggers, and at 7 some of the cafés opened and we were able to have a coffee.



We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, including returning to the waterfront for lunch.

It was a mild but overcast day, perfect for walking. We were just a couple of blocks away from the WACA, and quite close to the CBD.



We discovered the free Central Area Transit (CAT) buses and explored the city via the red and yellow lines. A great way to see the sights and save your feet. All in all we still clocked up more than 22,000 steps!

To finish off the day, we had a delicious meal at a genuine Italian restaurant, with a bottle of Carpe Diem pino grigio from the Margaret River. Had to be done!

Ann-a-Gram 😎