Louise is a question master and loves to ask me lot's of questions about things I don't know. At school I deal with this pretty well and manage to get through the odd tricky question. Lou however has cottoned on that most of the time I make my answers up and calls me up on this. I can't distract her like a 10year old so I have now learnt to say 'I dunno.' We are now thinking of keeping a book of questions so we can bombard someone wiser than us with our travel queries when we return. Google perhaps?
We boarded our new bus and sighed a giant sigh when we realised Shelley was no longer our tour guide wooo! However when a 40 something year old guy introduces himself as 'Squatter' alarm bells should start to ring. Was he a gym enthusiast? Didn't like to stand or sit? Nope he just had a weird name - apparently its the Australian way. As we headed out of Melbourne towards Wilson's Promontory National Park (the most southerly point in mainland Australia did you know!) we soon realised Squatters flaw (apart from his name that is) He loved to talk, he loved to talk when everyone wanted to sleep, he loved to talk when there was nothing to say. Some may even say he loved to talk more than life. At this point we were very grateful for Lou's ipod thingy as we had it on loud to drown him out. Now thinking about it he probably could of answered some of our questions. Oh well.
Along the way we stopped at the side of the road. Alright to wear flip flops? Yeah corse! So off we trundled. Me and Lou were the last in the group and were wondering what we were going to see. Everyone was clustered around this upturned tyre. We squirmed in and saw this spider. It was a red back - 2nd deadliest spider in Australia. We had exposed toes. EEK! Photos were taken and we moved away from the killer creature. As we looked around we realised we had been joined by loads of wild kangaroos. Now I have learnt that I don't really like animals I don't know. Yet for some reason though me and lou thought we were David Attenborough (animal guy yes?) and did our best to get as close to the kangaroos as possible. Whilst we were engrossed in our own animal documentary making we didn't realise the rest of the group had moved away to seek out some emu's. At this point Lou thought it was a good idea to remind us both about the killer spiders lurking and our exposed toes... we got out of the bushes quick and waited for the rest of the group whilst hopping up and down to stop the spiders eating us alive (not actually sure if this is factually correct about the way they kill or a proven method of survival.) Back on the bus it was for us and alot of driving. Quite night and bed.
The next day we were up early and driving into the mountains along a pass called Barry Way* and across the Snowy River, which was a river but not snowy. We saw the aftermath of a bush fire from a couple of years back and were told a gruesome story about how they picked water up from the sea and dumped it on the fires. Though at this particular point they had picked up a scuba diver as well and dumped him on the fire too. After being told that we were back in the bus and headed further into the mountains. We arrived at the base of Mount Kosciusko the highest mountain in mainland Australia. We were going to climb it. The first part of the climb is a little bit of a cheat as you get a ski lift up. This was my first time on a ski lift and didn't I make everyone know it. I waved at people, took photos and used the word wow alot. At least this is all out of my system now. Once we were off the lift we started to walk. Lou and I were wearing shorts and vest tops with Santa hats. People coming down the mountain were wearing fancy walking clothes which said things like 'wind proof 200x' or something along those lines. We were not fazed and trundled along to the first look out point. Oh did I forget to mentioned there was snow everywhere! In their summer! Apparently it has never been like that before - weren't we lucky! At our first look out point we looked down at what we had climbed and were proud of ourselves. We then were told the ski lift closes at half 4 so we had 2 hours to get to the top and back down again. Squatter advised us to 'just make it to the next lookout point.' This of corse made Lou and I and some others in the group determined to make it to the top. There was no point coming all this way and then coming home to say: Oh yeah the tallest mountain in Australia, yeah I made it to the lookout point. Nope we wanted to go to the top.
*There is no evidence that this road was named after our very own Barry Taylor, though on the other hand there is no evidence to suggest against this...
Onwards and upwards we climbed. We got to the last point before the top and saw the path veer one way and a steep climb the other side. Squatter told me and lou that if we wanted to make it to the top we had to go the most direct way (the others were ahead of us at this point on the path) - which was of corse up the steep hill covered in icy snow. So we clambered up and made it to the top. Photos were taken - mission completed. We were on top of the world...kinda. All now that faced us was a race with time to make it back to the ski lift before it closed. Cue Benny Hill esk music as we 'ran' along the flat parts and climbed down the sloping bits (we learnt this was the best method as Hannah, our fellow mountain walker, slipped and cut her hand and arm up- ouch.) We were pleased to say we made it back to the lift in time, where I managed to get told off by the guy for getting on in the wrong manner. We were proud of ourselves that we had reached the top and back down again in the given time and rewarded ourselves with a jacuzzi at our accommodation. That night we were introduced to the 'ski shot' where shots are placed in an old ski and you line up in 4's to drink them. It would of been rude to not embrace the Australian culture so we reluctantly joined in!
Our muscles ached. Muslces that probably don't even exist ached. Luckily we had another long journey to the purpose made capital Canberra.Oh wasn't that a joy to see. No offence but they basically 'stole' parts of European capitals (I've seen loads- London, Paris...erm) and mashed them together to make their own. We visited houses of parliament which was kinda interesting for my inner geek, and went to a museum which no one was really in the mood for. Oh and we drove past their prime ministers house, that was fun ish. Overall not really impressed with the capital. By this time it was the 23rd December and everyone just wanted to get to Sydney for some Christmas spirit. We were rewarded after a loooong drive and checked into our base accommodation in Sydney. 10 bed dorm for the next 10 nights. Excited about the festive holiday adventures that awaited us!
As you probably know by now I'm coming home on Wednesday and really want this blog up to date as Lou promises she is going to keep updating with her own solo adventures once I'm back home.
Much love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x x
p.s. Ooo and this travelling lark is educating us. Watching 'The Chase' on tv last night and we answered questions about Singapore tourist attractions and Australian prime ministers! yeah!
No comments:
Post a Comment