As we passed through the initial culture shock presented by the very beautiful world class city of Sydney, with its centre couched at the very heart of the amazing waterway known as Sydney Harbour and all of its beautiful beaches, Coves, Points, Bays, Yacht Clubs and remarkable homes, we decided to step out of it for a while and head south.
Stoddard very kindly lent us his Audi A4 and off we headed down along the South East coast of New South Wales with its myriad of enticing names ……. Thirroul / Woonona / Wollongong / Jamberoo / Gerringong / Cambewarra and so on, and so on ………….. a seemingly never-ending collection of ‘roo’s, gong’s and warra’s, all made that much more inviting and pleasant by the fact that we could simply put the car into cruise control at 100 kms/h and not have an entire herd of pumped up drivers trying to overtake us at every opportunity. We had heard that the cops were everywhere in Oz and that you had better obey the rules or suffer the consequences. Well, in over 4000 kms of motoring we never saw a single cop, and travel became an absolute pleasure because all of the motorists simply obeyed the speed limits.
Upon arrival in Tilba we made a two night booking through Airbnb and found ourselves in a Mongolian Yurt that the hosts had erected in their garden. Extremely comfortable - and definitely something quite different from the norm. The only hassle was having to trek through to the main house to use the bathroom, but our hosts were very gracious, and it was never a problem.
The village itself was right in the countryside, and very beautiful with Jacaranda lined lanes and byways. There was a very cool pub at the Dromedary Hotel and we were able to get some basic grub there as well. There was a fantastic little Leather store along the main drag where I found my Snowy River Akubra hat …………….. I had always wanted one since seeing the Snowy River movies, and they were available at Cavendish Square in Cape Town, but the price was prohibitive ……….. here I picked mine up for a fraction of the cost.
On the way down to Tilba Tilba we had passed a small Oyster hut close to Narooma just before turning inland towards Tilba, so on our first morning we backtracked a little with a bottle of ice cold dry white and went and breakfasted on oysters just outside Narooma village in what we discovered was Batemans Marine Park - what a pleasure!
Something we have continuously questioned is why, at an exchange rate of less that R10.00 to the $ in both Australia and America (at that time), we could get lovely fresh oysters at $1.00 a piece, whereas in South Africa we were obliged to pay double the price, and I believe it is still very much the same today?????
Any way, here at this same park we watched a school of dolphins swim up the river, and were able to enjoy their antics within about 30 meters of where we sat enjoying our repast.
Moving on south from Tilba we crossed the border into Victoria and headed for the Lakes where we turned inland and up into the foothills of the Snowy River mountains in search of a farm where we had made another Airbnb booking. The farm was a beautiful setting with very gracious hosts who had taken it upon themselves to prepare a lovely dinner for us. After the terrible fires that wiped out most of this area in 2019/2000 we have often wondered if their farm survived. All in all a lovely little sojourn in an area that I had fallen in love with after seeing “The man from Snowy River”, and the sequel.
The next morning brought a notice from Airbnb stating that our pre-booked host in Melbourne was unable to accommodate us due to the fact that her mother had fallen ill in Adelaide, but they had credited our account and found us alternative accommodation for the same period at no cost to us. Wow! What an organisation ……….. and we have been booking through them ever since with nary a hitch ever.
What we found upon our arrival in Melbourne was not what we might have chosen - run by a Chinese family that could barely speak a word of english, but who were desperate to ensure that our stay with them was perfect. It was clean, neat, and they too absolutely insisted on us partaking of their meal that evening.
The next morning we looked up a friend made some time previously in South Africa when I had project managed the building and delivery of three 40’ daysailer catamarans to Mauritius for Jim Keelan from Melbourne who was establishing a tourism business on the island. Dave Pratt worked for Jim as a skipper in his yacht charter business in Melbourne, and came across to SA to take delivery of the first Cat and sail it from Durban to Mauritius. We became firm friends, and Dave made himself 100% available to show us around this beautiful city during our stay there.
The most important part of being at the top of the Eureka was that one got this amazing overview of the city and its very extensive sporting attractions - the MCG and the Rod Laver Tennis Centre (among others)………….. which is where we parked the car the following day to walk across to the MCG specifically to watch Shane Warne make his comeback to 1st Class Cricket in the very first match of the new Big Bash 20/20 series.
We had never seen Warne in action - and I sure as hell wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. What an experience - we saw Chris Gayle go out 1st ball for a duck - watched a very young David Warner slam over a hundred off about 61 balls, and watched and listened in awe as the Australian Rock Star came on to bowl. The stadium erupted into chants of “Waaaarnie - Waaaarnie” which continued throughout his bowling spell. We thought that this might be because he is a Melbourne Native …………… but no! When we went to watch the second in the series at Sydney Cricket Stadium a couple of weeks later he was greeted in exactly the same manner. Warne is indeed a Rock Star in every sense of the word and commands the love and respect of Australian cricket lovers everywhere, irrespective of which team they might be supporting.
And so ……… after three days in this really lovely city we took off for the Great Ocean Road ……….. but more about that in Part Three.
Thanks for reading if you got this far, and please stay with me for the next leg of this amazing trip.
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