Over the Foundation Day long weekend, Emma and I had the opportunity to climb Bluff Knoll. I used my iPhone to track our trip… here’s a sample of how we did!
Author: trevor (Page 1 of 6)
Tim and I took the weekend and journeyed up with a canoe to Pigeon Creek – about a 15-20km hike upstream of the Gorge. Very clearly not many people venture up this way because the barra were plentiful and the barra were hungry! I went from 11 barra for the year to 20! I managed 9 in two days and Tim finished with 5 – pretty good, considering we caught them all from a canoe.
Of the 14 we caught, only four were undersize – my biggest were 89cm and 83cm, and Tim’s 76cm – although with nearly the last cast of the trip Tim hooked and lost a monster – maybe 90-100cm! It smashed the lure so hard, it took a treble hook off and completely bent the eyelet of a second treble.
Highlight of the trip was watching a barra sit literally next to the boat as it eyed Tim’s floating, stationary lure for what seemed an eternity… before it absolutely smashed it took off. At 68cm, it was a fair sight. We enjoyed the trip!
Tim and I tackled Donkey Crossing yesterday on the quest of catching a barra on a kayak. And we were successful! Three altogether, with Tim finally breaking his duck and landing two, along with my one. Mine was pretty small, around 40cm, with Tim’s first around the same size. It was probably good that they were this small – we were fishing different sides of the river, and landed them within five minutes of each other. I had my landing net and Tim had his Fish Grapple. Because mine was small, it wasn’t too difficult to play the fish close enough to the kayak and net it. Tim’s second one was more interesting.
I was about 50 metres away when he hooked up, and it was dragging his kayak straight into the snag. I began powering over, and by the time I got there, Tim had played it around most of the snags (or the fish had played his kayak through the snags anyway!).
It came out of the water, and looked a good size. I tried to get as close as I could to the fish in my kayak, and after three attempts, managed to net it. Great size! At 68cm it was an absolute rush for both of us. After a quick photo, Tim released it back to the snag to fight another day. One thing we realised though – it will be pretty hard to land one of these things alone! We may have to hunt in packs from now on.
By the way, it’s now 5 barra from 7 fishing trips this year, and the competition is starting to heat up, with Tim on 2. It’s a shame we will probably only get a couple more weeks of fishing before it gets too cold.
Tim and I decided we needed to get a fish in before the school holidays finished – and it was worth it (for me anyway)! Casting a beady eye on the no less than 11 boat trailers at the gorge carpark, we launched around midday and were off. We decided to go for a troll through the Graveyard before heading further up river for a bit of a flick.
We quickly realised why there were so many boats in, as we passed camp after camp of tourists up the river – it resembled Moore River (and that is not a good thing). Some campsites had four or five tents, full barbecue and two to three families. We grumbled along, hoping they weren’t taking all our fish.
Sure enough, though, within 10 minutes of trolling through the Graveyard, I was on, and after a good fight, pulled in a respectable 58cm beauty. We quickly bled it, and into the esky for dinner tonight.
After another 10 minutes of trolling, we took off further up river, catching nothing for the next 3 hours. Time for home (and a return troll through the Graveyard ). Bang! Another 10 minutes into trolling, and I was on again! Another good fight, and another barra at 60cm. We didn’t want to be greedy, so this one was returned to the water.
I was beginning to feel (slightly) bad for Tim – I’ve been out six times fishing this year for 4 barra. He’s been out eight times for no barra. We kept trolling, when suddenly…bang! Tim was on. He played it well for a few minutes, just as a “pleasurecraft” came past loaded with kiddies and a set of parents. They stopped nearby, screaming in delight as they watched Tim play the fish. It then did a wonderful tailskip, much to their delight, at which point it snapped through Tim’s line, much to his disgust. With this, we left, most of us happy in the boat, with some still a little upset. Better luck next time, Timmy! 
Today was a great way to end our whirlwind trip. We hired a car and ventured out of the city to Jenolan Caves, about 180km out of Sydney in the Blue Mountains.
The first thing to note was the terrible weather – it was foggy and drizzling the whole way – sometimes we couldn’t see more than 20 metres in front of us because of the fog. The rental car had a temperature gauge 
for outside temperature – a chilly 8 degrees!
Luckily, visiting caves means that the weather is pretty much taken out the equation anyway. I had visited these caves back in 1990 when I was 12, and still clearly remembered the majestic entry to the Jenolan Village through a huge cave-tunnel. The road was paved back in the early 1900’s, as were most of the concreting throughout the caves. Today’s climate would not allow for any of these changes to be made for both natural and cultural reasons.
There are 7 cave tours to go on, with a couple of additional expert and novelty ones as well. It is an amazing system, with crystal clear 
river water running through the base of the system, and a huge array of stalagmites, stalactites and crystal formations. We chose the Lucas cave system, which involved an hour and a half of stunning beauty. Our tour guide took things a little to the 
wacky side by proclaiming the Cathedral Cavern an acoustic heaven (they play regular cello gigs there), and proceeding to play a symphonic version of Metallica throughout the chamber. He followed it up with a terrifyingly unrealistic “dinosaur” roar. Tacky, but the Japanese tourists loved it.
One minor disappointment was the seeming complete lack of regard for traditional owners of the area. The caves must surely have been a meeting place and law area for local Aboriginals, yet the fact the entire area had been completely concreted and “anglofied”, and there was not a single reference to traditional aboriginal owners or names was interesting, if not very noticeable.
With the weather again closing in, we left Jenolan Caves at 4pm to head back to Katoomba in order to visit the famous Three Sisters. Here the mission began. Sunday afternoon is clearly not a good time to head back to Sydney from the Blue Mountains. 
Things were fine until 20km out of Katoomba – at which stage it was about 4:45. The last 20km took well over an hour. The fog became even worse than before, and we seriously doubted whether a) there would be any light, and b) even if there was light, could we see the Sisters anyway?
We passed time in the car laughing at Sydney drivers (they are as bad as Perth drivers). As a sign of our boredom, we noted one bus could “eat 15 passengers”, and felt shocked at the revelation that Queensland was “The Smart State” (courtesy of their official numberplate), relegating all other states to dunce status.
We hit Katoomba determined to at least visit the Three Sisters. It was very dark, very foggy and very cold. Thoughtfully, Katoomba set the Three Sisters alight with a brilliant red light so it can be viewed even at night. It was a stunning view… except for the fog. Note the photo of Emma and Simon – yes, that is (apparently) the Three Sisters in the background!
All in all, we took it in our stride, and treated it all as a bit of lark. We elected to get some dinner in Katoomba, eating at a little café called Savoy – simple food, but nice. We then hit the road again and immediately were confronted by the same crawling traffic! It was a Sunday, but the jam lasted most of the way to the Motorway. A long drive home, which saw us leave Jenolan Caves at 4pm (remember – only about 180km from Sydney) and arrive home at 10pm. Take out an hour for Three Sisters and dinner, that still leaves 
4 hours of driving! Aargghh!!
Overall, we’ve had a fabulous time, and are looking forward to getting back to Broome tomorrow, and then Fitzroy Crossing on Tuesday. I’m not sure we’d actively tour Sydney again, but the Blue Mountains and beyond hold a lot of time for us, I’m sure. As for Melbourne, we pretty much fell in love with the city! Bring on another term of school before our next big adventure to Darwin and the Northern Territory.
An earlyish start this morning to tackle a restaurant I’ve been looking forward to for a while. We have most of Bill Granger’s books, and find his recipes simple and stunningly nice. We arrived just after 9:30am to his original Bills restaurant, and were pleasantly surprised to get a seat straight away. I quickly decided I should have eggs, as it was what built his reputation in the first place. Emma joined me in having Scrambled Eggs with Sourbread. I also had mushrooms on the side, while Em had tomato and bacon. Simon ordered banana hotcakes (which looked brilliant). The eggs didn’t disappoint – really silky and unlike any other scrambled eggs I’ve had before. They rocked.
From Bills, the three of us walked back towards town, through Hyde Park and the Botanic Gardens towards the mainstay of Sydney tourism – Circular Quay. We completed the mandatory viewing of the Opera House and the across the river look of the Harbour Bridge, before wandering around the Quay and underneath the Bridge itself. It really is an enormous structure, and you can understand why it is marvelled at. The pure height it sits off the water level, and the span it completes without supporting beams running through the water are amazing. It wasn’t amazing enough for us to climb to the top, however!
Time for some shopping. With promises of an enormous Westfield shopping centre in Bondi, we rushed to the train station, bought our ticket, rushed down the 155 flights of stairs (or so it seemed) and… trains to Bondi cancelled for the weekend due to track work. Damn! Finding the corresponding bus took an age, and by the time we got to Bondi Junction, we were pretty exhausted. The place is huge though. Taking up two entire blocks, there are also six levels on each block. It was big. We took the time to do some much-needed clothes shopping to get us through the rest of the year at work, I bought Emma’s birthday presents, and we caught the bus all the way home, again being quite frustrated at the lack of signage provided as to where to catch the “train-bus”.
Tomorrow we’re planning on hiring a car and tackling some Blue Mountains action, under Simon’s guidance. To be honest, we’re quite glad, as we’re slightly let down by the “touristy” things here, as opposed to Melbourne’s more natural style of things. Mind you, I can’t complain about the Sydney food… I’ve had some of the best meals ever in just 24 hours! With hopefully more good food to come tonight…
Our plane trip from Melbourne to Sydney went smoothly… if you blinked, you would have missed it – about 10 minutes after finishing the ascent, the captain announced we were beginning our descent! An hour trip overall.
The first thing we noticed about Sydney was that the city’s drivers aren’t quite as laid back as Melbourne’s – our taxi driver managed to beep and abuse before we had even left the airport. He was quite engaging, however, even if he did have a disturbing habit of constantly creeping at red lights, ensuring we were regularly in 
the middle of the intersection before the light went green.
Our hotel was a step up in class from our Melbourne one. We had booked into an executive suite on Albion St in Surry Hills – king-size bed, living area and huge flat-screen TV. What a shame we will spend most of our time exploring, not hiding in our room!
A good 90 seconds after arriving in our new room, we were out again, ready to explore. Walking out, we quickly discovered we were in the middle of Chinatown. We stumbled across Paddy’s Markets, and being around lunchtime, chose a little curry place. 
I had a simple (and mild) lamb curry with naan bread, and Em had a vegetable curry. Both were fabulous.
Having left the hotel room so quickly, we had no idea where we actually were. Using the mobile WhereIs, we were pleasantly surprised to discover we were only about 2 minutes from Darling Harbour. Darling Harbour is interesting – initially, it appears there is plenty to do, but there is that real contrived “touristy” thing happening here. The idea of having an Australian Wildlife Park crammed onto a pier seemed to smack of inappropriateness. The Aquarium next door was more at home in the area, but the advertising of “joint-pass” tickets for “only” $68 per person sent us packing.
Instead, we shot across the harbour, walking underneath the monorail, and visited the National Maritime Museum. We began with the submarine and destroyer walks – HMAS Onslow and HMAS Vampire respectively. The submarine was surreal. So small, so thoughtfully designed to contain so many people, it really would take a special person to serve on one. In the main control room, nine of us crammed in tight as a tour guide informed us that on a normal operations day, 22 men would man the same space. The HMAS Onslow spent its life listening and following Russian submarines around the Arctic Ice, obviously listening for either the grumblings of a Cold War or the first grunts of Anna Kournikova. Like Anna Kournikova, the HMAS Onslow never fired a shot in anger during its career.
HMAS Vampire was also a stunning walk. Built in the 1950’s and decommissioned in 1998 (I think), there are still remnants of the last crew’s activities, like sports rosters, and graffiti in the mess.
The main part of the Maritime Museum was also full of interesting history – the obvious things like Sydney to Hobart memorabilia, First Fleet information and famous passengers cruiseliners were on display, but the highlight for us was the Summers of Australia exhibition, which was walls upon walls of colour photos from the 1950s to 1970s, highlighting Australians affinity with water. There were images from all around Australia – including 1960s golf in Port Hedland!
We finished off our day hanging around the habour until Simon finished work. We met up with him and his workmates at a bar called The Watershed, which had a stunning view of the city skyline – and Little Creatures on tap! Simon’s workmates seemed cool, although they spent most of the time trying to extract embarrassing “family secrets” out of Emma. As always, Emma was able to put up the brick wall and maintain a code of silence. I think this will only encourage Andrew, Simon’s boss, to just make up embarrassing stories instead.
We finished off at a charming little restaurant near our hotel called Mint. Simon recommended it highly, and he wasn’t wrong. With Moroccan themes, Emma and I both tackled a lamb dish which was brilliant, while Simon’s dish also looked yum. Dessert was probably the highlight, with all of us ordering pistachio and orange icecream, with a little baklava on the side.
A good start for Sydney!
For our last full day in Melbourne, it was actually fairly uneventful. We began with breakfast across the road, where I ordered what looked like a small meal (omelette with cheese, mushroom and spinach), but turned out enormous – they must have used about 10 eggs in the thing! It was lovely, even if I could only get through half of it.
Having become excited by the markets the other day, we had promised Marcus we would come to his house and cook dinner for him and his two flatmates using only market produce. We began by searching for a specialty spice store, where I proceeded to buy spices in 100g lots –smoked paprika, turmeric, fennel seeds, whole star anise, cinnamon quills, whole cloves and whole black peppercorns. All of this came to only $11! One of those, with about 25g in it, would have cost close to that in Fitzroy Crossing alone.
With the spices covered (I was making Pork loins with a Chinese Five Spice and paprika rub), we wandered around the city before falling upon the Eureka Sky Deck. It proclaimed to be the highest public viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere (which we actually thought the Auckland one had proclaimed as well when we were there… we must have been mistaken). Upon reaching the top, having parted with $30 for the privilege to travel up the 88 floors at over 9 metres per second, we found a stunning view of Melbourne, Geelong and most of Port Phillip Bay. We were a long way up – I was convinced it was no higher than Auckland, but a great view nonetheless (later research showed the Melbourne version is a mere 60m higher). There was also an outdoor section, where you could wistfully pine through the wire mesh across the city.
Although we weren’t prepared to fork out the extra $12 each to go on THE EDGE – an extra platform that has a glass bottom (even with our savings on the spices!), we were satisfied that the Sky Deck is worth visiting, even just to get that “big picture” of the city. The Edge claimed to be for the hard-core people, but for us, the hard-core people were the ones at Auckland Skytower who actually paid to BUNGEE JUMP from the top. Scary stuff.
From here, we ate at a non-descript little café that served up a stunning little chicken and mushroom filo for no price at all, before venturing to the markets again to see what values we could find.
Getting there with only half-an-hour till closing time was a buzz – the butchers were screaming, and throwing ridiculous specials around – like a 10kg platter of scotch fillet steaks for $25. I wandered around six butchers before settling on 5 pork loins from local stock for nearly nothing. Wandering out to the fruit and vege place, we picked up some spuds perfect for mashing, sweet potato and green leaves (weeds, I’m sure) for a simple salad.
Marcus is living on a serious budget. He’s studying Social Work at Melbourne Uni, and does relief teaching when he gets the chance – but in a couple of weeks he begins a fulltime, unpaid 15-week prac. I suggest he shops at the markets, because the grand total for our meal for five was less than $16, and less than $27 if you count the spices which would last for months anyway.
Dinner went smoothly, and Marcus provided a lovely dessert (as he always did in Fitzroy Crossing). We passed the evening away chatting, and making promises to catch up again soon.
See – told you it was a lazy day today! Bring on Sydney tomorrow!
We had a late start today. It wasn’t Emma’s fault, and I maintain it wasn’t my fault either – I blame the Esplanade Hotel from the night before. We spent the evening (and part of the early morning) enjoying The Espy in St Kilda – four live acts on a Tuesday night isn’t too bad – and some of the acts were actually good! The others struggled though. It was great to catch up with Marcus again, and we swapped stories long into the night on the happenings of Melbourne and Fitzroy Crossing. Marcus suggested a 
great little café on the main strip of St Kilda before venturing to one of the great venues for up and coming Australian artists. Top night, but lousy morning!
We ventured off just before midday back to St Kilda to see the area in a sober state… and in the daylight! After sighting the mandatory “mouth” to Luna Park, and sighing over not being able to see a gig at the Palais Theatre, we wandered into Rare Records for 
a look. Wow! Apart from having all the You Am I singles from over the years, there were also vinyls from Metallica dating back to the early 80’s, and a Nirvana CD Single for Pennyroyal Tea… which I assume was very rare, because it was on sale at a mere $750! After dragging Emma around that store (but staying strong and not buying anything), we then went up the road into another record store – quite unremarkable, except for the fact that it is owned and run by Bon Scott’s son.
We jumped on the tram again straight back into the city, and began the (what turned into a) long walk to Docklands and the DFO store 
(Direct Factory Outlet). DFO is like HarbourTown on steroids. But like HarbourTown, we walked around and actually visited very few stores. Emma bought a new pair of trendy sneakers and some tops, and I tagged along, slowly recovering from the obvious drink-spiking that had occurred the night before.
From here we walked towards Docklands itself, past the majestic Telstra Dome (the retractable roof is amazing! Unfortunately the sun was in a horrible spot, and no photos turned out).
By this time, it was getting close to dark, so we caught the tram back to Bourke Street Mall and met up with Azba and Brad. They took us to a lovely bar on the edge of Chinatown (which claimed to 
be the “longest bar in Melbourne”. It was long), where I discovered that my taste for beer had finally returned. We also enjoyed a wonderful meal, and Azba even put a tiny piece of squid in her mouth. She then proceeded to pretend to like it. We were all very proud of her!
We said our goodbyes to Az and Brad, and on returning home, pretty much crashed and burned. So far it’s been flat out, but fantastic. Interesting to see what tomorrow brings!
Another busy day today! After a lovely dinner last night (we used WhereIs to search for nearby restaurants and chose one based on its name), we were ready to go. Yesterday we managed to tackle two locations, which took all day, so we decided to keep to form – the King’s Domain and the Victoria Street Markets.
We began with a walk through the Botanic Gardens, and were stunned at the variety of vegetation and the presentation of the whole area. Walking through, you could hardly tell you were in a major city, with only the smell of trees, flower and grass about – no smog! 
The highlights for us (apart from the tearooms complete with cheesecake) were the Glasshouses and the Herb Garden. The Tropical Glasshouse not only felt like home, but held a huge variety of tropical plants – including some from our patio! There were beautiful flowers, and also plants like ginger, coffee, and vanilla – which we learnt is actually a type of orchard.
The Herb Garden was very interesting, and we looked on in envy, imagining our own herb garden at home looking even remotely like this one. It would be great to set up a big barbeque in the middle of it and greedily strip the herbs back just to create a huge variety of marinades!
From the Botanic Gardens, we ventured to the Shrine of Remembrance. It had been empty and closed when we first walked past it, now two hours later it was a hive of activity. We were denied access through the first entry as there was a major unveiling going on for some Victorian stamps commemorating the April 15 battle of Borneo (or somewhere) in 1918 (or sometime). We then noticed it was April 15. And there were lots of diplomats, and all flags at half mast. Who was to know?? I remember a similar situation when we were going around Australia, and decided to visit the national War Memorial in Canberra. We got close, but noticed there were far too many people milling around the area, and it looked like too much effort. 
It was only as we drove away that we noticed that not only was it November 11 (Remembrance Day), but it was dangerously close to 11am as well… (*Footnote – the News has just stated that they were officially unveiling this year’s commemorative ANZAC Day stamps. No wonder it was packed…)
We gained access to the Shrine through a different entrance, joining the throngs of Japanese tourists. I’m probably underestimating, but there were at least 20 AAPT buses lined up. The Shrine itself was full of information, and quite grand. We were able to climb to the top level and get a stunning view of the city and the surrounds. Obviously my diet and exercise has paid off, because one Japanese tourist not only wanted Emma to take a picture of him with Melbourne in the background, but he insisted I be in the picture as well… while he hugged me! 
I don’t have photographic proof, but I’m sure it will be on YouTube in no time.
Having explored the King’s Domain for well over three hours, we jumped on a tram heading into town. From there we jumped on the Airport West tram which took us past Victoria Street Markets. Wanneroo has some catching up to do. We could move to Melbourne just to buy our meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables from here! With about five different seafood stalls and at least 10 different butchers all running out of the same small space, competition was high, prices were low and the variety in cuts was amazing! Their barramundi were pitiful though – they’d be used as live bait in Fitzroy! We wandered through, revelling in the smell of fresh bread, browsing through hundreds of different cheeses and tasting some stunning oils and vinegars – one, an apple-flavoured balsamic vinegar, tasted so much like apples, you could have poured it in with the pears and custard! It would go great in a pork marinade, I reckon.
We finished by strolling through the other parts of the markets – “rubbish goods”. If you ever need useless pieces of junk to fill up your house, I recommend coming here to splurge. One stall did catch the eye, with some great wooden chopping boards and cheese boards, but other than that it was just a good way to work off the cheesecake from this morning.
We finished off our afternoon wandering back through the city, through the Bourke Street Mall (only buying a few things, we promise) and deciding to cross the Yarra to visit the Art Gallery. We reached the Art Gallery to find that Tuesdays are the only day they are closed! Oh well, it leaves us something for another day…
One thing we have noticed on both days in Melbourne is the amount of school kids out and about on excursion. The teachers all look very happy, and the kids all behave themselves beautifully. We are starting to remember what mainstream school look like. None of this helps our Principal in Fitzroy Crossing, Paul, in his quest to convince us to stay for a fourth year… we’ll let you join the dots!
We’re catching up with Marcus tonight at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda. It has a rich history for Australian Music, and with any luck there will be a bit to see on the walls around it. It’s also a good opportunity to drink with a fellow Fitzroy Crosser! Until tomorrow…
.
Recent Comments