Category: Holidays (Page 2 of 20)

The Adventures of Chris and Terry

North Island NZ – Rotorua to Wellington 2026

May 5, 2026 / terry

25 April – A wonderful day’s drive today, from Pukekohe to Rotorua. We had planned to avoid Hamilton, to avoid driving over country that we would traverse on our way back to Auckland. We got tired of the motorway driving and decided to take an exit to have a break and change drivers. The town of Cambridge came up and we selected it. Big mistake. The town was hosting a major cycling event and the whole town square was choked with bikes and parking was non-existent. As we tried to navigate the centre of the town, workers moved ahead of us blocking off roads. They literally placed barriers in front of us. We deviated, detoured and swore a lot, finally finding a ramp back onto the motorway. By this time, Apple Maps was quite confused and sent us on down the A1 to Hamilton. It decided it had done wrong by us and started finding every minor road it could to take us across to the main road to Rotorua. The upside was that we saw some very beautiful country, filled with picturesque farmlands ablaze with autumn colours and big herds of fat dairy cattle. We stopped at a rest stop for our much-needed break. As I stepped out of the van, there was a distant “bang” and I turned to see a car do a somersault further down the road. It looked like a serious accident. I started off to help but a number of cars had already stopped so we held back. Within ten minutes, police, fire brigade and ambulance were on site. It looked nasty.

We booked into the Rotorua Family Holiday Park, a neat little park on the shores of Lake Rotorua. It is actually in the little town of Ngongotaha, about 7km from Rotorua itself. It had the advantage of being removed from the thermal activity at Sulphur Point and the smell of Hydrogen Sulphide that affects most of the town.

Lake Rotorua

In the evening, we were picked up by mini bus and taken to the Mitai Maori Village, for a cultural performance and hangi based dinner. We shared a dinner table with Canadians, a couple of Chinese Americans, an Irishman and a lady from Argentina. It made for an interesting discussion comparing travel experiences. The cultural show was very well done and it was fortunate that we came prepared for cold weather because there was a lot of the show outside. A highlight was a group of young men paddling a war canoe up the narrow river lit by flaming oil torches. It was quite spectacular in the darkness of the forest. The singing was really beautiful and the traditional weapon drills were mesmerising. We have sat through many cultural dance and music displays in our travels but this was by far the most entertaining.

The dinner was amazing, a huge range of buffet offerings, much of which came from a traditional hangi. We went back far too many times and filled up on mussels, sweet potato (kumara) and delicious sweets. Christine had the pavlova and explained to the Canadians how the Kiwis had laid false claim to the origins of Pavlova. They seemed unaware of the dish and not very interested in trying it.

26 April – We held on for a late rising due to the cold morning. We had planned on a tour of the city and some of the lakes on a 1942 vintage army duck, needing some warm clothing against the open air. The experience of the old “duck” was a lot of fun, supported by the wit and non-stop bevy of puns from the driver as she gave her commentary. We were a bit disappointed with the very small part of the tour devoted to the city itself but once out past the Redwood Forest and on to the Blue Lake we thoroughly enjoyed the concept of driving into and out of the water. Like all hybrid machines, the duck was neither a great truck nor a great boat but for a machine built over 80 years ago it was quite amazing. From the Blue Lake, we moved on to Lake Okareka, where we admired some of the beautiful houses nestled along the banks. Given that the lake has a good reputation for trout fishing, it would be a terrific place to live.

After the tour, we drove to a stop on Lake Rotorua, with a stop at Sulphur Point to take in the thermal vents that expel clouds of hydrogen sulphide and steam. The smell was bad but bearable. The lake itself away from the alkaline thermal vents is clear water and dominated by Mokoia Island in the lake’s centre, the original volcanic peak. There is a lot of birdlife on the lake but much of it is introduced, including mallard ducks, domestic geese and even black swans. New Zealand has a poor history of introduced feral species, and we have seen a lot of road kill that includes, possums, wallabies, weasels, stoats and ferrets. The western settlers felt that the country needed some game then tried introducing other species when animal populations exploded. It never works.

A visit to Kuirau Park was terrific. A lot of thermal vents of different kinds are set in pretty parklands. There was bubbling steaming water, steam fumaroles and alkaline mud patches. It was wonderful and, unlike some of the more famous attractions, completely free. We understand that places that survive on tourism need to charge for attractions but some of the things we have encountered are quite over the top price wise.

Then it was on to Okere Falls on the Kaituna River. This was the site of a hydro power station in the early 1900s. Now it is a mecca for rafting and we had fun watching large groups crash over the falls and fight the rapids. The water flow was amazing.
All in all, Rotorua has been a highlight. It is over commercialized, like many great attractions, but there are still lots of free sights and attractions.

27 April – We had a short drive today, only around 65km from Rotorua through Taupo and on to Turangi. This has to be one of the great drives on the planet, especially Rotorua to Taupo. Once into the mountains we experienced some heavy fog, which would clear and reveal incredible valleys, forest scenery and mountains with thermal vents belching steam. There were thermal power plants, mud pools and spas, river crossings and small hamlets along the way. The farms were carrying an incredible load of dairy cattle, a greater stock load than I have seen anywhere.

We stopped at a rest stop where the highway crosses the Waikato River, and did a bit of forward planning for the next couple of days. Then it was on to the Aratiatia Rapids for an amazing experience. Here the Waikato River is dammed. The road has a bridge across the dam face with walkways for the crowds that gather. Downstream of the bridge, the river forms a deep gorge, with crystal clear blue hued water at the bottom. We watched a few good-sized trout laze around. Every two hours, the dam gates open and the gorge is filled with a gushing torrent of foaming rapids. No doubt the trout have adapted to this event. We had timed our visit perfectly and had only around 15minutes to wait. The transformation was incredible.

Next stop a little further along was the Huka Falls, upstream of the dam, where the Waikato River hammers through a narrow gorge for a couple of hundred metres. It was awesome. There is a jet boat tour from the dam up to the falls that navigates the gorge, a seemingly impossible thing.

Lunch was a stop at a beautiful lookout giving an amazing view over Taupo and the lake, across to the mountains beyond, that already carried a dusting of snow in preparation for the upcoming ski season. After lunch we drove down through Taupo and along the shores of Lake Taupo to Turangi, another beautiful drive. The traffic was heavy, it being a public holiday in lieu of Anzac Day. We had selected an upmarket caravan park and resort based on their promised restaurant and bar, seeking a bit of pampering.

We booked in, surprised that we were the first, then set off again to drive up into the mountains to the Opotaka Historic Reserve which was once the site of a Maori Village, reported to be the location of a significant battle against the British back in the 1820s and even the place that was the birthplace of the Haka. The site itself was quite disappointing, with a few plaques and signs telling a bit of a story but otherwise, not much to see. The view on the other hand, was staggering, across Lake Totoraira to the enormous forms of Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe, a couple of active volcanoes.

After another stop half way down the mountain at a lookout that gave wonderful views over Lake Taupo, we stopped at the shops for a couple for groceries then back to the resort. We checked out the bar, to be greeted by an apology that it was closed, because it was a holiday and crowds were down. We were suitably unimpressed. If you have a big sign out the front advertising a bar and restaurant then you have one, not an apology. We walked across the road to the Turangi Tavern and enjoyed a beer there. I have to admit that it was pretty quiet too.

April 28 – Another late sleep due to the cold and foggy conditions. Once on the road, we travelled a short way down Hwy 41 to the Tokaanu Thermal Pools. These were really interesting, seeming to rival some of the high-charging private attractions back towards Taupo. There was a big variety of pools, mud pools, bubbling hot springs and clear running streams. The main stream, not thermal, held a healthy population of very big rainbow trout, just holding position in the current. We wandered around the thermal walk and admired the many pools, as well as the beautiful ferns and mosses that bordered the pathways. There are a couple of thermal swimming pools available, one private that is all spa water and the other a public one that has thermal water mixed with fresh water. We thought about the process of finding swimming gear, changing, getting in, getting out, drying, dealing with wet clothes etc, and drove off.

The drive from Tokaanu to Taurmarunui was extremely hilly and winding. At one point there was a sign pointing to a rest stop with lookout off to the right. We took that and immediately regretted it. The road was one car wide at best and went straight up, winding its way for 1.5km. We were terrified of the prospect of an oncoming vehicle. When one did come, it right on a speed bump, which was positioned at a slightly wider piece of road. The other driver gave more than her fair share of road and we dropped a wheel over into a hole on our side of the speed bump. She got past us and we tried to take off, but went nowhere, the wheels spinning on the damp road and the speed bump holding us in place. Eventually, I managed to reverse far enough to get a run up to the bump and get over it. The view was worth the effort, mostly being above the cloud line with a few peaks poking through. In the distance, the majestic snow capped volcano Mt Ruapehu dominated the view. Christine was unhappy during the descent. I wasn’t much better.

We had morning tea at a park in Taurmarunui before driving on, putting our faith in Apple Maps that somehow seems to much prefer mountainous winding roads to open valleys. We saved a couple of kilometres but lost part of our sanity, dealing with trucks and fast drivers on mountain roads. The upside was the view. We saw some really spectacular country and survived to pull into Waitomo to get a site in the caravan park.

After settling in, we drove a short distance down the road to the Waitomo Cave Centre. There are three caves, the most famous being the one with a river flowing through it. After a walk through the dry sections of the cave, everyone is loaded into a small boat which glides off into the darkness. The Maori guide actually pulls the boat through the cave by means of ropes which traverse the system. The highlight is the roof of the cave, covered in glow-worms, creating a milky way of tiny lights. The glow-worms themselves hang myriads of fine sticky tendrils down, using their bio-luminescent bodies to attract tiny flying insects to the tendrils. In the silence, the effect is eerie and quite mesmerising. Photography in the darkest parts is forbidden, which is good because all the flashlights would be quite off-putting. Eventually, we emerged into the daylight once again. It was a terrific experience.

29 April – This was to be our last full day in the Jucy van. Our main aim was to get back to Pukekohe, only 35km or so from the drop off, and clean up and organise our stuff. It is amazing how messy we can get in only a week.

We set off faced with three possible routes through Hamilton, requiring a decision at Otorohanga. Apple and Google Maps have been very bad to us in the past taking us over some terrible roads to save a couple of kilometres. Otorohanga was a pretty little town so we stopped at the information centre and asked the question. The Hwy 3 route was preferred, still winding and full of fast trucks like other roads but at least with regular passing lanes.

Hamilton proved to be one of the least interesting cities we have been to. Even looking up “things to do in Hamilton” makes lots of suggestions for places out of Hamilton. We drove though the city centre to make sure then got back on a motorway for the rest of the way back to Pukekohe Showgrounds for an afternoon of organising things and relaxing.

30 April – We packed up the last few things in the van in the by far our warmest and sunniest morning yet. It probably beats packing up in rain but its still frustrating. It was an easy 45km drive back to the Jucy depot along motorways and after topping up the fuel, we dropped off our little green beast. It has been mostly positives but we did prepare a list of little issues for their attention. We were generally glowing in our interactions with the company but it was not universal. At the caravan park in Rotorua, the managers told us that in their experience, our comments were rare. There was another Jucy at Pukekohe and the young Scandinavian couple were not as happy as us, after six weeks, with quite a few issues with their van.

We caught a DiDi car back to our apartment in Auckland, once again an Indian driver, who also quizzed us about living and working conditions in Australia, just as the Indian driver on the way out to pick up the Jucy had done. He choked a bit when we told him the average housing cost in Perth. I found it interesting that the main attraction that Perth has for Indian people is not the climate, or work prospects, but the availability of shorter flights back to India for their annual trip home.

After dropping our stuff off and starting the washing, we set out to find a bite to eat. We ended up walking all the way to the Fish Markets, a place on our list of go-tos. The whole wharf area is packed with eateries offering all kinds of food at prices similar to Perth houses, but we wanted a simple fish and chips lunch.

At the markets themselves we found just the place and had a good feed at a great price. In the markets, we saw a woman buying a whole salmon at $49/kg. The beautiful fish must have weighed 5kg. Everything was pricey, except for the Kahawai (Australian Salmon to us), which we don’t even try to sell in the market except for cray bait. We saw oysters at $28 / half dozen and scallops at $105/kg. New Zealand has a lot of seafood but it is very expensive.

Auckland Fish Market

Back at the apartment, we had a kip, the first afternoon nap for over a week.

1 May – With a day uncommitted, we looked up things to do in Auckland. The only ones we hadn’t done were go up to the top of the iconic tower for the view and tour the New Zealand Maritime Museum. The first option proved to be a crazy $42 each, so we shelved that one, and headed for the museum instead. It was very much like the Fremantle one, except larger and had, of course, a Maori perspective instead of an Aboriginal one. I was particularly interested in the Polynesian boat building techniques, which were good enough to facilitate the exploration and settlement of the entire South Pacific. The amazing use of flax to make rope and weave sails was a feature.

Another very interesting section was that displaying the history of immigration, through the 19^th and 20^th Centuries. We saw a similar thing in Genoa, Italy, which focussed on the Italian migrations of post war Europe. It was immersive and very interesting.

We used the afternoon to catch up on some badly needed rest. The bodies are hurting a bit from all the walking and we have been on the go most days since we arrived.

2 May – Our train to Wellington was set for a horribly early 6:45 check-in. Once again, a DiDi car proved the answer and we were soon settled into our seats. The seats were arranged in sets of four, across a table. Much to our delight, they remained empty when check-in closed, giving us the freedom to sit either looking forward or travelling backwards.

The Northern Explorer always features in lists of the World’s top train journeys. It proved to be the best we have taken. Scenery wise, it had everything, the rolling live-stock green fields, majestic rivers and the fantastic snow-capped Mt Ruapehu in the Tongariro National Park region. An excellent audio or written commentary was available via WiFi and an app so it was easy to keep track of progress over the eleven hours of the trip. We met a friendly couple from Malaysia, who have yet to visit the thermal areas and were keen to get ideas.

Most of our carriage was occupied by a tour, Gold Tours, on the first leg of a train based tour travelling to Wellington and then on through the South Island, on almost the same schedule as us. There is an open air car for those wanting the perfect picture. It was very brisk in the wind but a terrific place to be when crossing the deep ravines and viaducts of the Rangiteki River. There was also quite a crush in the open carriage when the train navigated the famous Raurimu Spiral, a circular climb of 139 metres onto a plateau.

It is a trip I could highly recommend, especially having driven over a third of the route just a few days before. The train was a better way of seeing the country. We are now looking forward to a couple more train journeys in the South Island.

It was dark by the time we arrived in Wellington. A Didi car took us across the front of the city to our apartment, across the road from the Basin Reserve, one of New Zealand’s test cricket grounds. We dumped our stuff and promptly headed out to walk down the road to a Woolworths to get something for dinner and breakfast. The apartment is actually quite well stocked and the owner invited us to help ourselves so it was just the basics we needed. We got back, had dinner and watched a bit of TV before collapsing.

3 May – In the morning light, Wellington proved to be a compact city hugging one shore of an expansive harbour. Housing straggled up the steep hills that surround the city, looking very picturesque, but not somewhere I would relish living. I hate hills.

After breakfast, we headed out. We had tried to work out the bus system, but abandoned the idea because (a) it was Sunday and the service infrequent; and (b) we needed a card for payment to avoid paying $3 a trip to the driver. A DiDi was not much dearer and a lot more convenient.

Our DiDi dropped us in the main street outside the cable car station and we rode up the 1.3km ride up the hill to the lookout and Botanic Gardens. The cable car was built in 1904 to service the expansion of housing estates up the hills above the city and has remained a much-loved icon ever since. The views were excellent, the museum featuring the history of the system was fascinating and the air very, very chilly.

Back down, we joined the Sunday crowds, who mostly wandered along the harbourside area. This has been done up a lot in recent years with an entertainment precinct, up market eateries and a fabulous Sunday market area that had fresh fruit and vegetables to equal the best of the European markets. The highlight was the amazing variety of food trucks, all doing a roaring trade.

We sampled a whitebait fritter and a mussel fritter, both expensive and a bit underwhelming, but at least sampled. We had heard about whitebait as a local delicacy. Much better was a bowl of Korean Ghao, highly seasoned pork belly with crackle and a steamed bun and shredded cabbage. Wonderful. There was a huge line-up for the Greek van so it must have been good stuff too.

We walked all the way back to the apartment to work off lunch and watched a couple of movies for the afternoon. This marks the end of the North Island trip, with the ferry to the South Island early tomorrow morning. It has surpassed expectations, the greenery and the amazing terrain keeping us enthralled. Everyone keeps saying that the South Island is better so we are really looking forward to the next part of our trip.

NZ – Auckland and the Northlands 2026

April 29, 2026 / terry

20 April – Our flight to New Zealand was a good one. We hadn’t actually realised when we booked through Virgin that we were on an Air New Zealand flight. We were also surprised when we were allocated exit row seats with lots of leg room and even more surprised when we had full service meals and wine, thinking that we had to purchase meals. It was good that the 3:30 hour flight was comfortable because the arrival was not good.

We had completed the electronic entry (which many others hadn’t) and so were allocated to the “Express Lane”. That didn’t work, because so was everyone else allocated the same lane and we stood in a line with others who filled out their entry cards. When we finally got to the front of the line, the man glanced at our “express line” sticker and waved us through. A good start to New Zealand bureaucracy.

Next we had to find how to get to the train to Auckland. Christine’s AI search had yielded the information that we needed to walk to the domestic terminal, a 900m walk with our 13kg backpacks on. We did that and looked for the station. “No train here,” a worker said. “Catch the Link Bus to train station.” We found the link bus and battled with the machine to buy the AT Hop card before giving up. It is possible to use credit card but we only had 1 Wise card between us. The bus arrived and the driver just said, “That’s OK. Just get on anyway.” We were horrified when the link bus made its first stop back at the International Airport. 950m wasted.

The Link Bus dropped us at the Puhinui Station. By this time, we remembered that I had an electronic Wise card on my phone so we both tagged on to the train and settled in for the trip into Auckland. Happily, it was only a 350m walk to the apartment, after a stop off at a nearby convenience store to collect the key. The apartment proved excellent and the location was perfect, just an easy walk from the CBD, waterfront area and train station.

21 April – We started the day with a slow wander through the main shopping area of Auckland, basically a stroll up Queen St. Best find was a cheap clothing shop that had sell-out remnants of good quality brands and we bought some NZ T Shirts 3 for $39 and a light hoody for $25. This filled in a few holes in our travel wardrobe. During the walk it was obvious that Auckland has a big population of rough sleepers. Almost every bench and alcove to an unopened shop was occupied. Another thing was the fad of having an e-scooter or e-bike equipped with a boom box speaker capable of being heard across an entire city block and riding it along the footpath.

We found a supermarket and stocked up on a few basics then headed home for lunch. The afternoon was spent on a tour of Auckland Harbour with a very informative commentary. Showers were visible around us but we managed to avoid them and stay dry. The tour was a terrific way of getting an overview of the city and a bit of history along the way. Auckland Harbour is a very beautiful stretch of water and offers a lot of protection for even small craft, as evidenced by the large number of marinas and mooring areas filled with power boats and yachts. The kiwis love their sailing.

Once off the boat we enjoyed a beer at a popular wharf side hotel and took note of a couple of eateries for our return visit in a week. The cruise commentary also talked about the fish markets a bit further on that sounded worth a visit.

22 April – Today was Jucy Van pickup day, which meant packing up and getting out to an address near the airport. After the previous experience from the airport, we opted for a DiDi car and the $43 seemed like a bargain.

Once at the Jucy centre, we were booked in, given a briefing and shown where there was a “swap” larder where those coming in could leave left over stuff and those going out could stock up. The larder proved rather bare but just as we were ready to leave, a couple of vans came in and both hirers were heading straight to the airport so we scored bigtime, even some beer.

Our first sortie didn’t go well. After only less than a kilometre, Christine announced that the passenger seat was beyond bad. It had sort of collapsed on one side. We turned around and reported the issue. No problem, they swapped our van. All the vans look superb, gleaming paint, freshly painted tyres and black bar work. Neat and tidy inside. I was amazed to see ours had clocked up 440,000km. It drove well, was easy to handle and had plenty of zip in suburban streets. However, once out on the highway and faced with the huge hill climbs that New Zealand offers, we were always the slow one. Fortunately, NZ drivers seem to have more patience than those in Australia and overtaking lanes were frequent, so we coped.

We negotiated the freeway through Auckland and across the big harbour bridge before pushing north. We had initially planned to stop early at somewhere like Orewa Beach just to get our bearings. In the end, we lunched at Orewa Beach, found a Woolworths to buy the few things we still needed.

Poor Christine scored the worst of the driving as we headed north to Paihia in The Bay of Islands, the last 85k or so through very mountainous country, much of it done at less than 70km/hr. We chose a place called Seaview Campervan Camp, which had rave Google reviews. It said something about $25 a night but that proved to be per head. By that time it was getting late so we put up with the price, which seemed steep for what looked like a campervan wrecker’s yard and settled in to our new home for the next week.

Christine performed her usual brilliance with a tiny basic kitchen and we set the bed up. We were a bit head down, so I slept the other way round. Other than that, it was really comfortable and warm. Getting up for a toilet call in the middle of the night is interesting; it is possible to get jammed if you don’t do things just right, but it is all a learning curve.

The next morning we set out to the wharf area of the tiny town to purchase a ticket on a boat tour of the Bay of Islands. We wanted one with lunch provided but were told that was cancelled due to one of the boats being out of action. We suspected that the real reason was the presence of a huge cruise ship and the abundance of passengers ready to buy tickets for afternoon cruises. Whatever, the afternoon cruise looked good and it meant we had some time to kill.

We drove across a bridge over the estuary to the Treaty Grounds of Waitangi. This is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, ending the Māori Wars. We could have taken a three hour cultural tour (as were a few hundred cruise ship passengers) but we lacked the time and had already booked a cultural experience in Rotorua for later, so we saved ourselves the $150 and had a coffee and date scone instead. It was excellent.

After a simple lunch in the van, we boarded the big catamaran for the tour. First stop was the town of Russell, a short hop across the bay, to pick up more people. Russell was the first capital of New Zealand, a whalers town that had a reputation as the sin capital of the South Pacific. Nowadays it is more of a retirement and holiday town.

Then it was off on a cruise that highlighted the amazing piece of water called Bay of Islands. Named by Cook for the abundance of islets, it has more idyllic anchorages and smooth cruising waters than I’ve seen anywhere else. The main destination was “The Hole in the Rock” a large natural bridge formation of the northern tip. In good weather, the cruise boats will navigate through the hole, but today, the swell was just a bit much. Even so, the skipper laid the boat right into the gap, within mere metres of the rock face. It was very clever work.

Unfortunately, there was a lack of marine life on our trip, no dolphins or whales. This didn’t worry us, but I did feel a bit sorry for some of the cruise ship people who missed out. All in all, it was a highlight. I have always wanted to sail cruise the Bay of Islands, that probably won’t happen now, but I can see why I wanted to. A very beautiful place.

Back on land, we found the Waitangi Holiday Park and booked into a normal, regular caravan park at $42, better than the other strange experience.

24 April – We had expected rain over night but none eventuated. It was lying in wait for us further south. The further south we got, the heavier the rain and we started to worry about flash flooding. The north had received extreme rain just before we arrived and all the streams were flowing fast so more rain was a possible problem.

We stopped for morning tea at Whangarei Falls, a spectacular single drop fall on the Hatea River. Luckily for us, there were two excellent viewing platforms at the top of the falls so we didn’t have to take the long downhill walk track to the bottom to get a good look.

By the time we were within 50km of Auckland, the sky suddenly cleared and things brightened up. The traffic got heavy however, and progress across the harbour bridge and through Auckland to the south was mostly slow. Maybe it was the start of the Anzac Day long weekend or maybe it was just Friday afternoon.

We had booked in to a Showgrounds campground at a location called Pukekohe. We spent a bit of time trying to guess how to say it and settled on “Pokemon”. We are struggle quite a bit with the names of places. Just as in Australia, showground camps are good. They are cheap when compared to caravan parks, have all the basic needs and often have an interesting set of people to talk to.

By the time we set up and settled in, we were bushed. We had driven 276km, almost nothing back in Australia, but here the terrain is so hilly and winding that 100% concentration is needed and a day’s drive, even with good breaks, proves energy sapping. The scenery makes up for it. Rolling green pasture lands with fat cattle and full sheep or sub-tropical forest with amazing pines and tree ferns. We are loving it.

SA to Melbourne 2026

April 21, 2026 / terry

Through SA to Geelong

April 8 – We left Penong after a two day stay, the second day being almost total rain throughout. The locals are loving it; we are over it. Our route took us through Ceduna and the quarantine inspection. We had done all the right things, par-boiling veges, leaving fruit at the fruit exchange in Penong Caravan Park and eliminating leafy greens. The man was happy with out efforts and we proceeded into Ceduna to replace the things we had disposed of at the Foodlands. A second stop was made at Baldies Fish Outlet out on the fishing boat harbour for a dozen fresh Ceduna oysters. We bought them unshucked so we could eat them at our leisure as we travelled. They were so big that sharing 6 at a time made more than good enough entrée.

We stopped for lunch in the tiny town of Poochera, where there was an interesting historical display set up in a park. There was a little shanty dating from 1920 and made largely out of flattened kerosene tins. It must have been unbearably hot in summer and a leaky sieve in winter.

Then we pushed on to Kimba, in the heartland of the Eyre Peninsula. Kimba is far more prosperous looking than our last visit in 2018, with most shops full, lots of cars in the streets, and an upscaled RV free camp at the rec ground that many say is the best in Australia. Last time, it consisted of one area for around 10 vans and access to some sports ground toilets. Now there are three separate areas of vans and a new dedicated set of toilets, as well as a large open camp kitchen. A donation is encouraged and we were happy to pay. By evening, the place was full. Our oysters were delicious.

April 9 – From Kimba, we drove east to Port Augusta. Love this drive, passing Iron Knob and then watching the Flinders Ranges grow as we approach Port Augusta. We have been to Port Augusta many times so didn’t stop, moving on to the little town of Port Germein for lunch.

We have not been to Port Germein since 1990 and then it was very close to being dead. There was a tiny general store and an attached caravan park. The boys spent most of their time in the store playing pool on the coin fed machine, having figured out how to jam something in the coin slot and get free games. The general store is derelict, but the rest of the town has had a re-growth, with a couple of restaurants, a pub that looked like it had received a make-over, and a few curio and art shops. We stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant that had a road-side stall and ordered a delicious Pork Bahn Mi each for lunch.

Port Germein was Australia’s busiest grain port in the 1870s and there is a 1.6km long jetty that serviced the ships. There was a claim that it was the longest timber built jetty in the Southern Hemisphere but the Busselton jetty at 1.68km is actually longer.

After lunch we left Highway 1 and climbed the ranges to the town of Gladstone, somewhat smaller than its namesake in Qld. A series of small towns followed before stopping for the night in Yacka, on the banks of the Broughton River. They have a delightful little community-run stay for eight vans for only $20 a night, with power and hot showers. What a bargain.

The town had very little in the way of open shops but had some delightful old stone buildings and a historical walk guide available in the main street. I loved the old mechanics store that still advertised itself as a Holden dealer. There were a couple of old FJ Holdens inside.

10 April – We had a really beautiful drive today, despite the generally overcast and sometimes rainy weather. With all the late summer and autumn rain, the Clare Valley was picturesque with rolling green hills, freshly seeded pastures and the amazing vineyards. Our drive took us through Clare, Auburn and then to Kapunda. The small towns in the Clare and Barossa Valleys were so pretty, with their lovely old stone buildings and the tree lined streets all showing autumn colours of every hue. We drove through Nuriootpa and Angaston before descending down a steep pass out of the Gawler Ranges to the Murray River Port of Mannum.

We had lunch in Mannum, admiring a couple of paddle wheel river boats and watching the car ferry ply its trade across the river. We have stayed in Mannum before and it is a great spot to spend some time, either on the river or exploring the amazing 19^th Century streetscape.

From Mannum we headed on the Murray Bridge and crossed the river, before moving on to Tailem Bend and on to the Dukes Highway. Here the traffic was insane, mostly heading towards Adelaide. Being a Friday, and the AFL Gather Round hosted by SA, many thousands of people were driving from Victoria to Adelaide or the Barossa for football. The Dukes Hwy is largely composed of passing lanes, spaced every 5km or so either side. The traffic coming towards us was bumper to bumper in places.

We stopped at Coonalpyn, the Hotel offering free van park-ups behind the building in return for a meal or drink purchase. We enjoyed both in the company of Wayne and Lou, a couple from Geelong, who had parked their van next to ours en-route to Adelaide for the Hawthorn-Bulldogs game. It was a case of good prices, good food and good company with secure accommodation thrown in. A win all round.

11 April – The traffic on the Dukes Hwy had lessened significantly in the morning and we drove south through Tintinara and Keith. We left the Dukes Hwy at Keith and took the road towards Mt Gambier, through Naracoorte and on to Penola. We drove through the beautiful Coonawarra wine district, which dates back to the 1890s. We had earmarked a free recreation reserve just out of Penola as a place to stay for a couple of days. It had excellent reviews and proved to be a lovely spot, with an attached arboretum. However, after setting up, we found that all the rain had soaked into the local black soil, which turned into a clinging mud, caking shoes and even thongs. I had been into the van once before I noticed and there were big clumps of black mud inside. It was going to make life unbearable. We packed up again and headed back into Penola and booked into the caravan park, happy to pay for a mud free existence. The afternoon was spent inside with the heater on as the temperature fell, the rain continued and the winds reached near gale force. The weather is not treating us well.

12 April – Today was a rare day, exploring without the caravan behind us, giving us a lot more freedom. Hopefully, after our trip to New Zealand, we won’t be travelling to a timeline and we can do a lot more exploration of places we visit.

We drove back north to Naracoorte. The area is famous for its extensive cave system, over 200 in total in the National Park. Many present as little more than a hole in the ground, opening up once below the surface. As such, they have acted as animal traps over hundreds of thousands of years, providing palaeontologists with a perfect cross section of South Australian fauna back to the days of the mega fauna. Fossils of large marsupial lions, giant echidnas, large wombat type creatures and giant kangaroos have been uncovered. There is a walk through display showing these animals in a forest environment. We took a tour down into the Alexandra Cave, an extensive system that has yielded a treasure trove of fossils. The walls and roof are made from the limestone of an ancient seabed and many shells could be seen in embedded in the roof dating back 5 million years. The cave had some beautiful displays of stalactites and stalagmites.

After the cave exploring, we drove into Naracoorte itself, finding a very pretty town with lots of shopping and eateries lining the three main streets. It looked to have everything one could ask of a small rural town. A special feature was a swimming lake, a large pool up to two metres deep with an artificial beach, floating platforms and picnic areas. It was created in the 1960s and was a wonderful variation on the usual Olympic sized swimming pool for a town situated away from the coast.

Returning towards Penola, we pulled into the tiny hamlet of Coonawarra and visited the Wynns Winery for a tasting session. Wynns is one of Australia’s best-known labels and sells all over the World. We had a tasting of six excellent wines along with a platter of cheeses, dried muscatel grapes and an amazing cabernet paste, like a wine gelatine. We pretended to understand all the things we were told about the tannins and soft palate of the wine but just enjoyed quaffing them down and eating cheese. We bought four bottles of wine to carry with us and went home to watch the Eagles lose again and have an afternoon kip.

13 April – Another day of travel, another day of rain and cold winds. We just never get any sunshine. Our trip took us across a C grade road from Penola to Casterton, which meant crossing the border into Victoria. The road was winding, narrow and very bumpy until we crossed into Victoria, when it widened and the surface improved. Unfortunately, that was last decent Victorian road for the day. The problem lies with the surface. They tend to be nice and wide and they cut out as many hills and valleys as can reasonably be expected, but the only solution to a bumpy surface or huge potholes is to erect a sign saying “Rough Surface” There are a great many of these signs. This applies to A, B and C grade highways.

Casterton was a very pretty town with some delightful old buildings. Coleraine was similar, set amongst rolling hills with large numbers of grazing sheep and cattle. The roads carried a lot of livestock trucks, which came roaring up behind us at speed.

By Hamilton, a regional centre, we were in need of fuel. We drove the length of the town and every fuel outlet was on the wrong side of the road, mostly guarded by a median strip. By the time we had got through the town we hadn’t managed to get fuel. We had enough to get by, it was just frustrating.

On the eastern edge of Hamilton is the Sir Reg Ansett Museum, dedicated to the Ansett Airways company. Reg Ansett began the story when he bought a Studebaker car in the 1930s to run a taxi service. This soon turned into a bus service. However, the Federal Government of the day decreed that no service would be licenced where it competed with a rail service. So Reg sold oranges to the passengers and provided the trip free, getting around the law. This turned to an air service, using a Fokker he imported. He later relocated to Essendon Airport and the rest is history, leading up to the eventual collapse of the over-expanded company in the early 2000s.

We watched a terrific video of the history, made after Reg Ansett’s death in 1981 when the company was moving into international flights. The museum had a great collection of flight attendant’s uniforms, models of the planes that Ansett flew, Reg’s original Studebaker and a Fokker of the same model that he started the airline with. The original was destroyed in a fire at Essendon. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and it evoked many memories for us.

We finally found fuel in the next sizeable town of Mortlake. The Victorian regional towns don’t seem to have the roadhouses on the outskirts like many other places. Fuel stations are often in the middle of town and difficult to get into with a van. There is also a severe lack of rest areas along the highways, especially noticeable after the abundance of facilities in South Australia. Sorry Victoria, do better.

We stopped for the night at a tiny town called Derrinallum which allows donation based camping around its rec ground. We like rec grounds. There is usually someone else staying, have some facilities and flat ground. It was very pretty, overlooked by the nearby Elephant Rock, a 150,000 year old volcanic core. The volcanic rocks that scatter the area have been used to create a beautiful network of drystone walls in the surrounding farmlands.

14 April – We woke to yet another sight of fog and drizzle, par for the course around here. The awful roads were still the norm as well and we bumped and bounced our way 100km south to Geelong. Geelong is a city with a road system based on square grids which means long straight roads and traffic lights every coupe of hundred metres. The locals seemed used to it and showed a patience that you would never see in Perth.

Our caravan park was the Geelong Caravan Park on the banks of the Barwon River, a few kilometres down one straight road to the CBD and waterfront. We set up the van and hit the laundry, to clear the backlog prior to packing for New Zealand. Alas, the park was upgrading and although there were washing machines available, there were no dryers. It would take a week to dry anything in the weather we were experiencing so we headed out and tracked down a laundromat. We also had an appointment at a pharmacy to get the latest flu jab in preparation for sharing an aircraft with a couple of hundred other people.

15 April – We had planned to go into the central city today but the weather was dismal, regular light showers and cold winds. Instead, we drove to some shops to ensure that supplies of non cold goods were right for our return from NZ in a month and to seek out a few other bits and pieces. It was a strange day, changing into shorts one minute, then back to long pants the next. The weather just can’t make up its mind.

16 April – We awoke to the news that the oil refinery at Corio Bay, just a short distance away, had a serious fire over night, placing a large area, including us, on a “watch and act”. We knew nothing and slept on, although Christine did hear sirens during the night. By morning, the fire was still burning but the danger reduced. It will further affect the supply of fuel,

First stop of the day was a local skin clinic to check out a small “thing” on Christine’s back. The doctor was fairly certain it was harmless but because it had appeared so suddenly he nipped it off and sent it for analysis.

We drove to Queenscliff to catch the car ferry to Sorrento and drive to see Azba, Mike and Everly in Mt Eliza. In hindsight, it was a similar cost to driving, given the tolls, but a train might have been better. The ferry is very efficient and comfortable but at $200 the round trip a tad expensive. The morning was a rare blue sky day and warm enough that we sat beachside at Sorrento and had lunch. By three o’clock, the rain was back, along with lightning and some heavy falls.

We loved catching up with Az, Mike and Everly again. Their house is largely finished now and the landscaping is really starting to take effect, with trees maturing and the overall effect coming out.

17 April – Much of the day was spent preparing our back-packs for New Zealand and finishing up last minute chores to ready the car and van for a month’s storage.

18 April – We hooked up and drove 100km north to put the car and van in storage at a place in Diggers Rest. We got a DiDi service to take us to the Diggers Rest Station and then trained to Melbourne, where we had booked a “Luxury Escape” at the Stamford Plaza in Little Collins St. It certainly wasn’t our usual type of accommodation. Outside, was Giogio Armani, Yves St Laurant, Chanel, Rolex and lots of other places we couldn’t afford to even look at. We even got our room upgraded to a suite like room, with kitchen, spa bath and two huge TVs. The kitchen was good because it meant we could bring food in.

Christine had forgotten her hiking poles so we set off on a tram journey to Richmond where the K-Mart was listed as having some at an amazing $14. They proved more than adequate, just as good as our much more expensive set left behind. We returned, bought some heat up meals at the local IGA and had a couple of beers at the place next door called 7 Alfred. Despite its swank appearance, it did happy hour $7 beers.

19 April – We had a hankering for a Singaporean style Kopi and half-boiled egg with Kaya toast breakfast, and figured Melbourne’s cosmopolitan population would supply one easily. It proved difficult, with one nearby that didn’t open on a Sunday and another a reasonable walk from Victoria Markets. A couple of tram trips and a walk later we were seated outside Myth Café in near freezing conditions enjoying “Set A” with Kopi. We were in Asian heaven. A sign apologised for being out of pandan for the kaya but whatever the substitute was it was still excellent. Some people would baulk at the thought of eating half cooked eggs but with a touch of soy sauce, running kaya toast with its thick sweet kaya filling through the egg is divine.

We walked back through Victoria Markets, marvelling at the sight of a forty metre line for the doughnut van. Inside the van, six workers hand twisted and moulded doughnuts while others filled the cooked ones. It was fortunate the line was so long because it made avoiding the temptation easier.

We found a Chemist Warehouse and a Jaycar for some things on our “needed” list and trammed back to the hotel.

After a rest up, we set off once again on the tram, catching the vintage circle line #35 to rattle out way around to Marvel Stadium in Docklands for the North Melbourne vs Richmond AFL game. We did a walk up ticket buy. We sometimes suspect that the online ticketing tries to sell you seats they can’t otherwise get rid of. Instead, we asked for General Admission tickets to Tier 3 for $18 concession. The lady said we could have front row on Tier 2 for the same price and we scored great seats at a saving of $98 compared to online. Go figure!

The match was not a high standard, but very enjoyable, as was the plain Four and Twenty pie that we had to have. The least enjoyable thing was all the American style music and light shows when goals were kicked. AFL doesn’t need that crap.

To get home we took the easy way, a tram straight up Bourke St, along with many, many others. We got out and settled in to the Udon Izakaya Maedaya, a Japanese eatery that advertised a $12 Beer and Karaag special. The Karaag is beautifully coated and fried chicken and the beer was a pint of excellent Kirin beer. What a bargain. We also tried a curry bread, a deep fried dough ball filled with sweet curry. We headed home with some bags of take-away as well.

22 April – Up early for a flight to Aukland, we tried an interesting looking restaurant just down the road for breakfast, but we arrived before the owner, so we resorted to the Hotel breakfast, at least opting for a continental instead of the big buffet. Then we donned the back packs again and trammed down to Southern Cross to catch the Sky Bus out to Tullamarine. All went smoothly and the new automatic immigration machines and improved security scanning helped things enormously.

The flight even proved a good one, as we flew Air New Zealand (we booked Virgin but they partnered us to Air NZ), scored exit seats with endless leg room, got the full meal and wine service when we thought we had to pay for snacks. One of our better flights.

Auckland here we come.

Across the Nullabor 2026

April 7, 2026 / terry

3 April – We headed off out of Esperance on Good Friday. The rain eased as we headed north and we revelled in the ultra light traffic flow, given the public holiday. We didn’t go too far, stopping at Bromus Dam near the old settlement of Dundas. The well constructed dam was built in the 1920s to service steam trains. It now acts as a large free camp ground.

Bromus dam – Dundas

4 April – We drove through Norseman turned east and on to Balladonia, where we faced our first fuel over $3 a litre. This is a sign of things to come as the fuel crisis continues. The Government cut in fuel excise will take a while to apply out in the regional areas. The weather was at least fine, which allowed the flies to come out in force. The whole area between Norseman and Ceduna has had repeated heavy falls of rain over the last few months leaving a carpet of grass and lots of insects out in force. The butterflies are beautiful too, from small blues to large yellow swallowtails and the bright orange monarchs. We settled for the night at the Caiguna Blowhole camp. The blowhole is a small vent to an extensive cave system. When the wind blows from a certain direction and pressurises the cave, the blowhole acts as a vent.

5 April – Another day of driving today, taking us through Caiguna, Cocklebiddy, Madura, Mundrabilla and Eucla. We had our moment of fun at Mundrabilla when we had to wait for a car to exit the only ULP pump that suited our situation. The car was empty so we waited for the driver to come out of the shop. And waited…and waited. Finally, a woman appeared with hands full of treasures and got into her car. We waited…and waited. Eventually, I flashed my lights. That produced action and she eased out. We gave a cheer. She gave us a mouthful. We laughed and started to pump. The angry lady wasn’t finished. She had turned around to come through again and harangue us with something about spoiling Easter. We quite cheerfully told her to “piss off”.

The traffic is still light, especially heading east. The overnight stop was at the start of the magnificent Bunda Cliffs, 13km into South Australia. It would have been beautiful to sit outside and admire the view, especially with the light winds, but the flies were unbearable, even with fly nets on. As each campsite fills up with caravans and motorhomes, people just slam the door shut and remain inside. The popular campsite custom of gathering for “fivesies” just doesn’t happen. I hate flies.

6 April – We ticked off the rest of the actual Nullabor today, driving to Penong, the start of the SA farming country. After a few nights “off-grid” we opted for the Penong Caravan Park, a lovely little park that we have stayed in before. A feature is the “vege swap” basket in the laundry so people who are headed in to Ceduna and the quarantine can donate their vegetables to those who are heading west and have a night or so to eat them before hitting the WA quarantine.

Penong is also home to the “Windmill Museum”, a collection of working and static windmills, including Australia’s largest, a big Comet brand. We planned to wander down to the pub for a beer but the rain arrived as evening set in.

7 April – The day was set for rain all day and rain it did. The plus side of the rain is that the flies go and hide somewhere. With time up our sleeve and attracted by the prospect of a day without driving, we chose to stay on and relax. Relax, we did, Christine started a new jigsaw, I wrote this stuff and we generally did very little. We have only 60kms to Ceduna, marking the traditional end of the Nullabor crossing. From here on, we will work our way down through SA towards, Geelong, to park up and prepare for the trip to New Zealand.

South Coast WA 2026

April 2, 2026 / terry

11 March 2026 – We got away today, the start of what we hope is a five or six month trip, taking in the Eastern States, a month-long side trip to New Zealand and a 4-wheel drive trip to Cape York. However, the specter of the Iran War driven fuel crisis hangs over us. Prices are spiraling and bowsers are running dry, mostly due to crazy people panic buying. We past one station at Bannister trying to sell ULP for $2.85 a litre, no doubt coming out of the same tank that they were charging around a dollar less only a few days ago. Out government keeps saying they are on the lookout for cases of price gouging, but taking some kind of action seems to be a different thing.

Our first committed date is April 18, when we are due in Melbourne to fly to New Zealand. Therefore, we decided to spend a couple of weeks on the south coast of WA before committing to the drive East, giving the World time to settle down.

Our first night was spent at a charming little free camp at the Boscabel Hall, about 3 kms of Albany Hwy. The old weatherboard hall is still in use but the nearby tennis club is well past active use. I chuckled at the inventive list of players chalked up on the board.

12 March – We awoke to a little river of water flowing through the van. We thought we had previously pinpointed a leak to a very slow seep from one of the kitchen tap connections but slow enough to put a take-away container under it to catch the odd drip. But this was more. I eventually tracked it a pipe disappearing up from the shower closet to behind the fridge, no doubt feeding the shower. It looked like removing the fridge was needed, a job well beyond this 73 year old body.

I Googled up the Albany Caravan Repair Centre with little hope of an early resolution and the knowledge that Albany is in the middle of their Bicentennial Celebrations. “Can you bring it in today?” the nice lady asked.

We packed up and headed south, amazed at our good fortune. We fueled up at Mt Barker, waiting in a line to the one operating bowser and paying $2.19 a litre. It seems to be going up by 10c a day. Once at the repair place, we got the news that the job was simple enough, as long as the fridge would slide out without disconnecting the gas pipe. If that happened, they would need a plumber to reconnect and certify. Even worse, the van was not allowed to leave the lot until that happened. Fingers crossed.

The day was spent wandering Albany, trying to keep out of the cold gale force wind, going through the museum near the Amith replica and a spot of shopping. When we got back to the van, we were thrilled to find the gas had remained connected, we had leaks fixed and a new mixer tap in the kitchen.

In need of a place to stay, we drove about 35kms west to Cosy Corner Campground, a beachside camp spot, only getting an overflow spot, but at least somewhere to sleep. If the weather was better, it would be a nice place to stay, especially for $10 a night.

13 March – With the weather forecast promising light rain and strong winds, we planned an easy day. Christine baked a lovely loaf of bread and some Anzac Biscuits, while I went for a walk to look at the windswept beach, getting no serious urges to try out the fishing in the conditions.

We drove west a bit to check out some of the other nearby spots, the best of which was Hartman’s Beach, accessible by 4WD down a very steep gravel track. There we spoke to a Darwin couple who were fishing without success. Amazingly, they had relatively little knowledge of the war in Iran, or exactly how things were being affected.

14 March – We decided that a move further inland might help escape the persistent strong winds. The rain would likely keep up but the wind was making things uncomfortable. Our route took us back to the Albany ring road and along the South Coast Highway to a stop at Manypeaks for fuel. Our strategy is to run on the small sub-tank and keep the large main tank in reserve. The one outlet in Manypeaks had ULP but no diesel, the owner telling us that the fuel that normally lasts a week sold out in days.

Our target for the day was the tiny hamlet of Wellstead but the turn-off to Cheynes Beach lured us to do a 20km side trip and check out the location, which we had never visited. After 10km, we came up behind a strange jeep-like vehicle with three occupants, sitting at the rear of a long line of very slow moving vehicles, converted VW Beetles, and a great many vintage Chamberlain tractors. It must have been some kind of rally. The road was winding and hilly and there was little chance of passing anything. We faced doing the next 10km at about 20km/hr. We took the option of turning around when a driveway presented itself and drove back to the highway.

The light rain continued. About 20km out of Wellstead, the road was being renewed, giving a kilometre or so of orange clay covered surface, all nicely wet from the rain. The car and caravan turned orange, covering everything in a nasty sludge.

Once at Wellstead, we filled with water, the local Wellstead Bush Camp only having bore water, and booked in for a couple of nights. We did what we could to clean the van and car of the worst of the mud and settled down to watch a bit of footy. The rain persisted, especially if we tried to do anything outside.

A highlight of the Wellstead Bush Camp is the camp kitchen, with its wonderful cosy ambience and collections of old memorabilia, car parts, locks and keys, kerosene lanterns and much more. It would be a wonderful place when the weather was right and the camp full of people. Right now it was deserted.

15 March – The rain persisted throughout the night and greeted us again in the morning. Today is our fifth day away and fifth day of grey skies and drizzle. The forecast suggested some lifting around noon so we packed a bit of food and headed off to explore a few areas. We checked out the Pallinup River, which had a lovely free camping area on the north side of the bridge, but the river was little more than a few smelly pools. On the south side, the river broadened into a good reach that was probably worth fishing, but access to the few camp areas was too rough for our van.

We moved on to the next spot, Miller’s Point Reserve off the Bremer Bay Road. We have been to this spot a couple of times before and done well for fish, although recently thre have been concerns for the health of the Beaufort Inlet because the bar to the sea has not opened for more than seven years. There were only a few vans present and some lovely camp sites so we made the decision to come back tomorrow with the van.

We drove back to Wellstead and on through along a 20km gravel road to Cape Riche. Here there is another nice camp, about half full, with good beach access and some lovely white sand beaches, rocky headlands and clean water. Access with our van could be a bit tight. We set up a hotplate and indulged in a couple of fried sausages and onions in a wrap, washed down with a coffee.

Back at Wellstead, we decided to top up with fuel, a good decision because the lady in the shop said the price was rising tomorrow, not her choice, but that of the owners. It is the way of it at present.

When we returned to camp, we had a nap and then watch the Gold Coast demolish the Eagles.

16 March – My back was protesting through the night and in the morning so we decided to stay on for another day and let it rest. This proved to be a good decision because the rain returned and settled in, giving us our wettest day to date. We did nothing. Read, lazed, watched a truly awful old movie called “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, surely Uma Thurman’s worst performance. By the late afternoon, the sky had cleared and we finally began to get views of the Stirling Ranges, still cloud covered, but at least partially visible.

17 March – We only travelled 50km today, to a place called Miller’s Point, a camping area on the Beaufort Inlet, where the Pallinup river enters the sea. The estuary is noticeably low after a long hot summer. The bar has not broken through for 8 years or so and the water in the estuary is murky and a bit green, certainly not inviting as a swimming possibility. I have seen calls for the bar to be opened to help restore the estuary.

We found a lovely camp spot with views to two parts of the inlet. I headed down to fish with little confidence, given the appearance of the water. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to catch three nice bream, two just size and one quite big one. I was shadowed by a large pelican the whole time I fished. He knew the difference between me reeling in to re-bait and reeling in a fish. When I had a fish on, he would get in front of me, trying to snatch the fish of the line as it came in. I had to have a little pile of rocks to ward him off. Later, I found that picking up a thong was enough. Obviously, it had experienced the old thong treatment before. When I released the small bream, I had to throw them far enough away so that the pelican wouldn’t get them. Let him catch his own.

18 March – We left the van closed up and drove the 50km into Bremer Bay to explore and do a bit of shopping. It is a pretty little town situated on the shores of the Wellstead Estuary. This estuary appeared to be open to the sea, at least a little, with a noticeable current flowing in. The caravan park in town was around half full and looked beautiful, with the estuary just across the road.

As is the case with most towns that are on the end of a road, prices in the shop were high, as was the fuel cost. There was a tanker in filling the bowser tanks so at least they are getting supply.

We drove out about 8kms to the Fisheries Beach Small Boat Harbour, passing another even nicer looking caravan park along the way. The tiny harbour was protected and had three or four fishing boats at anchor. It is also the departure point for the Bremer Bay Orca Watching Tours, and judging by the number of cars in the carpark, a successful operation. All in all, Bremer Bay looks to have possibilities for another visit with a small boat sometime in the future.

Back at Miller’s Point Camp, I tried the fishing again, catching three more good sized black bream, so a few fish meals were assured.

19 March – A restful day, doing a few minor repairs, reading and listening to all the talk of fuel supply problems on the ABC. So far, we have not been affected by supply problems but the cost is certainly having an effect. We did a bit of forward planning to settle some dates that we would commit to the Nullabor crossing if thins allow it.

One of the things we did was get the generator out. We haven’t used it yet. It is not needed for general power needs because our solar has kept us going so far. With no access to mobile phone in this camp, we have relied on our Starlink service, which is very good but a little power hungry. Also, we were curious to see whether the generator would supply enough power to run the airconditioner in the van, should conditions demand it. We were very happy with the results, The Redback 3.5kVA proved very quiet and only showed 50% load with the caravan (including battery charger) and airconditioner going. It is good to know it is there. Later in our trip, we plan to live off grid a lot and don’t want to miss any creature comforts. Some people love to rough it like bushies. We have moved beyond that point.

20 March – Today was a relocation day. We packed up and headed off for the 50kms to Jerramungup. We hadn’t planned to do much there, saving shopping and fuel purchase for the larger town of Ravensthorpe. However, much to our surprise, one of the two fuel outlets in Jerramungup was selling fuel at 30c/l cheaper than the other or those in Ravensthorpe. There was a well-stocked supermarket too, and it proved a good choice because little did we know that there was currently no supermarket operating in Ravensthorpe. “Jerra” also had a dump point, but no water fill that we could find.

The drive to Ravensthorpe, another 100kms further along, was through country with little to recommend it from a beauty perspective. Ravensthorpe itself is a difficult place enjoy, it being built on a series of hills, no doubt due to its mining origins. We found the watering point, exchanged a gas bottle with a very friendly chatty fellow, topped up the fuel again and turned south towards Hopetoun. About 20kms down the road, we stopped for the day at the ruins of an old mining town called Kundip, quite a lively spot back before the Great War but now just a series of tracks and clearings that make a good free camp area.

21-23 March – We drove south to Hopetoun, doing a little more shopping for things we forgot in Jerramungup and having morning tea out on the harbour breakwater. The breakwater provides a sheltered place with a jetty and a launching ramp and looks to be an excellent spot for rock wall fishing.

From Hopetoun, we turned west and drove out across a good bitumen road to the Fitzgerald River National Park, a large park covering an area of outstanding floral diversity and having a number of small mountain ranges, with some spectacular peaks. We stopped at the entrance to the park to check that we had the right booking details and parks pass before heading up a 17% incline climb up the sides of Mount Barren. The car struggled and we crawled in low gear to a lookout and pull-over area. On getting out, I could smell burning. Oops, the hand brake was on. No wonder the climb was hard.

We checked out the views and admired the plants, especially the abundant royal hakeas, that stand tall and get their display from the many hued leaves rather than flowers.

Our camp site was at the Hamersley Inlet, the estuary of the Hamersley River. The inlet has a reputation for good fishing, bream, whiting, flathead and cobbler, but the water levels are currently so low, and the water so saline that there was little possibility of that. The salt was crystallizing out on the sand and rocks. There was very little bird life and no sign of any fish. We resigned ourselves to taking in the sights in the surround area.

The next few days were forecast as overcast and wet and we started to notice the power drop, especially as we like to do things like watch football on TV through the Starlink. The generator came into use to take the place of the sun. We haven’t had to use it much but it is good to know we can catch up on power when we have to.

Christine baked her most successful bread rolls yet, using a 50-50 mix of white and whole meal flour. Other than that, we went for a drive, walked a fair way and caught up on some writing.

I took the 3km walk to the ocean at the mouth of the river. It was easy, sticking to the edge of the estuary. Early in the walk, I was surprised to see an echidna walking within three metres of the water on the salt flats. He curled himself into a tight ball on my approach and headed back towards the bush after I passed by.

For the return trip I chose the marked walk trail, which proved quite tortuous, going up hill and down dale, but at least giving some terrific views across the inlet.

24-25 March – With the batteries low we decided to book in for a night at the caravan park in Hopetoun, especially as its right on the beach. We were given a lovely secluded spot right on the beach access path so we upgraded to two nights. We plugged in, did a load of washing and used the dryer then tried the beach for some herring. I managed one lonely one, frustrated at the surf action taking the line into weeds.

The next day I tried my luck at the breakwater, on the protected side. No herring, only a sweep and a wrasse, so I decided to try the beach again. The conditions were kinder and I easily caught 8 herring, enough for tea with some to pickle for snacks with evening drinks.

The weather remains grey, drizzly and cool. Frustratingly, the seaward horizon is blue sky, but the clear weather just does not come into the land.

26 March – We drove a whole 85km today to the little town of Munglinup, where they have a free rest stop opposite the roadhouse. We had a very lazy day, watching a movie, reading and seeing all the comings and goings of the passing traffic. The wind was up over 20 knots and causing minor dust storms in the unsealed pull-in area. We had wisely parked at the bottom of the cleared area, well away from everyone else but to windward, so we did not experience the red storm that erupted every time a road train breezed through the parking area. Some did not even stop. I think they were getting revenge on caravanners.

27 March to 3 April – With the high winds continuing, we relocated to Esperance for a few days, to see out the coming severe weather in some comfort. The tail of Cyclone Narelle was due to come down through the SE Coast on Saturday night, bringing strong winds and a fair bit of rain. We chose the Pink Lake Caravan Park, about 2kms from the Pink Lake but they had to name it something. It is a lovely park but we were given a tiny site more suited to a camper van than a caravan and car. We squeezed in.

Esperance meant access to a Bunnings for a few fixit bits and a Woolworths to replenish food stocks. Esperance has grown a bit since we were here last and looking prosperous. There are tourists everywhere and lots of cafes and coffee shops.

Saturday morning showed the cyclonic rain more to the west, Albany to Bremer Bay copping the brunt of it. It was a matter of enjoying the fine bits and hunkering down during the rainy/windy times. It is the South Coast after all.

The ABS warning light has been coming on a fair bit when the car is first started, probably a warning of bad things to come. We decided to extend our stay in Esperance and try to source some help, although worried about the approaching Easter break.

On Monday morning, we took the car to BSL Mechanics, highly recommended via Google Reviews, and especially praised for helping out desperate tourists. The earliest booking we could get was for the Wednesday, with a prognosis of a failing accumulator pump ($1000) being the most likely.

We spend the remaining time driving along the West’s version of the Great Ocean Road, featuring some amazingly beautiful beaches and sparkling turquoise water. Sunday was warm and calm, and it seems like most of Esperance was on the beaches, many even swimming. The water was way too cold for us oldies. Some claim that Esperance has the best beaches in Australia, and I would agree that they must give the title a big shake.

Esperance

The Pink Lake was not pink, mainly because it had very little water in it. It is only occasionally pink, when a special algae blooms. There was one just out of Dowerin, so we got used to seeing the effect over the last 20 years.

Another day we headed out to Beadon Creek and tried fishing, managing only three yellow-eyed mullet and a herring, but all small so returned. Once again, the location and the ability to drive right down onto the beach made it so enjoyable.

On Tuesday we went to the movies, Esperance boasting a three cinema complex. We watched “Reminders of Him”, a bit of a tear jerker and very well done.

Wednesday finally came and the car was looked at. The diagnosis was much better than thought, with a gasket showing a slight leak and loss of pressure. That replaced, the light remained off and they could find anything more. The bill of $200 was a big improvement on the $1000.

On Thursday, we tested the car with a trip out to Cape Le Grand National Park. This would be a beautiful place to camp, but it is insanely popular and bookings up to six months ahead are necessary. Little wonder. The beaches are even better than the Esperance ones, and the imposing mountains of granite dominate the landscape. It is a very spectacular place. Even better, the car behaved itself.

Esperance is the end of our South Coast trip. On Good Friday, we set off to cross the Nullabor, the recent drop in fuel prices and Government efforts to guarantee supply making us fairly confident that we can proceed, although with a bigger budget than planned.

Sri Lanka – Part 4 – East Coast and Kandy Rail Trip

June 26, 2025 / terry

Day 13 (June 18) – Polonnaruwa and Pasikuda Beach – Today we changed location, moving to the central east coast at Pasikuda Beach. Along the way, we stopped for a significant tour of the ruins of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. Built between the 10^th and 12 centuries AD by South Indian invaders, then later re-occupied by Sinhalese, it was the capital of the Sri Lankan Kingdom. Centered around a vast man-made lake that fed a huge irrigated area, the ruins consisted of a palace, royal audience chamber and a great many temples. The earlier buildings were the most remarkable, being of carved stone with perfectly interlocking pieces. The later buildings were of brick. The scale of the city suggested a major civilization, and Sri Lanka was known as a major trading and exporting nation at that time. Excavations of the ruins have found Chinese coins, showing the extent of the trade. By the 14^th Century, the city had been abandoned, the capital moving closer to modern day Colombo as a more defensible location against the threat of Tamils from the North and Southern India.

The weather was hot and the sky cloudless, a far cry from other days on the trip. We hadn’t packed hats, an error that had not bothered us to date, but today we needed them. There was a hat stand near the entrance to the palace ruins and the bargaining started. We rejected $2500Lk ($12.50) opening bid for each poor-quality cap on offer and countered with 1000Lk for two. After a bit of two and froing, we decided to walk in the shade and set off through the gate, the hat seller still calling offers after us. On our return, we had fresh bids, but we ignored his right up until we got in the car and he was tapping on the window accepting the 1000Lk ($5) offer. Nilanker was well amused. He probably knew we were still robbed. Christine was even upset with me because I got a red “Adidas” cap that she thought looked too much like a MAGA cap. A few days later on we saw hats at several stalls priced at 450Lk each, about $2.50. Nilanker liked that.

The tour of the ruins was interesting but we were just about done with ruins and temples. It was also very expensive at $US30 a person, as most tourist sites are for foreigners. The site would demand a great deal in terms of restoration and maintenance and it is clear the Government sees tourism as a way of financing the task. Even so, it has been a topic of discussion amongst the few other tourists we have managed to talk to. Sri Lanka is regarded as expensive compared to other SE Asian countries.

We reached the coast and found our accommodation, bearing the promising name of Blue Sands Resort. Tripadvisor rates it as a 9.1 with wonderful stuff said about the staff. The “staff” was one person and he was very nice and helpful. We were the only guests once again and the room gave beautiful views of the beach, only separated by a scrubby field filled with goats and cows. We had access if we walked down a nearby laneway. Once again, the TV didn’t work because the bill had not been paid. It is a common thing when the tourist numbers are down.

The ”resort” did not have any restaurant facilities other than breakfast but two nearby options were given, Laya Waves just a few doors down and the Cinnamon Café. Nilanker took us 4 kms or so back into town to a “foreign beer” shop where we stocked up on a bit of beer and even a bottle of wine, a Chilean Red. Alcohol in any form is a luxury item here.

The beach near our hotel.

Later, we wandered down to the beach, a broad expanse of white sand and clear waters. A sea breeze was in, cooling things slightly but making the sea a bit too choppy for swimming. The only things on the beach were dogs and boats, colourful things with outriggers (not the dogs). After a cooling paddle, a couple of locals herded 20 or so cows onto the beach to move them along and graze them in the land in front of our resort. It looked to be some kind of common for grazing. We strolled into the Laya Waves Resort, flashier than ours with a nice pool to enquire about dinner for later. It had a nice looking restaurant but the only person we found to ask about dinner was at reception. She assured us that dinner was on.

The Blue Sands Resort (well almost)

In the evening, we enjoyed a couple of beers on our balcony, watching the palm squirrels play then headed back to Laya Waves Resort. The restaurant was in darkness. We should have taken this as a warning. The receptionist scurried around and dragged a man away from playing on his smartphone so he could turn the lights on. Not a good start. We should have left.

We ordered a chicken dish each and Christine asked about wine. What was she thinking? However, he went off for ten minutes or so and returned with two bottles, a rose type thing and a Spanish white that Google said was a cab-sav of reasonable quality. The price was only around $14, so we took it. It was bad, really bad, gone off type bad. We relocated the bottle and the glasses to another table for the hour it took for the meals to arrive. Mine consisted of dice sized chunks of chicken that had been roasted for the entire hour we waited. They were hard, so hard it was difficult to tell the flesh from the bone. Christine’s was slightly softer but in large chunks. She had butter rice, which was truly horrible. My French fries were just passable. The waiter took the hint about the wine and did not charge us.

Day 14 (June 19) – Polonnaruwa and Pasikuda Beach – The next morning we enjoyed a good breakfast at the resort and got Nilanker to drive to the Pasikuda Beach, about a kilometre away. This beach is also beautiful but more developed, with a string of high class hotels, most with pools out front, some bars and eateries and an offering of water sports. We spent quite a while in the perfect temperature water, just soaking. We exchanged pleasantries with a woman who asked where we were from and then we asked her. The eyes lowered and she paused before saying, “Russia”. We let that go and had a conversation as much as her English would allow. Her expression was a give away, or perhaps she had experienced negative comments before. Later, when we walked along the beach, we noticed that almost everyone other than locals were Russian. Nilanker says the Russians only come for the beaches and almost never travel to inland tourist locations.

Lovely Passikuda Beach

We did talk to a pair of New Zealanders, part of a group of six travelling in a minivan with a guide. That would be a good way to go because the costs of tours like safaris would be better when shared. They too had the experience of staying in hotels with no other guests.

We ordered a chicken burger and hamburger at a beachside bar, probably our first burgers ever in Asia. They were relatively cheap ($7) and absolutely delicious. After a good afternoon nap and catching up on emails etc, we waited for the heat of the day to ease and headed off to try the Cinnamon Café, the other nearby restaurant. What a contrast to Laya Waves. The lights were on, a few other people came and the food was beyond comparison. We ordered a whole grilled mullet (which was a wrasse, not a mullet) and Sri Lankan Style Cuttlefish. Both would have graced any restaurant anywhere. The fish, while far from the best species, was saved by the way it was cooked, coated in a rich spicy gravy. The cuttlefish was so tender and the curry filled with many different spices, but with the chili held back so it was edible and all the flavours could be appreciated without a volcano going off. All in all, the stay at Pasikuda Beach has been very enjoyable. It would be better to spend the extra money on one of the 4 or 5 star hotels right on the main beach and then it would be absolute heaven.

Day 15 (June 20) – Trincomallee – We drove the 100km to Trincomallee, mostly close to the coast. Almost all the land we travelled through is “dry zone”, with lower rainfall and low thorny scrub. Cattle were common in largely unfenced lands so we had to wait at times as they strolled across the road. In one place, a large herd of buffalo were relocating so we had a long wait. The presence of heavy electric fences in some parts were an indication of elephants and warning signs on the road were common, but we didn’t see any. A few significant rivers enter the sea on this coast, including the Mahaweli Ganga, Sri Lanka’s longest, which we had last seen in Kandy. Large mangrove lined inlets are common and the size of the fishing fleets suggested they were productive.

Beautiful views from various points around Fort Frederick

Trincomallee is a large natural harbour that has been a focal point for shipping and trade for millennia. Like most ports in Sri Lanka, it had been occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, French then the British. It was the home port of the British naval force in WWII after the fall of Singapore. We visited Fort Frederick, the Dutch-built fortress that had a commanding coverage of the harbour. It was very hot and walking around visiting the various gun points and places of interest was sweaty work. The views out across the harbour were spectacular, a feature being the beautiful turquoise water, very deep under cliffs, but crystal clear. We visited the Hindu temple, quite crowded due to several large school groups who had come from as far away as Kandy to visit. The Hindu Temples certainly dazzle with the artwork and myriad colourful sculptures. We did note, however, that this was to be our last temple for the trip. We were soaked with sweat and quite happy to leave and get to our hotel.

The Hindu Temple at Fort Frederick and views of Tricomalle from an old gun emplacement

The Blue diamond read up really well on the web, beach access, private beach, restaurant, swimming pool etc. Hhmm! Our third floor (no lift) room had good views of the water but….. beach access was restricted because we had to go through another hotel and they were embroiled in an ownership dispute with the court had locked the grounds. The security let us through on one occasion but rejected us the next time. It was a bit of a walk around through the fishermen’s area, smelly and with snarly dogs. The private beach bit was pure fantasy. To enjoy any kind of facility at the beach we relied on the good graces of another hotel, which was obtained by spending money there. It was ok but not optimum. The beach itself is beautiful, white sand, clear water and swaying coconut palms.

The beach near the Blue Diamond Resort

We enjoyed a nice meal at the beach hotel and the proprietor kindly walked us home through the fishermen’s area and past the snarly dogs. He wasn’t even after a tip. He said we reminded him of his mum and dad.

Day 16 (June 21) – Trincomallee and Nevelli Beach – Nilanker took us north about 10km to another beach area, Nevelli Beach. It is a bit more touristy, and even quite full of locals given that it was a Saturday. Many boats lined the beach to ferry people out to Pigeon Island, a National Park about 3km offshore. It had been on our itinerary to go there for snorkelling but we canned it, after reading the reviews on Google. It seems that much of the coral is dead and turtles and reef sharks are the main marine life. We figured that spending over $100 on a mediocre snorkelling experience with all that we have to offer back home was not good value.

However, we enjoyed a wonderful swim in the clean water and low surf, watching the boats come and go and soaking in the 30 degree water.

The Blue Diamond Hotel, Trincomallee

Back at the hotel, we met Anna and Martin, a UK couple who are at the start of a 30 day or more stay in Sri Lanka. They were happy to pick our brains for the things we had found on our journey. They have finished up a lengthy working stay in Zurich and decided to just spend some time trying to live cheaply in SE Asia. Later that evening, we headed out with them to a wonderful eatery called Black and White Kitchen. They served a large variety of Sri Lankan food, some of it quite new to us. It was ridiculously cheap, the four of us spending 2,700Lk ($13) all up. When we got back to the hotel, we headed to the little restaurant for a beer. There was a game set up called Karen Board, a snooker type game but using round counters flicked with the fingers instead pool. Martin and I tried it, slowly getting the rules right under the direction of the staff. Then we sat down for a pairs competition with the two staff. It was great fun and something really different.

Day 17 (June 22) – Negombo – The day was a long drive, by Sri Lankan standards, some 260km across the island east to west and back to our starting point, Negombo. It was interesting watching the vegetation change as the climate became wetter to the west. Although we followed a main arterial highway, the traffic was heavy with tuk-tuks, motorbikes, trucks and the dreaded buses. We seldom got up a full head of speed because of the amount of slow moving traffic. The only exception was a 40km section of high speed toll road that allowed 100km/hr and was devoid of tuk-tuks.

Nilanker did drive a little faster than normal as we neared Negombo. The lure of seeing family again must have been an incentive. We found ourselves back at the Optimum Residences, with some nostalgia. It remains the best accommodation we have encountered, and we were warmly greeted by the staff as returning customers. The big surprise was that it was quite crowded, with several families and couples in residence and playing in the pool. It made for a pleasant change and suggested that the predicted tourism influx in July was starting.

Day 18 (June 23) – Colombo – The Optimum Residences have a wonderful breakfast. We now know that it is a showcase of much of Sri Lanka’s street food favourites, and they are now ours. The string hoppers, coconut sambal pancakes, potato curry and lots of other delicious things we normally wouldn’t dream of eating for breakfast. We followed that up with a swim, having the morning to wait before moving to Colombo.

The drive to Colombo was not an improvement on the last time we did it, heavy traffic, crazy tuk-tuks and streets cluttered with goods of all descriptions. The driver found Central Street and motored down towards 132, the location of the City View Port Hotel. As we got closer, we didn’t get warm vibes. It was in an area of commercial warehousing with no shops or restaurants in evidence. The hotel proved to be good enough and worthy of its 3 stars, but the location was a shocker. Trying to walk around the neighbourhood was an exercise in dodging trucks unloading pallets of goods.

We needed to go to the rail station to pick up tickets to Kandy. How hard can it be? Go outside and hail a tuk-tuk. The lady at reception suggested it should cost 200Lk to the station. We finally got a tuk-tuk, gave him instructions and settled on 300Lk. We logged the trip into Google maps and watched in dismay as we headed in the opposite direction. The issue was that the driver had almost no words of English, to match our zero words of Sinhalese. We got through to him that he was going wrong so the solution was simple, throw an immediate U-turn in front of all oncoming traffic. We got him back on track and after several more U-turns and incredible near misses, we arrived.

Chaos reigns supreme in the streets of Colombo

A nice man at the station took us in hand and verified our on-line bookings, activating them so we could use digital tickets the next day to go to Kandy. The next step was fighting off the tuk-tuk drivers and T-shirt sellers that surround the station. We escaped over a bridge and headed into the depths of downtown Colombo. What an eye opener. The streets are chaotic and the difference between sidewalk and roadway is blurred. We navigated through many different types of streets before we returned to the hotel.

Having established that there were no decent restaurants near-by, we sought out a wholesale sweet shop and bought a packet of potato crisps and some wafer biscuits. The wholesale part didn’t mean bulk. They will take anyone’s money. The crisps were combined with a can of beer each at the hotel and that was dinner. We figured we probably had calories in reserve anyway.

Day 19 (June 24) – Colomb to Kandy – We lodged our main luggage at the hotel and caught a tuk-tuk to the station. This time, there was no problem and we went roughly the right way, with only one U-turn in front of oncoming traffic. The train was easy to catch, largely because there was a nice man who targeted all foreign looking people and made sure they got on the right train and found their carriage. Everything was done with gestures. Once settled on the train, the man appeared again and put a paper in front of us saying that he was deaf mute and represented a charity group, along with a list of people who had donated 1000Lk. A good Samaritan or a good scam? We’ll never know but we paid up.

Fort Railway Station (Colombo)

The train trip was everything we had hoped. The first 60% was interesting enough, with small towns and villages seen from a different viewpoint than when viewed from the road. However, once we started the climb into the mountains, the scenery became really spectacular. Fortunately, we were on the right hand side of the train and had a commanding view of the mountains The forests were thick and jungle-like, with a big variety of ferns, vines, and palms.

Some of the wonderful mountain scenery from the train

We arrived at Kandy and once again negotiated a tuk-tuk to the hotel. This time, the hotel we had chosen was in a retail part of town with an abundance of restaurants. The hotel itself had a roof-top bar and a flash restaurant on the ground floor. It was a good choice. After settling in, we took a walk around the streets, hoping to see a market to buy some T-shirts for the grandkids but there was a complete lack of tourist stuff in evidence. We did come across the Queen’s Hotel, the equivalent of Singapore’s Raffle back in the days of the Raj, but now looking a little worse for wear. Still, we enjoyed a couple of beers while soaking up the old world charm of the building and admiring all the memorabilia. We chatted at length to a British ex-pat now living in Sri Lanka and listened to him extol the virtues of life on the island.

The Queens Hotel, Kandy

Walking around Kandy is much easier and more pleasant than Colombo. The streets are wider, have sidewalks that aren’t covered with goods and ramshackle shops, and the population is much smaller.

Kandy Lake, old government offices and a Sri Lankan curry meal

We ate a lovely dinner of Sri Lankan curry back at the hotel and even managed some rare reasonably priced wine to go with it.

Day 20 (June 25) – Kandy to Colombo – We had travelled light up to Kandy, but had packed bathers in anticipation of a swim. However, the weather put us off, with grey skies and mild temperatures. We lazed around after breakfast before checking out and wandering the streets, We went a different way and found a big market with many T-shirts on offer. Of course, we were attacked as soon as we neared the market with offers of “best price” and “superior quality for you madam.” Eventually, we haggled our way through buying five T-shirts and made our escape, filled with the knowledge that we had paid too much, but at least we had put up a good fight.

We stopped at a bakery called Ceylon Tea House and had, of all things, a hot dog and lime juice to ready us for the trip down the mountain on the train. The tea house was another piece of old Ceylon, with many wonderful old photos adorning the walls. As we neared lunchtime, it filled with locals.

Another tuk-tuk bore us back to the train station and we found our train and seat without the aid of the deaf man. This time, we had 2^nd class, meaning no air conditioning and the windows open. Air conditioning is not necessary, but the noise as we passed through tunnels and cuttings was deafening with the windows open. We still enjoyed the trip immensely. It is a 3 hour train trip we highly recommend.

Outside the rail station, we tried for a tuk-tuk and gave him a card showing the hotel. Of course, few tuk-tuk drivers can read but he nodded wisely and set off. Soon it was clear we were badly off course. We got him to change direction and went for a while with us giving him turn instructions from Google Maps. Finally, he pulled over and surrendered. That was it. No more. We paid him 300 or the promised 400Lk and set off on foot. Fortunately, we knew the way from the previous walk and found our own way home.

We retrieved our bags, used our booked room to shower and relax before getting picked up by a car for the trip to the airport at 9pm.

The trip has been amazing. The advice we received that it is too hard to do Sri Lanka without a tour is largely correct. Tourism is simply not that well established and what there is largely caters for local tourists or Indians. The Russians come in numbers but are only interested in the beaches. I do think that having a private car and driver gave us more insight into life in Sri Lanka than we would have gained as independent tourists and the cost was roughly similar to going on an organised tour. It is our first experience of touring with a private car and driver and it is well worth considering.

Sri Lanka Part 3 – Central Area

June 21, 2025 / terry

Day 8 (June 13) Ella – Looking at the itinerary, we thought we were in for an easy day, after the rigours of the safari. We had three tours, and all three were just local sights to view. Easy. Not so!

The Nine Arch Bridge on the Kandy-Ella Railway is one of the iconic sights in Sri Lanka and a mecca for train spotters. Built in 1912, it is a stone bridge of 9 arches (surprisingly) over a deep ravine. To access it, we parked on the road and walked down. “Just a little bit more..” was always the answer to “Are we there yet?” Eventually, we emerged from the rainforest walk onto the bridge to join many others, including a large school group. Some had come from the other side by tuk-tuk ride, from a place that cars could not access very easily. We took our pictures and a train arrived, also stopping on the bridge for a while to allow passengers to alight and take photos. It is a beautiful bridge by any count.

The Nine Arch Bridge

I was worried about Christine’s ability to climb back up. The steps are killing on the knees going down but the climb up is physically demanding as well. We set off and got to the point about 40% of the way up where there was a tuk-tuk waiting. For $5, it was a bargain. Nilanka couldn’t fit in and the tuk-tuk had no hope with three in it, it barely made some sections with us two. It was the best $5 we have ever spent.

Then it was off to Little Adams Peak to take in the views. Just a easy walk for 2kms then some steps. He actually meant 650 steps, each one felt about 1 metre high. Christine stayed at the end of the 2km walk where there was a restaurant to keep her happy with a lime juice. Nilanka and I ran to the top. It was brutal. I kept having thoughts like “there are no medivac choppers here” or “I can always Google the view”. Once at the summit, the view was amazing and the fact that I had done it was rewarding. On the way down, I mentally assessed each person coming towards me as a “fail” or a “maybe”. Nilanka and I had icecreams as a reward for our effort.

On top of Little Adam’s Peak and Ella Rock in the background

Flesh eating fish

The final spot was at least easy going. A small pretty waterfall is considered a good swimming spot. We couldn’t be bothered with bathers so we elected to just paddle in the lovely pool. Nilanka said there was a better pool and another fall accessible by a climb up the hill but we both voted down any idea of more climbing. Instead we paddled. The small sucking fish came out in force. These are the same fish sold for aquariums as “algae eaters” but they are quick to target the dead skins cells on people’s feet and we soon had them all over us. Christine hated it and escaped to a rock, while I didn’t mind it and happily let them chew all the old rotting flesh off my feet.

Once back in the town we sought out a restaurant and had a Vietnamese banh mi and an Italian Milanese roll just to spread the love around food wise and had a much needed afternoon snooze.

Downtown Ella

Day 9 (June 14) – We packed up and after breakfast, Nilanka took us to the Ella Railway Station. A cricket ground is situated next to the station and 6 teams were lined up listening to the opening speeches for a cricket carnival. The ground looked brutal, with the bare earth pitch situated so close to one boundary that bowling was only allowed from one end.

We waited for the train and watched the crowd grow larger, a mix of locals and some tourists, mostly European. Finally the train hove into view and we scrambled to find ur carriage. Fortunately, we did not have luggage, with Nilanka driving to our destination, Nanu Oya. The whole thing is about the journey, with this one of the World’s great journeys, offering spectacular views and a climb over the mountains at around 3000 meters. On advice from tourist blogs, we skipped the air conditioned 1^st class and opted for the 2^nd Class Reserved seat. This allows the windows to be open for a better view. Down in 3^rd class, the young backpackers even hang out the windows and doors for speccy photo opportunities but those days are over for us. The views were both interesting and spectacular, with deep ravines, soaring forest covered mountains, rice paddies, vegetable gardens and small villages. We made a few stops at stations along the way during the 3 hour trip. The final half hour saw the weather start to close in, with thick mist turning to light rain. The temperature dropped too, signalling the higher altitude of our destination.

Ella to Nanu Oya

Once off the train and back in the car, we drove a short distance to the town of Nuwarra Eliya, where we did a hurried walk of the town in the increasingly heavy rain. The market was a highlight. The vegetable grown in this highland region are the finest I have seen anywhere, and they are grown in small plots in people’s yards or small holdings. A huge variety is grown and everything looks amazing, with not a plastic wrap in sight. As we walked, we noticed that most locals were dressed in puffer jackets, and some with scarves and beanies. They knew what was coming. The clothing stores tried hard to sell Christine a jacket, because she still just had a blouse on and nothing warmer.

We left the town and drove up a steep hill to our accommodation, selected to give commanding views over Lake Gregory. Alas, all we could see was white. Once settled in to our room, we headed down stairs to the lounge to watch the AFL and relax in comfort. We were the only ones staying in the guesthouse, which was a beautiful building with rave reviews on Trip Advisor. This has been common for us, such is the depth of the “off-season” and the general decline in tourism in Sri Lanka. Even the proprietor was away, leaving one poor young man to be everything, receptionist, cook, housekeeper etc. He was a very friendly little guy with three and a half words of English but Nilanka managed for us.

We caught up on stuff on our computers and watched the Dockers make hard work out of beating the Kangaroos as the temperature steadily fell away. We both started to shiver badly. The problem is we had no real warm clothing. We asked for a heater, and a small oil column heater was trotted out and soon had us managing. Outside it was near gale force wind and hammering rain, along with a mist that meant that maximum visibility was less than 50 metres. Welcome to tropical Sri Lanka. We had planned to go out for dinner, but the weather rules that out so we order in a Pizza Hutt. Amazingly, we had a choice of that or Dominos and the cost came out at something like $15 delivered. Not only that, it was really delicious. We crawled off to a very early bed after securing extra blankets. It was one of the crazy nights where it got warmer as the night went on.

Day 10 (June 15) – Kandy – We were not sorry to see the back of Nuwarra Eliya, given that the visibility was not much better in the morning, although the temperature had risen a few degrees. Our drive took us steadily down, dropping around 1500m to Kandy. Most of the drive consisted of switch-back hairpin bends, negotiating around the tuk-tuks and motor bikes, which are restricted to 40km/hr. We were allowed 60km/hr and Nilanker never exceeds any speed limit, nor passes on an unbroken line. Most traffic is the same, a far cry from Australian drivers. The police are a very visible presence, and the on coming cars flash lights to warn of the police ahead. The buses are an exception. Their aim seems to be to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Any slow down of traffic ahead earns a loud blast of their twin horns. Nilanker’s skill in negotiating all this is amazing. There is no way I would contemplate driving here. I love it when someone decides they are going the wrong way. Simple. You do a three point turn on the highway. The cars that can get around you do so, the others stop and let you perform the action. No one gets out of their cars and bashes your windscreen in or kicks the front fender.

Kandy on a Sunday is very crowded, especially as the road we came in on is filled with international colleges that specialise in upskilling secondary students so they can get a better university entrance score or secure an overseas student visa. The sidewalks (and road verges) were teeming with young people heading too or from classes and progress was very slow, even though the police had taken control and directed traffic.

Eventually, we made our way to the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy’s most famous site. Kandy was the capital of the Kingdom of Sri Lanka before the British took over in 1815. The temple was the previous palace of the Sri Lankan King. Now it is a Buddhist Temple that houses the most famous of relics, a molar from Buddha himself. The relic has been a well documented symbol of Buddhism in Sri Lanka for many centuries, and its possession meant power. Many times it was taken and many times it was hidden away from threat. Even in modern times, it was endangered in 1998 when Tamil separatists known as Tamil Tigers, bombed the chamber that housed the relic. Now it has been moved deeper within the temple and is subject to very high security. Even entering the temple grounds, we had to enter through separate male and female gates so we could be frisk searched.

The temple is very grand, reflecting its former role as a palace. It displays a well presented history of the tooth relic and a great many items associated with its history. It is a very sacred place for Buddhists, as meaningful as the Vatican to Catholics and the collection of murals and ceiling art is on the same level.

From there, it was off to our lodgings, Jack Tree Lodge. Once again, we were the only guests in a very beautiful guesthouse. The people were so friendly and accommodating, but a few more guests would be nice. The other great thing about the accommodation is that it is perched on a high ridge, so amazing views are gained on both sides. We lazed around for a couple of hours before heading out to a Cultural Dance Show. Such shows are to be endured. The content bares an amazing similarity right across SE Asia, and usually involves much drum banging and elaborate costumes. This one was no exception, topped off with some impressive fire dancing, and it was actually very enjoyable. We sat next to a UK couple around our age who were just starting their own tour, in the opposite direction to us.

Nilanka took us up to a restaurant high on the hill with excellent views over the city. We paid a bit more than our usual conservative meal budget but enjoyed a wonderful meal in beautiful surroundings.

Day 11 (June 16) – Sigiriya – We left Kandy with the sense there was more to explore and made the decision that it would be our return destination at the end of the tour. We have built in some time to free explore and we will take a train from Colombo to Kandy to soak up a bit more of this interesting city. The drive out of Kandy was another very long switchback descent for 50kms or so before emerging onto the plains, still dotted with isolated mountains. It was three temple drive. We keep saying we have seen enough temples but each one is so very different they are worth seeing, a bit like a cathedral tour in Europe.

A large Hindu temple in Matale was a working temple, although under reconstruction. The amazing array of colours and ornate decorations were worth seeing and to have some explanation of the workings from Nilanka was useful.

The second temple was an archaeological site a fusion of Hindu and Buddhist influences dating from the 9^th Century AD. It was very well preserved, probably because the huge stone blocks were carved from a hard granite-like stone rather than the usual softer sandstone.

The third temple was both a working temple and an archaeological site, probably the most famous in Sri Lanka. An enormous rock overhang high on a hill contains numerous buddhas, including three huge reclining buddhas. Unfortunately, to reach it we had to climb. Christine elected to take us by the cobbled pathway rather than the stairs but I’m not sure which was worse. The old legs are starting to protest more on each climb. However, the temple was worth the pain, a glorious testament to the importance of faith to mankind. The cave walls are covered with a staggering array of paintings, many depicting stories from the life of Buddha. Again, it is reminiscent of some of the great cathedral ceilings of Italy. I did find myself wondering if the original painters 1100 years ago found themselves painting over neolithic artwork from prehistory. The overhang is so huge it must have support early human life.

The Cave Temple

Our accommodation is called the Goddess Gardens, sounding more like a house of pleasure than a homestay. It is actually well named, with gorgeous gardens over a large area, beautiful pool and large well appointed rooms. Nilanka had not been there before and we joked about what we might find as we bumped our way across paddy fields and farmlands to the hostel. For once, we weren’t the only ones staying, with one other room occupied. We lazed away the afternoon with a swim and a snooze, before electing to stay in and eat at the hostel.

Goddess Gardens

Day 12 (June 17) – Sigiriya – Today was one of the highlights. We had a booking with a Sri Lankan Village tour. On the way, we stopped at various places to take in views of the famous Sigiriya Rock, or Lion Rock, a towering slab of granite that looks like it is the plug of an ancient volcano. It is amazing to think that a fortress and rock temple was once constructed on the top. You would have to pity the workers. It is possible to climb it, but the fee is high and so I elected to climb the slightly smaller neighbouring rock called Pidurangala later in the day.

Sigiriya Rock

The village tour is highly touristic but still a wonderful experience, the lunch being the highlight. First, we were loaded into a cart being pulled by an ox along a dusty track to a nearby lake. The ox was a large brahman type bull with horns so ingrown they crossed over. The yoke simply sat between his head and the large hump that they have on the rear of the neck so the keeper ensured that we sat in the right spot to balance the load and put a slight pressure on the neck. The cart was wooden and unsprung, so it was not the most comfortable of rides. The connection between the keeper and the ox was wonderful, the beast looking over often to get directions, and receiving affectionate pats for good work. There was no tugging of leads or touching with sticks at all.

Ox cart rise and wetlands safari

From the cart, we off loaded onto a small catamaran pontoon paddled by two young men. They paddled us around the wetland lake for some time, working hard in the stiffening breeze. We spotted a good variety of bird life, the highlight being a pair of eagles nesting in one of the trees. They one made Christine a beautiful garland out of a water lily while I was fashioned a weird hat out of a lily pad.

Eventually, they dropped us off on the other side of the lake to a pair of girls who took us into a traditional village house. The half walls were earth/brick while the long pitched roof was made from plaited coconut fronds. It was cool and comfortable. The kitchen was at the rear and consisted of a wood fired earthen stove with holes at the top for placing pots in. As heat was needed to different areas, the burning sticks underneath were moved around. It was highly efficient.

Preparing traditional Sri Lankan food

They demonstrated a variety of cooking techniques, getting us to join in with some of the preparation, while they prepared potato curry, sweet potato curry, an amazing coconut sambal, coconut roti, fried snake beans and, my favourite, a wonderful dish made with wild mangoes, which were little bigger than roma tomatoes and very flavoursome. They used hand grindstones to grind millet and flat rock with a round rock to grind ingredients for the sambal. The fish was river fish, Tilapia, cut into portions and deep fried with a rich herb coating.

Finally, we sat down with Nilanker to a meal that would grace any top restaurant anywhere, such was the variety and quality. That all this was done on a simple wood stove with very basic cooking equipment was amazing. It was a highlight.

After a bit of a snooze back at the Goddess Gardens, I left Christine to swim in the pool and headed out with Nilanker to climb Pidurangala Rock. I was not confident that I would complete the climb, the reviews saying it was very difficult. They weren’t wrong. The steps were steep and very narrow, requiring a sideways foot placement at times. I rested quite a lot to keep the breathing under control but eventually the steps gave way to a broad ledge containing the ruins of an ancient buddhist monastery. Remains of stone walls showed where small cells were constructed under the overhang to house the monks and a earth brick and a mortar covered reclining buddha dates from the 5^th Century AD.

From the monastery, the path was mostly a matter of climbing over rocks, sometimes with the aid of a stout rope. There were quite a few tourists on the rock, climbing late to catch the sunset view. I was pleased to see that most were a lot younger than me.

Monastry ruins. View from Pidurangala Rock across to Sigiriya Rock

Emerging from the rocks onto the top was one of the “Oh wow!” moments as the full vista was exposed, the glorious Sigiriya Rock not far away and the backdrop of other peaks and mountain ranges. A couple of other Aussies of retirement age picked up on my West Coast Eagles shirt and we exchanged a few comments. They apologised for being Collingwood supporters.

The climb down proved much easier and I reached the bottom feeling a lot better than I did with the Little Adams Peak climb in Ella.

The Sigiriya area is very beautiful and rightly holds its place as one of Sri Lanka’s key attractions.

Sri Lanka Part 2 – South Coast

June 17, 2025 / terry

Day 5 (June 10) – Galle – We stayed at the Finlanka Hotel in Hikkaduwa, about 20 km north of Galle. It is a pretty place with lovely gardens and nice pool, a thing that seems to be the norm even in cheaper hotels in Sri Lanka. Once again, there were few, if any, other guests.

The night was interesting. The close presence of the Colombo-Galle rail line was not a real issue, just the Earth shaking every hour or so. Far worse was the lovely lights wrapped around a tree in the garden outside and set to blink on and off every 7 seconds. The curtains did not cover the top portion of the windows so it was bloody annoying. Fortunately, we both had sleep masks.

We also awoke to rain, the first so far. Today was a special holiday for the full moon. A holiday is celebrated every full moon but this was special because it celebrated the coming of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. It also meant that most restaurants were closed and those that opened would not serve alcohol. We pretended that it didn’t matter.

At breakfast, the owner apologized for the lack of the usual full Sri Lankan breakfast due to the holiday and proceeded to bring us separate plates of more food than we normally eat in a week, fruit platters, eggs on toast, hot dogs in buns, cakes, muffins, fruit smoothies, a pot of tea. It just kept coming and we hardly made a dent in it.

We headed off to Galle, with the holiday meaning that the roads were even more crowded than usual. Along the way we saw numerous long queues of people. These were places serving free food as part of the holiday. It seemed to be a lucky dip as to what you got. Some dished out bread and bananas, while the next had curry and rice, or even icecreams in cones. The lines showed just how well free food pulls a crowd.

First stop was the Japanese Peace Monument, an enormous Buddhist stupa donated by the Japanese after the tsunami. The Japanese gave a lot of support to Sri Lanka following the event and the gratitude is obvious. The location gave wonderful views over Galle Harbour. Inside the temple, people were asked to pray for peace between the Ukraine and Russia. Hard to argue that one.

Next, we headed down to the Dutch Fort. This is the amazing fortress that overlooks the Galle Cricket Ground, the scene of two test matches with Australia earlier in the year. We got used to the sight of people sitting on the walls of the fort watching, and little wonder, given the small size of the ground and the expense of the tickets. We had imagined we were seeing the remnants of the fort. Far from it. The fort is a large walled town, still complete and still working within, much as with places like Dubrovnik in Croatia. The walls are constructed of limestone, coral and earth ramparts, so thick that no cannon could ever have hoped to do any damage. The fort served to protect the Dutch interests up until the British take-over in the early 19^th Century, which was largely done without a shot as the Dutch had been conquered by Napoleon at the time. As a fortress it is very impressive. As a focal point for the local population and social gathering place, it is equally so. This was the place to be, even in stormy weather.

Dutch Fort, Galle, ext to the cricket ground

The crowds were out and about on the walls of the fort. We enjoyed a walk of three sides, Nilanka meeting us with the car at the three quarter way, a good idea because the heavens opened shortly after. Driving through the town, we stopped at the Dutch church, a building showing all the austerity of the Dutch Reformation compared to the Catholic churches of Europe.

With few eating options, we did manage a couple of rolls with interesting fillings from a bakery before getting home. The afternoon was spent with a well earned rest and a swim. In the evening we wandered down to the main road to find the one establishment open for food service, a hotel, and had a wonderful Sri Lankan Pork Curry. Of course, we couldn’t wash it down with the usual beer and had to make do with watermelon juice (true).

Day 6 (June 11) – Being the only ones in the hotel, a full buffet breakfast was not served. Instead, plates were brought out every few minutes. A big plate of diced paw-paw, watermelon and two bananas came first and we just started into the shared plate when mine arrived. The first one was Christine’s. Before we had made a hole in that when two types of pancakes, banana and egg, arrived, along with coconut roti and curry dipping sauce. There was also a plate of string hoppers, little saucer sized things made of fine noodles. We were working hard, trying to show our appreciation by consuming stuff when four spiced sausages arrived and distracted us from anything else remotely healthy. This was washed down by a pot of tea, along with a paw-paw and banana smoothie. I was bursting at the seams, but Christine still managed a piece of vegemite toast. I felt guilty so I had two pieces of tea cake. All this and we actually refused the eggs and omelet offering.

Most of the day was spent driving. We only covered around 160km in total but progress is slow. Speed limits away from actual motorways are low, 40kph for tuk-tuks and motorbikes, 60kph for cars and trucks, 250kph for local buses. The buses are terrifying. They come at you, lights flashing, horns blaring and suspensions collapsing. They rule the roads. The police were very much in evidence, with pull-overs seen every few kilometres. Our driver is very conservative and we like it like that.

Along the way, we stopped at a lovely lighthouse, the southern-most point in Sri Lanka. There were a couple of young boys flying a kite in what was close to gale force winds. They appeared to be struggling with the spool of heavy fishing line. I held the line to feel the strength and it was similar to a 4 or 5 metre tiger shark grabbing a fish and taking off. They were slowly making ground with their hand spool so we left them to it. We climbed a slippery slope to the beautiful Coconut Hill lookout, a wonderful view of the coast from a precipice totally lacking in guard rails or walkways. Welcome to the real world.

Once we arrived in the Tissamaharama area, we traversed a long earth causeway with a large lake on one side. This is part of an elaborate irrigation system constructed around the 3^rd Century BC by the Tamil Kingdom of Ruhana. There are five such lakes dotted around the area with an intricate system of canals to create a large irrigated area. It still being a festival holiday, the canals were filled with people of all ages, bathing, cooling off or simply finding a good place to socialize.

We visited the Tissamaharama Raja Maha Vihara, an ancient Buddhist temple from the 3^rd Century BC, a colossal structure built from tiny bricks.

The road sides held a lot of small stalls, with one or two tables and piles of shallow earthern ware pots piled up. We stopped at one and sampled their product, little tubs of a curd made from buffalo milk covered with palm honey, the sap gathered from the flowering of a local palm. It was a complete 10/10 taste sensation. The honey is becoming less common as bees honey displaces it, probably making more money. The curd has a slight tang but is a very fine yoghurt by any standards.

Then it was the afternoon at the hotel, a very nice resort called the Pahalage Boutique Villas, which would have been fine except that it was very much in off-season rebuild mode. Many rooms were gutted and there were workers around, the only staff seeming to be the one manager. We were not impressed, despite their every effort to accommodate us. We had to ask for such simple things as a second towel and a kettle. Yes there was on-line TV where we could have watched the cricket. No, they hadn’t paid the subscription so no TV. We chose a meal each from the menu, no doubt so they could use Uber Eats to order in (yes, they have Uber Eats in Sri Lanka). It was not a big issue because we were only staying the one night but it was annoying, and messaged the tour company to tell them, saying we wanted to be assured that all future bookings were in hotels that were fully functioning. They came back within twenty minutes saying they had changed our next hotel in Ella. According to our driver, the off-season has the advantage of not having to fight crowds at all the attractions but the hotels are in go-slow mode.

Day 7 (12 June) – Tissamaharama to Ella – It was a very early start at 5:45 to head out to Yala National Park for a safari. Having located a friendly ATM to stock up on huge piles of cash to pay for the experience, we rendezvoused with our guide and his slightly beaten up Toyota Hilux with a six pack of high seats mounted in the ute well. It all looked like overkill until we saw the state of the tracks. A 4WD is definitely needed with a driver sufficiently experienced to negotiate the huge holes and ruts in the track. We hadn’t even reached the park entrance before we saw a tree full of monkeys, gray langurs, and a large (even by Australian standards) crocodile in a roadside pool. Once in the park, the utes spread out across the tracks, each jockeying for position to find the best animals. There was no shortage. Every water hole held buffalo, the excitement of a mongoose snuffling along by the side of the track soon became commonplace, herds of deer graced the grasslands and many pools harboured more large crocodiles. Both the Estuarine Crocodile (like ours) and the Marsh Crocodile are in the park. It looked like the Marsh Crocodile had a slightly shorter mouth. The highlight, of course, was a family of elephants coming to a waterhole to bathe and feed on the lilies. No bulls were in sight, all mothers and calves, but a couple of the mothers were huge beasts. The bird life too, was amazing, with some enormous hornbills, hundreds of beautiful bee eaters, bright iridescent blue kingfishers and a fantastic display of water birds.

Marsh Crocodile, Spotted Deer, Russet Mongoose, Water Buffalo

We spent four hours being thrown around in the back of the ute, but it was worth every minute. We couldn’t help but compare it to the wildlife safari in Borneo where actual wildlife was very scarce, even birdlife. We saw more each hour than we saw in 2 weeks in Borneo. The nature of the park helped. Yala is dry land bush, with low thorn scrub and a few large trees. There are wide open grass areas so spotting the animals was easy. None of the animals had any fear of humans at all. We did not manage to find either a leopard or a bear. The lack of leopards was puzzling because Yala has the highest concentration of leopards anywhere on the planet. Oh well, we can always Youtube it.

Bud uruwagala Rock Temple

After a quick shower and change back at the hotel, we hit the road again heading north into the mountains to Ella. The dry land country changed back to the rain forest as we climbed. Along the way, we stopped at another archeological buddhist site, theBud uruwagala Rock Temple, with an enormous 7m high carving of Buddha, along with some smaller carvings of Hindu Gods. These dated to around 700AD.

Near Ella, we stopped at a roadside lookout to take in the beautiful Ravanna Waterfall, a drop of around 25m and quite spectacular. There were lots of tourists here, and we watched in amazement as people left a handbag unattended right next to a red-faced Langur monkey who looked ready to steal everything it could. Don’t people watch Youtube? Why would you have anything to do with a monkey?

Ravanna Waterfall, Ella

Our hotel proved good enough, at least it was populated with people and a few guests. Best of all, it was only a short walk to the main street of Ella. Ella is the first full on tourist place we have seen, the magnificent views and walks bringing people here. The climate is wonderful, with mid 20s and cool nights. We are over 2000m in elevation and it helps. The main street is all bars, restaurants, health spas and curio shops. We don’t find the same hard sell you get in other Asian places. Even the many tuk-tuk drivers are quiet and take a polite “no thankyou” as final.

Sri Lanka June 2025 Part 1

June 11, 2025 / terry

Day 1 (6 June) – Perth-Singapore-Sri Lanka. It is back to the international travel for us, off to Sri Lanka this time. The whole thing went very smoothly, with a bus and train trip to the airport, which is the first time since the train line opened that we have left during civilized hours, and a very quick flow through the formalities of immigration and security. Christine did get carted away for an extra scan because she had a knee brace on, but she didn’t get the full body frisk she was hoping for.
The Singapore Airlines flight to Changi was as good as any economy class can be with a good standard of food and a very generous red wine serving. The in flight movies are becoming tiresome though. As we have found with other airlines, you get around 3 minutes of ads before a show starts, which means if you surf through a few choices before settling on one, you can be subjected to the same pointless set of ads each time you change your mind. Then the announcer keeps interrupting the movie to advertise their in-flight duty free shop. It helps to have a few backup things on your own device.

Negotiating our way through Changi airport was easier than many other times because we were true “transit” and didn’t have to do immigration. It was only a short walk to the skytrain link from terminal 3 to Terminal 2 and we were soon settled in for the 2 hour wait for the next plane. The aircraft was big, but packed to the brim and many passengers had 3 or 4 items of hand luggage. How does this happen? We are always so careful to follow the rules but we are a minority it seems. With a time change coming up in Colombo, we adjusted our watches and tried to ignore the fact that we would really get there around 3am and had a small meal on the plane, refusing the main offerings. Then it was more dozing, watching stuff on the seat back screen and being aware of a gradual but persistent loss of mobility and feeling in the legs. Somehow we made it and got through Sri Lankan immigration and customs with no issues. They make a big thing of having an Electronic Travel Authority system where you have to go on-line and fill out lots of stuff only scammers should know. The main part is paying the $US52 each. Of course, Australians are visa free entry, you just need the ETA. The guy at the immigration counter didn’t even read it.
We were met by our driver, Nilanka, and taken a short drive to our stay in Negombo, the Optimum Residences. It was very late when we got there so we were shown straight to our room and we collapsed in a blissful sleep.

Day 2 (7 June) – Negombo – We expected to sleep late but ended up being first to breakfast at 8am. Able to scope out the surroundings in daylight, we found the Optimum Residences to be composed of two buildings of rooms and one large family home and office all set in beautiful gardens. The breakfast lounging area is next to a lovely swimming pool, with another outside our room. The rooms are basic, clean and comfortable. Breakfast was a wonderful buffet of mostly local foods and fruit, with enough variety to satisfy most tastes.

With breakfast out of the way, Nilanka arrived and we planned our day. Still needing some catch up sleep, we opted for afternoon excursions and we spent the morning in the pool or dozing. We were surprised to find the AFL matches on TV via ABC Australia so we watched Geelong demolish Gold Coast.
In the afternoon, it was off in the car to find an ATM. All our money is on a card (Wise) which has international currency exchange built in. We had very little in the way of Australian cash and no Sri Lankan Rupees. Concern set in when we got knock backs from three ATMs, uncertain as to whether the fault lay with our card or the ATM services being offered. Finally, we found a money changer and changed a $A50 note to give us something. Then we tried a supermarket where we could try out the card with purchases. No problem. Just cash withdrawal did not work.
Moving on we went down to the beach area, quite crowded it being a Saturday, and tried a restaurant with the card. Again no problems and they suggested that we try the ATM down the road, which was probably more tourist oriented. To our great joy, it issued us some cash. The bulk of our purchases will be with card, but cash is still needed at times.

We spent a lovely couple of hours at the beach side restaurant, sampling some delicious cuttlefish, a not so good but still filling local dish called kottu, like a noodle stir fry but with sliced up roti substituting for the noodles and, of course, quite a bit of beer to wash it all down. There was a lot of activity on the beach, with volleyball games and food trucks. The sea was quite unsettled but there didn’t seem to be much interest in swimming. As the restaurant began gearing up for live music and young people, we found our driver and headed home, happy that we were solvent again.

Day 3 (8 June) Negombo – It was a very early start with Nilanka arriving at 5:45 to pick us up to go to the fish markets. The early start is because they only run until around 7am, to ward off the heat of the day. They were amazing markets, with a lot of quality fish on display, all recently caught. Most fish were the same or very similar to our own northern species. There were a lot of bonito displayed and a few very large yellowfin tuna. Prawns were also a feature, from tiny river shrimps to large fresh tiger prawns. We saw no squid at all, but a great many cuttlefish. Apart from the obvious smell of fresh fish, the place not difficult to put up with, as many Asian fish markets are, probably due to the lack of dried fish, which is at a different market.

We walked onto the nearby bridge to watch the local fishing. It was well organized. The tide was running out hard and each fisherman had a little container attached to a cord to hold their live baits. Most used rods and reels with a simple rig to run a live bait down into the current. We saw one happy guy cart off three very large mangrove jacks towards the markets and there was also a beautiful barramundi around a metre long tied up on a cord and swimming in the current to keep it alive and fresh. It is a sign of a healthy fishery, with so much available in the markets and still available to catch locally.
Then it was back to the guest house for breakfast. We have researched many of the offerings that were unfamiliar and we found that much of the breakfast was made up of Sri Lankan street foods, pan roll, string hoppers, pittu and sweet pancake. Everything we tried was delicious and not too spicy, although I think the chili had been wound back a bit for the international guests.
The rest of the morning was spent relaxing in the pool before the Eagles – North Melbourne match. We watched the first half in our room then moved to the restaurant for lunch and to continue the game. The staff rushed around to get the TV working and to place an air con unit in front of us. We were in heaven, despite the eventual score. We feel like royalty sometimes. The staff can’t do too much and always with a big smile.
In the late afternoon, Nilanka picked us up and took us to Angurukaramulla Temple, a large Buddhist Temple complex that had an amazing visual display depicting the life of Buddha and the growth of the religion. Negombo is largely a Catholic city, but Buddhism will be dominant as we move on.
Next, it was the site of the old Dutch fort, much of which is now used as a prison. The original fort dated from the 1600s and built by the Portuguese, destroyed and rebuilt by the Dutch then taken over by the British. It is a story repeated throughout Asia.

Nearby is the fish drying area, where a big expanse of flat beach is devoted to drying fish on reed matting. It is heavily salted and sun dried, before packaging for distribution around Sri Lanka and beyond. There were anchovies, scad, mackerel and tuna being dried. Remarkably, the smell was quite bearable. I was amazed that the whole thing wasn’t a mass of birds feasting on the fish, but apart from the odd egret wolfing down some, the crows left the fish alone and there are no gulls anywhere in sight. I think it is the only place in the world I have been without gulls of some form.
We cruised the beach area again, very crowded on a Sunday evening, with many locals out in their finery. We stopped at a restaurant called Fish and Chips, partaking in a wonderful prawn curry and crab curry each. The main dish was supported with bowls of sambal, fried onions, potato curry and another sauce we couldn’t identify. Very, very delicious and rather messy to eat. We left feeling full. The evening was spent watching the Men’s French Open Final.

Day 4 (9 June) Colombo and Hillanka – We are on the move. The decision to stay three nights at Negombo was a good one. While the city itself is not a “must see” place, the chance to really relax after a very hectic few months has been good and the Optimum Residences is a fantastic place to stay.
It seemed to take an age to get out of Negombo, fighting tuk-tuks, motorbikes and pushbikes all the way. The lines on the road seem to mean nothing. It is not uncommon for several vehicles to make a new lane straddling a double white line. It isn’t a matter of the odd near miss, everything is a near miss. We have not seen any actual contact to date. Once on the motorway (toll), the 30 odd km to Colombo soon disappeared.
Colombo is a mix of old, messy, crowded and grubby, along with ultra modern stunning high rise buildings and wide open plazas down on the beach front. Our driver took us around all aspects. At one stage, we got caught in a traffic jam due to a Hindu parade, part of a festival. We toured the Huge Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple. While the many carvings and buddhas were stunning, the thing of special interest was the collection of donations made over the years and stored for display. People donated something of value as an act of devotion. Nothing is sold, but everything is displayed. There were a couple of 1930s Rolls Royces, numerous mounted elephant tusks, some mazing ebony furniture with ivory inlays, a whole showcase with Rolex watches just piled in and a ridiculous amount of jewelry. There was even a case of guns that looked like a weapons buy-back program.

The Colombo Museum was interesting. It is laid out in a chronological order, starting with pre-history and working through to British colonialism. What I learnt was the extent to which the Dutch rule had an influence, lasting over a Century and having a significant impact on architectural styles and furniture fashions still in use today. We stopped briefly at Independence Square, a monument to the end of British rule in 1948.

Getting out of Colombo and heading south proved harder than Negombo. The traffic was insane but eventually, we made it to the Ahungalla area on the beach and stopped at a Turtle Conservation Project. There are many of these operating and appear to be a tourist thing at first glance. However, the logic makes sense. Five species of turtles nest regularly along the open beaches of the coast. The eggs were hunted for food to the extent that actual hatchings and natural attrition due to predation could not keep up and all species were threatened. The system now is that there are many hatcheries set up along the coast, and people can dig up the eggs when the nesting is observed, take them to a hatchery and get paid for them. The hatchery places them in temperature controlled sand pits and releases the hatchlings in darkness to promote survival. As well as this, they take in injured turtles until ready for return to the sea. It was interesting to see fifty or so day-old hawks bill turtles all on the seaward side of their pond trying to satisfy their natural instinct to reach the ocean.

We stopped for a short while at a monument built by the Japanese in memory of those lost in the Tsunami of 2004, which resulted in over 30,000 deaths in Sri Lanka alone and many more in Indonesia and Thailand. The site was where a train was inundated. The pictures on display brought back memories of those very sad times.

A short distance away was the Madu River mangrove complex, a huge expanse of shallow water teeming with life. We took a “boat safari”. These tours annoy us. They are always horribly over-priced and we see far less than the average day in Shark Bay. However, this was a surprise. Within minutes, we were up close and personal with a large water monitor swimming across the river. Then we started spotting the numerous brilliantly coloured kingfishers, being lucky enough to see one snaffle a fish from the water. We saw many white-breasted sea eagles, darts, egrets and amazing tiny terns, that followed in the boats wake and dived to grab any small fish disturbed by the propellor. It was all action. The boat stopped off at an island where cinnamon is grown. We always thought it was the outer bark taken, but it is an inner layer of bark that is carefully sliced off, as demonstrated by an old man. The smell is amazing. Another interesting feature is that the river is criss-crossed with large ropes strung at the water level. These act as speed bumps, because the boats are forced to slow and raise their outboard motors to get over them, thereby reducing the wash that causes bank erosion. All in all, it was a fun tour and worth the money.

By the time we settled in the Finlanka Hotel in Hikkaduwa, we were all in. We dragged ourselves to the beachfront two hundred metres or so away and ate an unsatisfactory meal (our first poor meal in Sri Lanka) at a waterside restaurant and consumed a very satisfactory beer. Early to bed.

Melbourne 2025 – 2 Weeks of Sport

January 19, 2025 / terry

Week 1, 6-12 January.

Softball State Championships U14, Waverley Softball Centre, Melbourne, Victoria

This was to be Kelsie’s third championships, following Canberra and Birisbane in previous years. This time, it dovetailed perfectly with our annual trip to the Australian Open tennis so we organised an AirBnB house in Glen Waverley to share with Tevor, Emma and Ashton, close to the Waverley Softball Centre and reasonably convenient to shops and train. We all travelled on the same day, us on Virgin and Trevor on Jetstar, but managed to land in Melbourne within a few minutes of each other.

We had organised a hire car for the week from a cut rate mob call Goldstar, which proved to be a bit of an ordeal because an airport pickup actually meant getting a shuttle bus out to the back blocks of Tullamarine to get the car. Despite the delays, we still managed to get across town some 40 kms, find the house, settle in and do some shopping for food before the sun went down in this crazy land of day-light saving. The house was a very 60s style place with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, which proved very comfortable despite being rather light on for essential items such as wine glasses and teaspoons. I am not sure how they advertise the place as sleeping 8 and then provide only 5 forks and 2 wine glasses.

Each day revolved around the softball fixtures. Our first day was an opportunity to explore Melbourne, with two late games scheduled, so we drove to Glen Waverley station, parked and took the train in to Richmond. It was Day 2 of the AO Qualifying Round so we all settled in to watch a few matches, including a bit of Leyten Hewitt’s son Cruz, do a bit of shopping in the AO Shop and generally soak up the atmosphere. Trevor and Em left to get some time to themselves while we took Ashton across the rail line to the MCG to the Australian Sports Museum. The display highlights many great moments in Aussie sports, with a big focus on the role of the MCG itself. Ashton revelled in the hands-on activites and sports quizzes, and showed off his expertise and knowledge of all things sporting (like his father). At he end of the museum time, we caught up again with Tevor and all travelled back on the train in time to change into softball support clothing and head to the first matches.

Trevor, Emma and Ashton went back later in the week to do the tour of the MCG and a BBL Match. Ashton even managed a photo with Gillchrist.

At the softball, WA had solid start, with a narrow 1 run loss to NSW Country and a big 19-4 win over ACT. It is wonderful to see Kelsie adopt a leadership part, playing at short stop. It is a great group of girls and are fortunate to have a talented coaching team.

As the week progressed, fortunes fluctuated, with losses to NSW Metro, a frustrating draw against Qld Country and wins against Victoria, SA and Qld Metro. The match against Victoria was clinical, resulting in a mercy walkoff at 17-0 and we managed a win against Qld Metro without a base being gained. A very disciplined effort.

On the Friday night, the team and supporters gathered at the Wheelers Hill Hotel, a beautiful setting overlooking the Dandenongs, to socialise together. Most of the parents have found accommodation nearby in Glen Waverley. We hardly recognised some of the girls out of their softball uniforms and relaxing in “civies”.

With the round matches over, WA was placed a very creditable 3rd, one place up from 2024 and two places up from 2023. The team has built well since Kelsie has been playing.

The first of the finals was a semi final against SA. It was a nail biter, with SA getting a solid start against us of a couple of runs and holding it for the first few innings. Eventually, WA followed up with a big innings, including a big three base hit from Kelsie, and squeeked home by a single run to claim a spot in the Preliminary Final.

The Preliminary Final went very well with a convincing win over NSW Navy, our nemisis in past competitions. Our pitcher, Gracie was the difference. No team can get a handle on her. During the round games, pitchers are restricted to three innings, but in the finals, there are no restrictions. The coaches managed her well, bringing Jade in when we had a comfortable lead, then bringing Gracie back for the final innings to make sure of it. Kelsie had a cracking two base hit and another run scoring walk. The team was Grand Final bound against the other NSW team, NSW Sky.

However, the weather looked bad. Thunderstorms were forecast, something that shuts down all outdoor events these days. The radar showed a large mass moving east through Melbourne. Later, we found that Melbourne received 25mm of rain in 30 minutes, causing considerable local flooding.

We all huddled under shelter and watched shade shelters crumble in the high winds and heavy rain that soaked the ground and made the diamonds resemble shallow lakes. Organisers hoped for a start around 5pm so the girls packed up and headed back to the their hotel to try and dry the equipment out. We decided to abandon the match and head into Melbourne to our new location for the Australian Open, and to live-stream the game later, if and when it happened. It was sad to miss, but with more rain on the radar we were not sure of the outcome.

As it happened, the rain eased enough to allow play around 5pm, once the lightning threat had disipated. Both teams would battle with wet and slippery conditions, especially the pitchers. We got a good live-stream up in our apartment, thanks to Softball Victoria and settled in to watch, not supremely confident because our girls had already played once whereas NSW Sky was fresh for the day. We got off to a shakey start, finding oursleves 3-8 down after two innings. Then a brilliant 7-1 third innings set up an amazing 1 run win.

The girls were over the moon, as were the supporters. Kelsie, as Captain for the game, went up to present the medals to her team and accept the trophy. Despite an uncharacteristic below average batting performance in the early matches, she continues to shine as an on field leader and adapts to the needs of the team. Her batting in the finals certainly came good when it was needed. Great job Kelsie.

Week 2, 13-19 January – Australian Open

Our apartment is really well located, at 220 Spencer St, right opposite the Skybus terminal at Southern Cross Station, making for an easy leave at the end of the week. It is a studio apartment on the 38th floor with all the necessary things, except a decent mattress. Why people leave sagging dead mattresses on beds in rentals is beyond me, it colours the whole review and rating when a couple of hundred buys an acceptable mattress from Ikea every year if needed. There was a sofa bed offering but they are terrible to sleep on so it ended up with the sofa bed mattress on the floor each night. Not ideal but the location makes up for it.

All around the neighbourhood are eateries, mostly Asian of some form with a great many Vietnamese and Korean. In the evening, the air is full of the smell of sesame oil and Asian spices. We have two choices to get to the tennis, walk down Spencer St to Flinders and ride the #70 tram to the gates, or walk a short distance to Bourke St and tram to Swanston, followed by a walk down Swanston then follow the Yarra along Princes Walk. The latter is more walking but much more pleasant than fighting the crowds on the tennis tram.

We did well on Day 1 (Day 2 of the Open) just buying a ground pass and getting in two magnificent matches with Aussies playing on Court 3. We saw both Tahlia Gibson and James Duckworth score much needed first round wins.

Day 2 we had seats in John Cain booked, but elected to go back to Court 3 to watch Emma Raducanu down 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. It was an excrutiating match, with neither player holding serve much at all and both sets going to tie breaks. Then we headed to John Cain to see Taylor Fritz demolish fellow American Jensen Brooksby.

Wednesday was wet, which we didn’t know when we allocated it a non-tennis day. We spent the time wandering the shops, with lots of cheap clothes on offer at the Spencer Street Outlet Centre. In the afternoon, we headed to Docklands to catch the Banksy Exhibition. It is the largest privately owned collection in the World and was brilliantly displayed, each collection supported by video explanations of what had inspired the pieces or collection. I loved the “Dismaland” display with its Disney take-off of a chaotic theme park. The entire display was incredibly funny, thought-provoking and imaginative, all in one. The sections devoted to Banksy’s Ukraine and Gaza visits were particularly poignant and a reminder that the bad things aren’t going away anytime soon. Banksy’s work simplifies what politicians make so hard. Just fix it.

On our last day of tennis, we headed to Court 14 to watch the talented team of Kimberly Birrel and Olivia Godeke defeat a pair of Serbs in the women’s doubles. The great thing about the outside courts is being able to sit right up to the court and feel the power of the shots up close. The Aussie girls were the under dogs so their delight in winning was felt by the crowd and it was fun to be sitting only a few seats away from the families and coaches. It was a far cry from the big arenas. We stayed on to watch the Aussie men in Blake Ellis and Thomas Fancutt take on some higher ranked opponents but sadly, they couldn’t match the efforts of the girls. From there we headed to John Cain to see Elena Rybakina easily defeat 17 year old Iva Jovic, a possible star of the future.

On our final day in Melbourne, we took the train down to Mordialloc, a seaside location on Port Phillip. Azba, Mike and Evie drove up from their house is Mornington to meet us and we had a good catchup as well as an amazing seafood meal in the Tommy Ruff Fish Bar. This place certainly knows how to serve fish and seafood at reasonable prices. Christine’s seafood chowder was a standout dish. Az and Mike are keeping well, busy as always, and nearing the completion of their home build, a long term project. It is always good to catch up and follow their life’s journey.

It has been a two week stay for us, but seems longer. It was a very relaxed time and the move back to central city for the tennis was a good one, better than staying out and training in as we have done for the last few years. The vibrancy seems to have returned to the city, after the Covid exodus, and it is fun just to move around and discover hidden gems in the many laneways and malls. We may be back next year but who knows. A lot depends on the Softball and other adventures.