A month exploring one small sliver of Australia

We’ve always planned to visit Australia and “see the whole country”. As it was we spent over a month and only saw a small sliver along the east and southeast coasts. There’s lots more to do next time.

Brisbane – Olympic City

Our first stop was Brisbane, host city for the 2032 Olympics. The city is already getting ready.

The outer bands of Cyclone Kirrily were battering the area when we arrived. Over 350mm of rain fell in a few hours, causing widespread flooding in nearby towns. Venturing outside the city was difficult as there was a lot of flooding and road closures. The first day brought some frightening moments. We were at a riverside restaurant sheltering from the rain when someone noticed a woman who’d been swept away in the raging waters, clinging to the pier 10 m below us. Bystanders threw down life rings and kept her secure until the Swiftwater Rescue Team arrived to scoop her out of the water. A harrowing few moments.

The remainder of our stay was less stressful and much better weather. Brisbane is bisected by the Brisbane River. A lovely tree-lined walkway follows the shoreline. It is busy with runners, walkers, cyclists and families relaxing with picnics and barbecues. Green spaces and quaint neighbourhoods dot the city. The central business district is undergoing major change in preparation for the Olympics. There are many new highrises and a glitzy casino complex that is near completion. Many of the older buildings are well preserved which adds charm and character.

If cute and cuddly is your thing, a visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is for you. We got to see koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and other species endemic to Australia.

World famous Surfers Paradise is a short train ride away from the city. The massive beach with blazing white, fine sand lives up to its reputation. The town itself looked a bit jaded. It had few nice restaurants or cafes. Most of the stores were either discount stores or souvenir shops. The beach makes up for it though.

We had heard that the little town of Ispwich was quaint and worth a side visit. The train ride was about an hour and took us through lovely suburbs of the city. George got entertained by an old character returning from shopping who took out his leg of lamb and spent about 20 minutes inspecting it and telling George why it was a good one and how he was going to cook it. Thankfully we were not invited to dinner. Ispwich is a beautiful town with many historical buildings, all very well preserved. We stopped for a drink at an old hotel full of more colourful characters getting ready for a big Aussie Rules Football match that night.

Sydney – Beaches, beaches, beaches

Sydney’s iconic Opera House may be its most recognizable landmark, but really it’s all about the beaches. The nearby coast is lined with miles of beaches. People flock to them in the tens of thousands.

Our first exposure was the 10 km Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach shoreline walk. We bussed to Coogee early on a Sunday morning. Coogee Beach was already chock-a-block with people. Between Coogee and Bondi there were another half-dozen sensational beaches, all crowded with swimmers, surfers and children competing in life-saving drills. After the 10 km walk in scorching heat we rewarded ourselves with lunch at Bondi Trattoria. Burrata and fennel salad followed by spaghetti with blue swimmer crab washed down by a bottle of McLaren Vale rosé wine was a fitting end to the hike.

Another day we took the short ferry ride to Manly, a popular get-away for “Sydneysiders”. It was crazy busy, even on a weekday. We’d often heard the praises of Manly Beach, so (unusual for us) we took our swimsuits. Didn’t need them. The beach was closed. Signs warned of dangerous currents and jellyfish; lifeguards warned people back from the water if they got too close; the government’s SharkSmart app warned that a Bull Shark had been detected offshore a few hours earlier. No need to go in that water when there were perfectly good restaurants to relax with a bottle of wine.

We spent a terrific day with friends Ursella and Michael in the suburb of Cronulla. A short ride on a vintage ferry took us to Bundeena, adjacent to the Royal National Park. The 14 km hike along the cliffside trails to Little Marley Beach and back primed us for some cold craft beer in Bundeena and a terrific dinner prepared by Michael.

Sydney is not all beaches. We enjoyed a relaxing harbour cruise to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House up close. The harbour was busy with ferries, cruiseship, yachts, sail boats, and large Navy aircraft carriers. Downtown is a nice mix of well-preserved old buildings nestled in amongst the new skyscrapers. The Queen Victoria Building houses a beautiful five-story shopping mall. It has stained glass windows, ornate decor and the 4-ton Great Australian Clock dating back to 1898. Our last afternoon in Sydney was spent relaxing alongside the after-work happy-hour crowds in the bustling waterfront cafes and restaurants of Darling Harbour.

Blue Mountains

For a finale in Sydney, we took a train to the nearby Blue Mountains. The train chugged slowly upwards for two hours before arriving in Katoomba, at just over a thousand metres. Weather was stellar – blue skies and surprisingly hot. Katoomba rests on a plateau overlooking gaping canyons. We started with a 10 km walk along the cliffside trails looking down into the canyons and across to distant mountains.

The town went very quiet when the daytrippers left. There was nothing left to do but join the locals for some craft beers on the patio of the Old City Bank Bar and Brassiere. By the time the second beer came the heavens had opened. The rain didn’t quit. We woke up the next morning to steady drizzle and thick fog. Our plan had been to do some serious hikes down into the canyon that day. Instead we bailed out and took the first train back to Sydney!

Melbourne

From Sydney we boarded a train for the 12-hour, 900 km journey to Melbourne. Melbourne was hosting the Australian Grand Prix the following week so the city was buzzing (and hotels were obscenely expensive). Our first day in the city happened to be St. Patrick’s Day. We walked miles before finding an Irish pub that didn’t have hideously long line-ups, but we finally did get our pints.

The focal point of the city is the Yarra River. The central business district straddles it. Walkways, cafes and restaurants line the banks. An afternoon cruise down the river gave us a good feel for the city. The riverside and former port area is a mass of new construction. New neighbourhoods are materializing on reclaimed industrial port lands.

The busy shopping and entertainment district around Flinders Street and Federation Square was a short walk from our hotel, or an even shorter ride on the free trams. The many little lanes and heritage shopping arcades off the main streets give the area a unique character. Lots of one-of-a-kind shops, wine bars and cafes. One of the more interesting streets is Hosier Lane. It is a narrow lane off Flinders Street that has been taken over by graffiti artists. When we visited it was jammed with tourists taking pictures of the artists busy spray painting the walls. The paint fumes were strong; the artists were oblivious to the onlookers.

A sad but fascinating tour – Old Melbourne Gaol

In a macabre sort of way, one of the most fascinating museums we have visited in a long time was the Old Melbourne Gaol. The gaol was built in the mid-1800s as a supposed “model” prison. Homeless and mentally ill people were housed there alongside vicious criminals. 133 hangings took place there before its closure in 1929.  The dismal cellblocks remain intact. The online narrated tour provides chilling insights into the unfortunate stories of some of the prisoners. Definitely a sobering experience, but highly recommended.

Driving the Great Ocean Road with Shrek

The Great Ocean Road is an epic drive along the southern coast of Victoria State from Torquay to Warrnambool. We rented a camper van, affectionately dubbed Shrek. A fridge, stove and sink in the back and just enough room for two of us to sleep. Those of you who recall last year’s adventure on the Carreterra Austral in Chile are probably going “WHAAAT, don’t they learn??“. Shrek was not pretty and with 345,000 km on the odometer, no prince on the highway. It had a few quirks, including a sticky door, but survived the trip.

The route is only 243 kms. Many people cram into tour buses and do it in a daytrip from Melbourne, making only brief photo stops at the highlights. We took it easy, stopping in every small town and village, hiking a few trails (despite the many “Beware of Snakes” signs), wandering the beaches and taking every opportunity to admire the dramatic coastline battered by the Southern Ocean.

Maria enjoyed a memorable birthday at one of the nicer campsites. Bimbi Park in Cape Otway is famous for its many koala. They’re hard to spot (think blurry brown blob in the midst of an equally blurry brown tree canopy), but we found several snoozing in the trees around us. Kangaroos hopped over to visit at dusk. A variety of colourful and noisy birds, including parrots and crimson rosellas, flitted in and out. Our most persistent guest was a handsome Kookaburra. It perched on a branch above us as George cooked dinner, inching closer and closer as we became more familiar. We had to keep a careful watch on our food.

Adelaide – the Ugly Duckling of Australian Cities

When we told Australians we planned to visit Adelaide, more often than not they raised their eyebrows and expressed surprise. Adelaide is not a popular tourist destination. The city doesn’t have an abundance of tourist attractions.

Parts of downtown are a bit gritty, but aside from that, Adelaide is one of the greenest cities that we have visited. The city core, designed in 1837, is laid out on a grid. It is totally surrounded by parks. There are 29 parks plus six city squares occupying over 900 hectares of green space. We walked most of them. Rundle Mall is a bustling pedestrian street with elaborately-decorated heritage shopping arcades branching off. We loaded up for dinner one evening from the tantalizing array of food stalls at the Central Market. Adelaide is a quiet city but we loved it.

Adelaide Hills

It is understandable that not everyone appreciates the city’s charms. The surrounding countryside though is spectacular. A drive up to the summit of Mount Lofty overlooking the city gave us a perspective of just how green the city is. We continued through the green, rolling Adelaide Hills. The little town of Stirling was holding its market day. It was like a country fair with miles of booths with crafts and local foods and a festive mood in the air. Nearby Hahndorf is a preserved town built in German-style by the original Lutheran settlers. Bierhalles spilled out onto the sidewalks with patrons devouring monstrous plates of sausage and sauerkraut washed down with oversize steins of beer. We were driving so no beer for us.

Wine Heaven

Adelaide’s real claim to fame, at least from the perspective of wine-lovers like us, is that it is surrounded by some of Australia’s best vineyards. Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, Clare Valley and McLaren Vale are all within short driving distance. After a couple of days in Adelaide we headed out to the Barossa Valley for a relaxing stay in the Novotel Resort overlooking Jacobs Creek vineyards. The harvest was completed and summer holidays were over so we had the quiet country roads to ourselves. Kapunda, a former mining town, was especially fun. Tourists are so unknown that people were literally stopping us on the street to ask us where we were from, then wanted to chat. We thought we’d never get out of town.

This isn’t quite the end of our Australia adventure, but this post is already long and jam-packed so we’ll save the best for the next post.