Our Christmas Festivities!

Stuie here again!

Wishing everyone belated Merry Christmas (and a happy New Year!)

Christmas Day in the Price household!

Our Christmas Day was spent with my cousin Caroline and her husband Richard, and their two young daughters Elsie and Emily, whom we had a great day playing with. Christmas is really different with young kids around, but also quite exhausting! Michelle and I have had fantastic time playing with the girls, amongst many phone calls to friends and families back home in Perth.

After we finished our week of house sitting, we spent a relaxing evening catching up with Michelle’s friend Brenda in her new house up in Diamond Creek. The next day saw us hitching up the camper again and heading to Healesville to catch up with some more of Stuart’s relatives. We were welcome with open arms by Rob and Sue (Rob is Stuart’s dad’s cousin) spending the day talking, with a couple of short hikes late in the afternoon to work up an appetite for Sue’s delicious dinner! That evening we were amazed to see all of the work Sue had been putting in doing their family tree! She has traced one branch of the family back to the 1600’s! Michelle and I are now really keen to develop our family tree when we get home!

The next day saw us exploring the Healesville Sanctuary in the morning, before heading through the Marysville to camp for a night. Marysville was one of the towns that were just about wiped out during the Black Saturday fires of early 2009, with many people losing their lives in the town. I had actually travelled through the town back in 2003, and what I saw was nothing like what I remembered. It would appear that the rebuilding has been really slow, with the town’s new post office only just opening a couple of days before we arrived! Most of the very few people we saw around town appeared to be tradies working on the reconstruction work!

Elsie and Emily on the beach at the 'Prom'

The week prior to Christmas was spent holidaying with Caroline and family down on the coast at Inverloch. Unfortunately our plans for a nice sunny week beside the seaside were dashed, as what seems to be normal weather here on the east coast followed us – rain, a sprinkling of hail, a dash of sunshine and ALOT of wind! That being said, we got out and about between the showers and our one full day of sunshine was spent with a day trip to Wilsons Promontory National Park. Absolutely spectacular coastline, which was explored with a bit of a hike to exercise the legs!

We also headed off to Frankston RSL Club for dinner to meet up with some of my aunt's, uncle's and cousins (this time from Mum's side of the family!) It was Aunty Dot who graciously lonaned us the use of her holiday unit in Merimbula, where we dryed out for a couple of days. We also caught up with Aunty Joy and Uncle Arthur. Given the distance between Perth and Melbourne, we rarely get to catch up! We had a long lunch and it has certainly helped me out with picturing the whole family tree!

Our Christmas dinner this year broke with the usual tradition of roast turkey and ham, as Caroline and I had decided on seafood instead! Michelle and I braved the Preston Markets early on Christmas Eve to have a big buy up of fresh seafood, bread, fruit and vege’s for our Christmas lunch. After an hour of wandering around and selecting our produce, we left quite laden with beautiful fresh food! Our lunch menu included – pulpo (Spanish octopus recipe – thanks Andrew!), chilli mussels, baked snapper with a herb crust, garlic prawns, all coupled with crusty bread and a huge garden salad!

We hope that everyone has had a great Christmas and looking forward to the New Year. We’re now starting to get really excited, as on Thursday we will be driving onto the ferry, heading over to Tasmania for two months! We’re just keeping our fingers crossed the weather improves a little, or we are going to break our accommodation budget bigtime!

But we’re still going to go anyway! Til next time....



Wet! Wet!! Wet!!!

G’day, Stuie here...

Paddling off the Merimbula coast



Yep, it’s been pretty wet over here on the east coast! We’ve really been caught in a ‘wet and windy place’ (rather than between a ‘rock and hard place) but unfortunately, neither are all that much fun when you’re living in a camper trailer!

We spent a couple of days in Merimbula mainly drying everything out after Canberra, although we did manage to get a good little paddle in between some of the rain showers. It was great to get back into the kayaks, as it was the first activity I had really done since getting my hand out of the cast. We took it fairly easy and my hand felt fine afterwards.

We also spent a rainy day exploring the coast around Eden, learning about the extraordinary story of ‘Old Tom’ – a killer whale that worked with the local shore based whalers around the turn of the century (1800/1900’s). Old Tom’s pod would herd migrating humpbacks into the shallow waters of Two Fold Bay, whilst Old Tom himself would swim to the whaling station and tail slap the water to attract the attention of the whalers. The whalers would man their boats and paddle out, following Old Tom to the herded whale. Once the whalers had harpooned and killed the whale, they would anchor it where it lay, leaving the carcass to the killer whales who would proceed to eat the tongue. The whalers would then come out the next day and tow the carcass into the whaling station for processing – minus the tongue! The relationship was pretty amazing, and the year after Old Tom passed away, not one killer whale appeared in the bay and the local whaling industry apparently collapsed. The skeleton of Old Tom is now in the museum.

From the museum, it was out to Ben Boyd National Park, where we visited Boyd's Tower - originally built by Ben Boyd to be used as a lighthouse. But the government at the time wouldn't permit it, so it was used as a lookout for the local shore based whaling operations. Just around the corner in Two Fold Bay is the remains of the whaling station which we also visited.

After our couple of days in Merimbula, there was a slight break in the weather forecast, so we decided to head off with the option to stop and camp for a day in Croajingolong National Park weather permitting, or heading straight through to Melbourne. As it turned out, we left Merimbula in the rain, which continued well over the Victorian border! We did finally break out into some sunshine around Lakes Entrance, but the wind was howling (a gale warning had been issued for the area!) So after a blustery lakeside lunch stop, we bundled back into the car and hit the road for Melbourne, missing out on the Gippsland coast which is a real bummer!

Since arriving in Melbourne, we have been able to catch up with Michelle’s friend Brenda, staying a night with her before heading through to my cousin Caroline’s house which we are house sitting for a week while they are away. The weather has dried up a little, but there is still rain about, so we have spent our time exploring around the Thornbury/Northcote area, and finished off our Christmas shopping. I’ve been having great fun at the local food market buying a few fresh ingredients each day and cooking up a nightly feast (having access to a full kitchen helps – thanks Caroline!) The quality of the food is fantastic and cheaper than Perth prices!

At the QVM buying my blue cheese and jamon

Today saw us jump on the tram and head into the Queen Victoria Markets in the city. I reckon if we lived in Melbourne, we would be heading in each weekend to do our shopping for the week! Everything you could want was available and I could have bought heaps of different ingredients to cook with! But we held back, just buying some tasty blue cheese, Spanish jamon and some fruit (including fresh cherries for $4/kg and a 1½kg bag of apricots for $2)

 Our holiday pace has slowed down a bit for the moment – the car hasn’t moved in the last three days! We have been extremely lucky to have friends and family who have helped us out by putting a solid roof over our heads, for which we are really grateful. We still have a couple weeks yet, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that January and February will dry up a little for our next leg over to Tasmania!

So much for following the sun for the year – we have probably picked the wettest year possible to travel the east coast! So many places we have visited here in the east are now threatened or experiencing flooding, whilst back home the west is hanging out for even a drop of rain!

Until next time – catch you later!

Stuart & Michelle



Australia's Capital!

Driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge

We have both decided that we can’t ever complain about the traffic in Perth after driving in Sydney traffic – it’s soooo busy! We read a report in the paper that peak hour starts about 5:00am and doesn’t finish until around 10:00am. But we still decided to farewell Sydney by driving the car and camper over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (on a Saturday thankfully!). Bit silly really, but why not! As it turned out, we had to have two attempts, as the traffic saw us forced under the harbour through the tunnel the first time, only to have to turn around in the Sydney CBD – so we lugged the camper through inner Sydney Saturday morning traffic to find our way back onto the bridge! It was worth it though!

We drove straight to Canberra from Sydney enjoying the ever decreasing traffic and ever expanding countryside. The drive was nice and sunny, as we munched our way through some fresh cherries we bought from the roadside. But the sunny weather was the last we encountered, followed with fivestraight days of rain with only the odd hour of respite and some really heavy downpours. Luckily – Canberra is full of ‘inside’ attractions.

Our first day was spent visiting the Old Bus Depot Markets, spoiling ourselves with a variety of local artisan foods whilst exploring the endless stalls of handmade goods and antiques. We didn’t see one stall selling the typical imported market clothes! My favourite stall was a guy selling cups of freshly squeezed orange or lemon juice, as well as sangria, warm mulled wine and apple cider! We also purchased stone baked sourdough bread, a tray of Lebanese sweets, olives, blue cheese, four types of flavoured roasted nuts, salty caramel chocolate truffles and had mouth watering Spanish Empanadas for lunch!!! Stuart also bought a massive antique brass nutcracker which is really cool, whilst I managed to finish off my Christmas shopping! These markets are a must when visiting Canberra!

Later that day we went to the Glassworks. It’s housed in an old coal fired power station that has been converted into an art gallery, shop, glass school and artist workshop with a public viewing gallery. We sat and watched a group of three artists who had hired out the workshop and were making a large red and orange vase. It was impressive to see the technique and patience that goes into making hand blown glass! We didn’t purchase any glass pieces due to the expensive price tags, but after watching how much work goes into one piece we can appreciate the cost!



Australian War Memorial



The next day was spent at the National War Memorial. This is truly a world class museum. We wandered lost in our own thoughts amongst the photographs, original letters and telegraphs, detailed dioramas, artefacts including vehicles, tanks, boats and planes, movie presentations, sensory simulations of bomber planes and trench shelters, war artist paintings as well as reading all the information panels. We spent about 5 hours in the museum and didn’t get past World War 2, so we decided to come back the next day as I was really keen to learn more about the Korean War. On our second visit we also went to the research room to find our family records on their digital archives. I was able to read copies of the daily handwritten war diary of my Grandad’s army regiment in the Korean War, whilst Stuart found the personnel files of his Grandfather who was a signalman in WW2 and his Great Grandfather who was in the West Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment in Palestine during WW1! We finished our visit with a walk through the actual war memorial, seeing all the thousands of names of Australians who have lost their lives in the various conflicts around the world, and culminating with a quiet moment in the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The tomb left us both a little awed and stunned. The tomb is housed in a beautiful domed tower, with the walls completely covered in mosaics representing the various services and lit through stained glass windows.

We also paid a visit to the Royal Australian Mint, where Stuart minted his own $1 coin... at a cost of $3! Did you know that in the early days of settlement, Australia’s currency was pretty much anything they could find – the Australian holey dollar was actually made out of Spanish currency imported into Australia to ease the new settlement’s currency shortage! Pretty smart move really – import some large coins, punch the middle out of them, and both sections become legal tender!

And of course we visited Parliament House – very impressive and luxuriant. Did you know that the colour scheme in the House of Representatives is based on the green/grey foliage of the eucalypts, whilst the Senate had to have special permission to have the exit signs in red (Australian Standard states they must be green) so they match the red decor!!! God forbid they clash! We also learnt a bit more about the operations of Parliament. Previous to our visit, we didn’t know that Australia actually has one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta in existence in the world. It was written in the 1200’s and forms the basis from which our government developed.

There was so much more to see in Canberra we really could have spent weeks exploring it all. I think this is another place I would like to return to as we missed the National Art Gallery and I’d love to do a behind the scenes tour of the National Library (yeah well, I am a qualified Library Technician!). It seems that there is always a number of touring exhibitions, music festivals and markets going on. Who knew our capital was so exciting! That being said, Canberra’s location just seems a little remote, although we found out the site was selected as a bit of a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne who were both vying for the capital title. But it’s safe, people are walking around everywhere at night (when it’s not raining!) and it has clean air and plenty of open space.

If you’re wondering why we didn’t stay longer – the answer is we got rained out! The wind changed directions on us and started blowing so hard straight into our camp that we couldn’t use the gas stove to even have a cuppa. This is when we packed away the kitchen, eating leftovers from the fridge, buying dinner and using our hiking stove to make hot chocolates whilst we huddled inside the camper. As the rain continued, the ground around our camper turned to slush which made walking around the car and trips to the amenities rather slippery. By day four we really were starting to get a little down due to the absolutely crappy weather conditions. It was also looking like we’ll have to miss the Snowy Mountains and Mount Kosciusko as they were in the clouds!

Thankfully Stuart’s mum came to the rescue with an offer of a holiday unit in the nearby coastal town of Merimbula owned by her relatives. It was an easy decision to gratefully accept the offer when we looked at the weather forecast and discovered flood warnings in just about every direction!



We needed 4WD in the caravan park! So slippery!



So here we are! The camper is packed away and we are taking a break under a solid roof again. We really have been spoilt with the use of Stuart’s family’s unit. It has glass frontage and a wide veranda with views to the beach across the road and is walking distance from the centre of town. If we get a break in the weather we will try and make a day trip to the Snowy Mountains, but it’s not looking too good at the moment. As it turns out, our decision to leave Canberra was the right one, as we heard that they received 90mm of rain overnight! As it was, when we left, the ground was so muddy that Stuart had to engage 4WD just to move the car in the morning! The back tyres of the car had sunk into the mud and were just spinning on the spot!

According to weather forecasts and satellite images, there looks to be no near end to this crazy year of La Nina rain on the east coast. So we will just have to do the best we can to explore the National Parks and wilderness areas when we can. We are well set up and can make a pretty comfortable camp by now, but returning to a damp camper each night challenges your enthusiasm a bit!

Stuart was really looking forward to exploring the Stromlo Forest mountain bike trails now that his hand was out of the cast, but given the foul weather and really slippery conditions, it wasn’t worth the risk. He decided not to even go and have a look, let alone ride any of the trails, as it would be too frustrating! Hopefully we’ll be able to get back on the bikes down in Tasmania, along with Victoria and South Australia as we head home!

Until our next adventure, a huge thanks to Stuart’s relatives for the use of this lovely, cosy, dry retreat!

Love Mish and Stu