12th Feb , Highest Mountain, longest beach

After a great pancake breakfast we catch a chair lift up into the "mountains". With the Alpine lodge the night before and now this I'm feeling a bit confused. It could pass for the Alps if you squinted. However with the benefit of eyesight you realise at once that the trees are wrong- Snowy gums rather than pines- and that left me with the feeling of having slid into another dimension. Above the tree line and it's a 6.5km easy walk up to top of Australia. Unfortunately the cloud cover gets heavier and although we're spared rain there's nothing to see from the top. At 9 degrees C and me in my gortex jacket it could pass for the Lake District- except for the lack of sheep and the delicate alpine-type plants.
Back down and after lunch on the road to take the scenic route from Jindabyne through the Snowy river National Park. Much of this is on a unsealed road- although reasonably driveable, probably more so when it's not raining. For the rain's caught us up in heavy showers. This is clearly the part of the trip when the guide educates you regarding Australian music so we start we the country stuff, move through the Aboriginal bands to more contemporary.
All the time winding along hairpin, with sheer drops below and nothing on the horizon except gum trees. I suddenly begin to get a sense of just how vast Australia is. The forests are interspersed with skeletal leafless trees- victims of the 2003 bush fire which burnt for 6 weeks! Australian species though are designed for this and regeneration has left the forest as green as before.
A great moment as spectacular views unravel, Men At Work- I come from a land down under plays and a kangaroo dashes across the road. So this is Australia afterall.
At Wulgumerang the proper road resumes and we arrive at Lakes Entrance. A touristy rather tawdry town full of motels where the Gippsland lakes reach the sea at 90 mile beach.

11th Canberra and Snowy Mountains

An early start to catch the minibus that would head from Sydney via Canberra to Melbourne over 3 days. "Squatter"- our guide and driver is a slightly mad Aussie, catch-phrase "yee-ha!" and en-route he tells us much about Australia, the capital and the reasons for its formation.
We arrive in Canberra and stop at the war memorial- sitting at one end of Anzac parade it's a quiet, beautiful building with an eternally burning flame and a grave of an unknown Australian soldier. I learn much about the ANZACs and their massive defeats- at Ypres in WWI and Gallipoli in WWII especially. In fact, it seems the only time they had a military victory was in defence of Australia in WWII when the army was away from home and a make-shift army of old men and boys were dispatched to fight in Indonesia as the Japanese advanced. Australia was never invaded but Darwin was bombed. And in fact Australia and GB were essentially at war for several days in WWII when the Oz general demanded to be able to take his army home to defend it's country.
We drive down ANZAC parade with monuments to the different wars and conflicts and those involved down the sides.Canberra is a city designed around concentric circles which seems to make driving and navigation pretty difficult!
Outside Old Parliament House and we learn about the Aboriginal protest, first for landrights but now although some things have improved, still ongoing and a place where violence could very easily be incited.
After lunch eaten in the midst of a multicultural festival in Canberra it's a tour of the New Parliament- sunk into the hillside, symbolically not raised- not presiding. The Official tour is 3 hours, Squatter's was 45 minutes though we did have to run to keep up. His resume of ex-Prime Ministers was biased largely towards their misdeamours though this added interest of course! We learnt about the Oz voting system- well, something about it, I got a bit confused. However if the 2 houses can't agree on an issue then a general election can be held and all MPs ousted. Voting is compulsory and I get the impression that Australians are rather more interested than the English are.
A few hours drive now and up into the Snowy Mountains where reasonable skiing can be had in Winter. We passed Jindabyne lake, a man-made lake created for a hydroelectric scheme and also to distribute melt-waters to inland dry areas.


We stayed in Thredbo in a distinctly Alpine-feeling ski chalet, very bizarre in summer. However the temperature had dropped right down with heavy rain and trousers and jumpers were needed.

10th- Aquarium

Back into Sydney today, really so I was in the right place for an early pick up for the 3 day tour I'd booked Sydney to Melbourne. YHA The Railway was very smart after the run-down Backpackers out at Manly and a chance to do laundry and get more organised!

In the afternoon I walked down to the Aquarium to see the sharks and penguins etc. Unfortunately the rare Dugongs weren't on display which was disappointing!

8th-9th Surfing and Bondi

I'd been doing my bit for Anglo-French relations and been socialising with the French hostellers, their comprehension we discovered was dramatically improved by the addition of a French accent to problem words! No joke!
Next day I had a surf lesson planned - my first one and I was rather nervous. The surf had been big enough in the last few days for the beach to be closed to swimmers. And to paraphrase some famous person: It's far easier to eat handfuls of sand and mouthfuls of sea water than learn to surf! Our instructor was energetic and a bit mad and soon had us doing dry runs of jumping up on the board. We only went out about 15 metres to catch small waves, by the end of 2 hours I'd managed to catch a few waves, then mostly fall off but on a few occasions get to my feet, balance and make it to the beach for the final few metres. Woo!
Then that was me pretty much finished off for the day. I'd not been ready to leave the water but on a final fall, I was left sitting in the shallows with the waves washing over me and realised I was pretty tired!

Next day stiff and sore from surfing,  I headed over to Bondi beach to see what the fuss was about. Still not sure, it's meant to be the epitomee of Australian beach culture. Nice enough beach, clearly popular but just a beach. I walked several kilometres down the coast to Coogee which was nice and swam in an ocean pool to cool off. 

Manly 7th-8th Feb

A train from Newcastle to Sydney took about 3 hours and cost about $8 dollars. Compare that to an English train journey with no advance booking! Only thing I've found cheaper over here yet...!

Back in Sydney I became the proud owner of a bank card then caught the ferry over to Manly, part of greater Sydney really but the nearest ocean beach to the city. The hostel here was a bit of a come down after good old YHA. The gas rings took nerves of steel to light, you had to place a deposit to borrow a mug and there was sand everywhere! However, the people were friendly though mainly french.
Next day I walked around the North head pennisula which took about 4 hours and is a track through some pretty wild-feeling preserved bush-land with some good sea views. Strange to be in a bit of a wilderness spotting lizards and ears full of insect noise with the Sydney skyline breaking through everyso often! It was pretty hot and I was glad to swim later in an outdoor but heated pool (not that they have to heat it all that much!).

5th Newcastle

Newcastle being so close to the Hunter Valley and New South Wales' 2nd city it seemed like a good plan to pop up there. A sunny Sunday and it was all about the beach. Too many waves for anything more than cooling off in the sea (well, unless you were surfing) but a huge ocean pool was great for lengths. As it cooled down the cliff walk was very scenic and back at the rather posh YHA (leather armchairs!) I compared sunburn with 2 Canadian girls.

3rd-4th February Hunter Valley and wineries

Up early, I took a train 2 hours outside Sydney, caught a bus then got a lift from the nice YHA people and was suddenly in the country in the middle of wine country! A nice change from the city and as the afternoon progressed the rain stopped and hiring a bike, I set out to explore. It felt good to move under my own steam after the confines of the city, however for a valley it was surprisingly hilly and my legs were a little shocked by the novel exercise of cycling!  A wine tasting and champagne (well premium sparkling wine actually) tasting were good reward for the exertion.
Whilst stopping to take pictures I think I saw my first Red Back Spider but wasn't inclined to linger! It might have been something else.
As evening came blue sky reappeared and a small rainbow. Intense insect noise kicked in, another contrast.

Apart from me and my Swiss roomate everyone else in the hostel were working as grape pickers, however it's not been a good summer for the grapes, too much rain has meant they can't be picked and even when it dries off the sugar content is low (avoid the 2012 vintage perhaps?)
Next day an organised wine tour for myself, Sylvie and a couple of others- 1 English, 1 Irish. The sun shone and the day flew by in a happy hedonistic blur. We discovered the Swiss girl liked reds, for me the whites, for the Irish- well she'd drink it even if she didn't like it, not much spitting out on this trip! There was also some soft cheeses (feta and camembert varieties are made around this area) and gelato.
The Hunter Valley is known for its Semillon, Chardonnay and Shiraz varieties. Also Verdelho not usually grown outside Portugal. It's too warm for the cooler grape varieties- the Sauvignon and Pinots. We visited Lindemans as a large winery and several small, family run ones- Constables, Mount View and Savannah Estate but there around 140 in the Hunter Valley most only selling from cellar door (sadly!)