Ingrid and Jan Olav in Australia

Back in Stavanger, February 27th

iewall — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:09:57 +0000

Back home - no more shorts and t-shirts

After a long travel, 35 hours in total, we have returned home. We have had a fab holiday and are well and truly recharged. Now we look forward to seeing our Norwegian friends and family. Ready for work on Monday? Maybe

Our journey to great and wonderful Australia has been a fantastic experience, not least for the time we spent time with good friends and relatives. Thank you all for making our journey memorable.
Thanks also to everyone who have commented on our blog, which has been a great way to stay in touch for us.

Finally some advice for the next traveller to Oz: Bring a camera with more than 3x zoom to get good shots of the wonderful wildlife; AND buy a GPS navigator, an Australian mobile phone (cash phone) and apply plenty of sun screen lotion
Be prepared for both hot, warm, cold and wet weather – even in summer.

We also recommend reading Bill Bryson’s book “Down Under”. We would like to end our journey with two quotations from this book:

“…The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging; their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life does not get better than this…”

“… This is a country that has never had a serious civil disturbance, never jailed a dissident, never shown the tiniest inclination to fray at the edges. Australia is the Norway of the southern hemisphere…”

Freemantle, February 24-26th

iewall — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:56:39 +0000

Freemantle was our last stop before flying back to Europe. We worked on our tan before driving up, Ingrid more successful than Jan Olav (prefers the shade). We have looked forward to see Fremantle, but as it was our last stop it reminded us that we may not be quite ready for the return to Norway

Fremantle is the port of Perth, called Freo among friends. It turned out to be an nice and busy suburb with an an abundance of good restaurants and pubs, many of them directly on the water. It is worth mentioning the Little Creature Brewery which have excellent beer, but a very noisy pub/restaurant for visitors.

Freo - view from hotel

We had checked into a hotel with seaview and hoped for sunsets, but the weather turned Norwegian with rain and overcast. Thus, we spent most of our time reading, drinking tea, and having nice meals. Rottnest Island and sailing on the Swan River have to wait until next time.

Freo - last night with Debbie

This morning we left for the airport and said farewell to Debbie, which will be leaving for Sydney while we head north for Norway. Sad to leave all our friends behind..

South West Coast Discovery, February 21-22th

iewall — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:52:20 +0000

Sunset over the Indian Ocean at Yallingup

Saturday dining was take-away (fish and chips) at Yallingup beach. We wanted to catch the sunset over the Indian Ocean, a first for all of us. The picture gives you an impression of the great sunset which can be enjoyed here every night.

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, south west point of Australia; south pole next

The Sunday was spent on a round trip to the the south west tip of Australia: Cape Leeuwin, where the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet. The lighthouse and its history is really interesting (a must see). From here the next stop is the south pole, 5435 kilometers away.

We also made a quick stop just north of the lighthouse at the great Hamelin beach where stingrays can be seen very close up; they come to the beach to say hello (picture). Fascinating animals that look almost prehistoric.

Big stingray, about 1 meter wide and 1.5 meter long

And of course, we finished with a bit of wine tasting at the Leeuwin Estate near Margaret River, great wines and setting (highly recommended, try their “Art” series of wines). Please note that wine tasting can be done on Sundays here, which is not common in Europe.

Margaret River Wineries, February 19th

iewall — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:47:49 +0000

Firstly: Debbie asked us to say a BIG HELLO to all her Norwegian friends.

Happy Girls (note the statue behind them in the dam)

After enjoying the beach for a day, and our first dip ever in the Indian Ocean, we felt it was time to explore the surroundings.

Thus, we did a first sampling of the wineries yesterday and you can see that the girls were happy about that.

We did three wineries as well as a coffee brewery and a chocolate factory. All was excellent, but Jan Olav is not quite sure that the Margaret River wines deserve their reputation to be better than other Oz premium wines, just different.

After the wineries we felt like some sightseeing along the beautiful coastline, and found Yallingup (“place of love”) especially good, it is also one of the many super surfing beaches on the south west coast.

Todd, Ingrid, and Debbie on Yallingup beach

South West Coast, February 17-18th

iewall — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:28:57 +0000

We have based ourselves in Dunsborough on the South West coast, 3-4 hours driving south of Perth. We will stay in this pretty seaside town for a week. It has a bit of infrastructure which makes it an excellent base for discovering the surroundings. Ingrid is looking forward to seeing the Margaret River wineries found close by. However, on the first whole day we will enjoy the view from our luxurious cabin and the beach which is just 20 meters away.

View from our cabin, 15 meters to the beach

Yesterday evening we had a visit from a couple of very cute possums that seems to live in our roof. Somebody must have feed them before, because they were very friendly.

Possum in the roof

Perth, February 16-17th

iewall — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:09:07 +0000

On Monday the 16th we went to Western Australia for the last leg of our journey before going home; we will spend the time here with our good friend Debbie so she joined us on the flight. This is a large country, thus, the flight took 5 hours; it is almost as long as going from Norway to the Canary Islands. We met with Todd, which is Debbie’s brother in law; he has taken some time off and will be our “guide” to Western Australia.

We spent our first night in Perth, which has a reputation of not having much to offer, but we found that not to be true. In a quick afternoon we did the Kings park with a really impressive botanical garden and offering excellent views over Perth. Later we went to Northbridge for a pleasant meal in an area with a lot of nice restaurants.

Debbie and Ingrid - looking good in Kings park

Gosford and Sydney, February 13-15th

iewall — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:05:35 +0000

Well it is soon time to leave our good friends in Gosford so we are spending a few days with them before leaving for a cricket match in Sydney on Sunday. We will then be flying out to Perth for the last leg of our journey.

Currently, it feels almost like home with a steady rainfall that has been going on for some days now. Luckily we brought a few good wines from Hunter that we can test while we are waiting for the sun

We had a good barbie (barbeque for the Norwegians) with the gang before leaving for the cricket match. However, we managed a line up even though our stomachs were full.

Debbie, Brett, Ingrid *(front); Margie and Glen (back)

In Sydney we saw a three hours cricket match; this is a short one, they can go on for five days. However, it got very exciting at the end where Australia won 150 to 149 over New Zealand (the Kiwis).

Happy cricket lovers: Go Aussie Go!

Hunter Valley, February 12-13th

iewall — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:24:15 +0000

Blonde in her natural environment?

It is Ingrid’s lucky day today as we are in wine heaven. The temperature is moderate and, thus, Hunter Valley is a good place to be. We decided that we could not leave the east coast without doing the wineries. We have started with Peterson and had a long good chat with John, which dug out all their excellent wines. The disapointment is that these wines can not be bought in Norway

However, we have bought some to be tested during our last weekend in Gosford, yummie

Kangaroo warning sign

Also, we have had our first close up encounter with a two kangaroos; no picture as they ran away, but we hope the road sign will do.

After the first meeting we saw plenty of them (still no close-up pictures), and you find these signs all over.

South of Sydney, February 9-12th

iewall — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:56:48 +0000

Dolphin watcher - cold but happy

We are now at the south coast of New South Wales for some days. Beach towns have been he main goal as the inland has been deemed too hot. Ironically it has been raining for a few days, but it is starting to get better today. We have checked out Kiama, Ulladulla and Jervis Bay and found the latter to be the best choice. Ulladulla (strange name again) which is very popular was not much, while Kiama was a very nice place, but a bit close to Sydney

We have based ourselves in Huskisson at Jervis Bay, at an excellent waterfront cabin (www.anglesealodge.com.au). Jervis Bay is well known for its wildlife, and yesterday we did the obligatory dolphin watching trip and saw a lot. It was good fun, but a little touristy. Also, we have seen eagles, pelicans and oystercathcers directly outside our cabin as well as a fantastic sunrise.

Best ever view from bedroom?

Gosford, February 7-8th

iewall — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:54:18 +0000

We have been back in Gosford for a relaxing weekend with our friends, lovely as always. However, the sad news about the bushfires down in Victora has been hard to grasp. It is a very tragic time for Australia.