Soul Survivor: Notes from the Open Road- Sydney/Melb 2008

Here's the late blog entry on the Sydney/Melbourne road trip 2008! :) It was quite an adventure for 4 gals....driving from Sydney to Melbourne without a freaking map. And we made it!! haha! But it reminded me that life is sometimes like that eh? Sometimes we have to travel without a map, but we sure do have a compass. :) And this song which I heard on the radio while we were on the open road just seemed to capture the essence of the whole trip for me.....

"I will embrace what every moment brings cos You are with me..."- Ginny Owens.

And so here are some photos from that trip which saw us driving through all sorts of terrain and weather (blistering sun, rain, fog, mist, wind etc). We saw our share of gross roadkill (poor wombats), survived on a disgusting amount of junk food in the car, saw plenty of cows and pretty white horses along the way, and even stayed over at some pretty dodgy/scary motels (think Norman Bates in "Psycho"). That was quite an experience! At the moment, I only have photos from my lousy handphone camera.....I'll provide a link when May compiles the nicer photos from her professional camera. :)

Taking the scenic coastal drive from Sydney to Melbourne...this was one of our unplanned stops along the way. Check out the beautiful view from this paragliding site.

Amazing weekend activities these Aussies have. "Hmm, what shall I do this wkend? I think I'll fly!" :)

And off he goes...

We even saw a wee little girl (around 4 or 5 years old) strapped on to her Daddy for the ride. May has the photos for that I think.

The sleepy university town of Wollongong that kinda messed up our driving plans. We stopped here for lunch, and ended up staying for 3 1/2 hours cos we chanced upon a factory outlet. haha! Anyway, this is the church on the mall. :) See the close-up of the sign below.

Lighthouse at Kiama, a little village famous for its blowhole, which spouts water high into the air. The Aboriginal name aptly means" place where sea makes noise."

I couldn't catch the blowhole in action, but managed to take some photos of the gorgeous blue sea.

May climbing on the rocks to take photos.

Batemans Bay, where we stopped over for the night. We went for a walk along the bay before we had dinner...and we waved to the friendly locals in their boats. :)

The dusking sky casting a magical glow on the sapphire waters...

The stretch of restaurants where we had our meal of fish and chips. :) The seafood was very fresh too.

The Great Ocean Drive! It was beautiful but also long, winding, and very misty. At one point, visibility was so poor, Rie and Shan couldn't see what was in front of them. *panic* [ie. we could have almost driven off the cliff cos there were no railings] We made a wrong turn and ended up on a helipad too. hehe! But ah well, in the end we made it....and the drive was worth it for the majestic sight of the 12 apostles.

Still a bit foggy as you can see...and my handphone camera doesn't do it any justice.

Melbourne, Lygon Street (Little Italy) where we had one of the best meals on the trip. Shan and I had dinner at Toto's which is apparently the oldest Italian restaurant on the strip.

Authentic, flavourful, wood fired Italian pizza!!! VERY Yummy!

The quaint streets of Melbourne with Victorian architecture.

The modern wing of the Melbourne Museum

The old exhibition hall. I love how the cascading branches frame the picture.

Carlton Gardens, a small little respite of a park in the middle of the city. I love how the Aussies take time to read in the park, and just sprawl on its greens. :)

2 dudes feeding a bunch of ducks.

Shan venturing closer to make friends with the feathered ones...

She named them Puffy and Duffy. They really not scared lor...follow us around cos they thought we had food for them.

One of Shan's many signature shots where only her eyes are captured. Gah-men officers! They're spying on us I tell u.

Happy, relaxed moments in the park. :) It was probably one of my favourite times in Melbourne. Seriously, just plonk me in a quiet park....with a book and a good friend for company, and I'm more than contented.

It would be so nice...just to have someone to sit with. :)

One of my fav shots of the park....I'm very proud of this. :) The trees frame the pic perfectly.

Dessert at the famous Brunetti's on Lygon St. This cafe with its European atmosphere, and delectable spread of Italian desserts is the epitomy of Melbourne Cafe Culture. Pity I couldn't get a better shot of all the chocs, pastries and cakes. They're so sophisticated and pretty you wouldn't want to eat them!

Back on the road again....we stopped for breakfast at Mac's in the sleepy town of Goulbourn.

This is the prettiest Mac's I've ever seen.

And that's the picture perfect view outside our window! May grabbing the opportunity to take some photos of the pretty field.

Rie behind the wheel of Wagaweewee (yes, of course we named our car. Like duh!)

The Blue Mountains! :) I'm glad you can actually see the blue mist in this photo.

The Three Sisters

Oooh, I love this picture taken of a rare and antique bookshop in the quaint little village of Leura. :) Bought my bookplates from this shop...and the owner of the shop was such a sweet, lovely old man too.

Many treasures lie behind that chest. :)

May posing on the "seat for bored husbands". Hehe! This is along the strip of shops on Leura, where me and Shan did some serious shopping damage.

Reunion dinner in the mountains...at a not so chinese restaurant.

Shan in her battle to overcome the humongous Australian food portions.

Poor Shan always gets the unfortunate bed by the window. First to be seen and killed by any psycho killer on the loose. haha! She's just making sure everything's safe before hitting the sack.

Shan went to shower in the morning and got a rude shock when she came back, cos she found May asleep in HER bed. haha! The startled yell was quite funny I assure you.

Every morning I NEED to get my caffeine fix....if not I just cannot function. Usually if we're in the city or a small town, Shan and I will hit Gloria Jean's first thing in the morning. ("a small Vanilla Latte pleeeeaassee!!" with a sprinkle of cinnamon too). Glorian Jean's was our best fren. haha! But in the mountains, we made do by bugging the nice auntie who owned the cafe next door to our townhouse. Some pictures of her garden that I snapped, while the auntie was making our Lattes and scrambled eggs.

I miss bugging that auntie. hehe!

How did we know we arrived at the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mts?? When we saw this awesome grand arch!! Everyone dashed out for peektures.

Inside the grand archway....which also happened to be the waiting area for our guided tours. At this point, Shan was quite worried of dying inside the caves, cos our 2 hr Lucas Cave tour was described as 'strenuous' with 900++ steps. Tsk tsk....that girl doesn't gym u see.

Pretty view of the lake beside the caves.

The Jenolan Caves which are considered the finest and oldest cave systems in the world, was a huge highlight for me on this trip. We saw some truly spectacular cave and underground river formations. It felt quite surreal, like we were having a Lord of the Rings experience....delving into the underground kingdom of the dwarves. :) Can you see the ladder in the background? Early explorers used to climb that....and the guide even said that they would have church services and lunch thereafter in the caves! They only had candle light to guide them in those days mind you. Today, they have concerts in the caves....apparently the Vienna Boys Choir performed here. :)

If I'm not wrong, they called these formations "bridal veils". Interesting eh?

Shan in her sneaky Gollum pose....I love it!

May and Rie in their muddy overalls after their adventure tour...where they abseiled and climbed/crawled through plug holes.

Someone is ravenous after climbing 900+ steps

Nature's glorious interplay between light and shadows

Awesome view

I like taking photos of benches...must be a Notting Hill thing.

A view of the Katoomba Townhouse where we stayed in at the mountains. That's the dining area...I was trying to capture the spread of junk food which we survived on. But it wasn't clear. Bleah.