Australia

Well, overnight flights! What can I say.... they suck! Spent the night on the plane, landed in Darwin at 5am, got to the hostel at 6 to find they didnt even have a TV room to crash in (we were early for checkin by 8hrs). I managed to work the irish charm to get us into a room that had just emptied for a tour. Thought our luck was in, but it turned out to be the room right above the bar, a bar that turned out to be the local watering hole for all the Crazy Miners and Northern territory bushmen. Not much sleep for our 3nights here. We did a little exploring of Darwin, checked out the other hostels in the town to make sure we knew what to expect. We booked ourselves on a Kakadu tour for the tuesday initially, but the next three days were a right off as lou got a flu form the ice cold aircon and heat outside. We rebooked the trip and moved into a another hostel(Metaluca on mitchelle). I booked myself on sunset fishing charter that evening, meet a group of lads from wexford on the boat, we managed to get chased down by the Australian Navy was pretty amusing. Lots of scaring the wexford lads into handing me their beers for safe keeping. They didnt even give us a warning shot accross the port bow! Dissapointing! Darwin was the centre for a large scale military exercise, (navy airforce and army). The fishing was a bit of a wash out, I only caught what the aussies call a stubbie holder, no good for eating. Shame, the sunset was unreal tho.

Next day we sat by the pool and meet an couple who were in our room, we decided to go for dinner with them to the VIC, a backpacker pub. Where Kev managed to blag us all a free dinner, sweet! Headed back the hostel for a few cheap jugs of beer and conversation. We all decided to go on a croc jumping tour the next day! Holy moley! this really was Crocadile Dundee country. We landed at this hut buy the muddy Mary River. Croc country! The guide led us to a small tin boat and told us there we no life jackets because the crocs would get us before we drowned or made it to the bank. We all laughed it off thinking, yeah he's only joking. Once we started the motor on the boat three crocs
appeared out of nowhere. We headed up the river until we met daffy the baby croc, the girl at the top of the boat had some meat on a stick, the we bugger almost jumped into the boat to get the meat. This was pretty scary seeing as he was only about a meter big and there were supposed to be crocs up to 8 meters in the river. The next hour or so was spent teasing and poking huge crocs until they leaped out of the water! Some big mother out there! On the way back we managed to get a look at the king of the river, they call him hannibal for good reason, they reckon he is almost 100 years old, if you do a search on you tube you can see him in action. He survived the big croc kulls of the past. He alomst got in the water, glad he didnt to be honest! That night we all headed to the Vic again to swindle another free dinner!

Next day lou and I headed off on our Kakadu tour, turned out to be full of oldies! Still tho there was some savage views, aboriginal artwork, another croc tour, but these guys didnt see, intrested in jumping into our boat thankfully. The tour guide put on a documentary on the bus on the way home, turned out to be crocadile dundee the movie! It had a heap of the places we were just in which was pretty cool. Oh yeah on the way back we thought we had got caught up in a bush fire, fire both sides of the road, but it turned out to be ranger doing a bush burn off! Pretty amazing sight being in the middle of a 'forest fire'. Landed home and had a game of poker with all the lads. We were due to fly to broome the next day but the flight was cancelled for mechanical problems, we moved the flight two days, and then moved it again for another 5 days because we heard broome wasnt that lively.

The next week was spend lazing by the pool, free dinners in the vic and playing poker into the wee hours. Oh yeah and not to forget the sunday session! Out all day and stayed up to watch the Spain Italy game at 5am with our spirish buddy (born in ireland raised in spain, with a cork accent). Mad craic, I managed to get lost on the way home, and the hostel was evacuated by a fire alarm at 6am, everyone dragged out of their beds into the street in sometimes nothing more than a bed sheet on them. The next few days the group stared to get smaller with people leaving to go home and stuff, louise started to show her cork poker skills and raking in a few beer tokens.

On thurday night we headed to the Mindil sunset markets. Its a really big local and tourist market that has everything from crazy eats like road kill barbque to wierd stalls that sell crocadile skulls. Some savage good chinese foods and unreal danish pancakes! We had a few beers on the beach and watched the sun set right on the ocean.
Must say we were glad we put darwin back on our destination list, we had planned to miss it because of what others had said, but the place was savage craic, real backpacker laid back feel to the place, not too many long term unfriendly holiday workers.

Decided to stay in Dunsborough that night drove for about 3 hours to get there. Poor Denis on his lack of sleep from the Irish Coffees! Dunsborough is very weird quite little spot. We were the only people in the hostel. Decided to get an early one so we could do a bit of touring the next day.
Landed Early enough in Margaret River did a bit of driving about, saw some serious surfing they were wearing helmets and the waves were absolutely massive! Headed off to see one of the famous caves down here a bit later on. Mammoth Cave. Really cool and cold spent an hour or 2 touring about here did a bit of bush walking too! lol!
Booked ourselves into a wine tour the next day and headed back to the hostel.

Up early to head off on our wine tour! They supplied us with a steak/Chicken BBQ first something to do with RSA (responsible service of Alcohol!) Denis Happy enough with the steak! went to 3 differant wineries the water shed, redgate and belammey... great fun! Tasted at least 5 differant wins in each place.... we didnt do the spitty thing! such a waste! drank some lovely wine and some really differant ones... one made with chilli! Also stopped off at a venison factory, a chocolate factory (yummmmmy!!! ) and a cheese Factory! oh yeah and finished up in a micro brewery doing a bit of beer tasting!great days craic! stumbled home at 6ish!

Headed back to Perth the next day, picked up Sarah beautiful day so headed off to the beach Cottesloe, did a bit of a walkaround and back to Sarahs new flash pad for a bit of dinner!

Booked ourselves into oneWorld BackPackers, Lovely hostel really friendly and helpful staff. Dropped car back the next day at a total loss as to what to do next.....we had been thinking about going to bali or making our way to Broome as perth is getting a good bit colder now. Walked past a travel agents the next day with big posters for Bali on a budget....went in and came out with a 3 week trip booked thought we were getting it for half price but that turned out to be too good to be true... stil tho got a good deal and as we have no plan and loads of time we say Why the hell not!
Booked ourselves into Dorm room back in Billabong after forking out that cash Sharing with Paul our Liverpool friend and Raj - a fijian guy (70 +) over here to meet his cyber girlfriend!!! he turned out to be The ultimate snoring champion! He was sleeping on the bunk below me and i swear the bed actually shook! never heard anything like it... little nicky has got nothing on this guy. The possesed human chainsaw. Thankfully he left the next day.
Headed to fremantle on a ferry the next day for a bit of touring about, some seriously expensive real estate along the river. way out of our budget!! Back at the hostel later that night decided to have a few bevies, Met Paul and a gang of Tyrone ones and limerick schoolmates and a few from Galway and Norway! Turned out to be champions league final at 3am that night so headed off to the casino to watch it. played roulette then lost all our winnings on one game of black jack! watched first half and headed back way too late for us oldies!

Chilling out for the next few days til we head to Bali on sunday

We made it to perth in one piece really late tho! Sarah followed after a scare about landing somewhere in Kalgourlie b'cos of fog (there was no fog tho?????.... tiger airways...hmmmmm)
Out and about Perth the next day, got the free bus around ( it really is free!) got off at the Swan Bells could hear sarah chatting away to some randomer behind us and when we got off and looked around she was was standing up in the bus waving as the bus drove off! lol!!! took her 20 mins to get back to us when we laughed a lot! poor Sarah! Went up to Kings Park, Weather lovely and really nice views of Perth.
Sat Having a few bevies in the hostel later on, Met our first thru blus Aussie mate. (Big Mick from the territory, exploration Miner). He proceeded to talk at us for about 2 hours! funny tho he wanted us to send Denis "out bush mate... Come back like Ned Kelly half starved, big beard, 6 guns hanging off him" this was repeated approx 20 times! Really sketchy guy and he took a bit of a shine to our Sarah! It turned out that the Hostel was where he comes drinking to pester people.... everyone else had the good sense to ignore him, we found him pretty funny but were really glad when our beers ran out! Sort of a cross between Mick Dundee and Chopper Reed!!!!
Next Day we were pretty hungover, had a quite one, sarah shopping for jobs and work clothes. We sat about, had cheap steak dinner, updated our Bebo and Blog. Then headed out to Brass Monkeys bar with a group of derry lads, headed to the shed, where we were turned away for wearing flipflops. A blessing in disguise. Had some kebabs and early bed. Took the next day off the groug, up early on monday for our firest free brekfast, free cardboard more like. Headed off to rent a few bikes and do the shorth tour of the swan river esturary, ended up takeing a wrong turn and heading 30km into the swam valley before realising our mistake. Turned around and headed back, sore rears at the end of the day. Rasor sharp saddles. Ouch! Early night after busy day.
Went to meet louise's 2nd Cousin (Lizzie B) the next day in freemantle, lovley dinner and some nice red wine. Nice evening catching up on all the news from home. Got the train back that night. Sarah abandonded us for her new job in a swanky resturant. While dropping off her bike at the rental place, she was sheltering form the rain outside a welfare centre. A nice numn came out and started chatting to her, then offered her a free bike, helment and pump. The beginning of the free stuff for Sarah! French making plenty noise singing westlife songs that night! Denis conversing in french to shut them up! "Mon ami tais toi"
Louise comming down with a cold, so sent denis off to the chemist, where he seemed to get lost, ended up in a bottle shop and came back with a bottle of Jameson. Cold remedy was his reasoning! So we tucked into the hot whiskeys and Irish Coffee's. Had 4 to many coffess late at night, decided to switch to the hot tooties. Too late tho, damage was done. Denis sitting wide awake in Bed until 6 in the Morning. Went to pick up the car cos we were leaving for Margaret River, collected Sarah's bike from the Nuns. Lots fo Hungs and kisses for Louise and Sarah from the 2 irish nuns. Very Funny!!! Left Sarah and headed off to Margaret River.

Decided on an AFL game on Saturday, Collingwood v Richmond! Had some beers and chilled out. Sarah headed off to meet some random friends and picked up a Bulldogs scarf, The rest o us got some pizza and chilled out with a DVD. Nice change no Alcohol in sight ( cept for frawley )
Feeling energetic the next day so headed off to St Kilda for a cycle. Strolled around the markets for an hour or so and then off on a cycle. Lost Ruth along the way to some bird poop! St Kilda lovely place pity abut the weather not being so great. Headed off out for dinner and some beers later... Ended up in PJ o Briens til late o clock. Sarah getting the funny looks cos of her lovely new scarf.
Hungover heads the next morning, Left Ruth and Sarah off to see some monkeys (playing with themselves apparently!) glad we missed that. Ruths last night so we decided to splash out on some yummy dinner in Food and Wine co. yummy skewers! lots of lovely wine too
Up early to check out and for Ruth to get in some last minute shopping! Decided to move b'cos of the dodgey old guys eating the spaghetti out of the bins and the james brown pimp in his neon suit! good golly!
Sarah Den and me said a tearful farewell to Ruthie and headed off to check into the Nunnery for some Detox time! got the not so free tram with our bags in rush hour! ended up sleeping in a room on the tram line with monster snorer! Karma bites back - should have paid for the trams! The Nunnery is such a weird place... real eerie old convent!
Changed rooms next day as in bad need of some shuteye at this stage! Headed off to the Museum where Denis learned that he has the best reaction time out of all 3 of us! Booked flights later on to head off to Perth where we believe its not so bloody cold! Of course we messed that up and Sarah ended up on a different flight! lol!
Late flight the next day so hung about listening to shite hawks english forcing her opinoin on other peoples countries which were absolute shite! We stayed out of it! Headed off to the immigration museum lots of Mcfaddens in the airforce! Said goodbye to the Nuns and headed off to the airport!

Melbourne
Landed so early! missed having our car already so headed off to Hertz to let them persuade Denis into getting a big powerful car! In the end decided on the Aurion because of the boot space and not the engine size!
Headed off in the general direction of the city.... Melbourne is massive! Did i mention that its really cold here ... i mean really!
Met Sarah in the reception of Urban Central backpackers! Checked in and decided to do a little shopping walk of the city, lots of cheap clothes but still cheap as they were, no bag room and no money meant spending was a zero. Decided to do something productive, so abducted Sarah and headed off for Phillip Island, home of the fairy penguins, well at least thats where we thought we were heading but with ruth reading the map we ended up in Geelong, (hour and half from melbourne in the wrong direction). Women map readers, I'll say no more!! So after swapping map readers, sarah took over! We headed back to melbourne and then on in the right direction to phillip island. 3hours later, arrived in Phillip Island. Stopped off in a chocolate factory for some truffels! Savage good. Then went up a dirt track and scared the bejesus outa a learning driver when we stopped to ask directions! Funny as! Got to the penguin place with just under hour to spare, just as well as it was too cold to be waiting around for dusk if we had been there early. The wee penguins were pretty cool, one would pop out on the beach, have a wee juk around give the all clear then 20 or so would appear on the beach, always waiting till all the group got to the beach, the odd cowardly wan would go back at the last minute and the rest of the group would lose their bottle and all go back. Funny stuff. ye have to respect the all for one mentality of the wee guys!! On the walk back to the centre you can see them up close in their wee burrows. They are pretty rowdy when they want to be. Had a quick check under the car and off home, again, on sucidal marcupial watch all the way back!

Great Ocean Road.
Next morning up early, eat the free cardboard brekie and off for the great ocean road. Knew the way to geelong this time curtiousy of Ruths map reading the previuos day . Found a surf outlet park in Tourquay, not much in the way of outlet prices tho. I did buy a beanie hat! I know, shouldn't need warm clothing in OZ! Curse your lies Neighbours and Home and Away! Stopped off in Bells beach, host to world surfing contests! Pretty cool surfing on show, but it was pure baltic. We stopped off in Anglease for lunch and coffee for ruth and booked a dodgey hostel in Appollo bay! Stopped off for a quick hike to Erskine falls and another hike in Airley Inlet to teddys lookout, where sarahs teddy got in some camera time. Drove on to appollo bay, there was a queue to the hostel, so we had a look around! Pure dive, jumped back in the car and took a look for the YHA! What a palace, five star eco friendly hostel. Booked in here and set Sarah the task of cancelling the other dive. Lots of lies later, we were in the clear. Went for dinner in the Appolo bay hotel, then discovered $10 bottles of Wolf Bazz wine(20+ yo's at home) Bought a few and headed back to the palace. Next morning Lou down with food poisining. We all caught up on some sleep and chilled out in the jazzy living room. We headed off at 3pm for the 12 appostols, loch and gorge, shipwreck coast, coffee in port campbell.Pretty cool scenary but weather was baltic again. Landed home to the palace, made toasties and had some more wolf bass red lable and watched Oceans 12. Next day headed off to the YHA in Grampians another ECO palace according rumour. Made a wee 150km detour to smelly Colac get Sarah registered to drive. Ruth not impressed at all by the place. Made it back to the great ocean road and saw london brige (which has fallen down by the way) while enroute to halls gap. Stopped off in Warneebull to do a shop as apparently halls gap is a rip off, and also to stock up on more cheapo wolf bass! Pretty long drive that day so needed to stop off in port fairy for some cakes in rebecca's cafe. Best coffee shop so far, loaded up on sugar from the old sweet shop and headed off for the hills. 3hours of night driving later and dodging the sucial marcupilas all the way we finally made it to the hostel in the mountains. Hostel more of the same, very quite tho. Drank 4 bottles of wine and went to bed, up early for a walk in the grampians. Had 600km to cover so only took a shorth 3km climb to lake view lookout, with death fire in the background. Back into the car for a 3hour dive to ballarat. Seriously wierd place, hard to explain the feeling of this place, once a old mining town, now a errie wierdo hangout! They dont do "abitobutter" Spent 2hrs doing nothing in this place, it was like stepping into the bermuda triangle we lost two hours somewhere and noone could explain how. Headed back to melbourne, dropped off the car, almost losing the side of it to a tram or two. To turn right you need to pull into the left lane!!!!! Whats that all about? Back in melborne now for Ruths last weekend.