The Bush Salute

I've been reading Bill Bryson's Down Under. Its a laugh out loud take on his travels around Australia, but its been particularly interesting how it has mirrored some of my thoughts and experiences. So in preparation for our long awaited trip to Victoria and the Great Ocean Road I dipped in to find out what Bill thought. He introduced me to something called the Bush Salute, basically you go outside for a nice walk and a fly comes and joins you. He particularly want's to get up your nose, or in your eye so you brush him off. He's quickly joined by about 200 mates, who mainly hitch a ride on your head between bouts of trying to get up your nose. What starts off as a casual brush of the hand becomes a crazed continuous waving of your arms around your head. So your nice stroll becomes a fast march across the countryside with any view obscured by the cloud of flies. Horrid!






The Great Ocean Road was a bit of a disappointment as well. The reality was a small winding highway that runs near the coast, with occasional stretches where you can actually see the sea. I think the continual drizzle did little to lift the spirits (it never rains in Victoria apparently).

As much as I'd like to continue this whinge, I can't really find anything else to complain about. The 12 apostles were worth the visit. Lots of limestone stacks sticking out of the ocean waiting to be swept away, and bathed in spray from the pounding ocean. Quite breathtaking and atmospheric. The Cape Otway lighthouse was good for a piece of cake, but also hundreds of koalas just hanging about doing their thing. And although Howard preferred staying in watching TV and drinking (someone had to babysit), the night visit to see the glow worms was also quite magical, almost like visiting the stars.


We had the same old debate with Trev & Den (the doting grandparents) about making more realistic holiday plans when travelling with the kids. Although we think we've compromised our holidays beyond all recognition, apparently there is more we could give up. They may have a point, as the kids probably prefer some unadulterated parental attention in the confines of the park/garden/pool as much as anything else. Anyway appart from coming home via New Zealand and Singapore, we haven't got any other travel plans!

Dining out

One of the things we decided we must do in Sydney was get a babysitter and go out on "date night". Its probably been one of the things that's kept us sane, and in the absence of TV, has stopped us from spending all our time glued to the internet.

It recently culminated in a stupendous night out at Quay Restaurant with the Seatons. Voted no. 27 on the San Pellegrino top 50 restaurants in the world, its the highest up the list I've ever ventured, and we'd been saving up for months.

In the end we opted for the tasting menu and matching wines. It was all very fancy and top of the bill was the Jackfruit Snow Egg (guava and custard apple on a bed of granita). For those of you who haven't been watching Australian Masterchef you wont have a clue what I'm talking about, but believe me it was good. It was all delicious and quite an experience in terms of eating and ambiance. The restaurant overlooks circular quay, so has fabulous views of the opera house.

What did I take away from the experience, well apart from a muzzy head the next day (mental note not to have a G&T and bottle of bubbly first), it just felt a little bit extravagant to spend so much on a meal however fabulous. It probably was a once in a lifetime experience.

Round 2

Den and Trev have made it back for a second visit, and its an action packed 6 weeks they have planned. In preparation for all the demands, I tried to get them some melatonin to help with the jet lag, but only managed to get homeopathic tablets. Despite all the dilution and the memory of the molecule it didn't help.

Nevertheless they survived the journey, and have thrown themselves into Faulkner life. Shopping, cooking, childcare, washing, etc. Why on earth have they come so far to be abused. In between all their chores, we've managed to do a bit of exploring. The whales at North Head weren't cooperating, but we still had a nice walk. The ferries are always a winner, there really is no better way to explore Sydney, and the botanic gardens are still special despite the flying foxes trying to kill all the trees.

We took them to Kangaroo Valley for the weekend, and although it was 11.5 degrees and raining when we arrived, managed to have a nice weekend spotting wombats from the terrace of our remote rental house. 15 minutes up a dirt track felt a little far to do much popping out, so we enjoyed the view, wildlife and our books.










If you look closly you'll see that Howard and Trev felt comfortable enough to wear their matching bush hats.

Difficult decisions

We've spent a lot of time talking about whether we'd like to stay in Australia in the longer term. It's got lots going for it:

• Better climate (although the average rainfall in Sydney is twice that of London, and after being too cold for months in an unheated house and unsuitable clothing, I now don't want to go outside as its too hot and feels like my flesh is smouldering).
• Lots of phenomenal beaches, but again there are those pesky sharks and jellyfish.
• Better economic security for our kids (?????), hard to be any worse than the UK at the moment, but we're looking forward to bringing our Aussie dollars back to the UK.
• More rewarding careers (???), its been going well so far.
• Fewer people

The list could go on and on, but ultimately its not Europe and we still have a pretty tenuous social network. I've spent 3 out of the last 6 weeks being a single parent, and being the only carer for my kids on this continent has felt like a big responsibility.

Howard has been swanning all over the globe, but is vowing never to do international travel ever again, so we might have felt a bit isolated from our friends and family back in Blighty, if we stayed.

So we'd decided that we were definitely returning to the UK, then Howard's boss offered him a job. Now, apart from buffing his ego, it re-opened the whole debate again. Ultimately, you can have the potted version rather than relive weeks of soul searching, as Howard (my very talented husband) is just winging his way back from the UK after a consultant job interview in Bristol. Fortunately he got the post, as I'm not sure how we would have got over the annoyance at the time, effort and money involved in travelling 17,000Km for an interview, and not being successful.

So for better or worse, we'll be back among you on the 17th January 2011. We're thinking of having a party to celebrate/commiserate.

Australian wildlife

My quest to meet genuine Aussie animals to an unexpected turn as we arrived at our weekend holiday home in Jervis Bay. I saw an interesting looking spider climbing up the garage door, and thought "What an interesting red spot it has on its back- could it be a red back spider?" Fortunately help was at hand, and the heroic handyman bopped it with a paintbrush before I could take a photo. I think he was secretly a bit worried as he'd just opened the garage door.

For those of you who don't know, it's one of Australia's poisonous spiders, and can kill you. Apparently it timid, and not as dangerous as a funnel web spider.............


We also did some more scheduled animal spotting. On the way home from Jervis Bay we stopped in Kangaroo Valley for a sunset picnic watching wombats and wallabies. The wombats are bit like a cross between a koala and a teddy bear. These ones were happily snuffling around a campsite, content to ignore us and pose for the camera. Evan thought they were great, but Carys preferred chips.





Oh, and how could I have forgotten the echidna (funny, large hedgehog like animal) we spotted crossing the road.