When a 'Coast walk' is not what it says on the tin...

Last week we decided to do a 26km walk along the coast from Bundeena to Otford, which we’d heard was supposed to be beautiful.  We read beforehand that you have to be 'very fit' or 'very stupid' to do the whole thing in one day but we ‘very stupidly’ didn’t let that warning deter us.

We got up early, then had to get a train followed by a tiny ferry to the start of the walk in Bundeena and arrived just in time for torrential rain. Hmm.

Me in the pouring rain at 8.30am; small ferry which
 looked more like an old steam boat, in the background

We then had a few issues locating the start of the walk and Tourist Information was conveniently closed but we we pointed in the right direction with thanks to a friendly woman in the newsagents.

The first 8km were well marked, very coastal and picturesque (despite the rain!).  The next leg was slightly more problematic.  Problem 1= no signposts which resulted in us getting lost.  Problem 2= a very overgrown path; we literally had to wade through bushes which, in this deadly country, terrified me.

We made it to Gari beach and stopped for lunch, with 18km under our belts and feeling very happy.

The next and final leg however, turned into a NON-COASTAL nightmare, through ‘Palm Jungle’ – a heavily over grown jungle area, which was also one huge hill.  I was so terrified I refused to stop or take my jumper off through fear that a red back spider might land on my back. This made for a very hot, stressful and torturous 60 minutes! The view at the top was pretty impressive...

...but I was very relieved that the final 4kms was on a ‘normal’ open path, and happier still when we completed the walk and hopped back on a train to civilization for sushi and a few well earned beers.

Terrible Tiger & Marvellous Melbourne

During Martin’s week off, we boarded the worst budget airline I have yet to experience, Tiger airways, to fly to Melbourne.  Now I’m not a particularly tall person, but even my knees were jammed up against the seat in front of me.  

When we touched down, rather than walking into a clean, air-conditioned airport, we were herded into a dark, wooden shed, with just a creaky conveyor belt whirring round - baggage re-claim.  I don’t think Tiger could afford to rent space in the actual airport building.

Now moving on to Melbourne itself.  Despite the first 2 days of grey, British weather, I really warmed to the place.  Melbourne is Sydney’s quirky older sister. It’s got a far more cultural, historical and arty vibe than super-slick Sydney.  

One of the 25 cups of coffee consumed in Melbourne

It has some great little areas, namely South Yarra and St Kilda and a real café culture, which suited me down to the ground.  In fact, most of our time in Melbourne was spent eating or drinking.

We didn’t do anything too crazy, other than randomly go to an Indie night, which was full of 18 year olds and danced our socks off until 4am to Ash, Shed 7, Cast and Kula Shaker.  It was a brilliant Saturday night, followed by a painful Sunday morning.

Flying home with Tiger was definitely not plain sailing.  First our flight didn't appear to exist, then they showed 'flight boarding' on the monitor, quickly followed by 'flight closed' so we thought we missed the flight.  Further incorrect announcements followed, until we were finally onboard and in the air 2 hours after our scheduled time of departure.  The Indie-induced hangover did not help matters.

X Factor fever hits Oz!!!

As many of you are aware, I am (unfortunately) a huge X Factor fan.  My love for the show reached an all time high during the last UK series, where the lovely Joe and show-man Ollie battled it out for the top spot.

So, you can imagine my delight to discover that X Factor has been brought to Australia for the first time ever and that our good friends Nick and Zena managed to get 4 tickets to the live show!

Martin seemed less enamored with the prospect of seeing X Factor than I did, but I dragged him along and as you’ll see from the photos, his spirits certainly lifted on arrival!  

We managed to get great seats and got the perfect view of the 4 judges and contestants. 

The judging panel comprises of an idiot called Kyle who makes Simon Cowell look like a very decent bloke, Guy Sebastian, former Pop Idol winner, Natalie Imbruglia, looking gorgeous as ever and Ronan Keating who turns out to be a very lovely bloke.  

Poor Ronan was in the unfortunate position of having 2 of his acts in the bottom two.  He seemed genuinely upset by this and of course, refused to vote either of them off which meant the show went to DEAD LOCK!!!!

We also managed to get up close and personal with Ronan (well, if you don’t include the thick pane of glass between us), when he was being interviewed for Xtra Factor.