It's not exactly at the back of beyond, but you can see it from here; Thursday

We had heavy rain throughout the night and it was still very cold and windy when we were back on the road to Toora, our base camp for the Wilson Promontory.
May I cite Bill Bryson again? He said it about another town, but it is applicable on Toora as well.
"There are certain circumstances under which you'd be delighted to arrive in Toora, Victoria on the end of a long day. For example the sea level could rise substantially and Toora would be the only place on earth not covered by water; or Toora alone would be spared by a raging, cruelly defacing disease.
To put it differently: All things going normal, it's highly unlikely that on a warm summer evening you'd find yourself standing on the main street in Toora, looking around gratefully and thinking: Well, thank god I'm finally here."
Bill Bryson , In a sunburned country

This picture says it all:
That's Main Street and all there is to the village.

How we ended here? All the B&Bs, hostels and caravan parks closer to the Prom were either very expensive, booked out or not bookable over the net at all, so we ended in a cabin in Toora Tourist Park. And I have to admit it's not as as bad as it sounds.

As we had a kitchen on our own we decided to treat ourselves to a great dinner tonight. Porterhouse steaks, steamed and caramelized carrots and baked beans. Now the idea was to fry the steaks for a minute each side on a very high temperature and then put them in the oven to finish them. Mark you, that was the idea.
Now I make the confession here that I like my steak somewhere in between medium and completely ruined so I wasn't at all pleased when I sliced one open and found it was still rare inside. Obviously the oven was not that reliable when he said 200 Degrees Celsius.
So I had to cut it into halves and put it back into the pan together with a lot of garlic and a twig of rosmary I found in the public park (they do have a public park in Toora).
Dinner looked a bit strange that evening but after a bottle of Shiraz that was generously overseen and it tasted yummie nevertheless.

On the road again II, Wednesday

We got up this morning to real driving weather; it had clouded in over the night, wind was strengthening, no sun in sight. And Graham wasn't even near us, so it probably wasn't his fault after all.
I seem to have acquired quite a nose for Scots by now because sure enough I chose the only Glaswegian guy for miles to start a conversation with at breakfast. He gave us some very useful tips.
Before we started we headed for the beach to say hello to the kangaroos living there.

After about 50km on the Prince's Highway we turned right into a forest road and followed it for another 10km to a picnic area.
I'm not sure at all if we were allowed on that gravel road at all with our car, but .... oh wait, did you just see this? A wallaby hopping across the road right in front of us, the first one we've seen in the wild.
Finally we reached our destination and there he was - Mt. Imlay. Named after scottish settlers, of course.
And we were to tackle him. Nothing special, only 820m high, we've done this many times before.
We felt rather optimistic because we had done a fair bit of hiking at home for preparation plus I've been to the gym thrice a week, but nothing ..... I repeat nothing prepared us for this.
Oh..my...god, was this mountain steep.
The path started at an angle of 30 degrees ... and got worse. So I hope you keep in mind that I climbed rocks, fought with lizards and clingy flies, crossed ravines and hacked my way through spiky grass trees to get you this photo.
After reaching the first peak I declared myself defeated and we returned to the picnic area.
1:0 for Mt. Imlay.

The sky cleared in the course of the day and a few hours and a lunch break in Cann River later we reached Lakes Entrance, a lovely fishing town were we stayed for the night and I had my first gummy shark ever.
It's actually quite good.
You can tell the water is cold, can't you?

On the road again, Tuesday

We have a long drive to look forward to. 500km + from Katoomba to Eden. At least that is plan A; plan C would be to reach some point between Ulladulla and Merimbula (and no, I'm not making these names up) . I didn't like plan B right from the start so we abandoned it rather quickly.

Driving...driving...driving ...
Oh my god , it already took us this long to just reach Prince's Highway again and we are just south of Sydney!
Another small country town..... ok, traffic is thinning at last, now we are making progress.
As beautiful as the Southwestern National Park is, driving through the forest with light and shadow alternating on the street all the time makes you kind of drowsy. I don't think we'll get to Eden today.
I'm so tired. For a split second I'm tempted to stay for the night in Bega .... but that vanishes as fast as the village itself. Just for the record, I needed to blink 24 times to pass Main Street.

That's it, we are staying for the night in Merimbula. We are both so exhausted that we just throw some Spaghetti in one pot and a handful of prawns, some tomatoes and garlic in another, have dinner and call it a day.
Has any bed ever felt this comfortable?

Blue Mountains, Monday

The Blue Mountains were a cracking experience for us. A strange one at first, for when I say 'mountains' I mean .... well, MOUNTAINS. When you drive through the Blue Mountain range you don't actually get to see any mountains. There is that one steep gradient after Penrith and that's about it; the rest of the road is a gentle up and down through soft hills.

But once you reach Echo Point or Wentworth Falls ..... gosh, what a sight that is!

We had several hikes around and under the cliffs, down to the falls and through the valley and no matter which corner you turned around there was one stunning sight after the other.
I'm in love with those eucalyptus trees. There are so many varieties of them, and the smell of them on a hot day together with the spray from the waterfalls is hanging like a veil over the forest.

Downside was a lot of guided groups went there as well but us being considerably faster on our legs managed to escape the crowds and soon had the paths almost for our own again.

Flocks of sulphure-crested cockatoos circled over the trees (my goodness, these birds are talkative ...) and there were others in the brushwood that sang beautifully. Made for good entertainment. You could stay here for weeks and weeks and yet you would have just scratched at the surface of what the Blue Mountains have to offer.
Ah well, the next time around.


In the afternoon we went to Lake Lyell which is about 40 km from Katoomba to catch up with Graham and Janet. They had parked their bus right at the waterfront and had a terrific sight on the surrounding hills (no forest, it's pastures and bits of woods around Lithgow); best of all, there was no-one else around.
It was great to see Graham again and get to know Janet; she is such a lovely person! We had lunch together and talked all afternoon about this and that. Graham explained some of the abysses of music business to me. We pondered about the difficulties of getting a decent Port in Australia (and I loved what he found in the Hunter Valley....), developing a taste for wine, food and music, the snares of foreign languages (I'm rather proud that Graham started correcting me; he is taking me serious after all...), birds, the best workout and many many more topics.
Thinking back, it was probably more than a bit unfair towards Janet and Harald but when forumites meet naturally some part of the conversation evolve from things written on the forum and they weren't able to participate. Harald is not the most talkative person in German, even less so in a language he doesn't feel comfortable with.
Much too soon it was slowly getting darker and we had to say goodbye again as I wanted to avoid driving after nightfall. But I'd have liked to stay another week or so; it was so easy talking to them. By the time we arrived back in Katoomba it dawned on me that I didn't take any photos, not a single one! I guess we have to meet once more to alter that. Sorry, Graham.
Before we left, Graham gave me one of his CDs; in exchange for the salmon we brought for lunch he said.
Now don't get me wrong. The fish really was delicious. But I do think that I got the better part of the bargain.


PS: You know what's best? Spencer and I are buddies now.

Fun continued on our second day in OZ.
Obviously my orders went through all right and we have lovely weather, not too hot, a little bit of wind, a sky of incredible blue ... all you could wish for to explore a marvellous city like Sydney.
Nonetheless I was eager to get out of town and for several reasons. First of all the city is swarming with tourists ( and no, we are not tourists as well, we are travellers! Couldn't you tell?) as the "Queen Elizabeth II" is currently riding at anchor and the "Queen Mary" will follow tomorrow or the day after.
Then I picked up the car. What a car.... I wanted an economy car, a small, agile, frugal car. What I got is a battle ship! It's huuge! It has the turning circle of a truck and it has automatic transmission; my left hand keeps searching unconsciously for the gear change, as if it was not confusing enough to drive on the wrong side, mixing up winkers and wipers all the time. Oh, what the heck, I'll get used to it.
Thirdly I managed to flood our hostel. And all before breakfast! Well, I assume it wasn't all my fault; our host could have locked the bathroom or at least put up a sign that he had taken out part of the plumbing and the bathroom was not to be used. A simple comment would have done the trick as well. Okay , it was not the bathroom he showed us, but it was right next to our bedroom and being half asleep I tend to head for the nearest option.
I hope our liability insurance is up do date ....

Once we got out of town (difficult task, there were traffic lights every few metres (on a highway!) and needless to say they were all red) we headed for the Pennant Hills and a Koala Park which was absolutely fantastic and as soon as I figure out how to attach my camera to this computer there will be pics.


When we arrived at Katoomba we left our luggage in the hostel and headed off for a first look around. Which extended to a hike straight through town, down to Echo Point ( really a must see ), along the cliff trail to Katoomba Cascades and back to the hostel. The sight down Jamieson Valley is nothing short of stunning. Limestone makes for some fantastic rock formations with all the washed out parts, the delicate gradients .....
The ground was still very wet from the extensive rains they had here lately and the forest was steaming; a heavy scent of jasmine and eucalyptus was hanging in the air and once you got away from the crowds the birds were presenting an incredible performance.Such beautiful trees....eucalyptus trees with their bark hanging off down to the ground leaving the trunk almost white which makes for a lovely contrast to the dark green foliage. Heath banksia, unfortunately not flowering yet. Many more whose name slipped me again but were all awfully pretty.
Tomorrow will reveal more wonders as we will be on our way to Wentworth Falls and Lake Lyell were we'll meet up with Graham and Janet at last.