We’re
pretty similar me and my dad (although I hate to admit it of course, like most
children who never want to confess how much like their parents they actually
turned out like!)
The pair of us are quite independent so we really have a knack at driving each other up the wall.
When he
came to stay we clashed on the most stupidest things well actually when I say
‘we clashed’ I mean the age old child being embarrassed/annoyed by parent for
the most ridiculous things, and in hindsight were probably mostly unjustified.
He just had
a knack at irritating my weaknesses, for example my impatient-ness. It’s a flaw
I have that I’m well aware of but I just can’t stand having to wait for other
people for too long. I always wanted to
go and I always had to wait for him.
My
arrogance for thinking I am always right was something else; I know I can’t
always be right but I really hate to admit I’m wrong. I’m just too stubborn by
far. I guess travelling for so long on my own, I haven’t had anyone to contest
my point for view. Or should I say more accurately have their own ideas which
differ from my own. With my ton of experience travelling I’ve more or less had
to rely solely on myself and make my own decisions, so when someone else comes
along with their own ideas I find it a bit hard to allow them their point of
view.
We also had some
amazing moments though when we were both on the same page.
I can be
quite sarcastic some of the time but I would say me and dads optimism is quite
evenly matched.
We saw some
amazing things and some amazing places.
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| The Twelve Apostles |
We ventured out along the Great Ocean
Road and spent New Year’s sleeping in the car at some coastal lookout point
called ‘The Craggs’ after catching a bit of a cheesy Aussie band playing at
Port Fairy, a small coastal town, and shared a hot dog and a burger followed by
a can of Guinness. Can’t say it was the way I’d ever spent New Year’s before.
The night before we’d spent an unforgettable night down the Espy, a worn down
raggy old pub down St. Kilda (the beachy suburb of Melbourne), a place I loved,
having a few drinks and watching a local samba band followed by a Mexican with
a frozen margarita.
 |
| Cape Bridgewater |
The trip
down the GOR was beautiful. We stumbled on a breath taking coastal township
named Cape Bridgewater the next day and hiked up the tallest hill in Victoria to go
see a fur-seal colony before heading onwards to the Grampians. We drove the
mountains as the sun was setting and headed into a place called Halls Gap, a
place which dad could not get the name right. He frequently referred to the
place as ‘Hells Gate,’ ’Hells Gap’ or even ‘Halls Gate,’ but never ‘Halls
Gap.’
We spent
the first night in a nice hostel called ‘Tim’s Place.’ It was a really well
equipped hostel and I wouldn’t have minded staying on there if he’d had space
to accommodate us. Unfortunately he didn’t so we moved the next morning to a
hostel further down the road where there was a family holidaying and we pretty
much joined in with their family for the next couple of days.
That
afternoon the plan was to visit the Aboriginal Centre across the road from the
hostel. Well that was the plan. I had got tired of dad faffing around once
again and taking forever so I walked across the road and shouted to him to meet
me in the centre. I guess he must have followed about ten or so minutes later.
Long enough for us to end up chasing each other round in circles around this
place until dad gave up and when to drinks with the family that were in
hysterics after seeing us chasing around in circles after one another the best
part of an hour. I gave up looking for him after a while and just went to look
round the centre and found dad back at the hostel after he’d had a few beers. I
wasn’t impressed to say the least, and definitely was not ready to see the
funny side, but tried to just laugh the whole thing off because it was useless
to be angry at him. This was precisely why I was annoyed about waiting for him
all the time. That whole scenario could have been avoided if he’d just come
with me- I know I should have waited but I had had enough of waiting for him.
 |
| The Grampians |
The next
day we planned to get out early and a few members of the family said they’d
walk with us up one of the local mountains; they holidayed here for years and
knew the place well. So early in morning we all got up and headed up to the
mountain before the heat of the sun made it too difficult. The views were
spectacular and it was nice to have accomplished something early in the day.
When we returned we all had a huge buffet lunch of everything the family had
left over they wanted to eat up before they headed off the following day.
That
afternoon we had promised Jeff, a middle aged American hippie that was also
staying at the hostel a lift to the nearest town, Ararat. He had been painting some
stones with new age patterns for a shop not so far away, and as we weren’t
doing anything he we said we’d given him a lift in.
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| Jeff and his 'medicine circle' |
Jeff was an
original hippie from the 60s. He was one of the real ones that had campaigned
against the war in Vietnam and wore tie-dye. His face looked like he had many
tales to tell but was refined and mostly kept himself to himself painting his
stones in the back garden. I stopped and
spoke to him a couple of times and he shared some of his philosophies about
life and theories that he believed to be true. One such theory was the idea of various
military groups trying to control the population size of the world. Apparently,
according to some theories, military groups were injecting electricity (or
something of similar effect) into the earth’s core or the poles which had
consequently caused the earthquake in New Zealand. Apparently, according to
Jeff, there had been a certain meeting of several big powers in the
Christchurch which seemed to back up the theory. For me though, even if such an
event did occur, these people have power beyond most people’s wildest dreams
and if they are determined to do things like this then there’s very little we
can do to stop it. Concerning yourself with the thousands of theories in the
world, although interesting and probably many are indeed true, at the end of
the day are just more worry than they’re worth. I might as well just enjoy my
life and let the people get on with whatever it is they seem like they have the
right to do.
The next
day we ‘planned’, to leave Halls Gap via an aboriginal rock art site and head
onwards to visit Annie the lady I’d volunteered with the previous July looking
after kangaroos etc, planned being the operative word. We decided to go to a
site that was north of Halls Gap then looped round the mountains to visit a
second site that was much bigger and had hundreds of paintings. We found the
first alright but by this time it was getting towards the heat of the day. As
we tried to drive around the mountains to the main road that would direct us to
the second site we ended up on a 4WD track only realising as the road began to
get gradually more and more a road of rocks. Being in a hire car we’d be
advised never to go on unsealed roads, so I’m pretty sure a road of rocks was
definitely out of the question. Ironically as we finally managed to get of the
rocky road we spotted a sign saying ‘Rough Road,’… thanks for the heads up!
After the
serious detour our tank started looked a bit empty so we figured we’d be best
going to get petrol before go to the second art site, and scouted out the
nearest town on the map and headed there. By the time we arrived our indicator
had been on the red for a good while and we were in desperate need of a petrol
station. I spotted an old man getting into his car so ran across and asked him
where the nearest station was, to which he replied was the next town along which
we were certainly not going to make it to. The guy took pity on us thankfully
and told us to follow him to his home and he’d give us a little that he had in
his garage. Just as I went to shake his hand to say thank you the man said “You’ll
have to pay me for that,” to which I replied of course. I thought he was doing
it out of the kindest of his heart but obviously not.
After
making it to the next town to fill up, off we went to go find the art site once
more, the sun was getting lower in the sky so we really didn’t have long before
it would start to set. The wrong turn we took out of the town really didn’t help
that either. So third time lucky we finally managed to get to the site with the
sun truly setting as we drove us the red dusting track into the mountain site.
When we got into the forest the trees created a gloomy twilight and we walked
quickly down a small path directing us to the site. After a while though we
came to a stop and there were no more signs and no clues to where the art might
be. Finally being forced to give up by the darkening sky we headed back then
noticed a sign half way along the path we’d came directing to a small path that
climbed the mountain to where the art was. We’d come all this way down 4WD
tracks and almost ran out of petrol the lack of sunlight didn’t seem so much of
an issue any more. We got out our torches and started climbing up the track and
finally made it. In the almost pitch black of the night we took some photos and
decided to head back through the forest to the car. Being so late we decided
just to drive back to Halls Gap and sneak into the hostel room we’d vacated as
I knew the code for the box where the room key was kept.
The next
day we left Halls Gap for the second time with no intention of returning, only to
discover a hour or so down the road that dad had forgotten his bag in the room.
So much for sneaking away with no one knowing we were there. Luckily when we
got back no one was around so we grabbed the bag and headed off once more. We
finally arrived at Annie’s in the late evening.
It was
getting late so we said our goodbyes and headed back to Melbourne.
After a
good night’s sleep we decided with one last day before I had to return to work
that we’d head out to Phillip Island, just south of Melbourne where there is a penguin
colony. Every night around sunset these little penguins would come in from the
sea after a day’s fishing and feed their young. It wasn’t as phenomenal as I
was expecting (herds of penguins all coming in at once) but it was still pretty
special to see all these little creatures coming in from the sea. These
memories however are only captured in my mind as cameras were strictly not
allowed as to not discourage the penguins from nesting in the area.
Having to
return to work after two weeks off was hard but I still had a couple of days
off during the next week. The two of us headed to a place called Healsville one
day where they have an animal sanctuary looking after injured and orphaned
wildlife. And this is where I got to see my very first Koala. Very cute and
very sleepy. We also stopped in on one of the wineries in the town and had an
early dinner. Mine and dads bad luck seemed to continue as we managed to miss
the last bus from the town to the nearest train station, after a pit stop at a
pub for half an hour, and had to get a $50 taxi back! Ouch. Very expensive
drink indeed!
The
following day we got ground passes for the Australian open. Without a doubt it
was one of the best days of my life. It was so much fun. The last match of the
day was so close and everyone in the crowd got so into the game. In the end
when the player the whole crowd had been supporting, Monfils, everyone practically
leap out of their seats applauding.
It was
really nice to see my pops, as it had been well over a year. But after that
much time one on one with a parent it was sure nice to have my space back too.
He left me
a note with my keys saying that he’d had an amazing holiday and it was lovely
to spend time with me and as for the odd grumps, well we’ll just blame that on
us both being free spirits. He told me to go my own way at my own time.
That’s definitely
sums us both up. No one can ever tell us what to do, it just doesn’t work. We’re
just two peas from the same pod.
