The BEST of

We have come full circle and made it home to Eugowra. It is lovely to be home and I wish we had more time to reflect on our journey. As it turns out my Grandpa is not well and his care is taking up much of our time. This other issue is money and we need it so it is hi ho hi ho its off to work we go!

I have had time to reflect on some of the BEST things we did and experienced around Australia so I hope you enjoy it. The BEST thing though was the achievement of completing the trip itself. What a testing, amazing, enjoyable learning about yourself and your husband kind of experience. It was perspective changing and I think I came out the other end a better person with much more experience. What I do know is that I do not know much but I know myslef more than I did before and that is a pretty cool thing.

This is a list of the BEST things we found on our epic journey around Australia.

The best:

FOOD
Ice cream: Floraville, Daintree Qld.
Chocolate: Mornington Peninsula Chocolate, Vic.
Seafood: Ceduna
Nuts: Margarete River Nut Co. Honey coated macadamia nuts.
Meal: Mark's fish we caught and cooked at Uncle Moyles
           Seafood Laksa at Pemberton in the Margaret River

WINE:
Pierro, Margaret River WA, anything in the Margarette River

WALKS:
Overland Track - TAS
Butterfly Gorge - Katherine Gorge NT

FREE CAMPS:
Arrarat - Vic.
Bridge Water - Vic
Joanna Beach - Vic
Charters Towers - Qld
Gunn Point, Darwin - NT
Myrtle Bank - Launceston, Tas.
NATIONAL PARKS:
Cradle Mt - Tas
Karijini - WA
Kakadu - NT
Tara-Bulga - Vic

EXPERIENCE:
Paronella Park - Far North Qld
Seeing my friends and family along the way
Making coffee with my husband at sunrise in a new camp spot every morning
Sunset over the beach; Denham and Darwin

MUSEUM:
Melbourne - an awesome city

ART GALLERY:
MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) - Tasmania

SERVICE:
RAA - South Australian Road Side Assistance. Thank you!

COFFEE SHOP:
The Green Bean, Bendigo.

PODCAST TO LISTEN TO WHILE DRIVING:
The History of Rome - Mike Duncan
The History of the World in 100 Objects - BBC

FISHING
Palmers Channel with Uncle Moyle

CAPITAL CITY
Melbourne! It is just awesome!
Sydney because it has everything you could ever need.

TOWN:
Bendigo

SPORTING EVENT
Collingwood vs Hawks at the MCG

MARKETS:
Central Markets, Adelaide
Mindal Beach Markets, Darwin

WEATHER:
Far Nth Qld
Darwin
Broome

I am sure there is more but that is my little list. If you are planning a holdiay in Australia give us a call cause we can probably give you some advice!

Thank you so much for reading our blog and keeping up with our travels. On some days it was our only way of feeling like we were not alone in all the world.

If you are missing us terribly drop us an email to say hi at:
krystalandmark@gmail.com
Until our next adventure...
Love Krystal

Week 26 Update: Full Circle

We have finally come full circle and returned to  see my dog, Ormiston. The last two weeks have been filled with family and friends. Great to go home, have a roof, a shower, space, flat surfaces and lighting. What can I say about Australia? It is great to know my own country. There are plenty of good people and good places living happily.

It's also a rude shock to know that I need a job. For me, working is not the hard part but actually trying to find a job. We have done a few rounds of applications to teaching bodies in NSW and ACT. A real challenge to gather all the required documents together and certified by a JP.

The most memorable places on this trip are as follows. It is not exhaustive and does not mean other places were not good if I did not mention them. We spent very little time in NSW as we were desperate to come home and it is very easy to explore. Less time was spent in QLD, SA and Central Australia compared to other places, as we have spent some time there previously.

NSW: Byron T-shirt shop; Ballina; Eden Whale museum
Victoria: Pyrenees region; Bendigo; Ballarat; Tarra Bulga NP; Wilson's Prom and the Great Ocean Drive. The drive lives up to the hype. The Mornington Peninsula Chocolate shop easily takes the prize for most amazing chocolate in the country.
Tasmania: Cradle Mountain; Cygnet Pie Shop; Launceston; and Museum of Old and New Art. The museum by itself is worth flying to Hobart.
S. Australia: Central Markets in Adelaide; Seafood Trail and all the glorious seafood in SA. We did not visit other places in SA but the wine regions are worth mentioning again (all of them!)
W. Australia: Walpole, Kalbarri, Ningaloo, and Karijini NPs. Karijini was possibly the most fun, beautiful and memorable on this trip. The Pemberton and Margaret River wine regions were home to some amazing old wineries with great hospitality.
Northern Territory: All National Parks in the NT are awesome. They are clearly signed with loads of information. The hot springs in Katherine and Mataranka. And, Mindel Beach Markets - the best markets in Australia.

Total Km traveled: 30,115 km. We definitely fulfilled the 25000km goal set by yahoo answers.
Fuel Used: 3191.77L
Efficiency: 10.6L/100km

Thanks for reading our blog everyone! I'll sign off with a beautiful attitude from Broken Hill locals that everyone should adopt. People in BH often say that "you are from away" if you are not a local. BH folk don't ask or care about where you are from - you are clearly from "away". All they know is that you are here now[in BH, the best place that they know] and that you are sensible to be here. They are happy that you are in town. It is a beautiful traveling attitude and one that we should adopt as a nation. I can't think of many Australians that don't have immigrant ancestry.

Ormiston and me, walking down McCulloch St in BH before the trip!

Shark Wrestling with Hoswells

Our final stop on our epic adventure was Corlette near Nelson's Bay to visit the Hoswells. A big thank you to them for giving us a bed for the night and thanks to Jack for making room for us!

We had lovely lasagna for dinner and it was great to catch up. We visited the shark and sting ray center with Ned and Quinn and swam with a 130 kg sting ray. She came up and gave us all a big cuddle with no hint of fatal Steve Irwin aggression. We fed sharks and other cool looking rays and had a fantastic time! We are now qualified shark and sting ray wrestlers and have the certificate to prove it

Thanks for having us Hoswells, it was great fun!

We left in a fit of excitement as we were only 3 hrs from Sydney! We had almost made it the whole way around Australia! We were almost finished our lap of the block as the grey nomads say and what an amazing, challenging, beautiful block it is.

Stay tuned for 2 more posts from me.


One is a best of and the other will cover our arrival in Sydney.

 Lots of love, Krystal.

Ballina; Friends and Op Shops

The second last stop on our trip...Ballina. We are lucky enough to have very good friends in this pretty part of Australia. Kath and Tobes not only welcomed us with open arms but we felt like we were staying in a fancy motel...chocolates on our pillows included.

Tobes and Kath cooked for us, took us sight seeing and took us to all the awesome little op shops to bag a bargain. Ballina has some excellent little op shops which we really enjoyed and I think we will be returning with a trailer to furnish a house when we get one.

Getting an Asian Food Fix

We saw dolphins, went out for lunch and walked on the beach. We cooked Dundas Chops for Tobo and I think they were a hit! The best part was being able to be a part of a small part of the planning for Kath and Tobes wedding. Living so far away it often feels like you miss out on important things, like helping to plan a wedding. I feel very lucky to have been able to spend a few days with Kath talking about her special day. I cant wait for the actual day to arrive!

We left Ballina, got stuck in some traffic at Bulladelah, had lunch at one of my favorite beaches, Black Head Beach near Forester and arrived to visit more relos on our final few days of this epic adventure.

Only a few blog posts to go!
Only a few hundred kms to go!
See you all very soon!
Love Krystal

A rhinestone cowboy

Week 24 Update: Chillin' in Ballina

In the last week, we traveled from Brisbane to Yamba and then back to Ballina. I have shaken off the cold and am ready to roll again.

We arrived at Krystal's Uncle, Moyle's place in Yamba. His house is situated on a a channel inlet and fishing was as easy as crossing the dirt road to the wharf. I didn't catch any fish but it was good to be instructed by someone who knows the business.

We then traveled to Krystal's best friend Kathy's in Ballina. Again, it's great to have a hot shower. Toby (Kathy's fiance) plays awesome guitar and we have been chilling out to his music and the cold weather.
The camera has clicked 10000 times since the start of the trip!


Plans for next week: traveling down to Nelsons Bay and then home to Sydney. (And then full circle to Eugowra)

I will try to get some google maps up of our trail around Australia in the next week or so. 


Here are some pictures of Toby on the instruments. Not often that I go monochrome but I thought it'd work well. Pity blogspot can't keep pictures straight either.

Dont Hold it Girly...

Leaving Brisbane our next stop was my Uncle Moyles. This is one part of the trip I was super excited about as I had not seen Uncle Moyle since I was a teenager.

After getting a bit lost and having a bit of a fight Mark and I made it to Moyles to find a big hug, warm pea and ham soup and lots of love.

We were super excited about fishing at Uncle Moyles as he is a champion fisherman with a wealth of knowledge and as you know we have not had a lot of luck in the fishing department. We were lucky enough to catch 2 fish.

First Fish

The first I caught was a bream and it was legal size so we kept him for dinner. We took a photo with the fish and, as it was my catch, I wanted to hold it. As Uncle Moyle was trying to instruct me on holding the bream he says "now don't hold it girly!" sound advice and it made me laugh! Another fish was needed to make a meal so we waited and chatted.

Mud Crab

Uncle Moyle has a wonderful way with birds. They love him, he is the bird whistler. He has made friends with some beautiful sea eagles. At first, if he is ignoring the birds they will "squawk squawk" until he speaks or whistles to them. Uncle Moyle then holds up a fish so the sea eagle knows he is going to feed them. He then places it on a platform and the sea eagle leaves his perch, circles around overhead like he is stalking his prey and swoops down with powerful wings to claim his prize. It was magnificent.

Uncle Moyle calling the Sea Eagle

Beautiful

WOW!

Getting a photo of the eagle swooping down to eat and kissing the sun as he circled was difficult. Once we got out the camera the eagle was camera shy. We were determined to get a good photo so we stood in the right light in shifts waiting. While Mark fished with Uncle Moyle I waited for the eagle and vice versa. As mark was fishing his line bent but went quiet again. He was going to pull it in but decided he must of lost the fish do did not bother. We swapped so I was fishing and the line in question was particularly quiet. I thought the bait must be gone. I reeled it in and to my surprise and joy there was a fish on the end! Mark had it on his line the whole time! Alas as I reeled it in it was my fish!

When we were little Dad would give us $2 for the first fish, $2 for the most fish and $2 for the biggest fish. This day I won all the money!!

The fish were enough for diner and Mark steamed it with shallots and ginger. With entree donated by Graham, Moyles neighbor, it was a feast. Uncle Moyle and I spent most of the night gas bagging. It was so good to catch up and for Mark to meet another member of the family. The next day we had lunch with Marie and then Mark and I said good bye. I teared up on leaving the warm, farmiliar cuddles of Uncle Moyle and I vow it will not be so long between visits as life is short.

Preparing the Mud Crab

Mark Probably had a fish on his line in this shot

Moyle with Mad Skills

Mark steamed the bream...excellent!

Second Fish!

Mark cooked AMAZING Mud Crab

THe view from Uncle Moyle's front yard

 Thanks Uncle Moyle. Love You! Love Krystal

Brisbane with Friends

Puppy Training

Fixing Stuff

We have been lucky enough to stay with Karen, Troy, Ox and Conan. It is so wonderful to be able to spend some quality time with friends we do not see very often

While Kaz and Troy were working Mark and I ventured into the city. We visited GOMA the gallery of modern art, the Brisbane Art Gallery and the Museum. The museum had an exhibition from the British Museum called Mummy. It was a great exhibition that included an actual mummy, a replica of the Rosetta stone which was mind blowing to gaze upon. The rosetta stone allowed us as a human race to translate hieroglyphics and is one of the most important archeological discoveries in the history of the world. To gaze upon it was a privilege. 

Karen took me shopping for some girl time while Mark was sick in bed and we had heaps of fun just doing what girls do. It was lovely to catch up so thanks Kaz! Sorry to Mark who I left sick in bed but you will be pleased to know I made congie for him and for this I think I should get the good wife award.

With Mark recovered Troy worked his magic and greased the trailer bearings and changed our oil. Thanks Troy!

Shoting Stuff

Puppy Love

Karen gave me some hair tips...thank god!

Rain rain rain

Ox the dog and Conan the rat are welcome additions to the Sexton - Wykamp family and Mark and I would like to say a huge THANK YOU for having us.

Week 23 Update: In Brisbane, where it rains

Slow traveling at the moment, so it is going to be a short and simple post this week.
It is only about 350km from Biggenden to Brisbane where we are staying with Troy and Karen.

A hippie set up complete with chimney and...

pot plants at the back.

Traveling on the Darren Lockyer Way (Warrego Hwy). My hero's road.

Ox, Troy and Karen's 9 month old puppy. He is bigger than a german shephard.

Wykamps do Kamp Ovens

As we made our way from Townsville to woowoonga...wait...where????

Wykamp's beautiful property

Woowoonga is a little hamlet set in rolling hills inland from Bundaberg. It has a little town hall but it's most important feature is the Wykamp family. Jenny, Gerard, Tyson, Claudia and Sammy let us stay with them for a few days and we enjoyed playing tourist with Gerard as tour guide.

Bandit

This picturesque little part of Australia. A few highlights were walking around the recently purchased property, checking out Jenny, Claudia and Sammys school and cooking our dinner in a camp oven.

It was also great to have people to show my scrapbook too. Jenny, Claudia and Sammy have been the first people to see the scrapbook I have been keeping as we go around the country. Mark is sick of looking at it and talking about it and finding space for it! It was lovely to be able to share it with others.

Gerard and I

 As always the best thing about visiting family and friends is that you get to see a small slice of their lives. Spending a night or two with a family; just doing what they do is a simple but wonderful priverlage.

3 Boys

Thank you to the Wykamps for letting us spend a little time with you and getting to know you a little better. Thank you for the excellent camp oven!
Next stop...Brisvagas...Logan to be exact.

Week 22: Winter is coming

As the Starks in the Game of Thrones series would say about winter, we are truly getting close to winter again. Temperatures are falling every day as we head south towards NSW.
Speaking of NSW, well done to them in origin but it was really QLD's to lose.

In the last week, we moved from Port Douglas to Bundaberg and traveled another 1100km. On the way we visited Parenella Park near Mena Creek. It is run by a couple who restored a Spanish immigrants dream. Jose Parenella settled in Australia and with his hard working ethic built a Spanish castle/villa near the Daintree NP. On the park he had his own hydro electric system, coffee shop, tennis courts, castle, service station and more. Unfortunately, it was hit by too many cyclones to survive.

We also went through Gladstone. A few years back, I visited Gladstone a few times to get to the barrier reef. Back then, it was a sleepy seaside town known for fishing and some port business. Unfortunately, the town has become something not very pleasant. The dredging in the harbour and the mining industry has taken the charm away from the town. Recommendations? Do not visit.

Places visited: Port Douglas, Townsville, Gladstone, Bundaberg.

Km Traveled this week: 1100km

The waterfall at Paranello Park at night.

Next up: Biggenden, Brisbane.

Somebody I used to know...

It is lovely to think that you might be lucky enough to have a friend that, after not speaking a word to for 8 years, would let you back into their world. Not only did Cassie offer us a bed she gave us her whole weekend, her beautiful smile, her welcoming embrace and the chance to get to know her kids.

Thank you to Cassie and her beautiful children for making our trip so much more special. A trip to the strand and river way brought back old memories and made some awesome new ones. Thanks and lets not leave it so long between visits.

Paronella Park Perfection

Banana!

Paronella Park is a rare gem when it comes to tourist attractions. It is absolutely worth the entry fee. It is a fantasy land of tropical jungles, castles, waterfalls and magic. It was built by the hard working immigrant hands of Jose Paronella and is 14ha of wonderful. I will let the pics do the talking.