Australia 2019

I spent 3 weeks in Australia in July and August 2019 visiting my son who has lived there for 2 years. He was based in Sydney where I flew into from my home in Dubai, but was moving to Finley to work on a farm as part of his visa conditions, north of Melbourne.

We spent A long weekend in Sydney exploring the beaches and the mountains, before driving the coast road on Our trip from Sydney to Phillip Island stopping at Jervis Bay for a night then onto Phillip Island for 2 nights.

Next up we drove from Phillips Island to Port Fairy, stopping over night in Lorne and Warrnambool then from Port Fairy to Melbourne via the Grampians staying at Lake Fyans before ending up with A week in Melbourne.

Driving is on the left, so the wrong side of the road for me, but it didn't take long to work it out. I noticed that lanes merged a lot at junctions and the speed limit was slow, dropping to 50km in towns and villages and 40km during school hours. Whilst this is good as we were avoiding the toll routes, the planned journeys took longer than anticipated and we had to change our schedule more than once.

Combined we drove 3421km/2125 miles, walked 61km/37 miles and climbed the equivalent of 

346 stair cases.

The Accommodation in Australia couldn't be faulted. The country side and Flora and Fauna in Australia was stunning.

Road Kill, kangaroo, it was over a week before I saw a live one

These Ibis are nicknamed Bin Chickens

There was a turkey scavenging on the beach

Here are a selection of random photos that caught my eye, that amused or puzzled me.

A boulder company making them look attractive

Whenever I parked I needed to google what I was to actually do

traffic lights had a fancy countdown on them although most of the road works were actually manned

Looking for a food/fuel/rest/overnight stop on route then I suggest you enter McDonalds into the GPS as they were found in all the bigger towns

Love some of the advertising, theres a store called Boating, camping and fishing. Their jingle is BC F'ing Good.

This slogan works well, I say little waste on my travels and there were plenty of recycling and waste opportunities

Love a drive through Bottle-O

Apparently cats are banned. My son informed me that many people actually take their cats as well as their dogs when they go on road trips. 

We didn't see any snakes, but once you were outside the city there were lots of warnings

Winter so fire rating low

Didn't manage to catch any photos/video of kangaroo on the roads, but saw plenty and they don't half move

Didn't see any koala outside of parks

There had been a shark spotted at Manly only a few weeks earlier

Information about do's and dont's and what wildlife to expect

Animals and birds become aggressive towards humans if you feed them and it actually endangers their lives

The coast line was stunning, you're reminder just how powerful the ocean is

A lot of British names and twinning, but the geography of it confused me

Found this little souviener all the way from Tintern Abbey in Wales, just down the road from where we stay when we visit the UK

Of course no trip to Australia is complete without a visit to Bondi Beach to catch the surf

And a visit to Ramsey Street to see Neighbours

Why I don't drive a Ferrari

I can't afford one.

Nor do I want one.

Why?

You can't bloody go anywhere in one.

I've spent the past 16 years driving people carriers and 4 x 4's. To suit the needs of a family of 7 and living and working in rural areas and 4 years in South Africa where a 4 x 4 was a must with safari's, pot holes and safety and security when driving.

For 16 years I've dreamed of driving a car, just a normal car, a car for me, one where I don't have to fit pushchairs and a wheel chair in the boot along with shopping for the week.

I have a Peugeot 308, I bought it because it was in my price range and I could pay cash (I'm an expat, bank loans on a labour card are difficult) It does everything I need it to do. It has air con ( a must in Dubai) a radio and a CD player, which I don't use, automatic windows, cup holders, plenty of room in the door pockets, central locking and 4 doors. I can fit Bob in the hatchback if I remove the parcel shelf.

It's black, I've never chosen the colour of a car even when I buy one from new, once I've done my research on MPG, tyres and service costs, I've then looked at the internal layout, as above, and colour has never been a deciding factor.

I use my car to commute 30km to work everyday, back and forth, up and down. On a good day I can cross Dubai in 30 minutes, some days it can take 2 hours. I drive the Al Khail Road, it's a 10 lane highway and limited to 100km/p/h. Sheik Zayed Road is a 14 lane highway with the same speed limit. The smaller roads are between 60 and 80km/p/h. When you get out of Dubai the speed limit increases to 120 and 140km/ph.

But most of the time I drive below 100km/p/h. The roads are too busy to drive much faster, of course some cars do break the speed limit, but with cameras every few km, it could cost you a fortune with speeding fines.

So back to driving a Ferrari, or rather why I don't drive one.

Dubai has to be the most pointless place to own one, it's not a big city, there's no where to drive it and the roads are too busy. Unless of course you just want to pose, rev the engine and buy a new set of brake pads every month, but at least when you live in Dubai, you can afford the petrol to fill the tank up.

There's no need for this type of behaviour

We live on a security estate, it contains an 18 hole golf course and the property we rent is 1 mile from the main gate. Children play, ride bikes, peoples dogs and cats wonder around.

And that's why there is an enforced 30km an hour speed limit. the estate has speed bumps every so often meaning that I rarely get out of 2nd gear.

One of our neighbours owns a Ferrai and a Lamborghini (CBA to spell check) and because of the speed bumps they have to take the cars out of the estate on a trailer as they can't get over the speed bumps.

This morning I spooted the post man, I've got issues with the postal delivery service here so I stopped, pulling up on the side of the road, hazzards on, to ask him a few questions about the delivery of postal slips.

Several cars passed, slowly, but one woman who was speeding, I could tell as she flew over the bump, blasted her horn, pointed at my car and yelled something out the window.

The post man said 'that was very rude' (she didn't yell in English) she sped off, laughing, and gave me the middle finger out of her window.

When I got to the security gate she was held up by the traffic lights, so I enquired if she'd come through the residents or visitors gate. She was a visitor. Security took her registration number said she was a regular visitor and said they'd have words next time she checked in to the estate.

It really did spoil my morning.