Mike Dunn´s blog

Going Home!

2010-05-18T15:26:00.004Z

My flight today was not due to leave until 10:30pm so I took my time checking out at 11am but leaving my bags in a pay locker at the hostel and to a ride in to downtown Manhattan for something to do, I wandered around for a while and then took a different Metro back up to near the Hostel but walked through a part of Central Park as I think this was one of the only places we didn’t see on Jerry’s Tour! Back to the hostel I got my bag and took the Metro and SkyTrain out to JFK airport. I had been told it would take me nearly 3 hours to do the journey but in the end it only took an hour or so. Luckily I was able to check in even though it was only 4pm so with about 6 hours to kill I went over to Terminal 4 – which has the largest selection of restaurants and bars and had a couple of beers and some food there and generally mooched around the shops before returning to T7 to go through security and wait for the flight.
We left about 15 minutes late due to the place being a little late getting in but the flight was fine and I had booked a seat right at the back so it was only a ‘double’ rather than a ‘triple’ and had a but more room to move around. The evening meal was typical ‘plane food’ of chicken and rice and then I tried to sleep the next couple of hours until the rather lame breakfast of a coffee and pastry came round just before we circled over London for about 20 minutes before landing. My bag came off the plane fairly quickly and got out to be met by Phil, Ian and Amy who had driven down to meet me. We took a taxi across to the hotel where they had parked the car and were on the road home to Manchester at 12 noon and did really well to make Leigh to drop others off at 3:30pm, so we missed the ‘Birmingham M6 Rush Hour Carpark’. Calling in at The Barton for at last A REAL PINT (or 2!) of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, it was excellent, however the first defiantly didn’t touch the sides!

New York Day 3

2010-05-18T15:26:00.003Z

I chilled out today my back & leg were giving me a lot of pain today and add to that it was a fine rain drizzle that was coming down, I had breakfast in the hostel and some pain killers the Metro down to the main shopping area with the intention of getting some flight socks for the way home. After going to about a dozen Pharmacies and Outdoor/Travel stores and having no look I gave up and went for a beer and food in the Hartland Brewery which is located in the base of the Empire State Building, then meandered my way back to the hostel

New York Day 2

2010-05-18T15:26:00.001Z

6:30am Fire Alarm! The fire alarm went off this morning at 6:30am, not that anyone seemed to be in any hurry to leave the building, I got up and quickly dressed and queued to get down the stairs to get out, and was met by the NYFD coming up the stairs, turned out it was steam on a sensor, so I went back to bed for an hour or too before needing to get up for Jerry's City Tour. This is the best value $10 I’ve had it the States. At 11am I and about 20 other hostellers met up with a local retired School Teacher called Jerry, he has been running his Grand Tours for over 13 years and they are excellent. From 11 until 1.30am! we walked, rode the subway, hopped a ferry, and got to know the city in ways many tourists never do. We even went for a vey cheap evening meal in an Indian restaurant for less than $20, which is cheap for NY. Jerry took us to virtually every section and attraction in the city; The Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, Greenwich Village, Little India, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, 5th Avenue, Ground Zero, The Statten Island Ferry, The Staue of Liberty and even in to the Marriot hotel on Times Square to experience the inside-outside lifts to the 47th floor! A fantastic day out and a tour I would recommend to anyone who goes to NY (and you don’t even have to stay at the hostel to join it – just turn up before 11am on Tuesday or Saturday). The only issue was I don’t think it did by leg any good doing all that walking.

New York Day 1

2010-05-18T15:25:00.003Z

I started late this morning with a very heavy head! I jumped on the Metro and rode it down to central Manhattan and had a wander around I had looked in the phone directory and found the address of the Scout Office but it turned out to be just the admin office but the did direct me to the Scout Shop which turned out to be on the 4th floor of the Empire State Building so I headed over there and had to get a pass to get in. That was no problem – a driving licence works here! Unfortunately it doesn’t get you further than the forth floor though so I couldn’t sneak a lift to the top! After getting some badges I wandered aimlessly around for an hour or two and came across Times Square and sat and watched the world go by before heading back to the hostel and chilling out for the evening.

Bus to NY

2010-05-18T15:25:00.001Z

I took the 12:30 Megabus today to New You’re and all went well until we got to the Lincoln Tunnel, just as we got there it got shut down because of an incident in the tunnel and we sat in gridlocked traffic for a good 20minutes until they re-opened it. Once under the river we were dropped at Penn Station and I took the Metro up the 1 line to the hostel. This is the biggest hostel I’ve ever stayed in with over 700 beds but with an average hotel room price of $267 a night in New York I was glad I was paying a lot less than that. The hostel is huge with large bunk dorms but very clean and seems to have had a recent make-over with big lounger settees and a rather smart modern kitchen area. Not sure what to do I signed up for the Happy Hour drinks evening this evening, not having a car any more not having to worry about driving the next day. We met up at the reception at 7ish and we were just given an address of a bar about 2 blocks up the road. It was tiny and there was no way we we’re all going to get in there (there was about 15 of us) apart from that there was some very serious poetry reading being done, a couple of us bought a drink there but the rest moved on to another bar just over the road where we joined them and then we hit another bar, and another… eventually I think I rolled back into the hostel about 3am, a good night out!

Philadelphia

2010-05-18T15:24:00.000Z

Took the long walk back to the bus stop this morning and waited for the bus – I managed to get the bag on my back like a rucksack and balanced it with my day sack so it wasn’t too bad. We then took the bus back into the town centre and just had a short walk to find the Apple Hostel in the centre of town. We checked in and dropped the bag in the bag store as we were too early to check in and having been loaded with things to do/see we headed off into town.
The first place we went to see was the Eastern State Penitentiary which was excellent. You use an audio guide to wander around the part ruined grounds of the prison, with the narration given in many places by the voices of previous inmates and warders of the prison there are also art installations at various places around the site which gives it a slightly surreal feel to some of them. The nice thing is that it has not been fully restored which gives it a very eerie feel in places. Al Capone was incarcerated here and his cell has been recreated to show how it was made for him which was quite luxurious compared to the general cells for the vast majority of inmates. When the prison was first built it was designed around a central hub and the blocks were arranged as spokes off the centre so that the chief warder could keep an eye on the whole site from on place however as the capacity was increased other blocks have been added which fit in between the others and are not visible from the centre. In the early days the prisoners were all kept in solitary confinement and could spend years not seeing another person even the warders wore socks over their shoes so the inmates would not be aware that anyone else was there. A very harsh place to be. After the Penitentiary we walked over to the Museum of Art, not to go in but because it was made famous for the steps that Rocky ran up! Mark recreated the event while I filmed him on his camera, as did lots of other people every couple of minutes. There are two bronze feet marks that mark the spot where Rocky stood at the top and a large bronze statue of the famous pose down at the bottom to the side of the steps (it used to be at the top but they moved it for some reason). Back into the town centre now for a well earned beer and we found a small bar that had some local lager but it wasn’t too good but the barman directed us to a craft beer bar and we sampled some rather good bottled beers from all over the world. By now it was getting on for 5 oclock so we headed back to the hostel by the way of the SOS Philly Steak Sandwich shop for some food. The Philly steak sandwich – which it the trademark food of the town comprises a sub type roll with thin cut griddled steak covered with American cheese and relish, nice but nothing amazing. Back to the hostel and we joined a group of other hostellers on a ‘ghost’ tour of the city centre, which was really just a slightly cheesy walk around the town centre pointing out various places where people had it the past been killed or died in salubrious circumstances.

Bus to Philadelphia

2010-05-18T15:23:00.002Z

Took the Metro this morning back into town to the Car park where the Megabus was to leave from. The queue was huge but all was well as 2 buses turned up. The Megabus is just the same as you see in the UK Doubledecker coach and cheap! You even get laptop power and free WIFI on the bus, which worked really well, I’d read some reviews about the quality of the buses and was a little wary at first but in reality they were great and for price were excellent - $8 to Philly against $90 on the train. The bus was soon on the freeway and even though we left 30 mins late we arrived on time at 35th Street Train Station on time. I then took the train 1 stop to Central Philly and then waited for the local bus No.38 out towards the hostel. The bus wound it’s way through the town and then out through some rather run down areas of the town and finally the driver gave me a shout when he got to the stop I needed. He’d obviously seen other backpackers before as he told me exactly which way to walk from the bus stop. I now had a mile walk into a public park to get to the hostel and it would have been fine although I noticed that my new roll along bag seemed to be getting heavier and heavier. Looking down at the wheels I found that one had actually jammed or got stuck the friction had caused it to melt the housing and was now useless. Luckily I only had about a hundred yards to go to the hostel so I carried it the last bit.
Vey quiet hostel in the middle of nowhere, but did get chatting to a lad called Mark from Bolton and as we were both going to the Hostel in Philly centre tomorrow we agreed to team

Washington Day 2

2010-05-18T15:23:00.001Z

Today I was to finally get rid of the Chevy Impala that has given me so much grief for the last week or so, first I called at a Target store to get a lager travel bag to put all my stuff in. picked a large drag-along holdall for about $40 just the job. I dropped it off back at Jo's then drove the car down to Union Station where the Alamo returns are done. Just made it in time the traffic around Union Street Station is horrendous. After dropping the car and getting lost trying to get out of the car park; confusingly the signs pointing to the rail station are located over the escalators which take you back into the car park. The huge hall of the station is grand and awe inspiring and laid out with smart restaurants and cafés. The 'lines' are actually hidden away from the view of the station user and you could easily be led to believe that you were in some strange temple to food and not a railway station at all. Leaving the station I found the Postal Museum next door. I decided to go a have a look as communications have always interested me and also it wasn't your average run of the mill museum. Whilst only small, it was interesting and I spent an hour or so in here. Coming outside I took a walk over to Captiol Hill and took a couple of pictures. There was a Christian group giving it their all on the lawn in front of the Building complete with bands, staging, world flags and dancers. It was all a bit too much for me and I dropped in a small bar for a pint.

Washington Day 1

2010-05-18T15:22:00.002Z

I took the Metro this morning down to the centre of Washington today and first stop was the White House – which is as small as everyone says it is. There was some activity on the balcony but it's too far across the lawn to see what exactly was going on, there were certainly a few 'blokes in black suits' knocking about. I walked down from the Whitehouse towards the Mall cutting off the corner and ended up in the Ronald Regan food court – no, I've no Idea why it's called that either! But there was a good fresh food buffet in there so I got a large Salad to go and sat amongst the city types having lunch, almost as good as 'Zorba the Greek's' in Manchester, but lacked the company (Kathryn). I hobbled over to the Air and Space Museum, my back is still giving me gyp and took a look around the various halls here, some were interesting, but many were old and out dated, though from what I've read the Smithsonian Institute (who run the museums are nearly broke but absolutely refuse to charge for admission so this is the price.

Roanoke to Washington

2010-05-18T15:22:00.001Z

I did the last major run in the car today, and I'll be glad to get out of it. Uncomfortable and bad memories. I drove northwards until I picked up 'the Beltway'; the M60 or M25 of Washington at times it was mad with over 6 lanes each direction all full of traffic vying for to be the next F1 (or Nascar?!?) driver. Eventually I got off it and headed into the Suburb of Woodbridge where I had found there was a HRO Amateur Radio store to get a replacement battery for my radio. Duly bought I set the Sat Nav to take me the shortest route to Joanne's apartment in Silver Spring – this turned out to be straight through the middle of down town Washington. Joanne teaches at the British School of Washington and had kindly offered to put me up for a couple of days (some how I managed to get the days mixed up and arrived a day early!) The route in took me past the Pentagon and past Arlington and then over the Potomac river and into 'the District' proper, after that it was a slow crawl through busy city streets pretty much all the way up to Silver Spring which is right on the edge of the District in the North. I was early and didn't have the exact address in the sat nav so I parked up on a Shopping Centre Carpark and went into a Coffee Shop to use the net. It turned out that the Apartment block was on the very carpark I had parked on.

Blue Ridge Mountains

2010-05-18T15:21:00.000Z

Today I got off the Freeway and took the Long winding Blue Ridge Mountains Highway, another 'road' National Park. The roadway and a number of Miles either side of it are designated a National Park. The day was cloudy and misty but still warm and actually a bit muggy. I followed the road for a number of hours before peeling of to refill with fuel and then pick up the Freeway to Roanoke and find one of the cheaper motels.

North Carolina and into Virginia

2010-05-18T15:20:00.000Z

Packed up the tent this morning and took the the road through the Smokies over into North Carolina. Ironically many of the roads through this area were forged by Auto-clubs in the '20's who wanted somewhere nice to take their new cars and was why the park was created – to protect it from commercialisation, just now it's full of cars! At the state line at the summit of the pass is a car park with lookouts to both states. The think I noticed was the sign at the side announcing that this was a place where people hard the right to carry out their 1st Amendment – the right to free speech – as long as you stood next to the sign you could say anything! The road dropped down the hill through a series of sweeping long downhill runs to eventually open out into the Indian Reservation town of Cherokee, which again was a similar idea to Gatlinburg but with casinos as well. I follwoed a road out not really knowing where I was going stopping for some fuel on the way and eventually picked up the freeway northwards. I pulled off at Johnson City for a coffee and internet at a McDonald's and then carried on the now fairly boring freeway landscape for about another hour or so. I pulled off again for a drink and rest again just over the border into Virginia and as I got out searched in vain for my wallet. I knew I had it at the McDonald's but could not find it at all. So back in the car to retrace my steps back to the McDonald's at Johnson City with that horrible sinking feeling in my stomach; what if it's not there? What would I do now? I only had $5 in my pocket and now with going back wouldn't have enough fuel to get to Washington. Luckily when I got back there, one of the staff had cleaned the tables just after I had left and found it on the floor next to where I was sat. She had remembered my accent and finding the UK driving licence in it put 2 and 2 together had put it in the office. When I got back there looking slightly worried she just smiled and went and got it and said 'is this what your looking for?' Phew! So back onto the road again for the drive north again and I drove back up to Virginia before finding a cheep motel to crash in.

Gatlinburg

2010-05-11T00:24:00.000Z

I drove back down the narrow road to Gatlinburg today. The sun was out and it was a really warm day. The town is in a narrow valley on the edge of the National Park. It's a bit like Bowness but on speed. Everything is geared towards the tourist dollar, however my first stop was to find a chemist to get some tablets for my back which was really stiff today. I hobbled down the main street which seemed to be over-run with Ripley's Believe-it-or-not exhibitions. I got some tablets for back pain and called into the ubiquitous McDonald's to get a drink to wash them down. Then on down the street to see nothing but craft and tack shops selling anything and everything you can think of with the word Gatlinburg on it. Walking back up the main street there is a chair lift to take you up the mountain but the queue was huge and it only takes you up to more shops so I gave it a miss. Dark clouds were rolling in and the wind got up and so I headed back up to the camp site and read and listened to my radio, once again I just escaped the bad weather which flooded out Nashville and many other parts of the State of Tennessee but missed here completely.

To Gatlinburg, via Chattanooga

2010-05-11T00:22:00.001Z

Drove on today following the interstate South-East then for a confusing half a mile or so dropped into Georgia State, where it must be illegal to buy fireworks as either side of the state border were loads of Firework shops just off the highway in Tennessee. I pulled off the highway just after it turned North-East into Chattanooga not really sure what I was going to find here. I followed a number of signs to something called 'Lookout Mountain' which turns out to be slightly big hill on the edge of town. It also boast having an Inclined Railway and Ruby Falls; the largest known under-ground water fall, which is supposed to be very impressive. On arriving at the Carpark I parked up but found my back was incredibly stiff and sore today and I hobbled over the Entrance. The cost for entry was about $40 and included a long walk through caves to reach the water fall. I certainly wasn't willing to fork out $40 just to see a water fall and to be honest I don't think I could of managed to walk into it any way and hobbled back to the car like an old man to pop a couple more Paracetamol. Back on the road I was ok as long as I kept still and didn't move around too much on carried on up the interstate to the Gatlinburg turn off. The weather forecast was good and as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was here I saw it as an excellent time to camp for a change. Off the Highway I pulled into one of the Visitor centers and asked for advice on where to camp. The lady there told me to head up to Elk Mount Campsite and even told me which site to pick once in there!
On the way up to the site you pass through the area of Pigeon Force (no idea why it's called this) but its a tacky strip of motels, fast food joints and small amusements which has all sprung up allegedly because of the nearby Dollywood; Dolly Parton's very own theme park (Which I had no intention of visiting as numerous people had already told me how cheep tacky and expensive it was!)
Just before the road wound into the mountains towards Gatlinburg there was a large Wallmart to I pulled in to get some tea and supplies(beer) for the night. Wandering around this huge monolith of a store that sells everything I came to the Gun section. Some how I find it slightly worrying. Just out of interest I asked the guy behind the counter what I needed to buy one; “ just a Driving Licence and a Credit Card” he replied with some what of glee in his voice, I declined to buy one but assured him I may come back later! I wandered around and picked a six pack of beer and some snacks and salad stuff and went to pay. At the check out I did the usuall now here of handing over my Driving Licence and card to prove I was over 21 and to pay. The girl was apparently under 21 so she had to call the Supervisor to ring the beer through. This is where I got rather annoyed, the supervisor took on look at my Driving Licence and said she couldn't accept it as “I was an alien” I needed to show her my Passport to prove I was over 21! I remonstrated the fact that did I really look like I was just over 21 or a little over and also asked why my Driving licence would have been perfectly valid to buy a gun but not beer. I'm not sure whether she didn't understand my accent or just was being bloody minded but she asked ofr my Passport again, luckily I had it on me and showed it to her, She then took ages to go though each of the pages and compare it to my driving licence. The dates then threw her; my Passport shows 6/MAR/69 and my Driving Licence shows 6/3/69 (which is the 3rd of June in the US not the 6th of March), finally after explaining this to her she finally asked me “how is Ireland these days?” - “I've no bloody idea... I'm English, from England” I retorted. With that she agreed to sell me 6 small bottles of beer while the checkout girl behind her smirked and smiled at her supervisors bloody minded incompetence & ignorance. Finally out of the Walmart I drove on up Gatlinburg which is a little like Bowness on Speed and out into the National Park to the Campsite.
Unfortunately the (nice) lady at the Visitors Center got the price a bit wrong telling me it was only $10/night, I had $30 on me so I assumed I would be ok. When I got there it turned out to be $17 a night and as I planned to stay for 2 nights I was $4 short. The site is run on a honesty box system where you post your payments into a slot with the site you've picked and your details. There were big warning signs about non-payment and I wasn't going to risk it so headed back down to Gatlinburg I'd passed through before to the ATM, a round trip of about 15 miles just for $4! The site though was excellent and hidden up a long twisting valley in the park. Each small site had an pitch for a tent a fire pit and a bench and table all amongst an oak forest. There were also signs everywhere about keeping all food locked in your car to keep the bears at bay!

Manchester!(Tennessee) and Jack Daniels, Lynchburg

2010-05-11T00:20:00.001Z

I left Nashville this morning and took the road south out of town towards the Lynchburg and the Jack Daniels Distillery. Just of the Interstate I booked into a cheap motel room in Manchester of all places (although nothing like back home!) I then too the local road out to Lynchburg, the home of the Jack Daniels Distillery. The tour here is free and you start in a large Visitors Centre where you watch a film about the history of the place. Then you a led out a side door onto a 'Tour Bus' which takes you all of 500yds up the road though the grounds. The first stop is the old on site fire station where they have an old REO Speedwagon Fire Truck (yes, the rock group did base their name on a truck of this type) Next to the fire house we were told about the wood which is used to fire the distillery and also to make the charcoal which is used to filter the whiskey later in the process. From here we walked down to the old building which was originally used by Mr Jack Daniels as his office and there we were given a guided tour of the some of the artefacts in there. Next was the spring water source from which the pure water is drawn for the whiskey to this day, next to which is a supposedly life-size statue of Jack Daniels on a rock; so you can pose with him 'on-the-rocks' from here we went into first the distilling tanks and were able to get a heady wiff of the brewing liquor then to the filter sheds where the liquor is filtered through huge 3 story charcoal filtration beds. The tour guide lifted the lids on these beds to allow us to get a good sniff of the filtering whiskey which was certainly heady at this point but with little character. From here the liquor is decanted into oak barrels which are had made still on site and then taken to one of a number of storage sheds to be laid down to mature. Each consecutive barrel is taken to a different shed to ensure that should a shed be destroyed then the whole of this batch of whiskey would not be lost. Barrels are then placed in the storage sheds for a number of years to allow them to mature. Depending on the level in the shed the barrel is stored will affect the colour and taste of the whiskey. Those higher up the the shed will be subject to more heat extremes of warmth and cold. This allows the whiskey to seep in and out of the charred oak barrel which in turn adds to the colour and texture of the whiskey. So a barrel which is lower down the storage shed won' t get as smooth a flavour and is actually sold as a 'Green Label' Jack Daniels and is slightly harsher in taste than the standard Black Label, because of the limited number of these it is only normally available in Tennessee. Next was the single barrel bottling room where bottles are filled and packed on a batch process by hand from a single barrel at a time. You can come to the Distillery and purchase a whole barrel and have your own specially numbered and marked bottles made up. There is a 'Hall of Fame' here for people and groups which have done this. At the end of the tour we ended up back at the Visitors Centre where you get to sample... lemonade!!! Ironically the county in which Lynchburg is situated is a 'dry' county so they can't allow you to try the stuff!. They do have a shop where you can purchase a number of the speciality brands and limited edition versions of Jack Daniels in the corner of the visitor centre, however with the cheapest bottle being over 40 pounds a go I declined. Apparently this is the only liquor outlet in the whole county, you have to go about 10miles out to be able to buy the stuff normally! From the visitor centre I took a short drive down the road to the village/town of Lynchburg which is a sleepy little square of touristy shops around a 'city hall' The old hardware store has been converted into an olde tyme store selling everything and anything you can think of connected to Jack Daniels but the actual stuff itself.

Nashville

2010-05-11T00:19:00.000Z

I took my time this morning and had a a couple of fresh coffees whilst chatting to some of the other people. Three of the other people there were planning to walk up to Centennial Park to see the full size replica of the Parthenon before they headed off down to New Orleans Festival. We sat in the sun for awhile then walked around the huge Parthenon which looks slightly out of place in the middle of this large Park. Walking back towards the hostel we stopped off at the Café Coco which is apparently an institution in these parts. Open 24hrs a day you can get anything from drinks to snacks to full meals and the food really was good and fresh and 'real' a nice change from all the fast food everywhere. Back to the hostel and I chilled out for the afternoon on the patio of the hostel with other guests some playing a guitar that was passed around for people to show off their Country talents. In the evening I walked out with a couple of the other hostellers to the Commodore Bar where it was 'Open Mike' night. The idea is that people sign up to play a Guitar and sing on the stage. The night started off with the resident band playing a number of songs then another 12 singer/songwriters got up on the stage to give it their all. Some were ok a couple were really good, I'm not really a Country fan but it was a great way to experience the 'Country Music' scene.

Into Nashville

2010-05-11T00:18:00.000Z

It took me about an hour to get into Nashville this morning and I went to the Hostel listed in the Lonely Planet. It didn't seem too bad so I booked in for 2 nights. The hostel is in a collection of brick bungalows in a semi-industrial area. I took a drive down to the town centre just as a huge storm broke. After realising it wasn't going to stop too soon I looked for something to do indoors. The Farmers Market was just out of the city and I headed over there. The market is a huge long covered market in 3 sections. The central part is enclosed as a food court and I get a coffee in here. The rain had now slowed to a slow to a drizzle, I took a walk around the third of the market which was operating, mostly there were just plant sales, it looks like the market was on a slow day. Next door was a monument of some kind to the history of the USA, large black granite blocks are spaced down a garden, each represents a decade and is engraved with quotes from famous people of the time. Back at the hostel I chatted with a number of the other people there before going to bed

Memphis to just outside Nashville

2010-05-11T00:17:00.000Z

I decided to get off the freeway today and told the Satnav to avoid them, it took me northwards up though the sticks of Arkansas, the land is flat and mostly fields however every so often there are small copses of fields with farmsteads in them. I had a litle twinge of pain in my back so as I speed through a small village I pulled in to a Chemist for some Paracetamol. Opposite was a restaurant called Piggy P's, as it was already lunchtime I called in for some typical Southern grub of Pork and fries and Iced Tea. I continued on up the small road and suddenly the road doglegged to the right and left and under a strange archway over the road. I didn't realise it but I'd actually travelled up to into Missouri. I didn't get chance to stop at the weird arch, I had a huge truck right up behind me pushing me along and eventually I got a straight bit of road and allowed him to pass. I came across a radio communications store and pulled in to see if I could get a new battery for my radio they didn't sell Yeasu kit but they did give me the name of a store that may over the river in Dyersburg in Tennessee. I drove about another 20 miles up to the bridge over the Mississippi and headed into Dyersburg. I only had the name of the company and wasn't sure how I would find the firm. As I got into the down town area I came across a Library so I pulled into the carpark and used the internet there to track down the company. I got an address for them but my Sat Nav showed it as being about 10miles out of the town. As it was in the general direction of Nashville I headed out there. Unfortunately there was nothing but fields when I got to the 'address'. Rather than go back into Dyersberg I carried on towards Nashville but ended up stopping at a Motel about an hour out as I was too tired to drive any further and my back was still playing up. Across the road from the Motel was the Lorretta Lyne Restaurant and Gift Shoppe, apparently she's a world famous County Star – sorry never heard of her; however the all -you-can-eat buffet was good at only $9 a pop.

Forrest City to Memphis

2010-04-28T01:12:00.002Z

I took a drive over into Memphis today, I'd heard about a Spring Fair taking place in a town just south of the city so I went to try and find that first. I did find it but it had either closed up early (because of the storm) or just doesn't happen on a Sunday. I drove back into the downtown Memphis and took a walk down Beale Street which was teaming with people. The street was closed off and down the centre three lanes were marked out. It was Wine Race Day, this is when the various bar tenders get together to race up and down carrying trays of wine and glasses. They do it in a relay and each time a team member runs they add a bottle of wine and a glass, the bottle has to be opened and a glass poured. By the time the 4 person runs the 100 yards there are 4 full(ish!) glasses and 4 bottles of wine on the tray. The fact that some of them appeared to have had a little dutch courage before hand I'll think you get the idea of how many actually complete the course! A large dark cloud started to roll in so I headed back to the car ( plus I wasn't going to drink and drive) Just as I got back to the car the heavens opened and I headed back over the River Mississippi into Arkansas 'cos the hotel tax is about 8% less than Tennessee, and the hotels are on average $10 cheaper there too!

Forrest City

2010-04-28T01:12:00.001Z

I didn't sleep too well last night – couldn't get the fact I'd been robbed out of my head and I eventually felt like getting up at first and having checked the weather channel for updates found that the storms were to get worse today so I decided to stay put and ride it out. I called down to the Walmart to get some food etc and whilst on the way back the sky got dark – really dark over to the south. Just as I'd got into the room the Sirens went off, I'd left the TV on in the room and there were warnings of 'imminent Tornado possible – take cover' So being good, I stood at the door to see what was happening. The wind got up but not too bad and then about 15 minutes later the message was updated to say the threat had been cancelled for the area I was in – This was about the same time as the town of Yazoo, and a huge swath of Mississippi was flattened just over the state border. The tornado had missed here by about 80 miles not far when its travelling at over 40miles an hour and flattening every thing in it's wake.

Oklahoma to Forrest City

2010-04-28T01:11:00.000Z

Set off today with the intention of going to Memphis but I got as far as a place called Forrest City in Arkensas. The drive was tiring and I was pritty down because of having the stuff nicked. I found a cheap motel in one of the coupon books I have and checked in for the night. It had started to rain on the way in and the weather was getting a little rough.
I was a little surprised when I checked in to be told 'If you hear the siren get in the bathroom and and cover up. - there's a tornado coming!'
hmm. With this info I called round the corner at the local Walmart and got some tea and settled in to watch the Weather Channel along with a couple of beers.

Oklahoma City

2010-04-28T01:10:00.000Z

Took a drive out to a local clothing store to get some new clothes, all I have left is what I'm wearing! Then out to Timber's Mum's house. I've spoke to here many times on the phone and it was great to meet her. Then we took a drive into the middle of Oklahoma to see the local art's festival which was taking place. We managed to get a parking place in Car Dealers that was making a mint out of being next door to the site. Timber needed to be close to the site as she is also pregnant and is due in about 3 weeks so didn't want to have to walk too far, we also had her 2 year old son Calvin in tow too so he comes with the whole buggy thing too. We met up with a couple of her friends there, one who has just had a baby and the other who was helping to run the festival. We had a wander around the stalls and then got some food from the tent food court there. I went for the local dish of beans, ground meat and salad on a pitta like bread but it was more doughy. I suppose it was it bit like a tortilla but a huge plate full. We let Calvin have a run around an exhibit that was set up for young kids then headed back, Timber had a doctors appointment so she dropped me at her house. In the evening we went to a BBQ place to have a traditional
local fill of pork and potatoes!

Tulsa to Oklahoma - ARRG! I've been Robbed!

2010-04-28T00:16:00.003Z

Got up about 9am and chatted to Emily and Dave till about 10:30 then went out put my stuff in the car. GUTTED – found the car had been broken into – My rucksack with all my clothes, all my Scouting Badges and Uniforms, my travel plans, even the Girl Scout Cookies I got from Amy in Indianapolis have gone. They also took my Media Player I had bought in Hong Kong which I must have left in centre console. It's the Scouting stuff I'm really upset about – I had bought and swapped loads of badges around the world and bought a couple of uniforms, also my World Scout Jamboree Neckerchief and my own uniform has gone.
It looks like they have popped the locks on the car with something down the side of the window, there is no damage to the car and the car still locks and unlocks normally.
Dave and I had a drive around the area to see if they had just dumped the bags nearby but couldn't see anything, then we went down to the Police Station to file a report. This involves filling in a long form including my weight and height – god knows why they need that info! Back at Emily's I made a couple of calls back home and just felt totally deflated. The ironic thing is that when Emily and Timber came to Manchester Timber had her Bags pinched at Chortlon St. Bus Station – Ironic

I ended up not seeing any of Tulsa and just left to Drive on down to Timber in Oklahoma. I'd planned to follow Route 66 between the two towns but ended up taking the Freeway again as it would have taken too long.
I arrive at Timbers around 8ish and explained what had happened.

Springfield to Tulsa

2010-04-28T00:16:00.001Z

Drove the couple of hours down the freeway to Tulsa. They actually have tolls here! First time I've come across them and the roads are not much better for it – mind you there only $4 a time and they only take cash – good job I stopped at Walmart for some cash last night. I got into Tulsa no problem and found Emily's house fairly easily. I met Emily about 7 years ago in Paris at a youth hostel along with Timber (who I'm going to see in a couple of days.) They were travelling around Europe. Emily is currently off work as she's expecting a baby and was on bed rest but we chatted till late and then her husband, Dave came home from work and I stayed up late till about 1ish chatting with him. We went out to the car to bring in my sleeping bag and day sack and had a quick smoke and locked up the car (I know this happened because the lights go out when the doors are locked)

St Louis to Springfield

2010-04-28T00:15:00.000Z

The Hostel was quiet but the bed was awful so I set off again towards Tulsa but I took my time on the way down there and stopped in a town called Springfield along the way. The freeway was fairly boring apart from the hundreds of billboards along the way. The most suspicious were for an area called Benson, they progressively got more and more intriguing with offers of gifts, coupons, adverts for the tourist info radio, whilst they all said how fantastic the place was no of them actually said what was there. A little further on I managed to make contact with another radio amateur on the radio and we passed the time chatting for my last 30 minutes into Springfield. He was waiting for his wife to finish work one junction down from where I came off. Just as I pulled into the car park he followed me in. We had a quick chat in the car park then he was off. Got accused of being Australian and German by the receptionist when I checked in! I drove down to the local Walmart and picked up some food and made the mistake of picking up a pack of Budwiser , it's like fizzy pop, and tasteless, how do they call it beer?

Indianapolis to St. Louis

2010-04-28T00:13:00.000Z

I set off to drive to St. Louis today and the journey was fairly uneventful. I crossed over the Mississippi River to see the huge Gateway Arch towering over the town. I drove on through the town to find the Hostel I had booked. It wasn't that far through town and I found it after doubling back a few times through roadworks and various one way roads. The hostel is in a fairly run down area and to be honest the hostel is fairly dingy too, I checked in and went down to the town centre to have a look around. As I drove in I noticed there was a baseball game being played so I found a parking space and walked back to the 'ballpark' The match/game? was drawn and was going into overtime but many of the people were leaving the ground. I wandered around outside the ground for a while and took a couple of pics through the railings then went for a walk down to the Gateway Arch, it really is huge, it stands in a park on the edge of the river and at over 600ft it actually make you dizzy looking up at it from under it. It was built in 1965 to symbolise St. Louis as the Gateway to the West, I wanted to go up it as there is a viewing platform at the top but unfortunately it was too late and the visitor centre had closed. I called in a KFC for some tea then went back to the hostel and typed up some of the blog.

Indianapolis Day 3

2010-04-25T02:00:00.001Z

Today I went for a drive out to see downtown Indy and to see the Indiana State Museum. IT was really hot today – or felt it to me – and just walking across the town I was dripping by the time I got to the Museum, I had a drink from the concession then went into the history of people in Indiana. The exhibit showed the development of the state from the indigenous people to the people who emigrated to the lands and how they shaped them right up to the current day. There was certainly lots to see and interact with but it was fairly noisy not from people but from all the displays trying to compete with each other and this did make it hard listen to some of them. The noise of the museum was that loud that I didn't hear the announcements that the museum was closed for the evening and I'm not too sure who was more surprised, me or the security guard that came around a corner and asked me to leave! On the way back to the car I walked past the State Capital where there was a rally by the TEA Party. This is a Republican splinter group that feels that America is going in the wrong direction and they were very patriotic with loads of flags

Indianapolis Day 2

2010-04-25T01:58:00.003Z

I took a drive out today to the local Scout Headquarters which had just been built on the edge of the town. I was very Impressed. A guy named Sox gave me a tour of the brand new building which houses the admin and training services for the region. There are also huge conference rooms and a large Scout Shop where I bought a load more badges. The centre also intends to provide a walk-in training centre where any leader can walk in any day of the week and get training and support for a massive range of subjects from paper work to fire-lighting to canoeing. This is certainly a major investment and has cost in the region of $6 million to set up. From her I drove just around the corner to Camp Belzer which is the local Scout Camp. I had a wander around the site which is very well provided with huge buildings and facilities including 3 swimming pools. From here I took a drive over to the Speedway Museum at the Indianapolis Speedway. The museum is located within the oval and has a number of cars and bikes associated with the circuit. From walking round you would be led to assume that the Indy 500 and Nascar are the only forms for motor racing, there was a small mention about the F1 which used to race here but it was almost as though it was an embarrassment. Outside I took a 'quick spin' around the circuit. I say quick but the bus didn't break 35mph and we were not allowed to get off the bus at any time, even when the bus slowed to stop over the brick start finish line. The tradition here is to kiss the brick line when you win and this is the only bit of the track which is visible brick that is left. The original track was dirt but then it was covered with bricks to enable racing to continue in the wet (when it became muddy), or I the dry heat when it became a dust bowl and no one could see the racing. Just down the road was a brick works so they bought loads and covered the track with bricks. Most of them have been covered with tarmac now but the start finish line still has a yard wide brick section.

Indianapolis Day 1

2010-04-25T01:58:00.001Z

Took a walk out with Karen for Lunch at a local coffee shop and appreciated the warm weather – back to shorts and t-shirts! In the evening I went with Andrew and David to their Scout Meeting of Troop 120. Scout Troops here keep youth members to about 18 so their meetings are 'boy led' The leaders are really just there to supervise the meeting. One thing that was different was the way that the Scouts refer to adults, where we use first or nicknames the Scouts here always use Sir or Mr... I gave the Scouts here an overview of how we run Scouting in the UK and about my travels around the world then they went out to play some team building games. One of the leaders here gave me a load of local badges (or patches as they are known here) to add to my collection.

Regina to Indianapolis

2010-04-25T01:57:00.000Z

Breakfast of pancakes and coffee before heading back to the small Airport at Regina where Allan dropped me off and I checked in for the flight to Minneapolis. There were only 17 of us on the flight so we could spread out and had a row each! The flight was fine and only took an hour or so and then I had to run the gauntlet of US immigration again. Once through I picked up my bag from one belt and dropped it onto another for the flight to Indianapolis. I had a couple of hours to kill here so I went for a wander around the airport and did some blog writing before the next flight. I picked up the hire car in Indianapolis airport which was huge, modern and empty, probably because it was now 10pm here. Time zone jumping is very confusing! I picked a Chevy Impala from the choice of vehicles and drove out onto the freeway and arrived at Andrew and Karen's house around 11pm.

Regina Day 2

2010-04-25T01:47:00.002Z

Today Debbie had to work so Alan and I went to visit the RCMP museum in town. Whilst small it tells of the history and work of the police in Canada. The force was formed about 130 years ago as the North West Mounted Police to protect the areas of Canada which did not have a police presence. The force later transformed into a national police force and the national training centre was created in Regina. The museum was quite good and the intro film we were shown in the auditorium was well done abate a little kitsch with a sort of video based narrator on a plinth at the side of the the screen. The odd bit was of the 200 odd seats in the auditorium, Allan and I were the only ones in there! Back at Debbie's we had a great roast lamb dinner and chatted till late.

Regina Day 1 (Moose Jaw)

2010-04-25T01:47:00.001Z

A leisurely start to the day today and we drove out to Moose Jaw which is the next major town over we took a gravel road from theirs to meet the highway to Moose Jaw. Many of the local roads in this area are like this and they run for miles either East-West or North-South. And yes even out in the middle of no where where you can see for miles in all directions you sill have to come to a complete stop at a Stop sign. Every now and again the North – South roads do a big dogleg to account for the fact that they run off north every so often and have to be corrected.
We arrived in Moose Jaw which was once a huge bootlegging town, Al Capone was allegedly in town and the town seems to thrive on this. We took the 'Tunnels' tours which is a theatrical tour around various buildings and passages. It was done very will with guides in period costume and animatronics a lots of 'secret passages' from room to room. The first tour told the story of Al Capone and the bootlegging industry which existed here when Prohibition was in force in the US. The second told of the treatment of the Chinese Immigrant workers who came here to make their fortune and suffered greatly from persecution and maltreatment. Overall very Interesting and humorous but sobering when seeing what the Chinese went through. For our evening meal we went to a local church complex which was having a fund raising event. In the sports hall we had a huge meal of beef and vegetables with a side salad, the strangest thing was a sort of creamy angel delight textured dip which had soft wheat mixed in it.

Vancouver to Regina

2010-04-25T01:43:00.000Z

Got up a little later than I intended to this morning, quickly packed and dashed out to the Airport. Luckily I managed to check in on time at the airport and grabbed a coffee at before I boarded the flight to Regina. The plane was only small but full and we soon we landing in Regina. The pilot put on the seatbelt sign quite early as they were expecting a lot of wind, and even though it was a little bumpy on the way in, it was no worse than many other flights I've taken. A couple of the people on the plane though it was bad though and it was rather quiet for thee last couple of minutes as we landed. Once at the gate you could feel the plane been buffeted by the wind. Apparently we had landed in some of the worst winds in years and it was quite breezy out of the plane. Debbie and Her partner Alan were at the arrivals hall to meet me and we collected my bag and drove into town to have something to eat at a bar which was hidden away in an old warehouse. It looked nothing from the outside but was packed inside. We settled down to some very good beer and a I had a huge plate of local meats and potatoes which was almost Germanic but very tasty. We then took the highway out to their house which is about 50km out of Regina on the Prairies. The land here is flat, very flat, you can see for almost 50km in all directions, apart from Debbie's house which is on the edge of a lake which cuts through the land like a huge crease. This was defiantly the coldest it has been for me and with the wind felt very cold. The wind had in fact been been so bad that a neighbour if theirs had lost his whole shed, this was no small 'shed' either it was huge and had the entire roof ripped of it all that was left were the cars that we once parked in it and the pool table. The roof had dropped about 200m away on the edge of the road way leading around the houses. Many of the houses in the area had suffered wind damage with the shingles and roofing materials ripped off them. Debbie and Allan had old slight damage with a couple of sections of fascia ripped off. Their next door neighbour had had a load of glass veranda panels blown out and the railing were just peeled back like they were made from tin-foil. And we had flown in to Regina in this wind.

Vancouver Day 2

2010-04-18T14:39:00.000Z

Today was a beautiful clear day and I walked back down to the front where I had been yesterday. The view was completely different with the huge snow covered mountains in the distance. I snapped of a couple of pics and then walked the opposite direction to yesterday and came across the Olympic flame statue/monument/thing built the same as the one that had popped out of the floor in the stadium (this one with the four legs) It was surrounded by building fencing as they were digging up around it to put in some fountains in (why don't they do this when they build them) but I still got some pics of it from the viewing platform on the roof of the now empty Olympic media centre. It's strange but this town seems to have a bit of an Olympic 'hangover', all around there are small bits of evidence that something big has happened here, and the people seem a little shell shocked from it all, but in a good way. I watched a could of the float planes taking off from the water in front of the wharf, the wind had got up a fair bit now and some of them seemed to just hang in the sky not really going any where once they got to a certain hight before veering off over Stanley Park. I walked on through the high rise buildings and before I knew it had walked up to Stanley Park. By now it was getting on a bit and I had agreed to meet up with Debbie Reid's son in the late afternoon so I headed back to the hotel.
Not long after getting back to the hotel around 4pm I got a text from Eric to say he was downstairs. I had not seen Eric for about 15 years and that wasn't for long when I had visited Debbie in Edmonton. ( I was due to meet Debbie the next day in Regina. I've known Debbie for many years from the Old CompuServe Scouting Forum – as like Ian Loxton I met in Adelaide) We hit the bar in the Hotel for couple of pints then walked down into the Gasworks Area of town where the chap at the Brewery the night before told me of a bar that had an English Beer Engine, on the way we stopped at a pub Eric knew and had a couple of very cheep and strong but good porters ($4/8%/pint) then onto the Alibi Rooms where they did indeed have 'hand pulled' although at $26 for 4 pints we didn't stay long. Eric knew of another good bar nearby and this was about the nearest I've been to an English Pub yet, that hasn't tried to be 'Ye Olde English Pub'. For some reason we got chatting to a bunch of Koreans who were celebrating a birthday and a trio of Aussies who were just out for a beer, next thing I know we're falling out of a club back up near my hotel at nearly 2am. I would love to tell you how the beers were, but for some reason it all went a bit foggy! How Eric managed to make his class the next day I will never know?!?

Vancouver Day 1

2010-04-18T14:38:00.002Z

I headed down into the centre of the town in the morning with not much plan of what to do or where to go. I eventually found my self down at a waterfront next to the Convention Centre which looks like a ship docked into the Wharf. I picked up a couple of maps from the info centre there and then walked across town to the Olympic Ice Hockey Venue which was closed. I pondered whether to walk over to The Village but it was a good distance form here so I decided to take the metro train out to the Scout Shop address I had found earlier in the Hotel. It was about 3 stops up the line (this time I validated my ticket!) and about 200 years from the station. I picked up a number of badges and had a browse of the uniforms but decided not to buy one as I already have a Scouts Canada shirt. After a lengthy chat with the manager about the state of Scout Camps in the area, I set off find the Brewery the bar man had told me about the night before. Granville Brewery is located on Granville Island which is more like a spit of land that sticks out under a huge bridge over the river. The area was once all warehouses but now has been converted to small speciality shops and companies. You can actually smell the brewery before you find it – the smell of hops is certainly distinctive! I booked in for the 4pm tour for the princely sum of $10 (which included 4 'free' tasters of their beers. Most of the brewing the company does is done off site but they produce their seasonal special still in the Brewery and sell all of them from the adjacent bar. The tour was fairly short, about 20 minutes and was led by a chap from Preston of all places. The taster beers were all very good and included a Pale Ale; very hoppy, A wheat beer (Halfwiezen); full bodied and not too gassy, A 'bitter' (forgot the name!); Fairly similar to a Thwaites, and their Seasonal beer called Nut Brown Ale which was supposed to have been a porter but had ended up more like a Newcastle Brown Ale abate at 8.5% it had a little more kick. A couple of pints more and chatting to a couple of the others on the tour and it was getting on for 8pm, and they were shutting the bar! Alas they only had a licence to sell beer whilst the tours were running and as we had been on the last tour of the day, 4 hours of 'tasting' was apparently as far as they dared push it, damn it!

Seattle to Vancouver

2010-04-18T14:38:00.001Z

I got the car out of the car park after checking out of the hostel and headed towards the airport. I did a 'Top Gear' and refused to fill up as they told me to bring it back empty. The fuel range gauge said I had 10miles left in the tank as I started the car up which was good as it was only 7 to the airport. By the time I had actually driven ｽmile it said I was Empty, so I drove onto the motorway and hoped, as you do! It did deg me to the airport and I as definitely on fumes as I drove up the ramp to rental drop area. The car dropped I went to get a trolley to put my bags on; $5 a trolley!!! No thank you, I'll carry them, robbing buggers! Checked in OK and the flight was on time. The flight was only about 45 minutes to Vancouver and no sooner are you up you are coming back down again. Once the bag was collected and the usual immigration/customs etc. grilling I made my way out of the airport to find the Canada Line metro train which runs in to down town Vancouver and stops only a couple of blocks from the hotel. I bought the ticket no problem, there are friendly staff there to tell you how to use the machines, however what they don't tell you is you are then supposed to 'validate' the ticket before you get on the train at another machine. I didn't realise this until I got to my destination station and the was a huge poster 'reminding' people to validate your ticket. Too late I was already there (and there are no barriers or checks) I walked about 5 blocks to the hotel which is not too far and checked in. I had booked and paid for the Howard Johnson before I set off so I didn't have to worry about it. It was a typical city centre Hotel with a standard room and despite some of the negative reports on TripAdvisor.com it was pretty much what I had expected for this room rate plus it was very centrally located, which was great. I dropped the bags and went down to the bar for a drink and tried the 'local' pale ale which wasn't up to much, but the barman did give me couple of tips of where to go for a decent pint, which was good. Out on the street just up from the hotel I grabbed a burger for tea, the main street (Granville Road) was a hive of activity with people dismantling a scene from Fringe – Season 2 which was being filmed in the city (Something to do with New York in the future). Sadly I did not get my 15 minutes of fame as extra this time.

Seattle Day 2

2010-04-18T14:32:00.001Z

Yes I managed to get up for 6am but I didn't sleep properly thinking I would oversleep. I went down to move the car (now the only one left parked on the street) I drove around the car-park and waited for it to open (40 minutes late) and parked up. Back at the hostel I had a coffee but was now so tired from not sleeping I went back to bed for a couple of hours and slept really well waking around 12:30. I had planned to go to the Space Needle a huge tower that literally towers over Seattle. The views on a good day are supposed to be fantastic however today was not a good day, rain squalls and low cloud persisted all day; I wasn't paying $25 to go and look at the inside of a cloud! I did walk up to the tower base as it's in a Exhibition Area Seattle walking first past the Convention Centre which was crowded with loads of teenagers dressed up in weird Manga outfits, hmm, I've seen some sights at Middlewood with the Live Role Players; but this took the biscuit. I followed the monorail which runs from the Convention Centre to the Exhibition Area and looked around the various buildings up here. There were two other 'museums' adjacent to the tower, one about Science Fiction and the other about Music neither of which caught my fancy however the building they were in was a like a huge metallised lump of Plasticine which the monorail passed through. Around the building was being piped all sorts of odd music, one minute, The Beatles, the next a German Um-Pa Band, the next some atmospheric 'Muzak' it must have been connected with the music museum, but next to this building it was quite surreal. Further into the 'park was a large bowel in the ground surrounded by a low wall you could sit on, in the centre was a huge 12ft high silver globe which had jets of water shooting out at various angles. It wasn't until you sat at on the wall around the fountain that you realised that the water jets were being fired in sequence to music which was being played through speakers on the inner side of the wall and you could only really hear them once you were 'inside' the ring. Even though it was probably about 10deg. there were still a load of kids running around and through the huge jets that were spouting from the globe. I would imaging in the summer it's packed here but there were only about 4 or 5 brave/daft souls in there today. In fact as I left there the wind got up and it was decidedly cold so I walked back to the hostel and decided to chill out there for the rest of the evening.

Seattle Day 1

2010-04-18T14:31:00.000Z

After a coffee in the hostel I wandered over to Pikes Place Market, this market has been operating here for years and features farmers and only independent traders and crafts people (Apart from one certain coffee shop) As today was Easter Sunday most of the fresh food stalls were closed but there was still a vibrant buzz about the place with lots of trinket and crafts people selling their wares. There was also a long section which was full of flower sellers, and tulips seemed to be the flower of the season. There are many little independent traders amongst the shop units that make-up one half of the market area and these include that small independent coffee shop – Starbucks. The market has very strict rules about who can and cannot run a shop or stall in the market (no chains or corporates), but as this is Starbucks first store (where it all began) they've managed to stay, and judging by the queue to get in, it helps to draw the crowds to the Market. I didn't bother with it as I'm not too keen on their coffee anyway. Instead I joined the queue for a tiny Russian Bakery where I bought a 'Perogie?!?' a sort of folded pasty with mince beef, onion and flaky pastry – it was fantastic and only a couple of dollars.
It had started off as a beautiful clear day but had now clouded over and starteded to get a little chilly. As I wandered around the town centre I came across the Seattle Underground Tour. I was just in time for the 2pm trip so I paid up and went in to what I thought was a small room, it turned out there were about 100 people in a room laid out with benches in an old time bar. A guy at the bar area had just started to give a history of Seattle pock-marked with lots of 'in jokes' about America (Which half of us tourists did not get) Eventually we were shepherded outside and split into 3 groups and then set of with a tour guide across the square outside to a door way in a building over the street. This led down into a building basement. The floor was very uneven and cracked and it seemed like the whole of the lever of the building had been abandoned. This was indeed the case, when Seattle was built it was on the mudflats for the Puget sound. At high tides the water level was so high that it would flood out some of the buildings and also blow out of the sewers -which didn't work very well as they were all below the high tide-mark! So the people of Seattle decided to put the sewers higher, this meant putting the roads higher (30ft higher!) The roads were not butt up to the buildings though so from the road you would have to descend a ladder to reach the footpath (pavement). This was not practicable so people simply put walkways over to the 1st floor and used this floor as the 'ground' floor and used the lower floor as a basement. Eventually the gap between the roads and the buildings were capped over with a pavement so the old pavement became a sort of secondary thoroughfare/storage area & drinking dens (in the Prohibition Era). The tour took us down a three of these passage ways through basements and old 'sidewalks' under the streets. Much of the detritus has been left where it was and it was nice to see something that hadn't been sanitized and cleaned as so much 'history' is in the US. The guide gave us and interesting story about the local 'seamstresses'. As this was a trading and supplies town for the gold rush era and a major port to boot, there were a lot 'seamstresses' in town. One of them managed to convince the town council that she could run a very good house and she was allowed to continue, of course she had to pay a tax on every 'jacket repair' or 'trouser hemming' that her ladies (and allegedly a couple of 'tailors') provided. So much so, enough money was raised to build and equip a large school. Strangely the school was never named after her!
On leaving the Tour, I worked my way up to the Hostel and enquired where the car-park they use was, The receptionist gave me directions and I walked out to find it first before moving the car. The good news was, it was only round the corner from where the car was parked, the bad news was it was closed as it was Easter Sunday and wouldn't open till 6am Monday morning – the same time the meter my car was parked on would come into effect, early start for me then.

Portland to Seattle

2010-04-18T14:30:00.003Z

I set off for Seattle today, but called in at a Fry's Electrical Store on the way, they had some portable hard drives on offer and the one I had had been playing up so it was worth picking up one to ensure I didn't loose all my data. It took about 3 hours to drive up to Seattle and I made the outskirts just as the fuel tank flashed empty. I pulled off the free way to get a gallon of fuel – by my reckoning just enough the get me in to town and back out to the airport. I did get a funny look for just buying 1 gallon of fuel, nobody buy just a gallon here. Once in the city the roads were all one ways and I eventually found the hostel right in the centre but could I get to it, I must have gone round and round about 5 times before I eventually dropped on a metered space about 200 yards away. As it was Saturday evening I only had to pay 25cents for the last 20 minutes of the 'day'. I checked in and was told not to worry about the car as Sundays are free parking and that I would be able to move the car late on Sunday to the multi-story car park they had a deal with late on Sunday to save on parking fees. The Green Tortoise hostel was in a fantastic location right next to Pike Place Market and all the other sights in Seattle. I walked out in the evening and called in a supermarket for some supplies and to my surprise found they had Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, and it was on offer at $3 a pint (2 quid!). Not one to miss a bargain I had a couple back at the hostel (once I had warmed it up from being ice cold to just chilled.

Portland Day 2

2010-04-18T14:28:00.002Z

Today the weather had changed – yesterday had been a lovely bright day; today it was low cloud and chucking it down. I drove down to the town centre over one of the many bridges that pass high over the river and parked on a meter in the town centre. The down-town area has long parks running through it so it is quite green and it clings to the side of a hill on one side and skirts the Willamette River on the other. I walked down through the shops and offices and found Powell's City of Books. This book store fills at least 2 separate blocks in the down-town area, its the largest book store I've ever been in and more resembles a library than a store. The books are arranged in coloured zones based on subject and each zone has it's own information desk to better help visitors/shoppers. I spent a good hour here browsing the hundreds of shelves and suddenly remembered I was parked on a meter about a mile away. I made my way back to the car with about 10 minutes left of the meter but at on point I wasn't sure I would find the car. The park which runs through the town and the buildings surrounding it are virtually all the same and there are 2 parks to add to my confusion I hadn't realised I had skirted one on my initial walk into the down-town area. The rain had started to come down heavy now so I took a drive out and up onto the Skyline Drive which cuts over the hill behind the town. The wind was really strong up here and loads of branches were being blown off the firs surrounding the the hill and I made for lower ground to get out of the rain and wind but there were some huge houses up on the hill which would have had fantastic views should the cloud have been higher. Back down in the suburbs I stopped in a small Coffee Shop and had a coffee and some excellent beef and bean soup. The Wifi here was brilliant (5Meg upload speed!) so I uploaded as many photo's as I could before the laptop battery ran out.

Portland Day 1

2010-04-18T14:27:00.003Z

Strangely felt a little subdued today so I had a lazy day at the hostel, fortunately they didn't have a lock out during the day as many hostel do.

Eugene to Portland

2010-04-18T14:27:00.001Z

Back on the road today up to Portland. The drive was mostly through mountains but the freeway was good and not too busy. I stopped a couple of times for coffee on the way and eventually rolled into Portland. I called a Safeway just before the Hostel I had booked and picked up some food for tea. The Hostel was a little way further up and very much into the 'green' thing. The roof was an eco-roof with shrubs and plants on it, the toilets were flushed with rain water collected in big tanks at the side of the hostel and virtually all waste was recycled. I fancied a beer so asked at the reception and the girl there recommended a bar about 500yds down the road which brewed their own. Not that I had to worry about getting a decent pint here. Portland is considered the micro-brewery capital of the US. I walked down the road and could only find a Pizza restaurant but on further investigation found it had a small bar area tucked down the side. They had a good selection of beers but their Espresso Stout was excellent. It had a great coffee bitter kick and wasn't to gassy. I got chatting to a guy there and we put the world to rights over a few beers, then I some how staggered back to the hostel (the beer was apparently over 8% and not many people manage more than 2 – I can remember drinking at least 3!)

Eugene

2010-03-31T05:54:00.001Z

Today was cold and damp, the coldest I think it's felt since leaving Heathrow! I had some of the free pancake breakfast in the hostel then walked down 'towards' the downtown area. I say towards as I don't think I actually found the 'town centre', there were lots of art shops and service industry buildings but nothing you could actually pinpoint as a town centre. The rain was still coming down and a could swear it started sleet at one point. A time/temperature sign on a bank said it was 6 degrees C and I could believe it. I wandered aimlessly around the streets and eventually made my way back to the hostel past lots of very bohemian houses with strange art works in the gardens and attached to the fronts of houses, I now realised the hostel didn't look too out of place after all!

Sacramento to Eugene

2010-03-31T05:53:00.000Z

I was aware that I needed to get some miles under my belt so today I set of on the long drive northwards, I fact I was on the road for about 9 hours up Interstate 5. I could have cut west and then up the coast but I've had enough of coast roads and it would also have added about another 5 hours to the run. The freeway ran for the first couple of hours through endless flat land of olive and fruit trees then started to climb up into the Klamath State forest as the road climbed up towards the Oregon State border. The weather also changes from being clear skies and rain started to come down. The sun went down just as I passed over the highest point on the freeway (4,310ft) which was just into Oregon and it became a little hairy on the road for the last hour or so but I had a load of BBC podcasts playing on the radio so that kept me going. ( BBC 4 Friday Night Comedy and Toby Foster's Bigger at Breakfast). Eventually I pulled up at the hostel which sort of stuck out like a sore thumb with it's bright neon 'Open' sign and tibeten prayer flags strung with fairy lights in an otherwise quiet residential street.

Sacramento

2010-03-31T05:52:00.001Z

On leaving the hostel I could hear music just around the next building. On walking around it I found a festival of somekind going on. I'm not sure what the celebration/protest was as everything was in spanish but there was a circle of classic and 'pimped' American cars around the square. As things were starting to wind up I made my way down to Old Sacramento. It's is at the end of the town and went down there today to wander around the wooden board walks along the shop fronts. The whole area was a tourist trap with shops and cafés. There was a 'chip shop' which sold chips from around the world, apparently English chips come with curry, but not salt and vinegar, I did ask! On the side of the old town is the Sacramento River not much was moving on it apart from a turtle I saw near the edge trying in vein to climb over a round steel flood barrier, unfortunately it had given up and swam away before I could get my camera out. At the end of the board walk area was the Railway Museum so I went in to have a look. The museum shows a video to explain the beginnings of rail and its developments (surprisingly for the US acknowledging Stephenson and the Rocket) at the end of the video which was shown in a full size cinema the screen rose at the end of the room and cleverly the last shot on the screen had been recreated with the actual steam engine in a display in the museum. We went down the steps and out through the 'back of the cinema' and there was a guy there who took us on a tour of the most important parts of the museum before letting you wander at will. The museum it's self was about a third the size of the one at York but had some interesting trains and carriages to look at, One carriage cleverly fitted out with piston rams under it, and the windows were 'blacked out'. Once on it with the sound effects played through it, it actually felt like you were on a moving train, every so often a level crossing would 'wizz by'. The train rocked and lights flashed passed the windows. A number of museum staff were 'in character' on the carriage an they explained the layout of the sleeper and what it was like to travel in it. I also came across an usual oil burning train which had been built with the drivers cab at the front of the loco, this was because of the smoke and fumes which were coming out of the chimney tended to choke (and suffocate!) the drivers if they were on 'normal' loco's when they went through the long tunnels over the Sierra Nevada. The other thing that caught my eye about this train was that it was No.4294 ( I can't explain this one but if you recognise it you'll understand!)
On the walk back to the Hostel I found another Brew pub and found they had a real hand pulled beer engine – AT LAST REAL BEER! The beer was called Irish Red and tasted excellent , it was a ruby read colour and not too hoppy or rich, however at over 6% it was rather potent Two pints was all I could dare manage having not had a decent meal all day! Walking back to the hostel I walked through the Capital Gardens at the back of the Capital Building (Sacramento is the Capital of California). The gardens are meticulosly kept and supposedly have one of every native of tree in Calefornia.It was also full of of couples having their wedding photo's taken!

Marin Head to Sacramento

2010-03-31T05:46:00.000Z

I had decided it was time to start heading north again and so I got back onto the interstate and drove around the top end of 'the bay and out north west to Sacramento. The drive was along a fairly flat straight divided highway, but luckily I had cruise control on the car (Ford Focus) 'cos 'CHiPs' (Does any one else remember that?) were hiding behind every bridge with speed guns!
Sacramento suddenly loomed up on me and I drove into the centre to find the hostel. This proved to be a little tricky as the tall buildings made the sat nav a little slow in updating and I must have gone around the one way streets a dozen times before I got in the correct lane to turn down the right street to find it. The hostel is a beautiful Victorian town house right in the centre of Sacramento surrounded by huge concrete buildings and seems sort of out of place. I wandered down into the town centre and just happened to come a cross a brew pub, Pyramid. I tied a couple of the brews; Pyramid IPA 6.7% Very hoppy with a lemon finish. Fling; tasted like a standard bitter but 5.7% and Amber Ale, unfiltered so slightly cloudy, fairly malty in taste, gassy but not too noticeable, 4.9%. They didn't have any porters or stouts but thing went quite well as I sat at the bar and chatted to two locals and they ended up paying for my beer – nice!

San Francisco to Marin Hostel

2010-03-31T05:44:00.000Z

Took a walk out this morning to go and see the Exploritorium, this is one of those hands on science museums, lots of buttons to press and things to play with, I should have realised it was a weekday and the place was full of primary school kids when I got there.
The outside of the building which appears to be huge hanger is surrounded by a small lake and Greco-Roman columns -very similar to the surrounds of the Trafford Centre. The place is also referred to the Centre for Fine Arts, but there were none of these in evidence and I've no idea where they've gone. I spent a number of enjoyable hours in the Exploritorium – you have to be patient with loads of kids about, fiddling and playing with the exhibits. Walking back to the Hostel to get the car I called in at Safeway on the way to get some food as I had been warned there was not much available at the next hostel.
Back in the car I jumped back into the San Francisco traffic and joined Route 101 North which runs through the town and out onto the Golden Gate Bridge over the entrance to the Bay. The Bridge is certainly iconic but it's a trifle hard to look at it when your doing 45 in heavy traffic! Just after the bridge I peeled of the main road and hooked down and under the road into a tunnel which passed through the hill and out into a valley. This is the Malin State park and is also still used by various government agencies (Coast Guard, NOAA, etc.) All of the buildings are of a wooden 'blockhouse' style but many are privately used now. The hostel was about a mile down the road and tucked away in one of these old army barrack blocks. I checked in and dropped the bags and then continued down to the pebble beach at the end of the valley. The wind was howling in and there were loads of nutters out in surf – it was freezing in the wind! Back at the hostel I had some tea and settled in for the night, and the first hostel I'd had with no internet connection – in fact no mobile coverage either, and the strange thing was I was less than 40 minutes from the centre of San Francisco.

San Francisco Day 2

2010-03-26T06:11:00.001Z

Easy start to day a relaxing Breakfast in the cafe watching a man from the parks service cut a grassed area outside the hostel with the most inappropriate mower ever. He has to change the grass box after doing just over 1 length of the grass each time and he is desperately trying to get straight lines when the ground isn't flat. To cap it all he has bright blue fluffy earmuffs and a white paper dust mask on (to go with the wellies and overalls) I was quite impressed he had left his hi-viz jacket and hard hat on the van; He'd never get a job at Middlewood!
Back out into the big city and I walked down through the park towards Fisherman's Wharf which is at Pier 39 (the piers are odd numbered at this end of The Embarcadero and number downwards to the Ferry Buildings where they start to number evenly away from it)
The strip along here is full of the usual restaurants and tack shops but hidden amongst them was the Maritime Museum – a pier with a load of boats tied up to it, you had to pay to go onto the boats but it was free to walk up and down and look at them. The pier they are on actually used to be the 'southern' end of the ferry which ran across the bay to connect Route 101 to the north before the Golden Gate Bridge was built and there is a ship here which contains old cars parked on it as a tribute to that era. Somehow putting priceless cars on an old boat, in a bay, subject to bad storms, seems a bit daft to me but they must know better. Back on 'dry land' I came across a 'Musee Mecanique' – their spelling not mine! It was a museum of amusement arcade games and entertainments the majority of which were still working (as log as you introduced a 25cent coin! They ranged from the flip card type 'zoe-o-scopes' from the Edwardian and Victorian era to Bally Pinballs and Video games, similar to the ones I saw in Santa Cruz the other day.
I walked down the front to Pier 39, the home of the Sea-lions, yes they were here, though not many, the pier itself if is a gourdy money making machine and I went back out onto the main drag to find a tram. The trams which run along this stretch are proper trams (as against the 'cable cars' which run up and down the hills pulled by cables under the road.) The trams are also all historical trams and have been brought in from all over the world, each one is from a different country or state and each is painted in the original colours. There is even a Blackpool Tram here, but I didn't see it. I rode the tram line down to Union Square and then took the Cable Car up to The Cable Car museum Near the top of Nob Hill. This is where the 3 lines of the Cable Cars are run from and it houses the central power house and winding gear for the cables which pull the cars along. The 'museum' is simply a mezzanine floor over the winding shed and an underground viewing area of the underground cable entry point but it explains well enough how the system works and I found it fascinating. Back out on to the street and I walked up two bloks to get on the California line cable car and rtook it back down to the Embarcadero where I had a coffee then took the tram back up to the end of the Embarcadero to walk back to the Hostel. On the way I did come across a bar with 68 beers on tap and it was Happy Hour.... Ok so I only had one this time – Ambers Porter and it was very good, not ice cold and full of flavour and body. I didn't stay for more as a, It was a cash only bar and I was out of cash (for today) and b, they actually counted keg Boddingtons as on of the 68!

San Francisco Day 1

2010-03-26T05:17:00.004Z

I had to swap the car today so off down to the Airport to swap it over. I dropped off the Pontiac (on which the Central Locking doesn't work) and picked up a Ford Focus (on which it does!) I also found out I didn't need to fill the tank and should have brought it back empty (I hadn't grr) but I think I got a refund for the fuel I'd put in. So I must remember to take this one back with an empty tank. Back to the hostel to drop of the car – Free parking included (I bet you cant get bed and breakfast any where else in the city with free wifi, parking, and parkland location for about $27/night) Out on the street I walked down to the end of one of the Cable Car lines and got a 3 day ticket for the local transport network. I then jumped on the next Cable car an road it up to Lombard Street. This is the Crooked Street that is often shown in films with cars zig zaging down the steep road between the neatly trimmed hedges. I stopped off for a Coffee then took another cable car line up and over Nob Hill and down to the end of the line at Powell Station. From here I walked a couple of blocks to try and find a sandwich shop which was listed in the Lonely Planet as being the best in town. The thing it failed to mention was you have to walk through a fairly salubrious part of the town to get to it. It was right though it was small and you did have to queue for the sandwich but it was damn good; Vietnamese Pork Ball with salad. I walked back to Union Square (trying to look as local as possible!) and then up to Chinatown and followed the walking tour in the Lonley Planet, whilst these are really good and useful, I hate walking round with a 'house-brick' sized tourist guide in my hand. (I must try and get a copy of the relevant pages next time) The walk was good though an took in many sights you just don't see or notice walking down the main drags, including a park where a brothel once stood?!?, The shop that makes fortune cookies (as featured in Karate Kid et. al.!) The Book-store made famous by/for, the beat poets of the 60's (I don't remember them either!). I was only halfway along the route but already it was 4pm and there was a sign on a door way 'Happy Hour - $2 beers', The tour can wait. I just had to try the Black Butte Porter which was very rich and had a chocolate hint to it. Also the Old #38 Stout was heavy with barley and had a coffee finish. Finally back to the hostel for some tea, typing,and bed.

Santa Cruz to San Francisco

2010-03-26T05:04:00.000Z

Set off this morning with the 2 German Girls (didn't get their names, only just occurred to me!) up the coast on Highway 1, this stretch was actually better than the 'Big Sur' run as the road was wider and easier to pull off to see the coastline. We did this at a number of places, on top of sheer cliffs looking down to rocky outcrops and sea bridges and down onto bays with the surf breaking over jagged rocky outcrops. Eventually I dropped them at the hostel they had booked which was about ¾ of the way to San Francisco. Driving further up the road I came to Daly City (Joe they even named it after your dad!) just out side of the main city. Back onto crazy Freeways the satnav took me in to the city following Route 101 now (Which eventually goes over the Golden Gate Bridge) Off the Freeway the route dropped onto a main road through into the heart of the city to the tip of the peninsular. And then into a park area. The Youth Hostel I'd booked is located in probably some of the most valued land in the city. The US Parks Service owns the park as it used to be an Army Camp and the Hostel is one of the converted buildings on the site. From my bedroom you can see Fisherman's Wharf, and from the Café you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Santa Cruz

2010-03-26T04:59:00.001Z

I had a full day to explore today but ended up not going far. A read of the Lonely Planet had mentioned 'The Mystery Spot' a quirky attraction not far from the hostel and just out of the town. I drove up there and nearly turned back at the sign which read $5 for parking and a $5 entrance fee.
I didn't and I paid. Essentially the who thing is a series of optical illusions but is wrapped up in a series of elaborate stories and clever design. The place is in a narrow red cedar valley just outside the town and allegedly was found by some surveyors working through the land. Compasses fail to work properly and there are places where people appear to grow or shrink just by changing places, also balls and objects can roll up seemingly downhill or flat planks of wood. There is a wooden shed halfway up the hill through which you pass to see most of these 'mysteries' which apparently slid down the hill by 'the forces' to rest here and is now at a ridiculous angle that you have to hold onto rails to walk through. It's all done with cheesy suave and very quickly so you are in and out of the tour within 30minutes. On the opposite valley side there was a track leading gently up which was an Interpretative Nature Trail so I started to follow this not intending to go too far however it was really interesting and every so often small wooden plaques would explain about the varied flora and fauna along the way. Eventually the track topped out on the ridge above the valley but still in the red cedars which towered overhead, then the path doubled back and ran along the ridge. I walked on and suddenly in front of me in a small clearing was a young deer. At first we both looked at each other and then it decided to go down the hillside but I had only been about 15ft from it. I carried on the path for about another mile or so until it came to a fence and a private property sign, so I started to retrace my steps. Back near the clearing I slowed as I could hear the deer was back (there was a good covering of low bushes here that it was munching on) I crept forward and tried in vein to get a good shot of it with my camera and for about 4 minutes it stopped and stared right at me through the shrubs, however I don't think I could get the camera to focus on the deer and not the bushes.
Back in the hostel that evening sat chatting to the other guests and agreed to give two German girls a ride up to their next hostel as it was on my way the next day.

Monterey to Santa Cruz

2010-03-26T04:56:00.001Z

This morning I returned to the Hamfest as it was on the way out of the town and stayed for a couple of hours before driving on and up to Santa Cruz. I arrived here late afternoon and checked into the Hostel which is in some restored tiny wooden houses on top of 'the hill'. Each 'house' has a couple of bunk rooms and it's own lounge and wash rooms with the communal kitchen and office in another. The only downside with this hostel is that it has a strict 11pm curfew, so much that the electronic door lock will not open the door from the outside after 11pm so you have to been in your dorm building by then. The sun was still up – just, so took a stroll out and down to the beach front which is very Blackpool'esque with a promenade, pier, amusements and a small pleasure beach. I wandered into the amusements arcade and was amazed to see a mechanical shove penny machine, alas you had yo use tokens and you only won tickets exchangeable for prizes ( this make it a skill game and not gambling, so that's OK here)
There were loads of Pinball machines and I had a play on a couple and then wandered round to the 'retro' videogame area; Pacman, Space Invaders, Track & Field, Glaxian's they were all there! Out on the promenade I wandered down to the 'pleasure beach' but it was all closing up at 4pm on a Sunday, I assume as it's out of season. So back to the hostel to type up some blog entries!

Monterey

2010-03-26T04:52:00.000Z

One of the reasons I'd decided to stay in Monterey for 2 nights was because I had found on the 'net that there was to be an Amateur Radio Rally or HamFest as they call them here. It was billed as a 2 day even so I assumed it would be a rather large affair. Actually it was very small but there was lots to do and see. Every hour there was a talk or demo by one or another area of interest (some more interesting than others). Outside a 'Mission Control' (They like grand names over here) was set up for a couple of radio amateurs who are also parachutists. They got in a plane and jumped out at 18,000ft and made radio contacts with people on the ground – not easy apparently as you're supposed to need oxygen when you get near this height, and they didn't just free-fall but actually opened their chutes which add's complications because they were on a flight path for a local airport! They had permission to do this and they had GPS plotters connected to them so 'misssion control' and the 'ground op's' could monitor their progress, all of which was relayed to a large screen in the main hall of the event. I did actually make contact with one of the jumper's - AF6IM and I await my card to confirm this! The other interesting event was 'fox-hunting' where a low power radio is hidden and you have to use a direction finding aerial to find it. The guys that were running it were having difficulty getting the low tech gaffer tape and pen top to keep the hidden radio on 'transmit'. After a bit of fiddling I found a way to get a special beacon mode to work on one of the radios they had, and also meant they were operating legally by sending their call sign (which seemed to impress them – RTFM!)

Big Sur to Monterey

2010-03-23T04:48:00.001Z

Today I drove up the Highway 1 – The Big Sur. This is one of the 'classic routes' of road you arr supposed to do in the states and the scenery was certainly rugged. The road tightly clings onto the side of steep mountains twisting in and out of ravines and then runs high up along cliffs above the sea. The road surface is no where near as good at the Great Ocean Road I drove in Australia on becomes quite narrow in places, even down to a single lane where repair are being done to the roadway. It's also not as long as the Great Ocean Road and before I knew it I'd dropped into the outskirts of Monterey. I drove on down to the Fisherman's Wharf here which is little more than a string of restaurants and tacky tourist shops on what was once a thriving fishing port. Next to the Wharf is the Customs House which is said to be the place where the American Flag was first raised when California became a part of the USA, it used to be a part of Mexico)
After checking into the hostel I went out in search of Peter B's the first on my new found list of Micro Breweries. Here's the tasting notes;
Scotch Ale; Very Like a Scottish 80s, slightly nutty with a little caramel, but cold.
Porter; Slightly Gassy, a good bitterness, with burnt hops and a dry finish – best of the lot!
Russian Imperial Stout; hmm not very dark, ruby red in colour and no real taste, ice cold
Seven Malt Stout; Malts came through once I warmed it up but red not black in colour and very foamy with gas.
So the Porter was the best of the ones I tried there was a wheat beer as well but it didn't come back on tap until later and I only had a small taste but it was again too cold to get the flavour from.

Cambria

2010-03-23T04:21:00.000Z

Today I had breakfast of waffles and syrup in the hostel before leaving to drive to the Hostel in Cambria just up the road and at the south end of the 'Big Sur' Drive. The town it's self is split in two for some reason by a small rise in the road but I wandered around the very touristy (and expensive) gift shops and then went down to the beachhead to have a late lunch. Just as I got there a heavy sea fog rolled in and at times it seemed like I was the only one in the car park as you couldn't see more than about 20ft in the fog. Just as I was about to leave the beach the fog cleared but I wanted to get to the hostel as it opened to get a good bed. As it turned out I was the only one staying in the particular dorm which was a small room with four bunks at the front of what was originally the parson's house for the neighbouring church. The whole house was beautifully restored and laid out in turn of the century décor and I wished I had booked 2 night here. The staff were really friendly and I chatted till late into the night with Phil about beer, he was also a real ale fanatic and he gave me a really good local guide to micro-brewerys all the way up the West Coast of the US.

San Luis Obispo

2010-03-23T04:20:00.000Z

I had a chill out day today, and went down to Avila Beach which is just down the road from the Hostel and relaxed on the Beach Front for a bit then drove onto Prismo Beach which is a huge 11 mile sandy bay. It was great to do nothing for a day and I think I needed it after driving for so many days. Back in the town in the evening I called back into the town centre to get some photo's of 'Bubblegum Alley'. This quirky tourist attraction apparently started years ago when someone stuck a piece of gum on a wall in a small narrow alley just off the main street, it was never removed and the tradition has continues and both walls down either side of the ally are covered in pieces of gum, it even smells of gum! And is now registered as a tourist attraction with the local council. It was also getting quite raucous in the town centre even though it was only early evening. It is St. Patrick's Day and the American's go slightly crazy at the pub on this day. Many of the revellers seemed to have been out since lunch time and were now getting quite lively so I headed back to the Hostel for some tea.

Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo

2010-03-23T03:53:00.002Z

I'd done a bit of Internet digging the night before and found there was a Scout Camp not far from Santa Barbara; Rancho Alegro, so I set off up Highway 154 to find it. After about 40minutes of winding up a mountain road and over a pass the road started to drop down into a wide valley. I passed a wooden sign at the side of the road with a fleur-de-lys on it but my sat nav still said I had 5 miles to go so I continued on. 5 miles down the road I realised the sign must have been the entrance as I was now in huge rolling fields and not a camp site in sight. I turned round and went back (Sorry Dad! I know you should never turn round!) and headed back to where the sign was however I came across another on on the same side but before the first so I turned off the main road and up the dirt track, I passed numerous signs about 'no trespassing', 'private land' and 'no hunting' that I was a little nervous about being here and I eventually pulled up at what looked like a farm house. It turned out to be the home of the Camp Warden and I explained where I was looking for he explained that the Camp Entrance was actually the next track off the main road further up. His house was still on the Camp Site land (They have over 220 acres)
I backtracked down the gravel road and back up the original turning I had seen and followed the directions he had given me to the Office. The Camp is used by the Schools for most of the year as an Outdoor School and it seems that the Scouts only really make use of it for about 2 or 3 months of the year even though they own it. I was met at the Office by 'Lizzard' the Office Administrator (who evidently had been forewarned of my arrival) She was very welcoming and insisted I have some lunch of Pizza and fruit and a drink whilst we chatted which came from the huge Dining hall across the corridor. Then we went for a wander around the site. They have about 6 large bunk rooms about the size of Cunliffe Lodge at Middlewood and the Huge Dining Hall where all the meals are cooked for all on site. There is also a Heath Lodge (Sick Bay), Craft Rooms (another building twice the size of Cunliffe Lodge) and a small lake and Swimming Pool. The lake apparently is man-made but dries up in the summer (it was over 6ft deep now). There was camping available but most people tend to use the buildings and only a couple of the groups that use the site camp during the year apart from one or two big activity weeks they have a year. I swapped some badges and said my goodbyes. Back on the road I drove on down passing through a small one horse town called Santa Ynes where I stopped for an Iced coffee and then through Solvang, which was first settled by the Danish and has taken it seems the idea through the Disney make believe machine. I didn't stop here it just seemed all too kitsch. A short drive further on and I came to San Luis Obispo which is a small town but has a Hostel here so I called in to the converted Victorian Clapperboard style house and thankfully go a room for the night, I actually booked 2 as I had time to spare before getting to San Fransisco. I had some food and chatted with the otheres in the hostel and it transpired that everyone was going down to the local BrewPub for Tuesday Night $1 specials (Beer for just $1 a pint!) How could I resist?!? The pub, which I cant remember the name of, was in the town centre. They had a Pale Ale, a lager of some sort and a Porter which was about the best of the bunch. Not that this was a 'beer tasting' session more a sort of buy it and down it session. The music was loud and the pool tables were busy but the beer was cheep! Finally I got back into the hostel at around 1:30am and went online to Skype the old BT Team back in the UK and found out that Mr Birch hadn't told me of the change of date. (and he still hasn't mailed me the new date/time yet!) still I got to chat with a couple of you and it was nice hear you all again.

Oxnard to Santa Barbara

2010-03-22T03:57:00.002Z

I was glad to be getting away from Oxnard in the morning, grabbing a quick coffee from a Diner next door and then trying to get some call price information from a T-Mobile shop across the road (the usual poor Customer Service as Frys Electronics). I had taken the use of the Internet the night before to book a night ahead for tonight in a Motel6 which is a national chain and a lot cheaper than the Ripoff Regal (almost ½ the price) but would be at least a better standard. I drove on, out of Oxnard back onto the Freeway and headed to Santa Barbara. I pulled into the Tourist Info office and got a map of things to do, The main thing here is to see the County Court Building, which, not only being the place where Michael Jackson's trial was held is a beautiful cool building. The building is still a working court but you can wander the corridors and look in on the Mural Room which is painted on all four walls with the ornate murals of the history of California. There is also a staircase which takes you up to the tower where you can look over the whole of Santa Barbara and it too is decorated with tile mosaics in a Spanish/Moorish style in fact many of tiles actually came from Tunisia. I wandered down the main street and found a full size Borders Bookshop and managed to get a copy of the Lonely Planet, the Frommer's turned out to be bad buy (unless you are travelling on a budget of about $200 a day – and I'm not!
Walking back up the Main street I found a small coffee shop and went in for an Iced Latte to cool of; it was in the high 70's today and to browse the net for the next couple of night accommodation, that sorted I headed back down the Freeway to Carpinteria to the Motel6 for the night. The Motel had recently been refurbished and had rally good rooms complete with huge flat screen TV's which I could connect my media player and excellent showers. Next door was a shopping precinct so I nipped round there to the supermarket to get some tea to take back to the room.

Barstow to Oxnard via LA

2010-03-22T03:56:00.000Z

Last night I after checking in I realised I had left my Power Supply for my laptop at the hotel in Williams, I was really annoyed but there was no way I was doing a 14hr round trip to get it! Les whom I had me it LA the other day had told me about a huge Electronics store in LA so I decided to head down there and see if I could get a new one. It turned out the store in LA was still another 3 hours away – I was glad I had stopover. I found the store in Burbank, next to the Bob Hope Airport; I don't know if that's a good name or not – 'Bob Hope' reminds me of 'No Hope'! The Store was huge, really huge and has a spaceship which has crashed into the entrance and appears outside and inside the store. Once inside the Customer Services is laid out as an old time Gas Station, Huge models of 50's Sci-Fi caricatures are spread all over the store. The store sells everything electrical and electronic from a resistor to a washing machine. I had good look round but the computer department couldn't help me. Wandering the store I found some universal power supplies and one of them looked like it would do the trick, however I wanted to try it. I asked at the Customer Service desk if I could test it, and was told you have buy the thing first, then bring it to customer services to test it. Rather annoying as the queue for the checkouts was huge. I asked the 'Customer Care Colleague' if I would have to do the same if I wanted to test a media player with the huge 6ft TV behind him but all I got was a blank look. So I queued up and paid for the lead then went out of the store (signing out my laptop I had brought in to test), to return into the store again (signing my laptop in again) to queue up for the Customer Service desk. Bloody ridiculous – and I told the Manager there, not that he seemed fully aware of what I my issue was. They say the UK follows USA in Customer Care; I'm not so sure. OK off the soap box, the power supply worked so I was sort of happy again, I also bought a window mount for my PDA (only to find that they are illegal in California, Arrg! I needed some food so drove around the corner to a Denny's and had the Steak Breakfast which comprised a Huge T-Bone steak, two eggs and hash browns all for about a fiver. Suitably fed and calmed down I decided to go and try and see the Hollywood Sign, which I found just off Sunset Boulevard, Photo done, I drove around and ended up passing through Beverley Hills and realised it was getting late afternoon and I really needed to find somewhere to stay. I decided to head North'ish and picked on Oxnard on the sat nav as being in the general direction to go. I didn't realise it was as fas as it was and ended up getting there around 9ish. I looked through a hotel listing mag I had and It only listed one – the Regal Motel. I pulled up and it was the quintessential looking Motel owner operated. I knocked on the door and was first met with a huge bull dog at the glass then the owner came out and unlocked the door. The 'voucher' I had had apparently expired and it was only ever valid for days without a Y in them or some strange condition like that. I wasn't in the mood for hunting any more so paid the rather exorbitant room rate and got the key to the room. The room was basic and the walls were thin I could watch TV and listen to the sound from the TV in the room next door no problem! I had a quick chat with my mum and dad on Skype and then went to bed . About Midnight I was aware of talking outside the window of the room and then I could here what sounded like walkie-talkies. I took a quick peep out the side of the curtain and saw about 4 police about to bang on the door next to me. Not only that but it was guns drawn! The one nearest my room saw me at the edge of the window and signalled for me to be quiet -I wasn't going to argue with him. Next minute they were in the room and shouting at a woman to get up and show them where the 'stuff' was. It took about 20minutes for them to eventually take her out (in handcuffs) to the police cars, and then it all went quiet again. I have no Idea what 'stuff' was there as when I checked out in the morning I just left the key in a drop box. Nice Place!

The Grand Canyon and back towards LA

2010-03-21T05:43:00.001Z

Toast and coffee in the hotel breakfast room and then out into the freezing car park surrounded by snow (sorry I've not seen this much all 'winter' it's been mostly t-shirt weather for me.) It took me about 45minutes to drive to the Grand Canyon Park Entrance and paid the $25 dollars to get in and park the car. The wind was howling across the car park and it was bitterly cold, there was huge piles of snow piled up at the sides where it had been piled up to clear the car park. I had to put on not only a jumper but a windproof jacket as well, I'm not used to this! I walked through to Mather Point which is one of the lookout points on the edge of the Canyon, and took a few photo's. I don't know whether I'm getting 'tourism weary' but I just felt like it was just a bloody big hole in the ground, and I just couldn't get over excited about it (and I was getting cold) I looked into the visitors centre and then went back to the car and decided to head off back towards LA. I called in at a Coffee Shop just outside the park for a warming coffee then back onto the road. The drive to LA took me back down the same Interstate Freeway as I had driven the other day and I suddenly realised that I was getting low on fuel, eventually I came across an exit with a fuel and restaurant after doing the last 20miles when I must have been running on fumes. Fueled up, both car and me I carried on and on along the Freeway eventually I got to Barstow and pulled off for a coffee, It was now dark again and I realised I had been driving for about 6 hours. I had a coffee at a McDonalds but just felt knackered so I booked into the Days Inn next door, It wasn't that cheep but I was too tired to start driving round to find somewhere else.

Las Vegas to Williams

2010-03-21T05:34:00.000Z

Had breakfast with Mum and Dad this morning before saying Goodbye and heading off towards the Grand Canyon. It was fantastic to see Mum and Dad and spend sometime with them just a pity it was only for a short time. I left Vegas and set the SatNav for Williams which is a town not far from the Grand Canyon. Onto the Freeway and I got stuck on the outside lane and ended up doing an unintended tour of Las Vegas Airport to get back onto the Freeway. Driving here is not for the faint hearted the SatNav is a big help but trying to work out the correct lane whilst people pass you on both sides and read the road signs can be quite a challenge. After about 45 minutes I got to the Hoover Dam and parked up in an extortionately priced car park ( which was even more gnawing when I found out there was free parking on the far side of the dam on the way out). I walked out onto the Dam which controls the flow of the Colorado River. It was built in the '30's and you can see this in the art deco styling used. The dam is huge and looking over the edge you can feel the cold air blowing up from the water on the lake side. There are two huge sluice towers on the lake side of the dam which the water drops down to a hydro-electic plant at the bottom of the river side. Each of the towers has a clock on it to show the 'local time' of that side of the river. The river is actually the border between Nevada and Arizona and there is 1hr difference between them as Nevada is in the Pacific Time Zone and Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone. Looking over the other side you can see down the 700 odd feet to the power plant at the bottom. Strangely there are two 'restrooms' located halfway round the edge of the dam which seem to be the oddest places to put a toilet – perched on the edge of a 700ft high dam. Having wandered round for a bit I jumped back in the car and drove out over the dam and up the Arizona side (and past the free parking areas!) The traffic going in the opposite direction was queueing for miles to cross into Nevada (I assume the weekend rush up to Vegas) glad I wasn't going that way. I drove for about another 3 hours initially through wide flat valleys with dry scrub and tumble weed, then the road turned and started to climb up to over 5000ft through rugged mountains and eventually into the snow line... Snow! The first time I've seen it since last winter. I finally got into Williams around 7pm and booking into the Howard Johnson Motel for which I had a voucher for cheap rooms. I nipped to the Supermarket down the road for some snacks and settled in for the night.

Las Vegas

2010-03-21T05:33:00.000Z

Up nice and early at 8:30 and met my Mum and Dad down in the 'food court' (aka, Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, etc.) Opted for a McD's breakfast and it seemed the only 'normal' thing available, Iy was huge and came with pancakes & syrup, a sausage and egg muffin, hash browns and scrambled egg, Was way too much (not that it seems to bother the locals!) Feeling well stuffed and in need of a walk to get rid of the umpteen million calories we'd just ingested we set off down The Strip. It was a clear blue sky but was still a little chilly in the shade, but pleasant in the sun. We walked down though the Mandarin and on to the Bellagio with its ornate decoration, which is one of the places the high rollers go. We walked out to the front of the complex so see the fountains alas they weren't working in the morning whilst we were there. We continued down to the past Caesar's Palace to Treasure Island Casino where we had a cup of tea in Starbucks of all places. Next door was the Forum shopping centre where I found a Borders Books and bought a copy of Frommer's USA travel guide (Which is not as good as the Lonely Planet guide). After this we crossed over to the Huge Wynn Casino Complex which has a escalator which actually goes round a curve, weird. We seemed to walk for miles in here trying to find the way out and eventually came out at the side on Sands Road. Back on The Strip we went into the Venetian Complex were they have the Gondola rides through the shopping mall. It was a surreal sight to see a gondola with a singing boat man on a mock canal in the middle of Vegas. We had a snack here and then returned to the Monte Carlo by taxi to chill out for the afternoon. Back in the hotel I used my mum's laptop to program my Amateur Radio hand-held with the data lead I had bought in LA. In the evening we went down to the all you can eat buffet. The food was good and there was loads of choice and I went for a few different 'small' plates of different dishes. The fact that you can eat as much as you want and go back as many times as you want amazed me as to why so many people were loading their plates like it was the last ever meal time. Suitably stuffed we went out onto the Casino floor to have a dabble. We wandered around the various tables where some people were really getting into the spirit (or the spirits we getting to them) loud cheers and whoops flying around the Craps tables. The Roulette tables were a little pricey at $10 a chip so we headed to the Slots. The funniest thing was that you put your notes in a slot and then the lights on the buttons light up, only thing is the one my mum sat at only lit up the 'Cash Out' button, so she pressed it, and thought she'd won a Fiver (exactly what she'd put in!). I managed to draw even but my dad cashed out up enough to cover for the meal we'd had earlier. I also found you can get 'free' drinks when playing in the casino – it costs you a minimum of a dollar tip and you can get any thing you want from the casino bar – nice, but dangerous!

LA

2010-03-20T02:48:00.001Z

After a good nights sleep, I was up about 8:30 and down for breakfast, with Mum and Dad, We went and packed bags and then drove round to pick up my car from Allamo, rather than be assigned a specific car you are given your documentation then go out into a huge car park and just choose the one you want from the group you have booked, all the cars are open and they all have the keys in them so you can try them all for size, I picked a Pontiac G6 as it has a closed boot, but I could have had a rather racy looking Pontiac (but everything was on show) or a huge people carrier but I figured for just me and nobody else it was a bit over the top (and probably was heavy on juice). Once you've decided on your car of choice you drive to the exit and it's checked off and you leave, simple. First stop in LA was to the Boy Scout's of America HQ in California, They have a huge Office/Training/Store complex jest to the west of Down town LA. I picked up a Scout Shirt and some badges and then back into the mad LA traffic to an Amateur Radio Shop not far away to buy a roof top aerial for my Amateur Radio Walkie Talkie. I also ended up buying a hand-held mic. and a data cable to program the radio and it worked out cheaper than they would be in the UK. Next I tried in vain to get a SIM card for my mobile – I even went to Verizon Mobile phone store and got blank looks of bewilderment at why I just wanted a SIM card and was told that it would not work in my phone. This even when I showed the Sales Assistant that I could use the Verizon Network with my New Zealand SIM in my phone. That threw him and his colleagues completely; how could I be using a New Zealand number on their network when I was from the UK? I gave up! I then had to find a phone box to give Les a ring(not enough credit left on the NZ number) . Les was on the 2nd (South India) tour with me and I had mailed him in advance to meet up for lunch. Eventually I found one outside a Seven Eleven in Burbank and found that Les wasn't that far away so I drove over to his office. We met up and walked down the road to a Mexican restaurant to have a burrito and a horchita drink. The burrito was huge and very spicy, so much I couldn't eat it all but the horchita; which is a drink made from rice was really refreshing and cooled down the spicy-ness of the burrito. After lunch we walked back up to Les' office where he is the Chief Technology Officer for a company which restores films. The kit is the rooms there was definitely not you average PC with a video player plugged in, However they did have and AV room where they could transfer virtually any legacy film to digital format. The even have their own cinema to view and test the films which they restore frame by frame. Interesting place. By now it was getting on for 3:30pm and I still had to drive up to Las Vegas to meet up with my Mum and Dad who had booked us into the Monte Carlo Hotel & Casino there. The SatNav – which was a boon whilst trying to navigate 6 lane motorways in LA – said it was going to be about 4 ½ hours but because of the traffic and stopping halfway for a break I didn't actually get there until around 11pm. I booked in OK to the Hotel. And dropped my bags in the room and just managed to make last orders in one of the Bars (I didn't realise that there we 2 more that were open 24hrs till the next night!) Anyway after all the travelling the day before and the road trip tonight to Vegas after 2 beers I was knackered and went up to my room on the 18th! Floor.

Auckland to Los Angeles – My 'Longest Day'

2010-03-16T09:38:00.002Z

Today I left New Zealand,I had a lazy morning getting up about 10am packing my bags and then I drove down to the Airport and dropped the car off and checked in. My flight was due to leave at 3:40pm but I was at the Airport for about 1pm. Check in was OK and I went through Security to the Departure area, grabbing a quick meal at Burger King. I was aware that there was extra security checks for US flights and the PA was also constantly advising to go straight to the gate so I joined the queue for the gate. First we had all boarding cards and passports rechecked then we had to queue to have a full pat down check including removing shoes and checking though wallets, then queue again to have all hand carrys checked by hand finally I was able to get to the gate. I was glad I had had the Burger King meal as there was nothing to do but sit and wait for about an hour at the gate with no access back to the main part of the Departure Lounge. Finally we boarded the plane and took off for the 12 hour flight to Los Angeles. I only dozed for about 20 minutes on the flight and watched a couple of the movies. Even though I had a window seat there wasn't much to see over the Pacific in the the dark. We finally flew over the US coast at around 6am just as it was becoming dawn, however this was 6am n the same day as I had left New Zealand as we had crossed the International Date Line and it was Tuesday all over again. I filled in the now usual immigration and customs forms just before we landed. Once on the ground it was a now standard trek from the gate to the Passport Control which was reasonably quick, The bags seemed to take ages to get through. I'd ticked the usual boxes on the Customs Form regarding tents and soil etc. expecting to get everything checked before bringing them into the States, however the Customs guy just waved me through. I made my way around to the 'Exit to Street' sign and walked up the ramp to look for the Hotel Transfer Buses only to be confronted by a person looking just like my Dad waving at me... It was my Dad, and my Mum, they had flown out a couple of days before to surprise me... and it did! I was totally gobsmacked. I had called them the other day and got no answer and had called my Sister who told me they had gone to France to get some wine (That didn't surprise me in the least) In fact they were in Southern California (buying wine!) I was really pleased to see them and I really had no Idea. We loaded the bags into their car ( a convertible Volvo no less) and we headed over to the Hotel I had booked (they were in the same one) We had breakfast (again - 3rd time today) and then took a drive down to Venice Beach and walked along the Beach to the Pier and back again. It was bitterly cold and a strong wind got up so we stopped for a coffee to warm up. As it was still early in the morning there were a number of rather strange people on the promenade, many of whom were openly begging for money for weed, there are now 'doctor's' surgery's along the beach who will prescribe cannabis as a 'pain reliever'...hmmm. On the way back to the Hotel we stopped at a Supermarket and got a deli counter lunch – which was huge, all I wanted was the Hot Beef Sandwich but had to also have the 'side of pasta' and 'gherkin strips' which was another meal in it self. Back at the Hotel to chill for a bit and I managed to stay awake to save walking up in the middle of the night, We called in the Seven Eleven store around the corner at around pm and then finally went to bed at about 9pm on the 9th which according to my body-clock was 6PM on the 10th! Note to my friends in BT – Don't let Mr Birch know there is actually a way to get at least 32 hours into a day! :)

Auckland Day 3

2010-03-16T09:37:00.001Z

As it was Monday, Phil and Wendy were back in work so I took a drive down to Devonport which is a small village like area across the water from Central Auckland. I had a wander around the small shops here and had a browse around a huge secondhand book shop. On the Water front is the ferry terminal and I took the small ferry across the harbor to Auckland it self. I wandered around the shops here and found a Borders Book shop – I was looking for a Lonely Planet for the USA and I found one but it worked out it would be 10 pounds dearer than buying it in the US so I decided to wait.
I grabbed a coffee and went back down to the ferry terminal and back over to Devonport and called in a 'British Shop' I had seen earlier selling all the traditional sweets, toffees and lollies you get back in the UK to get some reminders of home!
Adjacent to Devenport is North Head which is is a defunct volcano, it was used by the New Zealand Navy as a Defence Observation post for many years and it is riddled with tunnels and gun emplacements.

Auckland Day 2

2010-03-16T09:36:00.000Z

Was woken at around 10am by a phone call from the party in my house back home celebrating my birthday (well it was still the 6th there!) I'm not sure who was under the influence more; them just getting going; or me feeling the effect of last nights Whisky, but trying to blow candles out on a mobile phone to a cake 12,000 miles away is a little tricky! Thanks for the wake up call though! After a brunch of bacon and egg sarnies (which Phil made) we went out to another local creek about 15minutes away and followed a tiny path through the forest and came across a rock pool where we went for a swim – my god it was cold!

Auckland Day 1 – My Birthday!

2010-03-16T09:35:00.000Z

Spent some time in the morning uploading Pics to Flickr and then we took a drive in the afternoon over to Piha on the Western Beaches and then took a walk up into the rain forest following a small river to a waterfall. In the evening we went out to Gengy's Mongolian Restaurant. This is a buffet style all-you-can-eat restaurant where you choose what you want and then the chefs cook it for you on a huge circular hot-plate. The food was great and I went back for a 3rd plate full! Back at Phil's house we celebrated my birthday with a couple of drinks and all I can say is the Whisky bottle came out – and ended up in the bin, and it wasn't me that was pouring the drinks!

Rotorua to Auckland

2010-03-16T09:34:00.001Z

I left the hostel this morning and headed out onto the road towards Auckland to meet Phil Duckett, whom I used to work with as a Broadband Engineer. The road to Auckland was fairly busy and got busier the closer I got to Auckland. Finally I was on the motorway and hit the Friday afternoon traffic, this is the most traffic I have seen since navigating round Melbourne! After a couple of disjointed calls to Phil he eventually met me at the exit of the Motorway and led me to his house in Waitakere. That evening we went for an evening meal at Juan Kelly's house, who also used to work on the same Broadband Engineering Team as me and completely independently decided to move out to New Zealand at the same time as Phil and they both ended up living about ½ a mile from each other and working on the same Telecom NZ team, uncanny.

Taupo to Rotorua

2010-03-16T09:33:00.000Z

I had a wander around Taupo in the morning. The town was filling up with athletes for the Ironman Challenge, so I had to constantly dodge bikes and runners on the roads (luckily they only did the swimming in the lake).I called in at McDonald's for a coffee, this must be the only McDonald's with a Plane half parked on the roof which you can go and sit in and eat your meal. I filled up with fuel and headed out of town towards Rotorua. After about an hour I came to the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. The name sounds a bit naff but the walk around the area wasn't. The area is home to a load of thermal springs and hot mud pools. Sulfurous steam pours out of cracks in the rocks and grounds everywhere and strange coloured water bubbles in pools. The walk took me about 2 hours around the various pools, rock formations and streams, and was very impressive. Back in the car I drove the final 45 minutes into Rotorua and booked into a 'boutique' hostel for the night although I think it was really a refurbished old one.

Welington to Taupo

2010-03-16T09:32:00.000Z

The drive up to Taupo was longer than I thought and took about 6 hours most of it on 2 lane roads. The last part was up on the 'The Desert Road' which is a high tundra like area. The NZ Army has a big base up here and for a large part of the drive there were warning signs along the road stating that it was a live testing and training area and not to leave the highway. Eventually the road dropped into rolling bush and strange rock formations finally dropping onto Lake Taupo itself. Driving into Taupo I pulled up and flicked through the Lonely Planet for a hostel. I chose the Berkenhoff Lodge which was on the outskirts of town. They had beds so I booked in then went back to town to get some food for tea from the supermarket. The hostel had it's own bar so I savored a few beers before heading off to bed.

Wellington

2010-03-16T09:30:00.000Z

Got up late this morning as I didn't have to rush off anywhere. I took a walk around the site then went down to see Ian, one of the staff on site. He actually hails from Yorkshire many years ago but has spent most of his life in New Zealand, and most of that in Scouts New Zealand. Ian gave me some details of Scouting contacts around the North Island and then I went into Wellington to have a look around. Getting into the central area of Wellington took about 40 minutes from the Campsite driving in I passed the 'Beehive' the rather strangely built New Zealand Parliament which ironically looks like a beehive but I've no idea why. I made my way to Te Papa which is the National Museum of New Zealand. I ended up spending about 4 hours in here, and I didn't see it all. This museum was much better than the Australian one. It seemed to have more respect for the indigenous peoples and was just a lot more interesting. By the time I got out it was going dark so I never saw much more of Wellington apart from the traffic as I drove back to the Campsite.

Picton to Wellington

2010-03-09T02:13:00.000Z

My ferry out this was not till 2:15pm so I took my time this morning, making use of the free hostel breakfast and then I went up to a view point above the town and watched the comings and goings in the harbour until about noon when I had to return the car. Dropping the car was no problem and then I checked in the bags for the ferry then wandered back into the town to get a snack before boarding the ferry at 2pm
The ferry left on time and sailed down the fjord at time the steep sides of the mountains either side really towered over the ferry. Eventually the ferry was out in open water and headed over to the North Island. The unusual thing about this journey is that it takes 3hrs on the ferry but is only 'in open sea' for about 40minutes and even though you travel from the South Island to the North Island you actually go West to get from Picton to Wellington.
Whilst on the ferry I got a call from a Scout Camp I had emailed and they said I could stay at the site for the night – so that was tonight's accommodation sorted. Off the ferry and I picked up the hire care -this time a Mazda 626 (better than the Toyota Corolla I had in the South) and headed out to Brookfield Scout Camp which is about 40minutes out of the City.
The Camp Warden Met me there and told me there was no need to camp as I could have the Rover Crew Hut which was empty. The building was about the size of the wardens cabin at Middlewood. And I settled in for the night.

Nelosn to Picton

2010-03-09T02:03:00.000Z

Gave a lift to a German lad called Han to Picton today as he was traveling the same way from the hostel. We took the scenic route around Queen Charlotte Drive which winds it's way along the coast instead of the faster road I had come in on the other day. The views across the waters were amazing and we pulled in at a little bay are about halfway along the road and went down to the small bay. The sun was blazing down but there was also a cool breeze of the water. Around the bay was a small campsite and I wish I had found this the other night when I camped – it was Idyllic. Back on the road we soon dropped down into Picton and I dropped Han at the hostel he had booked and I went on to the hostel I had booked. I checked in and then went for a walk down by the water front and just watched the world go by as the big ferries constantly came and went. Today was the day theyy were broadcasting Tsunami Alerts on national and local radio here but strangely nobody saw it fit to let the hundred odd people (including me!) that were down at the waterfront know. In the end there was apparently a 0,5m wave that came in – not that you could tell, every time a ferry came in the waves were almost that big.

Havelock to Nelson

2010-03-09T01:59:00.002Z

I slept really well last night until about 6am. And then it got really cold enough to wake me up, however having the trusty spare-jumper-in-the-sleeping-bag I was soon warm again! I planned to pack the kit up and drive up the site to the toilet block and have a shower and be off, unfortunately, I must have left the interior light on in the car overnight and had flattened the battery. Lucky it wasn't too flat and a chap with an RV near to me had jump leads and I got a start off him but by now it was 10:30 and not wanting to get charged for another night for not clearing the site by 10am I set off straight away without a shower. The road to Nelson wound it's way up a long pass surrounded by pine forests and then dropped down onto the bay at Nelson. I parked up in the central car park, went for some cash and then phoned around a couple of hostels for a bed for the night. The first 2 were full but the 3rd; The Green Monkey had a bed so I drove the short distance round to it. It was a typical New Zealand bungalow style house on the edge of town and the owner showed me around and gave me a map of the area with some local walks on it. I had a quick shower and then decided to take a look at 'The Center of NZ walk'.
The start for this was just up the road from the hostel on the local park and then it steeply zig-zagged up a hill through bushland, and the noise from the crickets was intense. Eventually it broke out onto the top of the hill where a marker post and plaque marked the 'official geographic' centre of New Zealand – which seemed quite handy that this hill was there! I sat at the top for a while and regained my breath as it was fairly hot and a clear day. The views were good all around the viewpoint and I took a set of panoramic pictures. Wondering what to do next I had a look on my PDA for some geocaches figuring there had to be one near, there was, and I was right on top of it, sort of. The clues to it required you to decipher some clues from the legend boards at the summit to create a new Latitude and Longitude which then would reveal the location of the cache itself. The coordinates I calculated were about 300m away from the summit but to get off the top you had to follow the path around the summit fully around the hill before I could get going in the right direction. I got to a point where the path split and I followed the right had track which took me to within about 38m of the cache but it was up a steep hill covered in dense bush and behind a barbed wire fence. Back to the split in the path and I followed the other trail which lead up and onto an open field and then up to another highpoint with a transmitter mast at the summit, now I was above the cache and descended down to it still in gorse bushes but easier going and after a few minutes rooting around I found the Tupperware box and recorded my find. Making my way back to the hostel I realised it was time for another shower! The owner has earlier pointed out that there was a rather good brew-pub across the road and I felt I deserved a pint or two so popped over to take a look. The place was only small but had over 20 different beers on tap from wheat beers to pale ales and bitters and porters. I plumped for the 'Bitter' which actually wasn't too bad but as it's kegged and not cask it still had that gassy-ness that all beers here seem to have. I had also been told about the Chippy next door which I was told delivered you order to the pub, so after the first pint I went and ordered some fish and chips and sure enough was asked if I was 'in the pub' and was presented with a plastic toy cow to take back as a table maker – things are getting good. Back in the pub the head barman took me through a selection of the ales including a Scottish Ale which was fantastic but a little strong at 6.8% before tea! so I took a pint of the summer pale ale which he said went really well with the fish and chips I had ordered. No sooner had I sat down with beer and what I can only say are the best fish and chips I've had since leaving home arrived; real chips at last - not frozen ones! I rounded off the evening with a couple of pints of the excellent porter before retiring the 20 odd paces across the road to the hostel; it would be heaven if I didn't have to drive tomorrow.

Kaikoura to Havelock

2010-03-04T10:27:00.002Z

Back on the road North the road now tightly hugged the mountains on the left and was squeezed in between the sea on the right. Every so often there were huge dry fords where I assume the winter rains would flood the roads. Along side each of them are single lane bridges for when they're in spate. Eventually the road turned away from the coast inland through strange undulating mounds that were bright yellow because of the dryness of the grasses,on further and the vineyards started again massive plantations of them as the land flattened out into the Blenheim Plain. I drove on through Blenheim, deciding to go further round the top of the island and headed towards Nelson. Having been driving for nearly 2 hours I decided to stop at Havelock a small town at the point where the Pelorus and Kaiuma rivers meet. I parked up next to the marina and had a wander round. The sun was out, it was a warm still day and it was beautifully quiet. Noting that there was a campsite just behind the marina I drove round and booked in. In the evening I went up to the Clansman pub as it seemed to be the only place with an y life in the town, once in there it was obvious this was the life of the town. It was packed with locals and tourists and the food looked good so I stayed for tea of locally caught green shell mussels (which are only found in this part of the world and have an amazing greenish/blue iridescent shell), followed by rump steak served on a hot stone. A couple of beers and I was well stuffed. Back at the campsite, which surrounds the local rugby pitch, I looked up at the near clear sky but because of the near full moon, I could make out the Southern Cross and a few other stars but not much else. A pity really as there was hardly any light pollution from the town.

Waipara to Kaikoura

2010-03-04T10:26:00.001Z

I filled up with fuel in Waipara and chatting to the Guy in the Petrol Station he told me that the preserved railway line at Waipara was only operating at the weekends but to go to the engine sheds and have a look if the volunteers were in, as they usually show people around if they are there. Unfortunatly they weren't but I took a couple of photo's then headed north. I have until Monday to get to Picton for the ferry so there was no rush. I only drove for about an hour when I came across Kaikora, this is a small town on the east Coast and is now famous for Whale Watching. Not wanting to rush, I found a hostel in town, complete with spa, pool, and en suite rooms for only $29. I drove back into the town and got some cash and then Fish and Chips and drove onto the sea front to look for Whales. No Whales spotted but a lot of dolphins out in the bay. I chilled out back at the hostel later, glad to be taking it easy.

Queenstown to Waipara

2010-02-24T08:39:00.003Z

A slight cock-up in the hostel booking department today meant I booked the hostel after the one I meant to, and I didn't realise until I put the address into SatNav, oh well a 7 hour drive today. The scenery however was stunning as a drove up through the mountains where they filmed The Lord of the Rings. I stopped for lunch at Lake Waitaki (which is where I had initially planned to stop the night) which has a strange blue hue to it, surrounded by towering mountains. and is used for a hydro-electric plant. I stopped again on the outskirts of Christchurch for some tea and then had 1 hour left to drive to the 'hostel' I had booked. The hostel is actually a number of old railway guards cars that were salvaged when they were scrapped by New Zealand Railways and they have been turned into bunkrooms. I have a whole one to myself, complete with the original seating and fittings at one end and 4 bunks in what was the luggage compartment.

Queenstown

2010-02-24T08:32:00.004Z

I had a leisurely start to the day, getting up in time for the free breakfast (toast, jam and cereal) and then did a spot of washing. That done Heather at the hostel booked me a place on the Shotover Jet for later in the day. I walked down through the town centre and into the Botanical Gardens which are well kept and have a Frisbee Golf course in them (Note to Middlewood; easy one for us to do!) You play 'golf' around a course, but using Frisbees instead of clubs and balls. The 'holes' are metal posts with baskets on them. As you had to go all the way back into town to buy/rent a Frisbee and get someone to play with you, I decided to see if there were any Geocaches in the area (You use a GPS to find a hidden 'treasure') and there was one listed on the website called Frisbee Golf, I loaded the coordinates into my PDA and searched out the hidden box which was located ... now that would be telling ... have a look at the link to see where it is. I did find it, and recorded my details in the log book and re-hid the cache but there were loads of non-Geocacher's (or Muggles as they're known) about and I had to be discrete without looking too suspious. Heather had booked me onto the 3pm Shotover Jet boat but I still had to pay the balance at the office in the town so I walked down there and 'checked-in', as they had a trip leaving in 5 minutes with space the lady on the counter moved me forward to this run. The Company has a mini-coach which shuttles people back and forth to the river site so I and 10 other jumped on and the driver put on a DVD of what to expect and do whilst we drove the 10 minutes out of town to the site. The Jetboat is different to the normal propeller driven boat in that it sucks water in through a port on the bottom of the boat the forces it out through a small jet at the back; this means that it can be used in as little as 10inches of water (25cm for you modern people). Also as the jet can be pointed in any direction the boat can be made to go from 50mph to a dead stop or a 360 deg. spin almost on a button. First we were kitted out with buoyancy aids and then the driver/pilot/captain? gave us a safety brief; sit down, keep hold of the bar, have fun! Then he set off up the river. The section of river they work in is a combination of wide sweeping open sections with barely 10in. of water flowing to tight narrow gorges with deep fast flowing water and very steep hard rock walls! We went up river to the first bend and he signaled a 360 spin and we all hung on, he flipped the boat left then right the left and right around, the back lifting up out of the water and spray covering us all, fantastic! Back down the river we did a 'hand-brake turn' at the landing stage for the 'official photo' an then we entered the gorge, the driver set off at speed and flew into the gorge with barely 6in between the sides of the boat and the sheer overhanging walls then sliding across the river to dive around huge boulders in the middle. I'm not sure how fast we were actually going but the fact that it was so narrow certainly made sure you held on. Out of the gorge part the river again became wide and shallow separating into lots of seemingly impassable riverlets over pebbles. The boat was thrown around from stream to stream and every so often a 360 thrown in whenever the water level was deep enough. after about 10minutes we came to a stop and everyone got their breath back, the driver answered a couple of questions and then we set of back up the river using different streams and cutting it very fine against some washed up trees (that's why you keep you hands inside the boat!) We went through past the Jetty at speed and then stopped around the next corner to wait for the othe boat which had been following us to catch up before returning to the jetty. The ride lasted for about 25 minutes and was excellent, although I didn't buy the 'Momento Photo and DVD pack' as it was nearly half the cost of the ride again. The driver of the boat had told us that this was once a gold mining area and although commercial mining was banned a number of years back private panning was still allowed without a licence, a guy last year had found a nugget the size of a fist soI had a quick dig about in the pebble and sand spit next to the jetty (just like every one else) but alas no gold for me so it looks like I'm still coming home in May!

Te Anua to Queenstown

2010-02-24T08:30:00.002Z

Took my time and got up about 9 this morning and enjoyed the fact that I had had the 4 bed dorm to myself for the night. I cleared out of the room then went up to the 'house' to get my supplies from the kitchen and have a coffee before setting off. I drove out onto the road and drove for ages so much so that I was away that I was virtually heading back into Invercargil and I actually stopped at a rest area and double checked where I was with Google maps! I was on the right road, and then a little further on picked up Highway 6 towards Queenstown. Road signing is really basic here – it usually only tells you the direction to the next place and not always all the places in that direction so you have to know all the places enroute which is a bit of a pain
Queenstown is a large town not too dissimilar to Bowness and Windermere in the English Lake District. I parked up in town and got on the Google maps to find the exact location of the hostel only to find it said 12metres; I was literally out side it on the other side of the road. The Last Resort Hostel is anything but the last resort. It's a small clapper board building tucked away in between a load of modern buildings. The hostel only has 18 beds so it's not too big and unfriendly. You get free breakfast in morning, free tea and coffee all day and free internet access all for 15 quid – it's a 5* hostel bargin. There's even a free Chocolate bar on the bed along with the towels. I've got two nights here which is nice.
I took a walk around the town and had a look in some of the outdoor shops and left sharpish on seeing the prices! I did go for a Guinness in the Irish bar on the lake front – as recommended (Cheers Rossi) and it was a good pint too and savoured it whist watching the US and Canada battle it out in the Ice Hockey on TV, sorry Canada. In the evening I went down to the Buffalo Club one of the many pubs/bars in the town to sample a beer or two, the hostel has a deal with the pub; you show your room key fob and get 2-4-1 drinks, all night so at $5.60 for 2 beers not a bad price. However I got ID'ed on the way in, that hasn't happened to me for years, turns out it's standard practice no matter how 'young' you look. Made my day anyway The local tipple here is Monteith's but tasted much like the Speight's the other day, damn lager beers, what I'd do for a decent pint of real ale now.

Milford Sound

2010-02-22T07:38:00.002Z

Up at the crack of dawn! Showered and out by 7am I hit the road and drove up to Te Anua to get some fuel, the road to Milford Sound is one way in and out and is a round trip of about 240km (150miles) and with no petrol stations you don't want to get caught short, it's a long walk out! The drive was really good the road was quiet and I stopped on the way at 'The Mirror Lakes' which are small ponds at the side of the road which reflect the mountains across the valley, it would have been amazing but a SAGA coach turned up and 50 odd cackling British women got off making a right load of noise. A few quick pics and I left embarrassed by the their scant appreciation of the place. The road passed though a large wide flat grassed plateau an then continued up and over a pass and descended into a wooded valley before climbing up through thick cloud to the tunnel entrance. The road to Milford Sound was hewn through the mountain to enable direct access and is I think the only Fiord which has road access all the others are closed to tourists as nature reservations or only accessible by sea. The tunnel is one way and runs for a about a mile, it has a traffic light system but it only operates from 9am so I must have been up there too early they weren't switched on when I entered the tunnel. It has a couple of passing places in it but essentially if you met a coach going the other way you would be stuffed! The Tunnel pops out literally half way up a mountain on the other side and takes your breath away. The road switch-backs rapidly down the valley, sheer sides of granite rock on either side. Eventually you arrive at Milford which is essentially a tourist service centre and the port for the pleasure cruisers. I had booked ahead with a cruise company recommended by the Hostel and as I had an hour to spare I went into the cafe there for a coffee and sandwich which was a respectable 5 quid (unlike the UK which would have charged at least a tenner just for the privileged of walking in the door.) I walked around the small inlet at the head of the water to the 'Cruise Terminal', a small port for the boats which ply the sound. I checked in at the desk for the Mitre Cruises and waited for the boat to come in. The hostel had given me the number of this company and said it was the best one as they only deal with individual bookings and not the many coach parties that use the bigger boats. The boat only had about 40 people onboard and the Captain was the tour guide. The commentary was excellent and numerous, anyone braking the rules would be thrown overboard, therefore the Captain would be forced to pick you up, however he would charge you 'salvage fee' of double the trip cost before he allowed you back on! The boast sailed out into the sound the huge sides of the mountains either side towering above, a few clouds were about and a fair wind was up but the water was calm. The Sound isn't actually a Sound but a Fiord the difference is that a Sound is where a chasm in the rock is flooded and Fiord is where a glacial valley has been flooded but the sea. The fiords here were named before they actually knew what they were. The boat took us along the left side of the sound pointing out the different features of the mountains, and how they were formed. There are many beech trees clinging to the sides of the mountains and they manage to stay there by interlocking their roots and getting into tiny crevices, however every so often a 'tree avalanche' occurs and they literally fall like dominoes down the hill side leaving a huge scar down the mountain. All along the sheer faces there are water falls coming off the mountain sides dropping hundreds of feet into the water below. Because the rock simply drop straight down under the water the boat was able to sail right up to and under the waterfalls drenching everyone on the boat (he did warn us to put cameras away!).
We rounded a point on the side and there were some Seal basking on the rocks, these were the females along with the bull male, and were oblivious to the boat there. The water in the sound is unusual in that because of the amount of fresh water that comes off the mountains the top 7m or so has very low salt levels, this also stops the light from penetrating down into the water very far and so there is a unique sea life environment close to the surface. There is a platform you can get off at with an underwater observatory however it was another 40 quid so I gave it a miss. The boat went right up the sound and eventually we went out into the South Tasman Sea and the swell suddenly increased to about 2m. This was a calm day though and this part of the Sea is on the edge of 'The Roaring 40's' apparently one of the roughest sea's in the world. We turned back and headed into the sound, the captain pointing out the continental divide fault which runs through the region and a hanging glacial valley way above us which had been cut cleanly across by the Milford Sound glacier. On the way back in to the port we were joined by a school of bottle nosed dolphins who swam along side and in front of the boat. I managed to get a couple of 'just got-it' shots but most of them are simply lots of empty water. Back at the port I returned to the car and set off back to Te Anua. stopping just through the tunnel to take some pictures of the melting pack snow which was still here in the summer. Further down the road I stopped a rest stop and met a group of hikers who were trying to get back to Te Anua so I offered them a lift, they had hiked for 2 days over from Queenstown and were 4 hours early for the bus back but they could get an earlier one from Te Anua. By the time we got back to the town the warmth of the car had set in on their legs and they could hardly walk when I dropped them off at the i-Site. Back at the hostel I met up with Peter and Jane again and we chatted till about 10ish before turning in.

Invercargil to Te Anua

2010-02-22T07:35:00.002Z

Left Invercargil this morning after dropping a fellow backpacker at the local supermarket, he was heading to Dunedin so unfortunately the wrong way to me. He had given me some info on where to stay in Queenstown and advised me to book ahead – as it happened I had to book for 2 nights minimum and also I couldn't get in till the 22nd and 23rd so I also rang ahead and booked 2 nights at Te Anua where I was heading today.
The drive out of town followed the Southern Scenic route and the drive was quiet, rolling hills and very windy. I stopped on the was at Colac Bay and watched a couple of kite surfers out on the water. The wind was really strong and having spoke to one of them they said it was constantly like this, again the beach was virtually deserted, mind you the fact that you had to lean into the wind at 45deg just to stay stood up was probably a good reason for this!
Further along the coast I stopped again at Gemstone Beach, the beach here gets 'gemstones' thrown up onto it by the constant pounding seas, today the beach was covered with sand but it changes each tide and some days is just all pebbles many of which are translucent or shiny, hence the beach name.
The road now turned inland and began to head into the towering foothills of the Fiordland National Park, the landscape changed, huge towering mountains surround glaciated valley and tundra like plains in between and it is quite spectacular. I arrived at the hostel around 3ish and checked in. It's actually about 9km (5m) outside of Te Anua on the side of rolling hill, the location is fantastic, the main building is built of wood like an Alpine Lodge and houses the lounge area with huge open log fire places,the kitchen and laundry and even a mezzanine level pool table area. The 'bedrooms' are all in wooden cabins slightly lower down the hill each sleeping 4-6 people and with their own bathrooms. The views across the valley to the rugged mountains beyond is stunning. I was sat updating the blog in the lounge area when Peter and Jane, two of the people from the Hostel in Invercargill turned up as well, we chatted again and found we were both going to Milford Sound tomorrow abait on different boats. We sat and chatted till around 10pm then turned in as We had a 6:30am start tomorrow to get to Milford Sound.

Dunedin to Invercargill

2010-02-20T06:14:00.001Z

I had hoped to stay another night here but due to a football or rugby match today there wasn't a bed to be found anywhere and it was damn cold, wet and windy for my little summer tent! I had a drive around the town and parked up next to the Railway station which is of the classic Late Victorian Gothic stlye and took some pictures and called at the superstore for some food before setting off south again. I had a break at a couple of places on the way and then after calling for fuel at Balaclutha I turned off the main road and followed the Scenic Route down the towards the coast and The Catlins, this road was a lot quieter and I drove through some beautiful scenery along the way.
Part way along I saw a brown road sign for Cannibal Bay, it sounded interesting and I turned off the road onto a smaller country lane which quickly became a gravel road and twisted and turned for another 8km until it dropped over a crest and down to a huge virtually deserted beach. The sea was rolling in and breaking on the wide bay but there was a fierce offshore wind blowing the tops of the rollers creating a strange mist out to sea. I stuck on a fleece and walked down to the rocks at on end to try and get some picture of the sea and then I spotted what I thought were people at the far end of the beach and it was only when another couple asked me had I seen the sea lions that I realised what they where so I took a walk down to the other end of the bay and got some picture of them just lazing about on the beach. Every now and then the bull would raise up on his flippers and have a good look around, a good scratch then back down to chill out. I knew not to get too close to them as there were warning signs around all around, and I've heard they can shift as fast as a man!
Back on the road I got a bed at the Southern Comfort Backpackers in Invercargill and had a great evening just sat around the huge dining room table just chatting with other guests, a couple of Australians (one of whom was cycling around NZ), A German Girl on a gap year, some Swiss and later a nice but rather loud Italian older lady who was quite funny.

Christchurch to Dunedin

2010-02-20T06:12:00.001Z

A Shower and a strong coffee got me up and going this morning and I decided to drive down to Dunedin with is much further down the East Coast of the South Island. The road was good for most of the way being a single road with passing sections every 5km or so. They also have little private cafes along the way and many of these offer free coffee to drivers – all you have to do is sign the log sheet on the counter. Eventually after about 5 hours (I didn't realise it was that far) I got into Dunedin and called about 6 different hostels before I found one that had vacancies, luckily it was just around the corner from where I had parked up. The Manor Backpackers was an old rambling big Victorian House well suited to a hostel. I took a walk down into the town as I had read there was a Brewery in town and not one to miss a good pint?!? I went in search... Speights is just on the edge of the town centre on a hill and is built in the classic mill style of northern British brewery. There was a tour but it was booked up for this day so I went next door the the Speight's Ale House. The huge cavernous room was obviously once a warehouse for the brewery but had been 'tarted up' with lots of fake mash tuns and all things brewing, I spied they did a tasting rack of beers so I ordered one of those and these are the results
Golden Tasteless and bland, fizzy pop
Pale Ale Light beer as expected but little taste and gassy
Summit Light and fruity an nice summer beer
Wheat Beer Strong Apricot flavors and clear not cloudy
Old Dark A deep red beer with some hoppieness still gassy
Porter Burnt hops and dark chocolate bitterness
The Porter was about the best of the lot and I would class it more of a Black Lager than a porter, all the beers were what I would call a lager rather than an Ale, apparently though the Golden Ale was a cask and the others were all Nitro-Kegs not that you could tell! I was happy with the Porter though and ordered a huge platter of meats, cheese and pickles which also came with a whole mini loaf. Suitably stuffed I wandered back to the hostel

Christchurch

2010-02-20T06:07:00.001Z

Early morning alarm call from my Mum and Dad – thanks, you got me up in time to checkout! I took the hotel bus back the 500yds to the airport, well it was free.
Back in the terminal I found a Vodafone concession and picked up a SIM card for my phone, then went to the Avis desk to get my car, this time a Toyota Corolla, bags in the back I drove into Christchurch and looked in the Lonely Planet for a hostel to stay at. The weather is a little like a normal wet Tuesday in Manchester.... wet and cold!
I found the Jailhouse Hostel in the guide and gave them a ring, they had accommodation available so I headed down there, it's just outside town and took me a time to find it as it's hidden off the main road. It's called the Jailhouse as it actually was a prison until 1999 when it was decommissioned and turned into a hostel. Yes you actually stay in the old cells some of them have been knocked through to make dorms and some have been left exactly as they were on the day the last prisoners left, complete with drawings on the walls and the original bench beds, the beds have been replaced for hostel use! Having checked in I went down to the town centre and followed the walking tour around the town in Lonely Planet guide. Christchurch is very English so much so I found it hard to believe I was actually on the other side of the planet! They still have a traditional tram which trundles in a circuit round the town but I forgo a ride on it as it only went in a small circle which I'd already walked and it was a tad expensive. As usual it started to rain so I headed back to the car and took a drive out to the coast – just to see the Sea – there was a chippy near by so I got Fish and Chips and parked up on the prom to watch the mad surfers in the freezing cold.
Back at the hostel there wass not much happening so I called at the local pub around the corner for a 'swift half' before retiring.

Off to New Zealand

2010-02-18T11:56:00.001Z

Got up at about 7:30 and had a shower and coffee at Jo's house before setting off to the airport. I stopped on the way to fill the car for the last time and then dropped it off at the Airport and went to check in, Adelaide Airport is about the same size as Liverpool, but less portacabins. I went to check in at the automated checkin but it didn't work and referred me to the service desk, luckily it was only because I had an onward flight from Melbourne so Igot my bags checked through to Christchurch ( good job really as they were over 22kg and the Jetstar flight from Melbourne is 20kb max) So all I had to do was pick up my second boarding ticket at Melbourne when I got there. I got a call from Ian Loxton asking where I was and I told him at the airport, and he surprised me when he said he was just going through security and would see me there! Somewhat confused I met him on the other side of security and found out that you don't need a boarding ticket here to go through security and you can go in and out as you need! Ian had come to see me off and we managed to get get a picture of us (which I had forgot to do the other day.) taken by a very fiendly security guard on the entrance gate (you wouldn't get that at Liverpool) Ian also gave me a very rare Baseball Cap with the Compuserve Pacific logo on; very rare these days. So my flight was called and we bid farewell and I boarded the flight to Melbourne. The flight only took an hour (for a distance that had taken me about 5 days to drive!) We got a coffee and cinnamon cake on the plane and the cake gave me heartburn, daft thing is I knew it would, but I still ate it! Luckily I had some Rennie in my bag, not that I've needed it much these last couple of weeks. Once at Melbourne I still had to exit the Domestic area and go and recheckin at the JetStar desk but it didn't open for 2 hours so I had a wander round the airport and resisted the temtation to eat at the many restaurants, as I wanted to have something to do once through check-in. I ended up doing a Phil Rowe and camping out on the check-in desk till it opened for 45 minutes. So armed with my Boarding pass I went through immigration, and security (this time it's travellers only) and it drops you straight into the duty free, a quick wander around here then on to find some food, not impressed the only food out let airside is 1 cafe-bar, all the restaurants and food outlets are before security and you cant go back out, so I had to have a microwave warmed chicken schnitzel and an overpriced beer, oh year and the internet access was $11/hour. Not impressed, Melbourne Airport! The flight boarded on time and we actually made some time up with a tailwind so landed about 20mins early. The flight was fine but as JetStar is a lowcost airline the food and drinks are chargeable but luckily I had an exit seat so I was able to stretch out for the 3 ½ish' hours.
We landed in Christchurch around 10:30pm local time and I get ready for the usual immigration/quarantine questions, especially as I had brought the tent I had bought in Australia. I ticked the various boxes on the entry form, and joined the queues to get checked over. The lady on the desk looked at my shoes and decided my trainers needed scrubbing – the soles of them - not the whole of them and obviously the tent needed checking out. She asked me to wait and took them off into another room and was gone for a good 15 minutes. when she came back the soles of my trainers were spotless and my tent was repacked tighter than when I had bought it. I wall let out into the arrivals hall and went to the info desk to find out how to get to my hotel I had pre-booked. The lady behind the desk called over 'Marcell' the hotel driver who I had just walked past to get to the desk and he took me out the the free transfer bus he had outside. I had no sooner got in the bus and got comfy and was looking for the seatbelt when he had the door open and we had arrived, it was no more than 500yds to the hotel door. I checked in ok and then walked to my room and it felt like I walked further to the room than we had driven to the hotel.
I was just settling down in the room for the night when there was a load of shouting and noise out in the corridor, by now it was gone midnight and a little late for that sort of noise. I put my eye to the spy glass and saw a load of kids running up and down the corridor. Grrr.... Camp Warden head on... I went out and read the riot act, quietly but firmly, it seemed to do the trick but just as I had done so a German guy from the room next door to me came out and had a go at me thinking I was hotel staff for letting the kids lark about, I politely explained I was in the room next to him, and went back in my room leaving him stood in the corridor in a pair of boxer shorts with about 20 Korean?!? kids sniggering at him and darting into rooms. With that I decided there was only one way to get to sleep and had a wee dram of the good stuff I'd purchased in Duty Free.

Adelaide Day 3

2010-02-16T05:47:00.002Z

A slow start today as this not being a public site you don't need to be off before 10am (and end up paying for another night.) I had a bit of a sort of the car and it's contents as stuff had spread every where over the last 3 weeks. The I drove down to 'the old house' which is the Original house from the Site and has been converted to to a bunkhouse and function centre. The building sleeps 60 and also has beautiful rooms downstairs which is often booked out for weddings and apparently make a nice income for the Scouts (it's booked up almost 2 years in advance!) Dennis the warden came down ad showed me around inside and we swapped a couple of badges and Campsite type stories – its the same all over no staff!!!) Eventually he got a call and had to go and I asked him how much and where to pay my fees, he just waved and said 'no worries' and drove off. Thanks Dennis!
I left the campsite and drove just down the road to Handorf which is the oldest German settled town in Australia, it was strange as I was expecting Germanic stlye buildings but they were mostly of the Australian style of low buildings with big veranda's and there were many little shops selling German style goods, proudly 'Made in Australia' very odd. I drove back into the Centre of Adelaide and went down to see the city itself which I hadn't yeat really seen. I parked up and walked the virtually the full length of Rundle Street which is the main Shopping Street and found the Scout Shop, In I went to get some goodies. I liked the look of the Australian Scout Leaders shirts but alas you have to be a registered Scout Australia Leader to buy one so I had to make do with an activity t-shirt and I bought a number of Badges as well and picked up a copy of the Lonely Planet New Zealand . I also found they were doing badge swaps so I had to return later as all my badges were back in the car at the far end of town.
I took a good walk around the city including 'The Garden of Unearthly Delights' which isn't as ba as it sounds but a section of the parkland wich hass been sectioned off to show loads of acts in the Adelaide Fringe Festival which is happening now, (A bit like the Edinburgh Festival) unfortunately the shows did not kick off till later in the evening so I took a drive down out of town towards the Airport and checked out where the Car Hire Return was for the following morning. finally I got to Jo's House again as she is only 10 minutes from the airport and cleaned out the Car and packed my bags before having a well earned beer that had been in my boot for a week because of the tablets (I stuck it in the freezer to chill it!)

Adelaide Day 2

2010-02-16T05:46:00.000Z

Up at about 8 to a lovely warm day, I showered and dropped the tent and then listend to the Amateur Radio News on the local repeater and called in at the end (just to keep the locals on their toes!) So off to find the Scout Camp; it was back up the Freeway we had used to drop into Adelaide the first day and I found the exit no problem at the top of the long climb out of Adelaide. At the first roundabout I saw a brown tourist sign for the Scenic Lookout at Mt. Lofty so I went to have a look. Mt. Lofty isn't really a mountain it's just compared to Adelaide which is all flat and almost at sea level it's a heck of a lot higher up. The view really is impressive though and you can see the whole of Adelaide spread out below you like a table cloth. The Central Business District (Town Center) stands out as it is the only part of the city which has high rise buildings and also it is surrounded on all sides by a large ring of parkland (which is fiercely protected by the cities residents apparently) I took a number of pictures the went back to the car to find the Campsite. I followed my rough directions I had jotted down and some how missed the side road I wanted, I ended up doing a huge loop through a number of small villages, including one that was holding a Classic British Car Show/Rally but I didn't stop; Top Gear weren't there. Back around again and I saw the sign this time and found the entrance to Woodhouses about ｽ a mile down the lane. The Campsite is huge about 240 acres and the Scouts bought the land many years ago, the site is now one of the oldest Scout sites in Australia. I met the Warden Dennis at the office and he showed me areas to camp. There were no Scouts in camp apart from a Leaders conference (Most Scouts camp in the winter here as during the Summer there is a total fire ban so it sort of mucks up a propper camping program (oh and the snakes are very active apparently – but I didn't see any.)
having set up my tent next to one of the Amenity Blocks I gave Jo Moore a call; Jo had been on my first Indian Tour way back in November and we had agreed to meet up when I got into Adelaide. Jo lives back down in Adelaide just to the South of the City Centre and after I got to Jo's she took me on a whirlwind tour of the centre the we drove out to Genelg which is the 'beach' suburb of Adelaide. We walked down to the front and along the coast a way and then back into the main part of it and had a meal at one of the restaurants on the front. It turned out that Jo is only 10mins from the Airport so she kindly offered to let me stay my last night at her house as I have an early morning flight out on Tuesday. I returned to the campsite to settled in for the night, the sky was amazing and I called back at Mt. Lofty to try and get a sunset picture but I was about 5 mins too late, although I did get some good dusk pictures as the sky went a brilliant red hue.

Adelaide Day 1

2010-02-16T05:45:00.000Z

I gave Ian a ring just to confirm details and left the campsite and drove up to the the North of Adelaide and managed to find Ian's house without too much difficulty, well I went around one block twice but that was because I got stuck in a left turn only lane. Ian and I have known each other from years back when the internet was still in it's infancy and we used a service called Compuserve which had forums for special interest groups. We were of course both in the Scouting Forum and Ian was already an Admin. Each October there is an international 'virtual' Jamboree called JOTI which originated on Amateur Radio and soon spread to the new fangled internet. We used a great new gadget that allowed the Scouts to be able to message each other directly on the Forum and we had Scouts at locations all over the world communicating. This was way before things like Instant Messenger or even the mass use of text messaging on mobile phones so it was a big thing then. At Middlewood we had a dial up connection and the bill was not cheap for the weekend! The event started to grow world wide and I think Ian made me an Admin and along with some other leaders around the world we promoted and monitored the chats amongst the Scouts.
So we have kept in touch ever since and it was really great to at last meet up. We played about for a bit on the Ian's PC whilst I uploaded some pic's to Flickr and also fixed the keyboard on my laptop whilst bobbing out to watch parts of the Olympics on TV. Ian also got me the details for the local Scout Campsite and rang them to check if it was ok for me to come up the following day, and at $10/night it was certainly cheaper than thepublic site at $22/night. Suddenly it was dinner time so we nipped out to the chippy to get some chips to go with the tea Ian's wife had made. Chippy's are different here in that the all have a salad bar as standard and the vast majority use frozen chips rather than fresh cut. Soyou have to wait for your order as they are cooked to order, and the size of the portions, they are huge, at least double a UK portion. After tea we went round the corner to see Paul who helped Ian in the early days of JOTI and who it turned out was also a Amateur Radio Enthusiast... well probbably a bit more than that! Ian had a radio shack (room full for radio gear) to die for and an amazing antenna farm (garden full of aerials) to die for. His current little project is Earth-Moon-Earth and satellite communications – bouncing signals off the moon and back to earth or off tiny satellites that zoom round the sky ( and not big stationary ones like you get SKY/FOXtel TV signals from!) It needs big TV-like aerials that that track the sky and you have to build them yourself, not the sort of thing you can pick up at a shop. By now it was getting on for Midnight and as I was staying on the public site I had to drop Ian back at home and then get back. I was really god to at last meet up with Ian. (And thanks to Ian's wife who did a load of washing for me whilst we chatted!)

Naracoorte to Adelaide

2010-02-16T05:42:00.000Z

I was awoken early this morning but had a good nights sleep, the majority of the door were with a tour group and were up at 6 to leave at 7:30am. I let them all get up and run around before getting up and then went to shower in the strange washroom which was built in a huge converted watertank. Jeroen was up now and the owner made us both a coffee (but not from the grotty kitchen!) and then we walked around to the garage where his car was being stored. It did not look good the mechanic suspected the engine had seized but needed to check further so I left Jeroen with my number and went of to see the caves. The Narbrook caves were made thousands of years ago and are unique when water seeped into the limestone rocks and then formed channels underground, eventually holes appeared in the roofs of some of the chambers and animals fell in, these animals then died down in the caves and became preserved as fossils the sink-holes eventually sealed up with silt and detritus which also fell in resealing the caves until they we found by people in the 1800's searching for bat guano. The cave systems are huge and not all of the systems have been fully explored but large areas have been opened up to the public and guided tours are done through parts of them. The Victoria show cave that I went into is explained by a very knowledgeable guide who took us around different parts of the cave system and even had a seated area where we were given specially selected fossil bones to handle and projected images of the sorts of animal that were found in the remains. The tour took about an hour underground and when I got out I got a text from Jeroen to say his car had died and he needed a lift to Adelaide. So I went back into Naracoorte and met him at the library where he was pricing up a new vehicle on the internet. We called back at the garage to get some of his bags (The garage agreed to let him leave it there till Monday when he was going to return to get the rest of his kit – I couldn't fit a surfboard in my car!)
So we set off for Adelaide, the drive took about 4 hours and it was really good to have some company as this stretch of the route was fairly boring with huge great stretches of flat prairie land and dead straight roads. We chatted about all sorts and put the world to rights, politics, religion, traveling you name it! We did stop about halfway for a snack and stretch at a small one hore town I have no idea of the name but it did have a railway halt of sorts and I got some pictures of the tracks disappearing in the the horizon. Eventually as the road neared Adelaide it became a Motorway and started a long steep decent down to the city, down a winding cutting through rock faces and all of a sudden the town was in front of us. We called in a McD's to use the Wifi and find some hostels for Jeroen, he had brought a Sat Nav with him from his car so we used that to locate the Hostels in the City centre and at the second on he found a bed so I dropped him there and we said farewell.
i drove on out the the city to find a campsite Jeroen had found me in a guide book he had. (He needed to visit the vehicle hire places in the morning, I had no such needs to rush around!) It took me about 30minutes to navigate my way out of he city and find the right road to the campsite but 10 minutes later I was set up on the campsite and gave my old friend Ian Loxton a ring to arrange a meeting for the following day.

Warnambool to Naracoorte

2010-02-16T05:40:00.001Z

Got up this morning to a fine drizze. I called in a McDonalds for breakfact and to use the free Internet then drove on towards Adelaide. The road had now left the coast and I head inland a fair way. I stopped off at Mt Gambier to have a look at the Blue Lake. The lake is inside the crater of an extinct volcano and is now actually the towns water supply. The 'Mount' defies what is actually there as you don't seem to climb very high up to reach the rim of the crater, however looking down into it the water level of the lake is way down and a strange deep blue colour. It can't be a reflection from the sky either as it was actually chucking it down when I got there (what's new!) I sat and played radio for a bit chatting to a couple of radio amateurs on the local repeater, causing a little confusion as the guy I was speaking to couldn't understand my call sign. (My call is G7ELA and as I'm currently in 'VK5 land' I have to add that bit on the end so it becomes G7ELA/VK5/Mobile; it confuses a couple of people!)
The Landscape was now rapidly changing as I drove on, the road was a good 2 lane road with overtaking sections every so often but there was very little traffic on the roads. I passed through huge forested flat land area's which were obviously commercial plantations of pine, the road way went for miles in a dead straight line with the huge pines planted about 40yds off from either side of the road which gave a strange tunnel effect. After an hour or so the landscape changed again to vineyards, and more vineyards planted as far as you could see in both directions and the land started to roll gently again. Eventually I came to the town of Nararcoorte, I had been driving for about 3 hours and it was getting late in the afternoon so I decided to stop for the night. The rain had stopped but there were still dark clouds around so fancying a change I hunted out the Tourist Info office to see what was available in the area. The office had closed when I got there but they had left small paper bags hanging out side full of local info guides and maps, so I had a flick through them and found a listing for a Backpackers Hostel. This seemed like a good idea and the cost was similar to camping. I gave the owner a ring and they had space and he gave me directions. 2 minutes later I was outside the front door. The owner showed me round the back to the dorm, which seemed to be a converted garage but quite clean and with lots of bunks. He explained that they weren't a normal sort of Backpackers Hostel but they normally just have a tour group in 4 times a week and also they provide beds for lots of the temporary workers who work on the farms and vineyards around the area. The dorm was clean and the people that were there were all very friendly but the place was very shabby and a little 'Heath Robinson'. The kitchen area for the 'backpackers' was a mess and I decided to not bother cooking here! Just as I was dropping some things on a bunk another lad arrived. Unfortunately his car had broke down not far from town and the tow truck had dropped him at the door and taken his car in to be looked at the next morning. As we we both 'independent travelers' and the owner suggested we visit the local pub for some food as they did a 'special' evening meal for $8.80. So we decided to walk down to it and get some food. Jeroen was from Holland and had bought his car from one of the companies which specialise in selling older vehicle to travelers. He was planning to meet a friend in Adelaide at the weekend the drive on to Perth but the car had stopped about 10km outside of Narbrook. He had managed to flag someone down who helped him to call the breakdown service. He had to go back in the morning to find out the damage. The food in the pub was basic either a turkey, pasta or fish plate brought out from the kitchen with as much veg or salad as you could eat from a buffet. A bit plain and the turkey was loaded with salt but with lots of veg and salad was a nice big cheap fill. I had read about the local caves in the tourist info guides so planned to visit them tomorrow morning, and suggested to Jeroen that he could have a lift to Adelaide if his car was terminal. He wasn't sure was he was going to do yet so we left it for the night and returned to the hostel.

Apollo Bay to Warrnambool

2010-02-12T10:17:00.000Z

Feeling a lot better today, up and out early. The scenery is amazing and the road is a great driving road. I turned of the main road to take the side road down to Cape Otway Lighthouse. I thought it was only a short distance off the main road but it turned out to be 14 kilometres (which is really nothing here!) It claims to be the oldest continuously lit lighthouse in Australia and also the point where the first telegraph cable came ashore from Tasmaina. The Light house and the surrounding buildings is now a museum and the 'real lighthouse is a small 10ft post to the front of it (between it and the sea) with a small beacon light on it, this is due to modern shipping now using GPS to plot their passage through the straights to the South of the Lighthouse. Originally when the Lighthouse was in operation the beam could apparently be seen from 37km away at sea. The new one is visible to about 15! Before the lighthouse was built the straights were treacherous to shipping and many boat hit the reefs and sunk. The old rule being never to pass the lighthouse at night! The lenses on the lamp are huge and sit in a special bath of mercury to give them a frictionless bearing to turn on and they are that strong that in the morning and evening the keepers had to draw blackout curtains to specific places to shade the sun from shining directly into the lenses as that would cause the filaments to burnout because of the 'reverse' magnification of the sun!
There was also a number of other buildings at the site including the Telegraph Hut which had also doubled as a School and a house at various times in it's life, a WWII Radar station that was installed after a US Ship was sunk off the coast by a German U-Boat.
I drove back up to the main road and continued on the main road. Not much further on a number of people had stopped in a Eucalyptus wooded area and I realised they were all Wallaby watching, so I pulled over and joined them. There were quite a few of them just chilling out in the branches of the trees right next to the roads and ignoring all the tourists below with camera's snapping away. I stopped at a Junction in the Road called Lavers Hill for a coffee and then set off again until I came across the 12 Apostles. This is a rock formation on the coast which is where columns of rock have been left standing whilst the softer rock around them has been eroded. Originally there were 12 but some have crumbled into the sea and I'm not sure how many are actually left but all the same it was very impressive from the view point. I then drove onto Warrnambool and found a campsite for the night in the centre of the town. By now the cloud had bubbled up and by the time I had my tent up a heavy sea mist had rolled in. I sat in the camp kitchen and watched an episode of Border Patrol on TV which strangely was featuring Manchester Airport! My neck is a lot better tonight and a managed to go to bed without painkillers (and I'm still off the beer!)

Doctor Ho and Apollo Bay

2010-02-12T10:16:00.002Z

I got up at about 9 after a really bad nights sleep my neck felt terrible this morning.
I cleared the site and after a quick shower called in at the Wardens office to find out where the nearest doctors was. Luckily it was only just down the hill on the shopping area in Anglesea itself and I gingerly drove down there trying not to turn my neck. The doc, who was called Dr Ho (not Who!) was actually a Malaysian who had trained in the UK but now works here, diagnosed me as having and abscess caused by an ingrowing hair. He suspected it was due to my neck getting too sweaty at night. (I put this down to my inflatable pillow) He gave me local anesthetic and cut it open to drain off some of the puss and then patched me up. He also prescribed me a course of strong antibiotics which means no booze for the next week – bugger! The treatment and doc's fees cost $85 but luckily I found out the UK NHS has a reciprocal agreement with the Australia's equivalent Medi-care. So I had to pay up and then find a Medi-care office on the way to get a refund. This seemed too simple but we will see.
So I set off from Anglesea after a coffee and tablets along the Great Ocean Road. I kept stopping every so often to take pics, but the 'pain in my neck' was starting to come back as the anesthetic wore off and I got as far as Apollo Bay before I had to pull in and find a Camp site for the night.

Melbourne and Eumeralla Scout Camp

2010-02-12T10:16:00.001Z

Up at 8 this morning to go back into Melbourne to meet up with Tess from the Vietnam Tour. I parked the car in the Retail Park nest to the Camp Site and took the bus back into town. On the way I noticed that there was a Regional Scout Office on the Retail Park and made a mental note to call in on the way out of Melbourne to find a Scout Camp.
I met up with Tess at Federation Square in the centre of Melbourne and we made our way down a series of streets and then alleys to what looked like a dead end back street, at the end was a small doorway which led into a small corridor and then up some stair to a tiny funky little restaurant/bar. It was called Bella Sister (or Sister Bella?) and a strange place that seemed to have organically grown with odd paintings on the walls and obscure phrases written on them and the walls. The seating consisted of tight bench seats and tables like you would get in a caravan or low cushioned stools and tables. The bar was wedged into one corner of the floor area. I assume the kitchen was on the ground floor and the whole place cannot have been much bigger than my house back home. We went our separate ways around 1pm, Tess had to meet another friend in town and I had to get back to the car before the 4 hour time limit was up. It was great to meet up and reminisce about a trip that strangely seemed ages ago but was less than a month ago. Back at the retail park I called in at the Scout office and got the address of a Scout Camp Site down on the Great Ocean Road at Anglesea. So armed with the address I headed off down the motorway towards the coast stopping at the main Tourist Info office on the way to pick up a load of maps and guides to the area. The road into Anglesea (which is a town here, not and Island!) dropped down to a two lane road and I was happily trundleing along when a huge sign announced the Scout Camp entrance was 200m on the left, stamping on the brakes I just made the turn (much to the annoyance of the guy with the caravan behind me I think!) The camp office was down a long gravel road which ran into a bush area for about ? mile. Luckily the camp was just open having been closed for the summer holidays?!? I produced my international knecker and Appointment card and that was enough to get me in. There ware only two other groups on the site but they were from Schools and were staying in the buildings lower down the site. The warden directed me up to the top of the site and said 'just find a patch in the bush at the top' He wasn't wrong the area was just grit sand and low eucalyptus bushes but I found a nice flat piece next to a camp fire area, however with the current fire ban no fires to be had. I had wander round the site after setting up the tent and suddenly spotted my first kangaroo grazing on the grass lower down the site I had my camera with my and managed to get fairly close to it and noticed there were actually 2 but the light was fading fast and it was quite had to get a good shot of them. Well at least I have actually seen one for real now! Back in the tent I settled down for the night, It was pitch black and totally silent... apart from the sound of the sea breaking on the shore close to the site, the loud crickets, the occasional squawking of a bird, 3 mozzies that had managed to get into my tent and something scratching round the outside. The other thing that was bothering me was my neck was getting really achy now and the spot on the back was getting bigger, a visit to the Doc's tomorrow I think.

Melbourne Day 2

2010-02-12T10:15:00.001Z

I got up in the morning to my phone ringing from home had had a chat to everyone enjoying a party in my house back home (I hope you cleaned up – you know how I like my house spick and span!) I headed into the town again and then took a tram out to St. Kilda Beach to meet up with Jenny from the Vietnam Tour. We met at the 'big mouth' entrance of Luna Park (a bit like a mini Blackpool Pleasure Beach) In fact St Kilda was a little like Blackpool with a beech front promenade and lots of little shops and cafes, we took a walk along one of the streets which according to Jenny has been home to specialist cake shops for years, you name it if its a cake or sweet or covered in chocolate you could buy it here.
We had lunch at one of the restaurants here then walked up the promenade towards the other end of the town. along the front were lots of stalls which set up on a Sunday selling handmade arts and crafts of all descriptions, at the main part of the town we found out that it also happened to be the gay pride parade in town and we stood and watched the various 'groups' going past – some of which I had to wonder what their connection to the parade was and with other it seemed more of a protest march, however there were a couple of strange sights in the parade. We called in at a Gelati Bar for ice cream and spent the next 5 minutes sheltering under a tree trying to eat it before the heat got to it first. Walking back down past the Craft stalls the heat from the sun was now really intense. Jenny insisted on me having some hand-painted fridge magnets as a souvenir of my visit (my reputation in Vietnam was for not buying any souvenirs!). I had had a great day and we parted back at the Luna Park Amusement Park.
Since the last couple of days I had started with a spot on the back of my neck and it was starting to get bigger, I'm not sure the sun did it any good today and buy the evening my neck was very stiff. (more on this to come...)

Melbourne

2010-02-12T10:14:00.002Z

I planned to spend a couple of days here in Melbourne so I took my time getting up and had breakfast then did some washing in the morning then took the local bus into Melbourne centre in the afternoon. It took about 30mins and dropped me right in the centre. I'd had a look through the Lonely Planet Guide the night before and found a self guided walking tour of the city centre in it so I intended to follow that. I had already been in contact with Jenny and Tess from my Vietnam tour who live in Melbourne and Jenny suggested I first wander down the South bank of the river and have a look in the Sydney Casino. It was huge and packed as it was Saturday Afternoon, I resisted the temptation to have a gamble but it was interesting to see the different games being played and the amounts being wagered – a taste of thing to come in Vegas I think.
Back in the town it's self I followed the walking tour in the guide book down the wide streets and tiny little 'laneways'. I was really impressed with Melbourne and some how it reminded me of Manchester, old Victorian and Edwardian style buildings mixed in with modern blocks but it all seemed to work. The walk took in many of the architectural features hidden away down little back-streets and also the unofficial 'street-art' alleyways which are covered with graffiti including a 'Banksy' stencilwork. I then jumped on one of the trams which run throughout Melbourne and are of the traditional narrow type (not the huge train like one's in Manchester. By now it was getting on for 7 o'clock and I headed back to the Campsite on the bus.

Gundagi to Melbourne

2010-02-12T10:14:00.001Z

In the morning the storm had cleared and I had thought of heading up into the Snowy Mountains before heading into Melbourne but the site owner said the storms and rain were still lingering up there so I decided to give it a miss. Back onto the highway for the 6hr drive down to Melbourne. The highway in most parts is dual carriageway but occasionally drops down to a two lane road as it passes through towns. One of these towns is called Hamilton and I had to double take as I got to the centre to find a full size submarine in the middle of the town. I had to stop and take a look. The story goes that the town was once called Germanton, which for obvious reasons didn't ring too well during the Wars, so the town decided to rename the town. To cut a long story short the decided on the name of a British Submarine Captain called Hamilton, and there the association with submarines began, so when HMAS Oxley was to be scrapped the town bought it and 'semi-submerged' it in the centre of the town as tourist attraction, and built a submarine museum next to it. The museum was actually very interesting and showed the history of the town and the submarine it even had a mock up of the inside of a sub complete with periscope that you could 'spy' on the surrounding area. Back on the road I hit Melbourne just at the hight of rush hour. I pulled into a service station and had a look through the local A-Z for Scout Camps thinking there had to be at least one in the Melbourne area. I found one listed as about 30mins drive from where I was so I headed off to it with directions scribbled on a pice of till receipt paper stuck on the dashboard. I found the site no problem apart from the heavy traffic but it was all locked up. A notice board on the outside gave a contact number and I gave it call, Sandra answered and apologised that they were no longer able to have campers as the council now owned the land and was being awkward with the Scouts, but she did come out to meet me with her Husband the Group Leader and they gave me directions to the nearest Tourist site. (the next nearest Scout Site was 2 hours drive away on the other side of the city)

Canberra to Gundagi

2010-02-12T10:13:00.000Z

Got up early this morning and drove back down the central area of Canberra and went to the National Museum of Australia. The museum is in a strikingly modern building on the edge of Lake Burley Griffin. The Main entrance gives little away as to what is in the museum and a long sloping corridor leads up to the exhibition halls, however to enter them you have to wait to enter a rotating cinema called Circa, As you sit down in a quadrant shaped theatre a large screen explodes into life with images of the development of Australia as a continent, other screens on the roof expand the images around you. After a couple of minutes the whole of the seating area starts to move around in a clockwise direction and stops at another set of screens, this time showing images from aboriginal beginnings, then the seating moves again to show the early days of colonial influences and other settlers to the land, finally it moves again to show the modern Australia. Ech different quadrant has a different layout of screens, audio and lighting effects and gives you an overview of the different things covered in the museum itself. However once inside whilst laid out well it seemed to be lacking something but I'm not sure what. There was a large section on colonial Australia which was closed off for renovation and the areas on Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders seemed very small. Finally there was an exhibition called K-Space where you could design your own house or transport of the future and then view it in a 3D world which was really aimed at primary aged school children but the curators were really keen that everyone took part. I wasn't really sure where the museum was aiming itself at and to me seemed similar in some ways to Urbis in Manchester.
Anyway, back in car on on the road South, sort of, I had to go back North to to pick up the Hulme Highway towards Melbourne. After a couple of hours driving the sky again seemed to get very dark and a storm was brewing. I managed to skirt around it at Yass and then stopped at a small place called Gundagi. The sky had now cleared and it was a pleasant evening. I found a campsite just off the Highway at a bargain $10 with better facilities than the last night. (I'm really becoming to think that campsite fees are a complete lottery with regards for the bang for the buck!) I even had a nice grassed area with a large tree to shade from the morning sun. I drove up into the town which was literally a single wide street and stopped at the IGA superstore for some supplies. Back on the campsite after some tea I settled in for the night. Around 1:30am it started to rain then rain some more and the wind got up. At on point I was holding onto the poles of the tent to stop it being flattened onto me, the rain was torrential and then the thunder and lightening began. The tent being made for the lovely Australian sun was no match for the rain and it was soon coming straight through the outer layer. The wind had subsided so I quickly bagged by sleeping bag and made a dash for the car. Luckily my bag didn't get too wet but I had to pour the water out of the inside of the tent in the morning!

The Blue Mountains to Canberra

2010-02-10T04:51:00.003Z

In the morning I got up and made a sausage barm and coffee for breakfast then went out to try and see the sights of the area, The YHA was in Katoomba which is famous for the Three Sisters rock formation so I drove down the road to view point but it was total white out fog so I drove around to the 'Scenic View' Resort where you can go down the edge of the mountain on the worlds steepest railway walk around a 'rain' forest and then come back up on a glass bottomed gondola all for the price of about $28,on being told the cloud base was down to the rain forest I saw little point in paying that much, to get soaked, to see very little. So I looked around the overpriced gift shop and left. I drove around to the Tree Sisters again and this time I thought I'd best try and see at least something so I parked up and walked down to the viewing point. Luckily for me just as I got there the cloud opened up enough for me to get a quick couple of pictures before closing in again (and 2 coach loads of Korean tourists descended) a quick exit was in order!
Back in the dry of the car I decided to head down to Canberra as it was sort of on the way.
I got into Canberra around 6pm and found the Tourist information office but it was now closed but had a list of campsites on the wall picking two I took a drive down to one but didn't like to look of it as it was way out of the town, driving back in I rounded the Capital Hill where the Australian parliament sits (It's a big grassy knoll, with a flag on top!) and went back up through the centre of the town to find one nearer the centre. The facilities were limited and the camping areas were like tarmac but it would have to do. I drove down to the local shopping centre and had a delightfully unhealthy huge kebab and got a couple of beers to take back to the site.

Bondi Beach to the wet Blue Mountains

2010-02-10T04:49:00.000Z

Sydney and Bondi and the wet Blue Mountains
I cleared off the Sydney site this morning and headed back to the station to get the train down to Bondi Beach. The line I was on luckily went straight through to Bondi Junction and then I had to get a bus down to the beach. It all seemed a bit over-rated with not much 'surf' to speak of but I took a walk down on the beach and along it and managed to get stung by one of the many 'bluebottle' jellyfish that get swept ashore here. They don't hurt too much it's bit stronger than a stinging nettle. They look like a small translucent purse with a blue central part and a long tail of 'legs' and it's these that have the stinging barbs.
Having 'done' the beach I took the bus back to Bondi Junction then the train back to the car and headed out to go and see the Blue Mountains, so called because the views over them are spectacular with a strange blue haze (which some say is because of oil from the Eucalyptus Tree, but others say this is a load of rubbish; it's just pollution!) As it happens I wouldn't actually know as I headed further up the Highway the rain got heavier and heavier and then I was into the fog or cloud. Thinking camping was probably not a good option here I looked through the Lonely Planet and found there was a YHA in town so heading there I booked in and fancied a pub tea. The reception gave me directions to the the local pub – 'Hotel Gearin' down at the far end of the town, so armed with waterproof coat I walked down there and settled down to a very nice meal of soup and a chillie pasta dish. Just as I was finishing the food the landlord came round with quiz sheets and persuaded me to take part. As it happens 'Team Me, Myself & I' did a very creditable 39 out of 60, was not last; just second to last. The walk back to the YHA was a little wobbly and very very wet, thank god I hadn't camped.

Sydney

2010-02-10T04:48:00.000Z

The site I was on was a good way into the southern Suburbs of Sydney but there was a local train service close by so I took that into the city centre being able to park for free next to the station. Once in Sydney I walked down through the town to Darling Harbour which is has been developed to be a recreation area with bars and restaurants around it. I had a quick sandwich here and watched the world go by as short rain shower blew through then took the ferry boat out from the Harbour out into the river and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which as soon as your are under it the Opera House comes into view. I had only paid for the singe trip so alighted at the next dock which is Circular Quay (which doesn't seem to be very circular!) I walked up through the centre of the town and found an internet cafe and checked my mail then coming out I took the Monorail which runs around the town to see the sights then finally decided to call it a a day and head back to the campsite.