Belated blogs and giant bollocks.

Yet another belated blog post. I may never catch up but at least I'm consistent.

Dave had a month's work coming up for the whole of September so, as much as we would have liked to head further north, we simply couldn't and so it was back to Olde Sydney Town to once again pick up a mooring at Drummoyne and arrange passage back to Adelaide.

Rainbow over the entrance to Port Stephens.

Another view of the awesome rainbow. 

 

We left Port Stephens in the late afternoon amongst rainbows and promises of return and then, sailing into twilight, did the long, long journey back down the coast. I slept a lot due to the fact that night sails and I don't get along terribly well, and Kwells become my new best friend and take me off to dreamland, leaving poor Dave to man the helm almost all night. I truly wish I could find a motion sickness tablet that didn't make me drowsy but so far I haven't had much success.

After making it back to Drummoyne safely and resting up for a couple of days, we then set out to try and find the best way back to Adelaide. After looking into air, bus and train fares, and after chatting to our good friends and fellow sailors Dave and Selina on board 'Quintessa'(who were soon heading off to Darwin to put in a swimming pool for a client), we discussed the possibility of buying a car and then selling it on in Adelaide. What a fabulous idea!!

Because of the epic drive they had to make through the guts of the country, Dave and Selina had chosen a sensible and sturdy 4 wheel drive as their mode of transport. We figured a nice hatch back would do the job for us, so the search was on in earnest as we perused online car ads. However, as the search went on, we couldn't decide which would suit us best until, after browsing though hundreds of cars, Dave jokingly showed me an advert that led to us buying what was possibly the absolutely least sensible car we could have found...a full-on, mid-life-crisis cliché on wheels. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we were now the proud owners of a red convertible! It was awesome!

The 'mid-life-crisis', totally clichéd demi beast of a car!!

At the end of August we began our journey, complete with chock full back seat and boot loaded with things we had decided we didn't really need on the boat.

It's quite amazing how conspicuous you suddenly feel when you're in a car with such a reputation. I mean here was Dave, dashing middle aged, worldly wise yacht captain driving across the country with his gorgeous young blonde in the passenger seat (this was my fantasy so shut up :P ). As I said, completely clichéd Daaahhhhling! (besides, it totally looked like that if you weren't actually looking hard as we shot past at 100kph.) We saw all manner of interesting things and took many photos but it's incredible how blurred some pictures can be at 100kph. However, here are some we salvaged.

A solitary headstone and burial plot on the side of the road.

A gigantic sprinkler system in the middle of a very dry nowhere. What a colossal waste of water.

Alrighty then!

I believe I mentioned large testicular objects.

On the way we took a break at the Big Marino in Goulburn (just one of the many BIG things this weird and wonderful country has to offer), which had the biggest bollocks I had ever seen. http://www.bigmerino.com.au/big-merino.html There was also this wonderfully restored steam tractor passing though.

Beautifully restored steam tractor.

Our own Eiffel Tower? I totally think not.

We stopped for lunch at the Dog on the Tuckerbox in Gundagai http://www.thedogonthetuckerbox.com where there's also an interesting assortment of things. It's really nice to see these places at least once. I think we miss so much by shooting through some of these potential stops.

 

Hand carved table and chairs at Gundagai.

Interesting things at the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' , Gundagai.

It looks almost real.....more interesting things at the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' , Gundagai.

Yet more interesting things at the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' , Gundagai.

Yes.... it's a canon... more interesting things at the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' , Gundagai.

I really like this! More interesting things at the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' , Gundagai.

We finally arrived at the half way town of Hay for the night and took off early the following morning for another 7 hour drive. Only one thing marred the journey and this was a ridiculously stupid error in judgement. Near the border of South Australia is a fruit fly stop. Any and all fruit and/or vegetables on board must be declared and handed over. However, when we pulled in to the inspection point, no one was around and we didn't have any fruit or veg anyway, so we almost pulled up to a stop but then inexplicably drove away again. I can only think that fatigue or brain damage got into our heads and made us drive away. Half an hour later we were tootling along when a police car suddenly appeared behind us, lights flashing, siren whooping. Were we speeding??? No. It seemed that the inspection station had reported us for not stopping. As we stood on the side of the road chatting to the lovely policeman, cars zoomed past and I could alsmot see the sniggers of the passengers in those cars when they saw the cop standing next to the 'cliché'. Oh the embarrassment.   As a result of our own stupidity, we copped a big fine and vowed NEVER to do anything so stupid again. D'oh!!!

And did we drive with the top of the sexy stereotype down? Why yes we did, for the final 4 hours of the journey. :)

Okay, this photo comes with instructions... If you wear glasses take them off and squint hard. If you don't wear glasses, smear Vaseline over your screen and then squint. Voila!! Young sexy blonde!!! :D

Location: Gundagai NSW, Australia
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