Helen and Tom's excellent bike adventures

Welcome back to this game of two halves. The half-time team talk in the dressing room was interesting – especially the need for clarification about the ‘… rub-down with the physio..’ A couple of interested, yet disturbed, pundits needed me to be clear about whether it was Timmo who had given me a massage in Mona Vale. Let me be very clear, that although Timmo did indeed treat me to said massage, he did not, repeat, did not mince about dressed like a masseuse. Instead it was the very lovely and capable Mai who carried it out – so well that I treated myself to a return visit to her a few weeks later. Anyway, hope that’s clear and settled – phew!

Pushing upfield

So, the second half got underway in a sprightly and enthusiastic fashion with another road trip on the cards. First stop though was at Campervans Australia to get a new fridge door fitted to Bob. Having not seen the fantastic Ben and Angela since our last visit it was lovely to say hello and catch up. Only down side to that was that Timmo got very interested in a new 4×4 Mercedes van and was considering (put your hands over your ears Bob) an exchange. Only fleetingly though you understand, heat of the moment and all that and how could we possible say farewell to the Bobster? Anyway, onwards to the town of Ulladulla and an overnight stop in a pretty average site but right on a very non average beach. Although there was only time for a bit of a paddle and a beer this time as it was getting a bit late in the day, we had benefited from a lovely lunchtime stop over in Berry – the place where we had spent Christmas with the family a couple of years previously.

We continued next day as far as Eden – somewhere we had only stopped in briefly en route in 2017 – and another very lovely site wedged between the ocean and a lake. What’s not to like as Timmo would say.

Eden was definitely somewhere to consider things beginning with the letter E: eagle encounters, exploration and educated whales. The eagle were of the white bellied sea variety and very impressive they are too. We had seen them in the distance from the caravan park, but we were able to get a much better view as part of our Wildlife Exploration trip on a boat around Twofold Bay. We got a good close-up look at other sea birds such as cormorants, albatross, diving gulls to name a few, and also to see the Boyd Tower and learn a bit about Ben Boyd.

Now Benjamin Boyd was a Scottish entrepreneur who achieved considerable wealth and was one of the largest landholders and graziers in the colony of NSW. Arriving in Sydney in 1842, he was zealous in his pursuit of land, shipping and whaling activities and was not always entirely ‘above board’. One of his many projects linked to our visit to Eden was the establishment of the port and settlement of Boyd Town. It included, amongst other things, a 300 ft jetty, a 75 ft lighthouse tower, a church, stores, houses and a splendid hotel in ‘the Elizabethan style’. He was keen to develop a good whaling business and had nine whalers working from the port. Sadly, as is often the case, he overreached himself and with the collapse of his finances, the town was abandoned from the 1840s and remained as such until the hotel – the Seahorse Inn – was renovated in the 1930s. Renovations were halted by WW2 and it was only in 2006 that the Inn was finally brought back to life and remains to this day. Indeed, it would have been rude not to stay there, so we did! Very nice it was too. The tower was never approved by the government to be established as a lighthouse and so it became a whale spotting platform instead.

Talking about whales…. What a story. Now I mentioned educated whales, well Old Tom was top of the pile it seems. A male orca, Old Tom led a pod who co-operated with and assisted whalers in the area around the first shore-based station on mainland Australia in Eden. The ‘killers of Eden’ as they were named, would herd baleen whales into Twofold Bay to trap them and make them more easily killed by the whaling teams operating from open boats with harpoons. After herding them into the bay, they would then alert the whalers by slapping their dorsal fins on the water, and then continue to take part in the chase. The payment for such assistance was to be allowed the tongue and cheeks of the captured whales. Old Tom was the best known of the many Orcas that hunted with Eden’s whalers and at 22 feet long and weighing 6 tons, he was a force to be reckoned with for sure. His skeleton is found in the Eden Killer Whale museum – which although I expected not to find it particularly interesting, it actually was!

Our exploration of the area continued with a bit of the Light to Light walk. Although 32km in length from Boyd’s Tower to Green Cape lighthouse, we managed a small return section which was a fantastic introduction to this spectacular coastal walk with its red rock formations and cliff top eucalypt forest. It was a glorious day for it too and it was soon possible to understand why this stretch of ocean is called the Sapphire coast. After a couple of hour’s trek we found a lovely little bay to sit and have our picnic before the return leg. Seeing only a few rangers on the walk – who were cutting back some fallen branches – we pretty much had the whole path to ourselves. Mind you we did have some close encounters with a couple of wallabies who had nudged their way through the bush up to the track. Very cute they were too and much more agreeable than snakes!

Some good movement around the field

After the excitement of Eden, we were off again for some Easter Fun and after an overnight stay in a very lovely town called Maffra, we arrived in the Mornington Peninsula on Good Friday. Nicky had booked a lovely AirBnb which was very spacious so it was good to be able to get acquainted and set up for the arrival of the family after their flight into Melbourne.

Easter Saturday was spent exploring the local area with a first stop at Cape Schank lighthouse and a lovely coastal walk and after a very busy afternoon, we enjoyed dinner in the St Andrews Beach Brewery. The Easter Trail that we had set for Caden went down well on Sunday as did the wine at the Stonier Winery and then, later, the Montalto Winery in the afternoon! The weather treated us well too – despite the forecast – and we were able to enjoy more walks around Sorrento, Portsea and the old Quarantine Station followed by a lovely late lunch at the Cups Estate. Hard work, but someone has to do it!

A treat from the kids of a Spa visit was just what the doctor ordered, and just as well as the tide was just about to turn….

A couple of yellow cards

Yellow card number one was shown after we’d moved on from Rye in the Peninsula to Frankston and a caravan park as a base for a few days. Or so we thought. Unfortunately on the second night we discovered that Bob had a bit of a poorly shoulder (broken roof strut) and although the trainer was called on to try and fix it, we realised it needed a trip to the nearest VW hospital – which wasn’t that near as we had to get it fixed back at Campervans Au which was all the way back in Albion Park Rail a mere 857kms away! On top of that, it was a Wednesday and they were closed on Friday for Anzac Day so Thursday was the only opportunity to get it sorted this week. So, we swiftly jumped into action, packing up and getting off the site by 6pm to start to do leg one up to Wondonga. Now, we have been very clear about NOT driving after dark because of all the crazy bouncy things that seem to like crossing the road in front of you and to date, we had never ventured to do such a crazy thing. Well, here we were heading off into the darkness and not only that, taking a satnav route which on any daytime run would be very scenic through the Yarra Valley, through the vineyards etc etc, but now was like running the gaunlet. At every twist and turn you could just imagine skippy jumping out and giving Bob a bit of a thump, so to say that the journey was a tad stressful was an understatement. Nevertheless, we managed it without incident and arrived at the motel at 10pm before collapsing into bed and a deep sleep. 6 am next morning we were up and back on the road – this time on the motorway (which we should have done from the start) – and although skippies would still be about, we worked on the basis that one of the many lorries on the road at that time would sort them out for us.

We finally arrived at the workshop by mid-day and after 30 MINUTES work (they are good I tell you) we were back on the road again, this time to head back southwards towards our next scheduled stop at Bright where we had visited on our trip last year. Now just to add a bit more excitement into the mix, I had developed an upset tummy which had not been helped by the stress of the journey previously. I don’t know if any of you are Greg Davies fans, (I certainly am), but if you are, you may have seen him on the Graham Norton show telling a story of him and his upset tummy (caused in his case by booze and curry) and which resulted in ‘the equivalent of a faecal Jackson Pollack’ in the school toilets? I was a-feared that I might too create such an art piece and had to focus very carefully on the journey ahead and confine myself to water and no food whatsoever. We headed down as far as a town called Yass with no incidents and was pleased to get into the Motel. It was called The Thunderbird Motel so much renditions of the theme music and pretending to be one of the puppet characters ensued only to be disappointed that it had no link to the show at all. Boo. I even ventured to have something to eat confining myself to plain chicken, plain veg and chats – roasted spuds to you and me. Mind you I did amuse myself by wondering whether I’d have a dose of the chat chats by morning – pronounce the first one as in the French word for cat and the second as you see it and hopefully, hopefully, you might see my childish amuse-bouche? No? Ah well.

Now regardless of my condition, we were determined to be up at 5.30am the next morning to attend the dawn Anzac Memorial service. Held in towns all around Australia, they do a dawn service and then a more traditionally timed 11 am service. We wanted to experience the first and thought that we would probably be there pretty much by ourselves. How wrong could we be. Hundreds – yes hundreds – of people of all ages including kids congregated to remember their countrymen and women in the dark closed-off main street for the 30 minute service. Took your breath away and it was an honour to be one of their number.

We continued on the final leg of our Bob emergency trip at a nice leisurely pace and even did a detour to Holbrook to look at the submarine that is part of a museum dedicated to HMAS Otway. Now the town is nowhere near the sea but it was name after British sub-mariner Norman Douglas Holbrook after WW1.

All things were bright and beautiful in Bright with lots of Autumn sunshine and colour and it was nice to re-familiarise ourselves with the town.

Second Yellow card, but not a straight red

Having just about got over the Chat chats, I managed to wake up to a shocking cold the next day – continual sneezing and full of snot (nice). After an early night, I woke in a similar state the next morning but, as it was my birthday, I was determined not to spend it mooching about the van feeling sorry for myself. So, in true style, we cycled along the rail trail to Porepunkah and Ringer Reef winery where we had visited on our previous trip. After a glass of fizz and couple of glasses of wine, accompanied by a very lovely sharing board, all was well with the world and I was feeling no pain!

Now, the red card came when we had an early call a couple of days later from Will to say that they had needed to get Finn to hospital with what turned out to be suspected pneumonia! Caden was ok but it was very definitely an emergency for little 8 week old Finn. The call for help was readily responded to and before you knew it, we were packing up double quick again and heading off to Albury airport for me to get a flight up to Sydney in order to give them a hand. Managed to be at HQ by 7pm so all good. Timmo continued to drive Bob back up as far as Goulburn and a motel for the night. Sadly he too was coming down with the lurgy so at least a warm room and comfy bed would be welcomed. For the rest of the week, the vigil continued and Timmo eventually wound his way back up to Sydney by the weekend where we were all back together again as Finn had been discharged too. Hurrah! Not great to have missed out on a planned cycle in Yea, but it will still be there next time and sometimes, other things just are more important. Besides neither of us were at our best in terms of health so a long cycle ride might not have been the best in the circumstances anyway. Thankfully all well and Finn was back to fitness in no time.

Extra time

So it was back to Narrabeen (no hardship I can tell you) and the lovely routine of ocean swims, lovely coffees, trips into the city, a bit of ballet at the Opera House and visits to some of the many lovely beaches and eateries to be found in Northern Beaches. By the end of May, the kids were off to even sunnier climes and a holiday with Nicky’s family in Mauritius and we had a final fling before the full time whistle was about to be blown.

As it was Timmo’s birthday, I had booked for us to go to Seal Rocks in the Central Coast area to stay at the lighthouse at Sugarloaf Point. We had booked the assistant lighthouse keeper’s cottage and were joined by the very lovely John (from Tim’s school days) and Jane. What a weekend! The weather was great, we were in a beautiful cottage and the views from the lighthouse were to die for – we even espied a whale or two on their migration north. We enjoyed a lovely long lunch in the nearby Tuncurry (where we had been previously) and finally enjoyed the drive through the Great Lakes (no, still not those ones). On the Sunday we headed out for a lovely coffee and to admire the surf at Blueys Beach before continuing on to Booti Booti national park for a goodly trek. What a great, wholesome few days to end our sojourn in Aussie land with good friends, good food, good drink and good laughs.

So, there we are. A good match, lots of action and plenty of things to look forward to. Back home to Cornwall to catch up with life and family and reflect on how lucky we truly are. Hear that Timmo?!! See you all on the other side – “Haste la vista baby!”