I have my first guest post!!! And it even includes fantastic photos!
It's from my Norwegian email-pal Grethe. She went to Australia a few weeks ago.
Here is what she wrote.....
I first stumbled across Dina's blog about 2 years ago, in my very intense "I want to go to Australia and become a jillaroo"-phase. I'm not so sure anymore, but ask me again when my tailbone has completely recovered after two hours of horseback riding on a beach outside of Melbourne.
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| Fit for beginners my a** - no pun intended |
I should maybe point out that my fascination with Australia started in the early 90's when the public broadcasting company in my home country finally got some competition and a second tv channel was born. At last some foreign drama series other than Ms Marple and Hercule Poirot! My sister and I would watch A Country Practice and Home and Away when we got home from school. I so wanted to be a bush ranger in Wandin Valley or maybe serve flat whites to cute life guards at the diner in Summer Bay. Many years later I watched one of the best drama series ever made, Love My Way, starring two of my favourite actresses; Claudia Karvan and Asher Keddie (both major girl-crush candidates).
My family and I left for Adelaide on Christmas Day. I was very excited to finally see McLeods country! The show is almost just as much about the nature and scenery for me. And what a scenery it is - driving around South Australia I almost expected to see my favourite characters come galloping over the hills, but then I remembered that they either died or moved to Argentina so I came to my senses. We stopped for a beer and a chat at the "Gungellan Hotel" in Freeling, and now I finally know what happened to Drover's Run when the network sold the property. The Kingsford estate will not be a Bed & Breakfast as I had hoped but a private corporate retreat. Oh well. Perhaps I could convince my husband to go into engineering?
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| Where is everybody? |
After a few days in sleepy Adelaide (they must have the longest Christmas break ever!) we started our drive towards Melbourne. We had plenty of time and made lots of stops along the way. The Great Ocean Road is magnificent! Of course you have to share it with a million other tourists, but still it's worth stopping and queue up to get the perfect shot of the 12 Apostles. After a few days in Melbourse we flew to Sydney where we stayed for 4 days. We did the usual sightseeing, went to Manley, Northern Beaches (Palm Beach aka Summer Bay - it was so fun to see the look on my 11 year old niece's face when she realizes where she was!). But I promise, it's not all about tv. We got to cuddle a koala (Violet), feed kangaroos, horseback riding (ouch), wine tasting in Coonawarra (the cab sav is supposed to be good no matter what vintage - we tried quite a few and no arguments here), great beaches, sooo much good food (only one disappointing meal in 2 weeks, surely that must be some kind of record?), quite a lot of roadkill (though most of it bugs on our windshield and grill) and then of course there was just the fact that we were in Australia. We have travelled quite a lot together but we all agreed sharing Australia made it the best holiday ever.
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| Blue Lake, Mt Gambier (I swear to God this is not photo-shopped!) |
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| The 12 Apostles - or what's left of them anyway |
We are definitely going back, and who knows? Maybe there will be an opening at the diner in Summer Bay.