Captain Cook landed here, or was it here?

Our last day in 2010 was also our last day in the hire car so we kept exploring the area.  Wanda and Elouera beaches all form part of Cronulla bay.  Most if not all of the beaches along this stretch looked pretty good longboard material.

The aboriginal people lived undisturbed around Botany Bay for thousands of years until English explorer, James Cook, sailed into BB on the 'Endeavour' in April 1770 after his extensive navigation of  New Zealand.  BB was later chosen as an ideal place to set up a penal colony and the first fleet of 11 vessels carrying 759 convicts arrived in 1788.

Voodoo point seemed a very baron spot seeing it formed part of Captain Cooks heritage landing site.  At Kurnell Captain Cooks obelisk marks the spot where Cookie actually first landed on these shores. 

On entering Kurnell village the welcome signs didn't seem to celebrate being the starting point of modern Australia.  The whole village looked like it was a little unloved as the surrounding area is now heavily industrialised.  On one side of this historic site there's the port then on the other a refinery and then overhead into Kingsford Smith an airport.  Not really the surroundings you would expect around the point of such historic significance!

For the first time in 24 years............

 

Happy Bondi

Bondi is a city  beach with a lovely ocean pool positioned right on the point.  It has a real strong European feel, almost like a beach of Olympians.  All dressed in boardies/bikinis and santa hats.  No thoughts of peeling sprouts or stuffing the bird here. oh no.  The mood was definitely one of 'lets relish a hotter christmas'.

We dropped off the rollerboot/hire car and got the train back into the city which gave us great views over Circular Quays and 'the bridge'.  It's said that when in downtown Sydney the bridge seems to be peering between the buildings almost keeping a watchful eye on all below.

On-route home we popped into a couple of downtown shops, you know for those last minute bits an bobs, and you couldn't help but feel that even Sydney, on this sun drenched afternoon, was starting to panic given that the big day was almost upon us.

Back in chilled Balmain we stopped off for a well enjoyed drink.  Actually out, you know a drink in a bar!!  Oh that first sip tasted good.  As the sun dipped over the queenlander terrace we toasted the last 5 months as 'the bridge' peered through the Balmain skyline.

900 tonnes on the barbie

We paid a visit to Sydney's busy fish market.  This place is busy at the best of days but being in the guts of the city and with only a few days till Christmas it was erupting!

It was prawn city, we had never seen so many.  Seafood being the preferred Christmas lunch staple item (no turkeys here).  The market was doing a 36 hour non stop trading marathon to ease the Christmas rush.  The market was open again the day after Boxing day, which is a bit of luck as you wouldn't want to run out of the little fellas would you.  Not at Christmas! 

The local radio station later informed us that 900 tonnes of shell fish were shifted during this time!!  And we wonder why our oceans are slowing becoming empty of marine life.

Blue (sky) Mountains

We hired another little Japanese rollerboot and headed West for our ascent way up into the Blue Mountains, apparently, back in the day, Fe's Gran's favourite spot when in Oz!  It didn't take long to see why...

.... it's ten times older than the Grand Caynon and a world heritage area offering over 300 walking tracks. The Blue Mountains are not, as the name suggests, mountains, but in fact are dissected sandstone platueaux sheltering a rich diversity of plant and animal life.  The landscape is dominated by the Jamison Valley, Mount Solitary and the 3 Sisters.

The route took us inland to Katoomba located within the heart of the Blue Mountains National Park.  We had a quick pit stop in Penrith which funnily enough had road names like Kendall Street!  Mount Gibraltar, known as "the Gib",  at 863m it is the highest point in the southern highlands. The nearby town of Bowral derives it's name from the aboriginal name for the mountain.

At Echo Point the eroded ridge formation of the 3 sisters is part of the 7 sisters which had a profound spiritual significance of aboriginal people.  The giant stairway, 209 metres down to the valley floor was our workout for the day. Advice given prior to descent to the Dardanellas Pass... "warning contains many steps".  Call me old fashioned but come-on!   No idea how many steps it was but the old thighs were burning.  At the bottom the Dardanellas Pass weaves through the, thankfully, shaded Leura forest.

Not wanting to climb back up at Katoomba falls we hopped, some what angular, onto the funicular railway for a lift back up. This being the steepest funicular railway in the world!  She was a 1 in 1.28,  52 degrees, 128%  -  nose bleed material some may say, with a total length of incline topping out at a 450m with a vertical drop of 250m.

Once at the top all that stood between us our very small Japanese car and a cuppa back at the hostel was a gorge, or a very long walk round, so we opted for the short ride on the glass bottom cable car. With a drop of 230 metres that apparently would take 6 seconds to free fall (not sure how they know that stat but am hoping maths are involved assuming average body mass).

Govetts Leap in the Blackheath area, is home to Bridal Veil falls the highest in the blue mountains.

Mount Victoria was a very sleepy little spot but the highest settlement in the mountains. Great little train station connecting locals with the outside world with a picturesque train ride east getting to the bustle of Sydney's CBD in just 2 hours.

The sights of Sydney

Admittedly we've been off the treadmill for a while but getting off the bus at dowtown Sydney was quite a shock to the system.  As busy as Oxford Street and as frantic as a supermarket pre-bank holiday, this place was stacked with the air of don't panic but oh man let's panic.

We hit the sights straight away heading for the biggy, Sydney Opera House.  We walked through the botanical gardens and up the steps to the house.  It is thought that 2 out of every 3 people in the world are able to recognise the iconic opera house structure.

The story goes...... in 1956 the NSW Government called an open-ended international design competition and appointed an independent jury. The competition brief provided broad specifications to attract the best design talent in the world; it did not specify design parameters or set a cost limit. The main requirement of the competition brief was a design for two performance halls, one for opera and one for symphony concerts. Reputedly rescued from a pile of discarded submissions, young architect, Denmark’s Jørn Utzon’s winning entry created great community interest and the NSW Government’s decision to commission Utzon as the sole architect was unexpected, bold and visionary.

Utzon understood and recognised the potential provided by the site against the stunning backdrop of Sydney Harbour giving Australia a challenging, graceful piece of urban sculpture. His design shook Sydney's post war folk to the core with the residents opposite worrying the structure would devalue their homes!

It was originally estimated the project would take 3 years to build on a budget of $7 million. It actually took 16 years and a cost of $102 millions! Time and cost over runs contributed to populist criticism and a change of government resulted in 1966 to Utzon’s resignation, street demonstrations and professional controversy. Jorn Utzon died in Copenhagen in November 2008 aged 90 and he never saw the final product but he did believe he'd created a masterpiece. The building is constantly reviewed for further enhancements and his son and daughter are now heavily involved with all new projects.

Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece of late modern architecture. It is admired internationally and proudly treasured by the people of Australia. Opened in 1973 by the Queen it is now inscribed in the World Heritage List in June 2007. In 2003 Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, international architecture's highest honour. Over 110 million visitors to date have visited the icon.

The amount of steel used in it’s construction is four times the length of the amount of steel used to construct ‘the bridge’.   The external roof  is covered by 17 different tiles with a total of 1.56 million tiles!

Inside is just as great, with 2 main halls and a small studio (where Coldplay recorded their 5th album). Crazy purple carpet flows in places and tennis star Lleyton Hewitt had his wedding here.  If you are late for a performance here  there is a lock out and you have to wait for a convenient point in the show to then be ushered inside.

Luckily for us whilst we looked around one of the concert halls the Sydney Symphony Orchestra were practicing, wow what a noise!  The hall is made from white beach timber which is great for acoustics.  The hall is totally in dependant from the main structure.  the main hall has a mechanical track organ that took 10 years to build and 2 years to tune and is thought to be the biggest in the world!

With our architectural fix done we went across to the Australian Museum.  Every January in the UK we head to the Bristol Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition and to our delight the exhibition was on show here.  It didn't fail to disappoint, some great shots.

Ho Ho Ho one week to go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-hTXE72G0

To do list (in no real order) :-

1. Cut down a 10ft tree and re-erect indoors as straight as tree like as possible

2. Queue at Murray's for that special once a year cheese

3. Buy some Ferrero Rocher, just incase, you never know one year someone may take a fancy to one.

4. Pick up some logs and coals

5. Make nibbles and place mulled wine on the back burner to warm any unexpected passing guests

6. Buy the odd extra tipple or three

7.Stay away from the Mall and most shopping outlets unless it's the wee early hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV8x7H3DD8Y

Always good to mix it up. Happy days........

More wine vicar?

Before getting to Sydney and seeing the Chips we decided to take the road inland and through the Hunter Valley, a wine country drive.  We stopped for some tasting at the Wyndham Estate, the birthplace of the Australian Shiraz back in 1828.  Fe was driving so spitting and Dave was swallowing all the way!

Back on the road, the North Highway one and we caught our first glimpse of the city and the famous bridge. The road is cut through a mountains of rock.  Even with no map we managed to quickly find our way to Balmain and the Chipperfields house. On parking the lime green jucy mobile we were greeted with screams of delight and a menagerie of Chippers pleased to see us. After copious hugs and introductions to the new edition, Amber, we popped a bottle of champers and toasted the reunited neighbours down under.  As you can imagine the rest of the day consisted of more toasts and lots of catching up.

Early sunday morning (a little too early after too much toasting) is 'nippers' which basically involves Elizabeth getting down the beach and burning off some steam by jumping, running, and of course playing in the surf (well come on this is Oz) with a bunch of other kids in a kind of a kids club on the beach. Would you believe it Father Christmas made an appearance on a RIB, of all things. He almost got wiped out by a couple a foot wave!

Bathing - Newcastle style

Due to a freak storm (golf ball size hale stones and some poor bugger being killed by a lightening strike) we wisely stopped early to avoid the chaos and chose a nights stopover at Forester.

Next morning post storm we hit Newcastle which is on the coast 150 odd km north of Sydney. If you've got the time or you're madly fit enough you can walk the 250km trail from N'castle to Sydney aptly known as The Great North Walk. As the second oldest city in NSW the colonial architecture and art-deco ocean baths give a glimpse of days gone-by.

Fort Scracthley stands guard over Nobbys Head as the waves roll in to top up the half a dozen or so ocean swimming baths that line this stretch of coastline. After a stroll around the headland we were certainly ready for a dip. We opted for a swim at Newcastle's Bath pool. As the sun set it felt like we should have been wearing victorian style swimsuits as we lapped up and down on the edge of the pacific.

Cruisey Crescent Heads

On recommendation from Deanoooo we came back down to sea level and stopped off here for a few days. Another longboard meca. Our campsite gave us a sea view from the van. Can't beat a couple of nights falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

On our last day a storm was brewing.  One minute perfect blue sky, the next rolling dark thunder clouds.  Good job we were moving south as poor old Queensland were getting the brunt of this years cyclones. 

We can see why Deano likes this place.....

A big beach with a cruisey right hander

Beachside campsite

Barefoot bowls club

A descent looking golf club overlooking the pacific

2 x bottle-o's
A well stocked shop, a butcher, a baker, alias no candlestick marker, but hey.

.....and that's it, but that's all you need! Hell why wouldn't ya.......

The Waterfall Way (clue is in the title)

What with the blue bottles, sharks and floods at the coast we headed inland from Coffs for safety! The Waterfall highway winds it's way up into the New England National Park. The road at first hugs the Bellinger River then climbs high through tree lined gorges and creeks taking you into world heritage rain forests 1000 odd metres above sea level. Had to slip old jucy out of overdrive to get up them hills!

The Ebor falls served as a cuppa stop off. Great views to be had over the falls and the surrounding Guy Fawkes River NP which covers a land mass of 107,000 hectares. The Ebor falls are head of the Guy Fawkes River gorge. It links the tablelands country around Armidale and Guyra with the Dorrigo plateau that projects out towards Coffs Harbour. At 1300 metres Ebor sees snow fall most winters and crisp summers that contrast with the lowland sweltering heat. Must admit we had a far less sticky night in the van, even used the duvet!

Wollomombi Falls in Oxley Wild River NP is one of Australia's highest waterfalls at 260 metres is found within this park. Depending on rain fall it either falls at a trickle or a torrent. To the right of the wollomombi falls is the Chandlers falls, these two falls meet in the pool below and then flow east to the pacific ocean. Given the resent heavy rain falls both seemed to be doing alright.Wollomombi in local Aboriginal dialect means the meeting of the waters. The gorge in which these waters fall has been created by several hundred million years of river flow that has cut through the tablelands.

The aboriginal people of the northern tablelands around Armidale were known as Anaiwan. As European settlements spread through the tablelands back in the 1800s the aboriginal people retreated to these remote gorges which came with tough conditions therefore survival was extremely difficult. As the Europeans cleared the lands for grazing stock many were raided and hunted for food by the aboriginals which caused conflict and massacres between the two sides. In the mid 1800s this eventually led to the virtual distinction of the local aboriginal people along with their traditional cultures and vast knowledge of these ancient tablelands.

Uralla is captain thunderbolt territory. Thunderbolt the famed bushranger for a six-year career of holding up Uralla publicans and then spending the proceeds on beer. Born to an Irish convict in 1835, he was dead by 36, apparently a typical timeline for your average Aussie bushranger. Normally supported by the poorer locals these legend type still ignite a sense of 'them and us' only really possible in a population grown from a convict state. Frederick Ward, aka Captain Thunderbolt, went on to inspire the public's imagination even further by escaping from Cockatoo island jail in Sydney harbour not once but twice, swimming ashore at Balmain. Our location for Christmas this year !! His six year career of robbing wealthy aristocrats as they travelled past his bush hideouts in the Hunter Valley and New England came to a abrupt end when he was shot and killed in one of his hideouts at Tenterfield just north of Uralla. His grave is located just off the high st and is now one of the towns tourist attractions.

On our route out of the mountains we passed through the shire of Walcha. This is pasture wonderland. With sheep massively out numbering people, 3800 population per 760,000 sheep! Once sheared most of areas wool is shipped to China as the milling process locally became far too expensive!

The McMillan lookout at Apsley Falls is named after a Walcha resident, Jim McMillian, who originally built the first set of steps down to the bottom of the gorge. Made of wood these didn't last too long and thankfully in the 60s Jim's son proposed a plan to reconstruct the steps in steel. We were certainly pleased with Jim Juniors steps, got us much closer to the water and the rainbow that had appeared as the spray hit the rocks below.

The drive from Walcha down to Wauchape was certainly not for the travel sickness type. 90 degree and hairpin bends a plenty. When finally out of the hills you arrive at the somewhat male only settlement of 'Timbertown'. Where men, real men wearing high vis clobber of course, cut timber all day long and woman, well the only one we saw was working the local fuel station.

A harsh, harsh country this at times.

Lazy days at Coffs Harbour

After a wet and damp drive we arrived here. One of the few working harbours we have come across in oz. Known as Snapper Port.

Now in the next state and the clock forwarded an hour we decided to call the Chips from a payphone. With less than a week to go until we are reunited after 18 months we were very excited!

With a Sydney lad playing at the surf club we decided to pop in and have a listen, and a pint to cool us down. The ozzies love their Sunday sessions, not a care in world that it's a school night! She'll be alright!

Pesky marine life

Byron Bay, Australia's most easterly town and HQ to the most unbelievable cookies. Yes, we stocked up prior to leaving.  15 days till xmas and Fe has just had breakfast in a bikini!

With our moods most definitely restored back to a more happy vibe we were back on the bus and heading 50km down the coast to Byron Bay which takes us into our final Aussie state, New South Wales.  The state of New South West have daylight saving so technically on New years eve if you're in the bordering town you can cross the highway back into Queenland and celebrate it all over again an hour later. On quizzing the locals on whether this carry-on did actually go on it seemed an almost given just so the celebrations could go on for that little bit longer!

Byron is classed as a very 'cool' town with plenty of youth around. You find the odd aging dreadlock hippy who apparently pitched up like we had but then never actually left. Easy to spot these folk, a group were sat on the beach drinking, whilst murdering another great classic on that old trusty but ever so slightly knacked acoustic guitar. X factor they most certainly did not have.

Parked up and quick to hit the beach we noticed that the lifeguards were still warning everyone about another beach being affected by the bluebottle jelly fish but this didn't deter Fe as she was pretty desperate for a swim. Not a second after she had dipped her toe into the very blue ocean lifeguards were sounding the 'everybody out of the water' siren. I joked to myself from the safety of my towel 'ah has a shark been spotted?'. But no joke, a couple of 5 foot grey nose sharks had been spotted dead centre of the bay.  Suddenly the blue bottles were a distant memory as all took cover beachside. Needless to say we both stuck to dry land for the rest of the day which wasn't the case for other folk as after an hour had passed the beach was back open for business as usual. Swim? no thanks.

As the sea was a no go for us poms we walked to Cape Byron lighthouse. From the safety of the high cliffs we could spot dolphins and turtles in the clear waters below. The BB lighthouse is the brightest in the southern hemisphere with it's beam stretching out for 50 km. You gotta love a lighthouse and cant beat a day at a one when hiding from sharks.

That evening BB were hosting 'Carols by the Sea' so after a quick supper we headed back to the beach for a sing-a-long of classics and met Santa, in flip flops no less. Made us feel a little more festive but the meet did lack mulled wine and mince pies!

Typically on the back of a day that brought sharks to the bay the next day the surf cleaned up, but had those pesky sharks done a bunk?  Must say it was pretty hard to think of anything else as we were signing the hire agreement for another long board. The paddle out to First Pass, the far end of BB main beach, was a case of just don't look down or back. If the leash spooked me once it spooked me a dozen times. If you get it right at First Pass you can pick a wave up and ride it right across to main beach. Had to watch out for the sand bars though, this bay had so many different levels it was untrue. You could be way out back and stand up then close to shore and its 10ft deep!

The rain started to fall and on arriving back into town to return the board there was major flooding in the high street with most of the kerbs disappeared under a couple of foot of water. Any deeper and I could have paddled the board right back into the shop. What with this, the thunder and lightening and those pesky sharks we were glad to be back in the van with a cuppa and BB cookie. Oz - the land of extremes hey.

The bird

Two weeks to go - wonder if the Chips have ordered the bird yet ?  

Miracles happen in Coolangatta

We woke early with a recovery plan in mind. We made 4 signs to pin up at the entry of the beach and also revisited the lifeguards and surf clubs to see if any of the untrusted written off locals had actually handed in any lost property. But not a sausage, sorry snag, to be found. We also reported it as lost property at the police station (who said we had more chance of growing wings than getting it back in this town!)

Signs up we turned the mood around with a wonder on the towns small high street. Some great small shops filled our morning and picked up some great new reads at a local secondhand bookshop, had a stiff coffee and returned slightly more upbeat to the dreaded itouch eater beach. Although not even the best of one liners seemed to lift the mood, could anything lift it or was it just simply stewing time?

At 3pm we'd well and truly had enough of itouch thieving beach, as it was now known. So prior to us moving on down the coast it was that time to check emails to see whether or not maybe, just maybe someone would have seen our signs and therefore done the right thing by getting it touch. We found a more brighter and far less dodgy internet cafe, this was a good start. Everything crossed we logged in and buggered me there sat one new mail from a chap called Ben Swanson. On opening it all seemed too much, almost joke like. His brief text stating he'd found our device and to call him. We've never logged out so fast !! His number rang we agreed to meet on the high street in 10.

Stomachs in our pants, nervous as a badger on ring road we stood and waited. Then like a god like figure he, Ben, appeared in a parting of the seas type moment.  We shook hands and then the moment came that we'd longed for for the last 20 odd hours. Out of his pocket he pulled our long lost itouch. OMG as the sun beamed down on us what a moment of utter total elation.  After local general opinions we never expected this!! Over night he'd even charged it as it had died.

They say you make your own luck but all this carry-on felt like a winning lottery ticket moment.

The times they are a-changin'

From most red neck Aussies we've switched from:
'you got no chance pomy it's gonna be at least a 3-1 knock out'

To:
'well come on we're all brothers and cousins anyhows, when you look back and all. Come on pomy there a bit of Cornish in all of us'.

Still trying to work out this sudden change of seas... Anyway on to some cricket highlights.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/9262384.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/9262506.stm

Disaster in Coolangatta

The jucy was very cosy or was that just the sound of the rain drops on the roof? Another short crawl today down the coast brought us to this much nicer town. The sun had even made an appearance so we flopped on the beach.

Surf looked good but the bluebottle jellyfish count put us off as at the lifeguard station they were treating at a steady rate of about 50 odd victims per hour, ouch.

About 5pm disaster struck. Within a 200 yards walk from beach to van we some how had lost the itouch!

 Last seen by Fe blowing off the sand and putting it the camera case. Then, poof, gone! Within this small space and time we had managed to misplace our one and only form of communication and source of many travel notes.

Looking back the next few hours were pretty grim. Scanning the beach like a pair of hungry seagulls, asking frantically at the surf club if anything had been handed in, turning the van inside-out over and over again. But nothing. As darkness fell we both kinda knew she was a gonna, it was a case of who was going admit it first.

Through our searching quest a few comments made by locals had stuck as the general feel seemed to be that there was little or no hope that anyone would do the right thing in Coolangatta as most, if not all, will just pocket it as a nice find. We finally admitted defeat and accepted that the beach had claimed yet another piece of traveller treasure. We then spent the next half an hour in a dark and very dodgy internet cafe changing all our passwords for all account apps stored on the itouch. Not sure which was worse, the searching for the lost item or sat changing passwords in that place!!

Needless to say our second night in the Jucy mobile wasn't a cheery one.

Not much paradise at surfers

Anywhere that has paradise in the name is definitely going to increase the draw card factor, a kind of 'yeah come on let's get down there' sort of feel. Our first mistake.

Our ride for the final leg of our Aussie 3 month experience, a Jucy Toyota. Not quite a full camper, more of a Japanese younger brother. Kitted out similarly to our old van we had back home, but just maybe not as mechanically slick. She rattled a bit and she's a bit basic but does the job well. We left a, soggy at times, Brisbane and joined the Pacific Highway and turned right, south.

Now we accept the sun wasn't fully shining as we pulled into Surfers, and at present on your arrival you're greeted with a building site style foreshore. But then you hit the all too many brightly coloured 50+ storey high rise towers that run right up to the beachfront which do absolutely nothing for it's famed name being that of paradise.

The building site foreshore is a much overdue 25 million dollar revamp. As part of the revamp there are plans for outdoor photo galleries positioned right along the boulevard to celebrate the changing skyline of Surfers Paradise since the 1930s. On view of whats been achieved in these 80 odd years we're not too sure it needs celebrating ! Or is this another twist of Aussie humour !! Either way after an hour or so we moved onto Burleigh Heads......

.....Better, but just ok. At least the high rise count is less. We headed for the point to see locals rip up the onshore wind swell white water. Just over the head we found a good camp ground which had a great camps kitchen so we took shelter here as the night skies filled with heavy rain clouds. To ease the dampness we cooked up a fab curry before settling down for our first night in Jucy. As the storm clouds opened, it was just like being in our old van !!

Barefoot bowling in Bris with a couple of babbers

Right, 'back on the bus' our journey south continues, Noosa to Brisbane.  Bernie and John, mates of brother Mike and sis-in-law Chan, were our hosts for a few days. It was great to see some fellow Bristolians   especially after 4 odd months on the road. We got to wallow in a king sized bed and had our very own bathroom, oh yes, our very own bathroom.

As of yet Fe was still to get her hands on a koala so  Lone Pine Koala sanctuary was the place for us as this ones been on the 'must do list' since arriving in these fair lands. Lone Pine has been rescuing Koalas since 1927 and was the world's first Koala rescue centre. At present they have around 130 Koalas. Within the centre there are other classic Aussie wildlife; kangaroos, dingos, platypus, various killer snakes, wombats and of course the odd croc. Koalas live on a diet of eucalyptus leaves and sleep for up to 18 hours a day.  Fe met and cuddled Wendore. A male 10 year old weighing in at 8 kilograms.

Whilst close to the centre we opted for a bus into ride to downtown Brisbane which had some great sunday markets.  A brilliant african band were playing, so we stopped to watch (and shelter from the mucho rains!)When it rains in these parts it certainly gives it it's all. 

Done with innercity exploring we headed for the water to catch the citycat taxi boat, and cruised the Brisbane river.

Off at New Farm Park to meet Bernie and John at the 

infamous Merthyr Bowling Club for some along 

awaited barefoot bowls action. Bowling has shed its traditional image of cucumber sandwiches and ancient men in white suits to become a popular weekend activity for the younger Aussie.  So without a ounce of white clobber in sight we 'bowled' in with our baggies and thongs on.  An easy Sunday afternoon of intense sport commenced. A beer in-hand this can't be sniffed at we thought.   It was a tight run traditional game, girls v's boys.  The girls took a early lead and the final spoils, but from nowhere the boys were mounting a big come back, robbing the girls of the final game with the final ball right at the bitter end. You gotta say it though it was a beauty of a final bowl. Right on the money. And as the light fell over the mecca that is Merthyr Bowls Club, attention turned to the barbie and as drinks flowed freely once again one couldn't help but think that if David Bryant, yes he of CBE, would have witnessed such a spectacle even he would have doffed his cap if at such a performance. The sight of 4 youthful upstarts emerging from the modern game that is 'barefoot bowls'. Lord, may it reach English shores in years to come.

Movember

As a sign of a true and distinguished gentleman for the month of November I have donated my face to charity.
If you are touched by this move then check out the link below to find out more:
http://uk.movember.com/?home
Although there is only a week to go its never too late to get involved.
Happy Mo-ing.


My Mo in action......

Coffee'ing

GB reef'ing

 

Annoying.......

 

Market'ing

Rum'ing