Trips To Australia
2007 - The Koalas
Team Leaders: Blondie & Curly
| Team: | Beth | Zoe |
| Hannah | Rachel | |
| Bethany | Abbey | |
| Jocelyn | Natalie | |
| Mike | Abigail | |
| Pip | Laura | |
| Matthew | Dan | |
| Glyn | Allyson | |
| Bethan |
Tuesday 12 July 2007
Met our team, the Koalas, bar 2 at Cardiff West Services, everyone looking excited, anxious and wondering what the next few weeks have in store for us, including ourselves!
We then collect Natalie and Abbey at Leigh Delamare Services and we are away!
We check in at Terminal 3 and then have a few hours to kill in the Duty Free which is always a chore ….. not!
As we are tucking into some hot food we have a disaster occurring in the fact that Bethan thinks she has thrown her purse into the bins whilst we went through customs.
Curly jumps to the rescue and hot foots it back there with Bethan to investigate, the staff check the bins but with no success so they have taken a contact number if the purse is located.
We board the plane and cause further chaos by advising the air stewardess that Michael has a nut allergy and there can be no nuts on the plane!! This causes a bit of a problem as they were not aware, but when we check with Michael we find out he just can’t eat nuts, phew!! The air stewardesses love us already. Our next job is to advise them of the under 18’s so that no alcohol is served and then we relax into the flight.
After food and a movie most of us team leaders drop off to catch some zzz’s after advising the team to try and stay awake, oops!!! Ah well what can I say they are half of our age!
Sarah has flown separately to Sydney via a different route and we will meet up with her there.
The flight to Abu Dhabi takes 14 hours then we exit the plane for a few hours until our next connection. This gives us chance for a stretch, another look around Duty Free and a coffee to re-energise.
We then board our Sydney flight which is approximately 7 hours, we are all extremely tired now.
We land at Sydney and as we are collecting our bags an immigration officer approach us to check our boots for mud as the ozzies are paranoid about foot and mouth etc, so we have to get a few of the teams boots sprayed.
We then meet Sarah and the Wallabies and Koalas head to the domestic terminal via a bus which costs $5. We then have another agonising wait for our next flight to Adelaide.
We waive off the Wallabies and Sarah to Melbourne 30 minutes before our flight and then we are off. The flight doesn’t take long and when we land everyone breathes a sigh of relief when they collect their bags.
We are collected by “Des Coaches” he becomes a legend to us, who is the real Des?? More later on that.
So we check into the YHA and then we all head to a local pub 2 streets away called the Duke of York which been recommended to us by the hostel as they serve 12” pizza’s for $3, yes $3 that is about £1.25!!
As you can imagine the pub is quite busy so they open the beer garden for the 1X of us and cook our pizzas. It is a bit chilly, jeans and jumper weather but they have put on a few patio heaters for us. Honestly they are so welcoming the difference in service standards to the UK strikes us already.
Well its about Xish now on Thursday 12 July local time, we have all been travelling about 37 hours from Cardiff West so as you can imagine we are all slightly weary, most of us head back to bed with a few hardcore staying for a nightcap.
Friday 13 July
The hostel are providing our breakfasts for us and today we have it in our own private room on our floor at 8am. The food is plentiful, 4 types of cereal, bread 3 types, fruit, juice, tea and coffee. We are impressed.
After a quick get together we hand out maps, money and organise a time for the Koala to get together tonight.
Sarah is flying in tonight for a group dinner so Curly and I have to find a restaurant for us all tonight within budget and organise transport for Adelaide Zoo tomorrow. Our Koalas have free time in the City to explore and relax.
Most of the restaurants are on Gouger Street which is about 5 blocks away, Curly and I walk the length of this street before settling on Café Primo, which is a chain, we have lunch there to test it out and it seems good, so we book it. They seem to have the widest choice for Veggies. We then book the legendary Des to take us to and from the Zoo tomorrow.
Let me tell you about Des at this stage. We’ve not met the real Des but everytime we use this company we ask “are you the real Des??” unfortunately we are driven around by Des impersonators, so we still don’t know who is the real Des and does he exist!
We met Sarah in the afternoon and had our team meeting where we got to hear about what everyone else did that day which was really interesting. There was a jam factory visit, glass blowing, shopping, Freddo purchasing much more exciting than our day!
We had dinner in Primo which gave the kids chance to catch up with Sarah and afterwards we ended up in a Kareoke bar. This place is awesome, like the ones in Japan with separate rooms.
We have our own separate room and get some drinks before we settle into some serious karaoke! We all have a great time with some good and bad singing!!
Now I must add at this stage the place was NOT a brothel as some of the team were dubious, just a karaoke bar with dodgy décor!!
Saturday 14 July
After brekkie we congregate at reception where we meet a Des impersonator for our trip to the zoo. We wave off Sarah is flying off to Sydney to go to Wollongong for her next group visit.
We manage to wangle student discount for the team at the zoo and have a free tour arranged. Not a great outing as our guide wasn’t the most clued up and the zoo wasn’t particularly inspiring.
We had allowed 5 hours here but we were all done and dusted in about 2 so we rang Des to come and get us. Free time for the rest of the day, Curly and I had a chill but both fell asleep for 6 hours, oops!
The guys had been in the city and doing their washing and relaxing.
Curly and I then went out for dinner at about xpm.
Sunday 15 July
Today we have all decided to do the optional trip to Mount Lofty and Cleland Wildlife Park. We take 2 public transport buses to Mount Lofty first. This is a beautiful viewpoint over Adelaide but by George it sure is cold and windy.
The bus driver kindly offers to wait for us if we can be done in 10 minutes, this saves us a 25 minute walk and so we take up his offer, further testament to how accommodating the ozzies are.
We then arrive at Cleland where we find out we can cuddle a Koala for $15, well when in Oz and all that eh!
This Wildlife Park is really fun, you can walk around with the Kangaroos and Wallabies and hand feed them, they also have an indoor café with a roaring log fire, hot chocolate and chips, result!
This afternoon we met our guide from CVA, Craig. We walk around the block to their offices and they give us a briefing, mainly about safety. Part 2 of our trip will shortly commence there were lots of q’s from our Zoe about Snakes and Spiders ha ha!
We spend our last night in the City by all going for a Chinese together, well apart from Bethany who has been poorly since we arrived. We first thought in was jet lag as she has been sleeping for Wales and feeling out of sorts so she rests up.
The team find out tonight that Curly and I have had an ensuite bathroom in our room, this causes a bit of a stir, then towels from the hostel and I thought we were going to get lynched!
After the Chinese, Curly and I decide to take Bethany to hospital to get checked out before we go on conservation as we are not able to call a doctor to the hostel we go to A & E. How efficient, Bethany is in front of a doctor after 10 minutes of checking in!! Never happen in the UK. We are on our way home 30 minutes later with a diagnosis of a viral infection, bless her.
Monday 16 July
At Xam we check out of the hostel and head to the CVA office where we leave our luggage and are taken to the Hospital to the oncology ward. It is a small ward that only has 8 beds and it covers most of the west side of Australia. We are advised after a really busy spell the ward is only half full and only 2 of the 4 children feel up to visitors, so the team are divided up to meet the patients.
We then go to outpatients where we meet another 3 more children; it is a very touching experience and moves everyone. The bravery and spirit of these children move us all. The team leave their presents which will be put to good use.
CVA then collect us and we drive straight to Clayton in 2 separate mini buses which takes a few hours. The 2 teams go to different locations, Blondie’s team, with Craig go to Hindmarsh Island and Curly’s team with Dale go to Langhorne Creek. Blondie’s team have lunch first and then we meet Beryl who starts us off by tree planting in a field. The aim is to replace lost vegetation, shrubs and trees which have declined so much it is having a huge impact on the migratory birds. The Wetlands used to have 300,000 birds visit and at the last count they now only have 25,000. What a huge drop and a big task involved!
Late afternoon we drive to our camp, Clayton Bay Camp Park. This looks like a huge scout’s hall with a few bedrooms off it, a few chalets outside and an outside block consisting of bathroom facilities. The best bit though, there is a resident Kangaroo called Ruby, you can stroke her, she is quite tame, cute.
We set ourselves up, its quite chilly about 6 degrees and no heating, brrr! So a camp fire is built for the first night together with a BBQ, well we are in Australia!
We set up a rota for all of the meals to share the chores; Dale assists/oversees dinner every night. No messing with him, he is strict with his rules.
Tuesday 17 July
We have breakfast at 7.30am and we are on the road at 8am, again the 2 teams go to separate locations, my team to Langhorne Creek. Today we met Richard who is quite famous in the area for devoting so much to the conservation of the Wetlands. The team very much enjoy their time with him.
As Bethany is still poorly today I travel back to camp with her, where she snoozes and I watch tv whilst the team are hard at it.
I left them after an hour whereby we were taking plastics and sticks from trees planted a few years ago and they were at an aircraft hanger looking at some spitfires.
When they arrive back at base there are stories flying around that they had a bbq for lunch and they were flown around in the planes, whilst they were winking at me hee hee! Curly’s team fell for this for a few hours, oops!
It has been extremely cold, windy and rain showers today so no camp fire tonight.
We have dinner and there are a few things to do in the evenings, watch tv, play pool or read oh yes and shiver!!
Following on from Blonde's story conservation was hard work but totally rewarding, whilst away our team kept a journal and I am now going to include some of their quotes because as we all know The Oz Experience is all about the guys who raised the money for their holiday of a LifeTime.
17 July o7
Conservation work began, people dropped like flies Dan, Glyn Abigail ( you know who you are) pushed through gale force winds suffering from trench foot and hyperthermia but still worked like dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!
18 July
The cries of the workers echoed across the valleys we tested the PH of water no more can be said about this.
19 July
Quotes of the day; I'm not very good at speeches - Craig They sell Heinz Baked Beans here - ZOWIE LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THEIR FREDDOS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20 JULY 07
Last day on conservation for the guys I stayed in camp today as Bethany today as she is still not well so we are preparing a camp fire for when the workers return, I think we are now ready for sydney BRING IT ON
ps The team planted a whopping great 1150 trees GO KOALAS
21 July 07
Up at the crack of dawn today as we now all want to PARTY in Sydney the team have all enjoyed conservation but now we all need some home comforts.
We got to the airport only to be advised that our flight has been delayed so a few unhappy chappies but hey ho us KOALAS DO WHAT WE DO BEST "KEEP SMILING",
We finally got to Sydney minus a passport oops thats another story.
22 July 07
Day started off with a well deserved breakfast mmmmmmmmmmmmm this was then followed by a trip to The Jewish Museum. We met a gentleman who was a survivor of the Holocaust his story was very moving and made us all realise " How Strength of both mind and character" can help overcome most of Life's obstacles.
Some of us then went on to Bondi while others remained on in Sydney.
We all met up in the evening for a pre booked meal at the Sydney Tower where we were all mesmerised by the beautiful views and sights of Sydney by night.
23 July 07
Photo shoot at The Opera house followed by a trip to Manly where we shopped till we dropped.
Should you wish to check out some great photos visit The Website where you will see Koalas rock.
24 July
Bridge Climb and Jet Boat lots ofb tired little bunnies but again another fun filled day followed by a Rocking Good Night at The Hard Rock Cafe.
I know I speak for both Blondie and myself with this final note I would like to thank all our TEAM for a great OZ EXPERIENCE you definitely made the trip even more fantastic and you did both your aunt Blondie and your mummy Curly very proud.
I will leave you with this final thought
Should you ever see a Bear take off all your clothes and run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blonde and Curl Proud Team Leader's and Friend's To Our Koalas