Since my last blog I have completed the Guide Dogs Student
camp. Which thanks’ to the amazing group of work colleagues and some fantastic
students. It was a great success I feel.
The week long camp was themed around ‘The Amazing Race’ and ‘Mastercheif’.
The students were in teams of 3 or 4 and they had different countries. Points
were awarded for the cooking of the evening meal, the making of the morning
muffins and participation and improvements in sessions. At the end of the day
the winning team were able to go and buy ice cream from the local shop. Which
for those of us with sight maybe a simple task, but can be extremely
challenging for people who are vision impaired. The students were amazing and
took everything in their stride. Participating in yoga, blind cricket, money
awareness tasks, packing a suitcase, going to the local shopping centre,
visiting the airport, using chopsticks and purchasing their finally lunch from
the Adelaide Central Markets and riding tandem bikes with Guide Dog Staff.
After a long and tiring week at camp, I was homeward bound
to pack for our latest holiday to Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road. We
spent our first day of holiday traveling to Melbourne to meet up with Jane
(Mark’s friend from University). In total the drive took us 10 hours in total.
On arrival at Melbourne we navigated our when through Melbourne (not the
easiest of tasks) to our hotel, checked in and then headed straight out to find
Jane.
Meeting Jane was like we’d only just left her in London
(where we last met in July 2012). After hugs on the street corner and listening
to Jane’s story of her tram nightmare, we went in search of dinner and our
holiday along the Great Ocean Road begun.
We sent Sunday and Monday in Melbourne walking around its
sights. On Sunday we worked through the parks, visited Captain Cook’s house
(which they had brought from the UK. Shipped it to Australia and re-built it,
in a park in Melbourne). For our evening
meal we found a very tasty Moroccan restaurant.
On Monday after a bit of
maternity shopping for me, we met Jane in the Melbourne National Museum where
we spent a number of pleasure hours (fully recommended if you every visit). In
the evening whilst Jane went to a yoga class Mark and I completed a pub crawl
of Fitzroy (Melbourne Suburb), which in the end involved one pub, as all the
others had been closed down. This was not a problem as we appeared to have
stumbled upon Fitzroy’s icon pub ‘The Napier Hotel’. It was a true old style Australian
pub that serviced pints, Mark was happy. Here we stayed drinking in the atmosphere
and where Jane joined us for dinner. Amazing pub food, another place we would
fully recommend if you find yourself that side of Melbourne.
Tuesday started with a walk in the Botanic Gardens, before
the drive along the Great Ocean Road began. We started at Port Lonsdale to show
Jane the mouth of the Bass Strait. Following this we continued on to Barwin
Heads and Anglsea for a walk on the beach, before visiting Aireys Inlet, to
visit the Round the Twist Lighthouse (A children’s program for those of you who
don’t know, as Mark had no idea). We
ended our day in Lorne, with a walk along the beach and dinner at Cuba Bar
Lorne, where we were treated to fantastic food and outstanding service.
Port Lonsdale
Barwin Heads
Anglsea
Round the Twist Lighthouse
Lorne
On Wednesday after a hearty breakfast our trip continued to
Apollo Bay, taking in the Otway Ranges on route. This was cut short after a
lunch break. When we noticed that our fuel gage was registering half. Which we
knew was impossible as we had only filled up in Lorne and driven 50km, so it
was a fast drive to Apollo Bay to find a garage before they closed. Through a
matter of elimination, of not smelling diesel and only being able to put 11 litres
into the tank, it was established that it was the fuel gage that had the issue.
Now that we could rest easy in the knowledge of the problem, we enjoyed a
dinner of tapas.
The day of waterfalls
Thursday was our longest drive along the Great Ocean Road.
We visited Cape Otway, the Otway Fly (tree top walk), Gibson Steps, the 12
apostles and Loch Ard Gorge before arriving in Warrnambool after dark. This
evening we visited an old favourite of ours Warrnambool Hotel for dinner before
heading to bed.
Cape Otway
Tree top walk
Friday as we had to pass many of the natural wonders of the
Great Ocean Road in the dark on Thursday we head back to take them in, before
continuing on to Portland. So Friday’s tourist route took in the ‘Bay of
Islands, ‘Bay of Martyrs’, ‘The Arch’, ‘London Bridge’, a trip to the ‘Railway
Shed Timboon Distillery(where we enjoyed another fantastic meal and Mark tasted
the whisky). Before continue on our journey to Port Fairy and onto Portland.
London Bridge
The Arch
On Saturday we drove Jane back to Adelaide for the night, as
she had to fly back to Melbourne on Sunday to begin the search for jobs. On our
route home we visited Cape Nelson, Cape Bridgewater, Piccaninnie Ponds and the
Blue Lake in Mount Gambier. We rounded our holiday off with dinner at Wasai
Japanese Kitchen at Adelaide Central Markets and a flick through the wedding
album. As Mark and I realised that Jane would be the first friend from our
wedding to go through the album with us.
Cape Bridgewater
Piccaninnie Ponds
Blue Lake
All in all a great week and we hope we
can welcome Jane back to Adelaide sometime in the next 12 months.
Thank you Jane.
On my return to work on Monday morning, my happy relaxed
feeling didn’t last long. As within minutes of my arrival our team was given
the very sad news that one of our close knit team had been involved in an
accident over the weekend and was now fighting for his life in hospital.
Unfortunately Bill Harriff my work colleague and friend (his
partner Kris and I have worked together for the last two years, at RSB and now
Guide Dogs.) had been knocked off his bike at speed on his return trip to
Adelaide, as part of a charity bike ride to the Flinders Rangers and back. Bill
sustained spinal and brain injuries. Regrettably
Bill lost his life to these injuries on Monday afternoon.
Bill was the fittest 69 year old man I have ever met. He had a thrust for life and a passion for
helping people and riding bikes. He will be greatly missed by me and Mark. Our
thoughts and support is with Kris and her family at this very difficult time.
After a very hard week Mark and I have been trying to take
our minds off the events of the week, by researching and preparing for our new
arrival. On Saturday we spent the day looking for a new desk for Mark and cot
for the baby. During our trip to Ikea however Mark had other more important things
to do, when he found the leaping frogs. This was rounded off with a relaxing
evening with the Koerber family and a hug from my godson Ben.
Today we have had breakfast in Glenelg and a drive around
the Adelaide hills, before an afternoon of photo editing and blog writing.
We hope this blog finds everyone at home well. All our love
Claire and Mark xxxx
