AUSTRALIA

And so to my trip round Australia...

There I am, in a country with what I believe is the longest coastline in the world, where 95% of the population live within spitting distance of the sea, and with one of the lowest population desities in the world. They are surrounded by warm waters and the largest tropical reefs in the world, mild waters and migratory fish, and cold waters with huge fish stocks, SO WHY DO THEY ONLY EAT STEAK?!?!

We asked customers to book restaurants for our visits as obviously I am not up to speed on the best places in each city. The
customers chose....
Meal 1 - Sydney - a steak house
Meal 2 - Sydney - overlooking the harbour but no fish - lot of steak / lamb / kangaroo
Meal 3 - Sydney - a typical brasserie type place - steak / lamb / chicken / ostrich - token bit of fish but it was imported farmed salmon
Meal 4 - Melbourne - a steak house
Meal 5 - Melbourne - we put our collective feet down and demanded something different - so we got an italian that is known for it's steak and lamb
Meal 6 - Hobart - steak / lamb.... again....

Finally, on the last night, back in Sydney, when I was able to go out with just my 2 travelling companions for a meal we found a fish place - Doyles at the Overseas Terminal on Circular Quay. Excellent it was too, with a view of the Opera House on 1 side and the bridge on the other.

This pretty much exclusively meat diet seems to take it's toll on aussies. It was noticeable that aussies "of a certain age" go pretty swiftly from bronzed beach adonises to large (nice word for fat), sweaty, red-faced (and definitely red-nosed) slobs. The exceptions were few and far between! I am aware that the Brits are hardly top of the league in the beauty stakes, but it is quite funny to see that a country that markets itself as the fountain of youth and beauty is full of fat blokes eating meat pies.

Anyway. On to the cities themselves...

Sydney.
Ahhh Sydney. Lifestyle capital of the world. Long hot summer days spent on the beach, cooling down with a cold beer or a dip in the pristine waters... except when we were there it was 20 deg and pissing with rain, and the rain was washing pollution and general crap into the sea so that the beaches were shut and water was brown. Hmmmmm. Not a good start!

Melbourne.
Sunshine, for several continuous hours!! as any regular visitor to Melbourne will know this is quite a shock! The old joke goes that if you don't like the weather in Melbourne, just wait 5 minutes, but our 24 hours there were perfect. 27 deg, sunshine, low hum idity... marvellous. If only it was always like that, and there was a decent beach within a 100 mile radius...

And so to... Hobart.
there was all the usual jokes about people there being in-bred, having 6 fingers and/or 2 heads, and below is a joke that sums up most peoples iews of Tasmania and Tasmaninas (told to us by a Tasmanian before anyone gets offended.)

A guy goes home to his parents in Sydney / Melbourne / Canberra (pick any non-Tasmanian location) and says,

"I've met the girl i'm going to marry. She's from Tasmania, she's smart, she's beautiful, she's got a great job, and she's so pure she's still a virgin"

his dad turns to him and says,

"son - i'm sorry but i can't allow you to marry her. she sounded great right up to the bit about her still being a virgin. if she's not good enough for her own family then she's certainly not good enough for ours"

boom boom....

In fact Hobart was magnificent. Everyone was friendly. The town feels like a large english market town in terms of pace (i.e. not much), but it is scattered around the edge of a natural harbour created by the mouth of the Derwent river. Everyone has a harbour-view, and most have water-front properties. The land rolls gently between impressive mountains, and in large areas is thickly forested. Hiking, fishing, hunting and messing about on the water are the main sports and weekend activities. In short, it's great. Tasmanians seem pretty content with their lot, and having been there I can see why.

Overall - I still think Australia is a great place. I love Melbourne and Hobart, and on previous visits have loved adelaide and Perth, but Sydney is slowly losing it's magic in my eyes. My last 3 trips there have coincided with bushfires on the first 2 visits (so the air is brown and stinks), and rain on my last visit (so the water is brown and stinks).

There is however still a chance for Sydney to redeem itself. I am going backin May to catch up with some customers I didn't see this time. Fingers crossed.