http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Little fish/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Little fish en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:55:11 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:55:11 BST Named after the year James Cook first stepped onto Australian land actually in Town 1770 on 24th May 1770 this town is one of if not the least commercial places you can visit on the East coast. It hardly has any tourists and the only people that seem to come here are us backpackers. Compared to the rest of the East coast 1770 is extremely cheap for activities. For example surfing is 7 times mor http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/1770/blog-167604.html We checked out of koalas one at a time so that we didn't have to leave the room for another half an hour when we had to put our bags in storage and make our way to the harbour. We were early and the first ones there so sat by the bay and waited for the others to arrive in total there were 15 of us and then three staff members which was a nice number. Anita was our skipper who was originally fr http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Whitsundays/blog-167603.html On the boat to the mainland we bumped into James who we met in Cairns it turns out that he had booked on the same Whitsunday and Fraser Islands trips as us so will be spending the next few weeks together. At around 3pm we arrived at Airlie beach and had to walk back up the road the bus had gone down to get to Koalas Hostel as with our Island package we get 4 nights free accommodation at selec http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-167602.html We arrived in Townsville on Wednesday at 5.30am and luckily we were able to catch the 6am ferry across to Magnetic Island which only took half an hour. It was so early when we got there that the information desk was closed and we only had the phone number for one place who were unable to take our booking as reception was closed. We made breakfast with what little we had bread and peanut butter http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Magnetic-Island/blog-167601.html By 8am we were on our way Our first stop was at Mossman Gorge were we had a short walk to the river for photos I attempted to get some Peter Lik inspired ones but he obviously has a better camera than i do. But even so the scenery is that nice i still managed to get some good ones and a couple of arty ones too. We then had breakfast at one of the picnic tables there before heading to Daintre http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cape-Tribulation/blog-167600.html We walked back into town from the rental company and chilled out in our dorm for a short while. Every night we got a free meal voucher at a local Irish pub PJ O'Briens so we went for something to eat there fish and chips which despite being very small portions was quite nice. The beer was quite expensive so we only had the one then we returned to our hostel and sat out on the balcony with our http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/blog-167599.html On Monday we covered some distance a total of 1036km but to be honest we didn't really see that much. We were going to stay in Camooweal at a free rest area but it didn't look that inviting so instead we carried on until we reached Mount Isla were we managed to get a few bits from the supermarket just before it went dark. As a treat as I was still a little emotional and missing Michael we g http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/blog-167597.html On Thursday night we stayed at a small place called Victoria River which wasn't a particularly interesting place and we drove for a total of 803.3 km. We have seen several bush fires the past three days even in areas catergorised as low risk. They didn't burn as much as I had expected maybe that is because the bush land is quite scarce in these areas. On Friday we made our way up to Darwin http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/blog-158951.html It was around 10 am on Sunday when we set of on our adventure and it was quite sad to leave Chris Bryan John and Nikki behind as they have been great to me over the past week It took us a little while to find highway one we ended up driving a little too far up route 60 but eventually we realised and were on our way We had originally planned to head straight to Geraldton but we discovered tha http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/blog-157612.html We flew via Singapore and had 5 hours to kill before our next flight. There are plenty of things to do as we found out last time we were here. This time i had trip to the beauty salon and then we had a swim in the outdoor pool and Jacuzzi. We were met in the airport by Erica's mum and dad Chris and Brian and her Uncle and Aunt John and Nikki. By the time we got through customs which was a ni http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/blog-153087.html We landed in Miri at lunch time on Sunday and had to wait an hour for the local bus to take us into town. A short walk later and we were staying in a small room with air con and satellite TV although it wasn't the cleanest of rooms. We chilled out for a bit and watched some dodgy film with Harrison Ford in it before deciding to head out. Everywhere seemed deserted whilst walking up a quiet str http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Miri/blog-149116.html After traveling in a minivan for over an hour we then traveled by boat for another hour but this was also our first taste into wildlife watching. Yan our occasionally pulled up and pointed out animals to us mainly birds but we were all a little tired and our infusesum wasn't as high as it could have been. We stayed at Uncle Tan's Wildlife Camp which is situated in the lower Kinabatangan floo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-147534.html We had spent Tuesday night in the Kota Kinabalu airport where there we no restaurants open so by the time we had boarded the airplane we were starving we ordered some noodles and a sandwich each which hardly touched the sides they went down so fast. It was then a short bus journey to Kuching town centre and we had no problem finding some accommodation. The first thing we did was to have a pow http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-147533.html We arrived in Semporna on Friday afternoon and had to go to the dive shop to get our kit ready for the next day. On our return to the hotel we discovered we had a new room mate a rat that was busy crawling in and out of one of the other girlrsquos bag nice. In the morning she and her friend checked out after it had apparently crawled on her or touched her during the night. We however had pa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Semporna/blog-146716.html We left our hotel in Brunei at 9am and headed into town where we caught the local bus to Muara. Once at the bus station which was more like a small car park we needed to decide whether to stay in Muara as we had read that there were some good beaches there or head to the ferry port and go straight to Pulua Labuan both were a bus ride away.We were unsure as to which bus to catch to the beach http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Labuan/blog-143033.html We left Kota Kinabalu a little later than we had planned as we were not quite ready so after a visit to the bakery we finally left. We arrived at Sepilok Jungle resort which is a five minute walk from the Orang Utan Sanctuary around 3pm. The resort was covers quite a lot of land and has several lakes and the are currently building a swimming pool. It is beautiful here but unfortunately other t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sepilok-Orang-Utan-Sanctuary/blog-143031.html After an awful night in Pulua Labuan we were grateful to arrive back in Borneo but this time in Sabah. We had bought first class tickets so managed to get a bit of sleep on the boat but as the air con was turned up full pelt we were freezing. They also had a film on but it was the cheesiest kung fu film ever with Holly Valance and some other flakes in it. We stopped at a cafe on the pier for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kota-Kinabalu/blog-143030.html We landed in Brunei our 10th country and had to wait half an hour for a shuttle bus to take us to our accommodation which turned out to be in the middle of nowhere. When we pulled up Erica and I were really surprised as there was nothing to tell us we were in the Capital city at all. The receptionist was quite rude to us and she wanted a 200 deposit for the key card which we thought was a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Brunei/Bandar-Seri-Begawan/blog-142076.html It was an early start on Tuesday and Erica was the first to use the bathroom where she found Nigel in his normal hiding place only today he was feeling more adventurous as he decided to venture into our room where he hide under Ericarsquos backpack. We caught a boat to take us to the tour operatorrsquos office one and a half hours down the river. The scenery was amazing and we saw buffalos d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Kelantan/Kota-Bharu/blog-139233.html On Saturday we spent the entire day on a bus which had the worst air conditioning you could imagine. We arrived in Taman Negara about 6.30pm feeling hot and tired. We had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay as it is the school holidays here and everywhere was fully booked. Eventually we found a room for two people but the owner put a mattress on the floor for Rich.We met Gorlo and Ingrid http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Pahang/Taman-Negara-National-Park/blog-139143.html