jcwbudworth

I only spent 4 nights in Singapore but thoroughly enjoyed the city. It was a stark contrast to Indonesia and the taxi from the airport to the city traveled much faster than any car in Indonesia and on infinitely superior roads. It was the night of the FA Cup final and unfortunately I missed the first half due to a late landing. The problem was that the landing gear wouldn't come down, quite a serious problem. I caught the second half and it was probably a good thing that I wasn't able to watch the whole match as drinks prices were ridiculous. I spent a lot of time in shopping malls escaping the sweltering heat. I also went to the cinema a few times but I did have time to see many of the colonial ... read more

I visited the Hidden Valley in Kununara but never did find it (very well hidden). At the hostel, the night manager Peter had noticed that things were going missing from the kitchen, he was going to stay up all night and get photographic evidence to be presented to the boss, quite involved I thought, but also very dedicated; his suspicions were correct. After that it was onto Darwin. Darwin is a vit of a frontier city but was a lot more civilised than I thought it would be. I had booked a tour to Litchfield NP the day after my arrival but once I arrived at Darwin I realised that I didn't have an alarm clock. However using special skills I awoke at the perfect time. First were the magnetic termite mounds that are alligned ... read more

The bus from Airlie to Townsville left pretty early and I thought my breakfast had cost me getting to the bus stop in time, but luckily the shuttle came back for me and in the end I had loads of hanging around time. There were planty of the usual suspects at the bus stop that I had met over the last few weeks. The bus arrived in Townsville in the afternoon and I waved a hurried goodbye to Ellie who I had travelling with for the last few weeks to immediately jump on the ferry over to Magnetic Island. On the other side a bus waited or us that went around the island. Once at my accomodation (which had a Koala sanctuary on the premisis) I had a drink with a girl who checked in a ... read more

After the Fraser Island trip I caught the bus to Rockhampton (locally known as Rocky, in keeping with the shortening of just about every word by the Australians: eg bottle-o = bottleshop) which is the beef capital of Australia. So mission number 1 was to get a decent steak. I stayed at the Ascot Hotel which has a backpackers above the pub and is known as having the best steak in Rocky. They bring the steak out of the kitchen sizzling on a very hot slab of rock, you then cook it to your liking. It was absolutely deliceous and I was particularly impressed that the provenance of each steak is listed in the menu. The following day I caught the coach and then the boat over to Great Keppel Island. It is like a paradise ... read more

In Brisbane I had met up with Ellie who had left an internet message on some website or another. So we had met up and had booked our Fraser Island and Whitsunday sailing; as an added bonus the travel agent had given us a free canoe safari in the Noosa everglades. So we got picked up, met the rest of the group, got kitted up and stocked up on booze and food. We got taken across the lake and got instructions on the canoes and then we were off. We had a group of 12 so there were six canoes between us. Ellie and I were consistently the slowest which always perplexed us as we both felt we were working flat out. Having said that it is very easy for the person at the back to ... read more