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Published: December 22nd 2009
From Ayres Rock we flew to Cairns, to experience one of the natural wonders of the world - the Great Barrier Reef. Upon arriving in Cairns, we were surprised by how Floridian it was, with lots of beautiful wooden beach houses, wide open roads, fish restaurants, bars and parades of shops. Surprisingly, Cairns doesn't have a beach, and the Great Barrier Reef is quite a long boat ride from the shore. However, they've made the most of their coastal area, with a huge free swimming pool on the coast, manicured gardens and parks, picnic and BBQ areas. There's also long boardwalk along the coast to a huge marina. Everyone seems to enjoy being outside, and the climate is tropical.
On our first full day we hired a car and headed north to Port Douglas (a pretty and affluent beach town). We stopped at the beaches along the way - most were deserted, and all were beautiful. The only issue were the big signs at the entrance to the beaches, warning of salt crocodiles swimming in the sea, and the deadly box jelly fish! The scenery around Cairns is mountainous with field upon field of green sugar cane in the valleys.
The following day, we drove south to a crocodile farm. Some of the crocodiles had been taken in as 'problem crocodiles' as they'd disrupted communities by sneaking into peoples swimming pools etc. However most were born at the farm and were being grown for their meat and skin (of which we were told, most went to Gucci). Crocodile eggs are taken from the females and incubated by the farm - this way they can alter the sex of the newborns by changing the incubation temperature by 1 degree. The farm wants males, as they mature in 3 years (instead of 5) and are much bigger.
After the farm, we headed to the Millaa Millaa falls - the waterfalls used in the Timotei advert. The falls were beautiful, but cold enough to take our breath away as we jumped into the water.
On our final day in Cairns, we arranged our trip to the Great Barrier Reef, on board a catamaran with about 20 other people. We met early in the morning, and were surprised to hear that the journey to the outer reef would take 2 ½ hours! We were really excited to arrive at the reef, and
put on our snorkeling gear, and jumped into the sea. The water was clear, and the reef was enormous. We spent a couple of hours in the water and saw giant clams, a turtle, a stingray, groupa, parrot fish and wrasse. The clams were amazing - about 5 ft long, 3 ft high and 2 ft wide. It was as if the top had been sprinkled with green glitter, and the flesh was luminous orange - unbelievable!
From Cairns, we flew to Sydney, and booked into a hostel in Bondi Beach. It had a good atmosphere but was a bit like being in a youth detention centre, with lots of people in dormitories, all sharing the limited facilities. All good fun, but only for a day or 2! We spent our time exploring the city, and really liked Sydney. We decided to stay a couple of weeks, and managed to find ourselves a room above an Indian restaurant in Glebe, which had a nice village feel, yet was only 10 minutes walk from the city centre.
Sydney has a glamorous CBD (Central Business District), surrounded by water, parks and harbours. There are lots of inner city village communities
around Sydney, and some amazing beaches to the east. The beaches are really well used, and at about 6pm are filled with people jogging, walking, playing volleyball, surfing and meeting up with friends for a BBQ. All ages and shapes and sizes make the most of the outstanding public amenities, including; free clean gas BBQ's, mile after mile of ocean boardwalks, tidal swimming pools and exercise areas. The facilities are A1 and are used and enjoyed by all. It's fantastic to see such obvious benefits to paying taxes (other countries, please take note!!).
During our 2 weeks in Sydney, we spent our time walking among the skyscrapers, drinking coffee in the parks and admiring the views over Sydney Harbour. We visited the set of the TV show 'Home and Away' at Palm Beach, north of Sydney, and had our photo taken at Alf Stewart's café! We found time to enjoy the culture and history of Australia at the National Museum, and walked through the stunning free botanical gardens with picture perfect views of the city, harbour and Opera House. On our last night we went to the Sydney Opera House to watch a comedy production called 'Good Evening', which
was a “Derek and Clive” tribute act with lots of old Peter Cook and Dudley Moore material. Oh, and not forgetting, we also went to see the most impressive curved glass brick wall in the city, which stands at the Downing Centre Court House, and was grouted by Dave almost 20 years ago!! It looked great!
We bought a tent, sleeping bags and a gas stove in Sydney, and for our last 10 days in Australia, we hired a car and headed off on a camping adventure to Melbourne. Strangely we headed slightly north first, as we wanted to visit Patonga and Hawkesbury River, where Dave lived for 3 months, almost 20 years ago. We then headed inland to the beautiful Blue Mountains, where we watched Kangaroos bounding through fields, saw a huge red bellied lizard on a rock and watched Peregrine Falcons soaring through the sky.
After successfully fixing our punctured tyre, we drove down to Narooma and Bermagui on the coast about 500 km south of Sydney. Just like the entire east coast, both have stunning beaches, white sandy bays and turquoise waters, with picturesque estuaries. It was here that we encountered our one and only
spider - a huge and unbeknown to us at the time, harmless Huntsman spider, which crawled across our table late at night!
Our next stop was Eden and Lakes Entrance en-route to Melbourne. Eden certainly lived up to its name, it was beautiful. All of our camping was at free State Forest campsites, which have ultra clean toilets, BBQ or fire areas and picnic tables (yet another fine example of tax usage!).
All the way down the coast the scenery was amazing, with the Great Dividing Range of mountains separating the green eastern coastal area from the hot arid interior of Australia.
We arrived in Melbourne and stayed in the pretty Lederberg State Forest about an hour north west of the city centre, with a river flowing right outside our tent. Melbourne was quite different to Sydney, with a blend of European, Singaporean and San Fransiscan styles. It felt immediately familiar, and has some historic buildings, mixed with art-deco and modern day architecture. It was full of atmosphere and culture.
The bay area of Melbourne is huge. People say that Poole Harbour is the biggest natural harbour in the world, but then they probably haven't been
to Melbourne!! One day we drove to the mouth of the bay and took a boat to the other side (Sorrento) and saw dolphins swim past the boat. The bay area is stunning - with wonderful beaches, pretty parks, chic restaurants and fantastic beach front houses.
Out last day was spent driving along one of the worlds classic coast roads, the Great Ocean Road. It runs for a few hundred kilometres from Melbourne to the west and has some of the most amazing vistas, with pure blue sea and white sandy beaches. Mountains seem to drop into the ocean. As you drive along you can see the sea on one side, and rain forest on the other. We even saw about 10 Koala Bears sleeping in eucalyptus trees - one of them was close enough to touch! They are the most gentle and sleepy creatures imaginable. They sit for hours on thin branches before eating some leaves then going back to sleep again!! We drove to the 12 Apostles - which are dramatic rock formations jutting out of the sea - unfortunately some have fallen over, and only 8 ½ remain! They might need to think up a new
name.
When we got back to our campsite that evening, one of our fellow campers (Xavier) had chopped down wood and prepared a fire for us, right outside our tent, so that all we had to do was light it. It was a great end to a great trip in Australia.
Our Australian experience exceeded all of our expectations. If you love the great outdoors, with friendly people and even better fish and chips than England (minus the rain!!), then you'll love Australia. We were blown away! Kevin Rudd, please send visas and residency permits to dave.corinne@gmail.com ;-)
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Keith
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Australian bit
Ausie sounds as if nothing much has changed in the 30+ years since I was there, at least as far as the outdoor lifestyle is concerned. Do I detect an inclination to settle out there? If so, do it before Feb 2011, as Natalie is getting married in NZ, and it would be great to be able to call in en route!! You off to S. America now? Great blogs all the way round the world. Congratulations, and keep them coming. Have you thought about a carreer in journalism?