Back in Sydney

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Well, I have arrived safely back in Sydney, which can only mean the following; I did not get eaten by a shark, I did not get stung by a jellyfish, I did not get eaten by a crocodile, I did not get bitten by a snake or spider, nor did I collapse due to heat exhaustion at Ayers Rock (that, however, would have been impossible, but more about that later).

The past week or two since my last blog entry has been both eventful and uneventful. A large part of it contained a lot of travelling, with whole days taken up sitting on a bus. On the other hand, I have traipsed down many beautiful beaches and through many tropical rainforests, wrestled goats, cruised down a crocodile infested river, snorkelled out on the Reef and trekked Uluru and the surrounding area, as well as seeing old friends and meeting some wonderful new ones.

To pick up from where I left off, I must go all the way back to Brisbane. Out of all of my stops up the East Coast, this was surprisingly the longest. It is surprising, because it is one of the least favoured places for backpackers. This is because it has not yet taken off as a tourist/backpackers destination, as it still focuses on being a business-orientated city. It did not stop me from enjoying myself, as it was here that I had my first reunion with Lydia, one of my best friends from back home, and who I went to school with a long time ago. We met up the day after I arrived, and we went for dinner with two of her friends she met on her trip through New Zealand, in a restaurant called The Pig & Whistle. Yeah, I don’t know either. The four of us then went for a walk down the river to get a view of the City by night. Raj & Allie (Lydia’s friends) then had to get a bus back home, so Lydia and myself decided to go bowling. Embarrassingly, I did actually lose, but in my defence I haven’t been bowling for quite a while. I think my technique has really slipped in that time, as the picture shows. Lydia then left to go back to where she was staying, as did I. The following morning, I visited the Brisbane Casino. I of course did not inform my parents of this visit, however they will be pleased to hear that I did not bet any money. I would have done, but the minimum buy-in for the poker tables was $100, which was a little too steep for my liking. On top of that, all of the slot machines looked really complicated, so I left them alone as well. So I spent about an hour just looking round the very glamorous casino. I then went to see Lydia off, as she was catching her bus south from just outside my accommodation. Thinking it was our only time together on our trips, we discussed what each other were going on to do. To our surprise and amazement, we were both flying into Alice Springs on the same day. She left, so I spent the afternoon sorting out a few things, such as checking my bank balance for the first time on my trip… a very gruelling prospect. Luckily, things looked OK… for the time being.

I had an early start (one of many) the next morning, to catch my bus up to the seaside town of Noosa. We stopped about half way for a short walk up a hill to ‘Wild Horse Lookout’, where on a good day you can see all the way back to Brisbane. We had been warned about mosquitoes on the walk, but then told they shouldn’t be too bad that day, so I didn’t bother with putting on any bug repellent; it was a quick walk and my spray was in the trailer… one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. The first few minutes were fine and everything looked like it would be ok and we wouldn’t be bothered. And then we got swarmed. I left with about twenty bites on each leg… looked really attractive. We arrived at Noosa, and the weather turned out really good considering the very overcast morning. I hadn’t been told that the driver can’t book your accommodation for Noosa in advance, where as they can for pretty much every other destination. So when we arrived, I rushed over to the nearest hostel and asked if they had any room, and to my luck they had one more bed left for the night. I was unable to check-in to my room until 12.30 (it was about 11), so I sat out on the terrace with a drink to pass the time. I was then joined, firstly, by a guy from Switzerland called Sebastian, and then by a one and a half metre long iguana. Sebastian and I got on really well, so we decided to spend the day together after we had checked in. We chose to go for a walk round the headland and see some of the beautiful beaches and coves the area is known for. We were also lucky to watch a few moments of a surf competition that was happening on the main beach. When we got back to the hostel, we met a girl from Denmark called Cecile, who actually turned out to be my roommate for the night. At check-in, we were told that there was a welcome talk in the bar at 6 for all new guests, which included a free glass of wine. So we went to the bar at 5 to get full use of ‘Happy Hour’ (cheaper alcohol). We met lots of people both in the bar and earlier who said that we should go over to Koalas (a hostel chain) because there was a band playing. We also managed to acquire free entry vouchers for Noosa’s only nightclub from the bartender at our hostel, which was were we ended up for a very enjoyable night.

Caught the bus out the next day up to Rainbow Beach. It was a glorious day to start, but began to rain about an hour after arriving, and the first time since Sydney. I spent the afternoon around the hostel due to the weather and got an early night. The next day, another one of those weird “meeting random people in unexpected places” things happened. I went out into the town in the late morning heading for the beach, and literally bumped into two girls from my trip through Asia, who were travelling independently (but of course were together here) down from Cairns; Fleur and Kerry. So I had a chat with them, and found out that they were staying in the same hostel as me, so I said I would catch up with them later, and headed to the beach. That evening, the hostel was doing a free BBQ for guests, so I clearly had that (anything for free stuff when you backpacking), and had a few drinks with the girls. Then the bar did a ‘killer pool’ competition, in which I came third out of 21, which wasn’t bad considering the competition I had. I said farewell to the girls, as they were up early to take a trip over to Fraser Island, a trip that I was unfortunately unable to do because I did not have the time.

I then got an afternoon bus up to Hervey Bay. I didn’t get to see a lot of Hervey bay because I arrived late in the afternoon, I had dinner at my hostel, went to bed very early, and left pretty much before sunrise because we had a big travelling day ahead. We left at about 6.30 to head off in-land to Kroombit, a cattle station. It took all morning, and we rolled in at lunchtime around 1.30. We had been told that we would be participating in life on the ranch, but had not been told exactly what we would be doing. We found out soon enough however, as we were whisked off straight after lunch. We were to do a goat rodeo. They had turned a day-to-day task on the ranch into a game. We had to split ourselves into teams of three. We were then put into a ring with a goat. Each team member had a certain task to do. One had to catch it. One had to flip it. The other had to “brand” it. Being the only bloke in the team, you can probably guess which task I had to do. The pictures explain all. I did sustain an injury, but it was a lot of fun. That evening we had a roast (not sure why, but was nice), learnt to crack a whip and rode the bull (which is so hard… I lasted five seconds).

Another early start, and another long day of travelling. Leaving at 7, we didn’t arrive in Airlie Beach until about 5, but we did have an hour stop for some bare-foot lawn bowls. Why, I do not know, but was good fun none-the-less. I was the only one staying one night in Airlie Beach, so the friends I had made on the bus wanted me out for the night, even though I had to be up at about 6. We had a table booked for us at the hostel I was staying at, which had a popular backpackers bar/restaurant. It was here that I had yet another one of those bizarre meeting people moments. For that past 48 hours or so, I had been travelling with a girl called Laura. We hadn’t chatted much until this evening, but we were sitting opposite each other, so began talking. We got on to the subject of where we were from and found out that we lived not far from each other. The conversation then proceeded onto where we went to school, and funnily enough we both went to Danes Hill School. She then asked, “Did you know Mrs. Mcginn?”, to which I replied “Yes, she taught me in J2”. She laughed, and said, “She is my mum”. The night finished at about 1.30 (for me) in a bar up the road where a lot of dancing had taken place, so I was nackered.

An early start, and a bus up to my penultimate stop on the Oz bus; Mission Beach. After an hour or so of just hanging around the hostel, I met my two roommates; two really great guys from the midlands who have just left Uni. I spent the most of the afternoon contemplating doing a trip up to an area up above Cairns called ‘Cape Tribulation’, which has a reputation of one of the only places on the coast where “the rainforest meets the reef”. In the end, I just said to myself ‘go for it!’ and went and booked it. The three of us then went for dinner, and then got a relatively early night because we were all shattered. We parted for the following day. They had to do some things online and wanted to do a rainforest walk. I decided to take a walk down the beach, and then head into town. Half way down the beach, I spotted a post at the edge of the beach. On closer inspection, it beared the Rotary Sign, so although I have not needed to call them yet, at least I know they are there. In town, I went into a souvenir shop to buy a hat for Ayers Rock, as I was expecting some hot weather, and I need protection from the sun. Later on, I met up with my roommates, and we went for dinner again. We then spent the rest of the evening frolicking in the pool in the hostel until about midnight. Just having a laugh and jumping in the pool in stupid ways (like the sawn dive and back flips).

One final bus journey on the Oz bus up to Cairns. We arrived late afternoon, and I checked into the nicest backpacking hostel in town. My trip up to Cape Tribulation departed the next morning. On the way up we made two noticeable stops. The first was a venture in to the World’s oldest subsidiary rainforest (I think that was the word they used… basically it is one of the oldest). We didn’t stay long here, but it was well worth the short walk. Saw an amazing looking lizard on a tree, and a very dramatic swinging foot bridge over a raging river. More noticeably was the trip down the Daintree River, well known for its crocodile population, with some of the biggest in the world (we are talking 5m long males). Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of these, but they were probably lurking beneath us, but we wouldn’t have seen them due the colour of the river. We did see a 2m long female, however, sitting on the bank. The evening in Cape Tribulation was… well wet, but meeting two charming girls from Denmark made up for that. The following day was one of the best so far; it was my only trip out onto the reef. After travelling over 3500km to get up to Cairns in two weeks, and passing by over two thirds of the Reef without seeing any of it, I was glad I could see it just for a short while. I went out on a boat with only nine other people (some boats out of Cairns take 150 people out to the reef), and spent about four hours snorkelling the Reef. I saw Parrotfish, Clown fish, Red Sea Bass, and Sting Rays, amongst hundreds of other fish that I couldn’t even begin to name. A thoroughly enjoyable day, and something I wish to pursue (I want to come back out and do a dive course).

After one night back in Cairns, I set off for the sunny and hot central Australia, more commonly known as the Red Centre. Sure enough, when I touched down it was hot and sunny. I met up with Lydia, and incredibly we ended up on the same tour out to the Rock the next day. Once again, it was a very early start (and to get even earlier), and off we went, in search for one of the hottest and driest places on Earth… Ayers rock, the famous big rock in the middle of nowhere, that is really hot and dry. I don’t know if you have noticed, but I keep trying to reiterate the fact that it WAS hot and sunny, and that Ayers Rock is supposed to be the same. Well, we arrived… and it was… wet… and not especially hot… and it was raining… and, well, just generally miserable. To put it into perspective, Ayers Rock and the surrounding area gets about 30cm or rain a year. We got about 4cm-5cm in two days. On the plus side, it did make walking a lot easier, as we had a fair bit to do, and it would not have been enjoyable in the heat they usually have. So it wasn’t all bad. It just would have been nice to have a shot of the Rock with a bit of blue behind it. So pretty much as soon as we arrived, we set off round the Rock, and did the Base Walk. At this time, the rain wasn’t bad, only drizzling. One other thing I will mention is flies. As you may observe from the pictures, they were pretty bad. I say pretty bad, I would go so far to say that I now have a raw hatred for the things. They are the most annoying creatures on the planet. The big difference between flies back home and the ones here, is that the ones here don’t learn. At home, if you dismiss a fly, it should stay away, it learns not to pester you because it will get hit. Over here, however, that doesn’t happen, you can swipe and curse and thrash around in frustration and they just keep coming. And not just one or two... swarms of them. We then saw the sunset, which illuminated the Rock magnificently. The following day we went to the ‘Olgas’, which in my opinion was more spectacular than the Rock itself. It was that evening, just as we were arriving at camp, that the heavens opened. It was so bad that one camp area on the site (thankfully not ours) got completely flooded, and all of the inhabitants had to move to separate areas on the site. I must also mention that I had what I would call an amusing experience, however some would call it an alarming experience. I visited the toilet late at night on the campsite, and went into one of the cubicles. I know this sounds like you wouldn’t want to read on, but its got nothing to with actually doing anything on the toilet. I was casually looking round when my eyes fell upon a spider. Now this wasn’t any normal spider, this was a red-back spider… Australia’s second most deadly insect… and I was in the toilet with it. The final day was a trek in, up and around Kings Canyon, another breath-taking walk. Just as we were heading back to Alice Springs it did lighten up and become sunny again. But never the less it was a great trip, was great to do it with Lydia, and we had a great tour guide. His name was Carl, he was a local boy, really young (only 24) and really funny. His best joke was the following: we were just leaving the ‘Olgas’, and he went on to the microphone and said, “Hey guys, hope you had a good walk round the Olgas. Shame we haven’t seen much wildlife yet. Oh hang on. I think I have just seen a kangaroo.” He pulls up in front of the famous Aussie sign; a yellow diamond with a black kangaroo in the middle, and says, “Does everyone see it? The Kangaroo.” Of course everyone is looking puzzled and looking everywhere, and after a perfectly long pause, he says, “Right there in front of us… the black one”…. It was funny at the time.

So now I’m back here in Sydney, waiting until Sunday when I hop over the sea to the wonderful world of New Zealand, for a four week trip round the two islands. Looking forward to it. Might do a couple of bungee jumps or sky dives… who knows?

Hope everyone is well,

Blue x

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