Advertisement
Published: August 22nd 2007
Edit Blog Post
sunset at the 12 apostles
yeah it was pretty spectacular Hello,
time for the next installment of my travels, playing catchup with the blog right now but hey!
Arrived in Melbourne and went to stay with some relatives that have a farm about an hour or so outside the city. Had a great time there helping out on the farm, catching up with family I had never met and getting a flavour of australia from the local point of view.
Then went back to melbourne to meet a friend from university and we hired a car to go see the great ocean road, along with a girl from switzerland that we met (hey ed and tina - hows it going?) Had a great time with good weather and stunning scenery- really is a great drive, with some cool little towns along the way. Randomly got to stroke some wallabies from an animal shelter and saw koalas in the wild - yeah they really dont do much.
Spent a few days in melbourne hanging out and checking out the sights - St Kilda, Albert Park (home of the Australian Grand Prix) and went to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch a game of Australian Rules Football, great fun
and a close game so there was a good atmosphere. Only downside was the catering stand ran out of meat pies!! Melbourne is a pretty cool city, but with only limited time in Australia, time to head north.
Next stop Sydney. Few days there doing the obligatory sights, but very impressive nonetheless - Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera house. Had a friend living in Sydney (hi Sally) so got to catch up with her and be shown some of the other sights including a revolving bar/resturant at the top of a tower with great views of the city inculding the bridge and opera house at night. Also went surfing at Bondi Beach with Tina who travelled up as well. Lots of fun, just trying not to think about the helicopter thats flying around shark spotting!!
Next stop then was Byron Bay further up the coast, a small beach town with lots of backpackers, so more surfing and checking out the area for a few days. Then moving on to Hervey Bay, which is the start point for most trips to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a lot of fun, basically its a huge sand island with
bush and lakes all over it and you, basically get put in a group of 9 to 11 people and get camping stuff and a 4WD toyota landcruiser and head to the island for 3 days to drive around trying not to get stuck. Lots of fun especially if you get a good group which I did. You get to drive on the beaches when the tide is out is lots of fun, driving down the beach and the inland tracks are fun, single lane sand tracks. Can’t swim in the sea as tiger sharks breed in the area!! but there are plenty of really nice inland lakes to swim in - Lake Mackenze is absolutely gorgeous, clear blue water and white sand beaches! Had a bit of an adventure when we went to one lake, track up was fine and then took a circular route back to the camp area further down the beach, now this track started out ok and then got rougher and rougher with the truck leaning over quite bit and some big drops to go down and up, lots of fun to drive, not so much fun for the guys in the back tho... I
great ocean road 3
me and ed on the beach was fine with seatbelt and steering wheel to hold onto! Anyway made it out and found a note on the back of the map about it being a "very rough inland track suitable for experienced 4WD users only" - ah well!! Camped in the evenings and tried not to let the dingos steal our food, although they got our frisby!!
A great few days and we were pretty lucky with the weather as groups before and after got rained on!!
Next stop up the coast was a small town called 1770, where captain cook landed in 1770. Spent a few days chilling out here, really nice laid back vibe, great backpackers, just chilling out on the beach. Also did a plane ride, where 3 people go up in a small plane and the pilots does all sorts of stunts while you try and hold onto your stomach, the stuff flying around the cockpit as you go weightless for a few seconds and get some good video footage on your camera... great fun. Then land on a deserted island beach, walk around a bit and fly back over some great scenery and views of the area.
After this
the great ocean road crew
ed, tina and myself lounging around it was time to go to Airle Beach and sail the whitsundays, so till then...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.263s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0677s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Sally
non-member comment
Fish n chips
Prob the first and last time I will be eating fish and chips on Bondi Beach :(