Smiles and Tribulations. Australia's East Coast

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Well g'day and how's it goin' from the east side!

Here we are in the very hippy, guitar-strumming, fire-twirling, joint-smoking (not us, of course!), surf-duding town of Byron Bay!

We've covered quite a lot of ground since the last blog and have had a really good time exploring the quintissential Aussie east coast. It sounds as though you guys are enjoying a great summer over there (proof again that Sod's law does exist). Whilst we've had our fair share of nice weather here, we've also had more rain than we bargained for so it's not all been 'happy days'.

Our first stop was Cairns which we fondly remembered from our brief visit there almost 5 years ago on our honeymoon, so it was quite strange to see it again. We spent a few days relaxing there, strolling around the town and the pretty lagoon on the esplanade and chilling out at a lovely hostel. Although it was nice and warm, we had a fair amount of rain, on and off. We took advantage of some good backpacker discounts including a $10 meal deal at the Woolshed pub which gets you a large, tasty meal, dessert and a pint - bargain! (we went there 3 times!).

Our next stop was an organised trip a couple of hours' north to explore Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Forest which are protected national parks, accessible only by ferry and home to some of the oldest species of plants in the world and some wonderful beaches. Before crossing the river, we were taken on a croc-spotting boat trip. Sure enough, within minutes we'd spotted a couple of baby ones lying on the banks and then....Fat Albert came into view - a very portly 5-meter long giant croc standing deadly still on the river bank staring at us (he'd recently been feeding on a dead cow apparently). Such amazing animals! Once we were safely across to the other side, we took a lovely rainforest walk, taking in all the huge ferns and leafy canopies. Soon after, we had some time to ourselves at our accommodation (a jungle style backpacker resort) so we took the short walk down to Myall beach. Depite it being overcast, it still looked really nice - lovely white sand fringed by the rainforest. Had a fun evening that night in the bar taking advantage of the cheep jugs of beer! The next day we walked over to Cape Tribulation beach which is lovely, but luck wasn't on our side as the heaven's opened as we arrived! That evening we'd booked ourselves onto a night rainforest trip to search out creepy crawlies but the rain had got progressively worse since the afternoon so there we were, donned with hooded raincoats and flashlights, trundling through the water logged rain forest! Despite getting drenched we did see some interesting stuff including a type of lizard called the forest dragon, male and female Huntsmen spiders (not as scary as I'd thought!), some birds, bugs, and the least expected; a brown snake that slithered right across the road in front of us, rearing its head up before climbing up a tree! After being kept awake most of the night by some scary drunk/stoned aboriginal men in the next room, we headed back towards Cairns in the rain stopping off at Mossman Gorge and a couple of look-outs, which would have been nice had it not been for the miserable weather.

From Cairns, we sorted out a bus pass with Greyhound to work our way down the coast and made our first stop, Mission Beach. Finally some sun! Yay!! We stayed in a really nice backpackers about 4kms out of the main town and hired some bikes to explore. It was a nice place with a huge sweeping beach which is a popular landing strip for skydivers. Also, the sand is compact enough to cycle along (well, we did get stuck a couple of times!) so we spent much of day doing that before relaxing over a nice fresh fish dinner and some wine back at the hostel.

Next, we headed a few hours' south to Townsville where we boarded the ferry over to the lovely Magnetic Island. It's only a small island but has loads of lovely bays and pretty beaches and a really laid-back feel to it. We made the most of the continued great weather and decided to hire a topless pink car (they call them mokes) for the day which I absolutely loved driving! We explored lots of beaches and took a walk up to the top of the old fort there. It's a great place for spotting koalas apparently but we didn't see any. Anyway, we loved this place so much, we stayed for 3 nights and just soaked up the sun and relaxed.

Airlie Beach was our next destination where we based ourselves for our sailing trip around the nearby Whitsunday Islands. We ended up staying in a 'party' hostel but it was actually really nice; lovely rooms set in a large forested area back from the main road, with a huge pub and restaurant attached. It was surprisingly quiet when we wanted to sleep (apart from the annoying scrub turkeys jumping around on the roof, that is!). Airlie Beach itself was great too - one of our favourite places on the east coast. It's quite a small beachside town with a lovely swimming lagoon and a good choice of places to eat, drink and party without being too tacky. After a couple of days chilling out there, we set sail on a 3-night trip aboard a brand new, state-of-the-art catamaran called Emperor Wings III, around the islands. Although it wasn't clear when we booked it, the trip turned out to be mainly focused on diving (it certainly wasn't a booze cruise!). I'd decided I didn't fancy trying diving again and was happy to just snorkel, while Jase was keen to give it another go but it worked out really well in the end so we were both happy.

There were 30 of us on board in total which provided a nice mix of people and the crew were amazing; really enthusiastic, friendly and professional. Jase enjoyed it so much, he ended up doing 4 introductory dives in the end! We sailed out to the outer Great Barrier Reef and had a great time seeing stuff like turtles, sea cucumbers, sharks, tiny Christmas tree worms and of course, loads of fish and coral (Jase more so than me cos I was just snorkeling!). We also visited the lovely Whitehaven beach where we took a nice walk up to the lookout for great views of the sweeping patterns of sand below before enjoying a couple of hours on the beach itself (the sand is so pure in silica that is actually squeaks!). We spent the evenings eating great dinners (we certainly didn't go hungry!), getting the know the others on the trip and looking at the photos and underwater videos taken during the day on a huge TV in the lounge. Everyone was so tired after all the diving, sun and swimming that after a couple of beers, it was off to bed earlyish every night. Now, the worst part of the trip was when we had to sail back from the reef for 5 hours over some extremely choppy sea. You must be wondering how Jase ever coped what with his motion sickness? Well, he didn't! He'd been fine up until now, but these waves were truly monstrous and everyone was green around the gills, just sitting there quietly trying to wait it out but Jase was trying so hard to focus on the horizon and on not being sick that he ended up forcing his breathing in and out so much that he almost hyperventilated! He was shaking uncontrollably, his hands were numb and he'd pretty much gone into a state of shock. He wasn't actually sick but it was the worst case of motion sickness the crew had ever seen! They were really professional though and looked after him, even considering taking us all back to shore in case it was related to the diving. But, once the waves had subsided and after a lie down, he was pretty much back to normal again! On the third and final day, we said our farewells to everyone and concluded what was a great trip. We'd got along really well with an Austrian girl and a Dutch lad in particular so arranged to meet up with them later for lunch that day which was really nice. Being back on dry land however took some getting used to. We felt as if we were still rocking backwards and forwards for the next couple of days!

Our next stop was Hervey Bay which involved an overnight bus from Airlie Beach. Despite getting some sleep, we were still exhausted when we arrived 13 hours later. We checked in to a really nice hostel and treated ourselves to a fry up down the road! We based ourselves here at this pretty beach town for our trip over to nearby Fraser Island. We hadn't booked anything in advance and were on a tight schedule so we ended up taking a 2-day guided tour of the island rather than the self drive option. Fraser Island is a huge sandy island accessed by a barge and there isn't any soil/earth here so the only means of getting around is by 4WD which makes it so fun! Once we'd crossed over with our group, we drove along on the bumpy, sandy roads before taking a walk through a lovely forested area where we filled up our bottles with the freshest water we'd tasted in ages. Next we headed to Lake McKenzie which is beautiful; lovely white sand and clear (but cold!) blue water. Jason bravely took a dip while I noticed that our camera was broken. It had fallen out of our bag and the LCD had cracked. We were gutted! We continued taking photos (although of course nothing appearing on screen made this a bit tricky!) in the hope that they would come out. Luckily they did but it would still mean needing to buy a new camera for the remainder of our trip....

The next day was another lovely sunny day. Back in our group's big 4WD truck, we drove down 75-mile beach which was fun, stopping off at an old ship wreck, a pretty creek and Indian Head lookout. Later on we clambered up a huge sand dune to get to secluded Lake Wabby which was a lovely place to chill out at. It was so peaceful and not only were we the only people there, but were the last tourists ever to be allowed to visit - it was to be closed to the public the very next day for conservation reasons, so we were lucky to see it! We saw some interesting wildlife during the trip too - a couple of humpback whales from a distance, out at sea, plus some inquisitive dingos. Overall, we had a good time but did feel we were shepherded around in a rushed fashion by a rather condescending guide for much of it. But I suppose that's what you sometimes get when you take a tour rather than doing your own thing. On the other hand, getting stuck in the sand in a jeep full of annoying 18yr olds who you don't know didn't really appeal either!

Heading south again after a final day back at Hervey Bay, we ended up in the surf town of Noosa which is a lovely place and there is evidently lots of money around. It's a small place set on a pretty river that leads into the sea. There are loads of expensive villas with yachts moored up outside and a posh shopping mall but it wasn't all stuck-up. It has a nice friendly feel to it and no matter what the weather, there are always surfers wandering around with their boards. We landed on our feet with our accommodation too which ended up being more of a holiday apartment than a hostel. It was a lovely place decked out with wooden floors, large comfy rooms and a nice communal area. We spent our first evening chatting to the other people staying there and drinking wine on the balcony - nice! The next day, the long spell of nice weather came to an end so we didn't do a great deal apart from walk into town and have a look at the beach (in the rain!). We also had some finances to sort out as Jason's card got blocked and weren't allowing any online transfers which was causing us some serious headaches. He tried to draw some money out of the bank instead but they declined it. After much annoyance and correspondence with the bank via email, we've managed to work around it in the end. We were getting very worried at one point about running out of cash!

The next day, luck was on our side as the rain had cleared and we had a beautiful day for our visit to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo! Crikey! We had a really good time and got to see loads of stuff including cuddly koalas (my favourite!), red pandas, kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies, strange emu-like cassowaries and of course lots of big crocs at the crocoseum! All the staff are so enthusiastic and really are continuing Steve's legacy - it feels like he's still alive the way they talk about him and the way his influence is still so evident. We were exhausted afterwards - we must have walked for miles so we had a quiet evening and got packed up for our next stop - Brisbane.

It was only a short journey to Brissy which is quite a nice city and we had a bit of sun when we arrived. We stayed at a nice backpackers with a roof top terrace with good views of the river and the city. The rooms are so expensive here though. It seems to be getting more and more pricey to do anything here in Oz the further south we travel! Food and drink is the same if not more expensive than back home so we're spending much more than planned. We took a walk into the centre of town to look around the shops and bought our guidebook for South America (which is feeling more and more real now!). We also begrudgingly bought a nice new camera and then spent the evening having some cheap and cheerful food and beer at a couple of bars close by. The evening didn't end very well though. We went back to the hostel for some more drinks on the terrace and got chatting to a very strange middle aged bloke who was one of those people whose elaborate stories you don't know whether to believe or not. He nicked some of our rum and then offered us some of his cheap wine (or goon as they call it here!) in return. Anyway, it didn't agree with Jase and he ended up being rather ill. Ooops! Luckily the strange bloke had left us alone by then...

Our final day was spent walking around the city, taking in Chinatown, Fortitude Valley, crossing the Story Bridge and walking around the pretty South Bank. Sounds nice? Well it would have been if it hadn't absolutely chucked it down! It was raining when we headed out but we thought we should at least try and see some of the city anyway. Well, it got heavier and heavier and before we knew it, we were completely drenched! Quite funny looking back now but at the time, it was utterly miserable!

Next on the agenda was Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast which is a strange cross between Las Vegas and Torremolinos with an Aussie streak! There are high rise buildings everywhere, casinos, souvenir shops and fast food joints but it wasn't as as grim as it sounds - the beach is really nice and full of budding surfers taking advantage of the good breaks plus there's a nice vibe in the evenings, so never a dull moment. Because of the inflated prices here we opted for a dorm and ended up in a pretty nice hostel with some friendly people (apart from 2 bottles of my cider going missing that is...). We just chilled out here really, spent some time on the beach and explored the town. One night we treated ourselves to a nice meal at the Hard Rock Cafe and checked out a couple of bars and some live music.

After a couple of days, we headed south again to our penultimate stop, Byron Bay which is a lovely place. It's all very new-age hippy here with lots of organic food shops, meditation and yoga places, surf shops, etc. Our accommodation used to be a hippy-haven back in the 70s and it doesn't look like it's changed much! We stayed in a tent/hut type thing which was actually quite comfy with a proper bed and an electric blanket! But there are also huge tee pees and dorms to stay in plus lots of hippy stuff like didgeridoo making and fire twirling lessons going on all the time so it was quite fun. We were expecting downpours here but were lucky only to have a brief shower. Out last day was lovely and sunny so we spent some time lounging around near the beach. We also took a walk over to Cape Byron and the most Easterly point of Australia which was nice and spent the rest of our time chilling out and planning our first few days in S America.

Our final stop in Oz will be Sydney by overnight bus. We'll have just 2 days' here this time (we were here for 9 days during our honeymoon so had already seen most of the sights) so will try and do some stuff that we missed last time.

So there you have it! We really feel like we've seen and done Oz this time although, as always, there's always more to be seen especially in such a huge country. We have both preferred the West coast to the East - more 'proper' travellers who seem more mature! Our next stop is Santiago, Chile - we touch down there after a 13hr flight on July 1st. We're nervous but excited - we really don't know what to expect but I think it will be a nice, easy introduction to S America because it's a cosmopolitan place with lots of English speaking. I'm sure we'll need to put our Spanish lessons to good use soon enough however! We hope to get a couple of days' skiing in while we're there too! It's the snow season and the resorts are only an hour from the city so it's too tempting to pass up! After almost 2 weeks in the area, we'll be flying over to Rio where we'll have a couple of days to ourselves to explore the city before we join our 11-week guided adventure all the way up to Equador! We can't wait!

I don't know how often we'll have internet access or the time to blog but will try to keep you posted as much as possible.
Hope you're all keeping well - stay in touch amigos!

Lots of love
Louise and Jase xxxx

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