The East Coast of Australia

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Well, I hardly slept the night before my flight. I was really anxious. I hadn’t quite realised how much I had enjoyed living in Sydney until the final few weeks. I was really excited about the east coast but the thought of leaving Sydney was not easy for me. I got in the cab at 5amand off we drove to the airport. I cried a lot in the cab (secretly as the cab driver may have thought I was weird). I got to the airport and checked in and had a look around as you do. The flight was only 3 hours long so it went quickly and I landed in Cairns at around 10am, I got off the plane and instantly felt the warmth of the sun; I loved it.

I got the shuttle bus to my hostel and checked in, I had some time to kill before I could get into my room so I had a little explore around the town. I had forgotten what it was like to be a traveller and have time to kill. I went for lunch in a pub and had a beer before midday, just because I could!

After I checked in and had slept a little, I decided to head down to the bar for dinner and hope that I could find some people to chat to. It is always my fear to not find friends and be on my own too much, even though I don’t mind my own company these days, there is only so much you can do on your own!

I finished my grub and went outside for a ciggi before heading up for bed. The following day I was doing a boat trip around the Great Barrier Reef with an introductory dive so I didn’t want to be up too late.

I walked over to the smoking area and sat at the end of a table, an English guy was on his own sitting at the opposite end of the table and we began chatting straight away. His friend then came over and he was also English. Drew and Paul were both around my age and we just chatted for a few hours about our individual travel experiences. It was a good evening and I agreed to meet them the following night to let them know how my day went in the Great Barrier Reef. They had done it the week before and loved it.

The following morning I was so excited to go sailing around the Great Barrier Reef, it had always been something I wanted to do and see. The weather was lovely, sunny and warm, especially as it was mid-winter. I had been advised by Drew to take sea sickness tablets as the boat journey was rough, so as soon as I got on the boat I made sure I took some. I was so glad that I had as the journey was so horrendous; you could barely stand as the boat was rocking so much! The winds were high and the waves were big.

We got to the first snorkel and dive section and we were put into groups to dive. If we weren’t diving we could snorkel to keep us entertained. Each dive was roughly 20mins long and there was one diving instructor to two people. I was really excited to get in and see it all. Once I had all of my gear on we had to jump in, the weight difference of the oxygen tank from land to sea was so different. On the boat I could barely walk as the tank was so heavy, but once I was in the water it didn’t feel like I was carrying anything.

Once in the water my instructor told myself and the girl who was my partner that we had to go underwater slowly, hold onto the first bar attached to the boat that was underneath the water. We then had to do an “ok” hand signal to show to the instructor that we felt comfortable before heading down to the next bar.

I found the first part really difficult, I kept floating to the top because my weights were not heavy enough and I was freaking out about breathing normally under water and not drowning. I started panicking and headed back up to the top to try to calm myself down. I sorted myself out and kept telling myself that I need to do this to see how amazing the ocean was and so once I had talked myself back into it, I began again. The instructor placed more weights on me to keep me under the water, and then we set off to explore the Great Barrier Reef!

I was still pretty freaked out by the fact that I was breathing underwater, but once I was distracted by how beautiful the ocean was from under the water I was having a great time! I began to get more and more confident and we had to hold hands with the instructor as he took us around. I was trying to swim off in all directions to look at everything but I had to be careful not to piss off the instructor! My confidence level changed dramatically once I had got used to breathing under the water. It was amazing and I am so glad that I was able to experience it. The colours of the coral were beautiful; purples, pinks, yellows, blues and greens! The fish were so amazing, all different colours and so un-phased by us swimming around them.

Once we were back up to the boat we were served a beautiful lunch which everyone was very hungry for! After everybody had got back onto the boat and eaten their lunch, we headed off to another section of the reef where we could do more snorkelling or another dive for $50.

I had decided that I would not do another dive as I needed to save my money and I thought I may get another chance again elsewhere. Instead I went into the ocean for a snorkel. This part of the reef was just as pretty, but there were turtles swimming around!

I was swimming around and I looked beneath me to see that the people that had gone for the second dive were at the bottom looking at the turtle and having pictures with it. All of the snorkelers were looking down at this and I remember thinking “damn I should have done the second dive!”

After a few minutes the snorkelers began to swim on and the turtle came up towards the surface of the water and began swimming along the ocean. Myself and the other snorkelers swam along with the turtle, we followed it for a while and everybody was able to touch it and have a good view of it.

This turtle did not mind us at all; in fact I would say that he probably was enjoying it! It was amazing and I felt so lucky.

I was buzzing when I got back to the hostel and was off out to have a few drinks with Drew, Paul and Sarah (who I had met on the boat). We had a great night and I was sad to be leaving Cairns in the morning. I would have liked a few more days there.

So my bus trip the following day was down to Airlie Beach it was a long bus trip; I left Cairns at 7.30 and got to Airlie Beach at 5.30pm. I was due to go onto the Tongarra Boat trip around the Whitsunday Islands the following day. I had to check in with the travel agent and was told that I had to go to the boat for around 2pm the following afternoon. It was Wednesday evening and I was pretty shattered from the long journey. The people in my room were lovely and all invited me out but I was pretty sure I wanted to save money and have a rest before 3 days of boozing on the boat.

The following morning I got up and checked out of my hostel. I went and had a wonder around the shops, had a look around the beach and the lovely manmade lagoon that was built there. Airlie Beach is small and beautiful. I needed to get a swimsuit as I had left my one at the hostel in Cairns. I managed to find a swim suit top for $20 but could not find any offers for any bottoms and was not paying $40 for a bikini so I thought I would just use odd bottoms. I didn’t really care!

I killed some time by having some lunch and sitting down by the sea. I lived up to my reputation and I got to the boat last; they were all waiting for me before they boarded the boat. J

We all got on and our Captain was called Dave and our first mate was called Todd. They only had one rule which was not to be a dickhead. We had a 3 hour cruise to do before pulling up for dinner and so we all sat on the boat, sank some beers and got to know each other. There were 16 of us on board.

I had been told by people that the food on the Tongarra was beautiful and so I was looking forward to a lovely dinner. We had BBQ fish and jacket potato with salad and so much bread you couldn’t move afterwards. After dinner we all had a fair amount to drink and played some party games, some which involved some people having to remove items of clothing! Between 1-2am everybody had slowly drifted off and gone to bed. Our bed for the night was either in the cabin below, or up on the deck. There was a canvas that they had put over the top of the front of the boat and there was enough room for everyone to sleep comfortably up there. It was not cold and it was a great night sleep!!!

We were woken up very early by the captain, we had to clear our beds, get dressed and have breakfast before we headed off to the Whitehaven Beach. This is the beach that everybody sees in pictures, with the bluest waters and whitest sand. It was beautiful. We had lots of funny photos taken by Todd and then he left us to do as we wanted for an hour. I walked up and down the beach with a couple of the girls from my boat; Anna, Jo and Rachel. We tried to make funny photo’s using distance effects but some didn’t come out as well as others. We tried to pretend that everyone was sitting inside a flip flop but it didn’t come out as well as I had hoped. Oh well. You can see the rubbish flip flop pics on facebook.

We got back onto the boat for lunch and once again it was amazing. Once we had devoured this we then went to another area around the Whitsunday islands to do some snorkelling. The Coral here was still part of the Great Barrier Reef but it was more stunning that what I had seen in Cairns. The colours were more vivid, there were hardly any dead parts and I swam around for a good 45mins looking at all of the fish and coral. I was gutted I didn’t have an underwater camera!

Once back on the boat we were allowed a restricted 1minute shower each and then we all chilled out and watched the sun set. We were cooked a lovely dinner which we all once again devoured and then decided to save some of it for later on that evening when we were all drunk and peckish!

That night we had some silly games to play to liven everybody up, we had to get in teams of 4 and do silly tasks like lick vegemite out of someone’s belly button, pop a balloon using your waste against somebody’s bum etc. If anybody likes vegemite – they are wrong. It is horrible and has no comparison to Marmite.

We continued the night with other silly games and got fairly drunk. I ended up crashing at around 2am. Slept great once again but woke up with a slight hangover, before we headed back to Airlie Beach we were allowed to snorkel one more time before being fed lunch and then taken back to shore. I spent my time heading back to sure at the back of the boat with Jo dangling our legs in the sea as the boat cruised to sure.

Over all the trip was so much fun, the food was amazing and the team were great. I definitely recommend this trip to anyone. The Whitsunday’s are so beautiful and I am so glad that I got to see it with my own eyes.

That night there was a drinks night for everyone who had been on the Tongarra and even though only a few of us turned up it was still a good night out. Still worried about money I went home at 1am as I didn’t want to keep spending!

The following day at 5.30pm I was due to get the overnight bus to Rainbow Beach, the journey wasn’t too bad, but we did have to have a couple of stops during the middle of the night so my sleep was broken. I was lucky that I had 2 seats to myself.

We arrived in Rainbow Beach the following morning at 7.25am, and 2 of the girls from the Tongarra Boat Cruise had been on the bus and they were also coming on the Dingo’s Fraser Island tour which was what we were doing the following day! They were called Marielle and Aline. We got a room together and I had met a girl from Germany called Nele when I was walking from the hostel to the bus stop the night before. Nele was not doing the same Fraser Island tour as us but was in our room that evening. After we had a little sleep and sorted ourselves out we went to get some food for a BBQ that evening to watch the sunset over the beach. We invited a couple of others along including a girl from my room called Karoline and a brother and sister from Germany who were also on the Tongarra boat with me and the French girls!

We all had to go and watch a video at 4.30pm about the safety of fraser island, the wild dingos and of course driving the 4x4’s. This went on for about an hour and we ended up missing the sunset but we still went along and had the BBQ anyway. The weather was still warm and we had already prepared the chicken on skewers, salad and corn on the cobs. We all sat around the BBQ eating, talking and drinking goon. It was a good night and afterwards we ended up going back to the hostel for a karaoke session. Yep I was amazing at singing summer loving from the movie that everyone knows.

The following morning we had to get up early to get everything sorted for the trip to Fraser Island. We were to meet in the breakfast room for 6.50am and then wanted to be ready to leave by 8-8.30am. We had to sort out what we were taking, organise our stuff into storage which we were leaving, pack up the vans and organise all of that. We set off around that time and headed for Fraser Island. There were 3 jeeps and there was 1 lead car which I was in. The other 2 cars could be driven from the hostel to Fraser Island by anyone who wanted to in that car. I couldn’t wait to drive but it was looking scary after seeing how hard to steer it was on the soft sand. We got onto the short ferry over to the island and went on an hour drive to our first destination which was the Lake McKenzie.

It was a 45minute walk to the lake which was so worth the walk as it had sand all around it which felt like a desert and this huge green lake at the bottom. I could not wait to jump in. It took me a while to pluck up the courage to get in the water as it was freezing but I was determined to swim all the way to the other side and back again. After a nice afternoon swim and a sunbathe on the sand we headed back to the jeeps for lunch. We had one large cooler box and 2 crates for each car which consisted of our meals for the 3 days. For lunch we had cheese, salad and meat sandwiches and biscuits for afters. The meat was in a plastic vacuum bag and we think it was some sort of ham and some sort of beef. It looked horrible so it didn’t go down very well. The mayo was cheap mayo so it had no substance to it and tasted like water. Pretty minging lunch but it filled a hole!

Once we finished we all headed along to the Maheno shipwreck on the island. This ship had been abandoned and left there since 1935. It was pretty cool; the tide was out at the back of the boat so we could walk all around it. After wandering around it for a short while we all headed to the camp to get set up for the night. On the way back we saw the remains of a dead baby whale which had been washed up upon the shore 3 weeks previous. It was not very pleasant and awful. Poor little whale.

Our camp was a private camp which had been fenced off to protect us from the dingo’s so we were pretty safe. It had already made tents for us, a place to cook and eat, there were toilets, showers and a little nightclub that had disco lights and a place for you to plug your ipod in! We got showered and had dinner which was a Chinese chicken stirfry. It wasn’t too bad and washed down nicely with a few glasses of goon. There were about 50 of us in total as there were another group of 3 cars which were staying in the same camp. Everyone started playing drinking games, we began to play one led by 2 of the French guys in my group which was called signs and you had to bang the table and clap and each person had a sign, you had to do your sign and remember someone elses to pass it on. It was amazing how crap I was at this game! It sounds easy but under pressure it is so easy to forget everyone else’s sign! The next morning was a bit of a blur, I woke up at 8am and was given breakfast as I was still trying to work out where I was and what was going on, I had scrambled eggs and tomatoes with bread and butter. I then had to get myself sorted out and head out for the day. I was last and held everyone up as im pretty sure I was still drunk!

We headed out to a gorgeous fresh water stream for the morning. It wasn’t far from the camp and it was so beautiful. You could walk up the side of the stream and get in and float down it. If you were really thirsty like I was then you could drink it too. It was like hangover heaven! We hung out there for a while and then we went off to a picnic area for lunch. Once again we ate cheese and salad sandwiches. Not many of us went near the funny pack of meat.

After lunch we could stop off in a shop on the island which sold necessities like alcohol, cigarettes, milk, ice creams, toys, crisps, that kind of thing. It was all so overpriced but as we didn’t have the opportunity to pop to any other shop it was our only choice. Goon was $20 instead of $12, ciggis were $7 more expensive and a single ice cream was $5.

After lunch we set off to our next destination.

It was a fairly long drive and I was the first to get in the driver’s seat. I had to switch cars. I was pretty nervous as driving on soft sand didn’t look easy. Once we got going I was loving it and I had a great time. We got to a part on the beach where we had to go from the beach inbound which was on some really soft sand. I was in the last car and the car in front of mine got stuck. There was then a car who went to go round who also got stuck. I tried to make it but as the cars were in the way I couldn’t get through, so all the passengers had to unload and I had to drive right back to the sea and take a run up, It was so fun!! Little old me in a massive 4x4 revving the shit out of it and cruising up through the sand, my passengers watching and cheering me as I made it through successfully! I loved it! Once the other car got up we all continued our adventure. I was loving driving through the soft sand inland, it was so much fun.

We ended up on the other side of the beach and pulled up by some rocks and here we could go to the Champagne pools. They were so gorgeous. They were natural pools surrounded by rocks just by the sea. The pools were a beautiful blue with fish and crabs in, but so warm for us to swim in! We hung around in the water for an hour or so before heading back to the jeeps. I jumped out of the water pretty quick when I discovered a mini white jellyfish in the pool I was in!

After we got back it was a short drive to a cliff where we could see a great view of the ocean and could see turtles and stingrays swimming around. Some people had seen dolphins and whales but we weren’t that lucky. The view was beautiful and the sun was beginning to set as we were on the top. I got some gorgeous pictures.

We began to head back to camp just before sunset and it was my turn to let Alene drive. She was really nervous too but same as me she loved it once she got used to it. The drive back to camp was not too far but it was dark when we got back. We pulled up outside the camp and I cannot remember why now but our driver got out of the car and went to talk to the car behind. We sat there for a minute and I said I think the car is moving? Then as I said that it began to role back towards the car behind and a guy called Jonesy who was part of the guide camp who had decided to come along with us for the day flew over from the back of the jeep head first into the drivers seat with his arms down and managed to land perfectly with his hand on the break. It was the funniest thing ever and so well timed it was unreal. I don’t think he could have done it that perfectly again if he tried! His legs were high in the air and everyone was laughing. Our driver came back and just laughed at him and told him he could walk back to camp! It was so funny; I wish I could have got it on camera.

That night we had steak and potatoes with salad for dinner. It was actually pretty good considering how it looked before it was cooked. After dinner everyone was getting back on the drink and as it was Marielles birthday we made her a birthday cake out of a cider can and put some candles in it. We ended up getting the whole of the room to sing happy birthday to her and she skulled 3 drinks in a row as people kept singing a song to her in French which obviously meant you had to down your drink. She got pretty wasted as you can imagine. I was finding it hard to keep my eyes open and was looking forward to bed time, especially as I was one of the last to go to bed the night before. Apparently that morning I had slept through our guide honking his jeep horn for a long time to wake everyone up!

We all decided to head down to the beach to see the stars as it was so dark down there it was beautiful. We all got a lift down there in the back of Jonesy’s truck, there was about 8 of us. Jonesy was telling us to look for shooting stars and told us if we scraped our feel along the sand near the water it would glow; which it did. It was a green glow and it was some sort of animal in the sand. I must look into what that was.

After watching the stars for a bit we headed back to camp to continue the nights antics. I was a bit more awake for going down to the beach and when I got back there were loads of people dancing in the little disco room. There was lots of random dance moves flying around and then after a while some of the guys were mucking around with the girls and doing the famous dirty dancing lift. I did not get involved in this as I knew it was a recipe for disaster, but unfortunately Alene did and she got a few bruises and scratches.

After a while everyone had slowly drifted off to bed and I was happy to call it a night, so off to bed I went at a more sensible hour than the night before. The next morning I woke up feeling pretty fresh and we had to get everything packed and ready to go for 8.30 as we were not coming back to the camp we were going back to Rainbow Beach after lunch.

That morning we dropped off our trailer full of our food and stuff at a private area which looked like a little town in the island. We then went off on a 2 hour drive to another lake. When we got to the lake I bumped into the 2 Americans from our Whitsunday’s boat; Devon and Meredith. They were on a day tour to Fraser Island. It was lovely to see them again even if it was for half an hour.

The lake we were at was supposed to be really gorgeous but it was nothing like the lake we went to on the first day. After we finished at the lake we drove back to the little village to have lunch. The only food our group had left was some bread and peanut butter or jam. So Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwiches it was!!! Id never tried it before but it was pretty good!

The last night at the hostel was pretty quiet, everyone was pretty shattered. We saw some people who were getting ready for their trip and I was jealous as I wanted to do it all again!

So the following morning we left Rainbow Beach and headed for Noosa. Unfortunately I was only staying for one night and Aline was staying for 2 so I was going to leave before her, but luckily I met up with Nele who I had met at the bus stop in Airlie Beach. Nele was heading down to Byron Bay next and I had a stop off in Surfer’s Paradise before joining her. I didn’t end up doing much in Noosa during the day as I accidently slept all afternoon. I was supposed to go and look around the national park but I woke up when it was dark. Nele, myself and Alene all decided to head to the bar that evening for a pub quiz which we won so we got some free drinks.

The following day I was leaving at around 10am to head down to Surfers paradise. I said my goodbyes to Alene as she was off to Brisbane and flew out of there before I would have arrived. It only took a couple of hours or so to get down there so I got there mid afternoon. Nele was on the same bus as me but she got off at Byron Bay which was further down and I was going to meet her the following day. I arrived at Surfers Paradise and had a little walk around, it was a small hostel that was quite nice, I had a tour booked for the evening called Plan B which was a bar crawl around the main strip. Surfers Paradise reminded me of a resort that you go to in spain or somewhere, there were bars all in the same strip and everyone was trying to get you into their bars. A lot of the bars were strip clubs and the bar maids wore barely anything. The evening was good but it started at 6 and finished at 10 and with everything being expensive I didn’t stay out for too much longer. I had a good night but it was not my favourite place.

The following day I checked out and had until 3pm to entertain myself before the bus arrived. I went for a walk along the seafront and around the town and then headed back to the hostel to watch a bit of TV before getting a lift to the bus station. My next stop was Byron Bay where I was heading to do Kayaking with Dolphins. I was really excited! I got to Byron Bay at around 6pm and checked into my hostel. I arranged to meet Nele that evening so she could tell me all about her day in Nimbin where it is known as a hippy village and people often bought happy cookies from people there.

It was not a late night, but we shared some goon and chatted. She was going to leave for Brisbane the following day and we had arranged to get up early to go for a walk up to the lighthouse to watch the sunrise as it is supposed to be amazing! Well as you know how much I love bed, I didn’t make it to see the sunrise.

The following day I got up and began to get ready to go dolphin kayaking which I had been looking forward to since I booked the East Coast. I got a text on my phone to say that the seas were too rough and the trip had been cancelled. I was gutted. I couldn’t rearrange anything to go the following day or the day after like they had advised so I just had to get a refund. Feeling pretty pants I went to sort out my refund and sat in Peterpans Travel Agent shop on the internet for a while before heading up to the light house to watch the sun set. It was about an hour walk and I managed to get up there just in time to see the sun go down. It was beautiful and I felt so relaxed watching it. It was a great end to a bad start of a day. You will see how beautiful it was from my pictures on Facebook.

The following day I was once again off on the bus to Brisbane for the last couple of days in Australia! I arrived in Brisbane and met up with Nele. She had not yet tried Kangaroo and was off back home to Germany in a couple of days so we cooked up some kangaroo and sweet potato for dinner. It was not easy to cook in a backpackers hostel kitchen but we did a pretty good job! That night we ended up heading down to the backpacker bar and had a few drinks before calling it a night as Nele was staying with someone she knew out of the city and had to get the train back. The following day we planned to go for breakfast and do a bit of shopping before she had to get back to babysit for the family she was staying with. We said our goodbyes around midday and off she went. I was not going to see her anymore as we were both leaving oz the following day.

All my friends from the East Coast had now slowly gone their own way and I was alone again. I was excited to head to New Zealand and experience a new country but was still sad to be leaving Australia. It had been my home for the last 9 months and I had made a great amount of friends and memories to last a life time…



TBC.

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