Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 1217

Josh and I are now qualified open water scuba divers! We have a license to go 18 metres underwater, took us 4 days to get that bit of paper, and they were up there with the best days of our trip. The first 2 days were a little surreal, had to get up at 6.30 to get to school at 7.30, that was savage, and not what you expect to be doing on holiday... so all you back home having to do exams and revision... i felt a (very) little bit of your pain. The theory part basically involved learning what all the instruments did and how not to kill yourself while diving (the tutor, Mike's most commonly used phrase - in a dutch accent - was "don't do ______, or you will die"). Once all ... read more

I'm on the bus with another 20 or so people, listening to Greg, our tour guide / driver talk about the fantastic landscapes we're zooming through. Kangaroos, Wallabies, Wallaroos, they're all here in the middle of nowhere. We've passed by ancient volcanoes, through dried up seas, across the Atherton Table Lands, where the landscape has almost instantly changed from lush green to cyclone-damaged tropical rainforest (that will take 10-50 years to grow back), to black basalt rocks and ferrous-red desert dust. We've passed through Mount Surprise - so named after the British explorers were surprised to find Aboriginies here....genious - and will stop tonight in the little town of Croyden. Greg really knew his stuff and explained the basics of the Aboriginal 'skin' system, which is basically just a class system, probably similar to the setup ... read more

So, having done the Whitsundays and Fraser island it was onto to our last island, Magnetic Island. Its just 20 minutes on the ferry from townsville so theres actually a few thousand people living permanently on the island which we hadnt realised. When we arrived there we jusmped on the first bus to our hostel on the other side of the island however we've become a bit attached to having our own wheels so we had made plans to pick up a new bitch-wagon the following day. Our first day we had a few hours left of sun so made the most of it on horseshoe beach by our hostel. The next day we headed back to the beach - you just can't help but be a beach bum in a place like that. Then about ... read more

Ash, my mate from home, kindly invited us to stay at his sister's house while she was on holiday (Thanks Laura!). Taking a welcoming break from the stress of back-packing, we relaxed for a few days, spending one afternoon trekking through the forest that is Ash's back garden, as he excitedly looked for snakes. He once heard some thumping about and saw a kangaroo. Fortunately, the only thing we did see was a spider the size of my hand, as I came face-to-face with it when I nearly walked straight into its web! The next day we went surfing, putting the lessons we'd had in Byron Bay to good use as we rented the boards and threw ourselves into the ocean. It wasn't so easy this time, as the boards were less stable and the waves ... read more

Russell - We woke up in Byron Bay on a mission. We were going to out of NSW today no questions. We had a nearly full tank of fuel which should get us to the Queensland border where we can take advantage of the Queensland governments generous fuel subsidy. Back on the Pacific Highway we were making good time though the fuel wasn’t quite as full as I remembered it. We should have enough fuel to get to the border but only just! Then the fuel light came on. Not knowing how much warning I was gong to get I decided to pick up fuel at the next stop no matter which state it was in. Eventually a fuel stop sign came up so we headed of the freeway. Now in the UK petrol stations advertised ... read more