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Published: August 7th 2007
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Australia has taken a while to get used to. Travelling here is nothing like Asia. It's hard to go off the 'beaten track' in one of the World's top backpacker destinations, so I've given up and now I'm a true tourist and loving it. I've dived the Great Barrier Reef, trekked the World's oldest tropical rainforest, sailed a racing yatch around the Whitesundays, gone 4x4 racing around a sand island, visted Australia Zoo and spent 3 days canoeing in croc and shark infested waters.
My diving luck continued when I dived the GBR (it was overcast and raining) but that didn't take anything away from the experience! It was by far the best diving of my life! In 10 mins I saw 7 turtles , Nemo, a shark and masses of coral. The dive boat was nothing like I used in Asia, it was worth over a million dollars, compared with something that looked handmade (and probably was). My mate and I had no idea what to expect so when we got our first dose of tea we gorged ourselves on the biscuits, muffins and fruit (true scabby travellers), but later we were given a buffe lunch and loads more
goodies.
Everyone's paranoid about Australia's dangerous wildlife so I thought I'd throw myself in the deep end and do a night walk through a rain forest. After a two hour hike I hadn't seen one snake. The biggest bug I found was actually in my hostel's toilet! A common stat thrown around is less than 10 people die per year from Australia's deadly wildlife. They blame most of these on people's stupidity. In fact they even have an award for these people. It's called the Darwin award because by dieing they remove their stupid genes from the gene pool and do evolution a favor.
Almost every tourist attraction in Oz is over hyped, but thankfully sailing the Whitsunday's wasn't one of them. I spent 2 nights and three days sailing round the islands. This trip was definitely more about the people and they were brilliant. As the nights drew in we played some classic games, such as 'International Crap Ball' and 'Cereal Killer'. I'll explain the former because it's easier. All you need are willing participants, 1 ping pong ball and a tin that's roughly as wide as a CD. The willing participant must place the ping pong
Condor Rocks!
That's the name of our sailing boat. ball between their bum cheeks and waddle backwards towards the can (which is one the floor behind them). Then without turning round or using their hands they must try and drop the ball in the tin. If they hit the rim they're given a re-try (3 mas) if they get it in they sit down and gloat, but if they miss they drink whatever evil concoction has been poured. This continued in a circle until everyone had attempted it, then we swapped the tin for one the size of a normal bake bean can (only two people got it in and I wasn't one of them). It's a very entertaining game so give it a shot!
Travelling round Fraser island in a 4x4 was one of those over hyped trips. I squashed in a beaten up Landcruiser with eight others and set off on a two night camping adventure to 'explore' the World's biggest sand island. They promote the island as the World's largest sand island, but what they forget to tell you is it also has the World's biggest sand flies! These fellas were massive and a bit from them actually draws blood! Thankfully they went to bed
Whitehaven Beach
If you want to see a picture that does this beach justice just google it! after sunset so they didn't interrupt the drinking sessions (these were essential in you wanted to sleep through the night). The island is also know for its Dingo (wild dogs) population. There are signs everywhere warning you not to leave food out otherwise you'll attract these ferocious beast (haha). When we first saw one we thought it looked like a skinny pet dog and could do with a good feed, but we did as we were told and let him starve.
Australia zoo was amazing. I didn't know that it was actually founded by Steve Irwin's family. They really know how to make a zoo. You can touch pretty much all the animals because the keepers are everywhere walking round with them. It also has lizards running every where which I almost stepped on.
Tonight I'm off to meet some Australian family friends. I'm hoping that'll involve a BBQ, some cold beers and a comfortable bed. That'll conclude my tour round Queensland. After that I'm doing New South Wales.
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Malcolm
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That looks fun
Disgustingly good looking beaches. I'm jealous.