Down Under

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Australia - 26.01.09 - 06.03.09

Cairns, cyclones and diving

Getting to Australia was surprisingly difficult. I don’t mean getting on a plane and flying there - I mean the mental adjustment to being back in a Western country again after 4.5 months in laid-back Asia. And on top of that, it was completely different than I imagined. I know, I know - I should do my research better, but I’m too busy travelling to have time to sit down and do it properly. So as it turns out Cairns doesn’t have the dry, hot summers of my “Australian Dream” - it’s in the sub-tropics, part of a rainforest and this summer was unusually wet for their wet season. Just my luck! So I didn’t feel too bad taking it easy for a few days, walking down-town, checking out the dive-shops, looking at the lagoon etc. I had to buy an umbrella, but like Asia it’s a hot kind of rain, so the only place you’re cold is in the cinema.

Cairns feels a bit like a modern version of one of those towns from the westerns. It was planned and built by people who had no space constrictions, so even downtown the streets have at least four lanes. The shops have fake fronts, just like in the ‘Wild West’ and the sidewalks are covered in most places. Cairns’ most remarkable feature (in my mind) is it’s 4800-sq-m saltwater pool called the Lagoon down by the waterfront. As they don’t have much of a beach (more like wetlands filled with crocodiles and pelicans), but the temperature tends to hover around 30, I think the Lagoon is the best idea since sliced bread.

After a few days of mooching around I booked myself on a dive trip leaving very early on Saturday morning - 6.30 to be exact. I got up early, trying to leave quietly so as not to wake up my dorm mates, only to find out from the bus driver that the trip was cancelled due to the cyclone coming in. Going back to bed was a welcome yet anticlimactic start to my Saturday. Feeling like I should do something now, I got up early again on the Sunday thinking I’d take the Scenic Railway up to Kuranda, which is a small town in the jungle in the mountains behind Cairns, only to find out once I was at the train station that even the trains had been cancelled due to the frickin’ cyclone!
In the end, I did manage to go to Kuranda on the Monday, and very much enjoyed the scenic route on the old train. We drove through lush rainforest and passed many a waterfall, including the massive Barron Falls which were swelling with all the water pumped out of the cyclone. Kuranda is a small, very touristy town, and I enjoyed sitting in front of one of the cafes and watching tourists and locals go by. It was very easy to spot the locals - they were the ones saying “G’Day” and “How’ya going” to each other (I’m not kidding!). I went to the markets and bought souvenirs and to the zoo and saw all the native animals of Australia that one must see when there: wallabies, kangaroos, crocodiles, turtles, lizards, snakes and of course the sleepy koalas :-)

On the Wednesday I finally went out with a dive boat. I had got my money back from the cancelled trip and had decided to take my Advanced Certificate on a 3-day live-aboard experience with Pro Dive (would definitely recommend, so for more info click here . There were about 30 of us on board, 20 of whom were doing their Open Water, and ten who were already certified, and then me doing my advanced. 5 of my dives were for my certificate and included a Deep Dive, Underwater Navigation, Night Dive, Underwater Photography, Underwater Naturalist (no, not naked diving! Basically marine life identification…). My other 6 dives were free dives either just with a buddy or in a group. It was really cool to try diving without a divemaster and having to find our own way around. I loved our briefings, with little drawings of the various landmarks to take note of underwater and trying to remember our bearings for compass readings. The visibility wasn’t always great, but it was still amazing. Sometimes it was pretty clear and I saw my first sharks and turtles, which was awesome!
My first night dive was really cool. It was just me and an instructor, and he knew the site really well, so we saw a lot of exciting fish and other creatures. It’s strange being in total darkness when you cover your flash light, but on the other hand the colours you see in the beam of the light are that much more amazing.
On my second night dive we went down in a group and it was a very different experience. Much more confusing with so many people and flashlights all around. You’re not supposed to shine your flashlight on another diver as it might blind them, but all of a sudden I had 5 lights pointing in my direction. Wondering what they were doing, I looked around, and right above my head was a sleeping turtle just floating along on the current, eyes half open, deciding we were nothing to worry about. Really cool!

Back in Cairns again the cyclone gone, it had left in its wake a massive flooding between Cairns and Townsville which meant that I couldn’t leave town for another three days! In the end I spent a third of my entire trip in Australia in bloody Cairns… Anyway, life goes on, and I’d just have to continue my trip at a slightly accelerated speed.

Ayr and the Yongala

For those not so interested in diving, I’ll keep this short. Well, I say that - but I think you’ve all guessed by now it’s not one of my strong points :-)
The S.S. Yongala got caught in a storm somewhere just north of the Whitsundays in 1911 never to be seen again. It wasn’t until 50 years later that it was found off the coast of Ayr. In an area not known for its corals, it’s more like an artificial reef than a wreck these days, functioning as a cleaning station for local fish and hence also a feeding ground for all manner of fish and turtles.
The bottom of the wreck is 30 meters down, which is why you have to be an Advanced Certified diver to go down there. The day we went the current was really strong, and we could only see one side of the wreck as we would have been washed away had we not stayed “behind’ the wreck. In fact, one guy from our group who was very inexperienced rose a bit too much and the current took him away. He couldn’t fight his way back to the wreck, so he had to surface a ways away, and the divemaster who went to find him eventually surfaced as well, and all was well, except for his long swim back to the boat… That’ll teach him! Aside from not being able to see the name-plate of the wreck, it was a pretty amazing dive, despite relatively poor visibility. Seeing big schools of fish swimming around the ship, avoiding predators by swimming in elaborate formations ducking in and out is quite something.

For more info about the S.S. Yongala click here

Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays

At Airlie Beach I bought two experiences with an amazing discount. Keeping busy and seeing the things I really wanted to was pretty expensive, so when I got a really good deal on both the Whitsundays and Fraser Island, I jumped at it. Saved me 4 nights accommodation on shore, not counting the 4 nights spent on the trips! Pretty good…

For my sailing experience on the Whitsundays, which are a group of islands off the coast from Airlie, I boarded the Hammer which holds 15 passengers and 3 crew. The weather wasn’t exactly optimal - neither sunshine nor wind - but we all splashed on the sun screen anyway as overcast conditions can cause the worst sunburns. Once we got out of the harbour the wind actually picked up a little bit and we all helped raise the sails to try to get as much out of it as possible. It was a lot of fun! The other people on the boat were really nice, and we had a good time just lounging around on deck.

After a few hours sailing we went to the 3rd most photographed spot in the world: Whitehaven Beach. We didn’t actually go to the beach itself, but rather to a viewpoint from where we could help keep up the ratings of this famous place, i.e. take a few more photos of it… Then we put on our stinger suits (to keep us from being stung by jellyfish and other nasty creatures that infest the waters around Australia) and went to Betty Beach which also has the amazingly fine sand which covers Whitehaven Beach. The sand is 99% silica and is like powder - it gets everywhere and is impossible to wash off. I got it in my watch and had to wash it quite thoroughly afterwards to try to get the buttons to work again.

After a hot night on my narrow berth in the belly of the beast, we went snorkelling the next morning. That was amazing. Quite different from the diving further up the coast. I was very proud to spot a nudibranch! For those who’ve never heard of nudibranches check this out.

Again I was a bit disturbed by the lack of sensitivity the Australians display of the natural habitat and behaviour of the wild animals they bring us there to see. There were quite a few batfish swimming around the boat when we jumped in, and they then started feeding them so that all the snorkelers were surrounded by fish in a feeding frenzy. Of course it was amazing to see, but it’s not natural and left me with a slightly bad taste in my mouth. I hate to think that the fish might become dependent on the food from the boats and change their feeding patterns which could cause a major disruption in their ecosystem. They talk a lot about saving the Great Barrier Reef, protecting it, etc. etc., and here’s hoping that that will all come true one day. As of now, I’ll just be thankful I got to see it all before it was ruined and send my plea to anyone who’s managed to read this far who might want to go see it too, to be aware of the very real threat we all pose to the delicate reef environment and not interfere with anything - please!

Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island

Back on shore I had a much-needed shower, some dinner and a quick drink with some of the lovely girls I’d met on the boat before I got on the night bus to Rainbow Beach. It seemed a shame at this point that I had to be in such a hurry as two of the girls from the Hammer were going to Fraser as well, just a day later than me. But when I got to Dingo’s hostel on Rainbow Beach I met Tanja from my dorm at Cairns City Backpackers! We went to the briefing together and managed to get in the same group.

The set-up for Fraser is: you are put in groups of 9-11, get food for 4 days, buy your own alcohol, get a four-wheel drive (4WD), tents and kitchen utensils and off you go to drive around the island on your own. Of course you get a proper briefing and driving instructions for the car and beach driving, but once you’re over there, you’re on your own. The organisers made suggestions to an itinerary for us to be able to see all the highlights and make it safely to camp every night before nightfall and they try to get everyone to camp together to make it a really social event.

Fraser is the biggest sand island in the world - 122km long, with some amazing fresh water lakes, rainforests and dunes - it became a World Heritage Site in 1992. Lake McKenzie is probably the most famous lake on the island - it’s a ‘perched’ lake, which means it sits on top of compacted sand and vegetable matter 100m above sea level. It’s lined by the finest white sand and the water is crystal clear. Unfortunately, it was raining the day we were there, but we still had fun playing ball in the water and swimming around - although we were just as wet out of the water as in it with the amount of rain pouring out of the sky. Check out more info on Fraser here .

We had a really good group, with a bunch of really festive guys and some really sweet girls. We cranked up the iPod with my music (yeah!) on the stereo in the car and all sang along as we sped down the beach, of course looking out for wash-outs and other traps in the sand… It was like being on a real adventure. And yes, I know a million people have done the same thing before me, but it was still like driving into the unknown somehow.

Dinner was a very sandy experience and a cold one too as it was still raining. It’s funny how you quickly get certain roles in a group like this. There are the people who take initiative, who often end up in charge, as the others in varying degrees faff about waiting for someone to tell them what to do. There are a few exceptions in those who find something to do, which isn’t obviously needed for the whole group, but helpful and beneficial nonetheless - such as cleaning the car, but not helping with dinner when everyone is starving… Those of you who know me, probably don’t even need to think twice about which group I belonged in - and when I furthermore tell you that I was the oldest person in our group and that they called me mum, then… ;-)

We did some amazing stuff there, tho - apart from eating food with lots and lots of sand in it, no matter how much you tried to keep it out; it is truly amazing how many places sand can get in!! - floated down Eli Creek as our morning shower after a boozy night (yeah, well one of the guys was Irish, ok?), had a ‘beach party’ next to the Maheno wreck, climbed up to the Devil’s point look-out and saw big sharks and manta rays, saw dingos (and DID NOT FEED THEM - no, you have to cover your chest with crossed arms and back away, apparently. We had a lot of fun with the informational video we watched in our briefing…), swam with tiny turtles and big carp in various lakes and walked the dunes around Lake Wabby. It was AMAZING!

Brisbane and Noosa

I got to Brisbane on a Friday night and got picked up at the station by my friend Gerard with whom I travelled in Thailand and Laos. After so many months on the road arriving in new places and finding my own way around, it was quite a different experience to actually have someone wait for me at the station and show me around town. It was also a completely different experience to see my grubby trekking companion all suited and booted with a fancy tie and everything!!! Haha.

He recently bought a house which he is in the process of doing up, so he showed me around while telling me to watch out for paint buckets and ladders. We walked around Brisbane in the evening, saw the multicoloured casino (hence the nickname Brisvegas), the river, the pedestrian shopping streets and took a river boat to a really nice restaurant cum gallery.

On Saturday morning we took his car up to Noosa which is one of the major towns on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane. South of Brisbane you have the Gold Coast which is for a slightly younger and more surf-oriented audience. Noosa is all about the beach, boating and water-related souvenirs on its very touristy main drag. We spent the weekend there going to the beach and to the National Park where I saw my first wild koala. We heard people talking about it as we walked back to town, and it wasn’t hard to spot where it was due to the big crowd at the foot of the big tree it was sitting in. As we all know they normally sit and sleep in eucalyptus trees - that’s basically all they do to conserve the small amounts of energy they get out of their harsh diet - but this koala was very unusual in that not only was it sitting in a pine tree, it was also moving around more in the ten minutes we watched it than they normally do during a whole day! Changing position, scratching this bit and that, twisting and turning to get to a really itchy bit. Very fascinating!

The next day we went horse riding on the beach. The guy who rented out the horses, who also rode with us on the beach with his two dogs, was really embracing the whole rider image with a big cowboy hat, jeans and cowboy boots. Unfortunately that was the extent of his wild side… we were only ‘allowed’ to walk the entire time, no trotting or galloping for us. It might have to do with the fact that we thought we’d be able to borrow boots of some sort and so I came in flip flops with a pair of socks in my back pocket - this was not the case, so I ended up riding barefoot… Anyway, it was still a beautiful ride, and it was a lot of fun seeing the two dogs running around in the shallow waters and chasing things into the dunes.

One of my favourite things from this weekend, however, was just driving to and from Brisbane in Gerard’s little car. The freedom of it, the opportunities to take a different route or detour to see something you see signposted along the way. It just proved once again to me, that even though I didn’t mind the Greyhound, and they can have their advantages in that you can sleep on them and save a night’s accommodation, it still would have been a lot more fun to drive around in my own car or camper-van. But those are the conditions of travelling on your own… There are some things that are just too expensive or impossible when there’s just one of you. So, I’ve already decided that I need another trip to Australia, and next time I’m not going alone and we’re renting a van and driving around the outback and we’re gonna see Ayer’s Rock and Darwin and Perth and all the things I missed on my accelerated tour of the East Coast!! :-)

Byron Bay

Byron Bay is the capital of “alternative” in Australia - and already as you drive into town you feel a change in the atmosphere… your shoulders come un-hunched and you breathe deeper as you drive through the palm-lined streets and see people chilling even as they walk down the street - a strange mix of surfers, hippies and backpackers, strolling past organic food shops, cool little restaurants as well as your usual beach wear shops, pharmacies and Woolworths…

I stayed at the Cape Byron YHA who were very nice picking me up from the bus even though it’s only two blocks from the bus stop. This was my first experience with a YHA hostel, and after staying in independent hostels until now, I was a little shocked by the hint of institutionalization at the YHA. The room was really dark and the other girls were really young and had their stuff spread all over the place. I couldn’t even find a corner to put my bags in, so they ended up standing next to my bed kind of in the middle of everything - but at least I was the only person who took up less than a square meter of space! I went food shopping and got some pasta and sauce and a bit of breakfast for the next day and had an evening of replying to emails and writing my blog, but was interrupted before 10pm by a rather rude member of staff saying he had to close everything up. No access to the kitchen, your food, no chance to make a cuppa or check the internet here after 10pm!! And the strange thing is, that even though my room was full of 18-year-olds - there were people of all ages here; even grandmothers, who all stayed here subjecting themselves to this boarding school environment! I don’t get it. Even if they did have a fairly nice pool…

The next morning I got up fairly early as I only had this one day to explore the area before getting the night bus down to Sydney. I stocked up on water and plastered on the sun screen and then made my way along the coast to look at the surfers, spot dolphins and eventually after a hot sweaty walk reach the most Eastern point of mainland Australia and then the Byron Bay Lighthouse. It was a really nice walk with beautiful views of the ocean, and the lighthouse was really impressive, but it wasn’t exactly an easy walk (at least 45 mins each way) and I was really hungry when I got back. I just had time for lunch before I got picked up by the Style Surf School.

We all topped up our sunscreen again and donned the (to the area) iconic red shirts (this school has been around for over 20 years!) and started our surf lesson on the beach. This included the correct way to lie on the board, instructions on getting up, how to stand on and steer the board, as well as good etiquette and important things to remember when surfing. It was all fairly straight forward, really.

In the water, two of our instructors went to where the waves starting breaking, and the third one who had the camera stood nearer to the shore. We students then all lined up and when it was our turn we jumped on our boards and when the instructors saw a good wave they pushed us in front of it at just the right time, and then it was up to us to remember the instructions on how to stand up, one leg at a time and then pushing off with our hands until we stood up. Our instructions on the beach had been so good that I think at least two thirds of us stood up on our first wave - at least for a couple of seconds. When we fell off our boards or jumped or whatever the case may be, we then went back in the queue to catch another wave together with our instructors. Eventually they let us paddle when the wave was near us - preparing us for the day when we’re gonna do this without their helpful push…

It’s a strange feeling standing on that board - being so high above the water and everyone else in it - gives you a different perspective that’s for sure. Like walking on water ;-)

When the three hours were over, I was sooooo spent! My arms were aching from paddling already, and my legs were trembling from all the work I’d made them do that day. I already knew how much I was going to hurt the next day - but I was also pleased that I’d definitely be able to sleep on the bus to Sydney!

If you’re going to try this yourself and you find yourself in Byron Bay - I’d definitely recommend Style Surfing .

Sydney

Sydney is a marvellous city - for a big city. It somehow feels like there’s loads of space, even though it also has busy streets and skyscrapers - but the air is surprisingly fresh, which I suppose is due to the harbour cutting through most of the city. The weather was gorgeous while I was here and it made me think of the city as some sort of mix between London and LA. New and old, posh and brash, full of business men, women in impossibly high heels and fancy dresses as well as surfers carrying their boards on to the buses and of course lots of tourists. I spent my first couple of days walking around, soaking up the atmosphere and of course taking a million photos of the Opera House. It truly is an amazing building which deserves all the praise and attention it gets. Of course I can’t take any credit for Jørn Utzon’s design, but damn it, it still makes me proud to be Danish :-)
I also walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge which is sooooo big. It’s not only tall and of a decent length - it’s massive and robust and quite impressive towering over the harbour the way it does. Although most people turned around half way to get back to the city centre, I continued all the way across and walked through one of the resident areas on the other side until I found a ferry stop so I could get another photo of the Opera House from the water :-)

After my trip to the Blue Mountains (details below) I spent my last day in Sydney making a trip out to Bondi Beach. It was kind of fun taking the bus out there, seeing how the city changed from the business district through residential streets until it became a very busy beach side ‘town’. I can’t remember ever seeing a beach with this many people on it. I’m amazed that it wasn’t surrounded by ambulances picking up people who’d been hit in the head by a surf board or something. Apparently the surfers and the swimmers co-exist in harmony on, under and between the big waves that keep crashing on this stretch of sand surrounded by city.
Even though I had a slightly scary experience on the bus back from the beach (a young man tried to strangle another guy from the seat behind him - both just teenagers and one of them obviously off his head on something!), it was a nice relaxing last day in Sydney. I’m sorry I didn’t get to spend more time here, as it has a really nice atmosphere, so chilled and yet with so much to do.

The Blue Mountains

I went to the Blue Mountains on an Oz Experience group tour. With the wisdom of hindsight maybe that wasn’t the best use of my money… Although I met a nice English girl also called Christine and a German girl called Prista, most of the other people on the tour were from some package 18-25 year-old holiday group. They were all really hung over and as we were a massive group of 48, getting up and down the mountains and from place to place took a while. When I could actually hear the guide, Smokey, it was very interesting and informative, but half the time I was too far away. Too bad, as he seemed to know a lot about local fauna and how the Aborigines used it.
But even my annoyance at the slow, fat teenagers couldn’t take away from the spectacular views we were surrounded by. From the top of the cliff it was like looking out over a massive valley with another mountain range at the other side - all of course in the blue mist from the Eucalyptus trees which give the mountains their name.

First we went to Wentworth Falls - named after the first European Explorer who managed to cross the Blue Mountains. They are not actually mountains, but rather a big plateau, so when the explorers were trying to cross through, following the rivers like you normally would with a mountain range, they just ended up at sheer cliff walls. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Wentworth had the idea to ask the Aborigines how to get through, and following their advice he stayed on the ridges and after 3.5 weeks he returned to tell of the new grass lands for the cattle that lay beyond the Blue Mountains. The road through the mountains today is the exact route that Wentworth first took. The then governor of Sydney (or whatever his title was - apologies for historical inaccuracies and missing dates, by the way) promised freedom to a group of I believe 30 or 60 convicts if they could finish the road through the mountains within 6 months - which amazingly they did! Good for them, I say.

I was very glad that I’d decided to spend the night in Katoomba, the major town in the Blue Mountains. First off it meant I didn’t have to endure two hours back to Sydney with the teenagers, but it also meant I got a whole other day and a much more quiet experience in the beautiful surroundings up there. I set off from the hostel about 10.30 the next morning on a 5 hour trek which would take me to a lot of new sites as well as give me another chance to take in some of the things we’d seen the day before, but had been hard to really enjoy in such a big group.

(For a visual of my description see this map ) First I walked down a long track, passing a lot of waterfalls on my way - then I walked on a relatively flat path at the bottom of the cliffs for a couple of hours before getting to the Furber Steps which we had descended the day before when we took the scenic train to the top - only this time I had to climb back up - a very sweaty feat that took me well over half an hour - although I have to brag a little here and say that the sign says you should calculate on 45 mins for this ascent! Then I had some lunch and walked along the cliff top out to a place called Echo Point with beautiful views of the valley below and very close to the famous cliff formation called the Three Sisters. But the path up here was so full of tourists (I'm obviously something different, hiking for hours to get to the good bits, not just driving down to take a stroll by the highlights of the mountains) that I hurried past to get back to my starting point. I must admit that my shaking legs and wobbly knees might have had something to do with this too - as well as the fact that I needed to be back by 4 to catch the bus back to Sydney. Which I did - with 15 mins to spare!!!

Melbourne

Melbourne didn’t exactly show itself from its nicest side when I was there… Although the sun was shining on my first day there, I was so tired from my night bus ride that I didn’t feel like doing much. So without it being a conscious decision I ended up having a ‘nothing day’ - doing my laundry, reading my book and procrastinating so much about going out into the city that in the end I just went food shopping because it had gotten dark. It sounds a bit weird that you need time off from your travels which are time off in themselves, but you can’t just keep going and going and keep taking in new impressions all the time without any time to process it all. You need to take some time to just do nothing.

It did however mean that even though I enjoyed my day off, it rained at least half the time I did end up walking around town. There was some sunshine too, but still I never seemed to have enough clothes on to keep me warm… Which is strange to think about as they had had 47 degrees only a few weeks before! But apparently that’s Melbourne: you can have 4 seasons in a day!!

Melbourne is different from any of the other cities I visited in Australia. It doesn’t have the surfer element of the rest of the East Coast, instead it has trams and perfectly symmetrical streets with quite a busy downtown cut through by the Yarra River. It has lots of museums and a big botanical garden, lots of shopping opportunities and a very lively cultural scene. It has quite the reputation among travellers as a place you’ll absolutely fall in love with (unless you’re a Sydneyite by heart already…) and never want to leave as there’s always something going on and the atmosphere is electric. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a Sydneyite-wannabe, but still Melbourne didn’t quite work its charm on me. I liked it - it’s easy to find your way around, it was fun to try the trams, go to the cinema, see a comedy stand-up show and part of a cricket game - but the unpredictable weather isn’t to my liking. Maybe if I’d been there the week before when the heatwave was still lingering, I’d have had a different experience, but as it was, it just had too big an impact on my stay.

Although, looking back on it, it prepared me for the cold in New Zealand… I should have appreciated the warmth more when I was in it :-)

It was a good end to my brief visit to Australia, in any case. I had enough time to reflect on my travels and prepare for my trip to New Zealand where I’d be even busier than on the East Coast. More of that later, though :-)

Oh, and if you think I’ve put a lot of photos up? Then you try picking just a few out of 1000 photos to show what you did for a month and a half…

I’ve also uploaded a little compilation of clips from my camera - but don’t expect anything even resembling professionalism because it was all filmed on my little Canon IXUS 860, and has only had a rough cut to put it all together to give you a quick impression of what some of the things I saw were like in motion…

OK, enough for now!

Love,
Kristine

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Photos

Weather warnings
Even in overcast conditions the sun risk was set to extremely high

And then I finally went diving - Scuba Pro boat
Took my Advanced Certificate here and did 11 dives in 3 days - woohoo!!!