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Published: December 4th 2008
We left Asia behind us after 7 months of travel, cheap food, accommodation and a rich and friendly culture. Australia was to be the first western country on our travels and we were looking forward to a variety of comforts including goods in shops having prices on them and generally enjoying a reprieve from being ripped off by local taxi drivers. Cairns was our first port of call as our flight veered in off the northern coast via Darwin, circumnavigating a vast nothingness into the sun as it rose shining towards us a brilliant reddish-orange.
Australia is vast, mind-bogglingly vast. A country the size of North America, but with only 21 million inhabitants - a majority of those crammed along the Eastern seaboard. It is a place that is fiercely patriotic, yet the Queen adorns the rear of their coins and notes. We still haven't got our heads around the relationship here with the Queen, who is still head of state or how the British accent has evolved over the past 200 years to become more rounded and, well, nasal. Captain Cook was the first to set foot on land and recognise Australia back in the late 1700's ensuring that
Mike diving
Great Barrier Reefsettlements were setup in the south at Botany bay, near to where Sydney stands today.
Cairns is a half-empty town hacked into the rain forest on the north-eastern coast. The weather here was much more pleasant than the heavy humidity of Asia and each day was glorious. It is a pretty town with the rain forest and hills visible on all sides, a building height restriction ensuring this. On the muddy coast a brilliant lagoon area is the centre of entertainment where we baked in the sun for a day before embarking on more rigorous exploration of the surrounding area.
We stayed at a hostel called Travellers Oasis which was very clean and comfortable. Here we embarked on some self-catering (pasta and potatoes)as well as trying out some of the local pubs. The hostel provided us with a healthy wad of vouchers to use in the local area and allowed us to enjoy the divine steaks at one of the nearby pubs.
Cairns is an ideal base for exploring the Great Barrier Reef, which was our main purpose for staying here. It is a famous, ancient reef that stretches across a large part of the north coast
and provides amazing diving and snorkeling opportunities. The waters are warm, clear and teeming with marine life. There are a plethora of trips to choose from. We chose a day trip on a sailing boat which took us to an island called Green Island.
The day was spectacular - hundreds of boats squeezing out of the harbour only to diminish gradually leaving us with a special feeling of isolation on the reef. Our boat moored off the coast of Green Island allowing us to enjoy the spectacular views. The sky was bright blue and the turquoise water was incredibly inviting. In the middle sat the ridiculously handsome Green Island - a small body of land with pristine beaches surrounded by clear waters. Seemingly deserted, apart from the radio mast protruding from the centre.
From the moment our boat dropped anchor, it was of particular interest to some of the reefs inhabitants. An abundance of fish enjoyed the underside of the boat, including some rather large sharks! Thankfully, they were of the harmless variety. The plan was for Victoria to do some snorkeling and for me to go down and do a couple of dives. I kitted up and
Sailing Boat
En route to Great Barrier Reef dove in with the sharks before gradually descending behind my guide (otherwise I'd get lost, remember Open Water?) to the reef. My kit also included a stinger suit as it was (typically) the first day of stinger season. Stingers being boxed jelly fish, the main killer of these waters, and in fact, the entire world. I was also on a special lookout for Stingray's for obvious reasons. RIP Steve Irwin.
The diving was awesome, the marine life varied and large and the coral colourful. I saw an enormous crayfish, sting rays, sharks and a huge red empress. On the final dive my guide actually got lost and had us swimming into the current to get back to the boat, something which is incredibly difficult and tiring. Meanwhile, on the surface, as Victoria was a little scared of not only the depth of the water but the sharks, our Captain offered to take her out on a guided snorkeling tour. This was special treatment indeed as everyone else was out on their own! On this private reef tour she was able to stroke an unwilling sea cucumber and see an array of sea life including spaghetti coral and nemo fish.
Our whole reef experience was amazing, the waters so clear, warm and colourful. We also spent some time on Green Island which allowed us to do some jungle walks and an amble or two along the fine sandy beaches as well as some of the rocky ones.
On our way back to Cairns, whilst enjoying a complimentary glass of wine, cheese board and cake, our boat opened up its sails and turned off the motor to take advantage of the winds and glide back to port. As we rode the waves back our crew pointed out Tiger Shark alley, an area we thankfully avoided!
We left Cairns and flew down to Brisbane where we met up with our hosts for the next 9 days, The Ross Family. We want to say thank you again to Alan, Caz and Lauren for having us for that period, which enormously enriched our experience of Australia making it more fun and accessible than it would have been on our own. It was great to experience good British hospitality down under, so thank you guys - we will never forget it. We already miss the dinners! Brisbane thus acted as a hub for
our activities that would lead us north to the Sunshine coast, south to the Gold coast and inland on a 'bush' drive to a small town called Warwick.
Our first trip was south to the Gold Coast on the Pacific Highway. First stop was a town called Surfers Paradise. The town has a resort feel with high rise flats, apartments and hotels mixed in with souvenir shops and palm-tree lined roads. Living up to its name, the beach was impressive. The beach was a long stretch of white sand that was so silky fine it actually squeaked when we walked over it. Surfers littered the water, bobbing on the surface waiting for decent waves. The water was freezing however to complement the overcast and windy day leaving us with no shred of doubt that surfing lessons would be out of the question.
From Surfers Paradise we followed the coastal road passing small towns hugging the coast with small sandy bays and rocky outposts. One particularly impressive and ominously named viewpoint we passed was called Point Danger, which marks the eastern most point of Australia's eastern seaboard. The water here looked a choppy murky blue but still surfers were
propped on their surfboards ready and waiting. On either side of the beach were large rocky formations from which Point Danger takes its name. Captain Cook apparently thought it looked rather dangerous at that particular point, so they named it that.
After safely departing Point Danger with no injury, albeit windswept hair, we continued from Queensland into New South Wales and stopped at Byron Bay. The scenery on the drive down was lush green rolling hills, grassy mounds and trees sitting beneath a moody grey sky. Here was us thinking Australia would be red hot desert with barely a withered cactus growing, let alone the greenest of green greenery surrounding us. Byron Bay is another small town/tourist community which has sprouted because of the attractive beach, and rightly so. Despite the weather the beach was very picturesque and included long stretches of silky squeaky sand. Rugged trees and straw grass led down to the fluffy thick sand which we spent a good while running and jumping around in as, quite frankly, there wasn't much else to occupy us.
Our next drive took us North, to the Sunshine coast. Thankfully it was a gloriously sunny day that we chose.
We fought our way through the Brisbane traffic to emerge onto the Bruce Highway stopping at numerous towns on the way including Maroochydore and Caloudra. Each town had gorgeous beaches with crystal blue water but the one that topped them all, and wins the award for 'best beach so far' is the one we saw at Marcoola.
We were on the road north when we saw a sign for a beach, which took us swerving into a deserted residential neighbourhood. We parked up and made our way over a ridge to where we thought the sea would be, gasping at what lay before us. The beach was enormous, and utterly empty. The sand arced down from rugged grass and dunes to the waterfront where crisp turquoise waters loomed in the distance. Foamy white long lines of surf rippled into the beach curving in a thunderous smash. We spent a while on this beach, where it felt like we had washed up on a deserted island without a single soul around us. The raw, natural beauty of the place was astounding and even belittling. We made sure we left some footprints and launched ourselves off the sand dunes multiple times
before departing. Then, just as we thought we were completely alone, an Air Asia A320 screamed low above our heads (actually making us duck it was so low) shocking us back to civilization.
We followed the coast north still, all the the while the ocean gleaming blue on our right hand side and we held that course until we approached Noosa Heads. Noosa was a very clean pretty town, which had a Riviera-esque feel to it. Beside the town was a beach (shock) and a very handsome lagoon area. After spending time here soaking up the beauty of the bay we made our way to our final stop at a lake just north of this called Lake Cootharaba, which took us on a drive through woods of tall skinny trees. We hopped back onto the Bruce Highway from here and cruised back to Brizzie.
Our third and final road trip took us inland to a small town called Warwick, through delightful bush land scenery. We swapped the greenery and beaches for vast valleys filled with fields of yellow dry grass, dusty drives and large menacing hills. This kind of drive made us appreciate the vastness of this country,
just an hours drive outside the city limits you can be in a truly isolated area. We travelled on the Cunningham Highway, through the Cunningham pass, a road which leads through some mountains. Stopping at the Cunningham Pass we ambled up to a viewpoint across the valley which was spectacular. The Pass was named after Alan Cunningham, who was told to travel this route in search of botanic samples for display at Kew Gardens. He found the route so they named it after him, which is fair enough.
The drive continued and after Cunningham Pass we descended into another large valley with scattered tin farm buildings making the occasional appearance on the landscape. Our destination, Warwick itself has a very 'wild west' remote feeling to it and is very quiet. It's a dusty cattle town that attracts an abundance of flys and not many tourists by the look of things.
There wasn't much really to do here but it marked the last part of the civilised world for quite some distance. So after a quick stroll and some lunch we turned around and head back the way we came.
On our way back we came across signs
for a lake, which we decided to check out. The name of it escapes us but it was a very large and beautiful area that we had to ourselves. We walked around the shore, wondering whether there were crocs in the water and thus remaining vigilant. The vista we were treated to was excellent. The sun was shining making the water sparkle. On the other side of this large body of water were trees and hills reaching upwards into the sky. It was an ideal picnic spot.
On our way out we spotted an Echidna crossing the road in front of us. Why did it cross the road? Well apparently to run off next to a tree, making itself into a little ball to try and disappear from the two English travellers who wanted a closer look. An Echidna is a hedgehog looking animal, but with larger porcupine style spikes on its back and a long snout-like nose. It was fun to see and gradually as we stood like statues in the bush he unfurled himself and ambled on through the forestry. A fitting end to our drive.
No trip to Brisbane is complete without visiting Australia Zoo,
Marcoola
Unspeakable beauty! home of the late Crocodile Hunter - Steve Irwin. The zoo is hailed as one of the best (if not the best) in the world. It certainly lived up to those expectations and was certainly the best either one of us had been to (sorry Singapore Zoo!) The highlights of our visit were the Kangaroo compound, the Tiger Temple, the sleepy Koala's and the Croc show at the Crocoseum.
The Kangaroo's are actually in a large park area, accessible by a gate. They were all lazing around in the sun or grazing and are incredibly tame. Watching them hop and bound around is fun, their legs are incredibly powerful - they can jump up to 13m in one leap! The best thing to do was simply feeding and stroking them. Their fur is surprisingly soft. The Koala's are all very sleepy and spend most of their time up in tree's off their heads due to the amount of eucalyptus they eat. We got the opportunity to stroke them too - their fur is also soft, but more like a wooly fleece.
The Tigers were also an awesome sight. There were a few young cubs in a viewing area
with a couple of handlers. They were only 16 months (although they looked huge) and were in a very playful mood. They were play fighting, splashing about in the water and chasing after each other. They have an immense power, speed and grace that no other animal seems able to match. They also were playing with their handlers, which was odd to see as you would expect a tiger to rip any man to shreds if they were to get too close. But no, these handlers motioned them over and the tigers even play-bit them on the arms!
The Crocoseum introduced us to the power of one of Australia's most famous, oldest and most iconic reptiles. The show takes place in a stadium (which was pretty much empty) and demonstrates various character traits of these magnificent reptiles. We were shown a variety of its hunting moves as meat was waved in the crocs face making it snarl and snap out of the water with incredible force. We were told that their jaws have the same power as the landing brakes of a 747! We also saw a vast array of other animals including Wombats, Echidnas, Tasmanian Devils, more Crocs,
Wallabies, Alligators, Elephants, Tigers and Camels.
The spare days we had, before our flight to Sydney, were spent exploring Brisbane itself. The main high rise area is built on a the peninsular of a U-bend of the Brisbane River. Downtown is a mixture of skyscrapers and old British colonial style buildings which must be sandblasted every year because they are so clean. We walked all the way around the peninsular, through the botanic gardens and onto the south bank, all in the pouring rain.
We also drove up to a viewpoint called Mount Coot-Tha, which gave us spectacular views across the entire area. From here we could see the Brisbane river snaking round the main city centre and miles further out to a great mountain range. Brisbane's urban sprawl is quite obviously in a state of rapid expansion.
After saying our final farewells to Brisbane, Queensland and The Ross' we flew south to Sydney to begin the second part of our Australia trip.
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Michelle
non-member comment
Kangaroos!
I love the animal pictures! Especially the 'Skippy?!' one....I would have wanted to take him home!! Looks amazing albeit a little overcast on a few days?! Can't believe you're near the end of your amazing trip - its gone so quickly. Hope you're both having fun! xxxx