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Published: December 27th 2009
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Snowy Norfolk
from the front of the house The flight back went much like any other, uneventful but with not enough sleep. The area around Heathrow was blanketed in a fine layer of snow and once I had left the airport the -5 degree C temperatures were pretty painful for this warm acclimatised person. It was back to Twickenham for me to spend a day and a night with same people who put me up just before I left.
The day was spent just sitting around on my own (turns out other people have proper jobs to go to during the day), slightly zoned out until the evening when we went out for a catch up session over beer and Italian food. I suspect I wasn't quite the sparkling socialite that I usually am, jet-lagged and yawning my way through most of the evening and collapsing gratefully into unconsciousness at the end of the night.
The following day (Christmas Eve) I made my way to King's Cross and from there to King' Lynn where my waiting parents were ready to whisk me away back to their house. I got to spend the rest of the day remaining in a jet-lagged stupor, which I still hadn't entirely gotten
Horse!
What does a horse in Norfolk have to do with a travel blog about Australia? Very little. But everyone likes horses, don't they? over the next day- Christmas Day! The snow from previous days remained on the ground, although no snow actually fell on Christmas Day, so I suppose that only semi-counts as a White Christmas. I think that ends this travel blog, although I can go into a quick retrospective:
In just under two months I saw a very varied selection of what Australia has to offer- coral reefs, Outback, rainforests, small villages and large cities. Of the eight states/ territories in Australia I spent time in five- West Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. I think I gave Australia a good go and have seen most of the obvious stuff and more besides.
There are of course some places that I could have spent more time at, and those I missed out all together, both places that I knew of already (it's a shame I didn't make it down to Melbourne or Tasmania, or to do the Great Ocean Road), and other places I heard good things about along the way (the Kimberley in northern West Australia was particularly raved about to me by one person).
I think I could go back to Australia,
Snowy Norfolk, part 2
view from the back garden although with the knowledge I now have I could be more selective about where I go and how I do it- as well as those places already mentioned I would really like to do the trip south from Perth to Esperance, and the trip north from Adelaide through the Flinders Range and Coober Pedy. I am not so fussed on the East coast. Whilst it has some beautiful places, it is rather commercialised and full of the gap year 18/ 21 year old trendy crowd, which isn't one I can relate to so well, and most of the places are very beach orientated- which is fine, but for my travelling I would prefer to have more unique experiences- and the beach isn't a patch on Kakadu National Park, or King's Canyon, or even the humble stromatolites of Shark Bay.
I would also think about HOW I did it. The West Australia coast and the trip from Alice Springs to Darwin were done as tours on a bus with a guide and a group of people. This is good from the perspective of ease, information (all my guides were very informative) and meeting people, although it does mean that you
Christmas Turkey
My Dad seemed very proud of this, and insisted I include it in the blog! don't get much choice on where you go or for how long, which at times was frustrating.
From Cairns to Sydney I was on a trip in which various activities were already booked for me, along with accommodation and transport. In theory this should have made things easier, in practice I didn't like it at all- I felt that I didn't have the support and ready-made social group of being on a proper tour, but I still felt like I was being led by the nose without any freedom- it was the worst of both worlds and to be honest I wouldn't recommend that way of doing it at all.
Just buying a car and wandering as I feel like it is a tempting idea, although it could be tricky finding someone with the time and inclination to do it with me, and I don't think I really want to spend all that time driving by myself. Of course there is always the chance of finding someone to do it with once in Australia, but then again you might not. Or you might hate them.
Well all food for thought, but not relevant right now- I need to go and make some more money before I do something like this again.
I think that's enough exposition now, I hope this blog has been interesting. And now... back to the real world.
Steven
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