Blogs from 1770, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 9

After leaving Team Teabag behind, Sarah and I headed north to the Town of 1770/Agnes Waters - a small township becoming increasingly popular with backpackers but still managing to avoid the pitfalls of mass tourism! A perfect place to recover from the excesses of Fraser Island. We stayed in Cool Bananas - a very relaxed Backpackers Lodge and comes highly recommended to anyone heading to this part of Queensland! After enjoying a tour of the area from a local guide, we signed up for a 3 hour "Scooteroo" tour! So we jumped on our Choopers (driver license required - lucky I had mine from the Cook Islands) and enjoyed a 60km guided tour around the surrounding area, stopping only to let the Kangaroos and Wallabies pass! Afterwards, we enjoyed a quick refreshment in the 1770 Tavern ... read more

I wanted to see 1770 partly because of its connection with Captain Cook (local boy from back home), who had first set foot in Queensland at that point in that year, and partly because of the novelty value of it being a number (once a mathmo, always a mathmo). All the backpacker accommodation was in the nearby town of Agnes Water, even confusingly-named hostels like 1770 Backpackers, and as luck would have it there were no dorm beds available for love nor money - seems as though the area is inexplicably popular among backpackers for surfing, even though the surf is inferior to a gazillion places on this coast. Thus I was put in the unfortunate position of having to spend the night in a motel room with TV, fridge, microwave oven, ensuite bathroom with no-one ... read more

Here we are in 1770, the only town to have a name that's a number...FACT! The town derives its name from being the place where Captain James Cook first came ashore in 1770 (after Botany Bay in Sydney) in what is now the state of Queensland. Pretty cool eh? And its also a great opportunity for some HILARIOUS conversations. Observe.. 'I went surfing in 1770' 'Crikey, that's a long time ago. You should try it again sometime' It is definitely mine and Lara's favourite place on the East coast to date. A lot more sedate than Noosa or Byron, with the type of backpacker scene we like best..chilled, friendly and with a goodish surf. Unfortunately, it is definitely on the rise so I am glad we came here now. Apparently the council is strictly defending its ... read more

After returning back to the mainland strip which is Airlie Beach, the first thing I did was have a shower...although this proved strangely difficult, as I soon discovered that I still felt like I was on the boat! This was not a great feeling, especially in an enclosed space... All of us from Spank Me met up for a last night out, with the selected bar providing plenty of free drinks for us to play games with...The night for me finished off at Mama Africas which I personally think played the best music to dance to and was the only place still open in the wee small hours of the morning... Well that crazy little stretch of road is now behind me after catching the midnight Greyhound to The Town of 1770. I really did not ... read more

Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of Jonnys travels. I left you last time from Magnetic Island, the beautiful island off the coast of Townsville. Since then- whoa, have we done a lot! I think, and know!, the answer is a definitive yes!!! From Magnetic we headed to Airlie beach. The 4 of us along with our resident leach, the Danish Henrietta, arrived in the place, which is basically a resort of bars, sailing companies and bottle shops (off licences). We found our magnums hostel and went to explore. The town is the major stopover for the Whitsunday Islands and is just full of backpackers and their travelling vans- which often have the words “wicked” and “cartmens mum” on them. Our hostel was ace as we met loads of ppl- in our dorm alone we ... read more