Perth & Queensland

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I'm typing this from a hammock outside my hostel in Airlie Beach. It's actually not that easy to type whilst lying in a hammock but I'm here now and way too lazy to get up.

There's probably not a huge amount to say in this post. I spent a week on the west coast staying with Rich Miles, and probably got a little more comfortable than I should have. I had originally planned to spend the weekend in Perth and the rest of my time further down the west coast. However I only ended up spending one night down in Margaret River and the rest of the time was in Rich's house. When it came time to leave the thought of rejoining the backpacker circuit wasn't massively appealing, a few days in Cairns though and I'm somewhat back in the groove.

In Perth Rich took me to see King's Park, a fairly nice park just outside the city. Heard some local hippies playing one of the worst songs I've ever heard. D's D's double D's/ In the middle of a riddle. Can't remember the rest of it but I remember thinking Will.I.Am would be proud of some of the lyrics they'd come up with. Drove to the other side of the city and had a look for some kangaroos, without any success. I've been in Australia about ten days now and still haven't seen a kangaroo, I want my money back. Went out that night and met up with Frank (the wank) Daly, was good to catch up over some sangria and Mexican food. Went to one of the local bars and I couldn't get over the amount of Irish people around. In fact I couldn't get over the amount of Irish people in Perth full stop, you wouldn't have to look to hard to see some eejit wearing a GAA jersey walking around the place. The next day myself and Rich went to see an AFL game, the West Coast Eagles against somebody crap. Having known nothing about Aussie rules the day before, I was pretty much an expert after the game, there's not much to it. Run, kick, catch, kick it through some posts. That's about it as far as I can tell. It actually wasn't a bad spectator sport, more entertaining than the J-League game I went to in Yokohama anyway. It wasn't much of a contest however, and the most memorable thing from the game for me will be the big massive fat bloke in the front row who kept turning around and tried to get the crowd going. Watching him jiggle as he waved his arms up and down was almost mesmerising. Sunday night we did the typical Australian thing of having a barbeque. I was tempted to buy some shrimp so I could throw them on the barbie, but didn't bother in the end as I probably wouldn't have actually eaten them.

Monday came and I headed off down the coast in Rich's camper van which he kindly (and foolishly) let me have the use of for a few days. Margaret River is flooded with vineyards and wineries, and is about a three hour drive south of Perth. I managed to arrive just after the local tourist information office had closed, so I ended up staying in the only hostel I could find on the map. This probably wasn't a great idea as it was about 1.5km out of town and completely dead. There were a few people who appeared to be living there while doing regional work, and there wasn't much of an atmosphere about the place. I decided to leave the next morning and do some of the touristy things before deciding if I was going to stay another night in Margaret River or just head back up to Perth that evening. Went to see one of the local caves, which was impressive enough. Then I decided to buy lunch and drive to the local beach to finally get a view of the ocean after being on the west coast for about five days already. The beach wasn't really what I expected; it was completely deserted and actually somewhat reminded me of the east coast of Ireland. As I stood on the beach taking a few pictures and wondering why the sand I was standing on was so soft, a big wave came out of nowhere and soaked me up past my ankles. Luckily I'd brought all my clothes with me from Perth so was just able to go back to the van and change. This is actually the second time this has happened to me on this trip. I did something similar at the full moon party in Ko Phangan, at least I had an excuse for my idiocy that time. Drove around the wine country and picked one of the many wineries to stop in and buy a couple of bottles to bring back to Perth with me. Decided to stop in a place called Cullen Wines because it sounded Irish, there was a million to choose from and I figured that was as good a reason as any. Did some tasting and pretended to know/care about the quality of the wine, before deciding to just buy the first two bottles I could see. Unfortunately I couldn't do too much tasting because I was driving; a wine tour would probably have been a good way to spend a day down there. I'd driven a little further up the coast by this stage, and at about 4 o'clock the rain came. I decided to just head back to Perth as I didn't fancy spending the night in an empty hostel in the rain.

I took it easy for my last two days in Perth, trying not to spend too much. This is probably where I got lazy and very used to not being in a hostel. Flew to Cairns on Thursday night, leaving at 10pm and arriving at 4am. This has to be the most stupidly timed flight I've ever been on. It's only four hours, why they schedule it overnight is beyond me. Slept in the airport for a few hours and then tried to locate Wig at around 9am. Couldn't find him by 9.30 so just decided to get the bus to my hostel. Turns out he was waiting for me at arrivals and I was waiting for him at departures.

The only reason I went to Cairns really was because at this time of year it's the last bit of summer I'd have until I get back to Ireland (insert Ireland has no summer joke here). It's getting cooler in the south, and it'll be winter by the time I get to New Zealand. This time of year is supposed to be perfect for visiting the north of Queensland, the temperatures are in the mid to high 20s and the wet season has come to an end. Unfortunately that's not how it worked out this year, the traditional wet season was very dry and it had been raining on and off for well over a week in Cairns by the time I got there. The temperature was good, but it's not much use when you will probably get soaked if you go out for long enough. To make matters worse the second half of my week on the west coast was largely a washout too. My first day in Cairns was a write off due to being wrecked from the overnight flight, so on my second day I booked a tour of the local rainforest and waterfall areas. Although it was a bit pricey at $100, it was a good day as I got to see some cool areas of the rainforest and some lakes and waterfalls too. We were taken to the Milla Milla falls, the place where Peter Andre filmed the video for Mysterious Girl. We went for a swim in the lagoon there, so I can now die happy knowing I've swam in the Mysterious Girl waterfall. Also on the trip was Dinner Falls, which contained a massive crater which was about 65 metres down to the lake below, and then another 70-80 metres deep under the water. In fact I don't think they know exactly how deep it is, nobody has ever got to the bottom. The tour guide had taken a rock from the waterfall earlier to throw into the crater which was pretty cool. I'm sure I could have spent hours throwing things into the water below but unfortunately there was nothing heavy left to throw apart from a couple of the girls on the tour with us, and they weren't volunteering themselves.

Back in the hostel and a decent group had formed for a night out, so I joined in. Pretty much everyone staying in the hostel, including the staff were drinking in the common area before heading out to the local grotty night club. I say pretty much everyone, everyone except my roommate. Some Aussie guy who barely ever left the room and sat in the dark watching videos on his iPhone and smoking weed. Utterly bizarre person, I'm just glad he didn't get up in the middle of the night and stab me. He seemed the type.

Felt a bit rough the next day, and to make matters worse I had to check out at 10am and then sit around all day waiting for my night bus to Airlie Beach. If you're ever in Cairns I would highly recommend Dreamtime Hostel. Crap name, but had really nice staff and a great atmosphere. Possibly the best hostel I've stayed in on my trip so far. After doing nothing for most of the day I boarded my bus to Airlie Beach just after midnight. I thought I'd left night buses behind when I left Vietnam, but seems I had one more to go. This one was fairly standard however, no breakdowns or knife fights. Arrived in Airlie Beach at about 11 this morning and haven't done much yet. I'm taking a two night boat tour of the Whitsunday Islands tomorrow so am just preparing for that. Went into the town and bought some goon (cheapo wine in a box) for my trip. Airlie Beach is actually not what I expected, a nice little town with a very nice beach. Nowhere near as tacky as the touristy beach areas of Southeast Asia I'd seen.

So I've got two nights on the boat, one more night in Airlie Beach and then I fly to Brisbane on Friday where I'll be staying with Eoin Clements. After this it's quickly on to Sydney and Melbourne before flying to New Zealand on Friday week.

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Photos

Perth
Apparently that's a river behind me, looks like a lake to me.

Aussie Rules
A game so simple even Australians can understand it.

The Campervan
Somehow managed not to crash this

Rain in Perth
So much for the Australian sunshine

Milla Milla Falls
Oohoooohooh Mysterious Girl...

Dinner Falls
Um yeah, another waterfall