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Published: December 19th 2008
Ok so there was a point in singapore where I almost changed my flights. I wanted to stay in Asia so badly that I almost sacked off Oz completely. I know I'm crazy; Australia is normally the first stop, the most exciting place for people. Everyone seems to want to go there; to travel, to work, to stay. I always wanted to come here but I was worried; I loved the way the countries i'd visited worked, the craziness of it all and I felt that traveling in a westernised country wasn't going to be as fun or give me the same sense of adventure. (and the fear of my budget completely crashing a burning was overwhelming!)
I arrived in the airport and wanted a bottle of water while I waited for my bus, $3.50! Are you having a giraffe? Arriving in the airport was actually quite a big shock after being in Asia for so long. The huge smiles and strong Aussie accent was prevailant everywhere from the lovely lady at passport control to the man organising the queue at customs. It was actually great for things to just be easy and to not have to worry about the
language barrier for a little while. At least Oz got off to an interesting start; it was a very crazy night that involved a 30 bed hostel dorm after months of private guesthouses, getting drunk with an irishman in the hostel's irish bar and playing (and losing by a mile!) pub quizzes. The next day I wanted to do something fun but to be honest Brisbane doesn't have a whole lot to offer (why this blog is so short 😉, most of the people in my hostel were staying there because it was so cheap and they were all looking for jobs in the city. A bunch of Irish guys all running around Oz looking for jobs, that was basically my first impression! But I plumped for the slightly more fun option of going to the Koala Sanctuary instead.
Lone Pine was a bit like a slightly better version of a zoo. The koalas were definitely looked after but they were in quite small inclosures (but then koalas don't exactly need a football pitch to excerise in, they are much happier sleeping in their little tree!) We spent the day walking around looking at the different animals and getting
my first taste of Aussieness! You are able to get your photo taking holding the koala or a little crocodile but you do obviously have to pay for the priviledge. For me it was just enough to see them and get a few snaps of them in their little branches and have a bit of a stroke when they were brought out for a bit of a cuddle. We went to the farm yard enclosure and played with some puppies, pigs and sheep, on our way to the sheepdog show, then on to the birds of prey show, which I have to admit was kind of cool. Very strange though because with all these things I felt like I was at Newbury Show not in Oz at all (apart from the aussie accents coming at you from all sides!) We did of course take a lot of time with the koalas and kangaroos which are without a doubt 2 of the cutest animals!
As I had a very short time in Oz I decided to get straight up to Airlie Beach, from there I would start my decent down towards Sydney all in one direction. I paid for my
Greyhound ticket for the 19hour bus journey up there - thinking 'I've done a 32hr bus in Indo, I'm hard core, I can take it! I'll do what I have to in order to save a little money.' It wasn't until about an hour before my bus I found out you can fly there in about an hour for half the price! Opps! 😉
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