Australia: Campervans, Grey Hound Busses and Hostels

---

After catching up over breakfast and a coffee with the rest of my brood, we made our way to some friends in Melbourne, who had kindly offered to put us up and invited us for Christmas dinner with their family. Melbourne is a lovely city and not what I expected. It has a very English feel about it whilst still having a very cosmopolitan angle. Christmas eve was spent looking at the old Melbourne jail museum and taking in the breathtaking views over the city and surrounding areas from the Melbourne Skydeck. Unfortunately, the views were occasionally obscured by the clouds that kept wrapping around us and hiding the views - ahhhhhhhhhh white out!!!!!!! So we buggered off to a wine bar to wait for the rain to stop. Anyway, Christmas day arrived and we spent the day in a traditional Australian manner, eating and drinking and eating and drinking and more eating (Christmas dinner followed by a barbeque and genuine shrimps on the barby - yes really teehee), all by the side of a swimming pool in the back garden of Jo’s house with her partner Vic, in a beautiful suburb of Melbourne and just round the corner from where the soap, Neighbours, is filmed. God, I spent Christmas day with the Neighbours of Neighbours teehee. On Boxing day we visited a place called St Kilda, a really lovely seaside town that seems to house all the 1960’s hippy rejects. If you visit Melbourne, go visit cause you’ll enjoy the walks on the boardwalk by the beach and the seafood with a bottle of Tooeys for lunch.
Next day saw us pick up the 7.5 metre camper van, our home on wheels for the next 2 weeks. It made us look like we were proper campers and it hooked up to the electricity and even had its own fridge on board. However, it did mean we had to get a camp site that had power and if they did we had to hope they had a spare pitch, which some times proved difficult. But that didn’t deter us because we had enough power in our battery to last a few days. We headed north towards Sydney, because that’s where I wanted to spend New Years eve, stopping at a pretty small seaside town called Eden. Getting to Sydney in 2 days is a 750 mile journey, so there was not a lot time to stop at small places on the way, but we managed to drive through the Snowy Mountains and the drive was well worth it. Sydney is fab and full of great things to see and do, but my its very expensive, more so than London!! However, Manly and Bondi are great beach/surfer and holiday places to visit and just good fun generally. New years eve was outstanding and surpassed all my expectations. We spent the day in the Botanical gardens behind the Sydney Opera house, directly opposite the Sydney harbour bridge (what a spectacular backdrop) and picnicked, sunbathed and drank Aussy shiraz, merlot and Tooeys beer all day. Then the fireworks started: oh WOW. Now I’ve seen this spectacle on the telly, when I’ve been sat on my sofa, with no where to go on New years eve and now I know why the whole of Sydney was out on the streets waiting for the New Year to come in. My do they know how to do it in style. Forty-five minuets of aerial pyrotechnics preceded by a flotilla of boats in the harbour, all lit up like Christmas trees - fantastic and my words do it no justice. A quick word about the wild life on this amazing evening. Just before it went dark and the moon lit the entire park we were sitting in, the fruit bats awoke and started to circle over the crowds; they are the size of flying cats! Gracefully swooping and flying above our heads, they were a site to behold. The evening finished by a long walk through Sydney that was awash with revellers and catching a train back to our van. We eventually got to bed around 3.30am having had a fantastic day, but Sydney partied for a further 2 days around the clock.
Driving up the coast road we stopped over night at Coffs Harbour and then on to Brisbane, where we stayed in a small place called Scarborough - yes Dad Scarborough - and not a Viking in sight. From here we visited Australia Zoo, the zoo set up by Steve Irwin and his father many years ago and continued by his family to this day. It was here I got to fulfil one of my dreams, that was to cuddle a Koala bear. She was lovely and really cuddly, but just as exciting saw many more in the trees around the zoo, as well as Kangaroos and Wallaby’s, all of which we hand fed and stroked, for hours. I also faced another fear and held a snake - fantastic. What a privilege.
In no time it was time to say goodbye to one half of the brood, and carry on the adventure further north……..by Grey Hound bus. First stop was Noosa and my first experience of a backpackers lodge and it wasn‘t as bad as I‘d expected, quite basic and we shared a bathroom with 12 others, but I didn‘t see any of them to worry about it. There was a doddery old bloke who always seemed to be watching TV in the lounge area, I couldn‘t see him with a 75 litre backpack on personally, but it takes all sorts. Noosa is beautiful, has a lovely surfing beach and a really relaxed atmosphere. After spending 3 nights at Noosa Backpackers resort, which I would recommend, we got back on a Greyhound bus for an overnighter……. Yes, overnight on a bus L ….but stopping off for a few hours in Rainbow beach which is outstanding, Hervey Bay which is not, then back on the bus to sleep…..yes sleep…or not….its been many years since I felt that tired and incapable of decipherable speech. After 33 minutes of sleep and a hell of a long journey north, we arrivedl at Airlie Beach were we checked into ‘Backpackers on the bay‘, a fab place that makes you feel at home and again I would recommend it as a good budget place to stay. We showered and then snatched a few hours sleep in a hammock overlooking the sea before checking out the ‘one street’ town for something to eat. Its worth saying a few words here on backpacking. Backpackers lodges are not as bad as I thought, though I did stay in twin share and not dorm rooms. But all the same, I’ve stayed in some hotels and B&B’s that have been a lot worse that cost a lot more and offered a lot less. However, travelling in Auss for anyone is not that cheap. Anyway , having recharged the batteries, we set off to join a boat (a catamaran with sails actually) to sail off to the Whitsunday islands. Staying on Molle Island overnight, we sailed to lots of different spots in this huge island filled lagoon, jumping into the water to snorkel over the Great Barrier Reef to spot beautifully coloured tropical fish, swim with long tailed bat fish the size of a bicycle wheel and wade to shore on outstanding beaches such as Whitehaven Beach, where the brilliant white silica sand is used for the likes of the Hubble telescope, its that fine and pure…..and really blinding white. It also kills cameras, and it was on this beach that my camera died from heat and sand exhaustion. When Captain Cook landed on these islands, he must have thought he’d found nirvana. The one thing that was a bit odd about swimming over the barrier reef at this time of the year, was the fact that we had to wear a ‘stinger’ suit. A stinger suit is basically a grown up baby grow with a hood, mits and stirrups for your feet, made of really thick lycra - yes lycra. So can you imagine slipping into a lycra suit in 30°C heat then jumping in to warm bathwater, all to avoid the dreaded box jelly fish and the even nastier bluebottle jellyfish (just 2 inches long)
Reluctantly, we got back to shore and headed north on another Grey Hound overnight bus, that turned up nearly 2 hours late and I did wonder if I’d gone back to Borneo with the poor time keeping. This time we were heading for Cairns. Again, no sleep but this backpacking malarkey seems to be suiting me as I seemed to be getting used to no sleep. Cairns is another one of those Aussy northern towns that is low rise US type western frontier looking and very sleepy. Its relaxed and an easy place to be. I liked it….lots. We checked into The Northern Greenhouse Backpackers lodge (very nice - more like an apart hotel) and used Cairns as a base to tootle of to other destinations close by. First stop was the oldest Rainforest on the planet. This Rainforest has survived the ice age, forest fires and more importantly, man. Its been around since the earths forests first grew and is the mama and papa of much forna and flora on the planet. Its name - Daintree Rain Forest. To get the best of this amazing place, we decide to jungle surf through the tree tops 23 meters above the ground. Winter, our guide, strapped me into my harness, hooked me onto my flying fox wire and off I went (admittedly screaming like a banshee) from tree to tree observing primitive ferns and really clever trees that have survived millions of years. Wow what a privilege to be able to see this place close up and from above, where you can see one eco system (rainforest) slide into the other (great barrier reef). We spent a night in a small wooden hut in this rainforest, walking and exploring the area, before returning to Cairns for our next adventure. On our return, we caught a boat to Fitzroy island which is about 50 minutes off the coast of Cairns. Keeping up with our new Australian mantra ‘Do something that scares you stupid each day’, we did something I have always dreaded. We joined a group to ‘sea kayak’ to little Fitzroy Island a long way off big Fitzroy Island - yes sea kayak ahhhhhhhhh. Deep water has scared me rigid since I saw the film Jaws as a teenager, so I’ve never really ventured into deep sea water, ever. Not only did I venture over deep sea water in our 2 woman kayak, I swam out to it from the small island we had paddled to. I have to point out here that Amy and I paddled twice as far as any of the other couples. We seemed to adopt the tacking method of sailing ships - zigzagging behind the rest of the kayaks mainly. Amy was steering and as anyone who knows us and has seen us in any type of man powered sailing vessel, they will know that we never go in a straight line - this was no different. The exercise was good for us thoughJ Again, we were in stinger suits but with flippers this time and in the water wearing my mask and snorkel, I felt just like Jacques Cousteau. We swam out to an area of the barrier reef that had the most colourful coral I’ve ever seen, with huge fish, small fish all really colourful all inquisitive and watching us watch them, with amazing giant clams that opened and shut like you see on telly. Did I stop talking and giggling WOW with a snorkel firmly stuffed in my mouth under water - you bet I didn’t! To complete my day with a really cool experience, the turtle that had been swimming around Fitzroy cove decided to join me for a short swim whilst I was snorkelling. In the words of the turtle from finding Nemo ’that was really cool man’. The following day we rested up and did a little shopping and ended up buying a didgeridoo - yes a didgeridoo. Its now travelling homewards with my first lesson on CD. Watch out Rolf Harris, you may have some completion.
All too soon our Australian adventure was over. We packed our backpacks, caught a taxi to the airport at 3.30 am and set off for Aotearoa - that’s New Zealand by the way.

---

Photos

Locked up....
Amy and Jono in one of the old Melbourne jail padded cells.

Father Christmas
Throw another shrimp on the barby Santa!!

Sydney Opera House
Fab building - iconic!!

New Years Eve
Wow wow wow. Amazing.

Koala cuddling
Just had to be done. This little bundle of fur was just one of many in Steve Irwins zoo

Sipping wine in Brisbane
Night before saying goodbye to one half of the brood before travelling north with the other.

Hand feeding the Laurakeets
These are very noisy parrots. There are hundreds of them in the trees around Airlie Beach.

Where's my stinger suit?
Best warning sign ever

Poison Ivy and Wonder Woman
All kitted up for a bit of jungle surfing. I scared all the wild life away with my blood curdling screams.