Australia - Down Under - The Great Barrier Reef

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We leave Singapore at 10pm aboard a Jetstar plane, the budget airline subsidiary of Qantas. It’s basic but comfortable, though we have to buy any alcoholic drinks to go with our food. We decide to indulge after our travel traumas (amazing how far you can stretch a story like that!!), C having some red wine & a Jim Beam, while M has a red label scotch whiskey (which he the proceeds to spill all over himself - what a waste!) We fly into Darwin and have to get off because of the strange customs/security arrangements but it does give us a chance to stock up on duty free - 2.25 litres per person which is very generous - and not what we were told in Singapore; get your act together guys! We then have a 2 ½ hour flight from Darwin to Cairns, following the eastern coastline, with a quick breakfast thrown in, landing at 08.15. The time zone has moved us on 2 hours so we are now 10 hours ahead of the UK.

Maybe it’s the jet lag or sleep deprivation but the airport doesn’t look familiar at all given that we were here11 years ago & as far as we know it hasn‘t been redeveloped, so our memories must be fading - old age has a lot to answer for !!!. Everything goes smoothly at customs etc where we have to declare the sweets we have and the bamboo table mats from Chiang Mai which are a gift for Evonne. They are very strict about what you can bring in & items which may contaminate the environment & rightly so - they have had many disasters in the past e.g. with rabbits, frogs & a multitude of trees & plants being introduced to the country.

Port Douglas

We have arranged a pick up from the airport to Dougie’s Backpacker hostel at Port Douglas. The bus trip from the airport to PD takes about an hour & we are greeted warmly at Dougie’s and shown to our lovely room with air con - you need it here. It’s not only hot but very humid. Welcome to the Tropical north of Queensland (QLD as they refer to it). The backpackers is fantastically laid out with huge cooking area, a big BBQ area, swimming pool, lovely gardens & fantastically helpful staff. We are in for $60 a day.

We walk into PD (it’s now branded as “Port” - getting trendy it seems) from the hostel & discover that the town has changed quite a bit since we were last here, 11 years ago. Gone is the old rural charm of a small village, replaced by a thriving town with lots more buildings & tourist trappings. However, the place boasts President Clinton & Russell Crowe as visitors. The area has definitely gone upmarket with many boutique hotels & golf resorts etc. It’s a shame & one can only hope it doesn’t grow too much more and lose it’s soul.

The town straddles Trinity Bay, sitting on Four Mile beach which, as you’d expect, is very long with whitish sand but also lots of beach debris and only a very small area cordoned off for swimmers to protect them from stingers - dangerous jellyfish that come into the coast at this time of year. (You can just about get yourself wet here - real swimming is out!) . So it’s not quite the paradise feel.

PD is all about access to the Great Barrier Reef which is a World Heritage site - the largest natural wonder in the world that can be seen from the Moon apparently - so we book snorkelling and dive trips. Green Island, that we went to on our last visit, seems to have lost it’s allure as everyone advised against it - the ravages of tourism no doubt. We therefore go for a snorkelling trip to the Low Isles which comes highly recommended by Karen at the NAB bank, an English woman from Buckinghamshire, & many others. We sail there on the Sailaway 4 catamaran & an hour later we are at the island which has a ranger & his family living on it & a lighthouse but not a lot else. We are advised to wear stinger suits - thin blue wet suits which make us look like extras on Teletubbies - as these will protect us from little stingers in the water - we had none of this palaver 11 years ago. The views underwater are lovely but a bit murky - not quite the barrier reef we remember. However, the icing on the cake is the number of turtles we see - a first while snorkelling. After a lovely lunch of prawns, roast beef, fresh fruit etc, & another snorkel off the boat when we see more turtles we call it a day & head for home after a good day out trying to compare this to other experiences we have had on our big adventure.

We decide to treat ourselves to a meal out as we have eaten a lot of local cheap food or cooked at the hostel and visit 2 Fish restaurant for dinner after a pretty awful day as nothing would go right including the bank exchange counter closing at 3.30pm. (Many Aussie towns are like the UK in the 70’s; lots of places close at 6pm, banks close at 4 pm & don’t open Saturday, & most things are shut on Sunday). Anyway the meal at 2 Fish is pretty good even if it’s expensive by the SE Asian standards we have got so used to. C has her favourite - Moreton Bay bugs & yabbies (a type of crayfish) & prawns & M tries the local delicacy, the Coral trout. They are both lovely washed down with glasses of chilled Riesling & Sauvignon Blanc - both from South Australia.

What is noticeable about tropical PD, is that the variety of flowers is amazing, as is the range of trees & shrubs. These all come to life in the evenings when the millions of red/green/yellow/black Lorikeets - like parrots, and other birds come out at sunset to create one hell of a racket. It’s a beautiful if noisy sight.

We decide to dive the outer barrier Agincourt reef which is supposed to be beautiful and has more marine life to offer. So it’s off on a day trip on the Poseidon motor catamaran for our 3 dives. It’s overcast when we leave, & chucks it down en route, but nearer the outer reef it’s lovely & sunny. On with our stinger suits again & Vera is our guide/instructor. The three sites we go to are Castle Rock where we see a white tipped reef shark at the bottom & steer clear, the Blue Lagoon where we find a moray eel and Phils - a wall dive with some lovely coral and a host of colourful marine life. We also see a coral trout - M’s dinner last night, tuna, clownfish (aka nemo’s), angelfish, batfish, a couple of very large Cuttle fish and some sweet lips (great name!). The waterproof camera is good but still doesn’t show them in all their glory.

Despite the pronounced commitment to sustainability & preserving it’s heritage, we cant help feeling that tourism is killing the goose that laid the golden egg as the waters around the reef are definitely less clear that 11 years ago - this is born out by an alarming article in the local papers some days later in which a pressure group is demanding that the govt does more to control the pollution of this amazing masterpiece of creation. It’s a sad state of affairs & we as travellers have contributed to this - a valuable lesson learnt & one to reflect on for the future.

We are torn about a day trip to Cape Tribulation which goes on a 4x4 to Daintree village & surrounding area which is tropical rainforest & a touch of the outback with Aboriginal historic connections thrown in. We’ll never know if we made the right decision but having pre-booked the Whitsunday sailing trip we felt we didn’t have the flexibility. However, as things unfolded later we could have done it. Ah well. The world is a very big place & we can’t do it all!!

Cairns

We catch the courtesy bus from Dougie’s to Cairns central, passing the scenic route from Port Douglas, and the green sugar cane fields in the lower regions surrounded by tropical rainforest covered hills. They have helped us book into the Dreamtime hostel which is an old converted Queenslander house - essentially a wooden structured building with a lot of charm. Our room is ace with a lovely veranda with a sofa overlooking what is essentially a tropical garden with a small swimming pool. The lady in charge is Rowena & what a star she turns out to be. The intention is to stay here for 2 days.

We explore the city. Cairns is different to the way we member it. It’s certainly very sprawling and parts of the centre needs refurbishment but there are a lots of new bits & many designer shops. The thing that they are most proud of is the man made Lagoon by the sea which is very popular for family days out. This is to make up for the fact that the coast here is not fit for swimming or chilling out on. There’s a local street market adjoining it, giving it some local charm. The main shopping Mall which is new is nice & cool as it’s air conned so great for escaping the heat - it reminded us of the shopping Mall near Bristol. It has loads of Christmas decorations but outside only some streets have decorations - token gestures as they look really crap & old.

As it’s hot and we’re in need of refreshment we try a local pub for a Pure Blond, a draught cool beer & then grab some lunch; junk food for a change in the Mall - Hungry Jacks Aussie Burger & Aussie Kebabs - ok, but we could do much better ourselves. So we buy some fresh Gourmet Outback Beef Sausages for one night’s dinner from a local butcher & filets of Barramundi for the other on special offer in Coles, the local supermarket chain - what would we do without them. We are struck by the number of Indian eateries here together with the number of people of Indian & Japanese/Korean origin.

We decide to buy our Greyhound Australia bus tickets here - they have a discounted Mini Traveller pass which takes you from Cairns to Sydney & you can hop on and off where you like as long as you keep travelling in one direction. The only other condition is that you do the trip in 45 days. This suits us & saves us a fortune. It’s 330$ each - bargain. Rowena does all the bookings for us - thanks Rowena. She also helps with booking other trips - firstly a replacement for our long booked Whitsundays cruise! We discover purely by chance that our trip has been significantly changed without our knowledge from 3 days sailing to a 2 day sail/fly trip - we lose a day sailing but to compensate we get a helicopter ride back (which according to the company’s terms & conditions is not guaranteed - if no flight we get $80 back) - but there is no reduction in price whatsoever which we think is totally unacceptable, so we email the company to cancel & book another 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday’s. Rowena also books us on to the Yongala shipwreck dive at Townsville but as it only goes on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, we have to leave Cairns the next morning, a day earlier than planned, Rowena was fabulous including booking hostels - so fingers cross nothing should go wrong from here on to the end of our trip in Oz. All these bookings get us a $10 discount off our hostel rate which is great. The YHA membership we have also gets us heaps of discounts all over Oz - so it’s been a bargain investment & has paid back handsomely both in the UK & here.

And so we have a fabulous Barramundi dinner washed down with Banrock red wine - Cabernet Merlot but as we are leaving a day earlier we leave some of the wine for Rowena We had fried the sausages to help preserve them & we end up having them for lunch on the bus journey down to Townsville. M loves them - C isn’t too keen!!

Townsville

We have to walk with rucksacks etc to the bus stop as the hostel folk have had their Christmas party the night before & they are concerned that staff will be still hung over. It’s hot & humid & the 20 min walk is enough to drench us in sweat. We board the Greyhound Australia bus to Townsville & leave a few mins late as it’s full house. We travel down the ocean road via Gordonvale where we see a bunch of bikers with bikes adorned with Xmas decorations, one with loads of teddy bears on them & even one with Tigger which makes C ecstatic!!! Later we drive through Innesfail, Tully, stopping at Cardwell for lunch, Mission Bay, then it’s Townsville by 3pm. We pass some amazing countryside, sugar cane fields that go on for miles, rainforests & banana plantations with some small towns and 2 isolated cattle ranches - the first we’ve seen. It does give you a sense of how big this country really is.

Townsville is much bigger than we expect and is clean and tidy, & like any Oz town or city planned in a grid pattern with wide streets & low rise building blending with the old Queenslander buildings (largely Victorian in influence). However, as it’s Sunday it looks like a ghost town. The city has a certain charm but also needs some TLC. We notice a lot of Aboriginal people around & unfortunately they look somewhat down & out which adds to their stereotype. Some are clearly suffering from mental illness or alcohol addition. Many people are sleeping rough - though none are white folk! We are mindful that we have so far done nothing to explore the Aboriginal cultural history on this trip nor that of the Torres Straits communities - the original inhabitants of this vast land. However, our first trip did take us to the outback & Alice Springs & Uluru. We hope to get some time to try the ancestral parts around Sydney & Brisbane where we will have more time. For information, the abuse of the Aboriginal people by the white convicts & British officers who came over is well documented & was brutal in parts & their land got stolen all over and their culture nearly destroyed. It was tantamount to the Apartheid regime in SA yet the international pressure was nowhere near the same. It was only recently (between 1967 & 1980) that they got recognised as citizens & have been given back some of their land. We are reading a lovely book called “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson which gives one an amazing & humorous look at this huge country with all it’s peculiarities. A recommended read if anyone is interested in Oz - other than Bondi Beach & the New Years fireworks in Sydney. Did you know it has the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world? And the quirky facts go on and on …

We book into Reef Lodge @ $60 per night - it’s pretty good and centrally located with good cooking facilities and air con & TV but no pick up. We are fortunate that the lady from Orchid Guest House gives C & the heavy bags a lift & M walks the 5 mins from the bus stop in the heat. The humidity is slightly less here but it’s 32 degrees. Then head into town to pay for the dive tomorrow at the Yongala shipwreck. It’s a ship that mysteriously sunk in 1911 and has over the last 100 years become home to sea life. Other than this Townville’s claim to fame is that it is a major Army city.

We have a lovely steak sandwich for dinner thanks to Coles again, then as Townsville is pretty dead on Sunday we amuse ourselves walking along The Strand, the seafront area - there is a lot of waterfront development going on - it’s a boom city apparently. It has a harbour & beach better than Cairns, and also has pools and water park areas for kids to enjoy which are pretty packed. The walk isn’t particularly peaceful though thanks to the large white parakeets that start getting lively and very, very noisy at dusk.

We get up at 6 am to catch the bus for our dive trip and find that there is the mother of all tropical storms overhead. High winds, lightening, thunder, and rain thrashing down - all in all a real tropical storm. We check with the dive operators who have been monitoring things & after ½ hour they call off the trip. It’s a real disappointment but hey the weather is the weather. We find out on the local news that the city area had over 2000 (yes thousand) lightning strikes during the storm & there were flash floods & the high street was like a deep river.

We spend a lazy day in Townsville - there is not much to do here but be lazy. We catch up with the blog/internet - actually get a mobile SIM for Oz after a lot of hassle. We have lunch at the Sea View Hotel on The Strand - the main place - 2 Schooners of draught chilled Pure Blondes & a fish burger (not bad but not quite awesome). We discover that Mondays are just as dead as Sundays in this place. We wonder if the place ever comes alive - maybe when the squaddies are in town over the weekend perhaps? We cook in with lamb steak burgers & salad - a nice change & crash. The only good thing we can say about Townsville is that it had 3 Irish bars & one with the inscription which made it worthwhile said “We are open till we close”. They really do know how to tell ’em!!!

The big issue in the news is the government cash handouts to certain tax categories of folks so that they could go out and spend their gift on boosting the economy to stave off any recession particularly in the lead in to Christmas. Kevin Rudd the Labour prime minister has very high ratings at the moment compared to his Conservative (Liberal) opposition. The TV stations in true media hype called this “The Spendathon”. Also the government has doubled the grant available to first time buyers who wished to get on the property ladder. Something for the UK folks to consider on shared ownership products?! If you thought politics was dull in the UK - it’s worse here - all their politicians seem to have had a charisma by pass (so Gordon you are not alone & a political future may await you here!).

To while away the time we see a lot of Aussie TV - channel 7 & 9. Their coverage seems to have improved since we were last here - the rest of the world other than the Asia Pacific actually got a mention. However oddly enough NZ doesn’t get a mention & to think that according to Bill Bryson they were near part of the united states of Australia & ducked out at the last moment. Amazing history! Thankfully we don’t have CNN or BBC world news so don’t have to hear about Obama’s underwear or colour of the toilet paper he used etc etc.

It’s a stormy night again but the morning is fine so we hop on the 10.45 Greyhound to Airlie Beach. It’s a comfortable journey - no TV or information just a woman driver with clutch control problems. The countryside landscape changes a lot to open arid plains, more cattle around and eventually some horses. We travel through Ayr and Bowen before getting to our destination.

Airlie Beach

We eventually get to AB at about 3.10 pm and are met by the hostel pick up bus - we stay at Backpackers by the Bay - a little out of town, it’s $68 per night but with a lot less - no fridge, towels, air con only 8pm to 8 am etc, but we discover it’s the cheapest place in town - some places are full or want 100$ plus per night - even Sydney doesn’t want that for New Year!!. This is a real tourist trap - the main strip is only about 150mts & it’s all backpackers hostels, bars, clubs, restaurants, clothes & curio shops or travel agents & more travel agents - all selling the same trips.

AB is all about sailing & luxury pads overlooking the sea. There are 2 manmade marina’s / cum seaside developments & a third well on it’s way. There are also a host of caravan parks & camping sites with supermarkets etc. The terrain is typical Oz gum & eucalyptus trees with loads of noisy white Parakeets coming out at sundown, and kookaburras’ & Lorikeets as usual.
However, to it’s credit it is quite a nice place by the sea. The bay is quite pretty & they have a lagoon - man made which is a whole lot better than the one in Cairns & is full of locals & travellers sunbathing & swimming or just chilling out. The area is undergoing huge development - sea view apartments by the score - starting at £250K . Prices here are quite near London prices for many things.

We go to confirm our 3 day sailing trip only to be told that the Ship we are booked on, Enid, has mechanical trouble so won’t be sailing! Another ship, Avatar has the same disease apparently. Sounds fishy to us & we can’t help feeling that these guys have just overbooked a whole host of travellers & are taking the p***. They do however, offer us a range of day trips at a discount to make up for this - so after due consideration over a chilled beer or two we decide to go for 3 separate trips on the 3 days we are here. One to the Great Barrier Reef, one sailing to an island far away for great snorkelling and another which does the Whitsunday island & Whitehaven beach - the jewel in the crown here. These 3 trips will allow us to see a lot more of the area than the 3 day sailing trip so it’s some consolation.

We get into the Oz groove and do great Barbies for 2 nights (or at least M does), washed down with Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon (2 litres in a box for $15 or £5 - a steal really!!) and we also try a Domino’s pizza (M’s first) - a large Super Lot for only $7.95 - bargain! and fab king salmon fish & chips. All followed by wonderful Baskins & Robbins ice cream - jamoca almond fudge and Nutcracker sweet (with Macadamia nuts) - truly awesome. We like it so much we have one every night! One night we enter the quiz at the Backpackers run by Mathew the Canadian barman - good fun as well & a great quiz master - & win a bottle of lovely chilled sparkling wine which we share with medics from London who practice in Melbourne but are here on holiday to go sailing the islands. (We wish them luck given some of the stories we have heard from other travellers). The next night we enter again & come last! We enjoy our time here - helped also by Amy (“she rocks” says the comments book at the hostel & she does as she is hyper active - we feel sorry for the kids she will be teaching & training when she qualifies as a teacher!!!) & Devon on reception at BBB. It’s true - people do make a difference.

The Whitsundays

The Whitsunday islands are an interesting group of islands. They were created after the ice age; the islands are the tops of mountains & the water is what was left behind, and as it’s sheltered by the Great Barrier Reef, it’s waters are calmer and have fantastic marine life. They are not the Maldives by a long way but have a certain charm & White Haven beach is a bit special. Other than that the islands are parched by the hot sun, covered in scrubby trees &, in our view, are unspectacular. It’s the ocean around it that makes it special.

We are picked up early from the Hostel to travel to Abel Point Marina to catch the Cruise Whitsundays Catamaran to the Outer Barrier Reef. It’s a smooth ride with stop over’s at Dreamtime & Hayman islands which are tourist resorts, getting to our destination, Knuckle Reef, after a couple of hours. They have a biggish pontoon (not as big as the Quiksilver pontoon at Port Douglas though) with water slide & glass bottom boat & we spend a few hours here snorkelling which is pretty good & gets better in the afternoon when the current isn’t as strong and the people lower in numbers. We also go on the submersible craft which is fun and we have a marine biologist on board to provide loads of useful information. They also feed us well with jam & cream scones for breakfast, a huge buffet lunch & dim sum & fruit for tea; it’s amazing we didn’t sink when we snorkelled! We eventually get back at 6pm after a great day.

For our second trip we are taken to Shute Harbour for the 8.45 am departure of the Ragamuffin Maxi (which won the Sydney to Hobart race 3 times) for a day’s sailing to Blue Pearl Reef off the coast of Hayman island. Unfortunately the wind isn’t full enough to go completely under sail power though M get’s some exercise helping the crew get the mainsail up. The snorkelling is pretty good & the visibility allows C to lose herself in the underwater world of photography doing dive after dive to get that elusive shot of the buggers who keep moving - how dare they!!

The third trip is aboard the Mantaray motor boat to Whitsunday Island, where we go to Betty’s beach which is part of the amazing Whitehaven beach considered the no: 1 beach in Oz. The “sand” is 98% silica or quartz and its as fine as talcum powder. The sea & beach area - even at high tide looks fantastic. At low tide, the beach basically takes over the whole inlet and surrounding area. A truly astounding feature when seen in pictures. We swim a bit after taking many pictures - we see a few fish and lots of manta rays in the shallow waters - at a cool 28 degrees. After lunch on the boat, just when we are about to make for the selected snorkelling site, the wind picks up to 20 knots plus so they take us to Raven’s Cove instead - a sheltered spot but with poorer visibility because of the effect of it being full moon time - not that we‘re snorkelling at night you understand! The snorkelling is pretty good though - we see most of the tropical fish the area is famous for - made better for seeing a turtle feeding in very shallow water. On the way home the wind picks up & sea is a bit rough with 1 -2 metre waves & the vessel (& the passengers) is bounced around a bit; C loves it, not sure anyone else does!. The Skipper wishes everyone a Merry Xmas - which seems odd but appropriate we suppose - after all it’s only 12 days away!!

And so after 3 fun packed days it’s time to move on. We go for fish & chips followed by Baskins & Robbins for lunch by the Lagoon. It’s blustery so we stay in the cool shade and after a cool shower at the BBB hostel. We get the courtesy bus just as it starts to rain & rain & pour - monsoon time. Just as well the bus stop had a big roof. The bus arrives and we all pile in for the 6.10 pm ride to Noosa which will be overnight …………………………….. See you there on the Sunshine Coast of Australia.

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Comments

[carl]

crs
cool I think I will take a trip to Australia when i get some money and curange to get on a boat or plane ovaer seas in never!!!!!!! xoxo carl r s