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4 weeks just wasn't enough to do justice to the east coast of Australia. Our arrival in Cairns was met by constant rain. We ended up staying for 4 days hoping that we'd be able to get round to a bit of sight seeing but that didn't happen. Instead we booked a couple of tours and headed south, via Greyhound bus to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsundays.
Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands was fantastic - we had a great crew and a great group of people. The Whitsundays are truly beautiful - white powdery sand beaches, turquoise waters... and a little sea sickness! I tried a bit of scuba diving, the first time, and had a great time. A very surreal feeling being completely submerged in water with hundreds of fish swimming around you. I shall definitely be giving that another go.
Camping on Fraser Island was another first for me. To be honest, I used to think there could be nothing worse than camping, you get dirty and smelly and can't wash properly and eat cold baked beans 3 times a day - I like my home comforts - but it was so much fun. We
Whitsunday islands
All because the lady loves milk traywere thrown together with eight other people, given a 4x4 jeep, sleeping bags, tents and all the camping paraphenalia and sent on our way to buy some groceries (we bought baked beans!) and head off to the largest sand island in the world.
We had a wonderful time. All 10 of us got on really well - we had actually met two of the other guys on our sailing trip in the Whitsundays. The island has some truly amazing landscape - huge sand dunes, lush forests, turquoise lakes.
Next stop was Noosa, a little further down the coast where we stayed for 2 nights. We visited Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter - unfortunately he wasn't there that day - would have loved to have met him to see if he was exactly as he is on telly. We saw Harriet, a Giant Galapagos tortoise who is thought to be the world's oldest living animal at the age of 176 - DNA testing has suggested the giant creature was born around 1830. Some people believe she was studied by British naturalist Charles Darwin who took her and several other young Giant Galapagos tortoises back to London
after his epic voyage on board HMS Beagle.
We then visited Ray, whom we had met in Bali a couple of weeks previously,and his wife Lauraine, in Palm Beach and stayed at his home for a few days. We had a our first Aussie barbecue on the first night and Dana, whom we had also met in Bali, came over for the evening too. It was fantastic to stay in a home after months of hotels, guesthouses and hostels.
Byron Bay was next on the agenda where we spent a few days relaxing at a great hostel called the Arts Factory before the killer 14 hour journey to Sydney, our final stop in Oz.
Our stay in Sydney was made more memorable because of Bobbie and Chris who we met 6 months previously in India. They invited us then to come and stay with them when we arrived in Oz, and we took them up on the offer! We had a great time seeing Sydney through the eyes of locals - we spent the whole time we were there eating and drinking fine foods and wine and quite a lot of Chris' home brew!
We also
got a chance to meet up with Keerthi, one of the other inmates at Rawai Muay Thai camp!
Sydney, Fraser Island and the Whitsundays were the definite highlights of our trip to Oz and it was great to catch up with all those we had met previously on our travels.
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Laura
non-member comment
Hi! Glad to see you had a good time in Australia - you did more in 4 weeks than I've done in 4 months here!! Your pictures are, as always, amazing. The whitsundays look gorgeous, I'm saving to go there next! I'm sorry i couldn't meet up with you on the sunshine coast, we'll get that drink one day.... even if it is back in the UK. Hope your good times continue, Laura x