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Published: October 9th 2010
Only 2 weeks to go until we start our travels and the excitement is kicking in!
We are slowly preparing everything for our travels, we have now booked our return flight to Melbourne which cost $109 each, our Greyhound Hop on Hop off Mini Bus Pass costing $769 for the both of us (this is how we are going to be travelling to each destination), our hostels vary in prices but on average we are paying $55 a night for a standard double room with shared facilities, the most we have paid is $74 a night in Magnetic Island (because there are only a handful of places to stay and the cheapest was fully booked) and the least we are paying is $40 a night at Woodduck Inn - Cairns, because we booked for a week we got discount!
We have also booked our Fraser Island stay where we camp on the island for 2 nights and do a self drive tour with a group of people in a 4x4, the price includes what I've just listed as well as 2 nights either side of our trip on Rainbow Beach and everything else we need (e.g. island camping pass,
camping equipment, fuel, 4x4 hire etc.) it came to $350 per person which is really good for what we are getting.
Our Itinerary (travelling up the east-coast):
Leave Melbourne 23rd Oct 8pm - Arrive Sydney 24th Oct 8am (overnight coach journey - probably one of the worst trips we will have to do, we are not looking forward to this at all!)
Stay in Sydney for 5 nights we plan to see the iconic sights such as: Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, the flying Foxes, visit some markets e.g. fish market, paddys market, go on a cruise of the Harbour, go to Bondi Beach and walk to Coogee beach (it takes 2 hours if you don't stop which we will, but apparently it is the walk of your life with beautiful sceneries to view on the way) and a drink on Sydney Tower - all in all that should cover 5 days!
Leave Sydney 29th Oct 7am - Arrive in Coffs Harbour 29th Oct 5pm - (all day coach trip - luckily these coaches have air-con let's hope it's working!) We are only staying in Coffs Harbour for the night we won't have time to see anything - it is a stop over place.
Leave Coffs Harbour 30th Oct 6.30am - Arrive Bryon Bay 30th Oct 11am
Stay in Byron Bay for 2 nights we want to do dolphin sea kayaking - you go on a tour for about 5 hours so its a long time to be kayaking but you stop a lot to watch the dolphins they are right next you, plenty of photo opportunities we may even see turtles and whales as well if we are lucky! We also plan on taking a walk to the most Easterly point of Australia to Cape Byron Lighthouse.
Leave Bryon Bay 1st Nov 7.50am (notice all these early starts!) - Arrive Surfers Paradise 1st Nov 9.20am
Stay in Surfers Paradise for 1 night - we aim to make the most of the day by taking some snaps of the high rise buildings, sunning ourselves on the beach, learning how to surf and going on jet skis (I'm excited about these - they are so much fun!).
Leave Surfers Paradise 2nd Nov 9.20am - Arrive Brisbane 2nd Nov 11am
Stay at Brisbane for 3 nights we plan to go to Southbank to the man made beach (we didn't even realise they had one until we researched last night - because Brisbane is based on a river it is not a coastal city, we assumed they wouldn't have a beach but they do lol), go to the Queen Street Mall - supposedly a great place to shop, Liam better stop me from spending all of our travelling money ha, go to Wet 'n' Wild Water Park - it looks awesome lots of fun rides only bad thing is, it is actually an hour away from Brisbane by train it depends on funds if we can afford to go here!
Leave Brisbane 5th Nov 7am - Arrive at Rainbow Beach 5th Nov 12.30pm
Stay at Rainbow beach for 2 nights and Fraser Island for 2 nights. The day we arrive we have a brief about Fraser Island - safety, how to drive the 4x4 (luckily I won't be picked as you have to be 21 - we think for insurance reasons so Liam might be the unlucky one let's hope his driving skills are as good as he says they are lol!), we then get put into groups of around 8-10 people and go get some food for the trip from the local supermarket, we will hopefully get to go on a whale watching tour as well if we have enough time, the next day we leave for Fraser Island - whilst we are there we will visit Champagne Pools, Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby (these lakes look like the sea, they are fresh water and look like paradise!), the rainforest - and lots more that I can't think of now - it will be my first camping experience as well so I'm looking forward to it, we return to Rainbow beach on the 8th Nov to stay for our last night!
Leave Rainbow Beach 9th Nov 3.30pm - Arrive Hervey Bay 9th Nov 5.30pm (dinner break/stretch legs) - Leave Hervey Bay 9th Nov 8.55pm - Arrive Airlie Beach 10th Nov 9.05am (this is going to be the worst journey of them all, we had to choose this option as our Fraser Island trip is departing from Rainbow Beach when usually they depart from Hervey Bay, so it messed us up a little but it's okay it means one less night of accommodation we have to pay for as we will be 'trying' to sleep on the coach!)
Stay at Airlie Beach for 7 nights (this is the mainland of the Whitsunday Islands - cheaper to stay on the mainland as the islands are pretty exclusive), we plan to snorkel, go on a couple of boat cruises to the islands and explore them e.g. Hamiliton Island and Whitehaven Beach, visit the market and just chill by the lagoon (you can only go in the sea at Airlie Beach if you have a stinger suit on as there a millions of jellyfish! so they built a lagoon - a big swimming pool basically).
Leave Airlie Beach 17th Nov 7am - Arrive Townsville 17th Nov 11.30am
We are going to be arriving at Townsville which is the mainland and we are going to get a ferry across to Magnetic Island which is where we are going to be staying for 3 nights. The island is only around 3-4 miles in total so it's pretty small but is meant to be beautiful! We plan to snorkel, go to the beach, hire a mini moke (they are small cars that look like golf buggies lol), sunbathe, visit the koala sanctuary - also our accommodation is made up of these little bungalow wooden huts they look cool and they are placed in the rainforest so we hope to be woken up by the noise of tropical wildlife lol.
Leave Townsville 20th Nov 12pm - Arrive Cairns 20th Nov 6pm
Stay at Cairns for 7 nights, this is the week where we have a lot of activities to do, we plan to do White Water Rafting - looks like fun, visit Green Island for the day, go on a waterfall/rainforest tour (shoot a Peter Andre video under one of the waterfalls), go on a boat cruise to the Great Barrier Reef to do some more snorkelling and hopefully find nemo, visit the night market, go to one of the Northern Beaches - as the main beach of Cairns you can't go on as it is full of crocs - scary stuff!
Leave Cairns 28th Nov 12am so we will have to be at Cairns airport around 9pm on the 27th Nov - Arrive Melbourne 28th Nov 4.40am
Stay in Melbourne for 1 night - we plan to get a suitcases, sort them out - we will probably have to throw away a few things as we have no room for them, chill for the day, possibly stay up late (if we can handle it) so that we are extra tired on the flight home check in at the airport 29th Nov 10pm - Flight is at 1am, wave goodbye to Australia 😞
Arrive in sunny England 30th Nov at 3pm after yet again the longest flight of our lives - which we are not looking forward to at all!
I hope the travel plan is helpful - at least it will let you know where we are and what we are up to whilst we are travelling! I won't be taking my laptop as I've said before but most hostels have internet access and comps so we will try and update everywhere we can and upload photos for you to see!
Speak soon Chloe & Liam xxx
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