Strewth! I'm in Australia.

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Home and Away

After a few very relaxing days on the island of Lamma, a short boat ride from the always impressive Hong Kong, enjoying the hospitality my good friends, and future purveyors of fine chocolates (all being well), Adam and Vicki, I took a flight to Sydney.

Initially, I thought I'd made a big mistake: the skies were grey and it was drizzling and the rush-hour commute had begun. It felt like being in London. Even some of the place names were the same. However, after a delicious dinner with my mate Bree and her mum and a trip to the beautiful Bondi Beach to see the "Sculptures by the Sea". The weather hadn't cheered up, I had, especially after looking round the excellent Museum of Contemporary Art and seeing the iconic harbour bridge and opera house.

Beaches

I wasn't a big fan of the beach back in the UK, but as soon as I clapped eyes on the moodily-lit, magnificent sweep of Byron Bay, I was hooked, especially as I saw several pods of dolphins playing in the surf. The sunset that first evening, viewed from the lighthouse at the southern end of the bay was beautiful.

The clouds disappeared and the sky was blue so I headed back to the beach for a surf lesson and crikey, if I wasn't standing up on my first go. Not only that, I was surrounded by gorgeous northern european ladies in their bikinis. Fair dinkum!

More beaches

Everywhere I went on the east coast, I could have stayed longer and so it was not surprise that I ran out of time and didn't get chance to dive the Great Barrier Reef. However, I did manage to surf at Noosa Heads and Rainbow Beach. At Hervey Bay, I hooked up with a couple of English lads for a 4x4 blast round Batjala K'Gari, the world's largest sand island, otherwise known as Fraser Island.

I made the mistake of buying some eggs before we set off for the ferry to Fraser. Not surprisingly, after the first day of bounding the the Hi-Lux over some very bumpy terrain, it was scrambled eggs for dinner.

Snoring

Andrew and I were driven out of our cramped four-bed room by his dad's fantastic snoring, and after a night sleeping in the corridor we were all set for another day of hairing round like lunatics. It wasn't all off-roading though, we did find time for some swimming in the island's beautiful perch lakes. You can't swim in the sea though as it's full of deadly stingers and man-eating sharks.

Cool Bananas

Next stop was Agnes Water. Agnes Water is a very small town with an excellent beach and some great surf, but it's drawcard is the best hostel in Australia, as far as I'm concerned, Cool Bananas. The guy who runs this place help design and build it and he got it exactly right. If you're in the area, stop by. You'll probably end up staying longer than expected.

Whitsunday Islands

As I'd enjoyed everywhere else so much I only had time for a day trip to the Whitsunday Islands. Again, I could have stayed much longer. Whitehaven Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but you can't swim in the sea there unless you're wearing a very attractive stinger suit. Diving in the area is also not to be missed; the coral is unlike any I've seen anywhere else.

Airlie Beach

To get to the Whitsundays I sailed from Airlie Beach. What I hadn't realised was that the aboriginal word "Airlie" means "no sand" and with all kinds of translucent stinging creatures in the water, not to mention the far more solid great whites, it wasn't a great place to go surfing. However, Airlie Beach does have a purpose-built, municipal baths called The Lagoon. To call this place a swimming pool would be doing it a massive injustice. It's a gorgeously landscaped oasis of clear blue water, surrounded by grass with excellent views of the ocean. What's more, it's free to use. Why do any of us live in the UK?

Uluru

I spent just one night in Cairns and from what I saw it was another place I could have lingered for a few days and obviously it's one of the best places in the world for scuba diving. It was a shame to miss out, but Uluru, or Ayer's Rock, was calling.

It was 46 C in Alice Springs when I arrived. Luckily it had cooled down from the week before's camera-melting high of 65 degrees. Soon enough I was on my way to see Uluru, the nearby, and equally impressive, Olgas and King's Canyon. A tour is only as good as the guide and we struck gold with Miguel who got us up in time to see the sunrise and kept us entertained and fed for three sweltering days.

The Ghan

The Ghan train runs from Darwin to Adelaide and boy, am I glad I only did half the distance from Alice Springs. It was perhaps the most uncomfortable 24 hours of my entire life. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but every time I dozed off on the Red Kangaroo seat, I smacked my head into the window. In the lounge area, where you could lie flat, it was apparently illegal to go to sleep and the guard would wake you up every few minutes. The boredom was relieved somewhat by the drunken, friendly aboriginals, Anna, the friendly German and the best sunset I've ever seen.

Adelaide to Perth

After spending an enjoyable few hours lazing on the beach it was time for my flight to Perth. I'd booked a dorm bed at the Grand Central Backpackers, but, to be frank, the place stank, so I hot-footed it over to the fantastic City YHA. A quick look round the centre of Perth was enough for me and the next day I was on my way to Margaret River.

Wine for Dudes and more surfing

Margaret River makes some of the best wine in Australia and it would have been rude not to have sampled some of the produce. I jumped on the Wine For Dudes tour bus and prepared myself for some serious wine -tasting. I wasn't disappointed. We visited four cellar doors, a cheese shop and a chocolate factory. As the group tasted more wine, so more wine was bought and we wobbled back to the marvellous Surf Point resort to carry on what was turning out to be quite a sesh.

To freshen up, the following day I headed down to the rivermouth for some surfing. Even with a full length wetsuit I only managed to stay in the water for an hour before my hands turned blue with cold. Why didn't anyone tell me it got so cold in Australia?

North of Perth

Back in Perth I discovered that the Greyhound service wasn't going to meet my needs as it was only running three days a week and was fully booked with it being the festive season. So, I hired a car and decided to drive up as far as Coral Bay on the west coast. "You realise how far it is?" asked the woman at Bayswater Car Rentals. "Yes", I lied.

The Long and Straight Road

I began to realise that I was going to have to drive quite a long way when trying to find the highway that on my map, looked as if it went straight into the centre of Perth. The first three locals I asked had only heard rumour of the Brand Highway and one of them once had a cousin who'd moved to Kalbarri, the half-way point of my journey, but had never heard from them since.

The west coast is one of the most isolated and beautiful places I've ever been. The beaches are unspoilt, there's literally nothing there, for miles and miles and miles. At one stage, I hadn't seen another car for about three hours.

Eventually I made it to Kalbarri in time to see another gorgeous sunset. The next morning I continued on to Coral Bay, as I'd got some accomodation booked there and with Christmas approaching it was becoming hard to find.

Coral Bay

From Coral Bay I joined a group of divers for some exploration of the magnificent Ningaloo Reef. The water was crystal clear and the coral unspoilt and plentiful. The highlight of the trip was swimming with Manta Rays as they fed on the bloom of plankton beneath us.

Strewth!

A good portion of Ningaloo Reef is accessible from Coral Bay's beach and with the knowledgeable Aussie Graham as our guide we kayaked off to see sharks and turtles on the far side of the reef. First stop was the shark cleaning station where smaller fish scoff the debri and parasites from between the reef sharks' teeth and from their gills. We saw seven white-tip reef sharks. Strewth! Later on, while we watched a turtle have a feed, a black-tip shark swam by, followed minutes later by an enormous grey nurse shark. Crikey!

Later on I swam just as far as we'd kayaked, about 4km, with a South African bloke, Mike, who I was convinced was swimming all the way back to Cape Town. Having grown up in Birmingham, the city furthest away from any coastline in the UK, I'm a bit wary of the ocean and so felt quite chuffed.

I spent Christmas swimming on the reef, enjoying the sunsets and having a good laugh with two Aussie bros, Andrew and Ben and a group of amusing Germans, Desiree, Julia and Suzannah. On Boxing Day it was time to leave. On the way back I stopped at Monkey Mia to feed a dolphin, and accidentally visited the unusual Pinnacles Desert.

NYE in Newcastle

After a day's surfing on Scarborough Beach near Perth, I headed back to Sydney from where Bree whisked us up the coast to Newcastle to celebrate NYE with fireworks, some great live music, a couple of drinks, a dip or two in the ocean and some great new mates.

My time in Oz had all too quickly come to an end. There are lots of places I still want to see and just about everywhere I've been, I'd like to revisit.

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Photos

HK Harbour
Hong Kong

Big bloke on the lav
Bondi Beach

Hostess with the mostess
My good friend Bree

Sculpture
Bondi Beach

Inevitable Beer
Cheeky Monkeys, Byron Bay

Pimped
Hervey Bay

Hi Lux on the beach
Fraser Island