Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 4546

Day 2 of the safari was a bit of a rude awakening, as it started to rain!! The rain wasn’t heavy, but it wasn’t comfortable when you’re sleeping outside in a swag. Nevertheless, it was the best alarm clock considering we needed to be up by 07:40!! After a quick breakfast and a clean up around the camp we headed for ”The Rock”. The morning started with a leisurely 9 Km walk around the base. This allowed us to take photos, where permitted. Unfortunately, no beautiful pictures of sunrise were possible due to heavy cloud cover. Once again the flies were out in force, this made for some uncomfortable moments as I had left my fly net in the bus!!!! The option of climbing the rock was not available, as it had rained. This will have ... read more

Just returned from our 3 day tour of the outback Red sand ,green bush and 3 dimensional clouds were just the beginning we set off with a group of 17 plus 2 guides Lumpy and Mickha after we hiked the Olga’s we watched the sunset at Ayers Rock ( Uluru) and camped out for the night. Our sites consisted of wood frames covered in canvas with bedrolls and sleeping bags. Our guides cooked us campfire lunches & dinners with cast-iron camping ovens we tried Kangaroo tail cooked in the coals then rose at 4am ( 4 am!) to watch the sunrise. The highlight of the trip was Kings Canyon , unlike the Grand canyon it is caused by a crack in the earth rather than a river because it had rained we were able to see ... read more

We booked a tour to The Great Barrier Reef from Cairns and got a complimentary day on a 'coral cay' called Green Island. We actually stopped off at Green Island on the way out to the reef on the first day. It was probably one of the worst days to do the trip as the sea was very choppy and lots of the other tourists on the boat were throwing up (lovely!). It was also choppy at Green Island so we decided not to snorkel as the visibility wasn't very good. However as we were on the beach the lifeguard set off his siren and orders everyone out the water. Jason ran over to be nosey and saw a young crocodile was swimming to the beach. This apparently has never happened before at the island and ... read more

After a very un-settled nights sleep.... by sun rise Vix had enough of being crammed in the back seat and grabbed her sleeping bag to get a few more hours down on the beach and watched the sun rise. I stayed in the car. Made a few stop off's at various towns along the way and made a lot more progress to yesterday. Decided that evening to pay the $ and get our-selves in a hostel at Batemans Bay as all feeling so drained. So got a great nights sleep before making the last leg of the journey up to Sydney the next day....running ahead of schedule (a day early) as so eager to get there and loose them!!!!!!. ... read more

I caught the bus up to the huge Botanical Gardens out of the city in Mt Coot-tha reserve. The gardens seemed a little dry but then Queensland is having drought problems....a number of the fountains in the city have been temporarily deactivated. The planetarium was closed but the fern hous, Japanese garden adn highly comical Bonzai house were entertainment and relaxation enough after all my action in Byron. Mt Coot-tha provided stunning panoramas of the whole city and valley, looking back towards Byron and on towards the gold coast. The evening held more intrigue as i used my day pass from the bus on the City Cat boat that runs along the river. I caught it in the south bank parklands and cruised along to the Riverside Centre from which i meandred up to china town ... read more