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Published: February 23rd 2007
Ali the Rain God
One of the rainy days in Cairns. You actually can get soaked within a min. walk. However it is 30 degrees, so quiete enjoyable.Well after not such a long flight from Singapore we have landed in the sunshine state, Queensland, Australia.
We have arrived in Cairns, I wasnt too sure what to expect from Cairns, but have come to learn, there isn't much in here, there are plenty of things to do outside of the city but the city itself, in my opinion; is quite, over priced and reminds me too much of America. It seems to be full of tourists, whether they are backpackers or people on vacation. This is what the city is geared up for also. It has loads of tourist information offices which offer you a variety of choices and prices, my advice is to shop around as they can be competitive.
Well what have we been up to in Carins thus far; as it has been raining since the first day we arrived and not stopped we have done very little for the time spent here. We took a double room in our hostel which I have to admit was a very wise decision, the room is clean, had A/C and a sink. Otherwise the room is very basic
Dingo Fruit
During our Rainforest Trip we encountered the feared, very smelly Dingo Fruit - and no we did not even think about trying it. and quite lifeless. Well the same goes for the hostel, its pretty lifeless also. Maybe the weather is to blame but thats how we felt during our stay there.
We went to cape Tribulation which is a rainforest not 2 hours from Cairns. The rainforest and surounding area is magnificent but unfortunately, the day started with our tour bus arriving 45 mins later than it was meant to, so we were sat outside the hostel wondering whether we were ever going to be picked up?? When the driver did arrive, he simply checked our names and chucked us on.. off we went. It was very early in the morning, the bus driving was trying to have some fun, play some games but no one was really up for that and plus the fact that we were late. This had a knock on effect througout the whole day, as the places we visited on our way upto the rainforest and back down, were simply 20 mins here and 10 mins there, most of the day was spent on the bus driving from one place to another! Since we had paid over AU$200 for this tour we expected more time to
Boomerang
Everywhere you went you found all sorts of souvenirs. One that we definetely had to get is a boomerang. explore the places and not to be constantly told we are running late! To top it off, it rained the whole time, like i said it has not stopped raining since we arrived.
Right we need to get out of Cairns, so we thought to book a 18 day tour down the East coast. The tour incorporates 3 days and 2 nights on a competition sailng boat, we will be part of a 20 strong crew, after which we will move on to Fraser Island which is a huge sand Island, We will camp there for another 3 days and 2 nights, driving along the island and camping besides lagoons and other scenic spots.
The tour itself sounds great, unfortunately due to the heavy/non stop rain we coundn't make it out of Cairns!!! The buses had stopped running which meant we would never make it down the East coast in time for our flight to Sydney. We gave the weather an extra day but the rains did not stop, so we thought ok, lets try and get our money back and see what esle we can do. Thats another thing to remember with tour operators in Cairns, they
Rainforest Leaves
An amazing flora and fauna opened up when walking through the rain forest. I know why it is called 'rain'forest also... dont give refunds, as we had paid over $1400 in total including our bus tickets, we needed the money back!!
I (Ali) stood and argued with the tour agency, in the end they gave in only on the condition that the tours we had booked would give a full refund, I then was on the phone and started to cancel accommodation down the east coast as well as the sailing and Fraser island. Fraser island said it was cool and cancelled no probs, however the sailing company said it wasn't their fault the weather is bad so could not give a refund. I argued with the women that its not my fault that i cant get there but she wasn't having any of it. She was just out to rip us off!!! The tour agency asked how i was getting on and i told her, she then rang the sailing company, i think she felt really really sorry for us. The tour agency was able to get us a refund from the sailing company. However we had to pay a cancellation fee which was over $400, we thought some money back is better than non.
We then booked a
Billabong
Especially in the UK you might be aware of this brand, which is here in every surfshop. Billabong is actually a way of catching fish, that Aboriginies used. When it flouded the fish came in and after water flowing back, the fish were a lot easier to catch in between those roots. Clever! flight with Virgin Blue, from Carins to Sydney, where we knew the weather is better, the very next morning we shared a cab with another girl who had gone through the same thing as us but unfortunately wasn't able to get any money back! and we were off to Sydney!!!
Sydney- the city of beaches and parties We landed in Sydney a couple of hours later, had to put my clock forward as Sydney is an hour in front of Carins and that means were even further away from home :-) the sun was high in the sky, it was hot, and it was great to be out of the rain!!! We made our way to the hostel which is a YHA on the northern beaches. The hostel is quite nice! We booked a mixed 4 dorm room, got to our room, dumped our stuff and then started to think, who is our room mates for the next week??
On seconds thoughts, sod it, we have great weather, lets go to the beach, body board and explore our surroundings. The beaches are clean, the waves are high and the sun is hot!!! Just what we were looking
Rainforest Tree
Similar to surviving in the city, when attaching yourself to the strong and rich, this plant is climbing up the tree to reach the sunlight. for. It was great to lay on the beach, read my book and watch Katja get turned over by the waves.
On our return to the hostel we were pleasantly surprised to find a Welsh couple, other than the accent they were ok. They had just spent 6 months on the west coast of Oz and were now making their way up the East coast. We ended up doing quite a bit of stuff with them...
The Northern Beaches - the surf experience After a true culture shock coming from Asia into the very americanised Australia, combined with extreme weather conditions in form of a cyclon hitting Cairns and raining for days as Ali nicely described, I am more than happy to have experienced a positive experience in Australia - Sydney and it's northern beaches, like you can see on the pics.
The north of Sydney is plastered with beaches ranging from freshwater beaches, palm beach to the famous Bondi beach within Sydney itself. Everywhere you will find surfers with short or long boards, blue bottles (yelly fish with a sting that burns for 20min after taking the sting out), well built lifeguards 😊 and a
Rainforest Tree
Often trees stand for hundrets of years, even after they are dead. Like this one. I took a picture from inside the tree. lot of waves and sunshines.
After a few days I found a like minded companion from Sweden - Maria, who would take on the challenge of the waves (Ali does not seem to like the water...). A helpful UK citizen gave us a 30 min surfing introduction in our youthostel and we went for it... yes we took 2 long boards out and jumped straight into the waves, just like the professionals. Well after 20min trying to get into the water, closer to were the waves brake, we had to realize what a tough game it is. Finally, arrived were the waves start, we kept trying to catch them by standing up on to the boards. I guess it is easy to figure out, that we were not very successful, I remember one of the surfers looking at me and asking weather I am all right.
I understood afterwards why - I had scratches from the board and stones, all over my body, my hair did not only stand up in a punk style but also had freaky seaweed with spikes in it and my face was red from the exhaustion. I do remember vagely a lot of
Cairns Saltwater Pool
Ali's artpicture. As you see it is a great pool, however the sun was missing to test it out...until the last day we left, of course. sand on/in every part of my body, that was a sticky mess. Also I saw Ali walking on the beach, getting worried and searching for us on the far beach and big waves - I do not lie, they were up to 2m high, which I saw crashing over my head not only once...
But it was fun, the adrenaline rush let us forget all the pain and fear, we paddeled, jumped, held breath and paddeled back into the blue.
This surfing experienced improved every evening that we met as we got more tips and were joined by more experienced surfers. We finally got up on the board, just to feel the cool water, a secound later we fell!!!! I wish someone would have taken a picture to prove our efforts. By the way Ali vanishes from the beach soon, guess it is not much fun to watch us struggling.
But Maria and I were surf girls for a few days!!
Palm Beach and Koo Ring Gai Chase National Park Collaroy Beach was a fantastic starting location to explore Sydney and its surroundings. We took out bikes for two days, one just to prove that even
Trip to Sydney
Fleeing from the rain we decided to leave Cairns, at 4 am. with one gear you can get up high hills and second that even a fallen off pedal can not stop us from getting around. Ali actually jogged around 8 km in one hand the bike and with the other one drinking water as and when. I felt like a marathon volunteer, riding after him and supporting his effort of running in the heat (just look at the pic).
These challenges did not stop us from seeing beatiful palm beach - yes where 'Home and Away' is filmed. We saw a set, were a girl was rescued. You might see it in England in 3 months. I am not sure wheather we actually got in to the pic. Anyway, palm beach has a lighthouse that we walked up to, presenting a wonderful view of a half island with two beaches.
Also we cycled to Manly (ha, ha, I found it a funny name - just like swell fun a chinese company). It is a hard ride with a lot of hills but rewarding view from the northern point over Sydney, its Circular Quay, cliffs and nature, effected by the heat. We were affected by it too, just look on
Beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney
The Northern Point a half island with a cliff overlooking Sydney. the pics...
Another journey took us to the popular national park Koo Ring Gai Chase National Park. I think the pictures tell more than a story that I can write. Koo Ring Gai Chase, is an amazing park, you can catch a ferry there or do as we did bike!! its a long way to bike and you really need a full day. I would also say you need to be reasonably fit. Our roomies came on the bike ride with us, even tho Dave wanted to carry on, his fiance was moaning alot about the distance and so they turned back. Unfortunately they turned around at just the wrong moment, if they had given it a few more minutes and carried on round the corner they would have seen the sign to the park. In the end we carried on, found the park and even better a mountain bike track that led down to the ferry. The mountain bike track was so good, it was a dirt track with outstanding views over the national park. We followed the track down to the ferry. which turned out to be a little hut, we had to put up a red
Beautiful Northern Beaches
The variety of reliefs and vegetation took our breaths away... flag so the ferry captain would know that someone is waiting. it was something out of Huckleberry and Finn, im sure you all remember that, i know Ray does (hehehe). We jamp on the ferry enjoyed a 10 min ride back to Church Point and got back on our bikes as by now we were exhausted and wanted to return to our hostel..... as katja has said earlier, my pedal fell off on the way back so i had to jog, wow it was a long way we cycled!
Chinese New Year Parade Our room mate tipped us off on the parade, as were were not expecting anything until next week, but she had got onto the web and found it. GREAT. So we headed off in the morning to see the parade. it was amazing, the colours, the fire crackers, the masses of people, the atmosphere, i guess its one of the those things that you have to expereince rather than read or look at pics. The parade was full of colours from allover China, representing China's history from art through to pottery. Some people were dressed up as tea cups etc whilst others were show casing
Manly Beach
After Bondi Beach the most famous beach with a lot of surfing going on. martial arts and traditional dances throughout the parade. The parade it self must have lasted arouond 2 hrs, we stood back, and enjoyed.
After the parade we walked further down the street to a park, where we thought there would be more to see and do, unfortunately there wasnt that much there and the weather started to turn on us also. so we ended up in starbucks waiting for the rain to subside so we can make our way back to our beautiful beach in north sydney.
Blue Mountains Wow this place is a must!!!! and you know what the mountains are actually blue.. well kinda maybe its because we were stood above the clouds or maybe cuz there was a slight blue tint to the trees, either way the mountains looked blue.
The blue mountain expidition was explored with our roomies, they had the beast and it made sence that we drive there rather than public transport. We set off mid-morning, with the sun high in the sky. As we were making our way to the freeway we spotted signs for the Olympic park, syndey 2000 olympics!!! this place was massive, it took us a good 30
Ali the Surf Dude
His one and only try to surf! Looks good though. mins to drive around the place. We stopped and climbed on some of the play equipment, its meant for kids but hey its all good fun! 😊
After burning some energy the 4 of us thought right we have to move on or esle we are never going to get there, so we jamp into the beast and got on our way... our next stop was Leura, we literally spent 10 mins there. we drove up and down the main stretch, looking for the famous sweet shop... never found it. On we ventured to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains. We followed the well signed roads and got lost!! Dave isnt too good at directions... in the end we found a picnic area. We followed the path to find the most breathtaking views over the moutains. We followed the trails and the views just got better. The trail led under the mountains, like a cave pass, this brought us onto a huge waterfall, unfortunately i cant remember the name of this water fall but it was amazing, it was smtg out of a movie. After a good 20 mins of gawking at this amazing sight we thougt we need to
Surf Class on Manly Beach
As you see it is vital to put on tops as the sun is fatal without. We have seen several people collapsing at the lifeguards stations... move on, we could also see the rains approaching, we we quick stepped along the route to find even better sights, far too many to talk about right now. just look at the pictures.
After our hike into the mountains we made our way to the skycable and skytrain (I could be confusing these names with somewhere else, but hey you get the idea) The skytrain is a a 70 degree angled train decent into the blue mountains, it only takes a few minutes but its really scary, you really are hanging from your seats. Again the views are amazing from the train, well thats for us who actually looked, most of the people including Katja had their eyes closed. the train leads you into the rainforest, the walk was brisk over a wooden platform. there were plenty of information points teaching you about the mining and how people lived back in the day. I wasnt that interested but others maybe. On the way back up to the platform we caught the Skycable, this takes longer getting back but its well worth it for the views you get of the three sisters.
The three sisters are three formations
Katja the Bandicoots saver!
One of the many signs, warning us of animals that we can not even pronounce. of rock overlooking the blue mountains there names are 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' . Its a pretty fab view. Apprently the three sisters were named by the Aboriginies. Legend has it that these beautiful young women had fallen in love with three brothers from a different tribe, the Nepean tribe, yet the tribes forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.
We went to Ecco point to get a better look at the three sisters, which meant a little bit more driving and getting lost (dont worry Dave my sence of direction is
Palm Beach
'Home and Away' setting non existant also 😊. Once we got there the weather was really starting to take a turn for the worse, we were tired from all the walking during the day. so we went over to the look out point and thats when the heavens opened. We were caught in a terrential down pour, lucky for us the beast was not too far, we ran back, even then we were soaked through! it rained that hard we couldnt drive so had to sit in the car and watch the rain bounce off the roads and start to fill the guttering, in the end we made an executive decision that we should drive, even if we cant see anything as its better than being stuck here cuz of road flooding, apprently that happens alot in Oz especially this time of the year.
New town Newtown is a place 10 mins away from central station sydney. we found this place more by luck then anything else. We found a great looking hostel that said it was only 5 mins away from Central station. So we went for it, booked a 4 bed mixed dorm and we were sorted. When we got
Palm Beach
View from Lighthouse hill, that we climbed on. Most worthwhile visiting. to Sydney.. it was a different story, it turns out the Hostel is 5/10 mins away by train and not walking located in Newtown. We only discovered this by walking up and down the streets, asking people and slowing making our way to the hostel, you have to remember we had our backpacks which weigh arond 20 kgs each! not that much you might think but when your walking during mid day with the sun burning down on you it gets a wee bit heavy! At last we found this place which was 2 miles from sydney. we got there checked in and were told we have a 6 bed mixed dorm, we werent too happy about that. When we got to the room it was even worse, it really smelt, it was cramped and guess what it wasnt mixed, it was only males in there. I did start to kick up a fuss but katja didnt mind so i left it, i think she secretly enjoyed it 😱 We unpacked as little as possible and got out of that room as fast as possible! On our hike to the hostel which by the way is Billabong Hostel - dont
Palm Beach
Relaxation after Playfighting in the sand. I had to have a shower to get rid of the sand masses, that suddenly appeared in my clothing. stay there! we saw a fair or smtg like that and said we would investigate once we had settled. So we walked back down to the fair. It turns out that the fair is a build up to the Mardi Gras. There was all sorts happening from stalls selling attire, i think thats the best to describe some of the things that were been sold, to food and drink. An outdoor enclosed club with tecno music was banging away, a large stage in the middle of the park, had singers and dancers on and loads and loads of other stuff. They were giving things away and playing games etc. The best thing about the festival was that it was such a relaxed atmosphere, people were sat around enjoying the food and it was a real family day out, as long as you are not homophobic! Both Katja and I, sat back and people watched, there were so many characters, and i could have easily sat there all day.
The festival started to shut down around 6/7pm which at that point we went further on into the city. we found ourselves back in and around China town. I was quite bored
Bike Ride - The Jog
Well, the bikes that we got free from the YHA hostel were not up to scatch. Ali's paddle fell off, so he jogged 8km in the heat back home. I enjoyed the view from behind - on the bike. of it now as this was my third time there and we had pretty much seen everything on the first time. The night was young, we have little money and we didnt want to go to the hostel, so waht do ya do... go to the movies! We brought a movie ticket but had to kill time until the movie started. People watching is a great past time, and its costs noting, maybe thats how homeless people pass their days. its so interesting to see all of the different people and how some rush and others ponder. We killed more time in china town. I wanted some treats for the movies so we walked around the corner only to see a Chinese new year street dragon show! great we had missed the beginning. there were loads of people and we manged to push to the front. they really did the show well, standing on stilts and acting out the legend. The show finished just in time for our movie to start, the movies were not too far so we were able to make the start of the movies, we watched music & lyrics, a romantic comedy. thats one for you
Chinese New Year Parade
Dragon Dance on George Street in Sydney. Ray!!!! i know how you like your romantic movies.
New Town.. now this place really reminds me of camden town - London. Its full of quirky shops and mad food joints. for instance i saw this burger bar, just out of interest i looked at the menu, they had Bastard burgers???? agmonst other names I wont mention. we never eat there. Katja and I browsed the shops and Katja ended up buying a very nice and very cheap top. Not sure why it was so cheap, maybe due to the Russian connection? (the shop owners were Russian) or because it was a great deal? either way we were happy with the buy. The place has a very vibrant atmosphere and is littered with bars. However these bars do not stand out or are intrusive, they make Newtown what it is. Everyone in Newtown was friendly, we found so many nice places from furniture shops to antiques. It is well worth staying in Newtown we both highly recommend it.
Toronga zoo The zoo is a ferry ride away from circular quey, you can get there with bus also but i would recommend taking the ferry as it takes
Chinese New Year Parade
Colourful dresses and dances you past the Opera house and Sydney Bridge. As we arrived at the zoo we took a cable safari, which allowed us to look down at the elephants, giraffes and other animals. The zoo is quite compact but we easily spent 4 hours there, could have spent longer but it closes at 5pm!! I found that to be abit odd, as i expected tourist places like this would have stayed opened longer.
Apprently the zoo is the oldist Zoo in the world and this is where most animals are bred and sent onto other zoos around the world such as london and newyork. It was quite interesting to see what they did in the old days, at one point you could ride on the elephants!! that would have been mad! the highlight of the Zoo for us was seeing Australias native animal the Kangaroo and Wallabis. I didnt know there was a difference but there is, the Wallabis are smaller then kangaroos. We are saw a tree Kangaroo as well as a couple of Koalas. We made it in time for some of the shows, there was seal show and bird show, both shows were magnificent. If you only
China Town
China Town Visit with Friends: from left Maria (Sweden), us two, Ceri and Dave (Wales). We had a wonderful meal and walk along the chinese night market, ready for the new year celebrations. By the way our chinese zodiacs are horse for me and Ali Monkey :). had the cahnce to watch one then i would do the bird show, the birds )as it seems) randomly fly around the area to the sound of music, they also fly inches from our heads, you can feel the wind below their wings!!! It was amazing to see how well the birds were trained and how much control the handelers had over the birds.
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Carsten
non-member comment
Great time!
Hey Katja and Ali, It seems like you are having a great time even though there were some troubles along the way. Wish you all the best on continuing your trip and maybe see you around. Carsten