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Published: November 11th 2007
Howdily Doodily Everbody!
I finally got off that blasted plane, set foot on the tarmac in Cairns and hopped in a taxi headed for a hostel. Alaina and I dropped off our bags, and went for a wander about. Luckily, one of the first places I came across was a 'Hogs Breath Cafe' the finest Australian eating establishment ever - and don’t let anyone else tell you different! Reece and Katie, a couple of friends that we had met early on in our travels were in Cairns when we arrived, so we arranged to meet up with them that night and head out for some dinner and a few drinks. The first couple of days were spent just wandering around the city, and the Marina - a pleasant little spot - checking out all the fancy yachts belonging to some seriously rich people before heading out of Cairns and getting into tourist mode.
The next day we were to be heading out to the Great Barrier Reef for a bit of a snorkel. Alaina, Reece and Myself headed to the Marina to board 'Compass' our ticket to the reef. Alaina pumped herself full of sea sickness pills, which looked
Port Douglas
The crew on the day-trip to Port Douglasdestined to fail at first but she soon got her sea legs back after an hour or so and all was well.
It took about two and a half hours to get to our first snorkel spot. In the time it took to get to the reef we had both decided that we would do a SCUBA dive as well as have a snorkel and as Reece was working on the boat that we had gone out on we had a good tour guide and he made sure we saw all the best spots on the reef, which was amazing.
We climbed back onto the boat after about an hour of snorkelling and got kitted up in all our SCUBA gear. I was so nervous at first; I couldn’t stop shaking, although at the same time I was really excited. As we all lowered ourselves into the water the feeling of breathing underwater was so surreal. The air that you breathe is really dry and all I wanted to do at first was come to the surface for a nice full breath of normal, moist air.... but I couldn’t! I managed to stop thinking about my breathing and
Cairns Waterfront
The water front precint in Cairns with the saltwater lagoon and marina. the instructor slowly took us deeper and deeper, and held onto us until he thought we were competent enough to swim alone. I got the hang of it pretty quick and he let me go after a couple of minutes.
Once I was swimming on my own the feeling was unbelievable. I would look up at the surface ten metres above me and be completely surrounded by coral and beautiful fishes - it’s deffo the way to see the reef. Reece came down with us as well and he kept on pointing things out that we may have missed and the instructors handed us sea Cucumbers to hold. I left the water after the first dive and there was no doubt in my mind that I would do a dive at the second site as well.
The boat moved on to the second site and our group was to dive first. As soon as I got in the water I wanted to go exploring but as I started to descend a Green Sea Turtle drifted over me and I couldn’t help but be gob smacked! The little fella was so friendly and was soon joined by a couple
SCUBA diving
Me and my good friend the turtle about to tuck into some sea grass. more of its mates. The crew handed us all pieces of sea grass (the turtles main diet) and I offered it to the turtle and it had off me immediately. One Muppet thought it would be a good idea to test the turtles jaw strength and decided to put her finger out for it to ‘nibble’ on. Luckily she escaped with a bloody finger but I was surprised she came out with one at all! Once again, having a mate on the crew came up trumps as I was constantly handed new handfuls of sea grass to feed the turtles over and over again.
When the turtles moved on we plunged into the depths and explored a beautiful coral garden with more colours than a rainbow and more fish than I could even nearly name. We stayed under for half hour and headed back to the boat once again amazed at what we had just witnessed.
After some lunch and another quick snorkel the boat headed back to terra firma, but the crew had one more trick up their sleeve. After much abuse and taunting from the crew for not wanting to have a go, I finally gave
Great Barrier Reef
Clown fish swimming around his anenome in and volunteered my self. The experience was to be boom netting - where you cling on for dear life to a big cargo net hanging from the back of the boat in the middle of the ocean (which may I add in Australia is full of things you don’t want to be messing with) and are mercifully dragged for dear life through the big blue whilst your intestines, inch by inch, are being sucked through your arsehole at about three feet a second! The longer you hold on, the faster the skipper drives the boat, till you can hang on no longer, gasping for air and flapping like a lunatic praying for dear life that something with teeth isn’t poised for an easy lunch below you. I lasted a few minutes until I got caught up in the ferocious wake and I took onboard more salt water than the titanic, couldn’t breathe and had no choice but to let go, say a quick prayer and flounder around in open water.
When we arrived back in Cairns I was well and truly knackered, but had an amazing day. The rest of the evening I did nothing but switch between
Boom-Netting
if you look really hard you can see my colon floating about twenty-feet behind me! sleep and brief moments of consciousness before falling asleep again.
The next morning was to be the start of our travels throughout the East Coast of Australia. We rose early to finish packing our backpacks, checked out of the hostel and started our trek to the Wicked Van depot where we were to pick up our campervan and home for the next three weeks.
As normal, whenever we are picking up a rental vehicle, not everything went to plan. It turned out that the bird who took the booking over the phone had confused "I would like to rent a campervan from Cairns and drive to Sydney" with " I would like to pick the van up in Brisbane" therefore the Cairns depot had no record of my rental and furthermore had no van ready for us. We headed to Subway to pick up some lunch while the depot tried to source a van for us to drive away that day. An hour or two later we were told they had found a van (although I still wonder to this day just where they did) and that we would be able to have it that day.
We
Crab Balls
Somehow a little crab does all this were given a standard Toyota High Ace, which is what broke down on us on the West Coast, decorated in a Ferrari race car design with more rust than actual metal work and more holes than a colander with the rather fetching phrase of 'I'm No Gynaecologist, but I'll have a Look' in big blue letters scribbled on the boot. Unfortunately we had no choice but to accept as we were on a tight time schedule as we had to get in Sydney in time for Alaina to catch her flight to Vancouver, and couldn’t spare a couple of hours, let alone a few days! Luckily, although the van was a crapper, one advantage of this particular heap was that it was a diesel and was capable of about 800km to a $60 tank of fuel.
We drove back into the city centre and met with Reece and Katie, who we had arranged a little trip to Port Douglas for the day with. Port Douglas is only 60km from Cairns but its one hell of a drive. The roads wind all the way up, and then back down a mountainside to the idyllic little town of Port Douglas. We
didn’t do much in the port town other than stop in a nice pub for a bite to eat and have a quick browse of the shops and wander along the beach, as it was such a glorious day. We all drove back to Cairns and Alaina and I headed back to the Wicked depot where we camped for the night in order to be unbothered by the police and settled for the night in the van.
We headed further North before starting our travels to Sydney, along through Daintree Village and called in on the amazing Daintree National Park, for a walk in the rainforest then onto Cape Tribulation, where we were greeted with what was the start of a weeklong rainstorm. I had seen postcards of Cape Trib and it looked amazing but unfortunately, the weather had done it no justice and it was looking gloomy and more like Weymouth than Australia. We drove a little further north to Cow Bay, another beach in Cape Tribulation in the hope of a bit of blue sky and a nicer looking beach, but it was not to be. However, I was lucky enough to spot a Cassowary crossing the
Cassowary
a rare green striped black topped cassowary spotted roadside road in front of us, which made my day a lot better. We settled for the night in a beachside car park, cooked some noodles and had an early night.
As we had reached the most northern point we intended on going to, we turned the van round and started driving back south. The continuing rain made driving very difficult, especially on the windy roads back towards Cairns. We made it past Cairns in a couple of hours and continued further to the seaside town of Mission Bay, a sleepy little tourist town. Mission Bay didn’t really have much to offer as the weather was still crap, which put the beach out of contention, and a trip to Dunk Island (which I really wanted to go to, just to get a photo with the sign!) as rain was forecast for the foreseeable future. We decided to keep on heading south and hoped to escape the rain maybe reaching Townsville before darkness fell. This wasn’t to be the case and we pulled up 40km short in a free campsite rest area where we parked under a tree to have twigs and nuts dropped on the van all night by a
Townsvillle
Townsville city centre possum sat in the tree above.
The smell of burnt toast and baked beans woke me up the next morning bright and early ready for the final trip into Townsville. We parked up on 'The Strand' and spent the morning wandering around the city and marina and worked up quite an appetite so popped into 'Hog's Breath' for a spot of lunch. That afternoon we decided to travel to the Billabong Animal Sanctuary, 17km south of Townsville. We arrived just in time to hold a wee Crocodile and join onto the start of a tour where we watched Croc and Dingo feeding before exploring on our own. The park had all sorts of human friendly native Aussie animals wandering and flying around the grounds so we bought a bag of food and fed the kangaroos, ducks, wallabies and possums before getting back to the animal handling area before we left. I held a huge Snake (although I’m used to that!), stroked a Wombat and also held a Koala (which although is cute, absolutely stinks as they pee on themselves in order to mark their territory). After a wicked day at the sanctuary we drove back to Townsville and parked
up on the strand where it was the first night of a cultural festival, and we spent an hour or so looking at the stalls and watching aboriginal acts on stage before retiring to the van, cooking dinner (noodles) and reading our books before bed.
The next morning we decided to go to Magnetic Island, a twenty-minute ferry crossing from Townsville. The Ferry arrived on the island in Nelly Bay and we bought a day rider bus ticker to enable us to travel by bus around the island all we wanted. Our first stop was to be Horseshoe Bay, a place that we had seen many pictures of and really liked the look of. The bay was beautiful, even though the weather was a bit pants. We had a stroll around the shops and picked a spot on the beach where I was so relaxed I’d passed out in a matter of minutes. A couple of hours passed and when I had regained consciousness along with a mammoth appetite, we popped into a restaurant for a spot of lunch and then went exploring Maggie Island.
Next en-route was Radical Bay, a two-kilometre walk over the hills and through
woodland. It was a tough walk but well worth the visit. The sand was soft and the view amazing once more. At Radical bay our bus ticket was useless as the nearest bus stop was three kilometres away so we had to walk all the way, and to make matters worse it was uphill pretty much the whole way. Worn out with my legs throbbing and feet and calf muscles like Arnie, we finally made it to the bus stop but then found ourselves waiting for forty minutes for the bus to show up.
Picnic Bay was our final destination before heading back to the ferry port destined for Townsville. The weather had got a lot worse again by now and the wind had really picked up. We went for a walk along the jetty and decided that it was just too cold so we settled for a hot chocolate in a nearby café and waited for the bus to come around again and take us back to Nelly Bay for the ferry. When we made it back to Townsville, neither of us had much in the way of get up and go so we stayed in the ferry
Dr Dolittle.....
....he talks to the animals! car park for the night and went straight to bed.
Cleanliness was the first thing on the agenda the following day, as it had been three days since my last shower and smelling like a hobo I wasn’t a nice person to be around. Unfortunately, when your not paying for a campsite it isn’t easy to come across a free shower, and if you do it isn’t going to be a warm power shower, and Townsville lagoon didn’t disappoint. We had a dip in the pool first, which, sure enough, was Baltic! The shower as normal was about one degree short of producing hailstones so my shower was to be swift.
Feeling fresh again we climbed aboard the van, and pointed south, drove the 350kms down to Airlie Beach. True to form the weather was still rubbish and rain and cloud was taking the place of what I was hoping would be sunshine. Airlie, being one of my favourite places when I visited a couple of years previously, meant I couldn’t wait to be back in town. After parking the van at the yacht club, we set off on foot for a wander around the shops and browsed
Horseshoe Bay - Magnetic Island
Where i settles for a nap for a few hours. a few tour shops before booking a trip to the Whitsunday Islands, on a rather flash boat for the bargain price of $99, for the following day. Unfortunately, that evening the heavens opened again and we received a phone call from the tour operator saying that our tour had been cancelled due to the poor weather and that we would have to reschedule.
We rescheduled the tour for a couple of days later when the cloud was forecast to clear, as I really didn’t want to miss out on the Whitsunday’s and luckily enough when the day came around the weather was glorious and the trip went ahead. We were picked up at 7:30 by a shuttle bus and driven to ‘Reef Jet’ the boat we were taking to the islands. The first of our stops only took and hour and a half to get to and just as we stopped to get in for a snorkel, a humpback whale was spotted one hundred metres from the boat. The whale was continually breaching for about twenty minutes and really was an incredible sight and one I don’t get the chance to witness too much.
We got into our
stinger suits, grabbed our snorkels and jumped into the crystal clear waters of the islands. The water was quite warm and shallow so the reef was really visible and of course very colourful and beautiful. The fish were incredible and we even saw a few biggun’s looking for their dinner. We snorkelled for about forty-five minutes before boarding the boat and sailing onto Hill Inlet, our next stop.
When we arrived at our next stop the main attraction was the lookout over Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach. A short pilgrimage through the trees and up a hillside took me to the most breathtaking view I have ever seen. Alaina and myself arrived first and had the lookout point to ourselves before everyone else arrived and were both speechless as to what we were looking at. The water was turquoise; the sand white and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I could have stayed up there and just stared at the view for hours and it would have got no less amazing. The crowds arrived and the fight for a photo began so we walked back down the hillside to the beach, clambered into the tinny and motored out
to the boat.
Once the masses had all got back to the boat lunch was prepared and a lot of shoulder barging commenced in order to get pick of the meats for a sarnie. A buffet style lunch was prepared and destroyed and we soon headed to Whitehaven Beach, where the boat anchored up in the shallows and we all poured onto the beach. Whitehaven beach has been voted in the top ten beaches in the world, the sand is 99% Silica sand, like flour to the touch and squeaky underfoot. The tour guide told us that the sand had been used in production of the Hummel Space Craft. We had an hour and a half to relax and soak up some sun before boarding the boat and cruising back to Airlie. As the sand is so fine, its perfect for exfoliating the skin, so I got in touch with my feminine side and exfoliated like it was going out of fashion! I do have to say that my skin did feel pretty good but I think I was a bit carried away in a few spots and started to take skin off! With only a few minutes left
on the beach I sat in the warm, crystal clear water and watched stingrays swimming in the shallows before grabbing my towel and wading back to the boat.
Just when I thought the day couldn’t have got any better we were lucky enough to pass by three Humpback Whales (a mother, calf and a grandmother) on the way back to the mainland, and they swam right by the boat. Everyone was in awe as they got closer and closer and were doing a few tricks, when some tosser in his private yacht, clearly with more money than sense decided he wanted to get closer, and frightened the whales into a dive never to be seen again.
With my time in Airlie Beach over, and having seen everything I wanted to see it was time to move on again, and sadly say goodbye to Airlie once more - but I’ll be back again someday.
Mackay, 150km south of Airlie was next on the map and we arrived early the next morning. With not really a lot to see in Mackay we had a wander round a shopping centre and walked through the city centre, before taking a trip
Humpback Whale
On the way back to Airlie after the Whitsunday Islands trip. to the marina where I fancied a spot of fishing. I picked up some bait from a tackle shop and a few bits of tackle and perched myself on the breakwater and cast my bait. After a couple of hours sat on a rock I had nothing but little nips and lost every piece of tackle I had just bought in the rocks below. Frustrated, I retired to the van, got some lunch and watched the sunset, went to the cinema, and parked the van on a quiet side street where we slept for the night.
Driving was the name of the game the next day as a trip to Bundaberg, home to many a sugar cane plantation and of course, the famous Aussie spirit, Bundaberg rum - fight juice for many Australians, young and old - was next on the list. It was on this particular journey that I added to my already impressive road kill tally - consisting so far of a snake and goanna - adding a pheasant which I think was trying to fly into the van with me, a pigeon and a small sparrowy type bird the victim of the radiator. We made it
Mackay Breakwater
Where i went fishing.....and lost all my tackle! to Bundy late afternoon, brushed the feathers from the van and went straight into the information centre to see what was on offer. With little to do in Bundaberg, other than visit the distillery or a sugar cane farm we didn’t plan to stay for long so set off for the town centre and had a look around.
Within minutes the weather went from pleasant to stormy so we seeked refuge in a Chinese restaurant and took advantage of an all you can eat buffet, whilst watching the rain pour down the windows. With little choice other than to head back to the van, the evening was spent reading Jeremy Clarkson and playing PSP until I could no longer keep my eyes open.
The next morning came around and the horns of the early trains arriving woke me up at the crack of dawn. We decided to give Bundy another chance and have a quick wander around but found nothing new meaning the only thing left was to take a trip to the Bundaberg Rum distillery. We checked out the tours and they were a bit costly so settled for a few photos with an oversized bottle of
Bundaberg rum Distillery
Its as if dreams come true! rum and set off on our travels again.
As we started heading south for Hervey Bay the weather had really deteriorated and as our radio lost and regained its signal we found out that 105km/hr winds were blowing through the town, the heavens had opened and torrential rain was falling. As we pulled into the town I couldn’t even see three feet in front of the van so I thought it was probably best to find a parking spot and wait for the showers to halt. As I sat in the front seat, a strange tapping noise from the back of the van was driving me insane. As I hunted high and low for where the noise was coming from I glanced into the back to spot the mattresses soaking up a fair old bit of rainwater, which was slowly making it through to our clothes and had already sent most of my food swimming.
The rain stopped falling and we decided to head outside and explore. The first things I saw were a couple of fallen trees by the beach and puddles more like small ponds scattered everywhere. As I drove through the town, a policeman diverted
Bundaberg's Centrepiece
Slap bang in the middle of the city. my route as a massive tree had fallen across the road. After getting a little lost in all the diversions we finally made it to the jetty and had a quick wander to the end and back and then moved on to the marina. The weather once again forced us on, as with nothing but doom and gloom there wasn’t much point in hanging around in a beach town so hopped back in the van hopeful that we could make it to Brisbane before nightfall. As normal our hopes were dashed by more rain and darkness so we pulled up short in a place with the rather amusing name of Gympie one hundred and eighty kilometres shy of Brizzy in a Pizza Hut car park, tucked into an all you can eat buffet, drove on to a highway rest area and nodded off.
The next twenty-four hours of my life were not far from torture (not quite as bad as boom netting!). I couldn’t get a wink of sleep as the thought of the river nearby overflowing and taking the Wicked van along with me and Alaina to somewhere I didn’t want to be was a little daunting, I
Hervey Bay Carnage
Fallen Tree after the cyclonic winds. had no food for breakfast and I knew I had the thought in the back of my mind that in a couple of hours I would have to drive through one of Australia’s capitol cities.
Brisbane’s road network is a nightmare to drive through - lanes come out of nowhere, all of a sudden a two way road becomes one-way, and the Brisbane natives are lunatics behind the wheel - it had nothing to do with me being a lost tourist I’m sure. As Alaina’s sister and boyfriend were working in Brizzy we gave them a quick call and arranged to meet them at their hostel, which they explained was easy to find, but a couple of hours later, with both myself and Alaina close to tears and nearly voiceless from all the screaming we pulled up in the hostel car park in pure ecstasy, never so happy to see another familiar face.
It was nice to have somebody around that new the city as it limited the amount of time I was to be wandering around lost and after a quick sushi break we left the girlies to go shopping and me and Steve settled for a
Jumping Croc
Croc Show at the Crocoseum at Australia Zoo few beers in ‘Mick O’ Malleys’, an Irish bar in the city - the girls returned about four hours later and I cant really remember much else so my day stops there!
Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile hunter, the Legend - Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace) was on the cards the next day. The Zoo is in a small town called Beerwah (I think) 90km North of Brisbane. We arrived at midday and the Zoo was already packed and crawling with little kids running under your feet all day and screaming at the animals. Being a bit of a serial zoo visitor around Australia, I could really notice the difference between this zoo and pretenders to the throne. The enclosures are in a different class and the amount of animals is amazing. After a couple of hours wandering around, with most time spent at the elephant enclosure we wandered to the ‘Crocoseum’ to watch the snake, bird and croc show. The birds fly right around the stadium within inches of the top of your head and the crocs leaping out the water really is a spectacle to see.
Following the zoo, and feeling like I
Thor
Our second 'Wicked' Van haven’t quite had enough of the ‘all you can eat’ scene the four of us headed back to Brizzy and sat down at an all you can eat sushi bar where I ate approximately twice my body weight in rice and raw fish and still managed to find enough room for an ice cream before collapsing in a rather bloated lump in the back of the van where it didn’t take me long to pass out.
An exciting day lay ahead of us the next day, but before that I had some business to attend to. After the cyclonic weather in Hervey Bay, the rain coupled with the general rustiness of the van had meant the door had rusted shut and was sealed tighter than a skin flints wallet, I hadn’t been able to get into the boot of the van for four days and our food was beginning to smell. I had arranged to swap the van with another one at the Brisbane depot, so we clambered into the van and set out onto the crazy roads - with even crazier people - of Brisbane. All we had to do was cross the bridge and head for the
Fortitude Valley, but some how ended up miles from where we needed to be, doing a massive loop and ending up back where we started. We eventually made it to the Valley and were able to exchange our van with a newer looking model decorated with ‘Thor’ (the ice-lord kinda bloke), which looked pretty sweet. We set back off to the city to meet up with the others and re-pack the van, and the drive continued south to Surfers Paradise.
Surefers is located about 80km south of Brisbane, but being a big time tourist town it took over two hours to get there. The queues of traffic all waiting to get into Seaworld, Dreamworld and Movieland backed up for miles and stopped us just wanting to pass by from getting anywhere. When we finally arrived we parked up amongst the beachfront skyscrapers towering over the entire length of the Gold Coast, and prepared some lunch.
The only way I can think to describe Surfers Paradise is by comparing it to a Miami beachfront. Even the city reeks of America, and there is no doubt that the place is geared up completely on attracting tourists with a bit of
wedge. Designer shops litter the streets, funky-arty-farty cafes line the promenades and Ray-Ban & Dolce & Gabanna sunglasses grace each person’s forehead. All that was missing were a few more fat people and I never would have known I was in Oz.
After a tiring wander around the city realising I didn’t have enough money to afford anything that was for sale in any of the shops, we decided to have a chilled out evening, so grabbed my didgeridoo, bought a crate of Pure Blonde and sat on the beach making loud foghorn like notes on the didge and digging holes before tiredness got the better of us and the four of us squeezed into the back of the van for a rather cramped nights sleep.
The next morning I was lucky enough to rise just before sunset, although I didn’t have much choice - air was at a premium with four of us in the van and every last breath was appreciated like you wouldn’t get another, plus my face was pressed so hard against the bare metal work, sleep wasn’t an option. I headed down onto the beach and joined all the Japanese tourists with their
Cant beat a good home cooked meal
Our facilities in the back of the van big cameras, tripods and lenses that I’m sure if focused properly could would be capable of spotting someone sat on their toilet in Cairns! I made a general nuisance of myself by wandering along the beach and becoming part of their holiday photos as I tried to get a nice snap myself, walked about a kilometre down the beach and back, all the way to the van to find that Alaina had dissapeared and Steve and Alisha were appreciating their new found space in the van and were still sleeping. I found Alaina and the two of us headed to the supermarket and bought some bacon, eggs and beans and even managed to cook it all without the other two stirring and we all sat on the beach and enjoyed breakfast.
As we had finally escaped the rainy weather, and with Surfers being home to a rather cracking beach we thought it would be criminal not to spend a bit of time basking in the sun and of course making a sandcastle. After much deliberation, we settled on a crocodile sand sculpture so Alaina and myself set to work straight away - a built a rather good one even
if I do say so myself.
As midday approached we departed Surfers Paradise again headed North to Noosa, the departure point for our tour to Fraser Island the following morning. Noosa is a similar kind of place to Port Douglas and is very beautiful. We parked the van near the beach and wandered all the way through the town stopping off in a multitude of swimming cozzie shops with the girls before finally breaking free and heading to the beach just in time for sunset. Noosa offered one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen yet, the orange and pink glow was reflecting off the wet sand and the clouds in the sky creating a beautiful picture. We strolled the length of the beach, watching fisherman and in awe of the surrounding environment. As we returned to the van we heard on the radio news of a lunar eclipse happening that night so sought a good vantage point down by the river to watch the rare phenomenon occur. We stood and stared for hours waiting for something drastic to happen, every ten minutes or so one of us shouting ‘is this it’ or ‘ooh oooh ooh…it’s happening’, none
Noosa Sunset
The sunset on the eve of the lunar eclipse. of us actually sure what we were looking for. After three hours of staring at the moon and a little busking from Alaina with my didge, we found out that the moon just turns a reddish colour and that we had already seen the great display. Disappointed, but feeling a little proud that we had just witnessed a once in a lifetime event we retired to the van for another air-less and cramped nights sleep.
With Fraser Island next on the agenda and a trip we had all been looking forward to for a little while, we peeled ourselves from the van at 5:30am - a ridiculous hour - and got ourselves to Noosa bus station ready for our coach pickup. The bus, a massive 4WD coach on monster truck-esque wheels picked us up and drove us to Rainbow beach where we were to board a transporter ferry for the ten-min journey across the water and on to Fraser Island, the biggest sand island in the world. The storms in which we had been caught in had hammered Fraser Island making a large portion of the south of the Island inaccessible. Luckily, none of the touristy attractions are located
Lake Mckenzie - Fraser Island
Couldnt be more relaxed if she tried! down there so didn’t have much impact on our tour just made the driving across the island a lot more difficult for the driver of the bus.
Our first stop was the signature attraction of Fraser Island - Lake McKenzie, and if all the postcards I had seen were anything to go by, a pretty amazing spot. As we approached the Lake we could catch glimpses of it through the trees and the excitement began. The bus emptied onto the beach and we all set foot onto the beach. The sand is exactly like that of Whitehaven beach (only 98% silica sand this time though!) and the water was like glass. The lake itself has a strange appearance as for about twenty feet out then water is relatively shallow then after that there is a straight drop down to a depth of ten metres and the water looks deep blue. I dived straight into the freezing water but it was so refreshing. Being a lake, the water isn’t salty and tasted so fresh. I even had a go at diving down into the depths but it was too dark and I was a little worried about what could be
down there so kept returning to the surface pretty swiftly. Once again, with such fine sand I couldn’t help but jump at the opportunity to exfoliate my skin, so I did. I would like to think that maybe that is the reason my tan isn’t quite coming along as I may have wished - as I keep scrubbing it all off with sand - but I’m not sure that’s the reason.
After Lake McKenzie the group walked through Wangoolba Creek, which is a rainforest environment with a small stream flowing through the middle. Once again the water was crystal clear and tasted better than most water you can buy in a bottle.
Dinner was also included within the price of the tour and an all you can eat buffet was provided at one of the islands swanky hotels. There was plenty of food to go round including curries, salads, Chinese and puddings to cap it all off. A dingo was even spotted wandering the grounds as we all sat and ate dinner.
After Dinner we went to visit the Maheno shipwreck washed up on the beach and also the coloured sand rock formations known as the Pinnacles,
Fraser Island
The beach at the site of the Maheno Shipwreck. before visiting Eli Creek, a fast flowing body of water that pours four million litres of clear, fresh water into the ocean every hour! We walked along the boardwalk to the top of the creek before plunging into the freezing water and letting the current carry us to the end. We all enjoyed the experience so much we decided to have a second go and floated down once more. This was then do be the end of our Fraser Island adventure and the bus headed back to Noosa where we piled back into the van and drove back to Brisbane.
The next morning we were up bright and early as some old hag threatened to call the police as we were sleeping in the van on the street so made a swift exit - Our next stop to be Byron Bay three hundred kilometres or so south. Once more, it had been about four days since our last shower so pulled up at the beach in Byron, grabbed my shampoo and had a refreshing shower on the beachfront.
In a desperate bid to wash some clothes so my shower time wasn’t wasted we did a circuit of all
Eli Creek
The four of us halfway down the creek. the campsites to see if anyone would let us in to do our laundry. After being turned away from all but one, the English owner of the final one welcomed us with open arms and allowed us to use his facilities. We took advantage of the facilities on offer and plugged all out electrical gear in and charged everything whilst waiting for our clothes to dry.
With all our chores now completed we were able to relax and have a look around Byron. Byron is a wicked little place with everything anyone would need shops-wise and a beautiful beach on offer too. After a couple of hours ducking in and out of various shops we came across a Didgeridoo shop and spent an hour or so looking at different didge’s and trying to learn to play. Alaina spotted a didge that she really like and parted with $200. That evening, with her new didgeridoo in hand we decided to park up in a quiet spot out of the way from everywhere and both sit and have a go at playing. We were both capable of playing a half decent note, but the whole circular breathing aspect was escaping us
Pretty Bird
a bit different to the little brown things we get in England. - and still does to this day.
As Byron was a nice little spot we decided to stay for another day so woke up bright and early (by the park ranger telling us to move on yet again!) and went down to the beach to cook some breakfast. We planned to drive from the beach up to Cape Byron to the lighthouse, where you can also visit the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. The views from the lighthouse were pretty cool and on the way back to the van we spotted a pod of dolphins swimming with the surfers in the breakers, so decided to head straight down to the beach and see if we could get a closer glimpse - but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. In need of a place to sleep where we could stay under the rangers’ radar, we drove all around Byron to find a suitable spot and finally settled for a spot near the beach just outside the town where I could get a good ranger-free night sleep.
With our van rental days rapidly passing by we had to make flying visits to the next few places. We passed through
Byron Bay
Christ.....i do wake up for a lot of sunrises! Coffs Harbour and had a quick look at the marina before jetting off to Port Macquarie where we stayed for an hour or so walking through the town and along the esplanade before heading back to the van and travelling on further in the direction of Newcastle but ended up 180km short and getting our heads down in the scariest, darkest and secluded rest area we had slept in on the entire trip.
The morning couldn’t come soon enough and without even stopping for breakfast I got straight into the drivers seat and floored it in the direction of civilisation. Newcastle was a welcome sight and we wandered straight down to the harbour, which was surprisingly pleasant, a kind of London Docklands renovation thing going on and for some random reason there were camels wandering around. A massive lookout spire towered over the entire city and waterfront so I had to climb it and after tackling three hundred or so steps, and stubbing my toe no less than three times, made it to the top, to an impressive view.
After a couple of hours strolling the streets of Newcastle, it was time to bite the bullet and find
the courage to drive through Sydney in order to make it to the Blue Mountains. Just to make matters worse I passed the ‘Welcome to Sydney’ sign just after five o’clock and drove straight into the hell that was Sydney rush hour! After saying a few silent prayers and begging Alaina to plan her route through the city carefully as I didn’t want to be driving in the city anymore than I had to, we navigated our way through without a single wrong turn and drove out the other side straight into the Blue Mountains National Park, where a rest area was beckoning and a fine noodle dinner was our reward for a successful day on the road.
Earliness was the name of the game as I woke up from the rest area the next morning. Breakfast was prepared and we got back on the road again at 6:30am and drove into Katoomba, the heart of the Blue Mountains National Park. The main attraction of the Blue Mountains, or at least the most publicised is the ‘Three Sisters’ rocks. It is basically a collapsed ridge leaving behind three prominent rocks, in which folklore says a wizard (or someone alike)
Gourmet Feast
Stove top Mac 'n Cheese....mmmmmmm! cast a spell on three young sisters that used to climb on the ridge making it impossible to return back to the mainland or make contact with each other so they were left on the rocks to die (not very pleasant). We made the mistake, upon attempting to get closer to the sisters in trekking halfway down an advanced walking trail and not far short of a million steps! Alaina decided that halfway down she needed to go to the little girls room, so a steep ascent shortly followed.
We drove onto Scenic World, a tourist attraction offering cable car rides over the gorges and paid a colossal $16 for a three-minute ride over the Katoomba falls, and onto cascade falls, both pretty sights to behold. We continued our tour of the park with trips to Evans Lookout, Govetts Leap and got lost in Valley of the Waters before getting my bearings and driving back towards Sydney via Wentworth Falls. As it was approaching rush hour again I wasn’t going to make the mistake of passing through the city just yet, so we parked up just outside the Park and waited for darkness to fall and hoped that the
traffic had passed. Alaina’s navigation came up trumps once more and we made it to the Wicked depot first time, where, once more we would spend the night. So, with our East Coast trip now completed and having notched up another 4611 km of travel around Australia it was time to revert back to city life and settle down in Sydney.
Sydney was to be just as manic as the day I landed in Oz nearly two years ago. People were flooding the streets; nobody looking anywhere other than the floor as they marched from building to building, and cars sped out of every alleyway, side-road, nook and cranny at a million miles an hour. Asian people still the majority of the Sydney population and still with the worse sense of special awareness of any other race on this planet, flying out of shop doorways and then stopping dead about six inches in front of you.
We booked into Wake up hostel, the very hostel that I spent my first night in Australia, into an eight-bed dorm and piled through the door to be greeted by our new roommates. As Alaina had never visited Sydney before, the standard
Katoomba Falls
View from the cable car over the mountains tourist attractions seemed the obvious choice for a visit, so a walk to the rocks and Circular Quay was in order, for a look at the Opera house and Harbour Bridge. On the way back to the hostel we called in on Darling Harbour for a quick butchers before once again rain spots appeared and a night stuck in the hostel was ahead.
With my bank balance fighting to stay in the black, it was time to start looking for a job, and where better to start than in the hostel. I headed down to Sidebar - the hostels very own backpacker bar - and handed in my CV. An hour or so later I received a call and was offered the job, so a treat was in order and a sushi train was my target.
Unfortunately, for the few days Alaina had left in Australia, George W. was in town for the APEC (or as he likes to call it OPEC) summit so kilometres of the town was fenced off all for his special use and police choppers, boats and roof-top snipers kept their eyes on the idiot! We managed to make it through the blockades (just
as ‘The Chasers’ comedians were getting nicked for a security breach) and walked through the botanic gardens, to my favourite spot in Sydney - Mrs McQuarie’s Chair - for a fabulous view of the harbour Bridge and Opera House.
The next morning we woke early to check out of the hostel and into our swanky Darling Harbour view Sheraton Hotel room (kindly donated by ma and pa - thanks again folks!) for Alaina’s last two nights in Australia. We made the mistake of walking from the hostel to the hotel - a twenty-minute walk - but I had so much baggage hanging from my shoulders I thought my skeleton was going to implode.
As a backpacker, staying in hostels, campsites and roadside car parks, a hotel is a strange and slightly daunting experience. People were offering to carry my bags (which caused my first problem as I had no change to tip the bloke), I was getting called ‘sir’ right left and centre, and I actually had to get a lift to get to my bedroom. The room was amazing and the view of the harbour incredible, but I couldn’t hang around and made a swift exit from
King Size Bed
Deffo better than any bunk bed. the room to avoid the porter with my luggage, and headed out to Woolies for some food and drink as the glimpse of a bottle of mineral water with an $8 price tag almost gave me heart palpitations.
The next two days were spent in the hotel room curled up in the monster King Size bed doing nothing but watching TV, taking baths (something I hadn’t done for twenty-one months) and reading the newspaper, which was dropped all neat and folded on your bed each morning - how sweet is that?! On the final night of Alaina’s stay we went for one last sushi train together and headed back to the hotel for the second of the comfiest nights sleep I have ever had.
So the next day was to be a sombre one, we checked out the hotel (sob sob!!) and climbed aboard the hotel shuttle and headed for KST Airport, where we were to say farewell till another day as Alaina boarded her Jumbo destined for the other side of the world. As a further kick in the nuts I got the shuttle back to the Hotel, picked up all my luggage and like a donkey
Sheraton Four Points Hotel Room
View over the harbour from our rather fabulous hotel room ee-yored all the way back to Wake Up! Hostel and back to a peasant’s life.
So……all alone and skint, it was time to start work. The next night I started at Sidebar and have been working there ever since. The job is really cool, I get to meet loads of people and everyone that works there is sound. I’ve made some good friends during the time I have worked there and still continue to meet more and more people. I have been part of a couple of parties - most notably Oktoberfest (where I got to wear lederhosen) and Halloween (where I dressed as a clown) - which have been really good fun.
Shortly after getting a job at Sidebar and in need of a few more hours I wandered into Coles supermarket and was transferred from the Darwin store down to the Sydney one. The job is as about as exciting as stacking shelves can get and I spend the majority of my day moving from one freezer to another filling them with ice-creams, pizzas and the various array of frozen peas whilst people ask me questions about what I would recommend to go with their veal
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The famous 'Coathanger' escalope and what isle various items are in - which as normal, I never know. The staff roster reads like the casting for a Bollywood blockbuster, so conversation at work isn’t great, but it pays the bills. So now I have two jobs, and more hours work than I know what to do with and a day off rarer than rocking horse turd. I get pretty tired after my seventy-or so hour week, but I have been able to save a lot of money ready for some more travelling after the new year.
Even with two jobs, anyone would struggle to save money in Sydney, where the lure of the hundreds of bars, tourist attractions, and restaurants is too much temptation for most, and hostel prices don’t help much in the money saving stakes either, therefore I decided to go flat hunting. After looking at about eight places with Asian people crammed six to a room and then the living room split into four to squeeze in a few more, with not so much not a word of English in their vocabulary between them, I was beginning to lose hope. Finally, it would seem that my persistence had paid
Opera House
As if this needs any introduction. off as I stumbled across a place in the heart of the city, right above Coles and round the corner from Sidebar with a friendly mix of Spanish, American, Italian, Mexican and of course an Englishman that suited me to the ground and I moved in the next day.
The apartment is all the way up in the dizzy heights of the thirty-first floor with a balcony that looks right down Pitt Street and stares straight at the Sydney tower. I even found out the other day that if I lean forward far enough I can see about six foot of the harbour bridge - which in my eyes constitutes a harbour view! The building has a twenty-five-metre swimming pool with a Jacuzzi and sauna, along with a gym and squash court, which I like to take advantage off whenever I get a spare moment
My housemates are just like a family (which they quite often call themselves), and are as mad as a cut snake but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else whilst in Sydney. Quite often I get taught little bits of Spanish and Italian but I do often doubt their place in a normal
Darling Harbour
Some serious money can be spent down here bar-hopping. conversation. In fact, just today I got taught how to say something about a hairy ass (or I think that’s how it translates), so I’m not quite fit to meet anyone’s parents and converse quite yet but maybe by the time I leave I may be able to say a complete sentence.
Anywho, I’ve been working down in Sidebar for about two months now and Coles for about six weeks and due to some renovations in the bar I was given three days off, so a road trip was in order and I jumped aboard a Greyhound bus and it was Canberra here I come.
The Australian Capitol Territory (or A.C.T.) is one of only two Aussie states that I had left to visit (Tasmania being the only other one), and Canberra is the state and Australian capitol. A three and a half hour coach ride away, in which I slept every second, I arrived in Canberra and jumped on another bus to get to my resting place - Victor Lodge - Where I would spend the two nights I would be staying in Canberra.
As soon as I had dropped off my bag, I went into
Apartment 3109
The view from the balcony at my apartment. tourist mode and walked straight to the new Parliament building and walked around the outside, looking well out of place in my boardies and flip flops as all the ‘pubes’ (public servants - the affection nickname given to Canberra locals) emerged from the building in their expensive suits. As I walked around the outside, cameras and police guards watched every step I took, making me nervous and a little sweaty probably making me look shiftier and out of place than I already was.
The next day, after a lot of planning the night before and lots of lonely planet consultation, I had worked out a walking trail to take in all the sights and sounds of Canberra that would see me visiting all the government buildings, war memorials and natural wonders of Canberra. I visited the new and old parliament houses, art museum, library, the aboriginal tent embassy, and a million or so war memorials and was attacked by a crazy seagull whilst at it! My favourite spot was Anzac Parade, which is a long road with war memorials plotted along both sides leading up to the big daddy - the Anzac war memorial.
The Anzac memorial was
The Family - minus a couple
Sat down for a mexican banquet. a huge building containing a war museum, pool of reflection and complete walls choc-a-bloc with lists of the names of each and every Australian death from the first and second World War. It really knocks you back when you see all the names of those that gave their lives for the rest of the world and to consider that the names listed are only the Australians, therefore only representing a tiny percentage of those that never returned from the fields of battle, it really does make you think. After a couple of hours looking around the museum and one last moment at the pool of reflection, I left the memorial and walked back down Anzac Parade with a whole new outlook on life and thanking god that I never had go to war!
My final stop was the Captain Cook water jet and exhibition centre on route to the city centre for a little look before heading back to Victor Lodge for a much needed rest. The city was pretty smart, not a lot to it but enough to keep me busy for an hour or two. I walked around the whole city and even managed to buy myself
Oktoberfest Party
Swines, Steins and Frauleins! some new boxers (very comfy ones indeed), before my feet were riddled with blisters, red raw and could handle no more walking I had no choice to get the bus back to the lodge and sit on the sofa for the rest of the night watching TV with my feet up.
The next morning I checked out of the lodge after my complimentary breakfast and intended to go to the Australian Institute of Sport and then the Botanic Gardens for a walk up Black Mountain and up the Telstra tower for an aerial view of the city. Unfortunately none of this was to happen as the Canberra buses - which come around less than a lunar eclipse - didn’t turn up on time on either occasion and made me miss the tours so I spent my final few hours in Canberra sat in a sushi bar killing time until I jumped back on the Greyhound bus back to Sydney and back to work in Sidebar an hour later.
So that’s it so far. I’ve just finished a seventy-hour week at work and finally have a day off (well that’s unless Coles get desperate and decide to call me
Parliament House
New Parliament house in Canberra in). I have to pop to Paddy’s Market and battle through the crowd and get spend my tips from work on buying copius amounts of fruit and picking up all my meat and fish supplies for the week ahead and maybe head into the city for a spot of shopping, then I’m gonna sit on my backside and do absolutely nothing!
Hope all is well at home and that everyone is looking after themselves. I hear the weather is pants, but no need to be jealous its been raining her as well for the last week and is going to be for the next week also.
Ta ra for now,
Dunc
P.S. This little icon below is a video that makes me chuckle of me and the van...worth a watch!
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travelbug24
travelbug
Absolutely BRILLIANT!
Well, I must say, the weeks I've spent waiting on this blog were well worth it! Absolutely brilliant, this one! Definitely the best yet -I'm sure you're going to be famous soon. I would pay to read it, for sure! Watch out Bill Bryson, here comes duncanspilaweller! :) x x