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Published: June 14th 2009
Our first stop in eastern Australia, Sydney started before we even stepped off the plane with fantastic views across the harbour. Once there our search for accomodation wasn´t going well but we eventually found something near Chinatown before heading off for a nightcap. The next morning we headed off for (where else) the harbour bridge and opera house, two of the most famous Australian icons followed by Sydney zoo.
Whilst walking round the zoo we saw some of interesting animals and in particular our interest was taken by the native birds (the kind with wings). As we were to find out Australia has incredible birdlife, a twitchers paradise (if thats your thing). Having seen the city from ground level we decided to get a different view of the city. After getting all the formalities out of the way - disclaimer form, teletubby outfit and training we were on our way to the top of the harbour bridge. The views from up there were stunning and our guide did his best to fill us in with interesting information on Australian history and the surrounding areas. He even pointed out the building from 'The Matrix' that the helicopter crashes into (the one
that goes all wobbily) which wasnt revelant, but pretty cool. Unfortunately for us our next port of call was to be the blue mountains which would give us some spectacular views of the countryside just outside Sydney. The weather wasnt on our side on this occasion however. We spent the best part of the day stopping off at ´lookout points´ trying to look at anything but the fog. It helped that the driver was an Austrian comedian and kept us amused with his (very bad) jokes. We were both grateful to find that the food courts of asia were prevelant in Australia and served us well on a few occasions. We did find an amusement arcade but it was heart breaking for Neil to first see the joy on Vik's face as the roulette machine spewed out millions of winners tokens, followed by the dejected dissapointment when she realised all the tickets she held only equated to a childs plastic globe.
Our main form of transport on the East coast was to be skinny dog (Greyhound) busses. It was at this time that we began to realise how big Australia is. Now this must sound obvious, and we were
warned but Oz is big! 12 hours on the bus got us from Sydney to Byron Bay and when you look at the map this gets a bit depressing. Anyway Byron bay is a nice enough place and we walked to the most easterly point on the mainland and were fortunate enough to see dolphins surfing. Byron bay has more on offer if you are a surfer and since we hadnt tried this (yet) we didnt hang around for too long, next stop Brisbane.
We had a few days in Brisbane and managed to organise a fraser island trip (more about this later) and visited the museum and modern art gallery (great that these are all free - the UK needs to go the same way). It takes a lot to convince the both of us on the merits of modern art but to be fair most of the gallery was very interesting, there was however some of the utter nonsense that we expected (3 coloured lines on a white background and that kind of crap that people pretend to like and appreciate to seem cultured) but overall definately worth a visit.
We were picked up for our
Fraser Island (largest sand island on earth) tour stopping off to pick up more people en route ending up with 10 plus the driver in the jeep. A quick ferry ride across and we were blasting up the Fraser Island highway (beach) at speeds above 100 km/h heading to an unidentified shipwreck. On the way back we stopped by on of the islands freshwater creeks where Vik went for a swim but was far too cold for Neil. Next stop was a beautiful emerald lake that was tucked away past 1.5km of sand dunes. We both had a dip in this one too, but the green algae managed to dye viks white bikini a mouldy green! We had quite a sketchy time getting back to the campsite as the tide was almost right in so we had to wait for the water to be sucked out and make a run for it to each little safe pocket. This can be very dangerous as Jeeps often get swept out by the sea and pulled over. We were starting to appreciate that we came on a tour and not on a self drive. The second day involved a trip to the incredibly
beautiful Lake Mckenzie. This place is utterly stunning, with crystel clear fresh water and pristine white sand, only down point was that we were here on Easter weekend and it was a tad busy. We did take a little walk through some of the rainforest on the island which was nice enough and we did see a kookaburra close up (not much of an achievement as these birds are fairly easy to spot everywhere in OZ, even in Brisbane city centre). We didnt spot Dingoes close up on the island so our guide took us to the island rubbish tip so that we could definately spot them close up, awwwww. The tour was pretty good and we had great people in the group so it was a good laugh. We headed back to the mainland and bolted down another beach at 100km/h, whilst hundreds of Aussie families had come away for the weekend camping and partying on the beach. We did start to appreciate how nice it would be to have this kind of lifestyle. Our guide stopped off on the way back for us to see some coloured rocks (read, stopped off so he could go surfing and we
could watch).
After Fraser Island we had another night in Brisbane, and we had exhausted its line of attractions so we headed on to Rockhampton (14 hours or something on the skinny dog) as a base to do a farm stay. We got to the YHA and the staff were very nice, but the girl spewing up all over a table and into other peoples drinks was pretty disgusting as we ate our dinner of Eagle Boys pizza (pretty good until that happened). This is the hazzard of traveling the East Coast of OZ, its like going on a club 18-30 holiday that you never signed up for. OZ is the number one place for young travelers, especially the east coast, probably due to the lack of actual thought that needs to go into traveling here, its so easy to travel here and with a party at every turn, yet its incredibly expensive for any length of time and thats why most folks end up working for a spell. We did feel out of place at times and it felt like a schools weekend away. Anyway, enough ranting!
The farm stay sounded great, staying on a real working
cattle farm with horseriding, motorbiking and some other actitivities as well as delicious home cooked meals made from the resident cattle of course. Our first day and we were given a motorbike test to determine our proficiency and whether they could safely let us loose on their farm. This all went well and so we were off zooming around the farm road. The food was exceptional and was what we really needed, cottage pie, veggies and chocolate cake and custard, sublime! The next day we went for our second horse ride with the psycho instructor who started swearing at the horses and shouting at two girls who had went a bit ahead whilst she was closing a gate. We realised we better not get on the wrong side of her! mabye this is normal in this environment to shout and swear at the paying guests, like part of the real farm experience???? Anyway, she seemed to chill out a bit later when she showed us a redback spider and took us to feed the horses. We also rode the bikes up to watch sunset and watched as kangaroos hopped about. It was really nice experience, but we had went for
3 days which was way too much, 2 days would have been perfect as by the third day we had run out of activities to do and were probably expected to relax a bit but then I could do my relaxing in a cheaper place. The Myella farm stay is nice but it is more like a child proof farm stay and kids or families would probably enjoy it more than adults. We did get to milk a cow for about 1 minute each but there was not enough hands on for our liking. We heard from another traveller of a much more exciting one where your put into teams and compete at rounding up cattle or goats or something.
Our next trip was to Airlie beach, the base from where to go to the idyllic Whitsunday islands. This meant a 6 hour overnight bus trip. Overnight sounded great because we would save a nights accomodation etc..... typical backpacker trick, however, we are not the only clever ones as everyone was doing this. We had to sit at McDonalds for 3 hours waiting and then got on a very full bus that was stinking of the filthy toilet and
thus prevented us from getting much sleep. We arrived at 6am and thought that we would get to bed for a couple of hours. Although this is East Coast OZ and the hostels are full to the brim so we couldnt check in till 1-30pm. So stinking and tired we dossed about and organised our trip to the Whitsundays. Now most people go sailing, but the thought of being stuck for three days on a party boat with the club 18-30 crew, spewing up all over the place in between party games designed to put you into provocative positions with strangers then we had other ideas. We will go camping, self sufficiently...........and with a big box of wine. We got to Whitehaven beach, the jewel in the crown of the Whitsunday beaches and we could see why. This place was excrutiatingly beautiful, with what seemed like miles of pristine white sand with a lush forest back ground. We had a little camping area to ourselves. There are no shops or restaurants so we had everything we needed. The monitor lizards also seemed to want a piece. So we started on our box of wine! We ended up a bit tipsy
and started swimming (dangerous enough) in the sea without stinger suits. We were cartwheeling and having a great time, singing along to our music and all that, until we started to feel very drunk with Neil also feeling a little ill and crashed into our tent. So by trying to avoid the club 18-30 vibe we managed to create our own little version anyway! although with nobody else to party with. The next morning, feeling a bit hungover we were picked up by a boat arriving at 8am in the morning to take us to our next beach for camping. We arrived at another beatiful beach that was enclosed in a small bay. There were only 7 of us camping on this island and we managed to bag the only spot on the beach. It was beatiful and serene with never another boat coming by until the next morning. Camping on the Whitsundays was great, a real castaway feel and we thouroughly enjoyed it.
So final journey of another 12 hours or something like it to get to Cairns. Accomodation is cheap here so we managed to get a small apartment like place. It was a lovely tropical climate
here, yet no proper beach, only a swimming pool area. Cairms seems only to exist for tourism and almost every second shop is a souvenir one. We found it interesting in OZ that we noticed a lot of the older white population seem to have a problem with the Aborigines, comments had been made on several occasions. It made us feel uncomfortable to hear some sweeping statements about the Aborigines. It certainly seems to be a generational thing. Its too complex to go on here, and something that most travellers dont seem to notice.
We took our dive trip on the great barrier reef on a luxury vessel, with food and drinks all day and out to one of the best spots on the reef. The diving was spectacular, thousands of multicoloured fish and coloured healthy corals and small sharks. Vik was having an issue with her wetsuit being a tad small and the zip kept popping open and her chest (bikini clad of course) popping out. We watched the dvd back in the boat and had to spend the ridiculous amount of money to buy it just because it made us laugh so much.
Our last trip
on the east coast was to On the Wallaby (reccomended by one of our dive buddies, as she worked there). We went up into the Artherton tablelands and stopped off at some interesting sites on the way, including a dip in the beautiful waterfull that Petre Andre dances in for Mysterious Girl! We can die happy now. The small town of Yungaburra was where we would stay in a beautiful hostel of wood construction. We popped off to see the local platypusses before coming back to a barbecued dinner. We popped off to the local pub and then some of the other guests, and the hostel owner Paul popped down. We had hoped for a quiet night before our cycling and kayaking the next day, but we had a right good natter with Paul, enjoyed too many beers at the pub then went back to start on Pauls beers in the hostel until 2 in the morning or something. Hanging out like hell in the morning we took off and went for a cycle, not a good idea with a hangover and in the tropical heat! We had a bloody good laugh in the kayaks and we even spotted a
Picasso and Bundy
And the two people that they´d be taking for a ride today.tree kangaroo (very rare and shy!). We painted our faces with some crazy orange rock stuff, but Vik decided to do Neils hair too. A bloody good laugh was had and it was a nice way to finish off our East Coast run.
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thierry
non-member comment
you are just amazing!!! sunetha et thierry