Australia
Yes It's us again - thanks for all the caring emails wondering if we've been eaten by giant kangaroos and the like - but no such luck for you guys, it's really only been a matter of economics. Oz is just very expensive. Almost Switzerland expensive; Mars bars are 80p (and not even king size) and crisps nearly a pound. Even by staying off t'interweb, sleeping in huge dorms full of smelly teenagers, living on cheep (cardboard-like) pasta and sauce and certainly no chocy bars, we'd managed to destroy our months budget in not much over two weeks. On the plus side we have spent the cash on doing some pretty cool things, the delectable and, we admit, extended details of which follow... :)
Sydney is a city. We've decided we don't like cities as the main activities are normally shopping or eating. As budget travellers this translates to envious window shopping and drooling over other peoples meals, so other than taking the usual opera house and harbour bridge photos there isn't actually much more to say, although we must give it some credit for the Blue Mountains where we spent a day walking the trails and getting snap happy with the camera at the wonderful scenery.
Anyway, having done that, and armed with our Greyhound bus ticket, we set of for Byron bay. Here we discovered the joy of Goon (4 litres of boxed vinegar, erm, I mean table wine) and got ourselves well and truly stuck into the "backpacker trail". The Arts Factory was actually our favourite hostel featuring such delights as Tee-Pees and Routemasters for lodgings, a cinema playing homemade surfdude films and a long history of alternative goings-on (including, we were reliably informed, past performances by 80's electro idols New Order). It was also the basecamp for the obligatory Nimbin tour. Those of you who know what this entails should be rightly jealous. Those of you who don't should stay off Google in order to protect our ebbing reputations. Suffice to say that hurtling down a narrow country road in a bus with every twist and turn perfectly synchronised to Pink Floyd's 'On The Run' on a mission to meet Magic Paul and his personal self-grown rainforest is an experience we'll never forget. Short term memory permitting......
As a quick aside it was also the location for quote of the month "Some species deserve to become extinct" said our ozzy bus driver as we watched a Koala bear clinging precariously to a cliff top branch hanging over a 150m sheer drop looking for edible eucalyptus leaves. In a fir tree. Doh.
The next three weeks were pretty much non-stop travel, as we hurtled up the East Coast towards Cairns, trying to make the most of every town that we stopped in or passed through (although the the difference between the two was often marginal).
Noosa is a very upmarket town surrounded my mangrove swamps and national park - we spent a day wildlife spotting by kayak and scored 1 ray, 10 jellyfish and 100 bats. Unfortunately we also scored a computer virus so I think the photos have been eaten - but trust us, it was beautiful.
Next up was Rainbow beach - the start of 'everything revolves around sand' country. First the 81 different shades of it (hence the name), then the huge sand blow devouring the forest behind at a rate of 1 meter per year (run away, run away...). It's also the gate way to Fraser Island the biggest sand island in the world and the only place where forest grows on sand (there's about another 100 other sand related facts about the place as well, but thankfully they slip my mind at the moment). Unfortunately we had the miss fortune of booking our travel to Fraser from Hervey Bay which is a big bland sprawling town a couple of hours North.
On the plus side we only had to spend a night in Hervey (at officially the worst hostel in Oz) to tool up with cool boxes, cheep food (quality rather than cost unfortunately), more goon and a 4X4. We engaged all-wheel drive, high ratio, and hit the ferry. Figuratively of course.
Fraser was good fun; 30 people, tents, gas stoves and (with a quick bit of mental arithmetic) 100+ litres of cheap red can hardly be anything else. That aside we saw some spectacular scenery, crystal clear lakes, whales and the back end of a few scavenging dingos. And sand of course. It's still possible to find sizable amounts of it now every time we pull out a pair of socks, or open the camera case.
It's also the first time we've ever had our moneys worth taking out the liability reduction insurance for a car, as the drive shaft started rattling badly then promptly fell off - much to the amusement of the resident island mechanic who informed us we were now stuck with two wheel drive, and then left us to it, departing with a snigger and a huge grin on his face. All was well on the hard packed beach sand, but it took the combined effort of all the occupants of the 12 car traffic jam behind us to get us over the first hill as we made our way off the island the next day....
The town of 1770 (where the roads were only sealed 5 yrs ago, and mobile phones started working a mere 6 months ago) contains the second best hostel in Oz (and by now things like free tea and coffee were really important requirements for us). It's also the home of ScooterRoo (although personally I think Kangarooter would have been a better name). Tall handle bars, a low slung seat, flame and stars'n'stripes paint jobs, and a throbbing (buzzing?) 50cc Chinese moped engine. Yup, this was chopper cruisin' in style. 30 of us touring the back country in search of roos - and we found some - unbelieveably the best fun we had all month!
We reached Airly Beach 14 hours north by overnight bus and found ourselves well and truly in backpackersville. Bars with wet T-shirt comps (which they wouldn't let me [jim] enter), beer in jugs and dorms full of smelly drunken bodies.
We were really there to start our sailing tour of the Whitsundays (although the beer in jugs certainly got a look in even if the wet Ts didn't) and were therefore rewarded (as is becoming our luck with these things) with the biggest storm the East coast had seen in 32 years. Undeterred we set off in our water proofs but under diesel power (the skipper saying that sailing was theoretically possible, but lost travellers raised their insurance premiums too much). We made it to the islands in one piece, but no one felt much like starting the goon that night....
The Whitsundays are also stunningly beautiful; Whitehaven beach on the main island is apparently ranked number two beach in the whole world (if anyone knows how to get a job ranking world beaches, do let me know). Our wildlife count now included turtles, dolphins, and even more fish; the reef snorkeling was amazing.
Next stop was Townsville, a pretty but rough-around-the-edges port town and another self depreciating place advertising itself as the 'gateway to' somewhere else; In this case Magnetic Island. Fearful of bring the first to help construct it's own identity, we caught the first ferry out.
Magnetic is another fantastically beautiful place even though it turns out it's not actually magnetic. Besides the beauties of the island itself, 12 dollars of snorkle hire opens up yet another world of beautiful coral reef and scuppered ships teeming with marine life lying only a few meters off shore. We also hopped on a boat here to go proper wreck diving which was rather expensive, but rather worth it too; The Yongala sunk in a cyclone in 1911 and since then has been slowly collecting probably the largest quantity and variety of marine life in the area. It really was truly spectacular from any perspective; 8 foot rays, nemo fish, sea snakes, turtles and whole shoals of sparkling coloured reef fish. We didn't have a camera this time so you'll just have to imagine or go there yourselves.....
And now on to Mission Beach. A little settlement a couple of hours south of Cairns, and really a bit of a respite from the endless travelling (and goon). We chilled out with a real bottle of wine, watched a few DVDs, saw the sand, saw the rain forest and (here it comes) went white water rafting. Hahahah. Great fun. The photos are in Melbourne at the moment though, so you'll have to wait until we've picked them up in a couple of days. We were also going to go skydiving to but it rained ;(
Finally we got to Cairns. Again not much to say about the place itself other than it's a city, but we did hire a car and go and see Cape Tribulation - the only place where 2 world heritage sites, both fulfilling all 4 heritage criteria, meet each other. Basically it's rain forest meets sand (well reef really), kind of like a forest and sand double bonus in case forest and sand on it's own was starting to get tedious (as if..). We also had a drive around the Atherton table land, which accounts for the bundle of waterfall photos.
OK that's your lot for now. Melbourne tomorrow, New Zealand on Thursday and we'll be half way through. Just about time for someone to go down the pub and get us a Guiness and a G'n'T in I reckon....
Sydney is a city. We've decided we don't like cities as the main activities are normally shopping or eating. As budget travellers this translates to envious window shopping and drooling over other peoples meals, so other than taking the usual opera house and harbour bridge photos there isn't actually much more to say, although we must give it some credit for the Blue Mountains where we spent a day walking the trails and getting snap happy with the camera at the wonderful scenery.
Anyway, having done that, and armed with our Greyhound bus ticket, we set of for Byron bay. Here we discovered the joy of Goon (4 litres of boxed vinegar, erm, I mean table wine) and got ourselves well and truly stuck into the "backpacker trail". The Arts Factory was actually our favourite hostel featuring such delights as Tee-Pees and Routemasters for lodgings, a cinema playing homemade surfdude films and a long history of alternative goings-on (including, we were reliably informed, past performances by 80's electro idols New Order). It was also the basecamp for the obligatory Nimbin tour. Those of you who know what this entails should be rightly jealous. Those of you who don't should stay off Google in order to protect our ebbing reputations. Suffice to say that hurtling down a narrow country road in a bus with every twist and turn perfectly synchronised to Pink Floyd's 'On The Run' on a mission to meet Magic Paul and his personal self-grown rainforest is an experience we'll never forget. Short term memory permitting......
As a quick aside it was also the location for quote of the month "Some species deserve to become extinct" said our ozzy bus driver as we watched a Koala bear clinging precariously to a cliff top branch hanging over a 150m sheer drop looking for edible eucalyptus leaves. In a fir tree. Doh.
The next three weeks were pretty much non-stop travel, as we hurtled up the East Coast towards Cairns, trying to make the most of every town that we stopped in or passed through (although the the difference between the two was often marginal).
Noosa is a very upmarket town surrounded my mangrove swamps and national park - we spent a day wildlife spotting by kayak and scored 1 ray, 10 jellyfish and 100 bats. Unfortunately we also scored a computer virus so I think the photos have been eaten - but trust us, it was beautiful.
Next up was Rainbow beach - the start of 'everything revolves around sand' country. First the 81 different shades of it (hence the name), then the huge sand blow devouring the forest behind at a rate of 1 meter per year (run away, run away...). It's also the gate way to Fraser Island the biggest sand island in the world and the only place where forest grows on sand (there's about another 100 other sand related facts about the place as well, but thankfully they slip my mind at the moment). Unfortunately we had the miss fortune of booking our travel to Fraser from Hervey Bay which is a big bland sprawling town a couple of hours North.
On the plus side we only had to spend a night in Hervey (at officially the worst hostel in Oz) to tool up with cool boxes, cheep food (quality rather than cost unfortunately), more goon and a 4X4. We engaged all-wheel drive, high ratio, and hit the ferry. Figuratively of course.
Fraser was good fun; 30 people, tents, gas stoves and (with a quick bit of mental arithmetic) 100+ litres of cheap red can hardly be anything else. That aside we saw some spectacular scenery, crystal clear lakes, whales and the back end of a few scavenging dingos. And sand of course. It's still possible to find sizable amounts of it now every time we pull out a pair of socks, or open the camera case.
It's also the first time we've ever had our moneys worth taking out the liability reduction insurance for a car, as the drive shaft started rattling badly then promptly fell off - much to the amusement of the resident island mechanic who informed us we were now stuck with two wheel drive, and then left us to it, departing with a snigger and a huge grin on his face. All was well on the hard packed beach sand, but it took the combined effort of all the occupants of the 12 car traffic jam behind us to get us over the first hill as we made our way off the island the next day....
The town of 1770 (where the roads were only sealed 5 yrs ago, and mobile phones started working a mere 6 months ago) contains the second best hostel in Oz (and by now things like free tea and coffee were really important requirements for us). It's also the home of ScooterRoo (although personally I think Kangarooter would have been a better name). Tall handle bars, a low slung seat, flame and stars'n'stripes paint jobs, and a throbbing (buzzing?) 50cc Chinese moped engine. Yup, this was chopper cruisin' in style. 30 of us touring the back country in search of roos - and we found some - unbelieveably the best fun we had all month!
We reached Airly Beach 14 hours north by overnight bus and found ourselves well and truly in backpackersville. Bars with wet T-shirt comps (which they wouldn't let me [jim] enter), beer in jugs and dorms full of smelly drunken bodies.
We were really there to start our sailing tour of the Whitsundays (although the beer in jugs certainly got a look in even if the wet Ts didn't) and were therefore rewarded (as is becoming our luck with these things) with the biggest storm the East coast had seen in 32 years. Undeterred we set off in our water proofs but under diesel power (the skipper saying that sailing was theoretically possible, but lost travellers raised their insurance premiums too much). We made it to the islands in one piece, but no one felt much like starting the goon that night....
The Whitsundays are also stunningly beautiful; Whitehaven beach on the main island is apparently ranked number two beach in the whole world (if anyone knows how to get a job ranking world beaches, do let me know). Our wildlife count now included turtles, dolphins, and even more fish; the reef snorkeling was amazing.
Next stop was Townsville, a pretty but rough-around-the-edges port town and another self depreciating place advertising itself as the 'gateway to' somewhere else; In this case Magnetic Island. Fearful of bring the first to help construct it's own identity, we caught the first ferry out.
Magnetic is another fantastically beautiful place even though it turns out it's not actually magnetic. Besides the beauties of the island itself, 12 dollars of snorkle hire opens up yet another world of beautiful coral reef and scuppered ships teeming with marine life lying only a few meters off shore. We also hopped on a boat here to go proper wreck diving which was rather expensive, but rather worth it too; The Yongala sunk in a cyclone in 1911 and since then has been slowly collecting probably the largest quantity and variety of marine life in the area. It really was truly spectacular from any perspective; 8 foot rays, nemo fish, sea snakes, turtles and whole shoals of sparkling coloured reef fish. We didn't have a camera this time so you'll just have to imagine or go there yourselves.....
And now on to Mission Beach. A little settlement a couple of hours south of Cairns, and really a bit of a respite from the endless travelling (and goon). We chilled out with a real bottle of wine, watched a few DVDs, saw the sand, saw the rain forest and (here it comes) went white water rafting. Hahahah. Great fun. The photos are in Melbourne at the moment though, so you'll have to wait until we've picked them up in a couple of days. We were also going to go skydiving to but it rained ;(
Finally we got to Cairns. Again not much to say about the place itself other than it's a city, but we did hire a car and go and see Cape Tribulation - the only place where 2 world heritage sites, both fulfilling all 4 heritage criteria, meet each other. Basically it's rain forest meets sand (well reef really), kind of like a forest and sand double bonus in case forest and sand on it's own was starting to get tedious (as if..). We also had a drive around the Atherton table land, which accounts for the bundle of waterfall photos.
OK that's your lot for now. Melbourne tomorrow, New Zealand on Thursday and we'll be half way through. Just about time for someone to go down the pub and get us a Guiness and a G'n'T in I reckon....
posted by fuzzweed at 6:18 PM
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