OZ in a nutshell

Goodbye Australia

It is with heavy hearts that we say farewell to Australia... it is such a beautiful country, there is so much to see, so much to do, the people are really friendly and the food is by far the best in the world. We can't wait to come back.

Some general observations have taught us a few things too:

The locals love to wind you up – you have to look out for those ones... I fall for it every time.
They especially love to tell you stories about poisonous or man-eating animals.
Not everyone is always that friendly... sometimes you'll only get monosyllabic answers or a cocky reply to your question.
Quite a few people here look very weird indeed (as in scary! - mainly found this in petrol stations in the bush).
They love their fish and chips here – and they should too cos the fish displays in the local chippies put any European fish market to shame.
Every second word anyone says is a swear word (if you are the sensitive type then don't bloody come here).
Everyone waits patiently at road crossings here and they don't jay-walk.
Backpackers hostels aren't always as backpacker-friendly as they make out to be (lots of hidden costs usually – someone out there is making loads of money!)
The food is amazing – apart from the chocolate.
Crocodile is delicious.
They're not very patient with you if you don't speak English well.
They do like the English (despite calling us 'whinging poms').
There are millions of English, Scottish and Irish tourists here will be glad to leave them behind.
This country is seriously big! Bigger than Europe.
It isn't always sunny like in Home and Away - it even rained when we were in the Outback!
There are giant bats everywhere.
There aren't as many snakes as everyone makes out (we didn't see one!)
...And the deadliest animals here are drop-bears... watch out, they'll get ya.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island... a stunning island made completely our of sand and home to pure-breed dingos, untouched rainforest, deserted sand dunes, several beautiful freshwater lakes... and hundreds of huge, powerful 4x4s roaring up the beach... it's awesome!

Al and I were slightly apprehensive as we had booked onto a 4x4 self-drive tour with eight complete strangers. What would they be like? Would we have boy racers who would crash the car? Maybe a group of nine people who all knew each other or who spoke the same foreign language? A group of vegetarians?! We discussed these thoughts over and over as we waited for the day of the tour briefing to approach. We had booked with Koalas, a group who have a number of backpacker hostels in Queensland and who were recommended to us by 'Wicked' travel agency. Our 4x4 tour included two free nights accommodation at Koalas in Hervey Bay (the starting point for the tour), we were pretty pleased about this until we realised that Koalas is a pretty dingy, dirty place and you have to pay extra for bedsheets, so after our two free nights we hot-footed it next door to A1 Fraser Roving – an awesome backpackers which is cleaner, friendlier and cheaper than Koalas.

Anyway on Christmas day we attended the briefing at the hostel and met our new travelling companions of the next three days – two Kiwis, two French, one other English, one Columbian, one Irish and one German. The three people who stepped up for driving the monster trucks through the sandy island were Clary (Kiwi guy), Al and... me! Our first of two briefings comprised of a quick chat explaining the basics of the itinerary and a video on the history of Fraser Island, conservation of the sand dunes and lakes, how deep to bury your poo if you're camping and how to avoid a dingo eating your baby. We chatted to our new friends, briefly discussed some food shopping, but decided that as it was Christmas day we would leave buying the food until the following morning.

The next morning at 6.30am we met at the Koala garage. Col, the slightly unhinged depot boss introduced himself to us: “Now i've got two daughters – one a thems the World kick-boxing champion, the other's a gold medal boxing champion, they're in their 30s – and they know that if I'm talking they don't dare interrupt me or they know I get ANGRY... I come from the outback and I'm old-fashioned and if yous speak over me I'll feed ya to the crocs – Hahaha!” Crikeys! A little alarmed by this prospect we set to work checking the itinerary, checking the tents for damage, counting our cutlery and loading up the car. Two girls and a boy were sent off to buy the food and came back with sausages, mince, pasta... and about three large bags of salad items and 10 litres of milk (not the most practical for a three day camping trip, but at least very healthy!). Col took us inside for a DVD on how to drive on the island – he was very insistent that if we so much as looked at the clutch it would burn out and we would lose our bond, if we got ANY salt water on the vehicle we would lose our bond, if we drove on the main roads to the ferry in 4x4 we would lose our bond, if we were caught driving after dark we would lose our bond, if we returned the car late because we went to McDonald's on the way home we would... yes you guessed it... lose our bond. Col's menacing laughter echoed in our ears and at this stage we all felt pretty sure that we would indeed lose our bond.

Eventually we piled into our Toyota Land Cruiser, Clarry at the wheel and headed to the ferry to cross to Fraser. Everything went without a hitch and we enjoyed the ferry trip. Once we reached the island we put the car into 4x4 drive and off we went! We made it a few hundred metres up the road before being stuck in our first Fraser traffic jam. This occurs when someone gets stuck in the sand, no one can overtake and everyone generally jumps out to help with the digging and pushing. After they managed to rescue their car the line started up again and everyone moved on as before. Then it was our turn. We stopped in the middle of a soft-sand road, the sand got quite deep in places, around a foot or so, and if you stop in it it gathers round your wheels and then you have problems. What ensued was an hour or so of revving our engine, reversing and attempting to go ahead again. We were helped by quite a few big Aussie guys from the cars behind us (who were just as keen for us to move on!) and we pushed and pushed up the hills of sand. Then we decided to do what we had done at the beginning. We lowered the tyre pressure to 20... and hey presto! We were zipping along over the sand dunes like the best of them!

Our first stop was at Lake Biraboon, a really beautiful lake and our favourite of the trip. Absolutely stunning.
The white sand beach was uncrowded and the water was cool and clear. We walked out into the shallow water, fresh water not salt, and swam around in the sunshine, diving down every now and then to take a gulp – completely fresh and tasted amazing. It was like paradise and I really think swimming in fresh water is better than salt water.



The next lake we stopped at was a little less inviting. Lake Boomanjin is brown/red coloured from leaf decay and although Col had tried to persuade us that it is very inviting and very healthy to swim in, we didn't really fancy it.

Onwards we drove, Al behind the wheel this time. We were a little concerned after our delay that we wouldn't get to the campsite in time. However, with our newly deflated tyres and Al's confident driving we had no problems and we began to find ourselves getting out to help other cars that were stuck.


We hit the beach... wooo!
It was stunning, over 100 kms long and white sand all the way. Unfortunately we were told not to swim in the sea as Fraser Island is home to a host of tiger sharks... I didn't need to be told twice, but we did see other people dipping their toes in and they seemed to survive.

We saw our first (and only) dingo of the trip... and yes, I spotted it.
He was just running around on the beach, walking up to the cars to have a sniff. He was very skinny and looked a bit wild, bit of a recluse from the pack I think. We sadly didn't see any more, but we could hear them around the campsite at night and rummaging around in the morning.

We found the campsite, just off the beach, and found a place to park and set up camp. Barbequed sausages were on the menu and these were accompanied by bread and salad... definite crowd-pleasers.
As we were all quite tired we went to bed pretty early, no sitting round the camp fire playing the guitar for us... but we had a long day ahead of us. But Al did manage to get up early enough to take this pic of the sunrise:

We were up early, after a pretty uncomfortable night's sleep all round. Koala hadn't provided us with ground sheets and Al and I had been too tight to hire sleeping bags so it was a very uncomfortable night on the lumpy, hard sand.

After breakfast we jumped into the car and headed off to the nearby Lake Wabby. According to Col this lake will not be around in a couple of years as the sand dunes surrounding the lake are slowly filling it up, so it was quite high on the 'must see' list. After a hair raising drive down some very dodgy sand roads we parked the car and walked down a steep hill through the rainforest

until we hit the sand dunes that make this lake famous.

Al had a few issues with his flip flops which both decided to break during the trip, he managed to tie them into place with some of the local plantlife:
We ran down the dunes and splashed straight into the water. The lake is the deepest on the island and a dark green colour. It is surrounded by sand on one side and forest on the other. Really beautiful. We were also the first to arrive and beat the crowds.





After this it was my turn to drive (!)


I took the wheel and got us back up the nightmare road. It was tough, especially driving fast over the soft sand in case we became stuck, but I managed. However just before we reached the beach we came across a traffic jam, two cars ahead of us, two behind us and five or six cars trying to get through from the other direction – all on a one lane, soft sand road. We had to mount the side of the road... very tricky in our top-heavy car (everyone was leaning to one side incase we tipped over) and wait for several cars to come through. We were then able to get through and get to the beach before anymore cars came.

Along the beach we sped and all the way to Indian Head, the peninsula at the top of the island. We climbed up to the top of the lookout and looked over the beaches below and into the sea.


It was really amazing and we even spotted a hammer head shark in the waters below (really glad I decided not to swim!). It was great. We wanted to drive further but we were told that if we attempted this we would lose our bond :-( we thought about it... the road ahead was extremely soft sand but we could have made it... but then some cocky Aussie dude came over and started giving us some cheek “what were you told at your briefing?... weren't you told you couldn't drive up there... everyone knows Koala vans can't drive up there...” Grrrr... with growing protests in the back of the car from the French girls we turned around and headed back south.

We stopped at the shipwreck to take a look.
And then we headed to Ely Creek. It's a freshwater creek which runs onto the beach. It has been developed and seemed to be a favourite with the children. Most of the visitors to the island gather here in groups, sitting in deck chairs in the water and drinking beer. We wondered why people gather here and not at the beautiful lakes and asked a local why – apparently drinking and eating is banned at the lakes so this is the only real place they can come.

It was late and we headed back to the campsite to cook up some burgers and pasta. Michelle, the slightly crazy Irish girl in our group, ran over to a group of Aussie guys and asked them to put their music up, instead they drove their car over to us, opened the doors and put the sound system on full blast – party time!

People from camps all around came to join in and we partied until the wee hours – that is until 10.30... it seems a lot later when you are camping for some reason... anyway it was good fun.

The next morning, with Al nursing a hangover, we headed over to the famous Lake MacKenzie. The weather wasn't as great as it had been the previous days but the lake was still very nice.

We decided that Lake Birraboon had been more beautiful, probably because it was far less crowded.

It was soon time to head back to the ferry and return the car. We got our bond back – yey! And promised to stay in touch with each other on facebook. We ended the evening with some cheap food, some possum spotting:
and Al and I headed for our last night bus journey to Brisbane, another bad night's sleep for us!

Fraser Island was my favourite experience in Australia. We were lucky to have such a great group, the car driving was good fun, and the lakes and scenery was out of this world. It's a great place to come with your own 4x4, with a group of friends maybe, and we definitely want to return.

Merry Christmas from Oz!

Merry Christmas!!! We're a little behind on the blog but wanted to get our Christmas wishes to you in good time!!





We had a really relaxed day chilling in the pool at our hostel and having a proper Aussie barbie complete with bundy and coke...

Pepe drank quite a lot of the bundy and fell asleep before dinner:

Whitsundays with Samurai

We arrived in Airlie Beach fairly exhausted from our overnight coach journey. We checked into local backpackers Magnum's and crashed out for a couple of hours. Once we'd revived we headed out to check out the town. Airlie Beach is a small town and mostly geared for tourists with loads of cafes, restaurants, tourism agencies and hostels. We liked it. We strolled along the beach, went to the internet cafe and generally chilled.

Our tour was booked with Whitsundays To The Max and after a day of chilling at the beach we headed down to check in and board the boat. Our boat was called 'Samurai' and was a 68ft, ex-racing yacht, now used to take up to 20 young things who want to see a bit of the Whitsundays, do some diving and generally party. We hadn't really been up for a party boat but we ended up on one, so no worries, we decided to enjoy ourselves. There were other boats out there crammed with up to 50 people so ours was relatively small. Sleeping conditions were cramped to say the least and we all got extremely hot below deck with lots of people on the edge of suffocation and opting to sleep on the deck. The boat was manned by a skipper, first mate/dive instructor and two deck hands. The dive instructor was our main guide and he was a little crazy looking, having had his head shaved by some friends while drunkenly passed out the night before. There was a fun atmosphere although at times the guide did speak to us as though we were 18 year-olds (quite a few people were actually near to that age anyway).

We sailed (or motored depending on the wind) round the beautiful Whitsunday islands, covered in forest and surrounded by bright blue waters.
On our first night a dolphin swam up to our boat to investigate which was cool and every time we anchored huge batfish would come and hang around the hull, waiting for bits of food to fall into the water. We went to the famous Whitehaven Beach (National Geographic top 3 beaches in the world) – it was absolutely stunning. We swam (in stinger suits as it's jellyfish season) and walked around on the fine, white sand.







After this we went scuba diving at another beach which is part of the great barrier reef. We had to dive with the guide which was no problem apart from the fact that he liked to dive at a ridiculous speed, leaving us far behind and struggling to keep up in our crappy hired fins, not really my kind of diving, but it was fun to see another part of the reef. [Some underwater pics coming soon...]



On our second night we had a bbq and party, some dressing up (university-style fancy dress – one team in bin-bags and the other in togas
– the pervy skipper started telling the girls that the team wearing the least would win...hmmm...), some singing/shouting, and general disorderly behavior. Everyone enjoyed themselves until a slightly random game invented by our guide where we had to stand in line and pass a rope through our clothes. Bizarre... our group managed it no problem but the other group didn't do quite as well and ended up squashed close together, some people got a bit upset as they felt that they might fall into the water and the game ended with no one really knowing what the point of it all was. The next morning Al and I were up nice and early, around 6.30, as the skipper started the engines to change location. We sat on deck surveying the mess from the night before... beer cans, wine bags, cups, cigarette butts, clothes, a pile of wetsuits, some food scattered around and ready to fall overboard... it wasn't a pretty sight and as the crew clearly weren't in a rush to do their jobs we cleaned most of it up... the crew didn't bother to clean the boat once while we were on board, it was pretty gross by the third day and we were pretty unimpressed.

But despite the lack of cleanliness we enjoyed our scuba diving and swimming that day and the general fun and relaxed atmosphere continued.








We really enjoyed the Whitsunday's – it is such a stunning part of the world and amazing for sailing. Next time though (with a bit more money), we think that we will charter our own yacht so we can be more independent... and less Club 18-30.

Great Barrier Reef

The night before our dive trip we went to a presentation called 'Reef Teach' which was great They told us about all the fish we would be seeing and some interesting stories about them: the clown fish (aka nemo) if the mother is killed the baby fish will turn themselves into females and mate with their father to produce more babies. There are fish that have penis fights... the loser is forced to carry the babies. Fish that queue to be cleaned by a cleaning wrasse fish. Trigger fish that get mad when you invade their territory and will chase you for ages armed with their poisonous spike on their head. Octopusses that take photographs of themselves. - So you see that fish aren't boring as some people think, they have a lot of character and we were looking forward to seeing them in their natural habitats.

We took a 2hr boat ride to meet the larger motor yacht we were to be staying on overnight on the reef. The crew are young and the atmosphere is fun, it's all go! Boarded the large boat and checked into our cabins (ensuite, pretty good) and had a briefing and quick lunch – in true Australia style we are being served real slap-up meals, definitely what you need to build up your energy for diving. The water is so warm here so we don't have to wear wetsuits, we do have to wear stinger suits though (all-in-one lycra suits) as it's jellyfish season and they have some pretty mean jellyfish here!

Al's dives:
He has yet to add this in... am trying to persuade him...


Al's course mates:


[Underwater photos still to be developed and added... coming soon!]
Vix's dives:
18.12.08
1pm: First dive was with a group of certified divers (7 of us in total) and a divemaster to get us up to speed again. We weren't under for too long as one of the group used up his air quite quickly which was a bit disappointing for the rest of us. The weather wasn't too great and visibility reduced. Still we saw loads of small amazingly coloured fish, some nemos: bright coral, a giant clam and parrot fish and held a sea-cucumber.

4pm: Second dive it was just me and two guys to be my buddies. My first dive without a divemaster/instructor to guide the way. We saw a turtle and reef shark: among other fish and I got to try out my new camera. My air consumption is pretty good these days – my buddies were down to 70bar of air when I still had 130.


7pm: Third dive of the day – night dive! And my first dive with Al as my buddy – yey!! We went with an instructor and saw some amazing coral formations, whole cliffs made of coral and huge 'giant fingers' of blue coral sticking up from the ground. We held a 'spikey' sea-cucumber. We saw a puffer fish puffed up – pretty rare, I stroked him but he didn't look too happy. Poor thing, puffing up is a form of defense for them and they are only able to do it around 3 times in their lives apparently. We also saw a blue spotted ray (twice) and a parrot fish asleep. The sea was a lot quieter at night time with most of the fish sleeping. Tried to look out for a shark but to no avail. Apparently one of the other groups saw one though. Held Al's hand underwater which was nice.

The day ended with a few drinks on deck and to bed by 10.30 for our early start...

2nd day: 19.12.08
6am (we got up at 5am!!), 9am, 11am
What a day! Three dives in a row, separated by an hour for breakfast, tea and lunch.
Al and I dived together for the first and third dive. His third dive was as a CERTIFIED diver!! It was up to me to navigate... I did quite well considering this was the first dive I've led I did pretty well and we saw lots of fish and I managed to bring us back to the boat ok – yey!
Later on we watched dolphins swimming beside the boat and a group of small fish jumping out of the water to escape them. It was pretty awesome.


Oh and Al would like to introduce you to his new hat - wild kangaroo leather and crocodile teeth, you'll be seeing quite a lot of it:



Soon it was time to leave the reef and depart from Cairns. Everyone slept on the way back, exhausted from their awesome trip.


We reeeally enjoyed this part of our trip. The great barrier reef is amazing and there's too much to explore in a lifetime. Apparently there are other, even more spectacular parts, which you can go to see (bit more pricey but worth it) so there will have to be a 'next time' here. There were some people on the boat who just snorkeled and even they loved it. The dive company (Cairns Dive Centre) are great, the staff and crew were helpful and great fun, though they do give quite a few sales pitches trying to get you to buy their videos/masks/more dives etc which can be annoying, but if you're a seasoned traveller like we are then you don't buy into those things anyway. Definitely recommended!!!

Cape Tribulation - rainforest and reef

As Al was having a great time on his diving course, I decided to take a little day trip of my own, to Cape Tribulation – the very north of the east coast, were the rainforest meets the reef. I jumped on my tour bus with about 16 other young people and headed north. The journey took us past sugar cane plantations, past stunning coastal scenery and past the tablelands – large mountains covered in rainforest.

Our guide seemed pretty keen to give us all the crocodile stories he could - little old ladies going for a morning dip in the sea only to discover a large 'log' floating next to her stuck in the stinger net (jellyfish barrier)... and men walking their dogs next to the local pond and only returning home with the lead. Kind of puts you off swimming anywhere.

Our first main stop was at the Daintree River – a large, salt water, crocodile-infested river about 150kms north of Cairns. We hopped out and awaited our croc-watching tour. We were welcomed with a cup of hot tea (seriously wierd – it was around 35c and extremely humid – whoever said tea cools you down started one of the greatest myths of all time), so after we had all melted from the tea we boarded our croc-spotting boat, cameras at the ready and off we set. There were a few calls of “crocodile!” when in fact it was “a log putting on a very wooden performance” as our guide said. And after hovering around several mangrove trees and dark looking corners we eventually found the big guy – 3 metre croc nick-named 'Fat Albert' (kind of takes away the scare-factor doesn't it?). He was hiding under a tree and everything apart from his head was submerged. This is because they need to cool down in the heat. Apparently the best time to come is May/June when it's cooler (25c) and the crocodiles are sunbathing on the banks and rocks – you can see around 12 in a 30 minute boat ride. People have seen the adult male crocs devouring whole cow carcasses and fighting for territory on the river. There are 3 large adult males on the river (we were lucky enough to see one) and loads of females and younger ones too. We saw two crocs – the other was a bit smaller but we could see him more clearly on the bank of the river – I spotted that one! As we disembarked on the other side of the river our guide told us a story about one tourist, a Belgian, who had been so annoyed on not seeing any crocodiles that he decide to walk up to the waters edge with his camera and splash around. He was then attacked by a massive crocodile who took a huge chunk out of his leg and luckily he was rescued before it got him into a death roll. But anyway I don't have much to worry about because apparently Germans are the crocs' favourite dish – (this may be because it is the Germans who are most likely to camp or hang out by the waters edge?) so all you Germans out there beware!

On the other side of the river we continued north in the van. The forest was a lot more dense now and the sounds and humidity really reminded me of the Amazon – although we were still driving on a paved road and there were little houses in the forest every few hundred metres. So a lot more developed. We stopped at a little walkway which took us into the forest and around the mangrove swamps. These were amazing. The swamps were vast and the sun shining on them acted as a mirror, perfectly reflecting the shapes of the trees. Apparently the rainforest in this area is the oldest in the world at 20 million years old, it also has a unique wildlife descended from the prehistoric times when Australia was joined to Asia. Just one hectare of rainforest hosts around 100 different species of plant life... and lots of spiders!: The guide found some green ants and some of us were brave enough to try them – they tasted of really acidic, like concentrated lime – it reminded me of when I was little and used to stick my tongue onto batteries... if anyone else was crazy enough to do this then you will know perfectly what I mean. Anyway my tongue went sort of numb for the rest of the day, but apparently there are chefs out there who actually cook with them and our guide recommended barramundi baked with green ants, or a salad with green ants instead of balsamic. We also passed a large tree, it had been strangled by vines and they had only left a sort of shell of the tree. I was hoping to see a casowary – these huge prehistoric birds exist only in the rainforest of Australia and Papa New Guinea. Unfortunately they are on the critically endangered list and only 1,200 of one species survives in Australia. They actually help to build the rainforest as they semi-digest and disperse seeds from the trees in a special way that fertilises the ground. There are road signs everywhere warning about them.

Eventually we reached Cape Tribulation, so called because when Captain James Cook landed here in the Endeavour (after being stuck on the Great Barrier Reef for a few months) he found it to be a rather unwelcoming place, what with all the crocodiles, sharks, spiders, snakes, etc, so he named it this. Nearby there is also Mount Pity and Mount Sorrow... a bit of theme here... our guide said that most Australian's put it down to Capt Cook being a 'wingeing pom'. We stopped at a backpackers hostel for lunch and I took the time to run down to the beach. It was really beautiful. The sand was pure white and the rainforest fell all the way from the mountains to the beachside. The sea was a beautiful aqua-marine turquoise but unfortunately you are not able to swim here in the summer months because of jellyfish.

On the way back we nearly ran over a huge monitor lizard. He was standing in the middle of the road inspecting his friend who had been flattened to a pancake. They aren't much cleverer than chickens though and instead of running to the other side of the road he ran between our wheels. I was sure I felt a bump but when the driver got out to check there was nothing there.

We crossed the Daintree river again on a small ferry. Our guide told us that up until a few years ago if you wanted to join the Cape Trib community you had to swim across the river as an initiation test. That was until one girl was eaten by a crocodile as she attempted the swim – pretty stupid really.

So we headed next to the Mossman Gorge where we had time for a quick dip in the crystal brown waters – it had just rained so the leaves had turned the water a pleasant dark orange colour – but it was perfectly clean so I jumped in. It was one of the best swims ever, in cool fresh water (no crocodiles), and just what I needed to cool down from the heat and humidity.

Just before we arrived at Cairns we stopped at Port Douglas, a very upmarket town, lots of 5-star resorts etc. It was nice but a little expensive for my backpacker budget. There was a nice view out to sea and a few hippy shops to browse round - including this one with a cassowary hanging out with rudolph:

It was a really great tour, our guide was really cool and the people were nice. And it was pretty cheap which is always a bonus. Cairns is such a cool place and I would love to stay longer, there is so much to do around here! But the Great Barrier Reef beckons and I met up with Al and his diving friends that evening to celebrate on land before heading out to the deep sea.

Tropical Cairns

The next morning, after our night of partying in Sydney, was quite a shock to the system... we missed our alarm clock and overslept... not too clever considering that our plane departed at 9am. We awoke at 7.15 and leaped out of bed, stuffed our rucksacks and ran for a taxi. We made the 8am check-in deadline but found that we were in the wrong terminal – for some reason Qantas' flight to Cairns left from the international terminal. But they assured us it would be ok and we boarded our flight. A couple of hours later we found ourselves staring forlornly at the baggage carousel waiting for our bags to turn up. They didn't. So we were stuck in the blistering heat of tropical Cairns (around 34 degrees and humid) in our hiking boots, jeans, now sweaty t-shirts and quite p-d off at Qantas who, we have decided, are pretty useless if they can lose two bags on a two hour domestic flight. Al had ripped jeans and smelled like a hobo from the night before - luckily no one was sitting next to us on the flight!

Anyway spirits still high we booked our hostel from the airport and awaited our free airport transfer. We waited and waited but it didn't come. Of course we realised much later that Qantas had delivered us to Cairns international terminal and our transfer had presumed we would be at the domestic terminal – ahhh! So we coughed up $17 for a taxi instead. The hostel is really nice, we have a fridge in the room and A/C which is pretty vital. There is also a pool, but the water is a kind of murkey blue and you can see bits of loo roll floating around in it, plus I saw one charming guy blow his nose into it... I suspect that some guys use it as an alternative to a shower in the morning – so I haven't been in... Al did but then saw a piece of loo roll floating towards him and ran to the shower. Cairns has a very nice public swimming pool on the esplanade though, it's such a good idea to have something like this for everyone:

So we went shopping for some new clothes, as cheap as we could find, so we didn't have to endure the heat in our winter clothes. That evening we treated ourselves to a meal out – we shared a plate of crocodile – it tastes really good!!! And I had barramundi fish – an Australian fish, a bit like cod. Cairns is a touristy town and so quite pricey so unfortunately we can't really eat out anymore here.

That evening, at 11pm, we finally got our first bag back – the other was still in Sydney. Unfortunately it was the rucksack with all our winter clothes in and the other rucksack with our toiletries and summer clothes was still missing. The next day we finally got our bag back at 2pm but Qantas refused to pay us any compensation for the new clothes, shoes and toiletries we had had to buy, even though we waited over 24 hours for our bags.

But apart from the bag drama our time in Cairns has been really relaxing. The town is situated amid mountains covered in rainforest and mangrove swamps. We've strolled along the waterfront watching out for crocodiles - Al got unlucky and has lost a leg:
and watching the fruit bats in the trees (they have them here too!), sunbathing a bit and generally chilling out which is great. There isn't a beach here but the waterfront looks pretty cool when the tide is out. Last night there was a huge tropical thunder storm. We had heard that this part of Australia is one of the most hit by lightning and we can see why – the lightning was constant, every second huge flashes and strikes of lightening! We ran outside at midnight to the beachfront to watch the storm over the mountains which was amazing and we watched the fruit bats flying around too, lit up by the lightning – spooky! And in the morning the thunder was so loud that it woke me up at 5am!

This morning Al is off doing his PADI Open Water course and I am taking time to chill, do the blog etc and tomorrow will be taking a day tour to Cape Tribulation - where the rainforest meets the beach. In a couple of days we'll be on a boat to the reef to see one of the seven wonders of the natural world - can't wait!

Sydney

We had a great time in Sydney, unfortunately though it rained constantly for the whole of our 3-day stay there which did dampen our spirits slightly. There's lots to do but most of it is outdoors-based and when it rains you have to spend a lot of money to entertain yourself. The first evening was spent in Darlington Harbour with some friends, Sarah and Phil, they showed us around the best bars and we had some amazing mussels to eat. We have decided that the food in Australia is probably the best in the world, they have the best quality produce here and they know what to do with it. It was a great evening and the rain did subside a little so we could take some photographs of the amazing skyline.

The next day we firstly changed from a dorm to a double room because one Scottish guy from Perth had decided to wake the whole room up when he came back to the pub shouting and swearing at 2am. Doubles are more expensive but we've decided that we want our sleep and are too old for this communal thing. After moving we hot-footed it to the famous Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
Both were as amazing as we had hoped and we took about a billion photographs.

We walked around an area of town called The Rocks which has some small winding streets which are pretty and also gives some great views of the opera house and bridge. Sydney reminded us very much of London, big streets, busy, lots of traffic. However we weren't too impressed with Sydney's transport system, it's pretty hard to get from A to B – there aren't really any buses and the metro system doesn't have many stations in town so we walked a lot, which in the rain is quite difficult.

As we walked back from the bridge and opera house, through Hyde Park, Al pointed to the sky “Oh look”... I stopped and looked up to see Batman flying towards me!!! Literally!! A huge fruit bat, about the size of a small dog with huge leathery wings was flying towards his perch in a tree. We sat and observed the tree which was covered in fruit bats – crazy! You can look at the Sydney sky in the evening and you will see flocks of what look like birds but in fact they are giant bats just flying around! It's pretty spooky and gives me the shivers!

On our third day we had to tackle the Chinese Embassy to get our visa for the next leg of our journey. Apart from paying a rather extortionate fee it wasn't too bad and we managed to get the visa on the same day. As it was raining again there wasn't a lot we could do, so we splashed out on an expensive hot chocolate in the Lindt shop at Darlington Harbour and headed back to our hostel to relax before the evening.

That evening we met up with a friend from London, Natalie, who was over visiting her family. A group of us went out to a brilliant Thai restaurant called Spice I Am. We moved on to a few bars, partying until the wee hours.

OZ - Melbourne to the Outback!

OZ

The much anticipated arrival in Melbourne, Australia was somewhat stressful for us but we eventually arrived in our hostel on the very cool Chapel Street and had ourselves a well-deserved Aussie beer to celebrate.
The next morning we awoke early and headed out to get our new campervan – a Spaceship campa. This little beauty is smaller than our last van but comes with a DVD player and fridge, it's also easier to drive. On our way to pick it up we stopped by the centre of town and had a quick look around. Melbourne is really nice, very open, attractive buildings and a lot of character. The people are really friendly and the food is good and quite cheap so we're happy.

We jumped in our new campa and headed off in search of a map to guide us out of town in the right direction. You would think this would be easy... but for some reason finding a map of Victoria in Melbourne proved to be very difficult. We stopped at about ten shops and petrol stations before finally finding one and realising we were half way out of town already but in the wrong direction! We picked out our route and headed for Maldon, near Castlemaine, (original home of Castlemaine XXXX (beer) and home of Lou (my cousin), Nick, Angus and new arrival Dulcie (and my auntie Rosalie who was visiting) at Steam Train Cottage.

We arrived around 6pm and settled in with a beer and greetings all round. Nick drove Al, Rosalie and I to their farm ten minutes away. They have bought a patch of land, about 6 acres in size and Nick has been hard at work planting a vineyard, avocado trees, peach trees, plum trees, cherries... the list goes on, and a dozen others. They also have a “choock shed” – chicken hut (without chickens at the moment) and a large pond with crayfish – which Al and I did some kayaking on. They also have a plot for a house marked out. It will be really amazing when its completed and Al and I will be back in a few years to sample some of the homemade wine and goodies.
On the way back we stopped off to view a field of kangaroos – this was our first proper viewing of a mob of kangaroos and it was pretty amazing – finally we really felt like we were in Australia! Lou and Nick's dog Jindi decided to jump out of the window and made it across the field at lightning speed to catch the kangaroos – luckily for the kangaroos she wasn't successful and luckily for her she wasn't given a kicking. On the way back a black wallaby jumped right in front of the car – amazing! Apparently this happens a lot and it's really easy to hit them. We really hope this doesn't happen to our nice shiny rented campervan...

The evening was wiled away playing the dijeridoo
cuddling sleepy babies and checking out Nick's skull collection – kangaroos, dingos, possums, dolphins, you name it; and staring at the creepy poisonous spider in the bathroom – luckily it doesn't really move beyond the curtain rail.

The next couple of days were spent chilling out with the Aussie cousins, spotting steamtrains with Angus driving round the area and playing with the children – such a nice change from the usual backpacker routine... oh and more dijeridoo - Al was becoming quite a pro:

We went on a pub crawl of Maldon's three local pubs – one is named the Kangaroo Hotel which we liked and it was our first taste of a real Aussie country pub.

We were also introduced to Bundaberg Rum – Australia's national spirit.
The next day we visited a town called Bendigo. It has an old colonial town centre, complete with a street called Pall Mall (which we thought was quite funny):

On our last night Lou and Nick treated us to a proper Aussie barbie at the farm
and Nick took us hunting for a huntsman spider, which we found under a dead tree trunk, fishing for yabbies (crayfish), we also got to plant our own tree (a judas tree) which we can come back to see in a couple of years. Later on we went up the local watch tower overlooking the whole region – we could see all the way to Melbourne. Later on and after a few more beers Al discovered some of Nick's more unusual house decorations: (can you spot the huntsman spider behind Al's head?)


We had an amazing time with Lou, Nick and the family but it was soon time to hit the road again. On their advice we decided to head to the outback, rather than see Victoria's coast. The coastline is meant to be amazing but we decided that we would rather get a feel for the real Australia as we will be seeing a lot of coastline later in our trip.

The roadtrip was fantastic! We drove up to the Murray river and checked out a town called Echuca which has an old-fashioned port with paddle boats. We continued along the river and came to Mildura where we checked out the locals and wiled away Friday night in a bar and then camped in the town (not actually sure if that's allowed but no one noticed!)


The next morning we reached the outback area – red sand and shrubs stretching as far as the eye can see – amazing and very beautiful. We saw wild goats, wild emus, kangaroos and lizards.



We reached Broken Hill, the old mining town of the area and had a look around. It was decorated with Christmas decorations which looked quite funny against the blue sky and desert heat.

From there we drove as far as the road would take us to a small town called Silverton.
Here we really felt like we were in the wild west. There were a few buildings scattered around the dusty roads – an old gaol, a church, a museum and a couple of houses. Best of all was the Silverton Hotel (pub) which we popped into for a quick drink – I noticed a very cool looking car outside and Al remarked that the pub looked like all the typically Australian hotel/bars he had seen in the beer commercials. We entered to find that we had actually stumbled across a very famous little pub. The walls were covered with memorabilia from the numerous films and adverts that have been filmed there – Mad Max, A town called Alice, Castlemaine XXXX beer... and many more. It was pretty awesome and we were thrilled that we had ended up in such a cool place.

We spent the night camped at a scenic viewpoint 5km north of town and in the desert. We thought it would be deserted but as we were cooking 15 cars pulled up and parked at the viewpoint next to us. It was a vintage car club on their weekly get together. They pulled our tables and chairs from their cars and started laying out picnics. They were very friendly and it was nice to see all the old cars lined up against the outback sunset.

The next morning we awoke to see a kangaroo hopping just metres from the car. The sky was a beautiful blue against the red sand of the outback. We took time to relax for a while in Broken Hill and then set off again to find our way back home, back through the outback - time to take some final pictures of the stunning red sand against the blue sky:







On the way back we spent the night off a small country road next to some fields.



The flies here were terrible, everyone knows that the flies in Australia are bad but we hadn't expected them to be this annoying! They try to fly into your eyes and up your nose and just don't leave you alone. The next morning we awoke to find that we had a slight problem... the car battery had died. We were slightly concerned as we were in the middle of nowhere. Al had a fiddle with the engine but to no avail. We had no choice but to flag down some cars and ask for a jump lead. All three cars we flagged down stopped for us (again showing that Aussies are very friendly people) and luckily the third guy was able to start our car for us – phew!!

On the road again, we headed back to Melbourne via my cousins' house where we were able to have a very welcome shower and relax with the children in the sun. Nick took us yabby fishing again


and this time we caught something – wooo!!

9 little yabbies and we took them home, cooked them up and ate them – yummy!


The next day we had to return the car by 4pm so we headed off early to get to Healesville Sanctuary – an animal sanctuary just outside Melbourne where you wlil find loads of Australia's native animals. We fed a kangaroo and a wallaby, saw koalas,
tazmanian devils, platapus, emus, saw crazy giant pelicans, fresh water crocodiles, wombats, dingoes howling, and... fruit bats – ewww! They reminded us of dracula and were pretty creepy!

All in all our trip to Victoria was excellent. We really liked Melbourne, Maldon and the outback, it was great to see my cousins and everyone we met was very friendly.

Next stop Sydney...