Lins and Rich’s Travel Blog

Having left Hervey bay, the launch point for Fraser Island, we began the long journey up the Bruce Highway to Airlie Beach.  In order to break up this massive stretch, the Oz Experience cover the journey over two days and arrange a night on a cattle ranch, during which time you participate in a wide range of genuine ranch activities, and some that are maybe not quite so authentic!  Our driver, Guido, also helped the time to pass by devising an ‘Extreme’ competition to be played on and off the bus - more on that later.

We arrived at the ranch at about 3pm having left our hostel at 7am.  We were quickly kitted out in riding gear - well, they gave us a hat, and we were allocated horses ready to go goat mustering (basically this requires you to manouvre your horse around the grazing area shouting “Haaayyyy up up up up” at the top of your voice until the goats move into the area you wnat to get them to) .  Many of you know that, after my experience with a mad horse on the Camargue at a tender and influential young age and following being thrown from a horse as a teenager while trying to come to terms with said experience at the Camargue, I am not all that comfortable with horses.  It was, therefore, with much trepidation that I mounted Shanti.  Shanti was, however, a very docile horse and I managed to get around without any major disasters.  Initially she did refuse to turn a few times until one of the Jackaroos (they don’t have cowboys in Oz - they’re called Jackaroos and Jillaroos) pointed out that they are stubborn animals and will continue to misbehave if they get away with it the first time, so once I realised they were just like teenagers I was fine and managed to gain a far greater degree of control!  Rich’s horse, Molly, was also a stubborn little bugger but Rich seemed to take to horse-riding pretty well.  In fact, Rich felt totally at home on the ranch, taking to most of the activities like a duck to water and feels that it’s one of his best experiences thus far on the trip. 

 I, however, did like the fact that I’d overcome my little horsey problem but got a bit bored after an hour or so of moving goats around.

Next we tried our hand at shooting.  For Rich this wasn’t really a big deal as he’s shot a gun many times before so he was actually quite disappointed he only managed to hit 3 of the 5 clay pigeons.  I waited and watched for a while and finally picked up the gun to achieve a grand score of zero!  I wasn’t the only one, but another Lindsay managed to get 4 out of 5 and she’s never handled a gun before either so she did leaving me looking pretty useless!

  No, his fingers aren’t in his ears because I’m talking!

Activity number 3 was called the goat rodeo.  And no, it didn’t mean riding a wild goat until we got bucked off!  We had to work in teams of 3 to catch a goat, tip it and ‘brand’ it.  After a demonstration, the boys went first and Rich had been designated as the goat catcher.  The Jackaroos let all the goats into the pen and then selected one ‘at random’ covering its eyes to “calm it down”.  The other goats were shown back to their other pen and the selected goat was let loose for Rich to catch.  It stayed in the pen for about 2 seconds then promptly jumped the fence to rejoin the other goats.  Rich was then sent in among all the goats to pick out another one and bring it in for branding (the branding pole was cold).  It took the 3 boys quite a long time to achieve their goal; that said, it took my team much longer!  I was the goat catcher for our team…or not…I failed and had to tag Jo  to go and get it for me as I still hadn’t caught it after about 45 seconds of chasing it around in circles.  People kept shouting at me to grab it’s leg, but I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with that.  So, this was my second failed experience on the ranch!  It later turned out that the goat who had had his eyes covered had been trained that this was the signal for him to jump the fence!

After the rodeo came our first ‘Extreme’ activity.  The driver had allocated a number of ‘extreme’ points to various activities and quizzes that we would play over the 2 days.  The participant with the most points at the end of the 2 days would win prizes worth about $100.  The starter for 5 points was to participate in the cattle prod.  This involved standing in a circle and being given an electric shock.  The Jackaroo span the bottle to see who the 2 people would be who got to actually be attached to the prod and everyone else would then feel the vibrations through those people and, yes, you’ve guessed it, the bottle landed on me.  So Joanne and I had to hold the 2 pins of the prod and feel the volts flow through!  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but still came as a bit of a shock none-the-less.

After dinner, we moved on to whip-cracking…and I finally found something I could do! In order to make a whip crack, you have to move it in such a way that it reaches a speed greater than 330m a second, thus breaking the speed of sound - this is what makes the cracking noise.  We donned our goggles to protect our eyes and started practising with old whips.  Then we were allowed to move onto a block and show what we could do with the good whip.  I had to have a few practise goes, but then I was able to make it crack every time. 

Our final event of the evening (also for extreme points) was mechanical bull riding.  I was picked at random to go first and I lasted 1 second before flying off the front of the bull.  Rich did slightly better on 3 seconds!  Needless to say, no points for us in this game.  The winner somehow managed to stay on for 12 seconds though - impressive!

The following morning began with a second attempt at catching a tennis ball fired from a cannon to an immense height - we had tried to do this the previous evening but the light was bad and nobody could see the ball until it landed by their feet.  Then again, nobody managed to catch it in the morning either so I’m not sure how much difference the poor light really made!  The ball disappeared from view for so long and was travelling at such a speed that it was virtually impossible to track.

This second day of travel was taking in more than 700km of road so we played a few quizzes on board, some for points, some just for fun.  They included the bum test - deciding whether the 20 bums we were given pictures of were male or female.  Rich was worrying accurately right on 17 of the 20 bottoms!  The boob test involved deciphering real from fake boobs; there was also a sudoku puzzle to finish the competition.  We also stopped en route to play a bit of lawn bowls - a big sport out here.  Rich and I lost 6-2! 

We finally arrive in Airlie Beach at about 7, just in time to check in for our boat the next morning.

And what a boat it was!  We have just had the most incredible few days sailing around the Whitsunday islands, which are truly stunning.  The views and photos absolutely reflect the pictures you see on postcards of the islands.  The beaches are made up of the finest white sand so soft you can clean glass and jewellery with it.  The sea varies in colour from turquoise to the richest blue and the beaches all lead inland to the deep greens of the dense, virtually untouched forests on the islands.  This really is paradise.  It is amazing how much time I spent just staring out from the boat, with my feet dangling over the side, simply watching the islands go by, occasionally spotting local bird or marine life.  I didn’t pick my book up once as I just couldn’t peel my eyes away from the scenery.

The first morning was mostly taken up by motoring and sailing out to the islands from the mainland.  Once there, we had the first of many superb meals on board and then we did our first two dives and caught sight, for the first time close up, of the Great Barrier Reef.  We didn’t see an enormous amount or variety of fish, but this placeis all about the coral.  The corals were an array of all the colours in the spectrum and there are so many different species; some of which you could touch and hold and some of which should be left well alone. Like this lion fish which is quite deadly and the harmless but slimey sea cucumber below.

The second day was set aside for a walk up to a lookout point, a couple of hours sea-kayaking that allowed us to see lots of turtles, and an afternoon at the beach

 I swam to the beach from the boat and, after my skin had had enough of the Aussie sun’s rays (I think I’d been out in the sun for about 4 hours in total which was just too much) I decided to swim back to the boat.  I think this is the toughest swim I’ve ever done.  It wasn’t that far but the current was strong and the waves were higher than I’d judged - I knew the crew were watching from the boat and I just had to signal if I got into trouble so I wasn’t concerned, but it was bloody hard work.  When the others got back on the boat shortly after (having taken the speed boat option) they all commented on how surprised they were that I’d made it!

The final morning was another dive and snorkel morning to explore the underwater world one more time before we had to return to the mainland.  I’ve had a problem with my rib on and off for a while so I couldn’t dive so I was very jealous that Rich was going down again and I had to be satisfied with snorkelling.  I, however, saw a Maori wrasse that was about a metre long and he saw very little in the way of different fish life and the corals were apparently similar to those on the second dive (or so he said - he may have just been playing it down so I didn’t feel too much like I’d missed out).  Then we were both snorkelling and we were able to watch a hawksbill turtle for about 15 minutes - at first it was feeding off the corals beneath us, then it began to swim up; it emerged right in-between me and another girl form the boat called Anabelle, remained there to take a few breaths and then headed down again to swim off.  Wow!

So, with much regret that it was all over, we headed back to the mainland.   I’ve still got sea legs now but I cannot recommend ‘Summertime’ and its crew highly enough to anyone who is considering sailing the Whiltsundays.

Yesterday we travelled on a few hundred km further North and jumped on a boat once again to bring us across to Magnetic Island.  There is very little here but we’ve decided to just hang around for a couple of days to chill out before we go for further adventures in Carins.  This is the view we had of the moon last night from the island…

Evening all, today is our first day back from Fraser where we have been slumming it with the dingos on the worlds largest sand island. Its been a fantastic experience and we have met some great people.

We arrived at our hostel a few days ago ready for our briefing. On the way on the bus the driver filled us in on a little bit of background information on Fraser. Fraser stretches 140km and is approx 18km wide and apart from one rocky outcrop is made entirely of sand deposited by the EAC (east Australian current - for more info watch finding nemo - totally dude) on what was originally a rocky outcrop. We arranged to undertake a self drive 3 night tour of the island a lot like Shep did last year which basically means ten people cram into a landcrusier and race round the island tracks admiring the scenery and trying not to crash! Its great fun

The island itself belongs to the Aboriginal people and has now become a heritage site, its stunning with huge expanses of white sand (well it is a sand island) and dense bush growth. After shopping and another early morning briefing we were off. Kate was elected to drive and we caught the ferry over without a hitch and once there hit the inland tracks to lake wobey.

Lake wobey is next to a huge sand blow and is slowly getting devoured at a rate that it is predicted that in ten years it wont be there. Its hard to find words to describe it with a huge expanse of golden untouched sand plunging into deep green waters. The lake is famous for its fish who, if you sit still long enough allegedly pick the dead skin off your feet and give you a natural pedicure. Lins tried in vain to get them to do it, I do not however think jumping in and demanding it in a croydon accent won them over. Boz however did get his foot nibbled.

After a quick bite to eat we headed up the beach, the inland tracks are really rough and its great experience as it really is proper off road 4 x 4 driving. The beach was considerably easier to drive on and we made good time up to Ellie creek. The island sits on top of a water basin and has some of the purest water in the world. Ely creek is a great example and we waded up stream in the crystal clear stream and Lins and Erin tried as best they could to float back down as the current is strong enough to move you. Very funny to see them both bobbing along past people trying to walk up stream.

Next stop was the Meriono wreck. The meriono is a huge steam ship from the thirties that was washed around in a cyclone. It was then used as bombing practice in the second world war and now sits as a rusting, but very spectacular wreck on the beach.

After a few quick photos we were off to our camp site. The camping was very rustic but added to the fun, we had nothing other than what we brought with us so sand toilets and cooking stoves were the order of the day and we had a great bbq. Lins cooked mash to go with the meat but due to the lack of power in the ring it took a few hours to cook and everyone had mash as pudding.

Next day I had my first go at driving. Now im not the best driver in the world but I had a great time burning up the beach and people did not look to white when they got out so I must have done ok. We stopped the van at Indian head and climbed the highest point on the island to try and spot a few of the locals. The sea around Fraser is off limits for two reasons. 1) the current caused by the EAC is lethal and stronger than you and 2) Fraser is the breeding ground of tiger sharks. For those of you that don’t know tiger sharks are truly dangerous and are only behind bull sharks in terms of there attack rate on humans. We were shown a picture of a really stupid couple who decided to swim. The picture shows them and next to them (totally obliviously is a 16ft tiger shark). Apparently it circled them and left. They were very lucky.

Indian head is very scary, there is no barriers and its a straight drop of around 100 ft into the raging ocean. Too close and if the fall don`t kill you the sharks will. Unfortunately we were unable to spot any, only a few huge eagle rays.

After Indian head we visited the Champagne pools which are rock pools that the sea fizzes in and out off and the only salt water you can swim in. There was however no shade and all of us, including Alebero with his olive Spanish skin were sunburnt.

After Lins drove us back we made camp and played drinking games for a few hours. It was very funny, especially when in think why you drink Boz tried to use a dutch table tennis player! After a much funnier game of never ever which I wont go into in the blog we all passed out one by one.  Getting up in the middle of the night for a toilet stop I came face to face with another of the local inhabitants, the dingo. Now dingos are dangerous and have attacked humans, despite there looks. I remembered the advice that the video had stated, stand still and cross your arms. This was superseded by the garage who gave the advice, if it comes near you hit them with the shovel!!. After a second of standoff the dingo obviously decided that I didn’t have enough meat on me to bother with and trotted off!

The final day was spent visiting central station, which is the area where the loggers used to live before the practice was stopped. Here we found the whispering river which is so called because the water is so pure that you can not see it. A huge tree that took six people to fit around it.

 The final visit was to Lake Mckenzie, an inland lake which was again really pretty and a cool. Very welcome for a swim after all the driving and heat.

Just want to mention fully the people we shared the three days with. There were Alberho  and Boz, a Spanish guy and a dutch guy who were a great laugh. Kate, a layer on a months holiday who did the lions share of the driving and was scared of literally everything that crawled. In the end we got used to her random screams. Erin who kept cutting herself on things (somehow she got round) and who introduced us to some drinking games and wine bag pillows and Rich and Becky, a couple from Leeds who kept us organised! Fraser can be make or break with the group your put with but luckily ours was fantastic and we all loved every minute.

Right, better be off early start to get to a cattle ranch tomorrow to round goats (yes you heard right) .

 The past few days have been pretty hectic as we’re moving swiftly up the East Coast at the moment, trying to fit in as much as we can on the way.  Our final  day in Brisbane was spent at the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary which, as the name suggests, is all about the koalas.  We spent a number of hours watching these adorable creatures slowly moving around the eucalyptus trees in their pens, being slightly fearful of the very poisonous snakes on the other side of the glass in the reptile house, and observing wallabies and kangaroos as they refused the food that pushy members of the public were trying force upon them, (I’m sure they would have been grateful earlier in the day, but by the time we entered their area, the park had been open for 6 hours and they had clearly had enough - that, however, didn’t stop one man from poking the kangaroo, watching it turn away, then poking it again - what can you do?!!). We also listened to talks about the snakes and the marsupials.  The marsupials are amazing creatues. Did you know that kangaroos give birth to one joey after about a month of pregnancy.  The jelly bean sized foetus then uses it front paws to crawl inup the mother’s body into the pouch.  It remains here for about 8-9 months, feeding from the mother’s teets.  In the meantime, the mother is likely to become pregnant again but she can hold off the birth of the foetus until the first joey has left the pouch so she only has to feed one at a time.  She can also delay the birth if the weather has been bad and food is scarce for up to 200 days - how impressive is that?  Can you imagine if you couldn’t really afford to have a baby yet and you were pregnant and you could just hold it off until you were ready!

Most excitingly, we got to cuddle a koala.  I had my photo taken with one koala and the photographer commented on the fact that I was smiling so genuinely.  Rich pointed out that I had wanted to do this since I was six and that was probably why I was grinning from ear to ear!  He then stepped up for his photo and the koala didn’t want to know.  It refused to loosen its limbs to be handed over to him - they tried giving it food but the koala wasn’t having any of it so they had to bring out a new one for him - he’s just not Doctor Doolittle!

The next morning (I’ve lost track of the days at the moment) we got up early for a half-day journey to Noosa.  We stopped off en-route at a viewpoint for the glasshouse mountains and had to climb a very steep, mosquito-ridden hill to get to it.  The view from the top was spectacular though - the photos don’t really do it justice.  It is hard to explain how much nothingness there is in areas of this country, and the mountains really stood out against the flat of the rest of the land.  We were, howeve, all getting bitten alive by the copious bugs up there and were mostly wearing sweaters in the sweltering heat in an attempt to prevent bites.

When we arrived at Noosa, a beautiful small coastal town, we headed straight to the National Park and did an 8km walk around the forest and along the coastal path, admiring the flora and trying to spot wild koalas in the forest, and admiring the talented surfers off the coast. 

 It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon but the koalas did not want to be spotted.  We followed this by a quick trip to the beach - I went in the water as it was the last place up the East Coast where you could swim safely as the rest of the coast is ridden with stingers.

Continuing our wildlife theme, on Tuesday we went to Australia Zoo; this is Steve Irwin’s conservation centre, largely dedicated to crocodile rescue and care, but it also features lots of other animals native to Oz.  We watched the show, clearly geared up for children, but still fairly informative and were rightly afraid of the crocodiles who move through the water in such a way that the water is not disturbed - you would never see them coming.  We did gain some handy tips on how to avoid getting into trouble with any of Autralia’s dangerous animals though - hopefully we won’t ever need them.  We, once again, went in to see the snakes - this zoo had a larger collection.  The first display case contained the fierce snake - this snake has enough venom in one bite to kill up to 100 men and is the most poisonous snake in the world.  The good news though is that it lives far away from humans, unlike the brown snake which is the second most poisonous and which lives all over Australia, including in towns and cities - theres’ one to be really afraid of. Also at the zoo were some young tigers, only sixteen weeks old and very cute. For a five dollars contribution to a tiger charity the keepers took your camera into the pen and took some photos. We both agree it was worth every cent!

Yesterday morning we got on the bus once again to head up to Rainbow beach.  When we checked in to the hostel we were told that there was a free walk from the hostel out to Carlo Sandblow.  We thought this would be a good way to kill an afternoon in a very quiet town (well, village really) and so, with no expectations, we joined Matty Mudcrab (who runs the hostel) and 6 other backpackers for our short trek.  This turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip so far.  On our way to the sandblow, we stopped at various trees and were able to sample to delights of their nectars, eating the flowers of those which were edible.  We were then taken into the wooded area and given further information about the healing properties of the gum trees.

Then we had one hell of a climb - short but very sharp - up a sand dune.  It was like doing  a workout on a stairmaster as your legs kept slipping back down, carried by the sand.  The top of the sandblow was host to some of the most spectacular and unusual sights I have ever seen. 

 The sand went on forever, finally dropping down into the sea and the rainbow from which Rainbow Beach gets its name, comes from the 72 different colours of sand around the area.  We sat at the top and were given a talk about the history of the East coast, the immediate surroundings, Aboriginal culture and traditions and the way in which the Aboriginis were treated by the English.  We felt quite ashamed by the end of the talk!  Matty was a fascinating speaker, absolutely passionate about the things he was taling about, and he is constantly researching to develop his knowledge of the area and his Aboriginal heritage (He is one eighth Aborigini).  Most impressively, he has learnt the calls of many of the birds in the area, particulalry of the willy wagtail as one comes to  teach him in his garden on a regular basis - apparently the bird will keep making the sound until Matty whistles it back to him correctly, then he moves on to another sound - just like learning another language!  He was, therefore, able to ’speak’ to the birds while we were walking - I obviously have no idea what they were saying to each other!

So, that brings us up to date.  We leave Rainbow beach in a couple of hours to go to Hervey Bay.  From there, we’ll be exploring Fraser Island on a self-drive safari - it could be great or it could be a nightmare as we will be sharing a 4×4 with 8 others and we’ll all have to agree what to do for 3 days! 

Finally, we have given up on uploading all our photos to Flickr as it just take too long - even in Australia it is taking 2 hours to upload 20 or so photos and we simply don’t have the time or the money to upload the hundreds we are taking.  We will continue to upload as many as possible, but what we have done is selected some of the best ones and been back through our web entries and added them to the relevant blog entries.  Please go back through and have a look.  xx

Just thought we’d write a very quick update as the last couple of days have been fairly eventful.  Most importantly, we have finally seen turtles, much to my delight.  As you all know, I like to make noise, and when I get excited, I like to make more noise; unfortunately, I was under the water breathing through a regulator and therefore had to temper my excitement as I couldn’t say anything - you can imagine how difficult that must have been!  We pondered over whether to dive the Julian Rocks, just off Byron Bay, as it was incredibly expensive, but as it is considered one of the top 10 dive sites in the country, we decided we would most probably get value for money… we certainly did.  I specifically asked the guide to point out turtles as I was dying to see one, and after maybe 10 minutes in the water, he shone his torch under a rock and motioned us over.  The turtle (this one was a green turtle) then swam out from under the rock and passed just millimetres in front of me. 

This encounter with the placid, beautiful, graceful creature that is the turtle, was quickly followed by a close encounter of another kind:  the grey nurse shark.  Apparently these are harmless to humans as they only swallow whole and therefore can’t fit a human in their mouth.  That didn’t stop me being scared!  The guide put his hand out for me to hold so that I didn’t move in my anxious state and the shark passed pretty close by.  However, we then went into a cod cave and one passed just inches from my nose - I certainly wobbled!  Rich loved it though.  I think his excitement about the sharks probably matched mine about the turtles. 

We also saw wobblegons, moray eels and a wide variety of other fish, all of which were much larger than those we’d seen in Malaysia.  The dive was different in many ways to those in Malaysia; not least the weather and the surge.  There had been a lot of rain and stormy conditions over the past 24 hours so the sea was very rough.  Rich was sick when we surfaced and I, who don’t suffer from sea-sickness, felt pretty rough too.  Hopefully the rest of the dives will be smoother.

Having dived i the morning, we got on the bus to head to Brisbane and had completely forgotten that this bus journey involved a stop to go zorbing - this basically involves humans and some water in an over-sized hamster ball rolling down a hill.  I’d never really been that bothered about doing it, particularly as you pay about 30 quid for it in England, but it was only $20 each so we thought it was worth a shot.  Three of us and the ball were driven to the top of the hill and some warm water was then put in the ball.  We had to run and dive through the hole at the side - much like being born in reverse - and once in, we had to start crawling to send the ball over the top.  The next 10 seconds or so were spent hurtling down a hill (apparently you reach 30km an hour).  I have to say, it was just great fun.

We arrived in Brisbane last night and went out for a few drinks (courtesy of Oz experience) then had a fairly early night, though Rich needn’t have bothered as he had to listen to people shagging in his dorm for half the night so he didn’t sleep anyway.  My dorm was far more civilised. 

This morning we got up early as we plan to go to the koala sanctuary tomorrow and therefore had just one day in which to see as much of Brisbane as possible.  We did well!  We started the day at the city hall, admiring the views from the clocktowerand looking around the Brisbane museum.  We then walked around some interesting buildings as we headed down to Queensland’s parliament building. 

After a short and informative tour there, and offering our tour guide advice on what she should see with her family in their 48 hours in London in January, we headed to a contemporary art gallery.  Then we took a ferry across to the south bank and had a spot of lunch.  From here we walked back along the river to the Queensland museum and learnt a bit more about the wildlife, outback, aboriginals and endangered species of Australia.  In total we covered 2 museums, 1 gallery, parliament, a Nepalese Pagoda of Peace, a viewing tower and about 8km of the city…not bad at all, I’m sure you’d agree.  Brisbane seems to be a cool city and it’s a shame we don’t have a bit more time to explore and really get a feel for it.

Picture this…Clear blue skies, sandy beach, the sun shining enough to warm the air but not enough to burn; bronzed, blond-locked surfers riding the waves which are just perfect for surfing, rolling in off the sea and breaking just at the perfect time for me to catch them and carry me gracefully in to shore, beautifully balanced on my board. Well, my first surfing experience was nothing like that!  It was grey, pissing with rain, cold, and, in spite of two hours practise, I didn’t once manage to stand up.  I did manage to get to my feet once, but only just, and my body was still decidedly squating.  Still, it was a good laugh.  That was yesterday morning’s activity as we have now started our un up the East coast.  We’re travelling with Oz Experience - a bus service especially for backpackers - you buy a 6 month pass following a particular route but it allows you to hop on and off along the route so you can pretty much choose how long you want to spend in each place.  They also include a couple of additional activites in the price of the bus pass, of which the surfing was one,and the driver will make hostel reservations and book activities for you as you go, as well as being a source of information about the areas you visit, so he’s a bit like a travel agent cum bus driver cum tour guide cum entertainment’s officer!  We weren’t sure about it at first as we though it may just be geared up for partying 18 year olds but it seems to have something to offer everyone, including us old folk! 

Speaking of partying 18 year olds, we’re currently sharing a dorm with 4 Canadians and I don’t hing I’ve ever seen anyone in such a state as them last night.  They broke a locker door as they couldn’t find the key, one of them kept falling over, including nearly falling through the large window twice.  Another passed out at about 10.30, one wanted the bin to puke in but kept asking for the door…you get the idea.  It may have got annoying but as they’d all passed out by half twelve, it was just entertaining.  Needless to say, none of them remembered a thing and were asking them to explain to them why they had cuts on their knees and the locker door under their bed this morning! 

The reason it’s taken me so long to write this latest is blog entry is because, although I’ve been having a great time since we arrived in Oz 10 days ago, I haven’t really done anything much up until now.  I have had a cold (yes, ill again!) and have been sleeping really badly so the one activity that I was going to do in Sydney, the Bondi to Coogee beach walk, I had to skip. Much of the rest of our time in Sydney was  spent trying to get things sorted out for living here for a few months; doing boring things like setting up bank accounts etc.  I’m still hoping to get teaching work out here from the end of January and thought I had brought everything I needed with me to get registered as a teacher out here, but apparently not, so I’ve spent lots of time on the phone to mum (who was fortunately in the UK this week) trying to dig things out that I need - thanks mum.   As a result, we will need to head back to Sydney once we’ve finished the East Coast run to pick stuff up that has been posted to us.  Still, that’s not a problem as we met some great people there who are doing things the other way round from us; working first, travelling later, so it will be good to head back to hang out with them for a bit longer at their new place near Bondi beach. 

On the subject of meeting people, I had planned to meet up with Billy (for those of you who don’t know him, he’s a friend of ours who came out here a couple of years ago) at some point in Oz if our paths crossed so had got his phone number off him but nothing more.  I went food shopping on Sunday morning while Richie stayed at the hostel nursing a hangover and, as I was awlking back to the hostel, I saw someone that looked remarkably like Billy.  I wasn’t too sure so texted him his location to check and, sure enough, it was Billy Bradley himself!  After a couple of hours cathcing up back at our hostel,  arranged to meet up later for drinks.  Billy turned up at our hostel a few hours later and stunned our room mates (who were some of the best people I could wish to share a room with) with his banter - they thought he was putting on an act as he was his usual hyper-active self, until he came back the next morning at 10 o’clock dressed in the cowboy outfit he’d acquired from the bar we went to the night before (including a hat and faux-cowskin chaps), asked where the wine was that he’d left in our room the night before, and promptly finished off the bottle, managing to talk non-stop while he did so!  The night out was a good one with live music, dancing, singing, dressing up, much merriment and dancing on the bar. 

 So that’s just about everything up to date.  We’ve spent the day in Byron Bay toady and did a lovely walk around a coastal path this mornign that takes in the most Easterly point of mainland Australia and leads up to a lighthouse.  Byron Bay is largely a centre for water based activities and alternative lifestyles - so you have to be prepared to spend money for most of the activities here unless you’re into surfing and, surprisingly, I’m not planning to take it up!  We are, however, diving tomorrow morning- it’s pricey but it’s one of the top ten dive sites in Australia.    As a result, I decided to try out the  alternative side here too and havejust ahd an Aryuvedic treatment to try to sort out my sinuses as they seem to be eternally blocked and that’s not good news when you’e diving.  The left one feels pretty clear now but I’m still waiting for the results on the right one.

After the dive tomorrow morning, we’ll be heading up to Brisbane and should get there tomorrow evening.  Looks like a great city from what we’ve seen and hear so I’m looking forward to it. xx

Hi all, trust you are well. Currently lounging around in Byron Bay after setting on up the east coast of Australia. Now anyone who is not aware of the massive distances in OZ, Sydney to Cairns is the same as the distance between London and Moscow!

First got to catch up on what we got up to in Sydney before we left. We spent a pleasant week in the Wake Up hostel, chilling out untill we bumped into the ginger prince, none other than Billy Bradley! (friend from home for people who do not know him). Now to say he is barking is an understatment. Lins met him outside a hostel randomly and we arranged to go out that night to catch up! My god can that boy drink and we headed to his favorite bar “the gaff”. We were soon downing jager ice and VB and a quiet night turned into a massive, dancing on the bar sort of experience! We left Bill at around one dressed as a cowboy chatting up a traveller!

Next day we had just got out of bed when there was a knock at the door. The door is opened and in walks Billy dressed still as a cowboy. He imidiatley grabed a bottle of wine and harrassed the entire dorm while we got ready regaling us of tails that are not sutiable to put in a blog! He had a friend that could do us a good deal on the travel so we wandered through Sydney next to a ginger cowboy who insisted on saying “howdy mam” to women as he past them. Very funny and surreal!

We booked  our tour with the Oz Experience with various trips and then spend the rest trying to avoid getting dragged back into the pub!

Next day at the ungodly hour of ten to seven we were off up the east coast with our friendly aussie bus driver Trigger. Oz experience is a bit different from other tours as you get activities thrown in and they take you to out of the way areas and give you snippits of info  that you would otherwise be oblivious about.

As it was Melbourne cup day the first activity was to stop to watch that. As trigger had grown up working with horses im not sure this was entirely planned but good fun. My betting record continued as I lost $10 on the favorite!

After this welcome break after hours of traveling we stopped at a surf museam run by an eighty year old called scotty who was fit as a fiddle and still surfed every day. From the looks of the pictures on the wall he used to surf to profesional standard and has spent his life making surfboards. He chatted to us about surfing and more worryingly getting attacked by sharks and nearly getting eatten by salt water crocs! After scaring the hell out of us it was off to surf camp a little way up the coast via a quick stop to see the big bannana!

Surf camp was like walking into a diffrent world! Im sure they were speaking english but its hard to follow what the hell they mean. The guys there were a good laugh and sterotypes, all blonde and tanned! We spent a while sat round the camp fire chatting and had a decent Barbie feed. After which we retired to our trailer ready for the next morning up early to surf.

Now the last time I surfed was in Newquay about three years ago and I was truely terrible so i was expecting the worse. However the instructors in surf camp were ace and I managed to stand up probably 10 times by the end of 2 hrs. Once for about thirty seconds and even managed some pointing and shouting. I was really happy! Do not think im cut out to be a surfer, but may have another lesson on Bondi! After all everwhere here is geared up for surfing and its great exercise!

After surf camp we were off again to Byron Bay. The weather has been dismal since we got into Australia with about 3 sunny days and the rest rainy. It continued to hammer down while we made the journey up to Byron Bay.  The only time we stopped was to see the “Giant Prawn”. Do not know what it is with the aussies and giant fibre glass models but they seem to love it! Very tacky but quiet amusing.

Byron Bay itself is a great chilled out place that is fighting consumerism. For example they refuse to let Mcdonalds open a branch here and its a really nice chilled out place. Apparently the rich and famous have all owned houses here includeding Paul “thats not a knife” Hogan and Elle Macpherson.  Apparently there are plans on the horizon for high rise tower blocks and expansion which I hope they avoid as its a friendly, stunning place that can do without such things.

This morning Lins and I walked to the Lighthouse and Australias most easterly point and the views were amazing. Tommorrow were diving off Julian Rocks. One of the top ten dive sites in Australia with an abundance of Turtles and nurse sharks as well as huge shoals of fish. Can not wait.

Before I go just have to mention the guys were sharing a room with. There are four to six guys all from Canada undertaking a tour. They can not be more than 20 and last night I have never seen people as drunk as they were. One from standing in the middle of a room staggered ten meters backwards into a window, how it did not break I dont know. None of them could stand and when they could it was only briefly before they fell over again. It was chaos but very funny. They all look like crap today so think tonight will be chilled out for them!

Gday everyone, we have arrived in Sydney and its great. Flew out from Bangkok a few days ago and found out our flight was on the new Airbus A380 operated by Singapore airlines. It was only its eighth flight and was quite exciting. The plane is absoloutly massive and how it got off the ground I do not know. Apparently its the size of a football pitch! We got no sleep as everyone was walking about looking at the plane and poor Lins was ill again. We have worked out its an effect of the Malarone but she has to take no more so can add that to her allergy list!

 The first couple of days in Sydney have been quite easy going. With the exception of wandering up the main drag to see the harbour bridge and the opera house.

 we have spent the time setting up bank accounts, tax numbers and medicare cards ready to work here and caught up on some sleep. Seems like its going to be easier for me to work as a QS than it will be for lins as a teacher. Alot depends on how quickly Lins can get registered to teach which may take a little while and it sounds a nightmare with all the forms e.t.c.

Today I went on a guided walk between Coogee beach and Bondi beach which was fantastic. The wake up hostel where we are staying put on the walk for free. The walk was along the clifftops and took in a number of small bays on the way. The scenery was amazing with lots of swirling pools and craggy rocks as well as the golden sands.

There was also a sculpture exibhition being sponsored by the local council so some of the beachs were covered with art. Some of it was amazing, other just plain strange. In all it was a nice way to spend a Friday.

 Alot of people are quite scathing about Bondi but i thought it was really nice and would love to get a flat in that area. However we walked past Heath ledgers house and as that was worth $14,000,000 I do not fancy the chances

Tonights going to be a quiet one as after Asia, Oz is really expensive (I think as much as London but people disagree). Were already on to the pasta and sauce meals to save money. Last night was spent nursing a few pints of VB in the bar downstairs of the hostel. Its a really good laugh and everyone is really friendly but kind of like being a student again!

 Off to cook dinner now, take care all.