Filling in the Gaps

So I headed back to Sydney for a few days and tried out some stuff I missed last time I was here. Having got up at 4am to get the flight back from Hobart on the Tuesday I was a bit tired, so only managed to make it as far as the Sydney Tower. You get pretty decent views from the top and I guess it's something I should have done when I first got here, but not being a huge fan of heights it wasn't at the top of my to do list. The views were pretty impressive though and then it was onto a thing called Oztrek which is a tourist ride showing you briefly round Australia which again was something I probably should have done a few months ago.
Next day I headed to Botany Bay. It's a bit of a trek out of Sydney involving nearly an hour on the train and then 20mins on the bus, but you can go where Capt Cook first came ashore and there are a few walks to do around there so it was worth the effort. The area's a port now and it's a bit weird to have big tankers right next to a historical site but I guess the reason it was a good port for Capt Cook makes it still a good port today.
On Friday I caught up with Lisa who I had travelled with in Peru and is now living just outside Sydney. The next morning I headed to the Botanical Gardens, had lunch again with Lisa and then went surfing at Bondi one last time.
Sunday was a trip to the IMAX in Darling Harbour to see Spiderman 3 on a very big screen and then I headed to Hawaii.
The fun thing about flying to Hawaii from Oz is that you cross the international dateline so having taken off on Sunday evening and flown overnight I arrived in Honululu on Sunday morning. I mainly sat on the beach and vegged in front of the tv while I was there, but I did manage to climb a volcano crater called Diamond Head near Waikiki beach. Then went snorkelling at a place called Hanauma Bay which is another volcano crater but this one has been eroded on one side so it's a big bay and it has a reef right near the beach. It's not in the same league as either the Grat Barrier or the Ningaloo Reefs in Oz, but the yanks seem to like it and it was fun to be snorkelling again.
Another overnight flight took me to Vancouver, Canada where I met up with the canadians I had also travelled with in Peru. We all headed to a place called Granville Island where there's a market and some arty shops had lunch at a restaurant (well hut)by the river called Go Fish which did nice fish.
My last trip for a few weeks was catching the ferry over to my uncle's over on Vancouver Island where I'll be for another week or so.

It's cold outside...

I'm going to first point out that I've spent most of the last 7 months in warm, actually hot weather. My wardrobe is set up for 30 degree heat and I sent my coat home in February. So it was a bit of a shock when I flew into Tasmania and it was cold. And windy. And drizzling. I was not happy, in fact I was bloody cold even when I was wearing 2 T-shirts and both my fleeces. It was actually about 14 degrees, but I think my body has got used to heat (hopefully it'll be sunny when I get back to the UK) and so I've spent a lot of the last week shivering. Rant over here's what I got upto on the tour I booked...
Day one and a 7.30 start - the first of many - for a trip to Port Arthur which was the major prison out in Australia in the 1800's. It's been badly affected by fires and selling of the bricks after it closed and so a lot of the buildings have gone. However it's still pretty impressive and there are a lot of tiny cells that people got crammed into for rather petty crimes. We also saw some pretty cool coasts and beaches and collapsed sea caves.
The next day we headed to Ross (I think) which apparently has the oldest bridge in Australia. This meant it was about 170 years old, which for them is really old, but for the europeans on the tour wasn't very old at all and we were a bit underwhelmed. Anyway then we headed off to The Freycinet Peninsula which has a really cool beach called Wineglass Bay that you can go to a lookout and look at and then go down the other side of a mountain (ok large hill) to get to. It was a good idea at the time, but we were a bit tired after the return journey. That night a few of us went on a penguin tour which was very cool as the penguins will walk right past you if you stand still.
Have just had to look at my photos to remember what we did the next day it was a trip to a wildlife sanctuary where I saw my first tasmanian devil and then we went to the Bay of Fires which is another cool beach with white sands and pretty decent waves. This guy called Matt managed to drop his camera between a narrow gap in some rocks. It didn't wash away but he just looked at it pathetically until an Irish guy called Liam managed to get down and pick it out before the next big wave hit. I have no idea if it ever worked again...
The next day we headed for Cradle Mountain which is in a big national park. A load of the guys set off to walk to a place called Marion's Lookout which is a decent climb. Our guide had spent the whole morning saying how only the 'fit young lads' would make it. So me and another girl Fiona decided to go anyway. We left about 5 minutes after the guys did and headed up at our own pace. Having been told it was 90 mins to the top I got there after about 35 and was surprised to find no-one at the top. Fiona arrived about 5 mins later and we took some photos and assumed the lads had gone on a bit further. Amusingly 10 minutes later the guys staggered up the slope and were pretty pissed off and confused to find us already there. It turns out that there is a longer but flatter and easier route that they had accidently taken. needless to say we continued to mention how we'd got to the top first for the rest of the trip.
We saw a pretty cool waterfall called Montezuma's Falls the next day and went to Lake St Clair the day after before ending up back in Hobart last Saturday. Then I hung a round for a couple of days to go to the Cadbury factory which was fun even if the chocolate doesn't taste so good over here!

A new career in the offing?

Well, probably not, I don't think I could drive a train all day. But I can at least claim that I have sat in the driver's seat of "The Ghan" which is the train that runs from Darwin to Adelaide (it takes 2 days). Randomly I ended up sitting next to one of the drivers when we were on a tour of Katherine Gorge and so got a trip to the engine. Unsurprisingly the train wasn't moving when they let us in...
So anyway I'd headed back over to the 'Top End' to catch the train and after about 4 hours you get to Katherine. I hadn't had the chance to get there before so decided to splash the cash and use the 4 hour wait at the station productively. Katherine Gorge is pretty impressive. I wanted to go canoeing but the water levels were still high after the wet season which meant that there could be some saltwater crocodiles in there so they won't let you go yet. We didn't see any salties on the boat cruise I could take but there were 5 freshwater crocs at the side of the river that I'd not have wanted to canoe into either!
Back on the train and luckily it wasn't busy so I got 4 seats facing each other to myself. Unfortunatley whilst this meant I had lots of space I still didn't sleep well the 1st night. By the second night I'd realised that my backpack was so full that it didn't give way if I put weight on it so I used it as a support between the seats and slept a lot better.
Anyway there were some cool sunsets on the way south and I spent a few hours in Alice Springs where I would have gone quad biking but it was really expensive so I just went to town. If you've ever been to Alice Springs you'll know that there's not a lot to do there so I was glad when the train headed off again.
When i got to Adelaide I managed to go on a trip to the Barossa Valley which is the home of Jacobs Creek and many other wineries. They gave us 10 wines to try which we downed in about 30 mins so everyone was a bit merry right from the start. We hit 3 more tastings as well as seeing the world's largest rocking horse (the aussies have a bit of an obsession with big things) and had my first taste of kangaroo, which I think was nice though I can't really remember what it tasted like. That night I wanted to go to an AFL match but it was sold out and on the other side of the city and I couldn't be bothered to leg it over there and get a ticket off a tout. I guess I'll have to save the aussie rules match for another trip.

Nearly a disaster

So somehow I forgot to mention the tsunami that hit the east coast of Australia...or should that be gently nudged. Just as I was getting into Airlie Beach the bus driver announced that there'd been an earthquake in the Solomon Islands and there was a tsunami heading towards Australia and it would hit Cairns 1st so then everyone would know whether to head for the hills in Airlie or not. No-one it seemed was particularly bothered though which was strange although I later found out that they had cancelled operations and closed schools in Cairns and in somewhere called Mackay they had pulled people out of the water. It turns out the tsunami was about 2 cm high by the time it hit the east coast so it was a bit of an anti-climax though I was happy as it meant I could still go on my sailing trip.
I did decide to try and get soaked by waves anyway so I went whitewater rafting (yet again) on the Tully River south of Cairns which was fun.
Next I headed to Port Douglas which is just north of Cairns where Matthew McConaughey hangs out a lot, though not at the moment. However my mate Sally who I met on the west coast was there so we have some beers which was cool.
Back in Cairns and I headed to the Atherton Tablelands which is a waterfally scenic area. One of the waterfalls was used for a Timotei advert and alas also for the video for 'Mysterious Girl' by Peter Andre, apparently they had to build a wooden platform under the water so he wouldn't look so short!
Still in the water I headed out to the Great Barrier Reef and went snorkelling which I'd done last time I was here but was still worth the bumpy ride out, though I could have done without having to dodge the shit that was floating around the second reef.

Not quite Captain Pugwash

I got to Airlie Beach on Tuesday and got checked in for my boat for the whitsundays. It's still jellyfish season so I had to get a stinger suit which in this case is basically a thin wetsuit. I don't think there are many jellyfish around still but as they have some deadly ones I guess it's better to be safe aqnd silly looking than sorry.
I had a good group of 14 plus 2 crew which was nice as it wasn't too big and you could get to know everyone a bit. You also had to help out a lot with the sailing, so I ended up hoisting a few sails over the three days.I mostly hung out with the english though mainly a couple from the midlands called Gemma and Gareth and two others travelling on their own - Rob and Vik. We headed to Whitehaven Bech which is a really long white sanded beach which was good and it didn't rain that much. That night it did rain a bit but luckily the next day it was better and so having stopped at Hill Inlet we sailed for a bit to Luncheon Bay where there is some decent snorkelling so we scooted out there for a while and saw a load of fish and coral. We anchored there headed to Blue Pearl Bay (I think) and stayed overnight, the next morning did a bit more snorkelling and then headed to Black Island to sunbathe before heading back to Airlie. On the way back we were going pretty quickly and the deck on the other side was in the water most of the time. A few of us were sat near the front and Vik got totally soaked while the rest of us did have a few dry patches left. All of us ended up coated in salt. We had a good night out that evening and I also bumped into Nick and Nadia from work for a bit which was cool.
The next day I headed to Magnetic Island whcih is a bit of a chillout place to go. I went to a wildlife sanctuary and held a koala, crocodile, lizard and python, so that was fun. Then I thought I'd better do a bit of exercise so I headed off on a 5km walk before having a few more beers in the evening.

Sun, sea and most definitely sand

Sand, sand and more sand...that's pretty much what Fraser Island is made of, which is slightly disconcerting until you realise the island is about 130km long and upto 20km wide. I guess you could make a pretty huge sand castle there if you tried, but I decided to be a bit lazier and just go sit on beaches.
For an island in the middle of both the sea and drought affected Queensland the place has an awful lot of fresh water. There are loads of dune perched lakes which have been filled by rain water over thousands of years. They're pretty warm and nice to go float in. I think the biggest is Lake McKenzie which is in the last photo. It's a bit too packed with tourists but has exfoliating sands and you're supposed to come out with soft skin and looking 10 years younger. I'm not sure if the looking younger thing worked,but locals swear by the sands,even the guys were at it.
There is a huge beach on the east coast called 75 mile beach but like many long beaches down here it's not as long as it's name, in this case it's apparently 63 miles long. Anyway it's fairly impressive and has a nice array of multicoloured sands,freshwater creeks,champagne pools and a shipwreck to keep you entertained for the day. There's even one bit of rock called Indian Head to climb up so you get a bit of exercise. It's officially a highway, but also a runway which is a bit mad and worrying when you can see a plane coming into land through the windscreen. They don't seem to have any crashes though so I guess it works.
The place is worth a trip if you're in the area but bug spray should definitely be in the suitcase - my feet have been eaten!

Slightly Damaged Goods

So it's been a while since the last post. I've suffered a little bit of damage due to someone else not looking where they were going and am now the proud owner of 5 stitches in my left leg. This kind of slowed my travels a bit as I couldn't go surfing as the leg strap needs to go right where the stitches are...

Instead I've been amusing myself on dry land. I headed to Dreamworld on the Gold Coast and went on a few rides there as well as seeing the tigers and koalas, kangerooos etc they have there. Then I headed to Maroochydore where I nearly stayed long enough to see the world cup triathlon in nearby Mooloolaba but it was a 4km walk and the road was closed so there were no buses and long walks were not a good idea at that time.

Right now I'm in a place called Noosa where Richard Branson, Pat Rafter and several aussi and kiwi celebrities I've never heard of have holiday homes. I'm staying in Halse Lodge which is an old Queenslander building which seems to be a listed building or something similar. Noosa's got a nice park unofficially called the Everglades but actually called Great Sandy National Park that I took a boat ride down to. It's got a lot of lakes and mangrove trees. The weather was fairly bad that day though so the pictures aren't great and the ride was bouncy at times! Luckily the weather was nicer today so I went for a two hour walk in Noosa National Park which is right on the edge of town. Later I grabbed a boogie board and hit the surf. Tomorrow I should get the stiches out and hopefully will be able to start badly surfing again.