Australia: all things great and small

We arrived at Noosa, to find it was the first town on mainland Australia that we had actually liked. Found a cosy little self-contained cabin for our stay, which seemed like an absolute luxury with its own kitchen, lounge (with TV) and bathroom, which for once we didn’t have to share with other backpackers, yay! Went for a walk to explore the coast, and headed into The Noosa National Park for a fantastic walk along the coast and bush. The place was swarming with surfers running with their boards and a long-boarding competition was taking place – Gaz was itching to get out on a board! We ended up at a deserted sweeping beach, windblown and full of sea spray – pretty cool. The walk back took us past some huge vines, which we swang about on Tarzan-style!

The following day we headed for the infamous Australia Zoo, the brainchild of the late Steve Irwin. We took an hour long bus journey in torrential rain out to the zoo, and on entering, were bombarded with pictures of Steve and displays of all the animals. We first went to feed the elephants, which was a very cool, if short-lived, experience. After that we headed to the centre-piece of the park – the ‘Crocoseum’ stadium, where we saw flying parrots, jumping crocodiles and giant snakes! The rest of the day was spent wandering around the huge number of animal exhibits. Highlights were seeing the huge Bengal tigers, feeding the super cute kangaroos, laughing at the cheeky wombats, watching the otters speed around their enclosure and getting totally mushy over the koala bears (especially Rach!). All in all it was very commercial but we had a great day. We left it too late to have a photo with the koalas, so Rach had a wobbly lip all the way home, but cheered up when we agreed to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane in a couple of days time…

In Noosa Gaz finally got his surfing fix and spent a couple of hours out at First Point riding the perfect waves rolling off the point. We had lunch on the beach then jumped on the Greyhound bus to Brisbane for our 24 hour stay there. We arrived and checked into our hostel, then walked across onto the south bank to see the parkland. We had a big milkshake and sat in a café by the river, taking in the great views of the skyscrapers of the city centre. After that we headed into the city to experience the manic hustle and bustle of Queens Mall. Lots of neon and traffic everywhere – it all felt a bit alien to us after our island experiences! We went for dinner in a great suburban Indian restaurant, which turned out to be a BYO, so we ended up consuming a fair bit of beer and wine, before weaving our way back home!

Rach woke up the next morning one happy bunny as we were off to the koala sanctuary. We took the bus, spilling our tea and muffin breakfast everywhere due to the insane bus driver, but it was worth the effort as the park was small, personal and not busy at all. We got to see a LOT of koalas, and Rach finally got her chance to cuddle one of the sleepy bears. Smiles all round as the little grey ball of fluff clung onto her with its soft fur and eucalptyus smell and we got some great pictures! We saw plenty of other animals during the day, including some big cockatiels, one of which seemed to take a great liking to Rach as he followed her round, displaying lots of colourful feathers! We also saw a sheepdog show, more wombats and kangaroos, and finally, some huge birds of prey. The staff flew a big sea eagle around our heads and then brought out a barn owl. They asked for a volunteer and Gaz’s hand went up like a shot – he donned a gauntlet and held a mouse’s tail and the owl swooped across the field straight to him. Very cool! We took the bus back to Brisbane, collected our stuff, and caught our final bus down to Byron Bay.

Byron Bay was our last stop before the flight down to Sydney. We arrived in late afternoon and spent a good hour running round looking for somewhere to stay. We hadn’t quite realised just how packed the place would be! Luckily we found a nice, if costly, campground with some little self contained cabins, which we checked into for three nights. The following day we hit the town to do some shopping around the hippy shops. Lots of cool clothes, didgeridoos and art for sale everywhere. The streets smelled of a combination of fresh bread, incense and surf wax – it was a brilliant place! We headed for the beach and discovered the bay was huge, and on walking out to the headland, we saw some great surf too at a spot known as ‘The Pass’. We were keen to get into the water so had a speedy lunch then hired a surfboard for Gaz and a bodyboard and fins for Rach. The surf was pretty good, if very crowded and the huge rip currents meant lots of paddling (poor Rach got swept half way along the beach!). We were both pretty tired after a couple of hours, so we walked back to the main beach for some gentler waves and some sunbathing.

The next day we must have been feeling a bit brave, because we decided to go skydiving on the spur of the moment. We booked a 14,000ft jump over the bay (the highest in Australia!). We headed back to the cabin to prepare, only to find the bus waiting for us – somehow news of the one hour time difference between Queensland and New South Wales had not reached us, so we were in a huge rush, which actually helped as we forgot about our nerves for a while! We arrived at the airstrip and filled in all the necessary forms, none of which were particularly reassuring (words like ‘fatal’ kept cropping up). Before long we were called through to put on our harnesses and we had a briefing on how to angle our legs and keep our heads back when we jumped from the plane, attached to an instructor. Then the plane’s engine started up and we climbed into the small interior. The plane climbed really steeply for what seemed like ages, then suddenly our instructors were clipping buckles and pulling us close, and as the plane door slid open and cold air rushed in we both felt absolute terror overwhelm us. We watched another guy go first and he dropped out the plane like a lead weight. Then we were shuffling on our bums to the edge (no longer feeling particularly keen about this) and before we knew it dangling out the side of the plane with a 14,000ft drop below us. Comfortable. What followed was a whirlwind of plane, sky, land, sea and heart in mouth as we tumbled towards earth, before we stabilised a little and could put out our arms and finally grin like idiots with the exhilaration of freefall. We both had 70 seconds of silly billy freefall and at 4,000ft the parachute was pulled, which sent us shooting upwards, and then everything went quiet and we were floating. We were lucky to have some clouds to play with, so we swooped the parachutes past them, and Rach’s instructor even let her take the rungs for a while. The instructors also decided that we had not yet suffered enough adrenalin and so sent the parachute into a couple of fast downward spirals, which made our heads feel giddy! Gaz landed first, then Rach, and we ran over and gave one another a very big wobbly hug. We were both a bit stunned after the jump that day, but the in the days to follow we didn’t stop talking about it and reliving the experience!

Not afraid to get back on a airplane, a short hop on a flight took us to Sydney, a city we came to adore over the next 3 days. We ended up landing ourselves in a pretty grotty hostel, so spent as much time away from it as possible! We crammed our time there gawping at the famous views from the waterfront, catching a performance by Katie Noonan in the Opera House (she had a voice like honey – amazing), drinking with the Irish in the downtown pubs on St Patricks Day, strolling around Manly with ice-creams and meeting up with Cara from university for a great dinner out – nice to see a friendly face!

Keen for some greenery and less skyscrapers we jumped on a train to the Blue Mountains. Stayed in a great YHA hostel and spent late afternoon doing a walk to the famous views of the Three Sisters. The following day we strapped on our walking boots again and completed the amazing Grand Canyon walk. The day started looking like a complete shambles, with seriously thick fog, but our luck was in and it cleared up later in time for some great views from the top. It was a beautiful trail down through eucalyptus forest into a huge gorge dripping with fern trees and waterfalls and the sounds of birds. Just what we needed after several days of hectic city life!

And so ended our adrenalin, beach and animal-fuelled Aussie adventure. We were in need of some culture shock by now and were very excited about Asia…

Australian castaways

Our next stop was Great Keppel Island, just off the coast from Rockhampton, and it turned out to be a bit of a trek to get to. We’d heard that the island was essentially an affordable paradise, and after a choppy half hour on the ferry to get there, we discovered that this was totally right. The whole island was ringed by white sand beaches complete with palm trees. As if that wasn’t cool enough, the huge resort on the island had shut the week before for renovations, so the place was near enough deserted! Our home for the few days was a big canvas tent in a nice family run complex. There were goannas, kookaburras and big fruit bats everywhere! As the island only had one phone and no Internet we decided to embrace our castaway status and explore. We wandered around the deserted resort and down what we thought was an abandoned runway (a plane landing soon after gave us a bit of a shock!), emerging into a spider-filled forest and onto a windswept beach. We didn’t see another person that whole day – fantastic!

Exploring the deserted island was so rewarding we spent the whole of the next day doing it too. We ended up getting right to the other side of the island, and at one point got a bit lost and ended up having to swim across a creek with our bags on our heads! Found a wonderful secluded beach, where we had great fun making a big sand castle, complete with turrets, a moat, mountains and some trees – what a pair of kids! We also went for a beach swim, albeit rather nervously, it is meant to be stinger free on the island but with no one around it was hard to tell! On our return from the island we spent a night in Rockhampton in a great little budget hotel, and treated ourselves to steak, for which Rockhampton is famous. Combined with a bottle of red wine and some live music it turned out to be a great evening with the locals.


Next up was Agnes Water, and we hadn’t booked any accommodation but lucked out on arriving with a superb ensuite cabin at Southern Cross. We weren’t so lucky with the weather however, and the high winds meant that all trips out to Lady Musgrave Island on the Great Barrier Reef were cancelled for the week. Poor Rach was a bit gutted as this meant she had travelled through Australia without diving the reef – doh! We filled the time however with something pretty wacky… we spent 3 hours on mini Harley Davidson style choppers. 30 of us set off in a big road convoy, sometimes reaching 80kph (!), stopping to see kangaroos on the way and eventually motoring through a huge rainstorm towards a bright orange sunset on the coast, quite memorable! The second day in Agnes Water the winds were still too high for the dive boats, so we ended up surfing instead.

March is prime time to see loggerhead turtles hatching on the East Coast, so we spent a wonderful evening at Mon Repos Beach near Bundaberg watching the cute little creatures emerge from the sand. We were told that some evenings you have to wait ages before a nest hatches, but we were hurried off to see one as soon as we arrived. We all gathered around in the dark on the beach, and watched as the sand became alive with little baby turtles clawing their way out, and then heading down to the sea in the moonlight with a couple of torches to help guide them. Amazing! We were fortunate enough to see a second clutch hatch too, which was much better as half the crowd had left then and we got within arms length of the nest as the hundred or so little babies emerged. Only one turtle in every 1000 survive, so it was a little sad seeing them all scurry off to the dangers of the sea!



So, it was time to visit the jewel in the crown of the east coast, according to pretty much everyone, Fraser Island. We were both very excited on turning up in Rainbow Beach the night before, and decided on a three day, two night self drive tour in a 4x4. We met up with Darren and Michelle, a couple we’d met on the Alexander Stewart earlier in the trip, and we agreed to do the trip as a four to save a bit of cash and to share the experience a bit more. After a bit of shopping around the rental places we found a great company who rented us a brand new Toyota Hilux with camping gear and ferry ticket all thrown in. That evening we all had time to go and explore Rainbow Beach and were awed with the massive Carlos sandblow which made us feel like we were in the Sahara Desert!

We loaded up the back of the truck on Thursday morning, then did a quick test drive over some sandy tracks, and we were off! After the ferry crossing Gaz drove the half hour on the inland roads and then emerged onto the beach – cue lots of whooping and fishtailing in the soft sand as we sped down the 80km towards Indian Head. The sea was crashing on our left and sandstone pinnacles reared up on our right. On the way we saw a tourist plane land on the sand after zooming about 20metres above our car, which got the nerves jangling! We also stopped at the Maheno shipwreck, which was very spooky. Rach almost got washed away when she stood on the deck to have her picture taken and didn’t pay attention to the waves behind! Indian Head was very picturesque, with sweeping views of the coast – all very cool despite the groups of Irish tourists lazing around, all totally drunk and sunburned half to death! We motored back down the beach to Eli Creek and spent a great couple of hours slowly drifting down the crystal clear stream with a cool green forest canopy overhead. Rach monkeyed about in the trees as Gaz and Darren went eel hunting – all very enjoyable! We then drove to our campsite, a spot on the coast behind a sand dune, with not a soul in sight. Lots of wind meant our tent almost blew away and it took crafty use of ropes and a hammer to secure it! We had a big pasta meal and watched the sun set. Very relaxing, apart from keeping a lookout for wild dingoes roaming the area!

The next day we awoke after a super windy night, but still in an intact tent – hooray! Gaz went running on the beach, which turned into a bluebottle jellyfish dodging session, before a big breakfast and then back in the 4x4. First up was the very challenging inland scenic route. Not what we expected at all – it was full of deep sand ruts, big tree root drop offs and switchback corners. We all had a go at driving and all managed it fine, thanks mostly to the awesome truck we were in. We managed to hit a tree branch at one point which smacked into the side of the Hilux and for a second our hearts stopped at the thought of losing our $5000 bond! We drove to Lake Allom and took a great 40 minute walk, seeing freshwater turtles, tree snakes, goannas and some pretty huge spiders (which had Rach freaking out). We thought we had plenty of time so we headed to Lake Birrabeen, but the technical drive ended up taking ages, luckily though the result was worth it. We swam in a paradisical inland lake, with white sand and blue waters, fringed by rainforest trees. It was a bit chilly at sunset though so soon enough we headed to Central Station to camp. We drank plenty of wine and VB and cooked a huge barbeque in the shadow of the huge trees. Fell asleep listening to the cicadas chirruping all around the tents.

Early start for our final day to beat the crowds to the famous Lake MacKinsey. We arrived to perfect conditions, with little wind and lots of sunshine. All being super childish we spent an hour doing lots of somersaults and handstands in the blue waters, before the masses arrived and we made a beeline for the carpark – spot on! We then drove to our final lake of the trip, Lake Wabby. After a soup lunch we hiked the half an hour track down through the forest and up across an enormous sand duen in the oppressive heat. We got to the lake, at the bottom of a big sand hill, seriously in need of a swim, so we all splashed in. Gaz did his best impression of being eaten by a shark in the deep water, which made Rach laugh and Darren saying something about ‘crying wolf’. Soon enough the backpacker hoards arrived again and made a LOT of noise, so we packed up and trekked back across the desert-like landscape back to the forest and then on to the 4x4. We headed back to the ferry along another bumpy track, lined with cool trees such as the Scribbly Gum, and back along the beach. On the way we finally managed to spot a dingo on the beach, which was a great end to the trip. We got the Hilux back with 5 minutes to spare, then headed for our hostel to flop down on the bed and sleep!