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The flight to Australia would take me right through the night and I was planning on catching some sleep on the way but the flight was interrupted by a 2 and a half hour stopover in Darwin which I hadn't anticipated. It was 3am when we landed in Darwin so a little bleary eyed, I decided to try to kill some time by testing out my new PC. Thankfully I managed to find a wireless hotspot in the airport so I was surfing the web in no time. The time flew by and we were soon up in the air again and heading to a hopefully sunny Cairns. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the flight and felt surprisingly awake when I landed. As I'd hoped the sun was blazing when I walked out of the airport and I soaked up my first dose of Aussie sunshine as I waited for my bus to take me to my hostel. Cairns is quite a small place and after a short 10 minute journey we arrived at the hostel. My good friend Fos had flown up from Sydney for the weekend and I was really looking forward to catching up with him as he had emigrated to Australia last year and we hadn't seen each other since I visited Sydney last October. He was there to meet me as I hopped off the bus and we checked ourselves into the hostel and then headed out for breakfast. After lots of average breakfasts in Asia, I treated myself to bacon (the real stuff not the streaky type!) and eggs which was fabulous and I was also delighted to find the Australian people were just as friendly as I remembered. I'd loved my trip to Australia the previous year and after discussing my job situation with Fos he was quickly working hard on convincing me to emigrate out to Australia next year! We got ourselves familiar with the layout of the town and then booked a scuba diving trip and a visit to a crocodile farm for the following days. Cairns was billed as a party town but it was still only early spring and most places were quite quiet when we ventured out for a few beers that evening. My lack of sleep had also caught up with me and we decided to have an early night to get ourselves ready for diving the next day.
An early start and a short walk to the harbour the next day and we were sailing out to the Great Barrier Reef to do some scuba diving. This was one of the things I was looking forward to the most on the whole trip and I wasn't disappointed at all. The weather and the water were amazing and we saw hundreds of different types of coral and fish as we dived and snorkelled at three separate locations on the reef. I liked it so much I paid extra to do a second dive but after a little collision with a rock and some waiting around underwater because of a nervous woman in our group, I managed to use up my entire tank of air very quickly so it didn't last as long as I'd hoped. The whole experience was superb though and I could easily get the bug for scuba diving. It crossed my mind that it could even be a potential career change although every cool job I've seen since the option for VR came up at work seems attractive! The trip was quite tiring and took a full day so our beers that night were a little subdued. I had anticipated a couple of wild nights in Cairns but sadly we're just not as young as we used to be! The next day was a visit to a crocodile farm close to town which came recommended in Lonely Planet. My expectations were fairly low after previous crocodile experiences in zoos where I've been lucky to see a crocodile blink let alone move. We arrived just in time to catch the end of a feeding demonstration at a lagoon full of salt water crocodiles before moving on to the same kind of thing with some fresh water crocodiles. The guide stood inside the pen for the second demonstration and explained that the 'freshies' were very unlikely to attack humans whereas the 'salties' would eat anything. Given the size of some of them I was more than happy to take his word for it! The whole park was very well thought out and covered lots of Australian wildlife not just crocodiles. We had a tour of the farm seeing how the animals are bred and then saw a Steve Irwin-like crocodile attack demonstration where another crazy guide got knee deep into the water with a huge crocodile and teased it with a cow hide on a rope. Very entertaining but not a job I'll be adding to my possibles list! The highlight of the day was a boat ride around a lagoon full of crocodiles and another feeding demonstration. This time the guide used a chicken on the end of a pole as he tried to tempt a large male crocodile called Ted to show himself to us. We were told that Ted was the largest crocodile in the farm (7m long) and sometimes liked to 'play' with the boat. Ted wasn't interested initially but after a few minutes of the guide waving a chicken around this huge shadow appeared on my side which was longer than the boat. The shadow disappeared and we thought that was it before the guide shouts "Here he comes...." and in true Jaws style the boat rocks side to side as Ted gives the boat a firm nudge. Very cool indeed but we didn't hang around to 'play' for long!
Fos had to leave that evening so after a brief farewell (we'd catch up again in Sydney in 3 weeks), I had a bite to eat before booking my onward travel with the in-house travel agent in the hostel. There was a deal running which offered a package of all the activities I had planned to do including accomodation for an inclusive price. I had anticipated booking things as I went but this offer seemed well priced and less hassle so after a quick check-out I found myself on a Greyhound bus at midnight heading to Airlie Beach. I had vowed not to do any more night buses after my experiences in Vietnam and Laos but Fos had recommended the Greyhound as a decent way to travel and with the help of an eye mask, ear plugs and a neck pillow, it turned out to be a decent trip. Airlie Beach is where most trips to the Whitsunday Islands depart from and I hopped off the bus the next morning and checked straight in for my trip. In true Oz style we were late boarding the boat but as an unexpected bonus, we'd been upgraded onto a posh three hull catamaran as the original boat had a problem with it's engine. We spent two days and two nights sailing and snorkelling around the Whitsunday Islands which were truly beautiful and made even better by the tremendous weather. Lazing around on the deck of the boat, soaking up the sunshine and drinking and eating far too much was really relaxing but the icing on the cake was the sky at night. I'd never seen so many stars and also got my first full on view of the Milky Way (no chocolate jokes please!) and Southern Star which were spectacular. Laying on the deck of the boat staring up at the sky and listening to the waves lap against the boat will live long in my memory that's for sure. After being dropped off back in Hervey Bay I went for a few beers with some of the guys from the trip and then jumped on a chilly night bus to Hervey Bay for the next leg of the trip. The distances between my destinations in Australia were huge so night buses were the best (but maybe not the most comfortable!) option to save time and money on accomodation.
Hervey Bay was the starting point for my trip to Frazer Island which was a 3 day/2 night jeep safari. Frazer Island is an island made entirely of sand off the coast and is regarded as one of the most beautiful places in Australia. After checking in to my hostel and getting a much needed shower after 3 nights on boats and buses, I took a walk around town and watched some locals sea fishing off the pier before heading back to the hostel for our briefing and to meet my companions for the next 3 days. Unsurprisingly I was the eldest on the trip once again and was quickly nominated as one of the drivers. The briefing came with lots of warnings and 'what not to do's' and also told us some horror stories of people crashing their jeeps on the island after drink driving and speeding. There were lots of things to remember and most of the group looked quite scared afterwards but I guess that was the general idea to try and make sure the message gets through. We set off in our bright pink(!) 4x4 jeep early the next day and headed to the supermarket to buy our provisions for the trip. This turned into a bit of a saga as everyone wanted to do different things but after a little organisation and persuasion from the old man of the trip we got through it and we set off for the ferry to the island. After some tight manouvering and abuse from other travellers about my pink jeep, I managed to get the jeep onto the ferry and settled in for the 1 hour trip across. We'd been given a rough itinerary for the 3 days by the tour company but were generally left to our own devices to navigate our way around the island. The driving was like nothing I'd tried before as the roads were even worse than those in Cambodia and it was quite taxing getting to our first destination, Lake Mackenzie. After an afternoon relaxing on the beach we headed to our camp site and after a game of footy on the beach, set up camp for the night. As it was a weekend there were lots of locals on the island and we could see another group through the trees along the beach from us. Every now and then we heard what sounded like a gunshot and this carried on for a while before curiosity got the better of us and a couple of us went to investigate. It turned out to be a group of locals on a fishing trip, one of whom had a huge whip which he was using to scare away the dingos with a loud crack. My thoughts immediately turned to Deliverance as these boys had checked shirts, mullets and billy bob teeth and were calling everybody boy! Thankfully they turned out to be great guys and we had a good time around the fire sharing a few beers. Camping is by far my least favourite way to spend a night and we'd been warned about the dingos on the island and told not to feed them under any circumstances. Midway through the night I was woken up by the sound of dingos howling and a little later sniffing around the edge of the tent. That coupled with two farting German lads made for an uneasy night! The next two days were great fun as we made our way around the island taking in all the sights and it totally lived up to all expectations with the night sky and sunsets again totally mindblowing. The only slight downside was the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements and the toilet facilities which consisted of a shovel and a 100 metre walk away from the camp! I must say it was nice to get back to the hostel for a much needed shower and shave and a comfortable nights sleep though. I also managed to catch up on my emails that night and it looks like VR was a distinct possibility which was quite scary. Although after the last few days I'd spent here the thought of giving in to Fos's suggestion of emigrating to Australia was becoming more and more appealing.
Another bus journey the next morning took me to Brisbane which had been recommended as a great place to stay. After settling in to my hostel, I forced myself to do a tour of the Castlemaine XXXX brewery and then made use of the Wi-Fi in McDonalds which is free right across Australia. Yet another tick in the box for Oz! I took a bus tour of the city the next day, saw most of the sights and was generally most impressed with Brisbane as a city. This was also the day that I had my email confirming that I had been given VR so I would return home for two weeks work and then start 2010 unemployed......scary stuff! That said I checked a couple of job sites and there appears to be lots of IT work available in Australia so there's hope for me yet! After enjoying Brisbane for a couple of days, I headed off to Surfers Paradise for the next stop on the trip. It was only a 1 hour trip south and the sun was still shining which I thought boded well for my visit to the mecca of Australian surfers. I wasn't really sure what to expect but sunshine aside, 'Surfers' was a little disappointing as it could have been any beach resort anywhere and didn't really stand out as anything special. I did share a dorm room with two Korean guys who bought me some beers in return for me helping them with their English which was an unusual experience. I spent my last day in Surfers at a theme park called Movie World which is run by Warner Bros and was on a par with the theme parks I'd visited in Florida. When I got back to town being a Saturday night it was full of youngsters getting drunk and I had little hope of finding a quiet bar so, after being refused entry to a sports bar because I was in flip-flops, I decided to call it a night and head home.
Next stop was Byron Bay which is billed as a bit of a hippie resort and my hostel was certainly in keeping with that theme. It was very funky but had a strange musty smell everywhere which was a little off putting! The hostel was spread out over a few acres and had a small pond in the centre with wigwams and small huts all around. All the staff were very friendly and I shared breakfast with a few large iguanas each morning which was a new experience for me! In contrast there was a large modern bar directly opposite the hostel which wouldn't have been out of place in a city centre. The bar served $2 beers every day and had large screen TVs scattered around along with having a small cinema attached to the side of it....happy days! I'd booked a surf lesson as part of my package and spent an afternoon catching waves. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would and even managed to stand up and ride a few waves in to the beach. While watching the Australia v New Zealand rugby international that night, I met a couple of local lads in the bar and they took me out on the town for the night. Too many $2 beers and a few shots resulted in me not remembering how I got home and probably letting England down in the drinking stakes too! I spent a quiet night at the cinema the next night and in preperation for the impending stag do in Vegas watched the Hangover which gave me all sorts of ideas for our trip! All in all it was a great place to hang out for a couple of days and most enjoyable. While I was there I also booked up my travel around New Zealand for the coming month and dispensed with the original plan to rent a camper van and drive myself around. I figured it would be far too lonely and I'd spend most of my time either driving or asking for directions so I booked myself onto a 26 day tour with a company called Stray. The deal also included a skydive as part of the price but I stopped as far as booking a bungy jump as I needed more time to think about that little experience.
Next stop was Coffs Harbour which was even smaller than Byron Bay and also cloudy and wet! This was my first taste of rain in Oz and pretty much scuppered all my plans to do some walking around the local area. I was only here for a short time and culture was limited to a place called the Big Banana which celebrated the areas vast banana industry. There wasn't much in the way of nightlife either so I spent that evening in front of the fire watching DVDs. It was raining even heavier the next day so it was back in front of the fire and more DVDs until the rain stopped. I did manage to squeeze in a walk to Muttonbird Island where I saw (not surprisingly!) lots of muttonbirds and also whales and dolphins out to sea which was pretty special. Next stop was Sydney which I was really looking forward to and after a 7 hour bus journey, Uncle Fos was there at the station to meet me again! He'd even sorted me out with maps and an agenda for the next four days.....love him!
I had a wine tour booked for the next day and woke up at 7am to find the sky a bright orange colour and what looked like a thick fog covering the city. I found out later that it was a freak dust storm and the biggest Sydney had seen in 70 years! I walked across town in near silence with only the sound of sirens breaking the peace to find my trip had been cancelled due to the storm. The TV news advised people not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary so I took the opportunity to update my blog, upload some photos and even take advantage of the gym in the apartment block. I spent the next day sightseeing around Sydney and took in a couple of museums and an art gallery before meeting Fos and Linsay (an ex colleague from work) for beers at Darling Harbour. I think I'd move to Sydney just for Darling Harbour if I had the chance! Linsay also invited us to Sydney Races on the Saturday too which was an unexpected bonus. I had my rearranged wine tour (where we saw a tree python) the next day and met an Irish girl called Maria who was staying with her brother in the same area as Fos so I invited her out that night. Fos had planned for us to visit a nice area of town that evening and we visited a few cool bars before (for some reason) ending up in the Stonewall club which is Sydney's biggest gay club. We had a great time and danced the night away and both had several advances which did wonders for the ego!
The next day required a little lie in before we headed off for the races and thankfully the sun was shining too. We had a great day and even managed to get at least one win each (which almost paid for the day) and then we headed on to Fos's end of season football presentation evening. It was the best presentation evening I'd ever been to with everything from the meal to the compering very professionally done and and they even had a surprise guest speaker which Fos said was normally an ex professional. The speaker turned out to be Spencer Prior who used to play for Norwich City which was a nice surprise and I took the opportunity to ask him a bit of an awkward question during the open mike session. I managed to get a photo (and a little banter due to my question!) with him after the awards and he turned out to be a decent chap.
So that was that and another visit to Australia was at an end. I loved it just as much as last time and must confess that with the climate,people and general lifestyle it is a hugely attractive proposition. Next stop is New Zealand though so who knows what that will offer.............
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