Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I´ve had this typed up for ages but haven´t posted it. I thought it was about time!
We arrived in Brisbane at about 7am on Tuesday December 1st after a long flight with plenty movies but no sleep. We watched 'Up' on the plane, and I hugely recommend it. It seems we haven't watched anything but kids films in a while!
Our accommodation was booked ahead so we got a bus from the airport direct to the door and rushed in to get to bed. It turned out that the receptionist had a heavy night on Monday and decided to sleep in. There was another guy waiting for her so he could swap from a dorm to a double room and we waited until about 9am before getting fed up. Thankfully he had a mobile phone with him so he rang the out of office hours number posted to the door. About 15 mins later the girl arrived looking a bit worst for wear and checked us in. She'd managed to lose the key to our room, so after spending about half an hour looking for it she thought it was a better idea to make up another bed for us. She went up with the linen and cleaned the room a bit and came back down to give us the key... only she couldn't find the key. Somewhere between making the bed and talking to us she'd managed to lose that one too! After another 15 mins she managed to find a spare and we were able to dump our backpacks. We were upgraded to a better room because of the error and ended up with an extremely comfortable double bed, a fridge and a tv. I don't think we'll have a room that nice again in Australia, the budget has gone out the window here!
We were fuming at this stage, we weren't counting on a two hour check in after a sleepless night and were so tired our eyes were bright red and bloodshot, but the bed made up for it haha. We went to the shop to get some water and slept the afternoon away.
The hostel was in Fortitude Valley which has always been classed as the seedy area of Brisbane and was full of 'adult' stores on the outskirts, but once you got to the main area it was full of cheap (by Australian standards) bars and speakers playing rock music. It was nice there, but there really isn't much to do in Brisbane. We'd booked 3 nights there which was more than enough.
On our first day (after our nap) it rained. I didn't think that happened in Australia in Summer but I've been proven wrong. It was strange going for a walk and hearing the locals saying 'it's so nice to see some rain' haha. Very different from home! I think that was the same time there were floods back in Ireland and the UK and it turned out that Queensland was experiencing severe water shortages. The reservoirs had dried up, some towns only had 10 hours water supply left, and even hour hostel limited us to 4 minute showers! It's just not possible to wash long hair in 4 minutes.
On Wednesday we did a brief tourist tour of Brisbane. The museum looks big on the outside but only had two exhibits. It's weird getting to Australia and seeing how little history the place has! The main exhibit was a history of Brisbane and all it talked about was the roads, transport, sewage, water supply and so on. It's as if the country didn't exist 150 years ago! There was also a photography exhibition and a gift shop, but it wasn't much of a museum. We visited the botanical gardens afterwards for a quick walk and couldn't think of anything else to do on our tour haha.
It was a big shock getting to Australia from Asia. Fortitude Valley also houses Brisbane's Chinatown so we went out for a stirfry and it came to $15 each, about 10 times what we were paying for a meal for the last 3 months! It's taken the last few weeks to realise that isn't actually that expensive. On our second night we kept an eye out for some meal deals and spotted a $5 rump steak, chips and salad at what must be a student pub. We got tons of steak, over half the plate was taken up by meat, but I could only eat less than half of it. Even though I asked for it very, very. very well done (the waiter even wrote 'very' 3 times haha) about half way through it started bleeding. The sight of cow's blood mixing with peppercorn sauce isn't very appetising and I was put off the rest of the steak... I've since been told that if you don't want it to bleed you use the word 'cremated'.
On Thursday the 4th we had our first train ride in Oz down the Gold Coast to meet Ryan's cousin Nathan and his missus Becca. It was a comfortable, spacious journey down to Helensvale station (no more cramped sardine can buses!) where Nathan picked us up after work. We met their two dogs Pogo, who weed himself twice when we came in, and Scooter, and their 3 cats who's names I can't remember right now!
We drove down to the Spit on the Gold Coast that night for a lovely dinner (my first pasta in ages!), got some beer and wine from the bottle shop and relaxed out on the patio for the night. The climate in Australia agrees with me a lot more than in Asia - it's roasting in the day but it cools right down at night so you're not sweating when you sleep. We didn't even need a fan in Brisbane, it seemed strange! Also, most people here have a pool to cool down in during the day, I could live with that. Our days at Nathan and Becca's were spent playing with the dogs, tanning and cooling off in the pool. One thing I must mention is that Nathan cooked an awesome barbeque on Friday night and served up kanger bangers - kangaroo sausages. Not my cup of tea... they taste a bit gritty and I couldn't get the picture of Skippy out of my head while I ate it!
We went for a few drives around the area on the weekend - down the Gold Coast as far as Tweed Heads on the border with New South Wales. It was the first time we'd done some 'sightseeing' in Oz really, not that there's much to see other than high rise flats! It's weird down near Surfer's Paradise and the other built up beaches - there's the beach, a main road and then loads of high rise buildings, I've never seen a view like that from a beach before. We drove down to one of the more Southern beaches to look at the view though, from further away it does look good haha.
On Sunday Nathan and Becca were going to view a house, so we made a day of it, brought a picnic and went with them. The house was amazing - it was at the edge of a mountain and looked down over the valley. After the viewing we had a little drive around, then stopped on Mt Tamborine for our lunch. We spotted a brewery and called in for a beer before looking around all the arty shops in the village. There's a huge shop there full of German cuckoo clocks and a nutty looking German owner, haha, I think that was the best shop on the street.
We had another day staying on the Gold Coast which was spent by the pool as usual, then booked our ticket up to Bundaberg for Tuesday 8th. We didn't have much time between leaving Nathan and Becca and meeting Jennie down near Sydney for Christmas so we've had a tight schedule to stick to. We would have loved to head North to the Whitsundays but just didn't have time. Whitehaven Beach on the Whitsundays is probably the most famous one in Oz because of it's pure white 98% silica sand and bright torquoise water. Maybe we'll come back to it one day...
We got the train up to Bundaberg on Tuesday and had a hard time finding somewhere to stay. The town is absolutely tiny so there isn't much choice and we ended up booking into the first place we could find with vacancies. It was our first dorm since leaving home and cost us about the same as we'd pay per week before... I guess it's something we have to get used to here!
We had a wander around town for the afternoon, it wasn't very exciting, then treated ourselves to a Domino's Pizza - it was the cheapest meal in town! When we got back to bed that night the hostel bar had started serving alcohol and playing ridiculously loud music from a speaker outside our window. Great. We went to climb into bed anyway and realised there were no sheets on there, just a waterproof mattress cover. It wasn't until then we noticed the sign in the room saying (in small print) that you have to shell out $20 to rent sheets, $5 is non-refundable, and if we use our own sheets they'll be confiscated. Haa! We took out our sleeping bag liners, slept very carefully so we wouldn't touch the horrible yellowed mattress cover and pillow and checked out the next morning. We managed to find another, much nicer hostel that didn't smell as bad for the next night.
I spent the first day wondering why there were so many backpackers in Bundaberg when there's absolutely nothing to do... it's because they've run out of money. There are lots of fruit picking jobs in Bundaberg so people stop on the way up or down the coast to get some money togethere. The guys in our room had been there for 2 weeks and looked like they'd lost the will to live. The way the jobs are handed out there is a bit cruel. The hostel staff tell some people the night before if they have a job the next day and the people who don't are put on 'standby'. They're expected to stay up all night waiting to hear if anything became available. Surely if you're employing people to work on your farm you're not going to want someone who's had no sleep. It makes no sense. We heard from a lot of people that the Bundaberg locals hate the backpackers so maybe the farmers think it's fun to torture them like that. They know there's plenty more workers where they came from.
Anyway, on Wednesday we walked out to the Bundaberg Rum factory for a tour. Even though I hate rum it was a really interesting day. They showed us the whole process from molasses to bottling, then gave us two free drinks at the end. I drank them because they were free! The first one was Bundaberg Rum with Bundaberg ginger beer (which is made around the corner) and it was horrible. The second one I picked was a rum liquer flavoured with chocolate, vanilla and coffee and it was amazing, ven with the taste of rum in it! It takes to long to make that they can't be bothered mass producing it though and you can only buy it at the shop on site.
We had another wander around the town that night and decided to go out for dinner. We didn't realise that everywhere stops serving food at 8pm in the town and ended up with McDonalds for dinner. I'm surprised we're not piling on weight since getting to Oz, the junk food is so cheap sometimes we have no choice but to eat it! I must have had 100 Subways since getting here lol
Thursday 10th we caught the bus to Hervey Bay and found a lovely hostel for $20 a night. They were really friendly there, gave us bad linen and organised a visit to Fraser Island for us. We booked a 3 day 2 night self-drive tour to Fraser including 2 nights free accomodation at our hostel. It was perfect timing as we wanted 3 days on Fraser and 2 more in Hervey Bay! We spent Friday on the beach looking forward to our trip then had our briefing for the tour and met our group. It was going to be 9 of us in a Toyota Land Cruiser for 3 days on an island full of dingoes! We ended up with 4 couples - Donnchadh and Adrienne from Northern Ireland, Juliette and Charlie from London, Markus and Johanna from Sweden, myself and Ryan - and one single, Rob. 4 had licences and took turns driving.
Saturday morning arrived and we met our group at 7.30 to pile into our trusty steed and stock up on enough food and alcohol for 3 days. We ended up in a bright pink 4x4 called 'Zombie' and set off. It was a quick shopping trip and about an hours ferry journey to the island before our first item on the itenerary - drive to Central Station on Fraser to fill our water bottles for the 3 days. We had just pulled into the car park at Central when Zombie died. We were blocking the exit and it was completely dead, no light on the dash, nothing. Luckily Frank the mechanic pulled up behind us and brought Zombie back to life. He had to remove a fuse from the main circuit breaker so warned us if there was a fire we should get out quickly - how reassuring!
We continued our drive to the east side of the island through deep sand and managed to get the whole way through only getting out to push once. Our next stop was our campsite so we could set up our tents and when we got there we realised the car was broken again... this time the low range gears wouldn't work but we wouldn't need it to drive on the beach so we didn't worry too much.
We set up our tents and went for a walk to Lake Wabby. Someone told us it was about 1km walk and they were lying. It must have taken an hour to get there, it's impossible to walk fast through soft sand and it was all uphill, groan. It was worth it when we got there too, it's amazing. It's just a little lake now because the sand dune behind it is slowly swallowing it up, but the water is really clear and warm and full of catfish. We just spent the time chilling in the water or sunbathing by the edge, but the more daring people decided to run down the sand dune and bomb into the water haha. After seeing they're faces when the hit the surface of the lake we decided not to go through the pain. We managed an hour at Lake Wabby before heading back to the campsite, we didn't fancy walking through the bush in the dark. Before we left they made sure to tell us there are 4000 dingoes on the island.
Oh yeah, when we arrived at Lake Wabby my camera gave up. I have no photos of Fraser Island but I'm going to steal Ryan's so I'll have something to look at in the future. I think it was time for it to retire anyway, I've missed a lot of photos because it didn't work how it should.
We cooked a meat filled dinner of steak, sausages, burgers and some bread that night and settled down with our beers and goon. Goon is really cheap boxed wine ($10.99 for 5L, ugh) that is apparently made with fish eggs. If you ignore that and drink enough it doesn't taste that bad, but gives a mean hangover. Bright sunlight reflecting off white sand, a night of goon, broken sunglasses, a sleepless night and no chance of a shower didn't make my head happy.
The second day we were supposed to look at the Pinnacles and Eli Creek but we drove past them accidentally and just went straight to Indian Head, which juts out from the island into the sea and gives great view of the island and the creatures in the sea below. On the way we passed an accident scene, I'm not sure if this news would have travelled outside Oz. A 4x4 carrying 8 japanese students flipped over while they were driving on a very bumpy stretch of sand. All we were told was that there was a death and that we shouldn't stop. We heard later that the driver was killed, 4 were airlifted to Brisbane for serious injuries, and 3 had their injuries treated at Hervey Bay. None of them were wearing their seatbelts. It was horrible passing by the scene and seeing the car and people lying on the ground with bandages. We drove pretty carefully after that.
We climbed up to Indian Head and only managed to see two sharks and some turtles. I forgot to mention that we weren't supposed to go in the sea because of the sharks and killer jellyfish, so no chance of a swim. We stopped on the way back for some ice creams and went on to Eli Creek. The creek was absolutely freezing but really welcome after 2 days without a shower! We spent so long sitting we formed a big hole where the current washed sand out from under us. The pinnacles weren't very impressive, and again we went back to the campsite to get dinner started. That night was a bit more impressive - spaghetti bolognese - but I fell asleep as soon as I got back and only woke up when everyone had eaten! We made so much that we had to throw some out, so there was plenty left.
We had some new campers at the site who work as... people who encourage other people to I suppose! They work in bars and make people play party games, so it was a fun night with them playing drinking games. I had water though, I didn't want to chance any more goon. It was another sleepless night on Sunday because of the dingoes. One started howling when the site got quiet, and after a while there must have been 20 of them behind the campsite howling! The sound was quite creepy. They weren't shy either. When woke up in the middle of the night and turned on my torch to check the time it lit up the silhouette of a dingo sitting outside, right by my head.
The next day a mechanic came out to fix our low range gears, we packed up the car and started the drive to Lake Mackenzie. When we got to the first inland sand track, we realised there was no way we would have been able to get off the island without getting the gearbox fixed! On the way from the east beach, through the sand tracks to Lake Mackenzie, and through tracks again to the ferry we must have been stuck 4-5 times. Every time we had to dig the wheels out of the sand and run behind the car so it wasn't as heavy! It took us 2 hours to get from Lake Mackenzie to the ferry, the hostel told us when we got back it usually takes 40 mins! The reason it's so difficult is because the island hasn't seen rain in months, so the tracks are really dry and soft - perfect for getting stuck. It was great fun though, I'd definitely go back there! Anyway, on we drove to Lake Mackenzie. I've never seen anything like it, it was amazing. The sand was so white, and the water was so clear you could stand up to your neck and see your feet. We spent a few hours swimming and sunbathing before heading for the ferry and getting back to the mainland.
As soon as we got back I jumped in the shower and washed 3 days worth of dirt and sand off and climbed into bed. I've never been so happy to be in a dorm room!
We caught the bus down to Noosa Heads the next day. To be honest, we didn't really do anything there. We took a walk around the 'National Park' which took about 15 minutes at most, it was more of a garden, and other than that just relaxed on the beach. I can't complain really, it's ace being out in the sun here while we're hearing about how cold it is at home! Noosa isn't the nicest place, it's quite expensive and 'high end' - lots of boutiques selling clothes that look like you should be playing gold or sailing a yacht in. We only had two nights there on our way to the famous Surfer's Paradise, another expensive place but at least we could get some cheap food there! We've cooked for ourselves a few times since getting to Oz - strange after 3 months of eating out every night!
When we got to Surfers we found the cheapest hostel available, dumped our bags there and went out to find a doctor. Ryan's managed to pick up an ear infection sometime since Fraser Island and hadn't been able to sleep the night before because of the pain, poor thing! He ended up having to pay $60 to see a doctor and $40 on antibiotics and ear drops. Thank god for insurance. They seem to have done the trick though :)
On our second day we took the bus out to Pacific Fair - I think that's the biggest shopping centre on the Gold Coast - so I could spend my hard earned cash on a new camera. It was cheaper than I expected and pretty much the exact same as my old one so I'm pleased! We also went to the cinema that day, again, to see Paranormal Activity. It's quite good actually. It only cost $11,000 to make and has earned millions - not bad going. On Friday night we met up with Nathan and Becca again to catch up - it was really nice seeing them again. We went out for a lovely Thai meal with some byo alcohol then just took a wander around the main streets. There was a crafts market on that night with people selling candles and homemade jewellery and such. Too expensive for us but nice to gawk at haha. I did see a clock made out of a flattened glass Jameson bottle that I loved and Ryan refused to buy it for me. Shame...
We left Surfers on Saturday to head to Byron Bay. Everyone we'd met since being here told us Byron was lovely, way more chilled out than anywhere along the Gold Coast, so we were looking forward to it. Noosa and Surfers were a bit glitzy for us - Surfers is where people go out to get drunk and not much else. As soon as we arrived in Byron we liked it.. Hostel minibuses were waiting at the bus stop to collect guests and we ended up in a really nice hostel 5 mins walk from the beach. If it wasn't for an old disused railway line, it would have been right on the beach.
Byron Bay was really nice - probably the best town we visited in Oz. It was so laid back and small enough to walk around, even barefoot like the masses of hippies in Byron! On our first night there we discovered a band were playing at one of the biggest pubs in town and planned to head down. It started raining really heavily and we couldn´t be bothered getting wet, so we ended up getting some dinner and beer and staying in the hostel for the evening! We never did make it to the pub... The next day it was still raining, wonderful, so we just relaxed at the hostel again. The one criticism I have of Australia is there´s really nothing to do when it rains!! We decided to brave the weather and go for a walk on the 21st, as it was our last full day in Byron. We took a walk for "1km" up to the lighthouse, which turned out to be a four hour trek, mostly uphill and in the blazing sun. No sun cream of course, we expected to be back before it got too hot! The burn wasn´t too bad though, I think Ryan was worse off than I was. The view was really worth it though - it´s amazing from up there! The lighthouse is at the Australian mainland´s most easterly point, so there´s nothing but ocean in one direction, then nothing but land in the other. We had heard that you can see whales from the top, but they migrate in November so we were a bit late. We went out for a lovely cheap mexican meal, with a free mojito, that night and went to the cinema. I don´t even go to the cinema this much when I´m at home, but I don´t think I´ll be able to find one in the Peruvian Andes, I may as well make the most of it! We went to see ´Where the Wild Things Are´, it was quite good but not the best kids movie I´ve seen over the past few months!
Tuesday 22nd was our last day in Byron, so we finally spent some time on the beach, ended the day with Domino´s Pizza, and boarded the night bus to Sydney. We were due to meet Jennie on Wednesday morning and travel up to the Blue Mountains for Christmas.
We didn´t get much sleep on the bus and were totally knackered when we got to Sydney Central! Thankfully both our bus and Jennie´s bus arrived early, so we had some breakfast and quickly boarded the train up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.
- comments