East Coast of Australia - Sydney to Cairns

Salaams / hi all

I'm still enjoying my Backpacking experiences as I make my away up the East Coast of Australia. In Sydney and Brisbane I'd booked a single room, so I just had to share bathroom facilities with the other residents. It was really funny one morning in Sydney, when I woke up at 5.45 and went to the "shared" bathroom and saw that some young ladies were just returning from a night out - gosh I felt old !

The rest of my overnight stops along the East Coast were in Resorts, just a tad up market (great to have slept in a double bed and having en-suite facilities).

24 - 27 January (Sydney) - Darling Harbour was just a short walk from my Base Backpackers accommodation. The harbour was full of activity day & night, with numerous gourmet restaurants, heaps of coffee and ice cream shops and many individual performances going on all over the place. There was this old guy who playing a didgeridoo, and he was great, so I ended up buying a CD and then videoed him playing one of his tracks (I left him a tip, don't give up your day job, no I'm joking, I left him a monetary tip) !!

Sydney has a very diverse cultural background and this was clearly visible not only by the people milling around Darling Harbour, but also by the variety of the food served at the Food Hall - I thoroughly enjoyed a very tasty chicken curry from a halal Indian restaurant.

Whilst in Sydney I went on a tour to the Blue Mountains and Australian Wildlife Sanctuary. The blue haze over the mountains was incredible and the scenery changed from one moment to the next, and I ended up taken hundreds of photos (not all are on my blog) ! The Australian Wildlife Sanctuary was also great, and I actually stroked a baby Koala - shame I didn't get a chance to cuddle one before I left Australia.

The following day I had a "Backstage" tour of Sydney Opera House followed by breakfast facing the Sydney Harbour Bridge - this was a brilliant start to the day ! We entered the Opera House via the stage door and were shown how props were stored backstage and labelled up, so that they knew exactly where they should be placed on the stage for each act. The stage to the Opera Theatre is on the top level, so the whole stage floor is lowered and raised each time the props are changed. We were also shown the Orchestra pit, which was situated just below the stage, the Green Room where the performers hang out between acts and the conductor's changing room.

The best part of this day was when I met my niece Aliya, she had flown over from London for a friend's wedding and we were able to spend 'Australia Day' together (Tuesday 26 Jan). We ended the day by having a lovely meal at a Fish restaurant in Darling Harbour with one of her friends, the fish was fan dabi dobi (in other words scrumptious) !

28 - 29 January (Brisbane) - I travelled up the East Coast on a Greyhound bus, and my next destination was Brisbane, which took a long long time (16 hours). It started to rain as we left Sydney and continued for most of the journey. I tried to book a tour to Australia Zoo (Steve Erwin), but didn't have enough time to fit this in. I did however, manage to go on a "free" walking tour and learnt a lot about the history of Brisbane - it was funny though as the guide was from England and had only been in Australia for three months (he'd done a crash course on the subject) !.

30 Jan - 1 Feb (Hervey Bay / Fraser Island) - The coach journey from Brisbane to Hervey Bay took 7 hours. I did something very naughty today, the bus station was a long way from my accommodation (Kondari Resort), so I hitched a ride on the YHA courtesy bus, and as it pulled into the hostel, I picked up my bags and ran to a phone booth to order a cab to my hostel, which was a short way away. Gosh, I'll never do that again, trying to run with a backpack and a rucksack was not easy !

The following morning I was picked for my overnight tour to Fraser Island. The island has no soil and is completely made up of sand, so it was amazing to see plants and trees surviving in this climate. Apparently the amount of sand below the island to the sea bed equates to more that found in the Sahara Desert ! During our travel on the island, our minibus got stuck a number of times and we had to be rescued by SOS vehicles.

After lunch, we climbed Indian Head which is located on the far end of Seventy Mile Beach and viewed some very beautiful sights. The sea around Indian Head is renowned for Tiger Sharks, Rays and Boxed Jelly Fish, so we all had our eyes peeled for the sharks. After 30 minutes of not seeing any marine life we left for our next stop, which was the Maheno Wreck (sorry can't remember the date this swept onto the beach). We then headed for Eli Creek to cool down in the ice cold water. After returning to our minibus, it started to rain and unfortunately didn't stop all night or the following day. So our trip to two lakes (Garawongera & Birrabeen) was damped by the rain (no pun intended). The island is exquisite and I hope you can see this in the photographs once I download them.

2 - 3 February (Airle Beach / Whitehaven Beach) - From Airle Beach, I took a tour of the Whitsunday Islands and visited Whitehaven Beach, which was absolutely grand. I was picked up by a courtesy bus at 8.05am and taken to Abel Marina, where we boarded a jet powered vessel and headed for the beach. We spent an hour and a half at Whitehaven Beach, which is regarded as one of the best beaches in the world ! The white silica sand was such a delight to walk on, especially as we were the only ones on the island, we headed back to the boat for lunch. After lunch we stopped for a short walk through a rainforest to view the Whitsunday Islands and saw some magical views.

We then continued to Hook Island, where some of the tourists learnt to dive whilst the rest of us went snorkelling. Yes even though I can't swim, I actually did go snorkelling in some rather deep waters. I have to confess, I was using a noodle, placed firmly under my arms to keep me afloat and one of the Deck Hands was nearby with a motorised rowing boat. Wow, never thought I'd do that, but I really enjoyed this new experience - a great end to my day !

4 - 6 February (Cairns / Port Douglas) - My last Greyhound Bus ride was to Cairns and took 11 hours, once I arrived there I had to take a local bus to Port Douglas, which took another hour, but well worth the ride. Many thanks to Karen (DMCS at Bluewater) for suggesting I stay in Port Douglas. It was such a picturesque town and not commercialised like Cairns.

My trip to the Great Barrier Reef was upgraded from Low Isles to Agincourt Reef, which meant that the location was further out to sea. Once we arrived the boat was secured to the purposely built National Park with a reef activity platform attached to it, which was used by the divers and snorkelers to go into the sea.
One of my dreams was to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef and I can't believe that I have actually achieved this goal ! After snorkelling in Whitsunday Islands, I was prepared to give it a go again in the Reef.

The crew of the Quicksilver boat were so accommodating and reassuring that I was comfortable about going into the water. At first I stayed near the platform, but then I held on to a rope, which was a large semi circle starting from one end of the platform to another. At the furthest point of this semi circle, the depth of the water was 50 metres and I wasn't scared one bit. I saw loads of fish, coral and actually saw a jelly fish, but no fear I had a Lycra suit on for protection. I was so pleased with myself, that I asked the underwater photographer to take a picture of me. I snorkelled for well over an hour and loved every second of it - yippee !!!!

That evening, I met with Karen's uncle. He visits his daughter in Port Douglas every year during the UK winter months, then returns home to Kent. We had dinner at the Combined Club, which not only had great views, but the food was also very very tasty - the Tempura Prawns, were mouth-watering. What a way to end the perfect day !

That's it from Australia, I'm now in New Zealand and will update soon. It's only the second day here and it's already been jammed packed with activities...... more details to follow ! Dee x