Apologies for another delayed blog post - I've been desperately trying to get it done for days and days now but have struggled to find any reasonably priced internet cafes in the last few places that we have stayed at.
All is well out here and Dan and I are still enjoying our time in Australia. Luckily the weather improved a fair bit after we left Sydney and was absolutely great for about a week but it went downhill again which was a real shame. Whilst in Noosa we heard on the news that it was the coldest day in June since records began! We're in Airlie Beach now and off to do three days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands tomorrow and the weather is looking great so hopefully it'll stay that way! Anyway, enough about the weather - I'll get straight on to what we've been up to lately.
The day after my last post Dan & I took a day trip to the Blue Mountains, about an hour's drive from Sydney. Although the weather was suprisingly pleasant that day, we weren't able to cross one of the causeways due to the floods, meaning that we couldn't go and see the wild kangaroos which was a shame. The rest of the day went well though and it was great to see some sunshine after the bad weather in Sydney. Our tour guide decided to take us on a longer than usual walk around the Blue Mountains National Park which took us past Wentworth Falls and many other waterfalls which were apparently much more dramatic due to the recent weather. Later we drove to Echo Point to view the famous Three Sisters and then did another short walk which took us to the bottom of the Katoomba Scenic Railway, the steepest railway in the world with an incline of 52 degrees at one point!
The following day we jumped on the Oz Experience bus from Sydney up to Surf Camp which was located at secret "Spot X" so I'm not entirely sure where we were! The bus left Sydney at about 6:30am and didn't arrive at surf camp until about 4:30pm so it was quite a long day but we met some really nice people on the bus which made the journey much more fun. After arriving at Spot X we dumped our things in the room and then had burritos for dinner. If it was summer we would've had our surf lesson that afternoon but because of the time of year it was too dark so we just sat around the campfire in the evening and had our surf lesson early the next morning. One of the crazy surf instructors woke us up at 6:45am and after breakfast we changed into wetsuits and headed down to the beach (via a freezing cold flooded creek) along with the surfboards. We were taught the basics of how waves form, how to stand up, and most importantly how to fall off without injuring yourself! Still feeling fairly unconfident about my ability to stand up while the board was on dry land, we headed out into the waves to put into practice what we'd just been taught - yikes! Dan, being the cool dude that he is, managed to stand up on his very first go whereas I took a little longer! I did eventually stand up on the board and even have photos to prove it, although I think that a little more practice wouldn't go a miss!
After a couple of hours of surfing, we drove to Byron Bay, arriving at about three in the afternoon. We stayed at a really great hostel called the Arts Factory and almost as soon as we arrived were told about a bushtucker tour that was taking place at 4pm so we decided to go along. The guy that was doing the tour was really amusing and knew all sorts of crazy things about how to survive in the outback with the help of some trees and plants - I now know which tree bark is best for toilet paper! In the evening, we took part in a trivia night at the hostel bar and I randomly bumped into a guy that I'd met before called Nick who also did management studies at Nottingham Uni - small world!
On the Wednesday Dan & I got some food from the supermarket and had a picnic by the beach as it was such a nice day.
We spent a couple of hours soaking up the sun and then had a wander around the shops in Byron Bay. I really liked the town itself and it had a really relaxed vibe to it. In the evening we went out with Ben, Naomi and Gemma (some of the people that we'd met on the Oz Experience bus) to a club called Cheeky Monkeys where you're allowed to dance on the tables so that was lots of fun!
A lot of the next day was spent booking our Fraser Island and Whitsunday Islands trips for further up the coast as we had heard that it's best to get these things sorted out as early as possible. We finally managed to book and pay for both trips and then headed down to the beach and met Ben, Naomi and Gemma to watch the sunset.
Friday was our last day in Byron Bay and Dan, Ben & I walked up to the lighthouse at Cape Byron, the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. The weather was gorgeous and so the views were absolutely stunning from the top.
After lunch we jumped back on the Oz bus, crossed the New South Wales border into Queensland and arrived at Surfers Paradise at about 4:30pm. Feeling quite tired after the walk to the lighthouse, Dan & I had a quick wander around to get our bearings and then had an early night.
The following day was Dan's birthday and we decided to go to Dreamworld, one of the many theme parks on the Gold Coast. We had another day of great weather and really enjoyed all of the rides that they had at the park. As well as the rides, the park also had some native Australian animals, including koalas and an area where you could feed the kangaroos.
When we got back into town we went out for a meal to celebrate Dan's birthday, although we spent most of the evening deciding which restaurant to go to!
On Sunday we spent a few hours on the beach chilling out and enjoying the sunshine and then caught the bus to Brisbane in the afternoon. On the way to Brisbane we stopped off to go zorbing, something I fancied doing again since it was so much fun in New Zealand! It was quite different this time around though because it was really dark by the time we arrived there so we could barely see a thing! We arrived in Brisbane at about 7:30pm and had a quiet night in at the hostel.
The next day we treated ourselves to a bit of a lie-in and then had a wander around the shops in Brisbane in the afternoon. Later on in the day we walked over the river and got some really nice photos of the city lights.
On Tuesday we met up with Kerry & Tony, a couple who I've never met but have heard lots about and are my Dad's girlfriend's daughter's boyfriend's parents - phew! They were a lovely couple and I'm really glad that we got chance to meet up with them. Tony drove us up to Mt Coot-tha lookout which was a really great place to look out over the city of Brisbane and then, very generously, they took us out for a three course meal at a great seafood restaurant just outside the city centre and it made a really nice change from the backpacker tradition of pasta and two minute noodles!
The following day we caught the bus from Brisbane to Noosa, leaving at 6:30am, stopping at the Wild Horse lookout on the way to see the Glasshouse Mountains and hear the aboriginal story behind them. We arrived in Noosa at about 11am and spent the afternoon having a wander around Noosa Heads and Noosa Junction. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and there wasn't very much to see so we were pretty bored before long. Later on in the afternoon we caught the shuttle bus over to our hostel, which turned out to be more like a campsite/resort type thing, and spent the rest of the day checking that out. The accommodation was really nice and consisted of self-contained apartments which meant that we had our own kitchen, living room and TV - brilliant! Outside was great too because there were kangaroos hopping all over the place - I loved it!
After breakfast the next morning we left the apartments and were greeted by some very hungry kangaroos who were very eager to see what we had in the plastic bag I was carrying (which happened to contain our lunch for the day) so we decided to go back inside and exit through the door on the other side! After safely leaving, we caught the bus to the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. The zoo itself was really great, in particular the live crocodile feeding show and the koala talk, and it was clear that Steve had had a real impact on all of the staff working at the zoo and their attitudes towards conservation and the protection of animals.
Friday morning we treated ourselves to a lie in and because we weren't expecting great weather, we weren't in a rush to get up. After brunch, we headed to the beach which was further away than expected but the sun was out and so it was quite a nice walk. We spent a bit of time on the beach but it soon got quite cloudy so we walked back and decided to take advantage of the free tennis at the resort we were staying at. It was obvious that neither me or Dan had played tennis in a long time and we were both rubbish so that didn't last too long. I think the fact that we were playing in flipflops probably didn't help either. We didn't have any food to cook dinner with in the evening and were a ferry ride away from the nearest supermarket so we had dinner at the restaurant at the resort as backpackers meals were $6. I had fish n' chips and then apple crumble with ice cream and custard for dessert and it was delicious so I'm glad we had an excuse to go there for rather than eating in that night!
In the morning we caught the bus from Noosa to Hervey Bay, stopping at Rainbow Beach on the way. Our bus driver took us on a walk which seemed quite gentle to begin with, until he got us to climb up a massive sandblow (similar to a giant sand dune) which was really exhausting but worthwhile for the views from the top. We also learned about the 72 different coloured sands at Rainbow Beach and how they occured - unfortunately the sand wasn't green or purple or blue as I'd hoped, but lots of different shades of a sandy kind of colour! Still, it was quite interesting to see and hear about. We arrived into Hervey Bay at 5ish and had a bit of a stressful time cooking dinner as the kitchen in the hostel was probably the worst kitchen I've come across in the last few months! After eventually managing to make spag bol using the very limited utensils that they had, we had dinner and then had a lazy evening in the TV room eating Tim Tams (similar to Penguin bars in the UK).
That was last Saturday and I'm going to leave this blog post at that for today and update you all shortly on our past week (including our camping and 4x4 adventure on Fraser Island) and what we get up to over the next few days when I've got a bit more time as this post is getting rather lengthy!
The photos are all up on facebook for your viewing pleasure:
Blue Mountains -
http://nottinghamac.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156306&l=32db7&id=199707669
Surf Camp & Byron Bay -
http://nottinghamac.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156308&l=cb79b&id=199707669
Surfers Paradise & Brisbane -
http://nottinghamac.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156310&l=2b3d3&id=199707669
Bye for now!
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment