Stinger suits and sunburn . . . the east coast adventure continues!

After a few days spent sorting out alternative transport and accommodation we arrived in Sydney on a bus from Canberra and lugged our rucksacks to a backpackers named Tokyo Inn where Chi had managed to find us a place on the floor through a friend of hers who was working there. On arrival at this hostel we were told that Chi was able to have a bed in the female Japanese-only dorm, and Kees in a male dorm, but that Kate and I were a problem as we were not Japanese and they had thought we were all going to be Japanese! After much deliberation it was decided that for the small fee of 50 dollars each Kate and I could also be granted the honour of sleeping in the Japanese-only dorm – where there had blatantly been free beds all along – as long as we didn’t flaunt our wicked western ways!! A supermarket dash to buy a picnic and rugs and we were finally on our way to meet Joolz, fresh from her flight, and her boyfriend Mark, who had been travelling in Australia with his dad and brother for a few weeks, to watch the hogmanay fireworks.

After a reunion in the pub we headed for a grassy area known as Macquarie’s Point where we would be able to picnic looking out over the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The queue to get into this area wriggled out of sight into the distance, but on Kees’ insistence we all snuck in at various intervals not far from the bag search at the front. Kees, at 6ft 6, obviously has the biggest problem queue jumping inconspicuously but managed to sneak his lanky self in a few feet behind most of us, only to be joined by a fellow queue jumper who exclaimed that he had seen Kees jumping in and thought he would join him!

Our picnic spot was perfect, apart from a huge tree and our near proximity to a loud group of partying loons – Scottish of course! We had a fabulous picnic – bread, cheese and dips featured highly in the rose family picnics throughout the trip! – and lots of beers and wines as we caught up with Joolz and Mark and took it in turns to queue for half an hour a time for the loo! Finally darkness descended and the firework displays lit the skies. Both the 9pm showing for the children, and the midnight display for the bells were magnificent. A sparkling Emerald in the sky to celebrate the anniversary, spiralling lights fizzling into the distance, vibrant sparkles piercing the dark sky, we welcomed 2007 and celebrated the start of a new year.

Nursing our hangovers we bid our farewells to Kate and Kees who hired a car to head north for a fortnight and rendezvoused for some lunch and a tour of the harbour and opera house. Our sightseeing complete we headed to Sydney’s most famous beach, Bondi beach, for some relaxation and fresh sea air, only to find that half the population of Sydney had done the same! Escaping the hordes of people we wandered along the cliff-top walk that leads from Bondi to Coogee where we had a dip in the sea to cool off, followed promptly by a cold beer in a very busy beach-side pub.

Our next few days in Sydney were spent catching up with various friends, with Joolz and Mark also managing to get tickets for the cricket. I met up firstly with my fellow travelling companion from earlier in my trip, Sarah (remember Lady B, my roommate from my adventures in China?), who popped down from Newcastle for the day. After spending a good hour trying to find each other in Sydney’s largest train station we had a fantastic day catching up on a few months worth of gossip in various bars and coffee shops!

I also managed to catch up with Claire and Gus my friends from Edinburgh with whom I stayed with in Beijing. They had managed to escape from the icy cold winter in Beijing to travel for two weeks on the east coast of Australia and were in Sydney for a week. We had a lovely evening together in darling harbour (along with various friends of Joolz and Mark’s who were also living or travelling out here) before meeting again the following day to visit the Chinese Garden that is situated just outside China town near the harbour area. It was surreal to be with Claire and Gus in an immaculate Chinese garden, complete with babbling brooks, bridges and pagodas after having visited similar places with them in China itself! Chi then took us to a lovely sushi train restaurant for lunch where we discussed the joys of international cuisine.

Sydney is an amazing city and we found it so easy to get around. It is fantastic to be so close to the river and coastline, with the wide streets, water and parks making it feel very spacious. It was fun to wander around the different areas and to visit shops and galleries and gardens, although Joolz and I both felt it was strange to be visiting a foreign city and not exploring the historical buildings as you would do in Europe.

Escaping the big city, but agreeing unanimously that it was a city we’d be happy to return to, we began our journey up north and experienced the first of our joyful Greyhound buses! The bus itself was fairly standard; it was the bus drivers themselves who made our journeys heaven or hell. Their private school boy uniform of shorts with knee-length socks made us giggle each time, and their banter was priceless. Each driver took his job very seriously, with the most serious ones acting as tour guides en-route. This is fantastic when you are a tourist in a foreign country, although at 4am when you have struggled to get any sleep due to the twisting roads, lumpy seats, snoring bus companions and ten million refreshment stops, it is hard to appreciate it!

Enough complaining! The wonderful Greyhound bus service took us from A to B safely and on time (with plenty of hours for catching up on all the chat with Joolz!); with our first stop being Byron Bay, a mere fourteen hour overnight drive from Sydney. Wiping the sleep from our eyes as we bundled off the bus into the busy Byron streets I heard someone calling my name only to find our cousin Simon, with whom we had spent Christmas in Canberra! He had been to Byron previous to meeting us and had certainly not intended to return there so it was a huge surprise to see him again. Bidding farewell to his friend he came and met us for breakfast in the hostel where Kate and Kees had been staying for the past few nights. They were as surprised to see him as I had been and we had a great time catching up on the past week of adventures over a yummy breakie.

With Kate and Kees venturing on north to visit Fraser Island, and Simon disappearing once more to visit other relatives in Coffs Harbour, Joolz, Chi and I were left to explore Byron Bay. After wandering around the hippy clothes shops, second-hand book stores and touristy shops that make up Byron Bay we had a massage, a leisurely lunch and swim in the sea. Emerging from the waves and jellyfish infested waters we were greeted by a huge downpour that lasted into the evening. Splashing from our dorm to the bar for happy hour and then from the hostel bar to another few bars in town, we spent a fun-filled evening with 4 Geordie boys who were sharing our dorm. It was funny for Joolz, a Maccum, to have come all the way across the world only to have a night out with 4 local boys, but they were good craic and we were all happy to end the evening in true Aussie style with a pie! (And I have to say it was the best pie I have ever had!)
Leaving Byron Bay the following morning, still in the rain, we headed on to Brisbane. It was fun to have visited the surf town of Byron. To have watched the surfers’ ride the huge waves, people watched the stunning bronzed bodies that sauntered down the street and relaxed as people should in this laid back town. Now we were off to experience city life again, only it felt as though we may never get there . . . as we had failed to observe that there was an hours time difference, on top of which I had read the bus times wrongly. Our 2 hour journey turned to 4 and when we eventually arrived in Brisbane and met Kelly (who had managed to entertain herself with a few hours shopping!) we were grumpy and hungry.

Kelly is a friend of mine from Japan, a fellow language teacher who lived in Kagoshima city and with whom I ate cheese and drank wine with on a Friday night and escaped to Hannah’s with when city life got too much! Also from the UK, Kelly has family living in Australia and has now become a resident here. She and her boyfriend, now fiancé – congratulations Kelly and Adam! – live in Toowoomba, about two hours drive from Brisbane, but her family were kind enough to have us to stay and after a wander along the banks of the river eating ice-cream she whisked us off to her family’s home.

Exhausted from our drunken night out in Byron we were ready to collapse but before you could say Brisvegas Kelly had a drink in our hands and they were kept topped up all night! Her family, and extended family (there were 13 of us for dinner – which seemed to be pretty normal for them!) were so welcoming and really looked after us over the next few days. Joolz and I had comfy accommodation in their caravan and slept soundly after another night of drinking too much. Awaking from my slumber, the sunlight streaming in through the curtains, I listened to the sound of the twittering birds, and of Joolz sleep-talking! Now Joolz is famed for her sleep talking, as is Ali, so I was quite expecting to hear some of her sleepy ramblings during our trip together, but early morning trivia I was not quite expecting . . . as Joolz uttered the words: “What angle of elevation are we on?”! Leaving her to continue dreaming, though a little puzzled as to what she was dreaming about, I snuck out of the caravan to have a dip in the pool.

Kelly is famed for her wonderful hospitality and in Japan had always been raving about the champagne breakies that she and her family were accustomed to in Australia. Therefore no sooner had chi and I emerged bleary-eyed from our beds and jumped into the pool, did Kelly have a glass of champagne in each of our hands! Joolz was quick to join us and after a relaxing time in the pool we met up with Adam and headed for the Coo-tha Point lookout.

From the lookout we could see across the sweeping expanse of Brisbane, the suburbs sprawling off into the distance, with the tall buildings of the Central Business District piercing the skyline. We the ventured on into Paddington, the area Adam and Kelly had previously lived in for dinner, which was followed by a night out in a pub called the Normanby, where we met up with Joolz’ friend from Glasgow.

Leaving the comforts of Kelly’s family house and the warmth of their hospitality, Joolz, Chi and I ventured on to Noosa Heads, another surf town, where we found a spot on the bus beach to sun bake and splashed around in the huge waves. We watched the surfers on the surf breaks and chilled out, all that we could do in the immense heat. Feeling slightly more energised the next day we booked to do a river kayak tour of the national park. Surprised at getting into kayaks on the beach and paddling out in the sea, we assumed that we must be rounding the point to enter the river mouth. After riding the waves and paddling hard we mentioned to our tour guide that this was the strangest river kayak we had ever done, only to find that there had been confusion in the office and we had been booked on the sea kayak trip. Content with this error, but wishing we could see the promised dolphins, we sang songs as we rode the ocean waves.

Noosa did not appeal to us as much as Byron had, it was more upmarket and lacked the relaxed air of Byron, yet the weather was much better than it had been for us in Byron and we boarded our next bus emitting enough heat to warm a small apartment! Arriving in Hervey Bay after an uncomfortable few hours on the carpet seats of the bus we were dropped off in an industrial area and taken to a disorganised hostel where we slept in sauna-like conditions. Waking at the crack of dawn we re-packed and rushed to the 630am meeting for our Fraser Island trip.

Grouped as the A-team we appointed two shoppers for alcohol, two for food, the first driver and one person’s visa card (as a deposit!) before being shown our 11-seater Toyota Landcruiser. As part of the shopping contingent I left the others to attend the safety meeting and packing to rush to the supermarket where we were given 17 minutes to shop for 11 people on a budget of 5 dollars (£2.50) a day for three days! 8 bags of shopping later and only a little over budget we assembled as a group, realising that we had spent about 10 times as much money on beer as on food, we bundled into the Landcruiser and headed for the ferry port.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and is said to contain more sand than the Sahara desert. Lying not far off the east coast of mainland Australia, this island of sand is actually a huge playground with 200 lakes to splash in, beautiful rainforests and amazing ocean views . . . not to mention the phenomenal sand castles that can be made from that amount of sand! 4-wheel drive vehicles are a must on Fraser due to the rutted tracks and soft surfaces and as we bumped along, 3 in the front, 8 in the back, we got to know each other pretty quickly! Our group, the A-team, was as the name suggests, a first rate group of people. Hannah will understand me when I say that I was so relieved to not be stuck with the Jonathans (Thailand Liveaboard – yes we were stuck with him for 4 whole days – on a boat!) and Tims (Tran Siberian – 3 days and nights on a train is long enough without this added torture!) of the world, the token nightmare person in a group situation who makes your trip hell, and who my grandmother claims has been planted there to make everyone else get along by having someone to unanimously dislike! The amazing A-team, (the theme-tune of which was sung at every available moment!) consisted of Joolz, Chi and I (the token females), Phil (an Irishman), Alex, Matt and Mark (over on holiday from England), Jonny and Dave (escaping from the UK to have a year in Oz) and Georg and Thomas (The Germans!). Not a nightmare among us!

We chatted, sang and laughed . . . a lot . . . as we ventured along the sandy tracks. Having been given a map with suggested itinerary of places to visit and tide times we headed for our first stop, the beautiful Lake Wabby. The sand dunes descended steeply to the lakeside (which they are apparently encroaching on at a rate of 3 metres a year!) and we bounded down the slope, the sand scorching hot beneath our feet, desperate to cool down in the inviting water below.

Refreshed and ready for the next excitement we continued on our adventure. Leaving the bumpy tracks behind us we emerged on the beach and whizzed along the beach highway (that is also a runway!), that exists up the east side of the island, where speed limits and normal road rules apply. It is so bizarre in Australia to just cruise onto a beach and travel for several kilometres without even batting an eyelid! The beach highway led us up to the northern end of the island and we stopped off at a few attractions before arriving at our base camp.

The first of these attractions was Eli Creek, said to be “a fast-moving, crystal-clear waterway that will carry you effortlessly downstream.” Crystal clear it was, but it was far from fast moving and we had to make a train, pushing ourselves along, in order for us to float any distance at all down the stream! It was fun to see though and great to cool off again as the sun was hot, the sea inviting but forbidden. All the way up the coast the sea was taunting us, the waves perfect, but due to the number of rips in the water and man-eating sharks that lurk in the shallows, it is best to stick to the lakes and creeks!



The next attraction was the wreck of the Maheno, a passenger ship that was blown ashore in 1935 by a cyclone while being towed to a Japanese scrap yard, with our last port of call being the Pinnacles, peaked sand cliffs.


Arriving at our base camp, the last of the three groups staying there, we were subjected to a lengthy talk about not feeding dingoes (as they are becoming more vicious in their search for food – however we now all know the dingo stance so will be fine in any dingo situation!) and how to avoid the deadly animals of the rainforest, by a hyperactive man named Makka. However animated Makka was there was no way of keeping Joolz awake as she perfected her nodding dog impersonation in the front row of the group! Talk over we were free to erect our two large tents and crack open the eski (cool box) that was chockers (full up) with beers. The evening disappeared as we drank, ate and sang songs on the beach and soon we were cosy in our tents, the cacophony of snoring resounding around the canvas walls!

The following day we journeyed further up the 120 kilometre long island to explore the northern tip and a lookout spot called Indian Head. From here we could see manta-rays moving gracefully through the aqua waters, sharks on the prowl and schools of dolphins who were showing off to anyone observing. We then walked along the beach to the Champagne Pools (a huge rock pool with waves crashing in over the rocks) where we played catch in the water and splashed Dave a lot! Then it was back to the camp for some drinking games and much hilarity before star-gazing on the beach.

Over all too quickly we struck camp and headed back down south and then inland to visit Lake Birrabeen and Lake McKenzie. We had heaps of fun here chilling out in the water and continuing our quest to soak Dave a lot whilst playing ball! Feeling sentimental to be leaving our newfound friends we had a few more beers and few more renditions of the A-team theme tune before returning to Hervey Bay where we parted ways. Exhausted, the three of us, staggered onto another overnight bus and headed for the Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsundays.

Joining our extreme sailing crew on the Condor, a Maxi racing yacht, perhaps the most famous Maxi, who has won every major yacht race – twice – we prepared for our wild adventures at sea. With 26 passengers and 3 crew on board there was no room to swing the smallest of kittens, yet on the deck, the salty sea breeze enveloping us, it was bliss. As we cruised away from the harbour it became apparent that there was very little wind and our three day “extreme sailing” turned into more of a cruise.

The Whitsunday Islands are situated in the Coral Sea and are part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Most of the 90+ islands are uninhabited and many, despite being a small distance from the reef itself, have coral reefs fringing the edges. The snorkelling was amazing and we anchored in Mackeral Bay, off Hook Island, for two snorkel sessions where we were lucky to see some amazing marine life. The only downside of our snorkel sessions were that we were not allowed in the water without our stinger suits on. We were made to wear these stunning suits due to the Box jellyfish, deadly creatures that are lurking around in the sea.

With the weather warm and the sea inviting, the last thing you want to do is put on a stinky thin wetsuit, yet seeing the angelfish swimming around the colourful corals and a turtle feeding and then taking flight made it all worthwhile.

Sleeping on the boat was claustrophobic and we struggled with the heat and lack of air and space. Chatting with our fellow yachtsman we had fun socialising on the boat, the stars at night making our time on board even more harmonious, yet it was nice to anchor at Whitsunday Island and explore Whitehaven beach, the most famous beach in the Whitsunday Islands, where the aquamarine waters were contrasted by the whiteness of the sand. Our trip was relaxing, but a slight disappointment due to the lack of wind. It was so frustrating to be on one of the most amazing British-made yachts and to only set sail twice – with all the crew blowing on the sail so that we could say we had been sailing! However, it was great to get a glimpse of the Whitsundays and to spend a few days out at sea.

Back on land and we continued north on our last overnight bus, Airlie Beach to Cairns. Our backpackers was amazing and we quickly settled into life there, sampling the cheap beers and eating the most amazing 8 dollar buffets. With such a short time in Cairns and only a few more days left together we made plans and soon our days were packed. After a day shopping (our only one I have to add!) we joined Tusa Dive for a trip to The Great Barrier Reef to scuba dive. Having done my advance diving certification I had booked on two guided dives, while Joolz and Chi chose to do the introductory dive. The dive company were great and were highly efficient in organising everyone prior to arriving at the reef. As the reef loomed closer Joolz appeared to be a little apprehensive, as any first time diver may be. I went over her signals with her and talked her through the apparatus, yet it seemed that it was none of these things that were causing her consternation. It was the fact that we had not been made to wear stinger suits in the water! After the insistence that we wear them in the Whitsundays, Joolz could not fathom why we would not be wearing them at The Great Barrier Reef where surely there were also deadly stingers. Content to take the risk I dived in my board shorts and rash vest, others wearing short wetsuits, but Joolz (who is taking after her mother, the wonderful worrier June, every day!!) was very sensible and wore a stinger suit, much to everyone’s amusement. (Sorry Joolz but I had to tell SOME stories!)
After a real Japanese-style karaoke session we decided to spend the following day on land and headed off on a rainforest tour of Cape Tribulation with our animated guide, Eddie. Unfortunately Eddie’s driving was a bit erratic and his commentary erring a little on the lecturing side and we arrived at our first stop feeling queasy and exhausted! After whizzing around the animal sanctuary (and yes that was kangaroo poo on your foot Joolz!!) we were off on the winding roads again and experienced a rain forest walk, lunch and a crocodile cruise. The crocodiles were definitely the highlight. Seeing them in the wild, in their natural habitat, basking in the sun and cruising down the river in the murky waters, was just amazing.

Sadly we had reached the end of the road, our journey from Sydney to Cairns was complete, and we packed our bags to part ways. Joolz and I left Chi in Cairns where she is now spending a few weeks packing bananas (“banana packing in boring and boys stink!” was the last update I had from Chi!) and flew from Cairns back to Sydney. Our in-flight entertainment consisted of much hilarity as we ran through the memories and photos from our fabulous trip. We then proof read our CV’s and applications as our minds suddenly turned to what lies ahead, the relaxing journey together over and all too soon in the past. The memories are vivid though and the photos a real reminder of the fantastic time we had. . . and what a trip it was!