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Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Friday, 30 March 2012
Sydney 2012
Time for another random post. I am not even going to apologise for the lack of activity this time as I am fairly sure not many people stop by the blog any more and I am probably just talking to myself these days. Still it's therapeutic for me to dip back in and share random thoughts with strangers every once in a while.
So, where did we leave off last time? If I remember correctly I was about a week away from leaving the UK to move to Sydney, we are now 8 months in to life in Oz and it has been an experience to say the least! I have moved three times, hopefully I can manage to stay in one spot for a while now, have met heaps of new people and found that Sydney was just as good as I remembered.
I feel that me and Sydney are a good fit, the culture and lifestyle seem to agree with my personality and I do not think I have felt more at home anywhere else in the world. Travel is still always in the back of my mind but is now all about great holidays rather than trips of discovery and globe crossing relocations, for now anyway ;-)
It has not been the smoothest of rides since I got her and a lot has changed in my life but when life hands you lemons, grab some tequila and salt and get on it! (I know it should really be limes for tequila but just go with it, ok?)
So what's next? Who knows, but I am sure it will be fun and there will be laughter and tears along the way and every now and I again I will remember I have a blog and come back and randomly tell anyone who fancies a read what it is on my mind.
2012, let's see what you've got in store...
So, where did we leave off last time? If I remember correctly I was about a week away from leaving the UK to move to Sydney, we are now 8 months in to life in Oz and it has been an experience to say the least! I have moved three times, hopefully I can manage to stay in one spot for a while now, have met heaps of new people and found that Sydney was just as good as I remembered.
I feel that me and Sydney are a good fit, the culture and lifestyle seem to agree with my personality and I do not think I have felt more at home anywhere else in the world. Travel is still always in the back of my mind but is now all about great holidays rather than trips of discovery and globe crossing relocations, for now anyway ;-)
It has not been the smoothest of rides since I got her and a lot has changed in my life but when life hands you lemons, grab some tequila and salt and get on it! (I know it should really be limes for tequila but just go with it, ok?)
So what's next? Who knows, but I am sure it will be fun and there will be laughter and tears along the way and every now and I again I will remember I have a blog and come back and randomly tell anyone who fancies a read what it is on my mind.
2012, let's see what you've got in store...
Friday, 1 July 2011
So what's next for the OzBus Diaries and its author?
Hey, see I am still alive, honest, just not been giving this blog the attention it deserves, as usual.
I am trying to get better at keeping this up to date and as usual I will start my post with the promise to start writing here more regularly and will probably blog again in a couple of months and apologise for not doing it sooner but you all know this part of my charm!
So what is my excuse this time? Well I have been busy getting on with life and working out what direction to head in. After two and a bit years back in the UK I have decided it is not the place for me. So at start of this year I pulled myself together and went job hunting overseas, my goal was to get a sponsored role in Sydney and move back to Oz permanently.
I began by researching PR firms in Sydney, trying to find the right fit for me and my experience then got in touch with the top ones and began the process. It was slow going to start with then a couple of months ago a phone interview went well, was followed up with a Skype interview, a couple of tests and before I knew it, a job offer!
So now I am a week away from leaving the UK for good for a new life in Sydney. This will not be the crazy travelling adventure that the rest of this blog has been dedicated to over the years but it will be certainly be an adventure, anyone who wants advice on emigrating feel free to get in touch and I can share what I have learnt and keep your eyes out for future posts on how life in Sydney is going.
I am trying to get better at keeping this up to date and as usual I will start my post with the promise to start writing here more regularly and will probably blog again in a couple of months and apologise for not doing it sooner but you all know this part of my charm!
So what is my excuse this time? Well I have been busy getting on with life and working out what direction to head in. After two and a bit years back in the UK I have decided it is not the place for me. So at start of this year I pulled myself together and went job hunting overseas, my goal was to get a sponsored role in Sydney and move back to Oz permanently.
I began by researching PR firms in Sydney, trying to find the right fit for me and my experience then got in touch with the top ones and began the process. It was slow going to start with then a couple of months ago a phone interview went well, was followed up with a Skype interview, a couple of tests and before I knew it, a job offer!
So now I am a week away from leaving the UK for good for a new life in Sydney. This will not be the crazy travelling adventure that the rest of this blog has been dedicated to over the years but it will be certainly be an adventure, anyone who wants advice on emigrating feel free to get in touch and I can share what I have learnt and keep your eyes out for future posts on how life in Sydney is going.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
From then to now....
I returned from my travels in Feb 2009, over two years ago and rather than just carry on from today without filling in the blanks I thought I would give any of you that are interested a quick summary of the last two years so here goes:
- Moved 4 times in the first seven months before eventually setting up home in Clapham Junction
- Got a rescue dog from Battersea, she is a border collie and will be 13 this May (she was 11 when we got her)
- Went back to work in the tech PR industry
- Ran the London Marathon
- Turned 30
- Did a lot of "London tourism" making sure I had seen all the city had to offer (including the Great British Duck Race)
- Went to Germany twice (once for a stag do, once for the Christmas Markets)
- Went to Dubai on holiday
- Went to Ireland a lot!
- Won an electric bike and now brave the traffic most days on the way to work (buses and taxis are not my friends)
- Went on the Orient Express (to Kent) and got engaged along the way
- Got lens replacement and laser eye surgery meaning I can see unaided for the first time since I was four
- Began planning my wedding, in Sydney, at the end of 2011
- Set up an Australian wine Twitter @boutiquecellar
- Lots of other things that I can't remember right now and are probably not that interesting anyway...
And I think that covers the highlights of the last two years and brings me up to date so watch this space for new and hopefully exciting musings on life the universe and everything and I wouldn't be surprised if travel and wine continue to be strong themes going forward.
American Invasion
Just before our American Invasion kicked off we returned to Oz once more and went back to Adelaide to spend Christmas and New Year with friends before heading to the states.
We had a great Christmas, enjoyed the sunshine, spent time chilling out and generally recharged the batteries ready for what would be the final leg of the trip.
We left Oz in early January and boarded the flight to LA, which is one of the weirdest flights I have ever been on, it was 17 hours long, we took off at 6:50am and landed at 6:30am the same day having crossed the international date line on route, the jet lag was bad to say the least!
We stayed in a motel near Hollywood and took in the sites of LA. We did an open top bus tour, walked down Hollywood boulevard, want to see the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, visited Universal Studios and went to Disney (which was a big disappointment). It was nice to be on "holiday" for a change rather than just backpacking. It was also a little bit of a culture shock after so long in Oz and the food in America left a lot to be desired after the fresh seafood and great restaurants we had left behind in Oz (although I was a fan of the doughnut breakfast!).
After we had sampled the delights of LA it was off to Sin City and after a short flight and cab ride we were checking into Circus Circus on the Las Vegas Strip. We spent a few days eating fried delicacies from various all you can eat buffets, meeting entertaining characters like Prez, our favourite blackjack dealer in Vegas. He taught us the difference between a bitch and a whore, apparently a whore sleeps with everyone, a bitch sleeps with everyone but you :-)
We also took in a show at Ceasers Palace where we saw Bette Middler live which was very entertaining. We saw very tired looking lions on display in the middle of a casino, saw dolphins who were apparently being kept for conservation reasons learning tricks and performing for onlookers and a very cute leopard cub called Java.
We tried to do a day trip out to the Grand Canyon but this got cancelled last minute (after a 6am start) as the other people on the trip had got their dates wrong and would not be in Vegas till the next week. After a few hours back in bed we hit the tables again and lost the remainder of our spare dollars before packing up ready for the next stop, San Francisco!
We arrived in San Fran and checked into a hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. Fresh seafood and good food were once again on the menu and we ate our fill while we were there. We visited Alcatraz and toured the city on Segways (you know, the weird two wheel standy up things that were a big fad years ago) which is a great way to see the city and not have to walk up all the hills. We also made sure we visited the sea lions and ran into an old friend from home while we were there, it really is a small world after all (a ride that was not even open when we went to Disney in LA!)
From San Fran it was on to Seattle to stay with my better half's family for a while. We enjoyed home comforts once more, visited the Space Needle, went on a food and, you guessed it, wine tour and learnt about the history of Seattle.
After Seattle we flew to New York and jumped straight onto a connecting flight to Bermuda (along with one of our bags, the other followed about three days later!) where some old uni friends had moved to a few years previously. This strange little island in the middle of the ocean has some interesting little querks and is well worth a short visit. We toured the 22 sq mile island on a hired scooter, visited historic sites, marvelled and the limestone roofs designed to capture and filter the rainwater (the only source of fresh water on the island), enjoyed the night life and had minor heart attacks at the prices of everything ($7 for a pint of fosters!). We stayed a couple of days longer than expected as a gale force win closed the airport but we then took our penultimate flight to New York for our last stop on the world tour.
In New York we visited the out of town factory shops, wondered through Time Square, went up the Empire State Building, visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, caught up with a friend we had met in New Zealand and visited some spectacular restaurants, including one where I had a burger that was stuffed with ribs! So with full stomachs, a new wardrobe and a tear in our eye we boarded the final flight home.
After 18 months on the road, 23 countries and some of the most amazing experiences it was time to go home, I hope those of you who have stuck with me throughout this story have enjoyed reading about it, I know I have enjoyed writing about it. I am sorry it has taken so long to finish but finished it is, the next post will be a quick summary of from when we got home to present day and then....who knows, I have not quite decided on what the future of the OzBus Diaries will hold but I am sure there are still adventures to be had and I plan on having them at some point in the not too distant future....
We had a great Christmas, enjoyed the sunshine, spent time chilling out and generally recharged the batteries ready for what would be the final leg of the trip.
We left Oz in early January and boarded the flight to LA, which is one of the weirdest flights I have ever been on, it was 17 hours long, we took off at 6:50am and landed at 6:30am the same day having crossed the international date line on route, the jet lag was bad to say the least!
We stayed in a motel near Hollywood and took in the sites of LA. We did an open top bus tour, walked down Hollywood boulevard, want to see the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, visited Universal Studios and went to Disney (which was a big disappointment). It was nice to be on "holiday" for a change rather than just backpacking. It was also a little bit of a culture shock after so long in Oz and the food in America left a lot to be desired after the fresh seafood and great restaurants we had left behind in Oz (although I was a fan of the doughnut breakfast!).
After we had sampled the delights of LA it was off to Sin City and after a short flight and cab ride we were checking into Circus Circus on the Las Vegas Strip. We spent a few days eating fried delicacies from various all you can eat buffets, meeting entertaining characters like Prez, our favourite blackjack dealer in Vegas. He taught us the difference between a bitch and a whore, apparently a whore sleeps with everyone, a bitch sleeps with everyone but you :-)
We also took in a show at Ceasers Palace where we saw Bette Middler live which was very entertaining. We saw very tired looking lions on display in the middle of a casino, saw dolphins who were apparently being kept for conservation reasons learning tricks and performing for onlookers and a very cute leopard cub called Java.
We tried to do a day trip out to the Grand Canyon but this got cancelled last minute (after a 6am start) as the other people on the trip had got their dates wrong and would not be in Vegas till the next week. After a few hours back in bed we hit the tables again and lost the remainder of our spare dollars before packing up ready for the next stop, San Francisco!
We arrived in San Fran and checked into a hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. Fresh seafood and good food were once again on the menu and we ate our fill while we were there. We visited Alcatraz and toured the city on Segways (you know, the weird two wheel standy up things that were a big fad years ago) which is a great way to see the city and not have to walk up all the hills. We also made sure we visited the sea lions and ran into an old friend from home while we were there, it really is a small world after all (a ride that was not even open when we went to Disney in LA!)
From San Fran it was on to Seattle to stay with my better half's family for a while. We enjoyed home comforts once more, visited the Space Needle, went on a food and, you guessed it, wine tour and learnt about the history of Seattle.
After Seattle we flew to New York and jumped straight onto a connecting flight to Bermuda (along with one of our bags, the other followed about three days later!) where some old uni friends had moved to a few years previously. This strange little island in the middle of the ocean has some interesting little querks and is well worth a short visit. We toured the 22 sq mile island on a hired scooter, visited historic sites, marvelled and the limestone roofs designed to capture and filter the rainwater (the only source of fresh water on the island), enjoyed the night life and had minor heart attacks at the prices of everything ($7 for a pint of fosters!). We stayed a couple of days longer than expected as a gale force win closed the airport but we then took our penultimate flight to New York for our last stop on the world tour.
In New York we visited the out of town factory shops, wondered through Time Square, went up the Empire State Building, visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, caught up with a friend we had met in New Zealand and visited some spectacular restaurants, including one where I had a burger that was stuffed with ribs! So with full stomachs, a new wardrobe and a tear in our eye we boarded the final flight home.
After 18 months on the road, 23 countries and some of the most amazing experiences it was time to go home, I hope those of you who have stuck with me throughout this story have enjoyed reading about it, I know I have enjoyed writing about it. I am sorry it has taken so long to finish but finished it is, the next post will be a quick summary of from when we got home to present day and then....who knows, I have not quite decided on what the future of the OzBus Diaries will hold but I am sure there are still adventures to be had and I plan on having them at some point in the not too distant future....
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Kiwi Krusades
Next stop on the trip was New Zealand, it had been my job to plan this part of the trip so shockingly enough not much was planned before our arrival! We had immigration issues on the way over with Qantas asking us to do some things that sounded very illegal but we eventually made it across the sea to New Zealand and boarded the Magic Bus (this is a name of a tour company not just a strange turn of phrase).
We spent three weeks touring the country and saw and did a lot of cool things and met some great people along the way, highlights included:
We spent three weeks touring the country and saw and did a lot of cool things and met some great people along the way, highlights included:
- Zorbing in Rotorua
- Black Water Rafting in Waitomo
- Wine tasting (for a change)
- Beer tasting (where we discovered our new American was a huge light weight)
- Traditional Maori cooking and entertainment
- Touring Milford Sound by boat
- Seeing rabbits being sheared for their fur
- Jet boating over rapids
- Sailing on Lake Taupo in a boat that used to belong to Errol Flynn
- Heli rafting (white water rafting where you get a helicopter to the start of the rapids)
- Touring the Lord of the Rings Scenery (more my thing that my better half's)
- Swimming with wild dolphins
- Seeing a real live Kiwi (not a New Zealander, the bird)
- Visting the Ice Bar in Queenstown
Some not so great moment that still made for interesting stories included:
- Not skydiving cause I was to fat :-(
- Having out pillows stolen by the YHA
- Not being able to climb the Hans Joseph Glacier due to bad weather
- The company on the wine tour (the guy had a shaved head and a British Bulldog tattoo all the way down his right arm and a very high pitched brummie accent
- Me not planning very well and us having to pay for a flight to get us back to Auckland to get our flight back to Oz in time
Sydney Take 2
So after 13 weeks on the road we got back to Sydney and managed to get a private room at hostel called the Wooduck Woolloomooloo in Sydney free of charge as long as we took on the job of pancake chefs. The hostel offered a free pancake breakfast to its guests and someone had to cook for the 200 backpackers every day. That someone was destined to be us!
We settled into life in the hostel, I got a second job putting up gazebos to bring some extra cash in and just as I got going with this also landed the job of night manager at the hostel so after doing a couple of back to back day and night shifts I gave up the gazebo gig. We sold the camper van for a profit (even after all the repairs), and while we were there the hostel changed ownership and most of the staff left leaving my better half and I to manage the hostel which came with a free room and a pay packet!
We toured the Hunter Valley wine region, climbed the harbour bridge, took part in hostel pub crawls, acted as surrogate parents for a lot of 18 year old back packers and planned for our upcoming trip to New Zealand.
You would honestly be amazed by some of the questions we fielded, like how do I wash my clothes, what do I do if I get cold at night and what do you mean I have to move out if I don't pay? It was a very interesting experience with the breaking up of over anxious, sexually charged backpacker frolics, overindulging backpackers soiling themselves in reception and the glass door at reception becoming invisible to the drunken eye and the comedy walking into doors that followed!
Our time flew by and soon we were packing up and getting ready to head on to New Zealand as our 12 month visas for Australia were about to run out, the adventure was still not over but it was entering the home stretch...
We settled into life in the hostel, I got a second job putting up gazebos to bring some extra cash in and just as I got going with this also landed the job of night manager at the hostel so after doing a couple of back to back day and night shifts I gave up the gazebo gig. We sold the camper van for a profit (even after all the repairs), and while we were there the hostel changed ownership and most of the staff left leaving my better half and I to manage the hostel which came with a free room and a pay packet!
We toured the Hunter Valley wine region, climbed the harbour bridge, took part in hostel pub crawls, acted as surrogate parents for a lot of 18 year old back packers and planned for our upcoming trip to New Zealand.
You would honestly be amazed by some of the questions we fielded, like how do I wash my clothes, what do I do if I get cold at night and what do you mean I have to move out if I don't pay? It was a very interesting experience with the breaking up of over anxious, sexually charged backpacker frolics, overindulging backpackers soiling themselves in reception and the glass door at reception becoming invisible to the drunken eye and the comedy walking into doors that followed!
Our time flew by and soon we were packing up and getting ready to head on to New Zealand as our 12 month visas for Australia were about to run out, the adventure was still not over but it was entering the home stretch...
Weeks 6-13 of Sircling Australia
It is finally time for to get the travelling part of this blog finished so I can get back to random musing on life the universe and everything.
As my trip around Oz finished a few years back now I am going to wrap this with a summary of the rest of my trip round the costs of Oz then do a quick post on hostel life in Sydney followed by a summary of our trip round NZ and one more on the journey home via the states. Then one final post on returning home to now before I get back to regular blogging about stuff!
So let's get started, when I last posted (September 2008) we had just pulled into Broome, we spent the night checking out the staircase to the moon, a rather cool effect caused by the full moon rising over the sand flats, enjoyed the festival that surrounds this and chilled out in our camp site for a few days. Before hitting the road again and heading down the West Coast we also visited the the Willie Creek Pearl Farm (www.williecreekpearls.com) and enjoyed some freshly shucked oysters straight out the sea.
Now the West Coast is an under visited treasure in my opinion. What it lacks in luxury it makes up for in natural splendour, we spent a couple of weeks making our way down the coast, camping in national parks and of course, snorkelling! The best thing about the West Coast is the Ningaloo Reef. It is easily a match for it's much more famous East Coast cousin but has the advantage of being as little as 50m off shore in some places so no need for 2 day boat trips just to see it.
We went out on glass bottomed boats, drift snorkelled, dodged jellyfish and shared our dinner with a very curious wallaby and her Joey. We saw wild dolphins come right up to the shore at Monkey Mia, visited Sharks Bay and loved every minute of the back to basics tour down the coast. If I could change one thing it would be to find a way to have a fresh water shower along the way. By the time we pulled into Perth after two weeks of snorkelling, camping and washing in slat water my skin felt like it was cracking! The fresh water showers at the hostel were a welcome change!
So now we had made it to Perth and decided it was time for bit of culture in the way of wine tour. We booked an wine cruise up the Swan River followed by a tour round local wineries. The guide took an instant shine to me as I am from the Midlands and he was originally from Derby. We had a great day and our guide made sure we were kept well supplied with wine (especially at one of the wineries that had double booked us and asked him to serve for them - full glass tasting is a dangerous game). We returned to the hostel at the end of day a tad worse for wear with several cases of wine for the rest of the trip.
I was not a huge fan of Perth but did like Fremantle, which is just outside Perth, and we visited the Fremantle prison while there as well. We also went a trip over to Rotnest Island where we tried our hand at cycling and soon decided we were a little bit too out of shape for this and had a strange moment of fear while snorkelling where we were sure something was out there!
From here we headed down to Rockingham where we took a visit to Penguin Island, you can guess what we saw there! We opted for the Penguin only tour, not wanting to pay extra to see the Dolphins as well, turned out to be a good move as when we got off the boat on Penguin Island there was a dolphin playing in the water right by the jetty!
Next came Albany and the Esperance, both nice enough places but not much to report here apart from the fact that Esperance was to be the start of the scariest part of the trip so far.
When we headed off from Esperance we decided to take a short cut that would save us a lot of driving and get us to our next major stop, Adelaide, a lot quicker, cutting out a big chunk of the long flat and uneventful Nularbor Plain, which is huge limestone plain. The short cut involved a few 100 km off roading but the track was well marked out and we felt it would be worth it.
Well we got off to a good start and were making good time, then we hit the first "puddle", which was about half as deep as the car, after narrowly avoiding sinking the car and pulling free we noticed that there were tracks cut in by previous off roaders that missed out these flooded sections of track and having spotted these we were back on track and dodged the waterlogged sections.
It was while driving round one of these waterlogged sections that we came to a cross roads and after much debate turned left, we carried on for about 100km then the track seemed to just end. Having miss placed confidence in the track we assumed it had just been overgrown by the bush blocking our path so put the pedal to the metal and went straight through the bush to be greeted by wide open space and no track. Determined to keep going we drove in a straight line hoping to find the track again but after while realised we were in a strange clearing rather than on a track.
We stopped to think about our next move, noticed a large group of Kangaroos circling us and got a suspicious sinking feeling. This turned out to be the car actually sinking as the clearing was in fact a large marsh or bog and whenever we stopped we began to sink. So it was in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia, with no phone signal, nobody expecting us anywhere for a good week and a large 4x4 sinking in the marsh that I truly believed that this may be the end of it all, it had been a good run but it seemed this was it.
A minute later I mentally slapped myself round the face and heroically decided to send my better half out of the car, into the marsh with the 6ft tall Kangaroos, wearing flip flops for ultimate snake protection, to find the bush we had driven through so we could get back to the track. She found the bush, was not crushed by a Roo and was not bitten by a snake and a few hours later we were back on the right track with only 200km more to go till we reached the road again!
The last 200km were eventful as well, we found a group of people with a large camp fire in the middle of nowhere and considered stopping to stay the night with them until the thought "that's how people die in horror movies" entered our minds. We found a tree covered in shoes and underwear that we still don't really know much about and a Kangaroo jumped over the bonnet while we doing a 110k/h and just missed the windscreen but at some ridiculous time in the morning we made it to a road house, checked into a motel and crashed, thankful to have made it and thankful the worst was behind us....
The next morning, despite concerns from my partner that she was sure the strange mark on the back wheel was something we should look at and that the car looked lopsided I just topped up the air in the tyres, realised we had a flat, changed it and carried on...a few hours later the car started making a horrid noise so in typical man fashion I decided if I took over the driving it would be fine. I chucked it into 4 wheel drive and carried on, the noise got worse...
We pulled into a local town and rocked up to the mechanics, he was on holiday the local Footy team had one the cup and were on tour, he would be back in 3 weeks! So we carried on to the next town. We were about 30km away when the car made a cracking noise, we pulled over to take a look and instantly noticed that both back wheels were at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the car, we would later find out that we had snapped the rear diff and the rear axle while off roading and the rust that had been holding it all in place since it snapped had finally given out.
A local took pity on us an pulled over and arranged for us and the car to be shipped to Minnipa, a very small town with a petrol station, 3 grain silos, a motel and a mechanic. We stayed here for 3 days while the mechanic, who was great, sourced a whole new rear end for us and had it shipped to Minnipa. We became a tourist attraction for the locals, with invites for tea coming regularly as we sat around the mechanics workshop but eventually we were back on the road and raring to go.
Next stop was Adelaide were we stayed with friends from the OzBus, recharged our batteries, went on more wine tours and enjoyed staying in a house with running water and a bathroom that was not shared with 20 backpackers.
The next step on the lap of Oz was a visit to a little town called Ouyen in Victoria to visit some more OzBus friends, before carrying on to Melbourne to meet up with an old school friend of mine. We visited Ramsay Street and went to the Melbourne fair to see the fireworks (which were cancelled due to wind!)
We then got to boat over to Tasmania where it seems all the bends from the rest of Oz are hiding as long straight roads were replaced by winding tracks. We went a brewery and prison tour in and visited Tazmazia (a place with lots of mazes..it was awesome). We stayed on a haunted site where I was convinced in the middle of the night that there was someone/thing trying to steal my beer and would not let me other half move till I was sure the beer was safe, it was an interesting night to say the least!
We finished of the 13 week lap of Oz with a leisurely drive back to Sydney, did some whale watching, and got ready for our return to Sydney where we were hoping to land some work in a hostel for a couple of months to finish off our time in Oz, sell the car and plan the long journey home...
So there it is, it took me a long time but there is a whirlwind version of the 2nd half Sircling Stralia, Sydney take 2, Kiwi Krusades and American Invasion coming soon (and I actually mean it this time, honest!)
As my trip around Oz finished a few years back now I am going to wrap this with a summary of the rest of my trip round the costs of Oz then do a quick post on hostel life in Sydney followed by a summary of our trip round NZ and one more on the journey home via the states. Then one final post on returning home to now before I get back to regular blogging about stuff!
So let's get started, when I last posted (September 2008) we had just pulled into Broome, we spent the night checking out the staircase to the moon, a rather cool effect caused by the full moon rising over the sand flats, enjoyed the festival that surrounds this and chilled out in our camp site for a few days. Before hitting the road again and heading down the West Coast we also visited the the Willie Creek Pearl Farm (www.williecreekpearls.com) and enjoyed some freshly shucked oysters straight out the sea.
Now the West Coast is an under visited treasure in my opinion. What it lacks in luxury it makes up for in natural splendour, we spent a couple of weeks making our way down the coast, camping in national parks and of course, snorkelling! The best thing about the West Coast is the Ningaloo Reef. It is easily a match for it's much more famous East Coast cousin but has the advantage of being as little as 50m off shore in some places so no need for 2 day boat trips just to see it.
We went out on glass bottomed boats, drift snorkelled, dodged jellyfish and shared our dinner with a very curious wallaby and her Joey. We saw wild dolphins come right up to the shore at Monkey Mia, visited Sharks Bay and loved every minute of the back to basics tour down the coast. If I could change one thing it would be to find a way to have a fresh water shower along the way. By the time we pulled into Perth after two weeks of snorkelling, camping and washing in slat water my skin felt like it was cracking! The fresh water showers at the hostel were a welcome change!
So now we had made it to Perth and decided it was time for bit of culture in the way of wine tour. We booked an wine cruise up the Swan River followed by a tour round local wineries. The guide took an instant shine to me as I am from the Midlands and he was originally from Derby. We had a great day and our guide made sure we were kept well supplied with wine (especially at one of the wineries that had double booked us and asked him to serve for them - full glass tasting is a dangerous game). We returned to the hostel at the end of day a tad worse for wear with several cases of wine for the rest of the trip.
I was not a huge fan of Perth but did like Fremantle, which is just outside Perth, and we visited the Fremantle prison while there as well. We also went a trip over to Rotnest Island where we tried our hand at cycling and soon decided we were a little bit too out of shape for this and had a strange moment of fear while snorkelling where we were sure something was out there!
From here we headed down to Rockingham where we took a visit to Penguin Island, you can guess what we saw there! We opted for the Penguin only tour, not wanting to pay extra to see the Dolphins as well, turned out to be a good move as when we got off the boat on Penguin Island there was a dolphin playing in the water right by the jetty!
Next came Albany and the Esperance, both nice enough places but not much to report here apart from the fact that Esperance was to be the start of the scariest part of the trip so far.
When we headed off from Esperance we decided to take a short cut that would save us a lot of driving and get us to our next major stop, Adelaide, a lot quicker, cutting out a big chunk of the long flat and uneventful Nularbor Plain, which is huge limestone plain. The short cut involved a few 100 km off roading but the track was well marked out and we felt it would be worth it.
Well we got off to a good start and were making good time, then we hit the first "puddle", which was about half as deep as the car, after narrowly avoiding sinking the car and pulling free we noticed that there were tracks cut in by previous off roaders that missed out these flooded sections of track and having spotted these we were back on track and dodged the waterlogged sections.
It was while driving round one of these waterlogged sections that we came to a cross roads and after much debate turned left, we carried on for about 100km then the track seemed to just end. Having miss placed confidence in the track we assumed it had just been overgrown by the bush blocking our path so put the pedal to the metal and went straight through the bush to be greeted by wide open space and no track. Determined to keep going we drove in a straight line hoping to find the track again but after while realised we were in a strange clearing rather than on a track.
We stopped to think about our next move, noticed a large group of Kangaroos circling us and got a suspicious sinking feeling. This turned out to be the car actually sinking as the clearing was in fact a large marsh or bog and whenever we stopped we began to sink. So it was in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia, with no phone signal, nobody expecting us anywhere for a good week and a large 4x4 sinking in the marsh that I truly believed that this may be the end of it all, it had been a good run but it seemed this was it.
A minute later I mentally slapped myself round the face and heroically decided to send my better half out of the car, into the marsh with the 6ft tall Kangaroos, wearing flip flops for ultimate snake protection, to find the bush we had driven through so we could get back to the track. She found the bush, was not crushed by a Roo and was not bitten by a snake and a few hours later we were back on the right track with only 200km more to go till we reached the road again!
The last 200km were eventful as well, we found a group of people with a large camp fire in the middle of nowhere and considered stopping to stay the night with them until the thought "that's how people die in horror movies" entered our minds. We found a tree covered in shoes and underwear that we still don't really know much about and a Kangaroo jumped over the bonnet while we doing a 110k/h and just missed the windscreen but at some ridiculous time in the morning we made it to a road house, checked into a motel and crashed, thankful to have made it and thankful the worst was behind us....
The next morning, despite concerns from my partner that she was sure the strange mark on the back wheel was something we should look at and that the car looked lopsided I just topped up the air in the tyres, realised we had a flat, changed it and carried on...a few hours later the car started making a horrid noise so in typical man fashion I decided if I took over the driving it would be fine. I chucked it into 4 wheel drive and carried on, the noise got worse...
We pulled into a local town and rocked up to the mechanics, he was on holiday the local Footy team had one the cup and were on tour, he would be back in 3 weeks! So we carried on to the next town. We were about 30km away when the car made a cracking noise, we pulled over to take a look and instantly noticed that both back wheels were at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the car, we would later find out that we had snapped the rear diff and the rear axle while off roading and the rust that had been holding it all in place since it snapped had finally given out.
A local took pity on us an pulled over and arranged for us and the car to be shipped to Minnipa, a very small town with a petrol station, 3 grain silos, a motel and a mechanic. We stayed here for 3 days while the mechanic, who was great, sourced a whole new rear end for us and had it shipped to Minnipa. We became a tourist attraction for the locals, with invites for tea coming regularly as we sat around the mechanics workshop but eventually we were back on the road and raring to go.
Next stop was Adelaide were we stayed with friends from the OzBus, recharged our batteries, went on more wine tours and enjoyed staying in a house with running water and a bathroom that was not shared with 20 backpackers.
The next step on the lap of Oz was a visit to a little town called Ouyen in Victoria to visit some more OzBus friends, before carrying on to Melbourne to meet up with an old school friend of mine. We visited Ramsay Street and went to the Melbourne fair to see the fireworks (which were cancelled due to wind!)
We then got to boat over to Tasmania where it seems all the bends from the rest of Oz are hiding as long straight roads were replaced by winding tracks. We went a brewery and prison tour in and visited Tazmazia (a place with lots of mazes..it was awesome). We stayed on a haunted site where I was convinced in the middle of the night that there was someone/thing trying to steal my beer and would not let me other half move till I was sure the beer was safe, it was an interesting night to say the least!
We finished of the 13 week lap of Oz with a leisurely drive back to Sydney, did some whale watching, and got ready for our return to Sydney where we were hoping to land some work in a hostel for a couple of months to finish off our time in Oz, sell the car and plan the long journey home...
So there it is, it took me a long time but there is a whirlwind version of the 2nd half Sircling Stralia, Sydney take 2, Kiwi Krusades and American Invasion coming soon (and I actually mean it this time, honest!)
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Very slow leaf turning process...
It seems I was a tad ambitious at the end of March when I promised the imminent completion of my travelling saga, I have not given up on finishing my story and then getting back to regular blogging but life has been busy recently so if you have enough patience and want to know how the trip ended just keep popping back every now and again and one day it will all be here for your reading pleasure...
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Turning over a new leaf
So as those of you who still visit this site will know it has become more of a memorial to my travels than anything else but still seems to function as a reference for many of you who are looking to find out more about the infamous OzBus and the experiences of that first group of nutters who embarked on the trip.
Well that is all about to change. Over the next couple of weeks the final chapters of my travels will appear (finally) and a new and improved blog will begin to emerge.
I am no longer the care free traveller who toured the globe and wrote most of the content you can find here or the angst ridden individual who began the project with his daily musings on life, the universe and everything but that is no reason to stop sharing my unique and often random perception of life with the few people who chance across this site.
Once the travel notes are up to date I will begin to blog on the everyday experiences of life as a working Londoner, this content will range from musings on the world of PR and social media (my day job) through to the things that happen to me every day that I feel like sharing with the world. I am sure there will still be a few travel tales as well but the trips will be a week or so long rather than 18 months!
Expect to see a blow by blow account of the agony that will be the London Marathon including detailed descriptions of the damage I will inevitably do to myself and other amusing stories. I have a trip to Dubai coming up in June and will be sure to bore you all with the vast amount of relaxing and sunbathing I plan to do.
Hopefully some of you will find my tales amusing and I will bring a smile to a few faces over the coming months, then it will all be worth it!
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
London Marathon 2010
I am still a rubbish blogger as I have not got round to updating all the bits I need to but in the mean time...I have signed up to run the London Marathon in 2010 for the MS Society so if you feel inclined to donate to a good cause please use the widget on the site.
Thanks.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
I am the worst blogger ever - sorry!
To the very limited number of you who still visit this blog I extend me most sincere apologies, I have let this project get away from me and have been very lax but I can promise you all a re-vamp of the blog and the completion of my travellers tale in the not too distant future.
In a weeks time I will be moving for the 4th time in 7 months and with the move will come the creation of a work space for me to carry on my writing so hopefully, unless something else comes up to take up my free time new entries will be on the way soon!
Thanks for your patience and see you all soon!
Thursday, 7 May 2009
COMING SOON!!!
Weeks 6-13 of Sircling Australia
I did finish the trip but not the blog posts which was very irresponsible of me and I plan to write this wrong in the very near future!
Sydney - Take 2
After circumnavigating Oz I returned to Sydney where I somehow ended up managing a backpacker hostel in Woolloomooloo. A short story summing up the trials, tribulations and downright hilarious moments from my two month stint as a hostel worker is on its way over the coming weeks.
Kiwi Krusades
After I had used up every last bit of my working visa and had to leave the wonderful world of Oz I hit the travelling trail again aboard the Magic Bus in New Zealand, tales of my 3 week whistle-stop tour of NZ coming soon.
American Invasion
After a brief return to Oz for Christmas I began the journey home but if for one second you think I just hopped on a plane to the UK you are sorely mistaken and have obviously not been reading this blog for long, I hit LA, Vega, San Fran, Seattle, Bermuda (not technically in the US but go with it this time ok?) and finally NYC. The story of the final leg of what turned out to be an 18 month adventure will be coming to a computer screen near you this summer.
And that as they say is that, not to spoil the ending for anyone but I am now back in the UK, back at my old job in PR with the agency I was with before I left and getting use to life in one place...
...of course this in no ways means my travels are over, I still have a lot of Europe to visit and now it is close enough to visit got a long weekend so watch this space and who know what you will see!
I did finish the trip but not the blog posts which was very irresponsible of me and I plan to write this wrong in the very near future!
Sydney - Take 2
After circumnavigating Oz I returned to Sydney where I somehow ended up managing a backpacker hostel in Woolloomooloo. A short story summing up the trials, tribulations and downright hilarious moments from my two month stint as a hostel worker is on its way over the coming weeks.
Kiwi Krusades
After I had used up every last bit of my working visa and had to leave the wonderful world of Oz I hit the travelling trail again aboard the Magic Bus in New Zealand, tales of my 3 week whistle-stop tour of NZ coming soon.
American Invasion
After a brief return to Oz for Christmas I began the journey home but if for one second you think I just hopped on a plane to the UK you are sorely mistaken and have obviously not been reading this blog for long, I hit LA, Vega, San Fran, Seattle, Bermuda (not technically in the US but go with it this time ok?) and finally NYC. The story of the final leg of what turned out to be an 18 month adventure will be coming to a computer screen near you this summer.
And that as they say is that, not to spoil the ending for anyone but I am now back in the UK, back at my old job in PR with the agency I was with before I left and getting use to life in one place...
...of course this in no ways means my travels are over, I still have a lot of Europe to visit and now it is close enough to visit got a long weekend so watch this space and who know what you will see!
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Sircling Stralia = Week 5
States Visited – 3
Kilometres Travelled – 3,237 (plus 120km without the car – all will be explained below!)
As you can already see from the amount of km travelled this was a heavy driving week but it was also the week where if it could go wrong it did!
It did not start off that way though, we began by driving over 1,000km from Mt Isa to Daly Waters, an obscure Northern Territory town that is basically just a pub, but a great one! We had been here before when we came though the centre of Oz on the OzBus so were keen to come back for the Beef and Barra on the BBQ and relive the memories of the last visit, after this we headed on to our next stop which was to be Timber Creek. This had been mentioned in one of our guide books and we decided it would be a good place to stay the night. When we got there we decided this was not the case, it was another middle of nowhere place and we decided to keep going.
About 60km up the road from here, essentially in the middle of nowhere the car decides it has had enough of this and stops, dead, the whole instrument panel shuts down and just as we pull off the road to see what is going on the engine cuts our to. The sun is beginning to set and the the very kind people who stopped to check we were ok as soon as we stopped were told we would be fine, “I have a jump starter, I am sure I can get it going” I had foolishly said! After another half an hour we manage to hitch a ride with some fellow backpackers in a VW Combi and make it the 60km back to the Turkey Creek Roadhouse. Being in the middle of nowhere also means your mobile does not work but using the roadhouses payphone I called up 24/7 Roadservices to come to my rescue! I pay my membership fees so they should come to my assistance right, the name 24/7 certainly implies this and the fact they are “Australia Wide” means I will be fine…ha ha ha ha!
I was told I was too far from anywhere for them to do anything tonight and that as I was 60km away from the nearest civilisation that the tow back would cost me an arm and a leg and several other body parts! Left with no assistance we had to stay the night at the fully booked out roadhouse in a staff cabin (charged at full rates of course!) and then see the mechanic in the morning when he opened up shop.
To say the mechanic in Timber Creek is not the life and soul of the party is an understatement in the extreme, after explaining what had happened and saying that I thought the battery might be buggered (bearing in mind I have the mechanical knowledge of a gerbil on vallium) he simply sells me a battery for an exorbitant fee and sets me on my way! Another 60km hitchhike with a very nice family who were the only ones out of about 8 cars to stop got us and our new battery back to the car.
With the new battery in we were back in business and made it to the Kunurra, a further couple of hundred kilometres along the road. We got here with no problems, checked in to the YHA, which was lovely and breathed a huge sigh of relief, we were out of the woods…can you say famous last words?
That evening we went on a sunset BBQ cruise on the river, saw the impressive local dam, met some very interesting people and had a great evening, The next morning we packed up and headed out to begin our run to Broome, a leisurely two day drive with a few stop offs here and there, at least that was the plan! This time we were only 6km out of town by the time the car gave up and 24/7 Roadservices came through, the tow truck got to us within the hour and we were soon back in Kunurra which thankfully has much more competent mechanics. Turns out the alternator was shot and it would take a couple of days to fly one in so we were not going anywhere just yet!
We had to move to another backpackers for one night as ours was full but it was a little run down so we moved back for our third night and met up with a Canadian girl who needed a ride to Broome so we obliged, for a share of petrol of course!
By the time we left this little town we were ready to reach Broome as quickly as possible and once again covered the 1000+km in a day to pull in to Broome on the last day of week 5, we dropped out hitchhiker at a hostel in town and headed for Cable Beach Caravan Park. The highly eventful week ended with a mini reunion as one of our fellow OzBuser’s is working in Broome at the moment so we passed away the evening with cocktails, tapas and pleasant conversation…
Kilometres Travelled – 3,237 (plus 120km without the car – all will be explained below!)
As you can already see from the amount of km travelled this was a heavy driving week but it was also the week where if it could go wrong it did!
It did not start off that way though, we began by driving over 1,000km from Mt Isa to Daly Waters, an obscure Northern Territory town that is basically just a pub, but a great one! We had been here before when we came though the centre of Oz on the OzBus so were keen to come back for the Beef and Barra on the BBQ and relive the memories of the last visit, after this we headed on to our next stop which was to be Timber Creek. This had been mentioned in one of our guide books and we decided it would be a good place to stay the night. When we got there we decided this was not the case, it was another middle of nowhere place and we decided to keep going.
About 60km up the road from here, essentially in the middle of nowhere the car decides it has had enough of this and stops, dead, the whole instrument panel shuts down and just as we pull off the road to see what is going on the engine cuts our to. The sun is beginning to set and the the very kind people who stopped to check we were ok as soon as we stopped were told we would be fine, “I have a jump starter, I am sure I can get it going” I had foolishly said! After another half an hour we manage to hitch a ride with some fellow backpackers in a VW Combi and make it the 60km back to the Turkey Creek Roadhouse. Being in the middle of nowhere also means your mobile does not work but using the roadhouses payphone I called up 24/7 Roadservices to come to my rescue! I pay my membership fees so they should come to my assistance right, the name 24/7 certainly implies this and the fact they are “Australia Wide” means I will be fine…ha ha ha ha!
I was told I was too far from anywhere for them to do anything tonight and that as I was 60km away from the nearest civilisation that the tow back would cost me an arm and a leg and several other body parts! Left with no assistance we had to stay the night at the fully booked out roadhouse in a staff cabin (charged at full rates of course!) and then see the mechanic in the morning when he opened up shop.
To say the mechanic in Timber Creek is not the life and soul of the party is an understatement in the extreme, after explaining what had happened and saying that I thought the battery might be buggered (bearing in mind I have the mechanical knowledge of a gerbil on vallium) he simply sells me a battery for an exorbitant fee and sets me on my way! Another 60km hitchhike with a very nice family who were the only ones out of about 8 cars to stop got us and our new battery back to the car.
With the new battery in we were back in business and made it to the Kunurra, a further couple of hundred kilometres along the road. We got here with no problems, checked in to the YHA, which was lovely and breathed a huge sigh of relief, we were out of the woods…can you say famous last words?
That evening we went on a sunset BBQ cruise on the river, saw the impressive local dam, met some very interesting people and had a great evening, The next morning we packed up and headed out to begin our run to Broome, a leisurely two day drive with a few stop offs here and there, at least that was the plan! This time we were only 6km out of town by the time the car gave up and 24/7 Roadservices came through, the tow truck got to us within the hour and we were soon back in Kunurra which thankfully has much more competent mechanics. Turns out the alternator was shot and it would take a couple of days to fly one in so we were not going anywhere just yet!
We had to move to another backpackers for one night as ours was full but it was a little run down so we moved back for our third night and met up with a Canadian girl who needed a ride to Broome so we obliged, for a share of petrol of course!
By the time we left this little town we were ready to reach Broome as quickly as possible and once again covered the 1000+km in a day to pull in to Broome on the last day of week 5, we dropped out hitchhiker at a hostel in town and headed for Cable Beach Caravan Park. The highly eventful week ended with a mini reunion as one of our fellow OzBuser’s is working in Broome at the moment so we passed away the evening with cocktails, tapas and pleasant conversation…
Sircling Stralia - Week 4
Kilometres travelled – 1702
States visited – 1
Week 4 begins with out return from the SV Whitehaven to solid ground and after pulling our bags out of storage is it was time to hit the road again and head North once more. After discussing it with several people we had decided to give Townsville a miss and head straight to Magnetic Island, a lovely little spot just off the coast. We booked into a hostel called Bungalow Bay and left the car on the mainland.
When we got to the hostel it was a lovely little place, the owners have combined a wildlife sanctuary with a hostel and done it very well. From the wallabies that run around outside the cabins, the possums who come to the bar in the hope of scrounging food to the wildlife park with Koalas, crocs and parrots it was great. We even got a photo with a Koala. The picture I had done showed a very alert slightly shocked looking Koala in my arms. Turns out he was looking shocked as he had just pissed himself on my shirt but hey sometimes you have to go to extremes to get a good photo! Also turns out the Koala was called Dexter and is on Facebook, he is now one of my friends, no really, look up Dexter Koala and you will find him.
Baby Echidnas, snakes, parrots eating seeds out of your mouth, bush walks and gorgeous weather finished off our time on the island and we headed back to the mainland in high spirits and headed towards Cairns, our last stop on the East coast.
Cairns was more of a practical stop than holiday stop for us, there is heaps to do here but we needed to repack the car, get it cleaned, serviced etc. get all our washing done, etc, etc so we spent a couple of days doing this, hitting the shops and so on and prepared for the long hard drive inland to get to Mt Isa in time for the annual rodeo, in its 50th year in 2008 it is in the biggest rodeo in the Southern Hemisphere.
The trip began well, we found a rout from Cairns that by using a 300km long dirt road we could get there without doubling back on ourselves. So we headed off with the plan being to stop at the top of this track for the night and then drive it the next day, sometimes it is a good idea to stick to the plan!
We took one look at the roadhouse/caravan park we had planned to stay in and figured we were better to keep going, this would mean driving about 200km in the dark but we decided to give it a go! Turns out the dark was not the problem, it was around sunset that tragedy would strike! We saw the first four and dodged them easily but the fifth kangaroo to jump out on us was not so lucky and despite my claims that he might be ok, honest, I think he is hopping in a better place now. After this we checked the car over and figured our roo bar had done its job and that we were good to carry on. We made it to the end of the dirt road without any more animals meeting there end despite a few close calls and pulled in to a little town called Hughenden. Here we found a motel for the night and discovered how lucky we had been. The dirt road was pretty much straight the whole way but turns out our roo bar was bent in to the point where left and right turns were not really and option! If there had been a couple more bends our tyre would undoubtedly blown out in the middle of nowhere. A couple of chains and a tree later we had pulled the roo bar out and were back on route!
We pulled in to Isa and were instantly relieved that we had planned ahead and booked our campsite 6 weeks in advance, the whole town was full! We kicked off with a tour of the local lead mine, had a mooch round the shops then went to the opening parade of the rodeo. It was great, local tractors and trucks done up to make the floats and a really great atmosphere, reminded me a lot of a local St Patrick’s Day parade I saw on a quick trip to Ireland earlier this year and I loved it. The rodeo was great, bare back horse riding, bull riding, wild horse races, barrel racing, beer, fast food and heaps of cowboys and we have a great few days here to finish off week 4.
States visited – 1
Week 4 begins with out return from the SV Whitehaven to solid ground and after pulling our bags out of storage is it was time to hit the road again and head North once more. After discussing it with several people we had decided to give Townsville a miss and head straight to Magnetic Island, a lovely little spot just off the coast. We booked into a hostel called Bungalow Bay and left the car on the mainland.
When we got to the hostel it was a lovely little place, the owners have combined a wildlife sanctuary with a hostel and done it very well. From the wallabies that run around outside the cabins, the possums who come to the bar in the hope of scrounging food to the wildlife park with Koalas, crocs and parrots it was great. We even got a photo with a Koala. The picture I had done showed a very alert slightly shocked looking Koala in my arms. Turns out he was looking shocked as he had just pissed himself on my shirt but hey sometimes you have to go to extremes to get a good photo! Also turns out the Koala was called Dexter and is on Facebook, he is now one of my friends, no really, look up Dexter Koala and you will find him.
Baby Echidnas, snakes, parrots eating seeds out of your mouth, bush walks and gorgeous weather finished off our time on the island and we headed back to the mainland in high spirits and headed towards Cairns, our last stop on the East coast.
Cairns was more of a practical stop than holiday stop for us, there is heaps to do here but we needed to repack the car, get it cleaned, serviced etc. get all our washing done, etc, etc so we spent a couple of days doing this, hitting the shops and so on and prepared for the long hard drive inland to get to Mt Isa in time for the annual rodeo, in its 50th year in 2008 it is in the biggest rodeo in the Southern Hemisphere.
The trip began well, we found a rout from Cairns that by using a 300km long dirt road we could get there without doubling back on ourselves. So we headed off with the plan being to stop at the top of this track for the night and then drive it the next day, sometimes it is a good idea to stick to the plan!
We took one look at the roadhouse/caravan park we had planned to stay in and figured we were better to keep going, this would mean driving about 200km in the dark but we decided to give it a go! Turns out the dark was not the problem, it was around sunset that tragedy would strike! We saw the first four and dodged them easily but the fifth kangaroo to jump out on us was not so lucky and despite my claims that he might be ok, honest, I think he is hopping in a better place now. After this we checked the car over and figured our roo bar had done its job and that we were good to carry on. We made it to the end of the dirt road without any more animals meeting there end despite a few close calls and pulled in to a little town called Hughenden. Here we found a motel for the night and discovered how lucky we had been. The dirt road was pretty much straight the whole way but turns out our roo bar was bent in to the point where left and right turns were not really and option! If there had been a couple more bends our tyre would undoubtedly blown out in the middle of nowhere. A couple of chains and a tree later we had pulled the roo bar out and were back on route!
We pulled in to Isa and were instantly relieved that we had planned ahead and booked our campsite 6 weeks in advance, the whole town was full! We kicked off with a tour of the local lead mine, had a mooch round the shops then went to the opening parade of the rodeo. It was great, local tractors and trucks done up to make the floats and a really great atmosphere, reminded me a lot of a local St Patrick’s Day parade I saw on a quick trip to Ireland earlier this year and I loved it. The rodeo was great, bare back horse riding, bull riding, wild horse races, barrel racing, beer, fast food and heaps of cowboys and we have a great few days here to finish off week 4.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Sircling Stralia - Week 3
Kilometres Travelled - 939
States Visited – 1
Week 3 began on the beach; quite literally, we woke up to the sounds of the ocean on the other side of the dunes we were camped behind on Fraser Island. We packed up our gear and fired up the 4x4, we were off to see the island!
We cruised along the beach, saw the Mohino Wreck rusting on the shore line, visited Indian Head, one of the three volcanic cores that are responsible for catching the sand that forms the island, saw wild dingoes and had a couple of hairy moments when we thought the car was stuck or broken but we made it through the day. We visited the stunning Lake McKenzie, reminiscent of the lake from The Beach but with much more tourists! It was a lovely sight but was slightly ruined by all the groups of people sat around getting stinking drunk and playing Frisbee and for once this group had nothing to do with me!
We camped on the beach again, about 1km from one of the resorts on the island and headed to the bar for a few beers, this was all well and good till we realised that walking back to the van in the pitch black with the threat of wild dingoes jumping us forefront in our minds was not as much fun as you would think! We made it back without incident and after one more night under the stars headed to the ferry back to the mainland and we were soon on our way to Rockhampton, the cattle capital of Australia.
In Rockhampton we went out for a day with Capricorn Dave, I can highly recommend the Beef and Reef Tour he does to anyone heading this way. As it was quiet season it turned out that me and my girlfriend were the only people on the tour so we got a personalised day out! We toured round in Capricorn Dave’s van, saw wild snakes, echidnas (which apparently is very rare), heaps of wild roos, had a huntsman spider put on our faces for photos, played with scorpions and much more! This also included doing the Ant Dance, which was featured on Jackass. You have to stand on an ant’s nest and see how long you can takes the ants’ biting your bare feet then dance around like a loony to get rid of them! Steve’o lasted 7 seconds, I lasted at least 13 but ony because my girlfriend took so long to take a picture! We finished off the day with dinner at the Ascot Stone Grill where your raw steak is served on hot stone and you cook it yourself as you go.
After Rockhampton it was time for a quick inland detour. We headed through winding hilly roads to Eungella National Park where friends had told us we were pretty much guaranteed to see the Duckbilled Platypus in the wild and we were not disappointed! We got there just before dusk and headed down to the river where we saw several of this undeniable odd egg laying mammal swimming around before bed time. We stayed at a caravan park with an amazing view of the park and left here very pleased that we had gone the extra distance.
The final stop of the week was Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands, a gorgeous place but, as we were about to find out a frustrating one as well! As it was not high tourist season we had planned to show up and grab a last minute deal to sail the Whitsundays for a couple of days on one of the many boat trips. We got in to town, found a hostel and headed to the travel desk. The very nice man behind the counter told us about the various boats and one took our fancy. We booked on and headed off to run some errands and then have a few beers and hit the hay before our planned departure the next morning.
After we had run our errands we returned to the room to drop some stuff off before hitting the bar and then the trouble began! There was a note asking us to come to reception about our trip. This lead to us finding out the boat we had booked on was cancelled and we would have to wait in Airlie Beach a few days or pick another one. We eventually after much debate chose one that was not quite as suited to what we wanted as the first but still looked good. Plus it was quite a bit cheaper. At this point we were still happy enough so we went ahead and were told that the tour desk could not refund us but that the Oz Adventure Sailing, 5 mins walk down the road would give us back the difference when we checked in.
We headed down there and when we went to confirm they offered us the refund, but it did not quite add up, somehow the price had gone up by $40. Normally we might have let this go but these guys had already got our hackles up so after 4 trips back and forth between tour desk and sailing company, several phone calls and about 3 hours we got our $40 back and were booked on the trip leaving the next day. If you are heading to the Whitsundays I recommend booking your boat in advance and if possible not using Oz Adventure Sailing!
The dramas of the day before aside we boarded the boat and had a great two nights on board the SV Whitehaven. The people were fun, the weather was gorgeous, the snorkelling was amazing! We saw a whale just after she had given birth nudging her newborn to make him breath. Turtles, Reef Sharks, Rays and tropical fish filled out vision as we snorkelled and Whitehaven Beach was a rare treat with its white sand and clear waters. The sand is so fine you can even use it clean your gold and silver by rubbing it on your jewellery.
As week three came to a close we went to sleep on the SV Whitehaven with the sky so clear you could see the Milky Way and shooting stars streaked the sky! With the gentle rocking of the boat easing us off to the land of dreams we fell asleep with a slight feeling of sadness as tomorrow it would be back to solid ground and time to get behind the steering wheel again. The Whitsundays had been amazing and is definitely somewhere I will be visiting again someday…
States Visited – 1
Week 3 began on the beach; quite literally, we woke up to the sounds of the ocean on the other side of the dunes we were camped behind on Fraser Island. We packed up our gear and fired up the 4x4, we were off to see the island!
We cruised along the beach, saw the Mohino Wreck rusting on the shore line, visited Indian Head, one of the three volcanic cores that are responsible for catching the sand that forms the island, saw wild dingoes and had a couple of hairy moments when we thought the car was stuck or broken but we made it through the day. We visited the stunning Lake McKenzie, reminiscent of the lake from The Beach but with much more tourists! It was a lovely sight but was slightly ruined by all the groups of people sat around getting stinking drunk and playing Frisbee and for once this group had nothing to do with me!
We camped on the beach again, about 1km from one of the resorts on the island and headed to the bar for a few beers, this was all well and good till we realised that walking back to the van in the pitch black with the threat of wild dingoes jumping us forefront in our minds was not as much fun as you would think! We made it back without incident and after one more night under the stars headed to the ferry back to the mainland and we were soon on our way to Rockhampton, the cattle capital of Australia.
In Rockhampton we went out for a day with Capricorn Dave, I can highly recommend the Beef and Reef Tour he does to anyone heading this way. As it was quiet season it turned out that me and my girlfriend were the only people on the tour so we got a personalised day out! We toured round in Capricorn Dave’s van, saw wild snakes, echidnas (which apparently is very rare), heaps of wild roos, had a huntsman spider put on our faces for photos, played with scorpions and much more! This also included doing the Ant Dance, which was featured on Jackass. You have to stand on an ant’s nest and see how long you can takes the ants’ biting your bare feet then dance around like a loony to get rid of them! Steve’o lasted 7 seconds, I lasted at least 13 but ony because my girlfriend took so long to take a picture! We finished off the day with dinner at the Ascot Stone Grill where your raw steak is served on hot stone and you cook it yourself as you go.
After Rockhampton it was time for a quick inland detour. We headed through winding hilly roads to Eungella National Park where friends had told us we were pretty much guaranteed to see the Duckbilled Platypus in the wild and we were not disappointed! We got there just before dusk and headed down to the river where we saw several of this undeniable odd egg laying mammal swimming around before bed time. We stayed at a caravan park with an amazing view of the park and left here very pleased that we had gone the extra distance.
The final stop of the week was Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands, a gorgeous place but, as we were about to find out a frustrating one as well! As it was not high tourist season we had planned to show up and grab a last minute deal to sail the Whitsundays for a couple of days on one of the many boat trips. We got in to town, found a hostel and headed to the travel desk. The very nice man behind the counter told us about the various boats and one took our fancy. We booked on and headed off to run some errands and then have a few beers and hit the hay before our planned departure the next morning.
After we had run our errands we returned to the room to drop some stuff off before hitting the bar and then the trouble began! There was a note asking us to come to reception about our trip. This lead to us finding out the boat we had booked on was cancelled and we would have to wait in Airlie Beach a few days or pick another one. We eventually after much debate chose one that was not quite as suited to what we wanted as the first but still looked good. Plus it was quite a bit cheaper. At this point we were still happy enough so we went ahead and were told that the tour desk could not refund us but that the Oz Adventure Sailing, 5 mins walk down the road would give us back the difference when we checked in.
We headed down there and when we went to confirm they offered us the refund, but it did not quite add up, somehow the price had gone up by $40. Normally we might have let this go but these guys had already got our hackles up so after 4 trips back and forth between tour desk and sailing company, several phone calls and about 3 hours we got our $40 back and were booked on the trip leaving the next day. If you are heading to the Whitsundays I recommend booking your boat in advance and if possible not using Oz Adventure Sailing!
The dramas of the day before aside we boarded the boat and had a great two nights on board the SV Whitehaven. The people were fun, the weather was gorgeous, the snorkelling was amazing! We saw a whale just after she had given birth nudging her newborn to make him breath. Turtles, Reef Sharks, Rays and tropical fish filled out vision as we snorkelled and Whitehaven Beach was a rare treat with its white sand and clear waters. The sand is so fine you can even use it clean your gold and silver by rubbing it on your jewellery.
As week three came to a close we went to sleep on the SV Whitehaven with the sky so clear you could see the Milky Way and shooting stars streaked the sky! With the gentle rocking of the boat easing us off to the land of dreams we fell asleep with a slight feeling of sadness as tomorrow it would be back to solid ground and time to get behind the steering wheel again. The Whitsundays had been amazing and is definitely somewhere I will be visiting again someday…
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Sircling Stralia – Week 2
Kilometres Travelled – 731
States Visited – 1
From Surfers Paradise it was on to Brisbane where we had planned to catch up with an OzBus friend who has settled here but as she was out of the country tending to a family emergency we were left to our own devices. We stayed at a little hostel called Chill Backpackers and apart from a lack of sound proofing and mildly disturbing unisex bathrooms it was a nice place.
We visited the Picasso exhibition, walked along the river and enjoyed our stay in this thriving city, we caught up on our shopping, visited the botanic gardens, checked emails, ate, drank and were generally merry. When we had finished our time here we headed out to Beerwah, home of Steve Iriwn’s Australia Zoo, a place I was looking forward to and that my girlfriend was overly excited about from the day we left Sydney!
The day began with rain, never a good thing, and as we were camping, this meant a wagon packed with damp gear but we tried to keep the spirits high. By the time we had grabbed some breakfast the rain had given in and the sun shone for the rest of the day. To say that Australia Zoo was a disappointment is about the nicest I can be about it. The shows were not well done, the commercialism of the place makes you feel dirty and the shameless uses of Steve Irwin’s name and his kids to make money is, in my opinion sickening. I expected more from this famous Zoo and left with a definite feeling of having missed something that was once great but has now fallen by the wayside.
After Beerwah we visited Noosa, stopping off at the Giant Pineapple on the way, and went for a long walk round Noosa Heads which has some amazing vistas. After this we headed to Rainbow Beach where we hoped to head over to Fraser Island for a couple of nights and really put our 4x4 through its paces. When we reached Rainbow Beach on the Tuesday and were met with rain and lots of it. After checking the weather we discovered that the rain was here to stay with no sign of lifting before Friday.
As we have our own wheels and a flexible itinerary we decided to delay our trip to Fraser for a few days and headed to Bundaberg to see the rum brewery there, then back down to Hervey Bay to wait for the weather to break. On the Thursday we were in Hervey Bay and decided to walk up to the shark museum run by a local shark hunter as it looked very interesting. The museum was great but we decided to walk there and underestimated how far it was. As the rain was still constant by the time we got there we were drenched to the skin but managed to keep our spirits up. We finished off our rainy day in Hervey with a trip to the cinema to see The Dark Night and went to bed hoping that the rain would indeed have stopped for our planned trip to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and where 4x4 is the only way to travel as there are no roads.
The sun did shine on us on the Friday and we visited Fraser finishing off week two camping under the stars behind the sand dunes in a place that strangely reminds me of Back to the Future 2, where we’re going we don’t need roads…(but they would have helped as the bumpy off road tracks and poor packing caused a few breakages and rattled our bones more than a little)
States Visited – 1
From Surfers Paradise it was on to Brisbane where we had planned to catch up with an OzBus friend who has settled here but as she was out of the country tending to a family emergency we were left to our own devices. We stayed at a little hostel called Chill Backpackers and apart from a lack of sound proofing and mildly disturbing unisex bathrooms it was a nice place.
We visited the Picasso exhibition, walked along the river and enjoyed our stay in this thriving city, we caught up on our shopping, visited the botanic gardens, checked emails, ate, drank and were generally merry. When we had finished our time here we headed out to Beerwah, home of Steve Iriwn’s Australia Zoo, a place I was looking forward to and that my girlfriend was overly excited about from the day we left Sydney!
The day began with rain, never a good thing, and as we were camping, this meant a wagon packed with damp gear but we tried to keep the spirits high. By the time we had grabbed some breakfast the rain had given in and the sun shone for the rest of the day. To say that Australia Zoo was a disappointment is about the nicest I can be about it. The shows were not well done, the commercialism of the place makes you feel dirty and the shameless uses of Steve Irwin’s name and his kids to make money is, in my opinion sickening. I expected more from this famous Zoo and left with a definite feeling of having missed something that was once great but has now fallen by the wayside.
After Beerwah we visited Noosa, stopping off at the Giant Pineapple on the way, and went for a long walk round Noosa Heads which has some amazing vistas. After this we headed to Rainbow Beach where we hoped to head over to Fraser Island for a couple of nights and really put our 4x4 through its paces. When we reached Rainbow Beach on the Tuesday and were met with rain and lots of it. After checking the weather we discovered that the rain was here to stay with no sign of lifting before Friday.
As we have our own wheels and a flexible itinerary we decided to delay our trip to Fraser for a few days and headed to Bundaberg to see the rum brewery there, then back down to Hervey Bay to wait for the weather to break. On the Thursday we were in Hervey Bay and decided to walk up to the shark museum run by a local shark hunter as it looked very interesting. The museum was great but we decided to walk there and underestimated how far it was. As the rain was still constant by the time we got there we were drenched to the skin but managed to keep our spirits up. We finished off our rainy day in Hervey with a trip to the cinema to see The Dark Night and went to bed hoping that the rain would indeed have stopped for our planned trip to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and where 4x4 is the only way to travel as there are no roads.
The sun did shine on us on the Friday and we visited Fraser finishing off week two camping under the stars behind the sand dunes in a place that strangely reminds me of Back to the Future 2, where we’re going we don’t need roads…(but they would have helped as the bumpy off road tracks and poor packing caused a few breakages and rattled our bones more than a little)
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Quick Apology...
Sorry to anyone who has been checking for updates on the Sircling Stralia trip. While I once cursed the long driving days on the OzBus it turns out without them it is harder to keep up with my blog writing.
I have added more photos to the album on the right and promise to update you all on the trip as soon as it slows down a little...
I have added more photos to the album on the right and promise to update you all on the trip as soon as it slows down a little...
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Sircling Stralia – Week 1
Kilometres Travelled – 1204
States Visited – 2
Getting off the starters blocks is often the hardest thing to do and the beginning of our lap of Australia was to be no exception. A combination of a heavy last night, Foxtel being the most annoying company in the world, a flat inspection and it taking a lot longer to pack the wagon than anticipated meant our planned mid morning departure was more of an early afternoon one but we were at least underway!
We decided to miss out a planned trip to Palm Beach to save a little time and headed straight to Newcastle. Here we found ourselves pulling in to the middle of a giant World Youth Day event with hundreds of people marching down the coast, there were even a few nuns and monks hanging around when we got there. It was an interesting diversion and helped to ease away some of the stress of the day.
Next we headed on to Bonny Hills, our planned stop for the first night. Unfortunately by the time we got there the reception of the campsite was closed, the toilets and showers were locked up and we were out of luck! We decided to head on to Port Macquarie and see if we could find anywhere else to lay our heads for the night.
Unfortunately by the time we got there we had just about enough time to grab a bite to eat, there was no cheap accommodation to be had and we were too tired to keep going. So we took full advantage of our Wagon on the very first night! We found a nice little parking space by the beach drew the curtains and went to sleep, not the best first day but we were well and truly on our way.
The next morning we drew back the curtains to be greeted by warm sunshine and drove out to the lighthouse at Tracking Point to see if the whales that migrate up the coast at this time of year would come and say hi. We were in luck, a particularly energetic humpback jumped out the ocean as we came to the top of the hill! A whale watcher who was already there told us he had been doing so for a while and by the time we left he was on about his 30th jump of the morning. Apparently there were a few other whales about but they were staying under as a group of male ones were trying their best moves on the girls without much success.
We then checked out the Sea Acres Rainforest Centre and the wildlife park before carrying on up the coast. Using our camps 4 we had found a rest area with toilets where we could stay for free that night so off we went. After a couple of hours on the road we came close to our stop for the night only to find that road works had caused the rest area to close down. We luckily spotted a sign for a caravan park and headed that way. The reception was again closed but we found a mobile number and managed to get a very nice lady to check us in to a site right on the Bellingen River, we dined on pasta and sauce and relaxed in this lovely little campsite.
Monday saw us visiting the big banana, riding a toboggan down a hill, eating frozen chocolate bananas and heading on to Lennox Head to camp near Lake Ainsworth for a couple of nights. The campsite was ok and we were close to Byron Bay so we headed in there for the day. The weather gave ont about half way through the day and the glorious sunshine soon became rain, we nipped in to the cinema, had a few drinks and headed back to Lennox Head decidedly unimpressed with Byron. We planned to go hangliding the next day then head on. The weather was against us the next morning so that idea was off and we decided to press on to Nimbin instead. We arrived mid morning, visited the campsite the guide book recommended, were shocked that anyone ever recommended the place and found another site round the corner.
We visited the village centre, learnt about the history of Nimbin, visited the museum, discovered this was also the local weed dealing shop (it is a thriving industry for all ages in Nimbin) and then headed back to the camp site to cook bangers and mash and chill out. I have heard mixed opinions of Nimbin but for me it was not a place to stay long. It had a grubby run down feel to it and the type of people who seem to spend weeks here were not the kind I was really looking to meet on this trip so after one night we packed up again and headed out to Surfers Paradise.
Surfers Paradise, where we had planned to just pass through, turned out to be an overnight stay and we had a great night, visited a selection of Irish bars and stayed at a back backer resort called Vegas that had its own resident transvestite who kept calling me sweetheart. While Lennox Head seemed to be what Bryon use to be Surfers seemed to be what Byron is hoping some day to evolve in to and I am glad we stayed longer than planned. So as week two begins we woke up in Paradise, packed the van and headed out to Brisbane, week two begins with a lot of lessons learnt and a fair share of optimism about the trip that lies ahead of us…
States Visited – 2
Getting off the starters blocks is often the hardest thing to do and the beginning of our lap of Australia was to be no exception. A combination of a heavy last night, Foxtel being the most annoying company in the world, a flat inspection and it taking a lot longer to pack the wagon than anticipated meant our planned mid morning departure was more of an early afternoon one but we were at least underway!
We decided to miss out a planned trip to Palm Beach to save a little time and headed straight to Newcastle. Here we found ourselves pulling in to the middle of a giant World Youth Day event with hundreds of people marching down the coast, there were even a few nuns and monks hanging around when we got there. It was an interesting diversion and helped to ease away some of the stress of the day.
Next we headed on to Bonny Hills, our planned stop for the first night. Unfortunately by the time we got there the reception of the campsite was closed, the toilets and showers were locked up and we were out of luck! We decided to head on to Port Macquarie and see if we could find anywhere else to lay our heads for the night.
Unfortunately by the time we got there we had just about enough time to grab a bite to eat, there was no cheap accommodation to be had and we were too tired to keep going. So we took full advantage of our Wagon on the very first night! We found a nice little parking space by the beach drew the curtains and went to sleep, not the best first day but we were well and truly on our way.
The next morning we drew back the curtains to be greeted by warm sunshine and drove out to the lighthouse at Tracking Point to see if the whales that migrate up the coast at this time of year would come and say hi. We were in luck, a particularly energetic humpback jumped out the ocean as we came to the top of the hill! A whale watcher who was already there told us he had been doing so for a while and by the time we left he was on about his 30th jump of the morning. Apparently there were a few other whales about but they were staying under as a group of male ones were trying their best moves on the girls without much success.
We then checked out the Sea Acres Rainforest Centre and the wildlife park before carrying on up the coast. Using our camps 4 we had found a rest area with toilets where we could stay for free that night so off we went. After a couple of hours on the road we came close to our stop for the night only to find that road works had caused the rest area to close down. We luckily spotted a sign for a caravan park and headed that way. The reception was again closed but we found a mobile number and managed to get a very nice lady to check us in to a site right on the Bellingen River, we dined on pasta and sauce and relaxed in this lovely little campsite.
Monday saw us visiting the big banana, riding a toboggan down a hill, eating frozen chocolate bananas and heading on to Lennox Head to camp near Lake Ainsworth for a couple of nights. The campsite was ok and we were close to Byron Bay so we headed in there for the day. The weather gave ont about half way through the day and the glorious sunshine soon became rain, we nipped in to the cinema, had a few drinks and headed back to Lennox Head decidedly unimpressed with Byron. We planned to go hangliding the next day then head on. The weather was against us the next morning so that idea was off and we decided to press on to Nimbin instead. We arrived mid morning, visited the campsite the guide book recommended, were shocked that anyone ever recommended the place and found another site round the corner.
We visited the village centre, learnt about the history of Nimbin, visited the museum, discovered this was also the local weed dealing shop (it is a thriving industry for all ages in Nimbin) and then headed back to the camp site to cook bangers and mash and chill out. I have heard mixed opinions of Nimbin but for me it was not a place to stay long. It had a grubby run down feel to it and the type of people who seem to spend weeks here were not the kind I was really looking to meet on this trip so after one night we packed up again and headed out to Surfers Paradise.
Surfers Paradise, where we had planned to just pass through, turned out to be an overnight stay and we had a great night, visited a selection of Irish bars and stayed at a back backer resort called Vegas that had its own resident transvestite who kept calling me sweetheart. While Lennox Head seemed to be what Bryon use to be Surfers seemed to be what Byron is hoping some day to evolve in to and I am glad we stayed longer than planned. So as week two begins we woke up in Paradise, packed the van and headed out to Brisbane, week two begins with a lot of lessons learnt and a fair share of optimism about the trip that lies ahead of us…
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Saying farewell to Sydney for now…the East Coast beckons!
So it is nearly time to leave the harbour city behind for a while. The seven months I have spent here have been great and there is every possibility I will find myself back here time and time again as my life continues to meander along but for now it is time to move on again.
Tomorrow will be my last day at work followed by leaving drinks over at Opera Bar to enjoy the view one last time and say a fond farewell to the friends we have made during our stay. Saturday morning will begin with an early start to pack the last few bits, handover the keys to the flat and head up the coast after breakfast.
The first day will include a trip to Palm Beach, where Home and Away is filmed, a late lunch in Newcastle and then a night camping by the ocean in Bonny Hills. Other highlights of our East Coast run will include:
- Port Macquarie where we will visit the Sea Acres Rainforest centre, pop in to the wildlife park and visit Tracking Point Lighthouse
- Coffs Harbour, the home of the giant banana
- Lennox Head where we will visit Lake Ainsworth, do some 4x4 driving on the sand and maybe indulge in some water sports if the weather holds out
- Byron Bay where we can see the Julian Aquatic Reserve and check out the Cod Hole caves
- Nimbin, Australia’s most famous hippy commune and apparently a very good place to “relax” for a while ;-)
- Brisbane where we can check out what the town has to offer and recharge our batteries with a couple of nights in a hostel
- Noosa, the home of Australia Zoo
- Fraser Island where we will really be putting our 4x4 through its paces on the worlds largest sand island
- Hervey Bay where we hope to catch a glimpse of the whales
- Bundaberg, famous for it rum, need I say more?
- Rockhampton which I hear is real cattle country and I expect we will sign up to play rancher for a day
- The Whitsundays where we shall try our hand a bit of sailing
- Cairns will be out last East coast stop finishing off a whirlwind tour as we pull in on the first Sunday in August
After the coast is it time to head West to Mt Isa and Australia’s biggest rodeo before we work our way over to Broome on the West Coast.
I will do my best to post weekly updates from the road and if anyone reading this has any suggestions of extra places to visit along the way please let me know. Adventure is calling and I for one don’t want any missed calls this time round.
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