Destiny

Monday November 19th - Sunday November 25th

After three weeks of travelling and camping down the east coast with our faithful little Yaris it's been a real treat to have a week in one place and also 7 nights of comfortable sleeping. We've enjoyed a great week in Sydney and have been looked after very well by Colin and Julie. Nearly time to be on the road again though.

We've made the most of our time in the unofficial capital of Australia and have been able to get out and about to explore some of the area as well as taking in some culture.

The usual sights in Sydney have been 'ticked off' with a look around the Opera House and a walk across the Harbour Bridge (the free option). The weather has been great for the main part of the week so we got views of the harbour at its best and also had a good couple of ferry trips to and from Manly. We did a little walk around North Head in Manly to stretch our legs and also try and get our fitness levels up a bit in readiness for all the walking we've got planned in New Zealand. To that end we've also surprised ourselves by going for three runs this week, albeit a little slower than was previously possible, but it's the effort that counts.

Our culture fix for the week saw us take in a performance at the Opera House, a ballet no less. The ballet was titled Destiny and from what we could gather it was two interpretations of the same piece, one in each half of the performance. We were given a crib sheet at the start to help us understand what was going on and in the main we kept up but it did need a bit of discussion afterwards to fill in the gaps. The sound of the orchestra in the venue was excellent and we managed to get some really good seats even though I think the lady at the box office thought we were more suited to the final of Australian Idol that is taking place there on Sunday.

We managed to get a good length walk in this week in the form of the coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi beaches. The skies were blue and the sun was out but there was also a gale force wind blowing, which in combination with the sand it was picking up meant that by the time we got to Bondi Beach the right-hand sides of our faces had been exfoliated to within an inch of their lives. It's a pretty good walk though and I don't think you'll see Bondi quite as empty as when we were there. Anyone trying to have lunch on the beach really would have been eating sand-wiches. On summer weekends they can get around 40,000 people on the beach, I think there were about 40 when we were there.

Wildlife news for the week...we've actually seen some galahs, not flaming I may add but we've now seen a couple of the birds that look like cockatoos but have a reddish pink front to them. We also saw the hundreds of bats that inhabit the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. They are in one area of the gardens and at a distance look like huge fruits hanging from the tree. When you get closer though you can see that they are brown bats cocooned in their leathery wings. With them, the cockatoos and the lorikeets the skies are filled in that part of the gardens. Makes for a great sight though.

We've certainly enjoyed Sydney, perhaps maybe more than we thought we might (certainly more than I thought). We're now getting ready to pick up a little campervan to drive to Melbourne and then after a couple of days there fly to Perth.

Out to Get You

Sunday November 11th - Sunday November 18th

One of the things about getting off the beaten track a bit is that you get to see all manner of wildlife that you wouldn't see by following hoardes of tourists around, including the tsunamis of Japanese that you see at all major attractions. The flipside to that is that there are more than a few things off the beaten track that want a piece of you. Let's start with Lamington National Park. We decided to have a crack at the West Canungra Creek Trail, a 14km track that drops about 500m in elevation before criss-crossing said creek 6 or 7 times and then bringing you back up the 500m again. We'd read all the warning signs saying that what goes down must come back up (referring to the walk rather than last night's dinner) and that when the creek is in flood it's best not to go near it. What it forgot to mention was that once you get to the wetter part of the rainforest you will be plagued by...leeches. We had to get into a routine of every 10-15 minutes having a leech check to remove them from shoes, trousers, t-shirts, arms, legs you name it. The majority of them were pretty small but there were some bigguns too that weren't took keen to let go of you. Much as I like a bit of attention that was too much. The walk itself though was excellent, leeches aside, and it set us up for a pretty good week.

We left Queensland behind this week as well and headed into New South Wales jumping forward an hour as we did so as Queensland haven't adopted daylight savings. Apparently it's because the locals would get too confused so you end up with the evenings in the height of summer being pitch black well before 7.

We did follow the tourist path at a couple of points along the way this week including a quick trip in to Byron Bay. We didn't really have a huge amount of time to explore many walks but we did go and have a look at the lighthouse and walk out to the easterlymost point in Australia.

Our next encounter with the great Aussie wildlife happened in Pacific Palms, just south of Forster-Tuncurry. We found a great little campsite that was just set back from the beach. After picking our site we decided to have a quick look at the beach. Ignoring the black lizard on our right we made our way around the corner on the sandy path to come face to face with...a brown snake. Now we had a feeling they were ones that shouldn't be messed with, this one was around 4 foot long, so we made like the Knights Who Say Nee and chickened out and ran away. We later asked the people who ran the campsite and they confirmed that if you're going to get bitten by a snake, make sure it's not the brown ones. They're pretty much the only ones that will try and have a go at you. Later on that night we were watching a possum in the trees when it came down to investigate us a little further and decided to check out how Rach's toes tasted. Nothing too hard but a nibble nonetheless. Lucky for it that it didn't go for my feet, poor thing wouldn't have stood a chance! At this campsite as well they have the Green Cathedral, not a huge building painted green but a clearing in the forest that is used for weddings and services. A really great spot that would be a very special place to get married, with a lake just behind it and the sunlight coming through the trees.

We've managed to fit in some wine tasting this week as well, visiting the Hunter Valley. Here we were plagued by flies and ants so found ourselves having to spend more time tasting the wine, shame!

We rounded the week off with a trip to the Blue Mountains and then the sea. These aren't mountains that have formed in the usual way of the earth rising up but instead the earth has been eroded down leaving mountains behind. This means that if you're going to do any walks you have to drop hundreds of metres first and then climb back up them at the end. Still, we managed a couple of good walks in the Jamison and Grose Valleys and got some great views over the mountains, made blue by the haze of eucalypt oil that comes from all the eucalyptus trees. Parts of the Grose Valley are recovering from a huge bushfire but the regrowth has already started and it's fascinating to see how the forest recovers after something like that.

Our final night before heading to Sydney was spent literally camped on the edge of Coledale Beach where we could sit and watch, for about the third or fourth time this week, pods of dolphins swimming by and enjoy the sunrise. After last week being a little strange and disjointed this week was excellent and we're now looking forward to a week of a bit of relaxing and exploring the sights of Sydney.

Dancing in the Street

Tuesday November 6th - Saturday November 10th

After the great weekend we'd had sailing around the Whitsundays and the equally good night out at the end of it I think we were both a little drained and it took us a couple of days to get ourselves back up to speed. The long drives that we had each day along what the Rough Guide describes as a "famously unexciting stretch of the Bruce Highway" didn't lend themselves to fun and frolics either.

Still, at the end of the day we're thousands of miles away from it all and driving through Australia so we soon got ourselves sorted out and headed for the National Parks again to do some walking. We headed to the Glasshouse Mountains just north of Brisbane and climbed a couple of them (there's 13 in all). We thought the one called Death Mountain was probably left well alone so went for Beerburrum (Rainbow Mountain) and Ngungun (Black Mountain) instead. The first one was supposed to be an easy climb so after 25 minutes of climbing almost vertically we collapsed at the top and got great views out over the other mountains and away in the distance Brisbane. We were the only ones on the mountains and the rushes of fresh air and stretching our legs had done us wonders so we headed off to Brisbane in good spirits.

The good vibes obviously paid off as we had a great day in Brisbane. Managing to avoid the temptation of going to the cricket (again Rach's idea!) we headed into the city centre and spent a happy couple of hours looking around before making for the South Bank area for Friday evening drinks and a nice meal followed by a stroll along the river. On our way back through town we stumbled across a small gathering of people that steadily grew as salsa music blasted out and what was described as only one of two free outdoor salsa lessons in the world started up. Before long there were around 50 people involved, including Rach (I had to take some photos!) and they salsaed their way around the pavement for a good 40 minutes.

We decided that as we'd had such a good day in Brisbane that we would push on further south and headed once again for the National Parks, this time Lamington and the Green Mountains. We got out and about and had a good walk and also strolled along the treetop walkway that included a climb up a tree, around 30m, to a platform that gave you a view over the canopy of the rainforest. Fantastic views and thankfully there was only a gentle breeze so the tree was only gently swaying.

We Are Sailing

Monday October 29th - Monday November 5th

This week has really been all about The Whitsundays sailing trip that we've just completed. Three days spent aboard a 67ft racing trimaran, Avatar, sailing around some of the 74 Whitsunday Islands. We've had a fantastic trip and made some good friends from the people that were with us onboard. As with places like Cairns there are so many tours to choose from that you're always a little worried that you might have made the wrong choice but there was no problems with ours from the moment we got onboard on Saturday morning.

The weather was set fair, well actually it was great. Blue skies and flat calm seas greeted us as we pottered slowly along getting to know the other guys onboard, half of which were German, with some other Brits, an Italian, a Pole and an American making up a good mix of people. Being a trimaran there was plenty of room on the boat to relax in the sunshine on the deck or on one of the two huge nets that were strung between the hulls of the boat. I've always wanted to just relax on one of those and now I've done it twice in 3 weeks.

The Whitsundays were another of Captain Cook's discoveries, on a Sunday hence the name, and consist of islands that range from a small rock to Whitsunday Island itself which is 11000ha in size. You can go ashore and camp on some of the islands but we'd gone for the luxury option, well a mattress down a hole in one of the outside hulls. I think even an estate agent would have struggled to describe it as anything other than bijou. At least we could have the hatch open at night and look up at the stars though.

The Great Barrier Reef does extend as far down as here but it is a bit further offshore than the islands. However, there is still good snorkelling to be had amongst coral around the islands (you get a greater diversity of coral here because of cooler waters) and we were able to have a few snorkels around Whitsunday Island and Black Island. On the final day I decided to relax onboard while Rach went snorkelling off Langford Reef and had the chance to follow some turtles around, which was pretty amazing. You get a good glimpse of them on the surface as well when they lazily come up for some air before going back down under the water.

As well as the snorkelling and general relaxing we also got ashore to go and spend some time on Whitehaven Beach. This is one of the most well-known beaches in the world (if you're into that sort of thing) as the sand consists of 99% silica making it the purest sand anywhere. When you walk on it it's like walking on flour it's so fine and soft. It's also very white. We spent a good bit of time on the beach here and in the water playing volleyball, although we struggled to look good, not only because of a lack of skill but because of needing to wear stinger suits. These are basically all in one lycra suits that protect you from the jellyfish that are now in the waters meaning that we're out of luck for sea swimming on the east coast from now on.

On the way back in to Airlie Beach yesterday the wind picked up enough for us to be able to sail which was a great way to end the trip, just hearing the sound of the water rushing past and the screams from people as waves crash over and through the nets soaking them as they catch some rays. It was a great trip and made even more enjoyable by the group of people onboard who we then went out for an end of trip drink with last night, which led to a couple more drinks, etc, etc. Not feeling too worse for wear this morning and we've just had some breakfast with 3 of them who were in the same hostel as us. We're both still rocking gently from side to side though hopefully as an after effect of the sailing rather than a sign that we're losing our marbles.

We have seen a lot of other things this week too as we made our way from Cairns. We visited the Tablelands again and looked at the huge fig trees that have put down hundreds of roots from the branches of other trees to create what look like huge sculptures. We also had a look at Millaa Millaa Falls, the waterfall made famous by the Timotei advert from some years back.

We've been camping all the way down so far and that's meant being able to see some more wildlife. We've had encounters with bush turkeys, kookaburras, bettongs (rat kangaroos), kangaroos and in one campsite 3 possums.

We got across to Magnetic Island as well, but only for the day, but still had the chance to find a really quiet idyllic beach that only had us and a strange naked man in a straw hat on. We sensibly based ourselves at the opposite end of the beach out of his way.

So all in all it's been a good week, not so much driving so far (there's still well over 2000km to go before we reach Sydney) but plenty of sights and wildlife seen and the scenery has been pretty spectacular. We're now going to push on south and see what we find on the way.