July 15, 2006
Sydney
The weather in Sydney on the way back was wet, cold and windy. Not helped by the fact I was in damp clothes, and while I had showered in Cairns, I still stunk.
The plan was to go shopping while I was there and see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House—from the photos you can no doubt see how wet it was, lol!
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Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 1 Fraggles
July 14, 2006
Escape From The Rain
On the way back from Cape Tribulation we stopped at the Daintree river to do a river boat tour. It was good see crocodiles in the wild after the piss poor wildlife park on the way up and we saw a lot of snakes sunning themselves in the trees. Another cool thing was seeing Bananas trees and the tea growing in the fields. I didn't realise bananas grew in bunches of about 18 on the tree!, as you always see them broken up in the supermarket.
Friday night I catch up with Sarah and we have dinner at a very nice Indian restaurant and look around the gallery of a local photographer in Cairns. I have only got back in time—late afternoon and my airport pick up, which I had to sort when I got back, leaves at 3am.
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Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 13, 2006
Mount Sorrow's Revenge
Thursday morning, time to go—however it was still raining heavily and things weren't looking good. At midday our bus arrived on time, which was promising yet apparently it stalled in the middle of one of the rivers on the way up, which shattered our optimism some what! We departed on time and did get through the first river ok, but by the time we reached the second river the water level was too high. We couldn't go back either since the first river had risen also. Luckily, in between the two rivers was PK's so we went there to wait and see.
The plan was to leave at 2pm, but at 2pm the rivers were still too high. So then it was 3pm, but at 3pm it was still no go. Then it was 5pm, then it was the whole idea was abandoned for the night. The rivers were now at 1.1 meters and full of crocodiles as well I might add, so getting stuck in the middle of them wasn't the best plan, lol!
So we were stuck there the night, the problem being we weren't the only ones and there wasn't enough beds to go around. Prudently our guide realised this early on and booked out beds for everyone on our bus, himself included. God knows where the other people slept, two to a single bed or on the floor?!
Friday Morning, buses with snorkels and 4x4's to tow us though the rivers arrive. By this stage everyone had given up on washing since our clothes where all wet and I didn't didn't even want to touch my towel as it was kinda brownish by now [originally it was blue]. We smelt like rising damp according to the Irish girls (group #2) and feral according to the English girls. We were hopeful of getting away, as the rain eased over night. But at 7am the rain started and the rivers were rising again and everyone was in a panic to get on the their buses and the hell out of there before it's too late! When we finally got across the rivers and onto the main [sealed] road, everyone breathed a sigh of relief—We have escaped from Cape Tribulation!
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Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 12, 2006
The Beach House
Well my plan was 4 relaxing days in the sun at the Beach House, which as the name suggests surrounded by rain forest and right on the beach. There was slight spanner to my plan tho, in that the weather decided to give us the real rain forest experience, and apart from Tuesday morning when it was over cast, it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained—getting heavier with each passing day!
However, being a very positive person, I made the best of it and met some really cool people along the way. When I first arrived on Monday, these American girls gave me all these vouchers for free cooked breakfasts which helped with the food costs. I was staying in the Dorms and in each room you share with up to 4 other people. Since most people came here on one night overnight trips there was new people to talk to each day.
I meet several groups of Irish and Scottish girls, a couple of guys from Germany, a few Brits and of course a handful of Aussies. There were also these French guys that had one of the big silver Turkish water pipes with the hose—like the one the cat had in Alice in Wonderland! Ironically I didn't meet a single New Zealander during my entire time in Australia!
On the Tuesday night, this British couple with a car drove us down to PK's for the "Full Moon" party to check out the night life there—since that was the cheaper hostel and apparently party central. To be honest it was pretty disappointing, however the beer was cheap (VB isn't too bad) and we found out that drivers licenses and visa cards have all these graphics on them that only show up under UV [black] light!—the DJ booth was made from the front of an old car with black lights for headlights.
The British couple escaped Cape Tribulation and Mount Sorrow early the next morning, which was lucky as the rivers were rising. On the Wednesday I did one of the walks up to Emmagen Creek swimming hole (about an 1 hour walk each way) with this Italian girl, Sarah, who was staying in our dorm. It rained the entire way but the swimming as good and it was nice to get out of the Beach House for a while. However the big mistake was now my warmest clothes were wet, which meant due to the weather, I had no dry clothes and wet shoes for the next three days—not exactly fun!
Sarah's bus fortunately got through the river fords ok on the later that afternoon [Wednesday], I was scheduled to leave midday Thursday. By this time the novelty of the rain had well and truly worn off!
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Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 10, 2006
Cape Tribulation & The Rain Forest
For my second week in Australia, I was going up to Cape Tribulation in Daintree National Park, which a couple of hours north of Cairns.
Now this time of year is meant to be the dry season, the drought season in fact. However it rained over night and was still a little wet when we left at Dawn on the Monday—Not that encouraging...
The trip up included a wildlife park and forest board walk tour. The Wildlife Park was to be honest crap. The animals looked mangy and were in really small enclosures. We saw a crocodile, two kangaroos and a couple of snakes and that was pretty much it. In the first picture you can see the circular ferns that are unique to the area. The leaves of which feel like plastic and, as I was to find out later, if you stand under them they make very good umbrella's even in the heaviest of rain!
The rain forest board walk, on the other hand as pretty good. The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest forest on the planet and produces about 10% of the world's oxygen. You can actually smell the Oxygen, it's quite different to other forests I've been in.
I think the best part was seeing some of oldest trees on the planet. The tree shown here only grows 1 inch every 100 years, this one is just a young sapling—it's only about 20,000 years old! The leaves of this tree are identical to those found in the stomachs of fossilized dinosaurs!
Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 9, 2006
Green Island
On Sunday I wanted to go on a day trip to the Low Isles, another Quicksilver tour, as the Low Isles is where the sea turtles live and you can see them there every day. Unfortunately, they only go when the wind is below 15 knots and it was about 30-35 again today. So I thought I go somewhere and sit on the beach instead, as the weather was really good—hot and sunny, notwithstanding the wind.
The tour booking lady kept saying Green Island was the place to go, however my sister had previously said to avoid it, as it is full of Japanese tourists and very commercial. Nevertheless, it was the only place within my budget, so I decided to give it a go.
After roller-coaster boat ride we arrived at the island and I immediately understood what she meant; The Green Island is the complete opposite of Fitzroy Island. Island is a kind of oval shape on about a 10 o'clock angle. You arrive at the bottom of this and the first thing you see is this big concrete retaining wall to stop erosion. The island has been tourist destination since the 1940's, so after 60 years of development it's not exactly "untouched" anymore. It has a hotel, two cell sites, a helicopter pad, a beach with life guards and a mini zoo! :-S
I figured my best plan was to get to point diagonally opposite where we got off the boat, i.e. as far as possible from the 400 other tourists as possible. After consulting the map and a 10min walk most run along the board walk path, I arrived at the beach. The wind was coming from the north east, so it was blowing a gail on the upper side of the island. However, walking around to the left I was able to find a small clove of beach that was a little sheltered by the forest.
Due to the winds almost nobody bothered to walk around the island, so I was almost completely undisturbed for the entire day. It was like being on a deserted topical island in the middle of the ocean. From where I was sitting I could see a 180° horizon of nothing but ocean! I spend about 5 hours almost asleep there lying in the sun listening to 1950's Hawaiian Lounge music on my iPod—It was very relaxing and peaceful and the only good sunny day of my entire trip!
Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 8, 2006
Fitzroy Island
A day trip to Fitzroy Island is probably one of best value for money things you can do in Cairns. The ferry transfer is only $42 return and the island itself is stunning, covered with lust topical rainforest and almost completely unspoiled by tourism. I did a couple of the walks but mainly just sat on the Nudey Beach (where everyone was ironically clothed, lol) and listened to some tunes. The island and the beach is gorgeous, it in fact looks just like the cover of the Lonely Planet for the Seychelles, my photos don't do it justice!
The island is full of wildlife too. I saw a giant fruit bat in canopy about 5m above me, during one of my walks, that had a wing span of about 1.2 meters! I was watching it for a little while until it noticed me and flew out over the ocean and back into the forest around the corner. They fed on the fruit of the fig trees that are common in this part of Queensland. Over here they call them Flying Foxes and the one I saw was a Black Flying Fox. It was pretty impressive, as it was the first time I've seen a bat in person!
Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 7, 2006
Finding Nemo
Today I headed out to the Reef with Quicksilver, on their Silver Sonic high speed catamaran to do some snorkelling. Apparently most of the good fish and coral are in the first 2 metres, so not doing the diving wasn't the end of the world. They have those foam noodle things as well, so you can focus on the fish rather than staying a float, lol.
The boat departs from Port Douglas about an hour north of Cairns, so I had to be up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am to catch the connecting bus! However the sun rise over the ocean was well worth it, as you can see from the photo!
The ride out to the outer reef (Agincourt Ribbon Reef) was rough as guts, due to 30 knot winds, and almost everyone was sea sick on the 1.5hour trip, myself included. We visited 3 sites, the first of which was the best, because at the later two the sea was quite rough and their weren't as many fish. Some people diving saw turtles and reef sharks at these, however by this stage I was having hard enough time not getting blown into the coral by the wind (you aren't allowed to touch it)—I've also got a sneaking suspicion the turtles might of been gone deeper to avoid all those pesky snorkellers!
For the trip I hired a professional underwater diving camera (7.1 mega pixel/underwater flash/rated to 40 meters) from a place called "Wet Resolution" back in Cairns. I'd found them by accident the day before (their shop is just down from the bus terminus for Palm Cove) and decided it was a good idea since a crappy disposable was $25 for grainy film, 27 shots and no flash and this camera for $60/day for up to 500 photos including putting them on CD-ROM. As you can see from the photos it was money well spent!
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Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 1 Fraggles
July 6, 2006
Downunder Dive & Palm Cove
Well for the first week in Cairns, as per my itinerary, I was meant to be doing a 4 day dive course. This started out well, I passed all the medical tests and theory stuff in the morning. However, one thing I wasn't expecting was a swimming test—250meters without stopping and then threading water for 10 minutes straight after. Now, swimming isn't exactly my thing and the last time I did any actual swimming was when I was like 10 years old!
We had to swim 10 lengths of the pool. I managed to blag my way through this part, as there were people worse than me that keep the instructor's attention occupied. Everyone else was finished and waiting when I was heading back from my 6th length, but the instructors just figured it was my 10th and I didn't correct them ;) However, after that I was completely shattered and started to do my best drowning impersonation about half way through the treading water test, lol!
To cut a long story short, the diving course was off the cards and I was down $122—the doctor's time and theory books [which you write in] aren't refundable. From this point on the itinerary went completely out the window... and on my todo list for when I get home is to enrol in swimming lessons!
Cairns itself is surrounded by mangroves and mud. There is a swimming pool thing at the Esplanade but it's pretty rice. So if you want to go an actual beach, you need to dive or catch the bus up to one the northern beaches. On my sister's advice, and having a sister that is a tour guide comes in quite handy, I headed up to Palm Cove.
The beach at Palm Cove is really nice. It was a bit windy the day I was there, but the weather was good—clear skies and warm. One thing I have noticed over here is while in New Zealand you can pay by EFTPOS or Visa everywhere, even at small dairies in the middle of nowhere, that's not the case here. The place I went for lunch didn't take cards at all!
Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
July 4, 2006
Arrival in Cairns
Well, the trip here was certainly interesting. I had an hour in Sydney Airport between arriving from Auckland and departing for Cairns which should of been fine. Of course that was until the Pilot came on the intercon after landing and said someone else had taken our [plane] park and we'd have to find another parking space!
So my hour turned into 25min and by the time I'd got off the first flight, the final boarding call for the connecting one had already gone. I had to literally run flat out from one aircraft to the other, skipping all the queues along the way and going through Diplomatic Passport Holders Only booth!
Fortunately I only travel with carry-on luggage [a small backpack], as I was the only person from Auckland to arrive in Cairns on time! Cairns is an interesting place, probably one of the most touristy places I've been, though parts of Hawaii are similar in that respect.
I'm staying with my sister's old flatmate, who has kindly put me up in her flat while I'm in Australia—I've even got my own room!
Great hall locations: Australia , Travel | Talked about by: 0 Fraggles
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