Brisbane

So we have had a couple of days in Brisbane where it has been hot but fun.

On day one we had to move accommodation but that was fairly stress free then we headed out to an area called south bank where there was a lovely park and a free outdoor swimming pool. The pool was rather weird as it was beach like and had sand yet was a normal pool but after the last few days it was lovely and refreshing.  We spent most of the day here before having a walk around and stopping for some dessert -a churros tapas set - which was lovely. Once home and showered we decided to go out for dinner, a bit of a rarity these days, and went to Fortitude Valley, which is an area of bars and restaurants. We went into a couple of cool places including Cloudland which was a very large venue with cool little chairs and seating areas and chandeliers. Then we went to Wolley Mammouth which had a large Wolley Mammouth in it and had 26 craft ales to choose from, alongside some cocktails for me.

After a couple of drinks we went in search of food. I had read about a Asian Street food place, which we found so we had some plates from there. It was really nice and went down too quickly.

Today we have been into the central business district and done some shopping as we needed some essentials. We also went to see St Stephen's Church, the botanic gardens and Government house. All were really nice but the temperature kept going up and by lunch time today it was 36 which killed us. So we decided to head back to our accommodation to escape the heat.

So now we are getting ready to leave Brisbane and head to Hervey Bay, before going on to Frasier Island for 3 days and 2 nights, After that we are travelling to Byron Bay and going to do a 3 day surf school, which should be interesting, After that we are back to Brisbane to pick up our next hire van to drive down to Sydney.

From Cairns to Brisbane

Right we have managed to hire a camper (we thought it was a little high top but no, its a 2 birth winnebago which looks very scary to drive). Its huge and the guy keeps telling us to be wary about the height as it is 3.4 meters! He also went thought the various things we had to do like emptying the toilet, which we decided not to use so we didnt have to try and remember it all, and how to fill and empty the water tanks.

So anyway off we go on our mammoth trek, we have 4 days to cover 1700km (don't ask me what that is in miles I have no idea!). Rich drove for the first 4 hours then I took over for the next 4 hours. After the 8 hours driving we arrived at our first destination of Arlie Beach, which is a strip of bars, clubs and places to eat and felt a bit like Benidorm or something.  After a few wrong turns due to the sat navs we made it to magnums hostel were we had booked a powered site for a couple of nights. The following day we headed out on a tour to the Whitsunday islands on a large boat, with about 100 people but is was a smoother trip on the sea and no one got seasick. First we went snorkeling just off Hook island and then on to Whitehaven beach which was beautiful.On the beach we walked to Tongue point to get the best views before swimming in the crystal clear ocean. While on the beach we saw a huge lizard which is a relation to the komodo dragon and we were warned to keep an eye on your toes as he is poisonsous.

The following day we set off again in the camper on our way to Brisbane but we planned to stop half way, otherwise it would be 11 hours of driving. We decided to stop at a place called Capricorn Caves for the evening. The campsite didnt have much in the way of facilities but it was in a lovely location and we managed to spot some Kangaroos in the wild. The next morning we set off early for the remaining 7 hour drive to Brisbane. We had to be at the drop off by 3pm so it was a little stressful, especially when we got lost and ended up going on a toll bridge twice!

Anyway we managed to return the van on time and then had to get to our accommodation for the night. This involved a walk, two buses and another walk. However the people of Brisbane are lovely and really helped and one of the bus drivers even let us get on for free. So we are here for one night before moving to a cheaper place for the next two nights. After that we are heading back up north to go to Hervey bay and Fraser island for 2 nights of camping (yes you read that right, camping) before returning to Brisbane... then who knows what!

Sydney Video

Below is a link to some a video we made showing some of the scenes from our walking tours of Sydney. We guessed you wouldn't like to see all of it so we made it into an short video. Enjoy :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRitZ5TUP-k&feature=youtu.be

Landed in Cairns

Landed in the rainy season in Cairns (oops) but in our defence the rainy season has hit them late this year but what would a tropical rainforest be without some rain and my god it’s hot. The clouds are a welcome break from the sun piercing Sydney which has allowed our burns to heal. We have had a couple of hectic days though when compared to Sydney which is ironic as cairns is meant to have been the calmer trip of ours. Our airbnb hosts were out of this world one of a kind. For a mere £38 a night we got picked up from the airport, taxied around here, there and everywhere and provided fresh bread and fruit every morning for breakfast.  I could go on about their generosity but they do it for the enjoyment rather than the money. We spent the first day going up on a cable car (the longest, highest and most terrifying one known to man – probably not but my fear of heights kicked into gear) to the rainforest where we spent the day walking through the forest as slow as possible on the lookout for anything that could kill us. Unfortunately we only came across a few spiders, awesome lizards and lots of birds including a wild turkey. The noise from the crickets is deafening and the whole place is out of this world. It’s a shame that a lot of it has become a tourist attraction and more people are interested in hugging the once wild koalas rather than exploring the forest. Our 2^nd day was at the Great Barrier Reef and as first time divers (well Rich was anyway) there was some nerves there. The boat was great, a small family run business with 35 people max unlike these huge 100 people carriers. We were treated well and given appropriate sympathy when throwing up on the choppy ride out. When we got to our first dive we pulled up to a beach in the middle of the sea which is made from parrot fish poo – it’s a massive bird breeding site and very well protected. There was border on the sand if you passed there was a camera which would photo you, find you and fine you £10k! Best leave nature alone! We first did a snorkel tour for 30 mins and I soon realised walking forwards in fins is not easy or gracious! It was a bit of a free for all but once we spread out and got our bearings we started to explore the reef. Not something you can really explain but it is out of this world. The fish including nemo are everywhere and the reef is stunning. We also saw a giant turtle^nd deeper dive. We got back to dry land and slept well! We are now driving to the Whitsunday islands in our 2 berth Winnebago on the great ocean road and my god it’s long. Less than 2 hours to go and we will be at Arlie beach. We have a tour booked to see the Whitsundays tomorrow which are a set of islands with the longest beaches in Aus.
which is breath-taking. We were then called for our first dive. Top marks for the instructors and we had 1 instructor between the 4 of us. We practiced our drills on land and then jumped in. For those who haven’t dived it is very difficult to breathe normally so we all did Darth Vader impressions. We followed the rope down to the bottom (about 10 meters). We practiced our drills which included removing our regulator, clearing it and then breathing again (very unnatural feeling). The dive was amazing through – We were linked arm in arm being shown around and saw a massive string ray flee from the sand once we got close. The rest of the day we carried on snorkelling and Rich did a 2nd dive which let him go and explore a little more. We then finished the day with a bit more snorkelling at the reef before a slightly less choppy ride back. We have a camper van hired for the next couple of days so we are off on our way to Brisbane and we will be stopping along the way to have a few adventures I'm sure.

Blue Mountains and wrapping Sydney up

Sydney when compared to the rest of Oz doesn't have much to offer when it comes to green land and national parks - or at least that was what we were lead to believe. The blue mountains which is an hour's train ride away has a huge amount to offer for us mere English travellers with waterfall's and vast green land which height wise isn’t for the faint hearted.

I will skip over the part where we got off the train too soon and then rambled around for 2 hours before getting the correct train. Also the part where we got past the waterfall (2 hours in) only to get to a sign which offered another 2 hour trek in another direction where there was no guarantee of our train home. All in all this equated to a lot of walking which was kind of the point anyway. Hopefully the video's we have do the park justice!

We spent our last day in Sydney visiting the museum of contemporary art which even the most open minded would find it a struggle to appreciate - the roof top cafe view was the best bit!

We tackled another more local national park getting off at the right stop this time. The heat has been getting more intense pushing into the 30's so we are always glad when we reach the sea to cool off. Even happier when we find a paddleboard for hire so we can like the true brits we are make a tit of ourselves while others graciously float along the calm water.

So here we are at Sydney airport waiting to board our flight to Cairns ready for some diving at the great barrier reef. We have some really nice accommodation booked with what seems to be with some very accommodating hosts! We have also bagged ourselves our first relocation deal with a 2 berth camper to drive to Brisbane for $1 a day!

A Catch up of the last couple of days

The last couple of days have been soo busy with sightseeing, walking and getting lost.

Our accommodation for the first night was a little interesting. The toilet and shower were outside, which for those of you who know me was not my kind of thing, but it was only for one night and it was not too bad. The room had loads of vintage things in it like an Atari and a pac man clock. overall it was a nice place but I was glad to be heading to our new accommodation in Queens park, which is close to Bondi.  

So after us sleeping though the first afternoon and night we got up early on day two and went for a nice big breakfast and then had to make our way across Sydney to our new accommodation. This place was far nicer with a private kitchen, bathroom and our own entrance. Plus a Aston Martin in the garage to drool over. Once we dumped our bags there we headed out for the day. We pretty much ticked off our whole Sydney to do list with seeing the opera house, Harbour Bridge, Botanic gardens and a unexpected trip to an art gallery which was really impressive. We were gutted that the Friday food market was closed but instead enjoyed a world famous Aussie pie from pie face. It appears the Aussies really take their new year seriously and a lot of the smaller places shut down for the 1st week in Jan.

The next day we went back to the harbour bridge and climbed the lookout tower rather than do the bridge climb as they wanted $250 for the privilege of walking with a leash and we have been walking leash free for free a lot!

We then jumped onto a ferry which is all part of their bus and train system over to Manly island where they had some lovely beaches. We ventured into the sea and got attacked by a large amount of seaweed.

We finished our day off eating an well overdue steak and ribs. You can order the steak blue over here but that's one step to far for Rich. One cocktail later and we realised that 5am starts followed by 12 miles walking means our tolerance for alcohol is next to nothing. We got the next bus home barely staying awake!

This brings us to today where we have done the famous bondi to coogee beach coastal walk. Very scenic and lovely. We battled the waves of Bondi and snorkeled briefly in Clovelly where we saw a few small fishes.

We have now booked our flights to Cairns for the 7th Jan and we have some awesome accommodation booked as well as the day booked on a boat for the great barrier reef with a introductory dive for us novices. I think we will be ready to leave Sydney by then and start the next adventure!

We Made it!

So we finally made it to Sydney after a long 38 hours of travelling and we even got some (albeit limited) sleep. However it is a bit weird to think that our last 4 meals have all been on planes and that until we left the airport we had not been outside for over a day! The flights were not too bad, we watched lots of films and slept but on the second flight we did have 3 seats to share between the two of us. However we did not sleep much as there was a lot of turbulance and babies crying.

In between the two flights we did have 4 hours in Beijing in which to enterain ourselevs so we walked around the airport, found a nice little temple and that was pretty much all there was to do.

We arrived at 7am into Sydney and as it was too early to check in we decided to do what any tourist would do and head to Bondi for a quick dip in the ocean and relax, bags and all! Within minutes of getting there we saw Hoppo from Bondie rescue (if you dont watch it you should). I think that made Rich's day there and then!

Following that we made our way to our interesting accomodation for the night and that is where we made the fatal mistake of having a lie down. Now its 16 hours later and we are just getting up, think we needed some sleep!

Right now we need to go and find something for breakfast!!!!