Thursday, December 30, 2004
Townsville at New Year
Phill: Townsville, 30/12 to 31/12 - It was a tired pair that left our campsite in Airlie Beach. The sailing trip was wonderfully exhausting, and the parting-party just added to it, so we were glad we didn't have far to go. We got there, and it was quiet, worryingly quiet. We checked into our B&B, which was lovely. We'd decided to treat ourselves a little, and not stay in a tent for New Year - what we didn't realise was that our "room" was in fact a 4-room 4-bed open-plan apartment with a complete kitchen. Very cool. What wasn't cool was the extent to which we discovered Aussies close things for Xmas and New Year. Everyone it seems, tries to take their major summer holiday over Xmas, including businesses. This sadly meant that my much long awaited Surf 'n' Turf (discussed with Cam and Leah back in October) was to be denied by a 20 days closure of the restaurant!? How on Earth can companies survive like that? So we went to the Hog's Breath Cafe - which was ok, but not great, and the staff were seriously overworked (possibly as it was the only place open) so things took a long time.
On New Year's Eve, we were feeling a bit more energetic, and tackled the "goat track" up to the top of Castle Hill that overlooks the town. It was a pretty intense hike, but really good fun, and there was another track leading down so we didn'thave to retrace our steps, which was great. From there, we walked over the The Strand - Townsville's Beachfront - and had another perfect example of the many things that Aussies do so well. The beach is clean, pretty and tidy - with netted off swimming enclosures to keep out the stingers, and with the usual life-guarding service. The walk itself has some things to read about the local flora and fauna, and the town's history. They also have a series of "exercise points" along the way, where you can stop and do sit-ups, chin-ups, steps, rope-climbs, etc - it's simply brilliant that they provide free facilities to people that can be bothered to run along the waterfront, you know? Also, the kids waterpark just has to get a mention - this place is great... just off the beach, full of loads of ways to get soaked, and to soak others, including this huge bucket of water that continuously fills until it tips over, gushing water all over the eager and waiting kids... and adults!
We made a bit of an effort to dress up for New Year, and went to a recommended wine-bar called Heritage. It was nice... but it was quiet. Townsville had cancelled its fireworks display and donated the money to the Tsunami Appeal, and the place we were in didn't even do a countdown, so New Year passed with little aplomb. I guess it was only retrospectively that we realised we'd probably rather have been in a noisy place full of annoying, but at least celebrating youngsters. Well, I guess this is the only way you find out what you like. We also might've driven on to a bigger city, but we didn't realise until too late that Townsville is a University-Town, and most of the student-population would have gone home for summer. It's climate/environmental differences like that which don't really sink-in sometimes. On the other hand... maybe New Year is just another one of those times you really wish you were around your friends and/or family.
On New Year's Eve, we were feeling a bit more energetic, and tackled the "goat track" up to the top of Castle Hill that overlooks the town. It was a pretty intense hike, but really good fun, and there was another track leading down so we didn'thave to retrace our steps, which was great. From there, we walked over the The Strand - Townsville's Beachfront - and had another perfect example of the many things that Aussies do so well. The beach is clean, pretty and tidy - with netted off swimming enclosures to keep out the stingers, and with the usual life-guarding service. The walk itself has some things to read about the local flora and fauna, and the town's history. They also have a series of "exercise points" along the way, where you can stop and do sit-ups, chin-ups, steps, rope-climbs, etc - it's simply brilliant that they provide free facilities to people that can be bothered to run along the waterfront, you know? Also, the kids waterpark just has to get a mention - this place is great... just off the beach, full of loads of ways to get soaked, and to soak others, including this huge bucket of water that continuously fills until it tips over, gushing water all over the eager and waiting kids... and adults!
We made a bit of an effort to dress up for New Year, and went to a recommended wine-bar called Heritage. It was nice... but it was quiet. Townsville had cancelled its fireworks display and donated the money to the Tsunami Appeal, and the place we were in didn't even do a countdown, so New Year passed with little aplomb. I guess it was only retrospectively that we realised we'd probably rather have been in a noisy place full of annoying, but at least celebrating youngsters. Well, I guess this is the only way you find out what you like. We also might've driven on to a bigger city, but we didn't realise until too late that Townsville is a University-Town, and most of the student-population would have gone home for summer. It's climate/environmental differences like that which don't really sink-in sometimes. On the other hand... maybe New Year is just another one of those times you really wish you were around your friends and/or family.
Monday, December 27, 2004
The Not So British Defender
Phill: Whitsunday Islands, 27/12 to 29/12 - Our sailing trip didn't get off to the best start, with the boat having some electrical problems that took them a little while to sort out before we could board. It wasn't too much of a problem, as we did our introductions and went through the "rules of the boat" on land while we waited. Ren & I didn't do so well at our private little game of "Guess the other people's nationalities" - partly because we weren't expecting just about everybody to be German! Seriously, there was a guy from Hong Kong, a French couple, and Ren & I - and the rest of the group was either German or German-speaking Swiss. It seemed that our British Defender would have in total 1 Brit on board... me! What was also pretty unusual in our group of 15, was that there wasn't a single smoker - which I must admit, was nice.
Once on board, our first impressions were that although we were told that this was one of the most spacious boats at around 24m long (83ft) and 6m (20ft) wide - it felt pretty cramped to begin with... it's designed to take 24 passengers, not just 15. Humans are adaptable things though, and by the end of the trip the boat really did feel big, especially as it had enough headroom to walk around upright just about everywhere. What I didn't realise until we were on board, was just how much we were going to be involved with the sailing of the boat. The Defender has raced around the world a few times, and when it does that, it has a crew of around 24 - which meant that with just 4 members of staff on-board, we were going to get pretty hands-on.
We didn't have enough wind on the first day, so we just motored it out to our first snorkelling spot - which gave us our first opportunity to wear our sexy Stinger Suits. Now, for those that don't know, the sea of the coast of Northern QLD at this time of year is plagued by "stingers" - jellyfish. Not just the usual painful variety that we all know and love, but they have two that are fatally poisonous - the easy to spot Box-Jellyfish which has stingers up to a few metres long, and the Irukandji, which are just the size of your little finger, and almost impossible to spot in the water. Nice, eh? Luckily though, wearing a full wet-suit gives a fair amount of protection from them - but for us travelling light, there's a lycra version. Yup, a full lycra cat-suit... complete with hood, gloves and socks! People call them the sexy suits, and although that's what we had, I think I can safely say that whilst Ren looked sexy in it, I did not! I mean, even if I was in shape, body-hair and lycra just do not mix! Anyway, it broke the ice a fair bit on board, by giving us all something to laugh about. The snorkelling was good, but I quickly realised that I'd been spoilt for conditions back on Ko Phi Phi - because the water here was fairly silty, and there's a lot more, well, "bits" in it. It was however, a beautiful blue colour, and there were thousands of fish around, include some huge Maori Wrasse. After that, we motored on to Nara Inlet on Hook Island where we moored for the night. The food on board was pretty darn good, thanks to Gill (our cook) and Scott (the ship's volunteer dog's-body), and most of us took the opportunity to take a swim before dark, which included Benny (the 1st Mate) trying to get as many of us as possible to backflip off the boat. Needless to say, Ren was the first of sadly just 3. While we were swimming, there were a few dolphins swimming around nearby, but sadly they didn't come too close. Everyone was pretty bushed, so after a few beers and some chilled-out chatting, we turned in for a hot, restless sleep.
We were up early the next day, early enough to see a small hammerhead shark swim past, which is always a little worrying, before we went onto the island to take a little bush-walk up top a lookout point above the inlet, and to see some aboriginal artwork. Yes, it still looked like children's finger-painting, but they'd dated as being there for thousands of years (albeit restored recently) so that was pretty cool. The weather was getting better by the day (and it started off ok) so it was great for photo's before we headed back down and set off for Whitehaven Beach. This place is phenomenal. Rated as one of the top beaches in the world, it is simply idyllic. The sand is pure and white, the "talcum powder sand" really does exist, and the bay is unbelievably beautfil. The sea is as warm as bath-water and completely clear, and the lookout we went to above the beach allows you to see the multitude of different coloured bars of sand that make it so pretty. Simply awesome - heh, which reminds me... One of the German girls (Berni) had revealed that she hated that word, which of course gave everyone (not just Ren) the idea to use it all the time! It was one of those great "group things" that everyone was laughing about all the time, one of those theme-like things that define a trip like this... and what a great definition - AWESOME!
We ate lunch, and moved on to Chalky Beach, to which we snorkelled from the boat - and this was where my appreciation of the Great Barrier Reef started to grow. The variety of life under the water here is incredible, and it's all just below the surface - no need to scuba-dive. The only thing that spoilt it was occasionally having to swim carefully between the stingers that were in the area - exciting, but a little disconcerting! We were in for a treat though after this, as the wind had picked-up enough for some sailing, so we finally got to work away at the grinders, and hoist the sails, put tacks in, and so on - we had a pretty scary moment, where one of the ropes slipped from the Rees's grasp (the skipper). This caused the boat to get on the wrong side of the wind, which brought it unexpected up on the wrong side. There was a pretty tense moment, where something couldn't broken, and the boat tipped so high we thought it was going to go over, but it all got sorted, and off we went. The sailing was great fun, just really really great fun, and we got to do it as the sun set, which was stunning. We stopped for the night in Pit Stop Bay, to another good meal and a few more drinks. We taught the Germans (and Swiss) some drinking games, included the international "claps" game, which worked pretty well. Twenty-ones also worked, surprisingly, but Cam's Cowboy/Hillbilly version of Zip-Boing-Bounce only caused confusion! It would've been nice to party maybe a little harder, but the days were just so full and busy, that if you weren't already tired, you wouldn't want to be hungover, because you didn't want to miss anything.
We had a quick morning snorkel with the jellyfish in that bay, before sailing out to meet a dive-boat for those interested in doing a scuba-dive. While they did that, the rest of us snorkelled, swam and lounged on the coral beach. Well, most of us - Renee decided that she's on some sort of mission to snorkel the entire length of the barrier reef, and she didn't come in for a few hours! The weather was glorious, and the crew all had these impish grins on their faces when they announced to us that there was some pretty good wind for the trip home. Now we all had the hang of it, the sailing was even better, and wow you can really tell that the boat is an ex-racing boat. It flies through the water, and tips (or is that "yaws"?) in the water, until you feel the deck is near-vertical. It was just breath-taking, and we didn't want it to end.
Another nice touch that these trips have, is that they reserve tables at Beaches bar in Airlie, and bring out some free jugs (pitchers) of beer for you. The crew come along, which is your chance to buy them a thank-you drink, and you generally party the evening away. It was nice to get to say a proper goodbye to the gang, do some dancing and collect email addresses. People say that you have to do the Whitsundays... and whilst we think that you don't have to do anywhere, we cannot recommend it strongly enough!
Once on board, our first impressions were that although we were told that this was one of the most spacious boats at around 24m long (83ft) and 6m (20ft) wide - it felt pretty cramped to begin with... it's designed to take 24 passengers, not just 15. Humans are adaptable things though, and by the end of the trip the boat really did feel big, especially as it had enough headroom to walk around upright just about everywhere. What I didn't realise until we were on board, was just how much we were going to be involved with the sailing of the boat. The Defender has raced around the world a few times, and when it does that, it has a crew of around 24 - which meant that with just 4 members of staff on-board, we were going to get pretty hands-on.
We didn't have enough wind on the first day, so we just motored it out to our first snorkelling spot - which gave us our first opportunity to wear our sexy Stinger Suits. Now, for those that don't know, the sea of the coast of Northern QLD at this time of year is plagued by "stingers" - jellyfish. Not just the usual painful variety that we all know and love, but they have two that are fatally poisonous - the easy to spot Box-Jellyfish which has stingers up to a few metres long, and the Irukandji, which are just the size of your little finger, and almost impossible to spot in the water. Nice, eh? Luckily though, wearing a full wet-suit gives a fair amount of protection from them - but for us travelling light, there's a lycra version. Yup, a full lycra cat-suit... complete with hood, gloves and socks! People call them the sexy suits, and although that's what we had, I think I can safely say that whilst Ren looked sexy in it, I did not! I mean, even if I was in shape, body-hair and lycra just do not mix! Anyway, it broke the ice a fair bit on board, by giving us all something to laugh about. The snorkelling was good, but I quickly realised that I'd been spoilt for conditions back on Ko Phi Phi - because the water here was fairly silty, and there's a lot more, well, "bits" in it. It was however, a beautiful blue colour, and there were thousands of fish around, include some huge Maori Wrasse. After that, we motored on to Nara Inlet on Hook Island where we moored for the night. The food on board was pretty darn good, thanks to Gill (our cook) and Scott (the ship's volunteer dog's-body), and most of us took the opportunity to take a swim before dark, which included Benny (the 1st Mate) trying to get as many of us as possible to backflip off the boat. Needless to say, Ren was the first of sadly just 3. While we were swimming, there were a few dolphins swimming around nearby, but sadly they didn't come too close. Everyone was pretty bushed, so after a few beers and some chilled-out chatting, we turned in for a hot, restless sleep.
We were up early the next day, early enough to see a small hammerhead shark swim past, which is always a little worrying, before we went onto the island to take a little bush-walk up top a lookout point above the inlet, and to see some aboriginal artwork. Yes, it still looked like children's finger-painting, but they'd dated as being there for thousands of years (albeit restored recently) so that was pretty cool. The weather was getting better by the day (and it started off ok) so it was great for photo's before we headed back down and set off for Whitehaven Beach. This place is phenomenal. Rated as one of the top beaches in the world, it is simply idyllic. The sand is pure and white, the "talcum powder sand" really does exist, and the bay is unbelievably beautfil. The sea is as warm as bath-water and completely clear, and the lookout we went to above the beach allows you to see the multitude of different coloured bars of sand that make it so pretty. Simply awesome - heh, which reminds me... One of the German girls (Berni) had revealed that she hated that word, which of course gave everyone (not just Ren) the idea to use it all the time! It was one of those great "group things" that everyone was laughing about all the time, one of those theme-like things that define a trip like this... and what a great definition - AWESOME!
We ate lunch, and moved on to Chalky Beach, to which we snorkelled from the boat - and this was where my appreciation of the Great Barrier Reef started to grow. The variety of life under the water here is incredible, and it's all just below the surface - no need to scuba-dive. The only thing that spoilt it was occasionally having to swim carefully between the stingers that were in the area - exciting, but a little disconcerting! We were in for a treat though after this, as the wind had picked-up enough for some sailing, so we finally got to work away at the grinders, and hoist the sails, put tacks in, and so on - we had a pretty scary moment, where one of the ropes slipped from the Rees's grasp (the skipper). This caused the boat to get on the wrong side of the wind, which brought it unexpected up on the wrong side. There was a pretty tense moment, where something couldn't broken, and the boat tipped so high we thought it was going to go over, but it all got sorted, and off we went. The sailing was great fun, just really really great fun, and we got to do it as the sun set, which was stunning. We stopped for the night in Pit Stop Bay, to another good meal and a few more drinks. We taught the Germans (and Swiss) some drinking games, included the international "claps" game, which worked pretty well. Twenty-ones also worked, surprisingly, but Cam's Cowboy/Hillbilly version of Zip-Boing-Bounce only caused confusion! It would've been nice to party maybe a little harder, but the days were just so full and busy, that if you weren't already tired, you wouldn't want to be hungover, because you didn't want to miss anything.
We had a quick morning snorkel with the jellyfish in that bay, before sailing out to meet a dive-boat for those interested in doing a scuba-dive. While they did that, the rest of us snorkelled, swam and lounged on the coral beach. Well, most of us - Renee decided that she's on some sort of mission to snorkel the entire length of the barrier reef, and she didn't come in for a few hours! The weather was glorious, and the crew all had these impish grins on their faces when they announced to us that there was some pretty good wind for the trip home. Now we all had the hang of it, the sailing was even better, and wow you can really tell that the boat is an ex-racing boat. It flies through the water, and tips (or is that "yaws"?) in the water, until you feel the deck is near-vertical. It was just breath-taking, and we didn't want it to end.
Another nice touch that these trips have, is that they reserve tables at Beaches bar in Airlie, and bring out some free jugs (pitchers) of beer for you. The crew come along, which is your chance to buy them a thank-you drink, and you generally party the evening away. It was nice to get to say a proper goodbye to the gang, do some dancing and collect email addresses. People say that you have to do the Whitsundays... and whilst we think that you don't have to do anywhere, we cannot recommend it strongly enough!
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Fraser Island / K'Gari
Phill: Fraser Island, 23/12 - This is the world's largest sandbar, and they say that anyone that goes to Fraser will take a little bit of it with them - in their socks, shoes, hair, eyes, bags, sandwiches, etc! They're not kidding - that sand gets everywhere! The island (called K'Gari by the Aboriginals) is simply beautiful, and that beauty is helped by the lack of building development, and a little hindered by the fact that it is a 4-wheel-drive playground. Still, it's a great place to do it, and it doesn't spoil it or anything - it just doesn't add to it - unless you're doing the driving! We only had time (and money) for a one-day bus tour, but we were really glad we did it as it was a great day out. The guide was really very informative, well-researched, and a little opinionated (which I've discovered I like in a guide, because it gives you more to think about. He talked the whole day, without repeating himself, or ever becoming boring - quite a skill.
The day started with the humourous spectacle of watching the people on self-drive safari's try to reverse their hire-vehicles for the first time, down a boat-ramp and onto the ferry... there were some hairy moments, and it made for great viewing. As soon as you get onto the island, the reason for having a 4WD bus becomes obvious, and fun as you bounce and slide your way down the main "road" through the forest. We crossed the width of the island (about 25km) passing through both "normal" forest and rainforest, before arriving at our resort for a brekkie of coffee and muffins. After that was one of the most fun bits of the tour - when the bus drives up the beach, which amazingly is registered as an official Australian highway... but then, judging by some of their roads, this was pretty good! It's pretty surreal, driving along the water's edge, and the views were great - including spotting a dingo - before arriving at our first stop of "The Pinnacles" which is a formation of multi-coloured sand. Our other stops were the Maheno ship wreck, Eli Creek, a good buffet-lunch, the Central [Ranger] Station, and Lake Birrowah. Like most of the lakes on Fraser, this lake is amazing. It's a "perch" lake, which means that it's a solid bowl formed from solidified dead-vegetation, and the water is entirely rainwater, making it one of the purest bodies of water you could ever swim in. The sand there is also almost pure silica, making it excellent for exfoliation and for removing scratches on glass or cleaning up jewellery, etc. It was quite something else to swim there - picturesque, cleansing, relaxing... lovely.
It would've been great to have done a self-drive, or to have stayed for more than one day, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss the guided tour - also we wanted to sail the Whitsundays, and simply didn't have the time and money to do both, something that's becoming more and more of an issue in Oz.
The day started with the humourous spectacle of watching the people on self-drive safari's try to reverse their hire-vehicles for the first time, down a boat-ramp and onto the ferry... there were some hairy moments, and it made for great viewing. As soon as you get onto the island, the reason for having a 4WD bus becomes obvious, and fun as you bounce and slide your way down the main "road" through the forest. We crossed the width of the island (about 25km) passing through both "normal" forest and rainforest, before arriving at our resort for a brekkie of coffee and muffins. After that was one of the most fun bits of the tour - when the bus drives up the beach, which amazingly is registered as an official Australian highway... but then, judging by some of their roads, this was pretty good! It's pretty surreal, driving along the water's edge, and the views were great - including spotting a dingo - before arriving at our first stop of "The Pinnacles" which is a formation of multi-coloured sand. Our other stops were the Maheno ship wreck, Eli Creek, a good buffet-lunch, the Central [Ranger] Station, and Lake Birrowah. Like most of the lakes on Fraser, this lake is amazing. It's a "perch" lake, which means that it's a solid bowl formed from solidified dead-vegetation, and the water is entirely rainwater, making it one of the purest bodies of water you could ever swim in. The sand there is also almost pure silica, making it excellent for exfoliation and for removing scratches on glass or cleaning up jewellery, etc. It was quite something else to swim there - picturesque, cleansing, relaxing... lovely.
It would've been great to have done a self-drive, or to have stayed for more than one day, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss the guided tour - also we wanted to sail the Whitsundays, and simply didn't have the time and money to do both, something that's becoming more and more of an issue in Oz.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Bris Vegas?
Phill: Brisbane, 15/12 to 19/12 - We arrived in Brisbane, which has some pretty funky rollercoaster highway right through the middle of it, and through a little bit of navigation, and a fair bit of luck, we found the campsite we were looking for pretty easily. It was a bit of a weird place, where we felt there were probably some permanent residents, but only a short bus ride into the town centre, so that was fine. Neither of us fancied drinking, so we got to know our way around town, grabbed some food and went to watch the second Bridget Jones movie. It left us both a little disappointed, not nearly as much humour as the 1st one we thought. Brisbane (for some reason called "Bris Vegas" by the locals, and we don't really know why) is a pretty cool place. We've no clear idea why, but it just feels like it's got just enough of everything going on - just enough people, just enough sights, just enough smart pubs, just enough scruffy ones, that sort of thing. While we were there, we went to the Queensland (QLD) Museum, saw City Hall and went up in the Clock Tower where this funky old Cypriot guy operates this ancient lift (elevator). We met the displays at The Brisbane Museum with mixed feelings, there was one in particular on asylum seekers that provoked a whole afternoon's conversation. It got a bit "arty" at one point though, with a looping video of a late middle-aged naked guy lying in the mud - no idea what that was supposed to be!?
Brisbane turned out to be a place of meetings, as we managed to get in touch with Jill that came snorkelling with us on Ko Phi Phi (Blog Entry) and meet up with her for coffee. We also arranged to pick her up after we'd been to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and give her a lift up to Mount Coot-tha. We got a bit lost on the way, but had a great time at the sanctuary - it's a really nice place (except perhaps for the caged birds) with lots of other animals to see and sometimes touch. The Koalas were particularly hyperactive, which made for some interesting sights. In fact, I'm becoming conviced that everyone gives the little "bears" a raw-deal by saying that all they do is sleep and eat, but Ren insists that I've been really lucky to see them doing so much, so who knows. We met Jill, and drove to Coot-tha for the splendid views over the city. There was also a walk to do, which was nice, but a bit disappointing - as the waterfall was dry from drought, and the Aborigonal art was a bit lame. I'll bet there are people that would call me uncultured, or something similar for saying that, but frankly if we started doing cave-paintings (which I can assure you, our races did back in the day), and saying that they were really cool because they were examples of historical human artwork, everyone would laugh - but we're all different, right? I've seen some great examples of Aboriginal Art, like the dot paintings, or cave-paintings that are actually 7000 years old... and they're great, but for us, some coloured rocks in a line, was not great.
Definitely the coolest thing about Brisbane though, was getting to meet up with Richard Grimmer, an ex-Mercator friend of ours. It was really fun to catch up with him, and sitting there in a pub that served pints instead of schooners, it felt like we just "carried on where we left off last time", you know? He was really busy with work, but still offered for us to come over and stay at his the following night, which we agreed to, before getting pleasantly inebriated and taking the bus home. We cheekily invited ourselves to stay for two nights, and it was well worth it. The first night we had a traditional Aussie BBQ - well, what else do you do as an American and Welshman, staying at the house of a German-Namibian/South-African married to an Italian-British-Zambian/South-African? It was great - their house is really nice, and spacious, with heaps of wildlife in the scary overgrown garden - I'm talking possums, huge spiders, and probably lots of other things best not though about. Out on their veranda, we had the dulcet tones of the local karaoke evening to amuse us, while we drank and talked away the evening. The second night we were there, Rich was supposed to be working from home, and he did a fair effort, but pretty soon succumbed to ice-cold beers on the balcony again. Getting to know Marisa better was fantastic, as it's a bit strange knowing a guy for a few years, and him marrying someone you've never met - all part of the nature of knowing people that are very "international" I guess. Anyway - it was one of those great evenings, where you talk about so much stuff that you can't remember any of it, but you enjoy it so much that when I turned around and said "Let's order pizza before they close" no-one believed me when I said it was coming up to midnight.
Our final Brisbane meeting, was unexpectedly bumping into Scott & Yselle from Byron Bay in the street just before we left Brisbane. Ren was just taking me to this funky 24-hour pancake house that was in a church before we left the city, and we saw them walking towards us in the street - so they came with us, we caught up on the last few days, had an awesome pancake, then drove on Northwards again.
Brisbane turned out to be a place of meetings, as we managed to get in touch with Jill that came snorkelling with us on Ko Phi Phi (Blog Entry) and meet up with her for coffee. We also arranged to pick her up after we'd been to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and give her a lift up to Mount Coot-tha. We got a bit lost on the way, but had a great time at the sanctuary - it's a really nice place (except perhaps for the caged birds) with lots of other animals to see and sometimes touch. The Koalas were particularly hyperactive, which made for some interesting sights. In fact, I'm becoming conviced that everyone gives the little "bears" a raw-deal by saying that all they do is sleep and eat, but Ren insists that I've been really lucky to see them doing so much, so who knows. We met Jill, and drove to Coot-tha for the splendid views over the city. There was also a walk to do, which was nice, but a bit disappointing - as the waterfall was dry from drought, and the Aborigonal art was a bit lame. I'll bet there are people that would call me uncultured, or something similar for saying that, but frankly if we started doing cave-paintings (which I can assure you, our races did back in the day), and saying that they were really cool because they were examples of historical human artwork, everyone would laugh - but we're all different, right? I've seen some great examples of Aboriginal Art, like the dot paintings, or cave-paintings that are actually 7000 years old... and they're great, but for us, some coloured rocks in a line, was not great.
Definitely the coolest thing about Brisbane though, was getting to meet up with Richard Grimmer, an ex-Mercator friend of ours. It was really fun to catch up with him, and sitting there in a pub that served pints instead of schooners, it felt like we just "carried on where we left off last time", you know? He was really busy with work, but still offered for us to come over and stay at his the following night, which we agreed to, before getting pleasantly inebriated and taking the bus home. We cheekily invited ourselves to stay for two nights, and it was well worth it. The first night we had a traditional Aussie BBQ - well, what else do you do as an American and Welshman, staying at the house of a German-Namibian/South-African married to an Italian-British-Zambian/South-African? It was great - their house is really nice, and spacious, with heaps of wildlife in the scary overgrown garden - I'm talking possums, huge spiders, and probably lots of other things best not though about. Out on their veranda, we had the dulcet tones of the local karaoke evening to amuse us, while we drank and talked away the evening. The second night we were there, Rich was supposed to be working from home, and he did a fair effort, but pretty soon succumbed to ice-cold beers on the balcony again. Getting to know Marisa better was fantastic, as it's a bit strange knowing a guy for a few years, and him marrying someone you've never met - all part of the nature of knowing people that are very "international" I guess. Anyway - it was one of those great evenings, where you talk about so much stuff that you can't remember any of it, but you enjoy it so much that when I turned around and said "Let's order pizza before they close" no-one believed me when I said it was coming up to midnight.
Our final Brisbane meeting, was unexpectedly bumping into Scott & Yselle from Byron Bay in the street just before we left Brisbane. Ren was just taking me to this funky 24-hour pancake house that was in a church before we left the city, and we saw them walking towards us in the street - so they came with us, we caught up on the last few days, had an awesome pancake, then drove on Northwards again.
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Byron Bay's Attraction Dawns On Us
We did the obvious, spending time at the beach, in the sea and in the bars - but there was really nothing that special about it. We also ate a few huge meals, and vowed to start splitting even more meals from then on.
One of the main reasons for Bryon being a whale-spotting point is that it's the Eastern-most point of the Australian mainland, so we took a walk up to the lighthouse one sunny day to admire the views. We weren't disappointed - although it was hot, and it was a good long walk - it was really beautiful up there, which gave us the idea of getting up in the morning to watch the sunrise, what better place?
Whilst doing our chores that afternoon, we met Scott and Yselle a couple from the South West of England, who we invited out for beers later. A quick internet search for the sunrise times,and a fantastic pizza later (Earth 'n' Sea pizza, yum!), we met them for a quick drink before the bar we were in closed for a staff Xmas party - sigh. So we headed back to the campsite, drunk a bottle of our Hunter Valley wine and chatted the night away and suggested that if they were up at 5am, they should come watch the sunrise with us. Amazingly, they did! We had perfect conditions, and it was simply spectacular. On the walk back, we spotted some dolphins, and the whole exerience was well worth getting up for - even if we did take a nap before heading off. After a quick tour of the hideously over-developed Surfer's Paradise (an ironic name it seems, not great surf, and more geared towards the relaxing holiday-maker than the budget traveller/surfer), we headed on towards Brisbane.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Coff's Harbour
Phill: Coff's Harbour, 11/12 to 12/12 - We drove on to the town of Coff's Harour, which at a glance seemed to be quite a similar little port-town to Port MacQuarie... thankfully, it was a bit more lively. We had a nice lunch, that was oversized, and a bit overpriced at a Cafe near the harbour - which had the added bonus of a pretty long motorcycle parade driving past (twice!). The riders had dressed-up or decorated their bikes for Xmas, and were hooting, revving and waving to everyone - it was pretty weird really, especially in the blazing sunshine. Nice though. We'd found an ok campsite near to town, with some interesting inhabitants, the funniest of which was a boy of about 8 years of age that ran around the place the whole time. He came up to us after we'd set-up our tent, and proudly informed us that his tent was bigger than ours, before running off again! The campsite owners had advised us that we could get cheap food at a nearby hotel, and sure enough, we ended up in a Weatherspoon's-like place, eating $9 meals and drinking cheap beer. More atmosphere than a Wheatherspoon's though, so that was fine too.
The next day, our online efforts were thwarted once again, so we grabbed brekkie from a supermarket, and drove until we found a nice stretch of beachfront at which to eat. Sitting there looking out to see, breaking our nocturnal fast, we wondered what marvels today would hold... and we soon found out - at the Big Banana! Well, at least it was better than the Big Oyster - in that rather than just a huge cement banana, there was actually a banana plantation there, plus shops selling banana souvenirs, banana smoothies, banana splits, etc, etc, etc! It was a bit of a laugh, and I needed a stubby-holder* anyway, so that broke-up our drive up the coast until we reached... wooooohoooo! The Big Prawn! Ok, so the Big Prawn wasn't so great... but it was big... and pink... and prawn-like. If we'd been hungry, there was also a fish and chip shop where you could get prawns of course... but we weren't, so it was more of a toilet-and-photo stop for us! Still funny though - what are these guys on? Actually... then again... it's us tourists that come here I guess??!
We saw some amazing views on this strech of the coastal road - everytime we crested a significant hill, you could see the beach stretching for miles. We made up some ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches (Ren's favourite) and ate them at one of the beautiful beaches. Australia may not only be about sand, sun and sea... but boy they do it well!
The next day, our online efforts were thwarted once again, so we grabbed brekkie from a supermarket, and drove until we found a nice stretch of beachfront at which to eat. Sitting there looking out to see, breaking our nocturnal fast, we wondered what marvels today would hold... and we soon found out - at the Big Banana! Well, at least it was better than the Big Oyster - in that rather than just a huge cement banana, there was actually a banana plantation there, plus shops selling banana souvenirs, banana smoothies, banana splits, etc, etc, etc! It was a bit of a laugh, and I needed a stubby-holder* anyway, so that broke-up our drive up the coast until we reached... wooooohoooo! The Big Prawn! Ok, so the Big Prawn wasn't so great... but it was big... and pink... and prawn-like. If we'd been hungry, there was also a fish and chip shop where you could get prawns of course... but we weren't, so it was more of a toilet-and-photo stop for us! Still funny though - what are these guys on? Actually... then again... it's us tourists that come here I guess??!
We saw some amazing views on this strech of the coastal road - everytime we crested a significant hill, you could see the beach stretching for miles. We made up some ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches (Ren's favourite) and ate them at one of the beautiful beaches. Australia may not only be about sand, sun and sea... but boy they do it well!
Friday, December 10, 2004
"Schoolies" Starts
Phill: Port MacQuarie, 10/12 to 11/12 - After driving for the rest of the day, only punctuated by a stop at a random place to eat steak pie for lunch (credit where it's due, Aussies take their pies seriously - which means they're pretty good), we arrived at Port MacQuarie. Thanks to the pouring rain, we had a moment of weakness, where we considered staying at a motel for the night instead, but figured that we had to learn to camp in the rain at some point - so we headed to our chosen campsite. Luckily, the rain eased-off, and no-one got seriously hurt. Port MacQuarie by night was a bit strange - very quiet, and not a lot going on. It took me until writing this journal entry (a month later) to realise, but it seemed that there were almost no bars there. After not having much luck finding somewhere to eat, we decided to give this pancake place a go. It was a bit odd, having savoury fillings (like bolognese) in a crepe, but it was pretty good and the salad that came with it was really good - pretzels, fruit, vegetables... really different. When we got back to the campsite, there was a bit of nightlife going on, and we were considering joining them - until we realised that they were 18 years old, or younger! Either that, or we're old enough now to think that anyone under 22 looks 18. Hmmm... anyway... we decided to head off to our tent and noticed that a strange stage-like structure had popped-up in the middle of our camping area - a bit odd...
So we awoke to blues skies, and surrounded by loads of people setting up stalls, sound and lighting, and all other sorts of fayre/concert related structures. It was the first time that Schoolies was going to affect us. "Schoolies" or "Schoolies' Week" is what the Aussies call the period of time just after the 18-year-old school leavers finish their exams. It generally results in a lot of parties and holidays for packs of teenagers for a few weeks in December. We found out that we'd got "lucky" and that this once-a-year concert-thing was happening today - yay. This was all within a few metres of our tent, and we realised that we were going to get no privacy that day, we didn't fancy being surrounded by kids, and we wanted out of Port MacQuarie anyway. So we packed up, took a walk around the harbour and drove out of there.
So we awoke to blues skies, and surrounded by loads of people setting up stalls, sound and lighting, and all other sorts of fayre/concert related structures. It was the first time that Schoolies was going to affect us. "Schoolies" or "Schoolies' Week" is what the Aussies call the period of time just after the 18-year-old school leavers finish their exams. It generally results in a lot of parties and holidays for packs of teenagers for a few weeks in December. We found out that we'd got "lucky" and that this once-a-year concert-thing was happening today - yay. This was all within a few metres of our tent, and we realised that we were going to get no privacy that day, we didn't fancy being surrounded by kids, and we wanted out of Port MacQuarie anyway. So we packed up, took a walk around the harbour and drove out of there.
Fototime again
We've uploaded and sorted another batch of pictures to our fototime account. It's taking far too much time in internet cafe's to caption them all - so if you have any questions, just email them to us! Available now are:
North Central Vietnam - Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue
Halong Bay - The boat trip, caves and Cat Ba Island
Hanoi - Vietnam's northern capital and surrounding sights
Vientiane - Capital of Laos, lots of temples
Luang Prabang - more temples, these photo's to be continued.
North Central Vietnam - Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue
Halong Bay - The boat trip, caves and Cat Ba Island
Hanoi - Vietnam's northern capital and surrounding sights
Vientiane - Capital of Laos, lots of temples
Luang Prabang - more temples, these photo's to be continued.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Wining and Dining
Phill: Hunter Valley, 7/12 to 9/12 - For those of you that don't know, Renee's sister (Eleana[bottom of page]) married an Australian guy (Brad - darn, can't find a picture). Last Xmas, we met Brad's lovely Mum (Fiona), his cool sister (Melanie) and her crazy fiance (Eric). Eric and Fiona (whoops! I mean Mel - Freud would have a lot to say about that?!) are now married, and living in Scone in the Hunter Valley of Australia, and very kindly invited us to visit them on our travels. As Port Stephens was thwarting us, we decided to head for a place near Mel and Eric called Musselbrook early enough to get online for a bit. Oh dear, what a mistake that was! Musselbrook is a bit of what the Aussie's call a "mining town" - in that there's no real reason to live there unless you're a miner. Internet access was just about achieved from the library, which is a new experience for me - and the area was a little, well... let's just say that the pub we went in had blue lighting in the toilets. Either way, there was enough to get our info on the area, and to get some boring chores done, so that was cool.
Mel came to guide us to their house later, and with the amount of unexpected gravel-road driving through what seemed to be people's farms, it was a good idea! They live in this fantastic place in the middle of nowhere, complete with a haybarn, their own free-range chooks (Aussie for chicken) and scenic views. Eric got back from work, excited as usual, and took us on an egg-hunt (the chooks hide them), before they made us a fantastic meal. We had a few beers, and talked until exhausted before settling down in the absolute luxury of a bed.
For those amongst us that aren't oenophiles, the Hunter Valley is famous for it's wine - so after a bit of a late start by all of us, we headed off for some wine-tasting. Eric was extremely generous, and agreed to drive for us - and so we set about the business of wine-tasting. It was truly great - and free! Luckily, thanks to Mel and Eric housing us, we had a bit of extra cash to spend, and figured the best way to repay them would be to buy wine and share it with them - perfect. Our bit of a lie-in meant that we only visited 2 wineries on the first day, but McGuigans was a good start for a 1st-timer (me), and we actually found a Chardonnay that we really liked (a rarity indeed). Shame that the fudge-factory next door had burnt-down, which Mel had been really looking forward to!
The next day we had an earlier start, and spent the whole day wine-tasting and buying. The absolute highlight was a Champagne House called Petersons, which did a number of sparkling wines including - shock, horror! - some sparkling reds! They were all superb! There was a odd place or two (a woman that blew hot and cold), and some other cool places (Tyrells specialising in Semillon)- and it was a really good day out, followed by a nice relaxed evening with Chinese take-away, TV and more chatting.
What we both remember about these few days, was laughing. Like after seeing some stand-up comedy, I can only recall a few specific moments - but my face ached after visiting those guys, and I couldn't believe that the next day would be our last... so we figured we should make the most of it...
Mel came to guide us to their house later, and with the amount of unexpected gravel-road driving through what seemed to be people's farms, it was a good idea! They live in this fantastic place in the middle of nowhere, complete with a haybarn, their own free-range chooks (Aussie for chicken) and scenic views. Eric got back from work, excited as usual, and took us on an egg-hunt (the chooks hide them), before they made us a fantastic meal. We had a few beers, and talked until exhausted before settling down in the absolute luxury of a bed.
For those amongst us that aren't oenophiles, the Hunter Valley is famous for it's wine - so after a bit of a late start by all of us, we headed off for some wine-tasting. Eric was extremely generous, and agreed to drive for us - and so we set about the business of wine-tasting. It was truly great - and free! Luckily, thanks to Mel and Eric housing us, we had a bit of extra cash to spend, and figured the best way to repay them would be to buy wine and share it with them - perfect. Our bit of a lie-in meant that we only visited 2 wineries on the first day, but McGuigans was a good start for a 1st-timer (me), and we actually found a Chardonnay that we really liked (a rarity indeed). Shame that the fudge-factory next door had burnt-down, which Mel had been really looking forward to!
The next day we had an earlier start, and spent the whole day wine-tasting and buying. The absolute highlight was a Champagne House called Petersons, which did a number of sparkling wines including - shock, horror! - some sparkling reds! They were all superb! There was a odd place or two (a woman that blew hot and cold), and some other cool places (Tyrells specialising in Semillon)- and it was a really good day out, followed by a nice relaxed evening with Chinese take-away, TV and more chatting.
What we both remember about these few days, was laughing. Like after seeing some stand-up comedy, I can only recall a few specific moments - but my face ached after visiting those guys, and I couldn't believe that the next day would be our last... so we figured we should make the most of it...
Friday, December 03, 2004
New Newcastle
Phill: Newcastle, 3/12 to 5/12 - We finally made it out of Sydney. Don't get me wrong - we liked Sydney, and liked it a whole lot more after we got out of King's Cross - but we'd spent about twice as long there as we had planned, and were keen to get moving again. Newcastle is a mid-sized town with a lot of good beaches, great surf, and a thumping music scene. It was to be my introduction to the fact, that even though Australia is only really populated around the coastline - 20 million people are still spread pretty thinly. Everywhere has this eerie "half-empty" feel to it - which makes you think that you're missing something on the other side of town, or that you've accidentally got up a few hours too early.
Anyway - we arrive at our next campsite, which is "just outside of Newcastle" - which means it was a 20 minute drive away! Also, after checking-in and paying, the guy leads us to a little patch of grass in between the pool and the BBQ and says we can pitch our tent there. I've only been to a few campsites in my life - but we both knew that this just wasn't right, and there weren't any other campers there, just cabins. We decided to go somewhere else, and although (after much arguing) the campsite owners admitted that they didn't really have tent-sites, they still stuck to their "no refunds" policy (there's a lot of that here). There weren't any campsites close to the town, so we went to the Grand Hotel. Although it was pretty cheap at $65 per night, our room was more like an apartment than a hotel room - 3 beds, a kitchen and bathroom. It was homely, but nice - and as we were there to party a little, we didn't mind that the pub below stayed open quite late. After running yet more car-relate chores, we took a walk down past the beach, where I saw proper surf for the first time ever - it's kind of weird really, it's not like the sea in Europe at all. We had a great, but pricey meal before heading to a bar on the jetty to see a live band. The band was mostly covers, but they were pretty good, playing stuff like Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers, etc. The strange thing though, was that the Xmas party season was upon us, and there was an office-load of people overindulging in the way that only office-workers at a Xmas party do. It made for quite entertaining watching, complete with one woman who Renee insisted (in her expert opinion) was the best 80s dancer in the world - and it wasn't a joke. It was good to get out, but it's not quite the same when it's just the 2 of you, so in the small hours, we went back and crashed out.
The next morning, even though it was only 9:30, the town was deserted, and the streets and shops empty. It honestly felt like the scenes from Vanilla Sky or 28 Days Later when the streets look like they should be busy, but they're not. Very odd. So after brekkie, we head to the beach to get in that surf - oh boy, is that scarey! It was sunny, but with a stiff breeze, making the waves easily taller than us. Ren assured me that the waves were unusually fierce, as they dumped down on my head for the 20th time in a few minutes. The power of the sea is terrifying, and with the recent tsumani news (at time of writing) I think we all know that. The water was also ice-cold, at least until you became numb to it - Ren also assures me that the water gets warmer up the coast (which I think she was just using as a mantra to help take her mind off how cold she was!). Burgers at the beach completed my idea of a typical Aussie afternoon, although we probably got a little more sunburnt than they do, especially Ren's lips again. True to form, w did a lot of walking that day - including the walk out along the breakwater, Nobby's Head, and a long section of the a walk along the many beaches, where signs tell you of the local history - including some salt-water swmming pools dug out of the rock at the sea's edge, which were pretty cool.
After being turned away from our 2 first choices for dinner (more Xmas parties), we lucked up a fantastic Italian place where all of the courses were good, the prices and service just right, and a neat little touch of being able to chose between large and small serving sizes - how cool is that? Mmmm... baked banana's with Tim-Tam ice-cream. It's called San Franco - find it, eat there! In our wanderings, we came across some sites where the timber-mills used to be, where convicts were "forced" to work, but the whole town was a little bit dead, and we were beat from a day of too much sun, so we turned-in early.
Our last morning was even quieter than the others - there was no-one around, so we took a very long walk up to the obelisk on the hill, and a little more of the "Beaches Walk", before we headed on up to Port Stephens.
Anyway - we arrive at our next campsite, which is "just outside of Newcastle" - which means it was a 20 minute drive away! Also, after checking-in and paying, the guy leads us to a little patch of grass in between the pool and the BBQ and says we can pitch our tent there. I've only been to a few campsites in my life - but we both knew that this just wasn't right, and there weren't any other campers there, just cabins. We decided to go somewhere else, and although (after much arguing) the campsite owners admitted that they didn't really have tent-sites, they still stuck to their "no refunds" policy (there's a lot of that here). There weren't any campsites close to the town, so we went to the Grand Hotel. Although it was pretty cheap at $65 per night, our room was more like an apartment than a hotel room - 3 beds, a kitchen and bathroom. It was homely, but nice - and as we were there to party a little, we didn't mind that the pub below stayed open quite late. After running yet more car-relate chores, we took a walk down past the beach, where I saw proper surf for the first time ever - it's kind of weird really, it's not like the sea in Europe at all. We had a great, but pricey meal before heading to a bar on the jetty to see a live band. The band was mostly covers, but they were pretty good, playing stuff like Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers, etc. The strange thing though, was that the Xmas party season was upon us, and there was an office-load of people overindulging in the way that only office-workers at a Xmas party do. It made for quite entertaining watching, complete with one woman who Renee insisted (in her expert opinion) was the best 80s dancer in the world - and it wasn't a joke. It was good to get out, but it's not quite the same when it's just the 2 of you, so in the small hours, we went back and crashed out.
The next morning, even though it was only 9:30, the town was deserted, and the streets and shops empty. It honestly felt like the scenes from Vanilla Sky or 28 Days Later when the streets look like they should be busy, but they're not. Very odd. So after brekkie, we head to the beach to get in that surf - oh boy, is that scarey! It was sunny, but with a stiff breeze, making the waves easily taller than us. Ren assured me that the waves were unusually fierce, as they dumped down on my head for the 20th time in a few minutes. The power of the sea is terrifying, and with the recent tsumani news (at time of writing) I think we all know that. The water was also ice-cold, at least until you became numb to it - Ren also assures me that the water gets warmer up the coast (which I think she was just using as a mantra to help take her mind off how cold she was!). Burgers at the beach completed my idea of a typical Aussie afternoon, although we probably got a little more sunburnt than they do, especially Ren's lips again. True to form, w did a lot of walking that day - including the walk out along the breakwater, Nobby's Head, and a long section of the a walk along the many beaches, where signs tell you of the local history - including some salt-water swmming pools dug out of the rock at the sea's edge, which were pretty cool.
After being turned away from our 2 first choices for dinner (more Xmas parties), we lucked up a fantastic Italian place where all of the courses were good, the prices and service just right, and a neat little touch of being able to chose between large and small serving sizes - how cool is that? Mmmm... baked banana's with Tim-Tam ice-cream. It's called San Franco - find it, eat there! In our wanderings, we came across some sites where the timber-mills used to be, where convicts were "forced" to work, but the whole town was a little bit dead, and we were beat from a day of too much sun, so we turned-in early.
Our last morning was even quieter than the others - there was no-one around, so we took a very long walk up to the obelisk on the hill, and a little more of the "Beaches Walk", before we headed on up to Port Stephens.
