Australia 2005

A trip to Australia with James and Jon, travelling from Cairns to Sydney and seeing all the sites.

Sydney 1

Sat 17th April - Fly from London to Singapore (12 hours) and then from Singapore to Sydney (9 hours).
Sunday - Arrive in Sydney in the evening and go out for great Thai food under Sydney Harbour Bridge with James's mate Lloyd. Stay over at his.
Monday - Take the ferry into town and see the sights: Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Botanical Gardens, The Rocks etc.
Take the afternoon flight to...

Cairnes

Monday 19th - Arrive in Cairns to be greeted by Jonny and Harry (his car). Jon drives James and me over to our first backpackers - Calypso - where Jon's booked a room for the three of us. We eat a delightful meal, and soundly thrash everyone in a pub quiz, winning lots of free lager and the next evening's meal. Would have won the best team name too, but they couldn't give us both prizes. Venture into town for the evening, and visit The Woolshed - a delightful place.
Tuesday - Visit Cairns's beach - a swimming pool with sand around it. Most annoying bloke on the world starts tagging along with us. Do a bit of shopping and then repeat the previous night's activities, although this time we're pipped in the quiz by a single point!
Wednesday - Join another 90 people for a sail out to the Great Barrier Reef and dive and snorkel with tons of coral fish (Nemo), coral, sharks, giant clams, sea cucumbers, turtles, star fish, lion_fish. Jon, with his PADI certificate, is too cool to dive with the beginners and James has beathing problems, so we don't actually dive together, but beautiful anyway.
Thursday - off to...

Whitsundays

Thursday 22nd - Arrive in Airlie Beach in the evening and head to the Koala's backpacker hostel. This time we're in a dorm, but luckily it seems quiet and after an early night (me) or late night (Jmes and Jon), we get up early head down to the docks.
Friday - meet the other 5 passengers and 3 crew of the Kiana for a 3 day boat trip round the Whitsunday Islands. Very beautiful and go snorkeling again in some of the bays. Weather not so good, but probably a blessing. Visit Whitehaven Beach - stunning. Good food cooked by the crew - lamb, potatoes and veg. Dreadful night's sleep.
Sat - 3 dives in one day (4 for Jon). James gets his breathing sorted this time, so we get to dive together. See lots more fish and coral, and James and Dig chase a black-tipped reef shark - aren't we hard?!? Not diving the next day, so drinking games with the others and a better night's sleep.
Sun - more snorkeling in another bay, a bit of a sail, and spend a few hours relaxing in one of the islands' resorts, before coming back to shore.
Sun evening - try to book into a nicer place, but all booked up so back to same backpackers with a locked bathroom / loo - great. Meet up with rest of boat trip people to collect photos from extremely rude owner of boat. Another early night for me, and boys make there own way back later.
Mon - up early for long drive to...

Hervey Bay

...Hervey Bay. Arrive late to find grim backpackers, sharing with a pig and two shaggers. Vow never to go in another.
Tues - Hire a big 4x4 and head over to Fraser Island. Miss the first ferry because we're clowning around in the supermarket buying food, so just have to wait 4 hours for the next one, but get over and do a bit of sight-seeing before heading up the coast to camp! We erect the tent in the semi-light, and Jon kindly cooks us dinner in the moonlight. We're joined by a couple of scavenging dingoes, but they bugger off once the food's eaten.
Wed - Up at the crack of dawn to head up to Indian Head, and then try and visit most of the sights on the way down - Maheno Wreck, Eli Creek, Lake Wabby and get to Lake Mackenzie for a while to sunbathe for a few mins before it starts poring with rain. So we pack up the car and sit in a bar until it's time to head home.
Book into a motel for the evening - even Jon fancies carpets and clean towels for a change.

Brisbane

Thurs - Drive to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, an hour or so north of Brisbane. See koalas, kangaroos, wombats, crocodiles and strangely, elephants.
Then on to Brisbane for the evening and stay with a friend of Jon who works at a backpacker. She gets us a nice couple of rooms with clean kitchen and showers. Stay the night and check out Brisbane in the morning.
Friday - Drive down the coast for a couple of hours to Byron Bay, as the weather turns from generally cloudy to completely clear blue skies. We try a few bars and end up dancing in Cocomangas (or something).
Sat - Surfing. This is what Byron Bay is all about, but the only beach with good surf isn't beginner level, and we're on advanced boards, so all spend the day drinking and inhaling the sea. Not much fun.
Sun - Better beach, with nice small beginner waves. James and Jon both manager varying degrees of being able to stand up (2 and 5 seconds respectively) while I manage 1/2 a second on my knees before being thrown off. Much more fun, although for some reason the board is covered in wax to pull your chest hair out. Not great for me, but agony for monkey-James!
Stay one more night in our prison cell - a dorm for three, but somehow crammed into 4ft². 12 hour journey in the morning to...

Sydney 2

Arrive back in Sydney, and this time we're not messing about with backpackers and just book into Radisson's Hotel on Manly beach. Best night's sleep anyone has had all holiday, and such a pleasure having clean towels and not have to wear flip-flops in the shower to prevent diseases.
Went out to delicious fish restaurant, and stuffed ourselves stupid.
Tues - Bit of shopping and then Jon has to take me and James to the airport - that's it.
And a quick 24 hours later we both at home. No jetlag on the way out, and just trying to fight it off now. Work tomorrow - woohoo...