World Travels: Final Leg

FInally onto our final part of our world travels. Hitting the Middle East, Asia and now Australia we'd covered a lot of ground! Our travels ended in June 2005 but I must admit it still feels like we're on holiday, even 15 months later since living in Aus!

• Email: the beginning

Australia: it's just the beginning of the end

Email Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005
Subject: Queensland

....beautiful one day perfect the next.

This is Queensland's slogan and pretty well much justifies it in one sentence!

Queensland being our last area to visit and lasting just over 4 weeks has come to a memorable end. Queensland has offered us much variety and we've covered so much land! Unfortunately now, our backpacks are seeking semi retirement but also With over 3 months travelling under our belts, the bank manager has drawn our travels to a sharp close, demanding working life to commence, bugger!

As I wrote in my last email we had just arrived in Noosa on the southern coastal part of Queensland, Australia. To give you an idea of the size of Queensland, it bodes over 1000km of coastline and we pretty well much covered it all overland! Again as I previously wrote we hit Brisbane then onto Surfers paradise and down to Byron Bay for ANZAC weekend (New South Wales). We ventured back up to Brisbane then onto Noosa, on the "Sunshine coast", 100km up the east coast. Noosa is a quiet beach town exuding wealth and beauty. Our hostel was near Sunshine beach and only an hours walk through a National Park to Noosa main beach. With my second pair of newly bought "boardies" we hit both beaches every day for the three days we were there. Sunshine beach was not for the faint hearted. With tumbling waves, renowned for great surf and frequent rip tides it felt pretty hairy venturing into the sea. But, as we were now newly trained body surfers by Big A in Byron Bay we took to the waves like a Guppy to hot tropical waters. With the occasional swallowing of densely salted water, the art of catching tube waves was beginning to be mastered, but as Big A always said, "look for the back door mate!!"...meaning if there's one big wave coming there's another big f*ck off wave behind it - beauty mate, beauty!!!

We took it easy in Noosa. The first night we ate some long awaited Thai food - it was good to eat phad Thai noodles again, a definite reminder of our travels in Thailand! We managed to catch a film too - "Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" - good to see the Brits are still making first class films, speaking of films I forgot to mention in my last email we saw a film for free called "The Extra" in Byron Bay. Jimeoine was the main act but also wrote it. He's Irish but been living in Aus for over 30 years. The film was superb but what made it was his guest appearance, nice touch! He was promoting his film but he did a 20 minute stand up show before the film and was quite funny, boy have we seen a few comedians since being in Aus. On our final night in Noosa, we hit an RSL - Return to Service League gentleman's club. It's a subsidised club for ex army officers but as a British citizen we can get in too, beauty! I got my chops round yet another succulent Rump steak, washed down by Aussie's finest lagers but we thought we'd treat ourselves to a night on the "Pokies"!! After a little success in Campbelltown and Byron Bay (well Big A found A$25 in a pokie tray) we were confident....how wrong us gamblers can be! Luckily there were two old Aussies playing too and got chatting. One guy had said he'd travelled Europe and met many locals who'd bought him drinks and lent him money along the way, so he kindly said he'd return the favour via us - he got his mate to buy a drink and give us a $1 to play on the pokies, ha ha, good work!

After a relaxing time in Noosa we headed up the ever lasting Queensland coast to Hervey Bay. It was here that we were going to do a 2 day organised adventure to Fraser island, the largest sand island in the world and inhabits 100% Dingo's. After 11 hours on an overnight coach we checked into the "Friendly Hostel" and boy was it friendly. In fact, from this hostel onwards and up the Queensland coast, our accommodation got cleaner and friendlier all for a good price. The friendly hostel was more like the homely hostel. With a communal kitchen for only 4 people (most hostels share kitchens for over 20!) and a balcony to lounge around and a barbie to use we didn't want to leave. But, with our trip booked for an early start the following morning we packed an overnight bag, left our backpacks in storage and ventured across to Fraser Island for what turned out to be a fantastic adventure but also there were three new additions to our tour up Queensland's stunning coast!

With around 25 people on a 4WD coach we cruised around Fraser Island. Mostly travelling along the coastal beach we saw over three types of Rain forest, three ranges of fresh water lagoons, two dingos and one flat tyre. The first day was a whole day and gradually as a group we were all getting on well. By the end of the day we'd befriended two great Danes called Trina and Benetta and a Swiss called Andrea - these were later to be our three new additions - they were later known as Snuffle puff, bagpuss and fun time Franky! Staying overnight we thought we were going to experience our first dormitory share - but low and behold me and V were alone! A flooding toilet was a little inconvenient but every dorm had one, but I think I won the award for flooding the dorm the most. For some reason after a long morning in the shower the toilet had a mind of it's own and spilled itself not only onto the bathroom floor but also into our dorm - boy it was like watching a tubular wave crash into Byron Bay!!! Luckily our clothes were out of reach.

Our second day on Fraser Island was just as fun and Gregg, our tour leader was inundating us with fascinating facts about coastal erosion to confirming daddy long legs carries the deadliest poison - he was quite funny and had a reputation taming the girls! Our two day adventure went quickly but we were returned to our friendly hostel, great door to door service. We arranged to meet later that night in a pub with the two great Danes and three Swiss. In fact Gregg, his young girlfriend, his sister and brother in law came along too - schooners of beer, wine and Bundaberg were consumed but what we later found out was that all but two of the Swiss were travelling up to the same destination along Queensland - Airlie Beach.

We travelled overnight for 12 hours up the Queensland coast, further towards the tropic of Capricorn. The great Danes were on our coach and the Swiss, fun time Frankie, on another coach, arrived roughly the same time as us. We booked ourselves a triple room at "Bush Village" hostel, a 10 minute walk from Airlie town centre, whilst the great Danes were elsewhere. The reason for going to Airlie beach was to sail round the Whitsunday Islands, luckily

Friendly Hostel were exceptionally helpful and had booked us on a three night sail on a Japanese Pearl lugger owned by Captain Sparrow and his Japanese girlfriend Machi. What was amazing was that this sailing boat was their home so we felt privileged to be invited on board!

The trip started the day before lady V's birthday and knew it was a perfect way to spend it, albeit away from her "other half" (twin sis), family and friends back home. The boat housed 8 people and the beds were all in a tight compact cabin underneath the deck. In fact, there were only seven which meant more food to go round, all of which was deliciously prepared and cooked by Machi. There were three 18 year old lads from Brighton called Dan, Matt and Alex and a couple from Watford called Dean and Emma. By the end of the trip Matt was called "the shark tamer" and Dean "Mr.U-bend", both I'll explain later, ha ha. The sea was a little rough the first day and sailing out to the Islands was an experience. With me going a little green and Lady V nearly going overboard we made it to our first rest spot for the night - a quiet secluded bay. As we came off the choppy waters we saw two dolphins leisurely swimming away, a fantastic start to a memorable trip. Captain Sparrow calmly anchored us in, fired the barbie and cooked us our first bit of kangaroo - beauty!! Machi prepared salads, pasta etc to accompany Australia's national tasty delicacy. Whilst they cooked we had our first experience of fishing - embarrassingly we didn't even get a bight - in fact, it was only the "kids" from Brighton that did catch any. Matt managed to catch a baby shark, hence his nickname.

The first night Sparrow recommended me and V slept up on deck as he feared the weather may turn for the worst. So we did..but boy was that a mistake. Cramped up in our sleeping bags the rain decidedly came thrashing down all night! Although we were under canvas the rain still blew in from the sides - we got about two hours sleep along with a small cold and wet sleeping bags!! But at least we braved the whole night and waking up on deck for lady V's birthday was an achievement! I'd also arranged with Machi a birthday cake to be presented but also told Machi about lady V's infatuation with her yellow herbal friends, bananas - all of which were finely delivered in the evening at the end of perfect day!

The sun was blazing and myself and captain Sparrow up-anchored and the Ise Pearl sailed the Pacific Ocean purely by it's sails, beauty! As the sails went up so I serenaded to the rest of the boat, singing Enya "Sail away, sail away.." and David Grey "Sail away with me honey..." I was not overly popular with lady V or the rest of the boat members, but at least captain Sparrow and Machi appreciated it, I think! We anchored at another bay and was time to do some snorkeling. Because the islands were populated by thousands of jelly fish we had to wear "stinger suits" - this covered us head to toe in black rubber - kinky! This was our first experience of the Barrier Reef - the coral was so bright and the fish so colourful. We were on the hunt for reef shark and turtles but to no avail but boy did we see some large fish!! I also managed to feed pita bread to a few large fish hanging around the boat (from my mouth) whilst this was going on Machi had prepared lunch fit for a king - we were about to eat the best food for three days!! We celebrated lady V's birthday at night - with plenty of wine and beer we'd bought before we got onto the ship there was no shortage. Lady V was presented with a cake after dinner but unfortunately everyone had eaten so much dinner (banana in lady V's case) we couldn't manage a single slice. Luckily the cake was small and I'm sure Captain Sparrow took great delight in eating it. We played cards along with drinking forfeits all night in the cabin as it was heavy winds and rain outside and we didn't make the same mistake of sleeping up on deck, although being so crampt in the cabin we all had sore heads in the morning but not just from the drink, ouch!

The following day was again perfect sunshine, although further out to sea Captain Sparrow had said it was too rough for his ship to sail around to whitehaven beach, apparently a stunning beach which is where most modern ship sail to. We were a little disappointed but we were still lucky to be on the best looking ship in the Whitsundays! We did more snorkeling and I was lucky to swim with a huge turtle. Alex had spotted him and tried to call everyone over but only myself and Mr.U-bend heard! Speaking of Mr.U-bend, he got this name by confessing his regular experience of having to unblock "things" from the u-bend of his toilet as well as the one on the Ise Pearl...Anyway, the turtle was swimming near the surface and coming up for air. He reared his prehistoric head, took two breaths and dived back down. As he dove we stroked his shell and felt his flippers. Amazing. Sparrow boated us all over to a small secluded beach (I think so Machi and Sparrow could have some time alone). We had a frisbee, football and American football to keep ourselves amused for a few hours, so we were all happy. As dusk fell, so we experienced the sun set over the horizon. We were lucky enough to experience this twice in a row - unbelievable. Sparrow told us to look out for the green flash of light once the top edge of the sun hit the ocean - it was very bright and over in seconds. As the sun did fall, the ocean below came to life. As I mentioned before the Brighton lads were successful in fishing. They were catching huge fish but the minute, but it was Matt who caught the catch of the day. A 4ft long baby shark. Using only a reel as a fishing rod you could see the power of shark, desperately trying to unhook itself. Matt managed to get him up on board and Captain Sparrow took over. Most of the fish have to be put back and this shark definitely had to be, but with a few proud photos taken and Sparrow chasing us round the boat with the shark, he plunged back into the ocean. Perhaps one day the shark may get his revenge??...

After three memorable nights we sailed back to shore and what seemed a long time from mainland Australia! Again we had a rocky return but was fantastic to see the waves crashing on board and always looking out for the "back door" wave! We returned to Airlie marine at around midday, Machi took a group photo and Captain Sparrow took us to shore in his mini-speed boat....our sailing days were now over but with whale spotting from June to

October we'd definitely be hitting the Pacific Ocean very soon. We celebrated our great trip with a few more beers with Emma and Mr.U-bend before we headed back to the hostel, picked up our backpacks and boarded a coach, hopefully for the last time, to make our way up to Cairns, a mere 12 hours up the road.

We'd allowed ourselves a week in Cairns as so many people had told us there was lots to do and there was, funds permitting. We stayed at Tropic days, another fantastic hostel with plenty of entertainment at night. We travelled up with the great Danes and fun time Frankie was there waiting for us, so again the Fraser Is possy were reunited. We all booked ourselves onto a trip up to Cape Tribulation, a 2 hours ride deep into the tropical rain forest. We were staying overnight so booked ourselves in for a horse ride through forestation and along Cape Tribulation beach, a world heritage protected area, the following morning. We visited a bird sanctuary that also had kangaroos you could feed and wake up more sleeping koalas. We saw for the first time a "flamin gallah", which as we know became a catchphrase used by Alf in Home and Away. It's "flamin" because of gallah's bright pink firey belly...so there you go. We also did a trek into another tropical rain forest and managed to see a little wildlife (most of the time you're told you'll see wildlife on treks or marine life on boat trips but 9/10 times you don't!). We saw a token lizard, but no ordinary lizard, a red under bellied snake and er a spider - wow. There was an amazing fresh water river which a few of us did swim in which was a bit scary, especially when it's teaming with crocodiles! Speaking of crocodiles, we also had a boat trip along Daintree river, renowned for estuarine (meaning sea water meets fresh water) crocodiles sleeping along it's muddy banks! We managed to see three. Two on the banks but one which eerily swam alongside our boat with it's jagged long nose breaking the surface of the water, keeping a beady eye on the intruders. Also along the banks we saw two snakes hanging on branches and a token Kingfisher diving for small fish, so we were quite lucky. At night we stayed at a hostel and we were all sharing a dorm - couldn't complain sharing with 4 other girls! We drank lots of beer and played lots of killer pool. The following day we did our horse trek. Now don't get me wrong, this definitely was not my idea but must admit glad I did it. Me and V went in as novice riders but came out as race jockeys! Our horses were called Popeye and Gonzo, ha ha, but they were the best of friends; trotting at the back they never wanted to leave each others side! V had to use a small stick to get Gonzo moving but we had two chances of galloping and boy did they move! Again I was surrounded by girls, we were joined by three girls from Tunbridge Wells (incidentally knew JP, small world hey) but it was great fun. We rode for over 3 hours a late lunch and headed back to Cairns with severe saddle sore, ouch!!

We also booked ourselves in for a trip out to the barrier reef. We headed out sea on a modern catamaran, not a patch on the Ise pearl but because it was only a day trip we needed to get out to sea, fast! The weather turned out to be superb. Cairns was now, peak season, albeit their winter but it was a clear 29 degrees, beauty mate! It had been raining a little on and off but our last three days in Cairns were glorious sunshine, a perfect way to end our travels. We did our snorkeling, whilst others were diving - apparently it's safer to dive if there are sharks around as if you're splashing around the surface the shark may think you're a juicy sea lion and go in for the kill!!....with this in mind we still braved it. The various colours of fish were fantastic. We saw "Nemo" and his friends, squid, stingrays, clams, starfish and much more - stunning. I think we're now getting used to the ocean and what a bit more intrigued as to what it has to offer so perhaps we'll do a dive at some point but for now we'll stick to being shark bate!

We spent our remaining days in Cairns relaxing around the public lagoon (no beach) and had our farewell drinks with the great Danes and the Swiss last Friday night. We had a flight booked back to Sydney last Saturday and was sad to leave the glorious sunshine of Queensland and head back to, believe it or not, the wet and cold gloom of New South Wales! As we took of we had an amazing view of Cairns coastline. With clear blue sky we witnessed sunset at 35,000 feet, our travels had now ended after 3 months, boy we've so much, but I know this won't be the end of it!!

So now our life in Sydney begins.

We headed straight back to lady V's relatives in Campbelltown where we'd left half our gear before we went to Queensland. Again eating more tasty home cooked food and nearly polishing off my second slab of VB in two days we headed for Vaucluse, 20 minutes outside Sydney CBD, to stay with our Aussie friend Kim for a week. Our aim was to find a flat in Coogee but as we found out yesterday we have managed to find a one bedroom flat to rent within a day and a half of looking! The estate agents in Randwick were so unhelpful but there was one agent that willingly helped and drove us to what will now be our home for the remaining 8 months of our visa!! It's a newly built apartment behind shops with a bathroom and integrated kitchen and lounge but more importantly it has a balcony, so we can enjoy the warm Summer nights sipping our alcoholic refreshments! The rent is half what we paid in London but I must admit is probably the most expensive apartment per square foot!

We move in on Monday and lady V's nursing starts Tuesday night, so within a week already we'll be slipping back to the grindstone that we all love to hate!

"Tell him he's dreeeeamin'....."

Cheers,

Dougal and Vicky well and truly down under.

p.s C'mon you Irooooons!

p.p.s Photos attached of Moreton Is (Brisbane), Main Beach next to Surfers Paradise (Gold Coast), view from Indian Heads of Fraser Is, night out in Hervey bay with Danes & Swiss, night out on deck of the Ise Pearl, legendary Machi and Captain Sparrow, baby shark, playing cards in the cabin, over friendly kangaroos, Popeye and Gonzo, me and lots of girls, shark bate, Cairns lagoon, me and V out for our last night with the great Danes and Swiss.