Hello!
The only other trouble with these pre-booked tours (apart from Sly-Sid of Travelbagdom's grey hair fetish) is that when you finally come round to going on them, you have no idea what to expect and it become a serious case of await-your-magical-tour-tomorrow-at-[insert pick up time].
Today's mystery tour collected us at the more respectable time of 9:15 (Darren shouts hooray). We boarded the Quicksilver at 9:30 for our outer Barrier Reef Cruise and arrived at the pontoon at 11:30. Meanwhile, we were informed that out ticket included a helicopter ride over the Great Barrier Reef. What?! You're kidding?! Well Sid, for all our whinging, you really have pulled it out the onion bag in Port Douglas.
As we journeyed out to the pontoon, we were also sold on the Scuba Diving Into upgrade, which allows non-certified scuba divers (like Darren and Myself) to do a little more than snorkeling.
It didn't take long for the Supervisor to sniff out my asthma and promptly informed me that it would prevent me from diving in Queensland (and thus the GBR) as regulations are very strict in this part of the world. (I have since found out that you can take a diving medical exam at the surgery down the road and are permitted to dive a certificate to prove your lung capacity bla bla bla. Grr.)
I insisted that Darren did it anyway and I joined the back of the Guided Snorkeling Tour.
After the most impressive helicopter flight I have ever experienced (I can say that now I've done 2!) We grabbed a quick bite to eat before donning our Stinger Suits (I can't remember if I explained this already - We're in stinger season so you have to wear tight Lycra suits to stop you being attacked by a jellyfish) and heading to our respective meeting points.
Can you imagine it? ME! Scaredy-Sharky-Pants-Louise - Actually going snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef!! Something I NEVER thought in a million years I would do! But there I was, boarding the boat with several other snorkelers and 2 marine biologists. Jumping out of a plane rids you of many fears it would seem! Agincourt Reef 4 was 10 minutes away and the snorkel tour was MUCH better than I expected. I even got to see a shark!!!! ...... only a small reef shark that wasn't the slightest bit interested in taking a bite out of me but still!! And I saw real life Nemos!!!!
Darren also had an awesome time diving and obviously got to watch things for longer than me but the reef where he was diving was a lot deeper so I'd like to think that our experiences were equally enjoyable.
Better still were the DVDs we got to watch of ourselves looking silly on the trip back to land!
We're still battling with the backlog of photos to upload so keep checking them! We also bought 2 underwater cameras so we mights scan a couple of those in when we're back home for you to look at!
Seeya! Lou x
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Is that cable strong enough?
Don't you just love it when you go on a trip that you paid for ages ago?
Gigs are a good example of this... you buy the ticket so far in advance that by the time the date comes round, all you have to worry about is getting there.
The same applies to our day trip today. Booked and paid for back in the UK with no need to hand over any dwindling holiday coffers. Bonza dans le Ragga Tip.
The Skyrail is about 40 minutes drive (on the complimentary shuttle) South from Port Douglas back towards Cairns and is the longest cable car in the world spanning Barron Falls and leading to Kuranda.
The journey itself was very peaceful but required changing from one 4 person car to another at two different stages along the way. In total, three separate journeys, with three different sets of occupants and therefore three awkward conversations. Each way. Yawn.
Pretty soon, I'm just going to start making stuff up to try and make things more interesting:
"So, where you guys from?"
"You wouldn't have heard of it... a small planet called Shnurf just outside the Gamma Quadrant. And you?"
After swooping above the rain forest canopy and checking out the stunning views, we finally arrived at the lovely little village of Kuranda, where we stopped for lunch and awaited our pick up to 'Rainforestation'.
As wildlife parks go, this one was right up there with the best of them. We had a guided tour of the animal park which explained in detail all about Koalas, Crocs, Kangaroos, Wallabies and various birds followed by another guided trip in an Army Duck (an amphibious WW II 6 wheel vehicle) around the rain forest and river.
A highly entertaining Aboriginal 'Dreamtime' show was next up followed by demonstrations on spear throwing, Didgeridoo playing and Boomerang throwing which we were able to have a go at.
WARNING: Lou is a natural. Don't get on the wrong side of her.
On the way back on the cable car, we stopped off for a mooch at both stations to take in some more of the spectacular views before being 'shuttled' back to our hotel.
Total cost today? £0.00 NICE!
Darren
Gigs are a good example of this... you buy the ticket so far in advance that by the time the date comes round, all you have to worry about is getting there.
The same applies to our day trip today. Booked and paid for back in the UK with no need to hand over any dwindling holiday coffers. Bonza dans le Ragga Tip.
The Skyrail is about 40 minutes drive (on the complimentary shuttle) South from Port Douglas back towards Cairns and is the longest cable car in the world spanning Barron Falls and leading to Kuranda.
The journey itself was very peaceful but required changing from one 4 person car to another at two different stages along the way. In total, three separate journeys, with three different sets of occupants and therefore three awkward conversations. Each way. Yawn.
Pretty soon, I'm just going to start making stuff up to try and make things more interesting:
"So, where you guys from?"
"You wouldn't have heard of it... a small planet called Shnurf just outside the Gamma Quadrant. And you?"
After swooping above the rain forest canopy and checking out the stunning views, we finally arrived at the lovely little village of Kuranda, where we stopped for lunch and awaited our pick up to 'Rainforestation'.
As wildlife parks go, this one was right up there with the best of them. We had a guided tour of the animal park which explained in detail all about Koalas, Crocs, Kangaroos, Wallabies and various birds followed by another guided trip in an Army Duck (an amphibious WW II 6 wheel vehicle) around the rain forest and river.
A highly entertaining Aboriginal 'Dreamtime' show was next up followed by demonstrations on spear throwing, Didgeridoo playing and Boomerang throwing which we were able to have a go at.
WARNING: Lou is a natural. Don't get on the wrong side of her.
On the way back on the cable car, we stopped off for a mooch at both stations to take in some more of the spectacular views before being 'shuttled' back to our hotel.
Total cost today? £0.00 NICE!
Darren
Saturday, March 24, 2007
East Coast Update
It's not that we've just been lazy with blog writing, it's just that fun packed activities are a bit thin on the ground on the East Coast of Australia. It's been cool, though, it's at least given us a chance to save a bit of money and do a pit of relaxing by the pool and tan top-up!
We left Hervey Bay (see last entry) and headed North for Bundaberg. Bundaberg is famous for making Ginger Beer and Rum. Being extremely fond of the ginger delights that come from the Bundaberg Factory, Darren insisted we seek out a factory tour. Much to his excitement, we found 'The Bundaberg Barrel', a short interactive tour on the history of Bundaberg Ginger Beer. I can hear you yawning!!!! It was actually really good! Designed for [big] kids, the museum is shaped like a giant barrel! And after you have sufficiently played around with all the gadjets and gismos and watched the slightly freaky hologram theatre show of Bundaberg's history, you get a taster of each of the 8 naturally brewed Bundaberg soft drinks. Funtastic!
A tip off from the Bundaberg giftshop assistant told us that there was going to be a whole lot of nothing from now until the Whitsunday Islands so we should use the next couple of days to do some hardcore driving. Could we handle more nothingness?? At least we didn't have any panpipes on the iPod!
2 days later we arrived at Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is the 'Gateway to the Whitsunday Islands'. This is some of what you can expect from the 74 Whitsundays islands. Popular activities include 1, 2 and 3 day sailing trips on varying budgets, which take you around the islands, stopping at beaches along the way for some tanning action and snorkling around the inner Barrier Reef. However, weather report stated wind: 15-20 knots, condition: rough. We agreed that sailing was likely to result in hurling so we went with a half day trip from Salty Dog Sea Kayaking for the more energetic way of seeing some of the islands.
We headed out of the bay in a tandem kayak, paddling towards 'White Rock' where we'd be stopping for a light snack. Battling against a 20 knot headwind started being NOT FUN aproximately 10 minutes into the journey so you can imagine how frayed our tempers had become at the 50 minute mark when White Rock came into view. Coupled with the severly stinging eyes from salt water, wind and rain, we arrived at White Rock with faces like 2 smacked botties. But then the sun came out (hooray) and after our snack and a bit of snorkling, we had a lovely leasurely paddle back to the harbour with the wind behind us ;o)
Airlie Beach was so nice, we ended up staying a 3 nights. When the pool became too boring we went on a 5.5km bush walk. This was amazing! All was going swimmingly until we encountered a 1 metre long Goanna. Harmless to us I was absolutely facinated by him but for the rest of the 2 hour trek, I was super-paranoid one of us might step on a snake.
From Airlie we took a 3 hour drive to Townsville. Townsville is 1 notch up on the boring scale to Dargaville (See NZ blog). However, you can catch a barge over to Magnetic Island from here, which is exactly what we decided to do.
Magnetic Island is so called because when Captain Cook discovered these shores in 1770, his compass "went a big funny' when he passed by. We visited a couple of the beaches - Picnic Bay was like a Ghost Town and we ended up having an entire pier to ourselves.
We were then onto the last leg of our driving extravaganza as we headed on to Cairns via Mission Beach.
Last night we arrived in Port Douglas and checked into our nice little apartment overlooking the pool. It's a little more holiday-destination up here rather than backpacker-route so more lounging by the pool to be had methinks! We also have a couple of trips booked for the next couple of days (hopefully no grey army) and internet is quick and cheap so we'll keep you posted!
Love Lou... and Darren, who's gone in search of Moke hire ;0)
We left Hervey Bay (see last entry) and headed North for Bundaberg. Bundaberg is famous for making Ginger Beer and Rum. Being extremely fond of the ginger delights that come from the Bundaberg Factory, Darren insisted we seek out a factory tour. Much to his excitement, we found 'The Bundaberg Barrel', a short interactive tour on the history of Bundaberg Ginger Beer. I can hear you yawning!!!! It was actually really good! Designed for [big] kids, the museum is shaped like a giant barrel! And after you have sufficiently played around with all the gadjets and gismos and watched the slightly freaky hologram theatre show of Bundaberg's history, you get a taster of each of the 8 naturally brewed Bundaberg soft drinks. Funtastic!
A tip off from the Bundaberg giftshop assistant told us that there was going to be a whole lot of nothing from now until the Whitsunday Islands so we should use the next couple of days to do some hardcore driving. Could we handle more nothingness?? At least we didn't have any panpipes on the iPod!
2 days later we arrived at Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is the 'Gateway to the Whitsunday Islands'. This is some of what you can expect from the 74 Whitsundays islands. Popular activities include 1, 2 and 3 day sailing trips on varying budgets, which take you around the islands, stopping at beaches along the way for some tanning action and snorkling around the inner Barrier Reef. However, weather report stated wind: 15-20 knots, condition: rough. We agreed that sailing was likely to result in hurling so we went with a half day trip from Salty Dog Sea Kayaking for the more energetic way of seeing some of the islands.
We headed out of the bay in a tandem kayak, paddling towards 'White Rock' where we'd be stopping for a light snack. Battling against a 20 knot headwind started being NOT FUN aproximately 10 minutes into the journey so you can imagine how frayed our tempers had become at the 50 minute mark when White Rock came into view. Coupled with the severly stinging eyes from salt water, wind and rain, we arrived at White Rock with faces like 2 smacked botties. But then the sun came out (hooray) and after our snack and a bit of snorkling, we had a lovely leasurely paddle back to the harbour with the wind behind us ;o)
Airlie Beach was so nice, we ended up staying a 3 nights. When the pool became too boring we went on a 5.5km bush walk. This was amazing! All was going swimmingly until we encountered a 1 metre long Goanna. Harmless to us I was absolutely facinated by him but for the rest of the 2 hour trek, I was super-paranoid one of us might step on a snake.
From Airlie we took a 3 hour drive to Townsville. Townsville is 1 notch up on the boring scale to Dargaville (See NZ blog). However, you can catch a barge over to Magnetic Island from here, which is exactly what we decided to do.
Magnetic Island is so called because when Captain Cook discovered these shores in 1770, his compass "went a big funny' when he passed by. We visited a couple of the beaches - Picnic Bay was like a Ghost Town and we ended up having an entire pier to ourselves.
We were then onto the last leg of our driving extravaganza as we headed on to Cairns via Mission Beach.
Last night we arrived in Port Douglas and checked into our nice little apartment overlooking the pool. It's a little more holiday-destination up here rather than backpacker-route so more lounging by the pool to be had methinks! We also have a couple of trips booked for the next couple of days (hopefully no grey army) and internet is quick and cheap so we'll keep you posted!
Love Lou... and Darren, who's gone in search of Moke hire ;0)
Thursday, March 15, 2007
(Where's) The Sunshine Coast
As you might have gathered, we've been a bit slack with the blog entries of late and are playing catch up today!
After a lovely couple of days with Fay and Ted, we bid them farewell and headed north for our tour of the East Coast.
First stop: Australia Zoo, founded by the legendary late Steve Irwin. This in an amazing zoo - definately one of the best I've been to - and the feeding talks and shows at the Crocoseum are really good! All made even better when Darren volunteered to have some parrots fly out of their cage onto his arm! He won himself a cuddle with a Koala (WAS I JEALOUS?) and photo to prove it for his participation in the show! Brilliant!
We stayed the night in Caloundra before driving The Sunshine Coast to Noosa yesterday. Noosa is a lovely seaside town but with an air of 'elite' about it. Boutiques, Cafes, that kind of thing. Nice for a romantic weekend away I'd imagine! Again, geographical reference for all Aussie places can be found on the wonderous Map de Google.
Today we're in Hervey Bay and having snooped around the 4WD self-drive options and tours, which allow you to discover the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island, we decided to leave this one out of our trip. When you've travelled to the other side of the world, it easy to throw all money-sense to the wind shouting "You're only here once!" But as any backpacker on a budget will tell you, you can't do everything.
We're gonna keep driving north until we come across somewhere we'd like to stay for a few days... We'll follow the blue sky cos it's been a bit cloudy the last 2 days. We'll be back when we have something more exciting to report!
Lots of love, L + D xxx
P.s.We've also got loads of photos to upload but trying to find a decent cafe to do that is no mean feat! Check back soon x
After a lovely couple of days with Fay and Ted, we bid them farewell and headed north for our tour of the East Coast.
First stop: Australia Zoo, founded by the legendary late Steve Irwin. This in an amazing zoo - definately one of the best I've been to - and the feeding talks and shows at the Crocoseum are really good! All made even better when Darren volunteered to have some parrots fly out of their cage onto his arm! He won himself a cuddle with a Koala (WAS I JEALOUS?) and photo to prove it for his participation in the show! Brilliant!
We stayed the night in Caloundra before driving The Sunshine Coast to Noosa yesterday. Noosa is a lovely seaside town but with an air of 'elite' about it. Boutiques, Cafes, that kind of thing. Nice for a romantic weekend away I'd imagine! Again, geographical reference for all Aussie places can be found on the wonderous Map de Google.
Today we're in Hervey Bay and having snooped around the 4WD self-drive options and tours, which allow you to discover the world's largest sand island, Fraser Island, we decided to leave this one out of our trip. When you've travelled to the other side of the world, it easy to throw all money-sense to the wind shouting "You're only here once!" But as any backpacker on a budget will tell you, you can't do everything.
We're gonna keep driving north until we come across somewhere we'd like to stay for a few days... We'll follow the blue sky cos it's been a bit cloudy the last 2 days. We'll be back when we have something more exciting to report!
Lots of love, L + D xxx
P.s.We've also got loads of photos to upload but trying to find a decent cafe to do that is no mean feat! Check back soon x
Monday, March 12, 2007
Izzie, Whizzie, let's get Brissie
After escaping the panpipes and general odour of old folk and grumpy bus drivers, it was time to head over to Brissie and say G'Day to Auntie Fay and Uncle Ted who had kindly offered to put us up for a couple of nights.
After an evening of catching up, a healthy chicken salad and one of the best nights sleeps so far on this trip, it was time to go exploring again.
Later that night we were to discover that we had chosen the hottest day in the year to buck the advice given by Fay to catch the bus round the corner and instead walked 3K to the main bus terminus where more frequent buses departed. 38 degrees!! Fools. Mind you, it wasn't as bad as the heat in the desert so we were grateful for that.
Brisbane has its own man-made 'Inland Beach' on the river. Why? Probably down to the amount of sharks frequenting the seas on the Sunshine Coast. Yeah, that would be it.
Apart from 'The Beach' and as we were limited on time, we only really got to see the usual hustle and bustle of the city. As you may have gathered, it's the usual heady mix of culture with a fair bit of pollution thrown in for good measure.
That night, we took Fay, Ted and Vikki, their daughter, out for a really nice Mexican meal as a thank you for looking after us.
Today, we've picked up the car and are heading off up the Sunshine Coast on our way to Cairns and Port Douglas. It's a nice one too - a sporty Ford Falcon XR6. Sure is better to drive than the camper and no mistake!
Darren
After an evening of catching up, a healthy chicken salad and one of the best nights sleeps so far on this trip, it was time to go exploring again.
Later that night we were to discover that we had chosen the hottest day in the year to buck the advice given by Fay to catch the bus round the corner and instead walked 3K to the main bus terminus where more frequent buses departed. 38 degrees!! Fools. Mind you, it wasn't as bad as the heat in the desert so we were grateful for that.
Brisbane has its own man-made 'Inland Beach' on the river. Why? Probably down to the amount of sharks frequenting the seas on the Sunshine Coast. Yeah, that would be it.
Apart from 'The Beach' and as we were limited on time, we only really got to see the usual hustle and bustle of the city. As you may have gathered, it's the usual heady mix of culture with a fair bit of pollution thrown in for good measure.
That night, we took Fay, Ted and Vikki, their daughter, out for a really nice Mexican meal as a thank you for looking after us.
Today, we've picked up the car and are heading off up the Sunshine Coast on our way to Cairns and Port Douglas. It's a nice one too - a sporty Ford Falcon XR6. Sure is better to drive than the camper and no mistake!
Darren
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Ayers Rock Bonanza
We said our farewell to Sydney by taking 2 little sightseeing buses around the city. The first one took us to the famous Bondi Beach. For somewhere so infamous for it's surfing culture and beautiful scenery, it's seriously over rated. Nevertheless, We found a lovely little cafe to have lunch and walked the coastal path to Bronte Beach to pick the bus up back to the city.
The second bus was just a city bus with a commentary pointing out all the famous sites. It was a nice way to say goodbye - We'd had an awesome time here and could have easily stayed another week.
So for the next three days we had a trip to Ayers Rock (or Uluru... or Oo-la-roo!) planned so we made our way to the airport in the morning for the 3 hour flight to Uluru.
It was an amazing thing for me to fly 3 hours and not see the sea! Even more strange was that once we'd escaped the airspace of Sydney's suburbs there was ......nothing. Nothing but red sand and a few shrubs. the desert's an amazing phenomenon... more on that later.
Pick up for the first excursion wasn't until 3pm so that left us a few hours to settle in and get some lunch.
For those of you who have spent an hour or so or more with Darren in the summer months will know that he's not a fan of flies. He HATES them. We were tipped off at the airport to buy a fly net. Flies that love the dry heat of the desert, seek out moisture wherever they can and ears, noses and eyes are a nutritious and delicious source for this.
At the resort, I popped into the small supermarket to pick up some lunch and left Darren outside. Only to return less than 15 minutes later to find Darren sat on a bench like a scolded schoolboy. He was already sulking about the flies. Bless.
We'd booked this trip before we left the UK and it had been recommended to us by Syd at Travelbag. So 3 o'clock arrived and we boarded the coach for the first part of our sightseeing trip.
Enter the Grey Army and Gordon, the grumpiest bus driver in the outback - our company for the next 3 days. Thanks Syd! I'll try not to dwell on this too much because it detracts from the amazing things that we actually did see but we'd basically been booked onto what can only be described as a SAGA holiday.
I'll keep the itinerary as brief as I can as I think that the photos will do the experience the most justice.
Yulara, the town that homes Ayers Rock is also home to The Olgas (or Kata-Tjuta... or Catta Joota) The Olgas are a cluster of smaller rocks rather than one huge rock and combined are actually far bigger than Ayers Rock. Our first stop was a 2.5km walk down a gorge created by the Olgas. The heat of the desert is SO intense and you quickly realise how lethal it would be out there with no shade or water. Even after an hour walking with 2 litres of water we started to flake and I got the shakes. It's quite a scary experience.
We then moved on to see Uluru at sunset, quite a spectacular sight.
At 5:30!!!!! the next morning, we travelled back to Uluru to see it at sunrise. In my opinion, less spectacular as we didn't get the ever changing shades of red on the rock as we had done the previous night and it was FAR TOO EARLY to be appreciating anything other than our tiredness!
After a sneaky peak at some ancient cave paintings on the side of the rock, we headed north to Kings Canyon. This is a minor distance when you look at a map of Oz but still took us 4 hours or so. 4 hours of red sand and shrubs is mind numbingly boring and it's amazing how boring things become exciting when you're bored. After a short lived game of 'I spy' (sky, sand, rocks, shrubs, trees, coach) I caught myself saying things like "There's more trees here" and "This area's more shrubby isn't it?"
Phew!
Kings Canyon is Australia's answer to the Grand Canyon and it was here we were able to break free from the slow paced coffin dodgers to partake in a 6km trek round the canyon rim. Which was great and even better for my tan!
We left KC at 11am and began our mammoth journey back to Alice Springs where we would catch our flight to Brisbane. On the longer portions of our trip, Grumpy Gordon had done what he could to try and relieve some of the boredom and so far, this had arrived in the form of documentary DVDs on Australia's Flora and Fauna. I like nature programmes so this pleased me. However, these soon ran out and when he uttered the words "So I'll just put on some 'relaxing' music for you to listen to as we continue our journey" our faces filled with dread. Considering the demographic of our party, we knew this was not going to be your mainstream Coldplay or Snow Patrol.
We gazed out the window as the strings began to liquefy our brains... and then it started... panpipes.
7 HOURS OF DESERT AND PANPIPES LATER we arrived in Alice Springs before our flight to Brisbane in the morning.
Despite being in the middle of nowhere, it was a great trip and we're really glad we made it out to the 'Red Centre' as the rocks are truly amazing. We also like to look back on it as an endurance exercise and practise of tolerance for Gordon who was honestly the grouchiest Scotsman we've ever encountered.
The second bus was just a city bus with a commentary pointing out all the famous sites. It was a nice way to say goodbye - We'd had an awesome time here and could have easily stayed another week.
So for the next three days we had a trip to Ayers Rock (or Uluru... or Oo-la-roo!) planned so we made our way to the airport in the morning for the 3 hour flight to Uluru.
It was an amazing thing for me to fly 3 hours and not see the sea! Even more strange was that once we'd escaped the airspace of Sydney's suburbs there was ......nothing. Nothing but red sand and a few shrubs. the desert's an amazing phenomenon... more on that later.
Pick up for the first excursion wasn't until 3pm so that left us a few hours to settle in and get some lunch.
For those of you who have spent an hour or so or more with Darren in the summer months will know that he's not a fan of flies. He HATES them. We were tipped off at the airport to buy a fly net. Flies that love the dry heat of the desert, seek out moisture wherever they can and ears, noses and eyes are a nutritious and delicious source for this.
At the resort, I popped into the small supermarket to pick up some lunch and left Darren outside. Only to return less than 15 minutes later to find Darren sat on a bench like a scolded schoolboy. He was already sulking about the flies. Bless.
We'd booked this trip before we left the UK and it had been recommended to us by Syd at Travelbag. So 3 o'clock arrived and we boarded the coach for the first part of our sightseeing trip.
Enter the Grey Army and Gordon, the grumpiest bus driver in the outback - our company for the next 3 days. Thanks Syd! I'll try not to dwell on this too much because it detracts from the amazing things that we actually did see but we'd basically been booked onto what can only be described as a SAGA holiday.
I'll keep the itinerary as brief as I can as I think that the photos will do the experience the most justice.
Yulara, the town that homes Ayers Rock is also home to The Olgas (or Kata-Tjuta... or Catta Joota) The Olgas are a cluster of smaller rocks rather than one huge rock and combined are actually far bigger than Ayers Rock. Our first stop was a 2.5km walk down a gorge created by the Olgas. The heat of the desert is SO intense and you quickly realise how lethal it would be out there with no shade or water. Even after an hour walking with 2 litres of water we started to flake and I got the shakes. It's quite a scary experience.
We then moved on to see Uluru at sunset, quite a spectacular sight.
At 5:30!!!!! the next morning, we travelled back to Uluru to see it at sunrise. In my opinion, less spectacular as we didn't get the ever changing shades of red on the rock as we had done the previous night and it was FAR TOO EARLY to be appreciating anything other than our tiredness!
After a sneaky peak at some ancient cave paintings on the side of the rock, we headed north to Kings Canyon. This is a minor distance when you look at a map of Oz but still took us 4 hours or so. 4 hours of red sand and shrubs is mind numbingly boring and it's amazing how boring things become exciting when you're bored. After a short lived game of 'I spy' (sky, sand, rocks, shrubs, trees, coach) I caught myself saying things like "There's more trees here" and "This area's more shrubby isn't it?"
Phew!
Kings Canyon is Australia's answer to the Grand Canyon and it was here we were able to break free from the slow paced coffin dodgers to partake in a 6km trek round the canyon rim. Which was great and even better for my tan!
We left KC at 11am and began our mammoth journey back to Alice Springs where we would catch our flight to Brisbane. On the longer portions of our trip, Grumpy Gordon had done what he could to try and relieve some of the boredom and so far, this had arrived in the form of documentary DVDs on Australia's Flora and Fauna. I like nature programmes so this pleased me. However, these soon ran out and when he uttered the words "So I'll just put on some 'relaxing' music for you to listen to as we continue our journey" our faces filled with dread. Considering the demographic of our party, we knew this was not going to be your mainstream Coldplay or Snow Patrol.
We gazed out the window as the strings began to liquefy our brains... and then it started... panpipes.
7 HOURS OF DESERT AND PANPIPES LATER we arrived in Alice Springs before our flight to Brisbane in the morning.
Despite being in the middle of nowhere, it was a great trip and we're really glad we made it out to the 'Red Centre' as the rocks are truly amazing. We also like to look back on it as an endurance exercise and practise of tolerance for Gordon who was honestly the grouchiest Scotsman we've ever encountered.
Monday, March 05, 2007
It's a Small World!
We woke up this morning to rain. I can forgive Sydney for raining since on this entire trip we had only one or two days of drizzle in New Zealand and much of the heavier downpours occurred while we were driving (or should I say Darren was driving and it wasn't me who got to negotiate mountain-top lanes. My job was simply to scream "Careful!" and "Slow Down!" where appropriate) .
I can't, however, forgive the rain for its timing as we still had our mudguard-less bikes till 1pm and short of caking our behinds in street gunk, cycle-siteseeing wasn't going to be fun today. Nevertheless, we donned our trusty cagouls and cycled to the Opera House to book our behind the scenes tour for 11:15. With 30 minutes or so to spare, we cut our losses and returned the bikes to their home in the Opera House underground car park.
The Opera House Tour was fantastic! I've come to realise that if you book guided trips or tours, how much fun you have is largely determined by 2 factors:
1 - The livliness and sense of humour of your guide
2 - The livliness and sense of humour of your tour party
I feel that this theory works regardless of the actual trip content.
Our guide for the Opera House was very passionate about the building, it's history and architecture and despite the seemingly obligatory argy-bargy between members of the party when moving from one room to the other and a few angry words, which I can only describe as 'Tour Rage', it was an excellent tour. Sweeter still was our 20% off voucher, we'd presented on arrival.
We had a few hours to kill before our prebooked Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb so we did a bit of Lunch 'n' shopping. Sweetiedarling.
So the Bridgeclimb was booked for 5:30pm. This involves climbing up to the very top of Sydney Harbour Bridge, crossing over the top and then climbing down the other side. The whole experience takes about 4 hours from start to finish. Having watched people do the climb earlier in the week in the 30°c /100% humidity midday heat, I was thankful that we'd booked the Twilight Tour... All except... that rain I was talking about? Yeah-that got worse and brought the wind with it.
We pretty much conquered our fear of heights while skydiving so the actual climb didn't really phase either of us but the pelting rain and galeforce winds resulted in fits of giggles. The rain is so hard you can barely see and the struggle to keep your balance while 134 metres up in the air over Sydney Harbour provided the subject of much amusement for Darren and I and also the couple in front, Ash and Vicki
Ash & Vicki (Won't you guys be pleased you get your own paragraph!)
Isn't it strange that you can be on the other side of the world and bump into people with some spooky coincidences:
I can't, however, forgive the rain for its timing as we still had our mudguard-less bikes till 1pm and short of caking our behinds in street gunk, cycle-siteseeing wasn't going to be fun today. Nevertheless, we donned our trusty cagouls and cycled to the Opera House to book our behind the scenes tour for 11:15. With 30 minutes or so to spare, we cut our losses and returned the bikes to their home in the Opera House underground car park.
The Opera House Tour was fantastic! I've come to realise that if you book guided trips or tours, how much fun you have is largely determined by 2 factors:
1 - The livliness and sense of humour of your guide
2 - The livliness and sense of humour of your tour party
I feel that this theory works regardless of the actual trip content.
Our guide for the Opera House was very passionate about the building, it's history and architecture and despite the seemingly obligatory argy-bargy between members of the party when moving from one room to the other and a few angry words, which I can only describe as 'Tour Rage', it was an excellent tour. Sweeter still was our 20% off voucher, we'd presented on arrival.
We had a few hours to kill before our prebooked Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb so we did a bit of Lunch 'n' shopping. Sweetiedarling.
So the Bridgeclimb was booked for 5:30pm. This involves climbing up to the very top of Sydney Harbour Bridge, crossing over the top and then climbing down the other side. The whole experience takes about 4 hours from start to finish. Having watched people do the climb earlier in the week in the 30°c /100% humidity midday heat, I was thankful that we'd booked the Twilight Tour... All except... that rain I was talking about? Yeah-that got worse and brought the wind with it.
We pretty much conquered our fear of heights while skydiving so the actual climb didn't really phase either of us but the pelting rain and galeforce winds resulted in fits of giggles. The rain is so hard you can barely see and the struggle to keep your balance while 134 metres up in the air over Sydney Harbour provided the subject of much amusement for Darren and I and also the couple in front, Ash and Vicki
Ash & Vicki (Won't you guys be pleased you get your own paragraph!)
Isn't it strange that you can be on the other side of the world and bump into people with some spooky coincidences:
- Ash and Vicki live in Newbury where I grew up and where my parents still live.
- Ash proposed to Vicki that same day. Like Darren, he had originally decided to propose on top of Sydney Harbour Bridge. The weather, however had forced him to change his plans and ask Vicki earlier in the day. She said yes by the way!
- Ash works on New Greenham Park in Newbury - less than 100 metres from Liberty House (That's where I used to work)
Isn't it a small world?
So after a hectic day, Ash and Vicki joined us for a pint after the climb before retiring for the day.
Lou xx
Sunday, March 04, 2007
On Yer Bike!
As today was a bit overcast, we rented some bikes and continued our new found hobby of cycling over famous bridges.
It didn't take long for the curse of the moving part to catch up with me and within the hour, we were back at the cycle depot getting my saddle tightened. It didn't end there either... after getting to the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, my front wheel had mysteriously worked its way loose too!
The ride was excellent though. We ventured out into the city - which was pretty scary amongst all the buses - but it was a great way to see more sights like the Sky Tower, Domain, Hyde Park etc.
After grabbing some lunch, we headed over the Harbour Bridge to 'Luna Park' which is a very old amusement park that reminded me of Blackpool pleasure beach circa 1950. Oddly, it sits on what must be the best bit of real estate in the whole of Sydney with stunning views across the harbour. It has to have some sort of heritage status now which has protected it over the years from being levelled and turned into expensive apartments.
Because of last nights Mardi Gras, it was closed for a private function. Well, I assumed it was because of Mardi Gras... guys holding hands in tight PVC shorts, Kylie blaring away on the PA and some rather butch looking women kind of gave the game away a little.
Eventually, the afternoon sun and 100% humidity took its toll and we headed back to our hotel, stopping for a while to watch hundreds of fruitbats leaving the Botanic Gardens for their nightly feeding trip. We were later to witness what was to be one of the most powerful thunderstorms that Sydney had experienced in many years. It was awesome and I managed to get a good shot on the camera too.
Darren
It didn't take long for the curse of the moving part to catch up with me and within the hour, we were back at the cycle depot getting my saddle tightened. It didn't end there either... after getting to the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, my front wheel had mysteriously worked its way loose too!
The ride was excellent though. We ventured out into the city - which was pretty scary amongst all the buses - but it was a great way to see more sights like the Sky Tower, Domain, Hyde Park etc.
After grabbing some lunch, we headed over the Harbour Bridge to 'Luna Park' which is a very old amusement park that reminded me of Blackpool pleasure beach circa 1950. Oddly, it sits on what must be the best bit of real estate in the whole of Sydney with stunning views across the harbour. It has to have some sort of heritage status now which has protected it over the years from being levelled and turned into expensive apartments.
Because of last nights Mardi Gras, it was closed for a private function. Well, I assumed it was because of Mardi Gras... guys holding hands in tight PVC shorts, Kylie blaring away on the PA and some rather butch looking women kind of gave the game away a little.
Eventually, the afternoon sun and 100% humidity took its toll and we headed back to our hotel, stopping for a while to watch hundreds of fruitbats leaving the Botanic Gardens for their nightly feeding trip. We were later to witness what was to be one of the most powerful thunderstorms that Sydney had experienced in many years. It was awesome and I managed to get a good shot on the camera too.
Darren
Saturday, March 03, 2007
The Blue Moutains
Another early start (woo!) this morning to go on a 4WD adventure tour to the Blue Mountains - a trip booked for us by Travelbag before we left the UK. Tour pick ups work in a similar fashion to Airport drops offs - spending over an hour circling the city 3 or 4 times to pick up couples from various hotels before starting the 'adventure'. I'm sure you'll appreciate our annoyance when we picked up the last couple from a hotel 10 minutes walk from ours and realising we could have spent an extra hour in bed.
However, this was going to be a good trip so I forgive them.
An hours drive out of Sydney and we arrived at Featherdale Wildlife Park. I LOVE (to the point of being obsessed with) Koala Bears. I think they're the cutest things! So imagine my glee when I got to see and even TOUCH a real life Koala!! Brilliant! This park, although small was packed with native Australian wildlife - Kangaroos, Crocodiles, Dingos, Tasmanian Devils and more. So exciting! We even got a complimentary Clip-on Koala Bear toy!!! Need we continue? My day's complete!!
Just over an hour later I was dragged back onto the 4WD-bus-beast and we headed off into the direction of the Blue Mountain.
Interesting fact: The Blue Mountains are so called because the Eucalyptus trees give off an oil, the fumes of which burn off in the heat of the sun, creating a blue haze (see pictures!). Nerdy but interesting.
I suppose I would describe this part of the tour as 'the Eco-Hour' as we stopped at the Blue Mountains reserve for a short walk to smell the Tea Tree and Citronella leaves.
After stroking a Joey at Featherdale, I wondered weather my choice of Kangaroo Pie for lunch has been a wise one but I tried to put it to the back of my mind! Our lunch stop resided at a restaurant overlooking the mountains within a high-altitude Botanic Garden. Not as impressive as that in Sydney but the food was lovely and I was pleased with my Roo Pie choice! Darren's steak was a bit rare even by my standards and looked like it would start breathing again if he didn't eat it quickly. Yum.
I'm sure you're starting to realise the whistle-stop nature of today's tour!
Next stop - Scenic World, Katoomba. A great place to see The Three Sisters. At Scenic World, you take the steepest incline railway in the world to the bottom of the canyon and then walk the scenic track to the cable car, which takes you back up again. Well, we got off the railway and in the kerfuffle went the wrong way and ended up on a suggested 2-hour trek. OOooops! Good job we spotted this on the map 20 minutes in, else we'd have been in BIG trouble with the guide! Then I left my beloved cowboy hat on the cable car back to the top and had to wait for it to come back. It was still there - hooray!
On our way back to Sydney, we swung by the Olympic Stadium for a quick look before boarding the River Cat back to the Circular Quay to avoid the city traffic. The reason traffic was going to be particularly bad tonight was because it was MARDI GRAS!! That's right ladies and gentlemen, one of the world's biggest Gay and Lesbian parades was on tonight!
I was really excited about this because when you see the Mardi Gras on the TV, it's all music and costumes and dancing and general campness and I thought it'd be really fun! The Mardi Gras in Sydney is also a HUGE social event - everyone goes!
The battery was going dead on the camera at the Mardi Gras so I'm not sure how well the photos came out but check them out - it was absolutely fantastic! I wished we could have stayed longer but having been dragged around all day, we started to wilt pretty early on but if you ever get the chance to go in any city - GO! It's so cool!!
Lou xx
Friday, March 02, 2007
Touchdown in Oz!
G'Day from Oz!
Landed yesterday afternoon from NZ and were both immediately knocked sideways by the heat and general humidity of Sydney. Every pore in my body made up its mind that there was some sort of 'bush fire' happening all over my body and sent out the nescessary water appliances to put it out. Thank GOD for anti perspirant!!
Airport shuttles are strange things... a very cheap way of getting from the airport to your hotel but with the disadvantage of having to share the journey with other sweaty tourists and also taking the gambit of who gets to their hotel first. Over an HOUR later, we were STILL in this non-air conditioned, badly driven piece of plop seemingly passing the same streets over and over again. By the time we arrived at the hotel, the driver opened the door and Lou and I actually melted out onto the street.
At check-in, we were informed that we had been given a "complimentary upgrade to the best room in the hotel". Ever the pessimist I shrugged and thought to myself "Pft!, Yeah right, I bet they say that to everyone".
I was SOOO wrong! We opened the door to what must have been the honeymoon suite with 4 rooms and a spa bath! One room has already been adopted as 'The Chess Room'. I've been teaching Lou since New Zealand.
Today, we headed off into town to familiarise ourselves with everything and generally do the 'nesting' thing and of course make sure where the essential items like chocolate, pop and internet are located.
First stop - The Royal Botanic Gardens. This really is a beautiful part of the city with exotic plants and birds including Fruit Bats and moody Cockatoos. These badboys are angry. Didn't understand why they were so vocal, but at one point I was sure I overheard something being squawked about a pint and some sort of spillage.
Moving on over to the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge or Coat hanger as the locals call it.
Stunning views and plenty of photo opportunities to be had. We're booked on the 'Bridge climb' so will keep you updated with pics etc on that.
We quite liked the idea of watching a show at the Opera House, so had a browse through the events listing to see what took our fancy. "An Indian Rhythm Spectacular" Sounds cool eh? Read on...
Although very impressive and at times inspirational, I do feel there should be a law governing the length of a drum solo - especially when it's all on one drum.
45 MINUTES LATER, even I was losing the will to live. At one point, I thought Lou was in danger of slipping into a coma (At one point I actually caught myself trying to think of ways it might be possible to lick my elbow -Lou). It wasn't all doom and gloom though, later on in the show, we were graced with some lovely melodies played on violins by two brothers in a typically Indian musical scale and some 'interesting' vocal performances from a highly respected Guru - all accompanied by more crazy time signatures by the solo drummer extraordinaire.
Landed yesterday afternoon from NZ and were both immediately knocked sideways by the heat and general humidity of Sydney. Every pore in my body made up its mind that there was some sort of 'bush fire' happening all over my body and sent out the nescessary water appliances to put it out. Thank GOD for anti perspirant!!
Airport shuttles are strange things... a very cheap way of getting from the airport to your hotel but with the disadvantage of having to share the journey with other sweaty tourists and also taking the gambit of who gets to their hotel first. Over an HOUR later, we were STILL in this non-air conditioned, badly driven piece of plop seemingly passing the same streets over and over again. By the time we arrived at the hotel, the driver opened the door and Lou and I actually melted out onto the street.
At check-in, we were informed that we had been given a "complimentary upgrade to the best room in the hotel". Ever the pessimist I shrugged and thought to myself "Pft!, Yeah right, I bet they say that to everyone".
I was SOOO wrong! We opened the door to what must have been the honeymoon suite with 4 rooms and a spa bath! One room has already been adopted as 'The Chess Room'. I've been teaching Lou since New Zealand.
Today, we headed off into town to familiarise ourselves with everything and generally do the 'nesting' thing and of course make sure where the essential items like chocolate, pop and internet are located.
First stop - The Royal Botanic Gardens. This really is a beautiful part of the city with exotic plants and birds including Fruit Bats and moody Cockatoos. These badboys are angry. Didn't understand why they were so vocal, but at one point I was sure I overheard something being squawked about a pint and some sort of spillage.
Moving on over to the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge or Coat hanger as the locals call it.
Stunning views and plenty of photo opportunities to be had. We're booked on the 'Bridge climb' so will keep you updated with pics etc on that.
We quite liked the idea of watching a show at the Opera House, so had a browse through the events listing to see what took our fancy. "An Indian Rhythm Spectacular" Sounds cool eh? Read on...
Although very impressive and at times inspirational, I do feel there should be a law governing the length of a drum solo - especially when it's all on one drum.
45 MINUTES LATER, even I was losing the will to live. At one point, I thought Lou was in danger of slipping into a coma (At one point I actually caught myself trying to think of ways it might be possible to lick my elbow -Lou). It wasn't all doom and gloom though, later on in the show, we were graced with some lovely melodies played on violins by two brothers in a typically Indian musical scale and some 'interesting' vocal performances from a highly respected Guru - all accompanied by more crazy time signatures by the solo drummer extraordinaire.
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