From Cool Bananas to Big Bananas ...

After all that excitement, we needed a break - and what better place to take one than the idyllic and relatively undiscovered 'Agnes Water'?! With uninterrupted sunshine, 9km of pristeen beach, nothing around but a few shops and very cheap surf lessons courtesy of 'Cool 'Bananas' it didn't take much persuasion to extend our stay - the fact we found a fully equipped villa with private pool for virtually the same price as a backpackers hostel made it a no-brainer! But alas, adventure beckons...

Tales from a small island

With a sci-fi feel, Landrovers, SUVs and buses with towering wheel bases and fat chunky tyres race across white sandy beaches to refuel at petrol pumps amidst the rainforest.

At 120km long by 15km wide and with more sand than the Sahara desert, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. It has 200 freshwater lakes, abundant rainforests, sandblows up to 224m tall and one of the brightest night skies in Australia, no wonder it's known to local Aborigines as 'k'gari' (paradise). The only drawbacks are the lethal undertows and man-eating sharks that make swimming a definite no-no, and the deadly dingoes, although there are only 130 of these left following cullings after the fatal mauling of a child in 2001.

From the moment our bus drove off the ferry straight onto the beach, we knew this was going to be one of the highlights of our trip. Over the sandblows, through the rainforests and onto the 120km long beach - amazing. Hot work, we stopped to swim through Eli Creek - a 6.5km freshwater creek pumping 4.5 million litres of water per hour (makes you question Australia's water shortage!) before visiting the 'Maheno' shipwreck (a liner converted to a hospital ship during WW1 that crashed here in 1935). The first day's activities ended with a walk/climb to the top of 'Indian Heads' (a 65m high rock formation where we got to watch breaching Humpbacks, Bull Sharks, Dolphins, Turtles and Manta Rays mingling in the sea below) before retiring to our camp on Cathedral Beach for a bbq and some star gazing.

Unable to sleep after being woken by the scratching noises around the tent (which could've been dingoes but Steve refused to go and look), we thought we might as well get up to see the sunrise at around 5.30am - it was spectacular so we took lots of photos especially for Nick P...

Back on the road early, these intrepid explorers took a 3.6km bushwalk and sandblow climb to swim in the crystal waters of 'Lake Wabby', as well as a 1.8km trek through the 'Wangoolga Creek' rainforest before their picnic lunch at 'Central Station'. The adventure ended with a swim at the beautiful rainwater filled 'Lake Birrabeen' (which also doubles as somewhere to clean jewellery with its fine sand - leading to the embarrassing and very loud question by a dutch guy at the bus station the next day - ''sho Shteve, how is your ring dish mornink?!'') before the ferry took us back to reality, well 'Hervey Bay'...
... hmmm 'Hervey Bay' - 'God's waiting room' is a good description with residents' age averaging around 98 and zimmer friendly streets!

Star spotting

Moving on from the 'departure lounge' to Noosa, one of Australia's most exclusive resorts where the stars are said to mingle with the surfers. Obviously not when we were there, though not sure we'd recognise them anyhow! Noosa was very nice with lots of bars, restaurants etc but was a little bit full of itself!

'Bris-Vegas'

And so to Brisbane, Australia's 3rd city where there's something for everyone - theme parks, casinos, beaches, shops, restaurants, national parks, mountains and of course, 'Surfer's Paradise'! Our first impression wasn't good as we checked into the prison like Palace Embassy right in the midst of the city (not the best place to be we discovered). Appalled by the hostel, and frightened by the dodgy night atmosphere of the area, we went to the late night showing of 'The Devil Wears Prada' to escape.

A new day, a new hostel and a new start in Brisbane, which was actually quite nice. We strolled around the 'South Bank' with its cafes, museums and pretty gardens, we ventured into the 'West End' with its cool bars and restaurants and ended the day in 'The Valley' with its trendy boutiques and 'Chinatown' restaurants. The only downside was the big storm we got caught in!

To get the most out of the Brisbane surrounds, we hired a car and headed out to the Coolangatta YHA - 'a perfect base to explore Surfers and discover the Hinterlands' ... whilst Coolangatta may live up to that description, the hostel was far from the perfect anything! Dirty, badly laid out, practically on the airport runway and with zero security, the final straw was getting stuck in the room as we hadn't realised the door locked automatically when closed and there was no way to open it from the inside - erm were we to sleep with the door open?!?! By chance a cleaner passed the room and let us out, enabling Ali to be let loose on reception (to the question ''why is it only ever you English that complain?''). We got our money back and moved on, again, only to spend the rest of the day driving up and down the coast looking for somewhere to stay - a tough mission on a bank holiday weekend during the school holidays! Still we got to see 'Surfer's Paradise' (Blackpool with palm trees) and drive on the Indy 300 street circuit which was being prepared for the big race.

Another day, but another disappointment as we trekked through various national parks in the Gold Coast hinterland to see waterfalls that resembled dripping taps, caves that were more like overhanging rocks and rainforests that didn't have proper tracks. To top off the day Ali got herself a new friend - a bush tick firmly attached to her scalp!!! We managed to detach it with no serious side effects - we hope!

A new day, a new state!

To counter the disappointment, Springbrook National Park across the border in NSW was cool, with the 'Natural Bridge' waterfall and glow worm cave, 'Purlingbrook Falls' - a 100m high waterfall, and the 'Best of All' lookout which not only looked over the 'McPherson Range' (remnants of the huge volcano that was 'Mt Warning') but also boasted one of the oldest trees in the world - a 2,000 year old Beech.

Taking advantage of our car, we went the long way to Byron Bay via a little village called 'Nimbin'. Australia's original hippy village, it's a very relaxed and colourful place with a museum that opens 'whenever' and a shop called 'Bringabong' - nothing to do with the abundance of smokable substances freely on offer we're sure! Needless to say, it was full of druggie drop-outs, complete weirdos and hippies!

Byron itself was lovely, beautiful beaches mixed with nice bars and restaurants and a great atmosphere - we were only sorry we couldn't stay longer :-(

Big bananas...

And finally to 'Coffs Harbour', the home of the 'Big Banana' - a cr*p theme park in the loosest sense of the term 'theme park' (its reputation was so bad we didn't bother going despite it being free!).

Coffs itself was lovely and the hostel 'Aussitel' was the best we've stayed in with helpful staff, clean rooms and a great location. A great place to chill, we didn't do too much - walked over to 'Muttonbird Island' to see the breaching humpbacks (they're following us down the coast), watched performers at the 'International Festival of Buskers', chilled on 'Moonee Beach' (yes, we did see a moony) and ate at some nice restaurants, oh and were involved in a crash when a car decided to play chicken with our bus - the car was a write-off but fortunately nobody was injured, just delayed by a few hours whilst the police sorted it all out.

Reef Encounter...

Awesome!
Not the best word but the closest we could think of to describe Queensland! From reefs to rainforests, scuba diving to sky diving, sailing to surfing, sand safaris to skyrails - we've done it all!

Certified...
Our budget blowing adventure started in Cairns with Steve's 4 day open water dive course, which meant Ali was left to her own devices for the first 2 days...no worries though as she soon found the local shopping mall, nail bar and lagoon ;-)

A tough life we know, but Steve's course meant spending 2 days/1 night at the outer Great Barrier Reef onboard the 'Kangaroo Explorer' - a really nice dive boat - in order to complete his four open water dives (Ali went along too).

Before heading out, we attended the 'Reef Teach' lecture which turned out to be one of the best things we've done so far! Highly entertaining, this mad Irish man told you everything you needed to know to get the best out of the reef - including which fish change colour when scared, which are transexual and which breath through their bum's!

Our first site - '360 Brigs Reef' - was fantastic. The tide was out so the coral was really close to the surface and the sunlight bounced off the top making the colours really vivid. The experience was made all the better having been to 'Reef Teach' as we knew what the purple coral was, which were 'Angel', 'Butterfly' or 'Parrot' fish, why the 'Starfish' were bright blue and where to look for 'Nemo'!

Next up was 'Turtle Bay' where Steve got to scratch their shells on the seabed! We also saw 'Giant Clams', 'Puffer Fish', 'Sea Cucumbers' and giant 'Wrasse' fish at the next site, not to mention breathing coral and fish turning from blue to green when flicked!

Day 2 started with Steve's 8am final open water qualifying dive at 'Manta Ray Bay', which was filmed (it was also his dive buddy's 100th dive which had to be done naked so there were some interesting shots...!) and ended with a fully qualified dive at 'West Timor', including a few reef tunnels.

Certifiable...
For a different reef perspective, Ali decided to strap herself to a strange man, fly over rainforest and reef up to 14,000ft and throw herself out of a perfectly good plane - freefalling for 60 seconds before parachuting onto Cairns esplanade...wicked! Steve (having stubbed his toe getting off the dive boat) didn't join her...

Shhhhh....
Adrenelin rushed out, we headed through the rainforest to 'Kuranda' via the original express train which, despite being 100 years old, gave SE Trains a run for its money!! A mellow mountain town stuck in it's hippy days, we chilled amongst the koalas, roos, freshwater crocs and fruitbats at various sanctuaries before catching the 'world famous'(?!) skytrain through the treetops back to Cairns.

Everything in Australia's out to get you...
Continuing our nature trek, we headed out to 'Cape Tribulation' - where the world's oldest rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef (the only place where two World Heritage Sites meet) - via 'Mossman Gorge' and 'Daintree'. Martin, our Bolton tour guide, was very reassuring with his Peter Kay style quotes: "don't worry about the crocs getting into the boat, it's the boat sinking you should worry about''; ''go anywhere near the water and there's a 99% chance you'll be taken''; or ''that's a stinging tree - touch it and the agonising pain'll be with you for 8 years''! Still he kept us entertained with tales of backpackers eaten by crocs, stung by box jellyfish, bitten by spiders, strangled by pythons, disembowelled by cassowaries and poisoned by rainforest fruit - all within the vicinity..

Scared back to the beach, we stayed a couple of days in Port Douglas (where Steve Irwin was sadly killed earlier in the week). A lovely, but exclusive yachting resort, we were inspired to make Airlie Beach (gateway to the 'Whitsunday Islands' our next port of call.

(In)Competent Crew
All aboard for the 'performance sailing trip of a lifetime' ...not entirely sure why that appealed, but before we knew it we were signed up for a 5 day/4 night sailing course on board the 'Eureka II' - a 60' racing boat designed for the toughest of races. Sailing straight out into 35 knot winds (almost galeforce), 4m high waves and constant spray, we soon realised this wasn't going to be easy!!! It was a great experience though, plus we got to see a couple of very rare 'sea spouts' (water tornadoes).

Fortunately, after a couple of days the wind died down and gave way to some perfect sailing weather. Meaning that we not only got to finish our course by putting everything we'd learnt into practice, but we also got to see the wonderful 'Whitehaven Beach', sea eagles performing for food scraps, a few humpback whales on their way home to the Antarctic and lots of turtles swimming around the boat.

We're both now qualified sailing crew - something to fall back on when our funds run dry

to be continued ...

Photos: Queensland

Steve during open water dive course

(Moore Reef, Great Barrier, Nr. Cairns, QLD- 06/09/06)

Ali Skydiving

(Over Cairns, QLD - 08/09/06)

Basking Freshwater Crocodiles
(Kuranda, QLD - 07/09/06)

Ali with a Wallaby Joey that had been rejected by it's mother
(Kuranda, QLD - 07/09/06)

Ali with a short, tubby, grey-haired, lazy sod and a koala
(Kuranda, QLD - 07/09/06)

Ali at the helm on 'Eureka II'
(Whitsunday Islands, QLD - 17/09/06)

One of many ad-hoc tributes to Steve Irwin, this one made of washed-up shells
(Agnes Water / Town of 1770 - 19/09/06)

Photos: Western Australia

Southern Right Whales - mother and calf

(Augusta, WA - 25/08/06)

Skippy's Revenge! Being watched at Cape le Grand beach

(Esperance, WA - 28/08/06)

Ali at the wheel in Cape le Grand National Park
(Esperance, WA - 28/08/06)


'Hellfire Bay' at Cape le Grand National Park
(Esperance, WA - 28/08/06)

'2006 World Rock Surfing Champion'
(Wave Rock, WA - 29/08/06)


'The Pinnacle Desert'
(Cervantes, WA - 30/08/06)

G'day Straaaalia!

Streuth, throw a shrimp on the barbie, head to the sunday sess at the Cott, sporting thongs and tank tops, to open a couple of tinnies with the local bogons (mullet heads). No wukkas though as off on a roady tomorrow arvo ...

As you can see we've arrived safely in Perth and already learnt the lingo.

Perth is a really nice, but quiet, city. It was good to be back amongst English speakers - albeit ones with funny accents! We spent our first days wandering the sights and chilling in King's Park. King's Park was lovely - really pretty with amazing views over the city. The nightlife here was almost non-existant though - we know it's winter but everything was closed by 10pm!

After 2 days we hit the road, but rather than take an organised tour we copied their itinerary, dropped the boring stuff and hired a 'wicked' campervan! Unfortunately we had to hang around until 3pm to collect it and it turned out not to be so wicked afterall, so we complained (luckily we'd perfected that art in Asia), got a refund and hired a nicer, bigger, better equipped camper for less money down the road! So the first day of our 'roady' was a bit of a wash out as we only got as far as Freemantle but we did take to life on the open road with Ali relishing the opportunity to cook for the first time in 2 months - even if it was on a tiny gas powered stove!

So, onto Margaret River - the heart of Western Australian wine making (not sure what was drawing us there) - with a few stops along the way: Busselton where we walked the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere (2km); the 'Ngilgi Caves'; and the 'Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park' (that's naturaliste, not naturist!). Once in Margaret River we discovered the difference between a campsite and a campsh*te. The latter having the additional attraction of its Wayne and Waynetta type residents! Still it was an excuse to wander into town for a couple of cocktails in preparation for our wine-tasting tomorrow...

... and wine tasting we did! Starting at 10am with a trip to the famous Xanadu and taking in 6 of the best wineries (that's what they call them here) we had 55 tastings - the equivalent of 11 glasses! Unfortunately the early start meant the first few glasses tasted of vintage Colgate, but otherwise they were all yummy! There was also a gourmet lunch at Voyager (best winery in the country) with another glass of wine, a mid-afternoon picnic plus tastings at the local cheese and chocolate factories. All making for a great day and lots of new favourite wines! We also got to see plenty of wildlife along the way, including our first kangaroo sighting - complete with a joey in it's pouch (which briefly made Steve feel guilty about eating, and enjoying, bbq skippy the night before!).

Once our hangovers had subsided the following morning we headed further south to Walpole with a couple of impromptu stops at Cape Leeuwin (the most south westerly point of Australia where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet) and Augusta where we went on a whale watching cruise after stopping for petrol and being told the bay was full of Southern Rights and their calves. We saw quite a few and they're huge - 18m long and weighing in at around 80 tonnes!

Next up was a drive through the 'Karri Valley' (and no Sam, it didn't rid Ali of her desire to see the petrified forest!), took in 'Beedulup National Park' and waterfalls and thought about climbing the 'Bicentennial' and 'Gloucester' trees ... although it was only the briefest of thoughts once we realised they were 61m high and there were no safety rails! In fact, just steel spikes sticking out of the tree. Being told that the only deaths have been through heart attacks and not people falling still didn't persuade us!

The next day brought a drive through the 'Valley of Giants' and a walk across the 'Treetop Walk' - a 40m high platform through the Giant Tingle (Eucalyptus) trees, as well as a walk through the 'Ancient Empire' - more giant old trees! Bored of trees by now we headed to Denmark stopping at several of the area's pristine and perfect beaches along the way - the highlight of the day (for Steve anyhow) was Ali slipping on the rocks at 'Green's Pool' and falling, fully clothed, into the sea!!!

Once dry we headed to Albany and watched the Humpback whales from the beach. Huge, impressive looking creatures though they were only calves (the mothers abandon them to make them form their own pod in the safety of the shallows - and the reason they hit their tails on the sea is to call their mums back - awwww).

Enroute to Esperance, our southern most destination, we stopped by the 'Natural Bridge' and the 'Gap' - coastal rock formations that really do make you realise that "there's nowt so powerful as the sea". We also took in the Cape Le Grand National Park - one of our favourite places so far with its beautiful scenery and cool wildlife (kangaroos lazing on the beach etc); the Ocean Drive - with imaginatively named 9 mile, 10 mile and 11 mile beaches; plus the Pink Lake which wasn't at all pink!!!

And so it was time to leave the coast and head inland ;-( As the drive to 'Wave Rock', our intended destination, was quite a long one we thought we'd break it up by stopping at Lake King - which looked quite a big place on the map ... however when we got there we quickly discovered it wasn't! Whilst we've seen our share of one-horse towns on this trip we can only describe this as a no-horse town! The caravan park was self-serve and was completely deserted with tumbleweed blowing and the only thing nearby was a trucker's stop - you could almost hear the horror movie audience screaming "don't do it" at the screen! We got back on the road pretty sharpish - despite the late hour and the 200 km journey to the next town!

Wave Rock, which funnily enough is a rock that looks like a breaking wave, was great - although Steve spent ages trying to work out exactly how many kitchen work surfaces a 15m high 100m long granite slab would make! We also wanted to visit the original 'rabbit proof fence' after Ali saw the film on the plane - not sure if we saw it though as there were loads of fences around!

We stopped overnight in Rockingham before heading to the 'Pinnacles' Desert (thousands of limestone pillars rising out of the yellow sand to the North of Perth - very eerie) so we could meet up with an old school friend of Ali's, Lee, and her husband Rob who emigrated over here 10 years ago. Ali hadn't seen Lee for 13 years so it was great to catch up, though poor Steve and Rob having to listen in on 13 years of gossip! We went to their local pub in Baldivis where we had a lovely meal and a few drinks, before being chucked out around 10pm as they wanted to close up!

Finally, Freemantle (back where we started 3,200km ago!) and the Coogee Beach Caravan Park - we arrived at around 8.30pm only to be lectured about the late hour and how they really shouldn't let us in as we'd wake the other residents!

We've had a really good time here, even though Perth (well actually the whole of Western Australia) is not so much a city that never sleeps as one that struggles to get out of bed - perhaps they are the opposite of vampires and allergic to darkness?! In fairness we didn't spend a weekend in the city so it probably wakes up then?!