Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Katie and Taylor
Magnetic Island or Maggie as the locals call it is an island 20mins ferry ride from Townsville, we had hoped to visit the Koala Sanctuary and do a bit of snorkelling over there but once again the weather dealt us a blow. We didn't want to risk the weather so checked into a motel in Townsville for the night and worked out our plans for heading west instead into the ominously sounding "Red Centre".
The next morning was spent exploring Townsville and climbed Castle Hill which is a short steep climb in the middle of the city, it's a monolith rock (like Ayers rock but just a tad smaller) and gave us stunning views over the city. Ofcourse the sporadic weather decided to give us blazing sunshine and roasting heat while we went up which made it rather uncomfortable but we made it, just a little lighter than when we started!
That's us finished the East coast and tonight we head inland towards Mount Isa before reaching Alice Springs in just over a week. We celebrated the last month on the East Coast with our final BBQ lunch on the beach this afternoon, and prepared Shelly for the journey to the centre of Australia. Loaded up on supplies, water, wine and tunes.....off we go!
Internet might be a little scarce in the centre - and by scarce I mean it costs a fortune when you do find it so we shall update when possible and be in touch when we find a McDonalds (where wifi is free and ice cream is 50cents!)
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Katie and Taylor
While Scotland has been knee deep in snow, we have been caught up in a terrible storm in Queensland. All started well after leaving Dennis's as we headed North along Bruce Highway towards Bundaberg, home to Bundaberg rum or "Bundy" as everyone calls it here. The rum is distilled here due to it being surrounded by sugar cane plantations and subsequently it is a mecca for fruit pickers on working holiday visas. Also Bundy is advertised for some reason by the most Australian of animals! Yep you guessed it......a Polar Bear?!
We mosied on down to Town of 1770 which is built on the second landing spot of Captain Cook, surprisingly enough in the year 1770. In 1970 it was renamed from Round Hill to Town of 1770 to mark the bicentennial year of Cooks landing. Not much here to be honest and in fact the Town is actually a village, not sure why its not called the village of 1770.
This is when the heavens opened as we hit the beef capital of Australia - Rockhampton. Apparently there is over 300 days of sunshine a year here but we were greeted by flooding! In fact Rockhampton lies within the tropical cyclone zone, so as we crossed the tropic of Capricorn the cyclone hit! We had no option but to shelter in a hotel which resembled Raffles in Singapore, had a bottle of wine and watched Elf on TV. The next day the skies cleared to reveal the damage as the river right beside where we were had burst its banks and the car park we almost parked in, was flooded. Further West roads were closed and a few people are missing after being swept away, definitely a serious storm.
Anyway as I said Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia and with over 2 million cows within a 250 km radius of the town it has a cowboy kind of feel to it. One of the famous bars in town is owned by a country and western singer and hosts rodeos and weekly country and western gigs. Shame we forgot to pack our Stetson hats! Also Christmas adverts have been adapted her to suit the local market and my personal favourite was "Buy your mum a diesel tank for Christmas." So Mum there may be a shiny new diesel tank winging its way home just now.
Further North we go on our way to Airlie Beach for hopefully a few days of sunshine (it's looking good so far), playing dodge the frogs/kookaburra/koala/wallaby/tortoise/pot holes on the roads. Last nights drive provoked a few screams from Katie as Shelly taught many a frog why its not safe to sit on the Bruce Highway.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Katie and Taylor
We arrived in Brisbane after a short drive from Surfers and checked into our parking space at the best hostel we've ever stayed at. The hostel was fully booked as the Ashes was on at the weekend (did anyone actually know that.. we didn't) so we were a little stuck until the hostel owner offered us a parking space and full access to the facilities in the hostel. We slept in the car and had excellent use of everything including a swimming pool and BBQ all for under £25 for 2 nights! The hostel was within walking distance to the city so we took a wander through the main shopping area across the river to Southbank, formally the site of the World Expo '88 which has been made into a beach and pool area right in the middle of the city! There was a massive screen where the Ashes were being shown and a makeshift bar too.. if it wasn't for the sport on the box being cricket we would have stayed and relaxed all day!
Next stop Redcliffe, north of Brisbane for a couple of relaxing days in style. Dennis from our Odyssey trip lives out there so a visit was needed, we spent 6 months with these guys and miss them all! Dennis lives right on the beach, we were greeted with cold beers and cheese before Dennis cooked us dinner. Already feeling spoiled he spent the next 2 days as our tour guide showing us the sights and telling us the history of Redcliffe as well as taking us out to Brisbane Forest where we went to a wildlife centre with sleeping wombats, kangaroos and even a duck-billed platypus! We were made to feel part of the family and can't thank Dennis and Pam enough for having us.
All recharged and clean again we set off up the Sunshine Coast just in time for the rain..again. Passed a big Pineapple so far - what's with Oz and the big Fruit?
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Katie and Taylor
The pilgrimage north up the East Coast spurs images of sunshine, sea and sand! Unfortunately the weather for us has been reminiscent of an Easter holiday in Scotland, of course sprinkled with a few matches of sunshine. We docked into a beautiful wee town called Bellingen which had the local community market full in full swing with hippies selling everything from plants to bubbles, but as the Scots have brought the weather with us, it rained Koalas and Roos (not sure if it rains cats and dogs here.)
Our first major stop along the coast was Coffs Harbour, famous for its Big Banana (crazy Australians!) In fact there is a huge banana on the outskirts of town, which we had to get a ridiculous photo in front of as modelled by Katie below! Coffs Harbour, or "Coughs" Harbour as I call it was where I had a wee dose of the deadly man flu, so we holed up in a motel for a night of films, tea and munchies.
The flu never abated the next day even visiting MacLean which is a Scottish heritage town in the middle of nowhere didn't help. It is twinned with Portree, sells Haggis and every lamp post in town is painted with a different type of tartan. We spent the night near Lismore was the venue for us to watch the final of the Australian X Factor. Its the shows first year over here and although it isn't quite to the same standards as the UK equivelant, it was nice for a bit of home comfort. Ronan Keating is one of the judges and you'll be glad to hear his singer Altiyan Childs won!
Next on our route was Nimbin, king of the alternative lifestyle! In the 70's this little town hosted something called the Aquarius festival and a few stalwarts hung around after and created their own little community. Cue being asked on every corner if we wanted hash, mushrooms or amphetamines. I was just waiting to be asked if I wanted to buy a hug. The drive from Nimbin to Byron Bay was almost like driving back home, through the moors on a summers day, simply stunning!
Byron Bay was our last stop in New South Wales before hitting Queensland and is a true backpacker heaven. Cheap food, even cheaper drinks and luckily for us some sun! We even managed to sneak in seeing the new Harry Potter film on the cheaper Tuesday, cause we're Scottish and love a bargain. Cape Byron on the coast is Australias Easterly most point and it's easy to see dolphins playing in the waves below, the walk also goes through some pretty sections of Bushland where we spotted a wild Wallaby with her joey.
In case you aren't up to speed with school holidays in Australia, at the end of high school there is a party for them all up the east coast which lasts a few weeks, the focal point for it is Surfers Paradise. Guess what? We are hitting it right at the busiest time so surprisingly enough we only docked in for a few hours in here as it is over run with lots of wee kids (or Scoolies as they are called here) and apart from making us feel old (or being classed toolies-too old to be schoolies), the prices have sky rocketed for everything. Attractions are similar to Florida such as theme parks, water parks, zoos etc so we are sitting just now deciding if we want to stump up for a theme park this afternoon.
Next stop is Brisbane for the weekend where we are meeting up with Elaine for a good ol' Scottish shindig!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Katie and Taylor
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Katie and Taylor
The drive from Katoomba back to the East Coast took us through some stunning valleys, quaint towns and numerous scary switchbacks but we are glad to report that Shelly took this test with ease. We were lucky enough to be able to dock in on our way to meet our fellow Odyssey Overland pal – Kaye.
From Kaye’s we turned Shelly northwards to Newcastle and typically towards the rain. We headed further into the downpour as we past Swansea, Cardiff, Mayfield and arrived in Newcastle. Very odd! This was our first free camp and cooking in the car which was an all round success apart from the one Mozi which sneaked into our car during the night to wake us up whizzing past our ears!
The sun has decided to break out this afternoon so we went to Blackbutts Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Newcastle which is home to Koalas, Wombats, Kangaroos and various birds. Tonight we are heading towards Hunter Valley and perhaps a spot of wine tasting for a few nights?!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Katie and Taylor
We picked up our pretty new car (you’ll meet her later) and headed across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (thrice) to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. The zoo offers an overnight package called “Roar ‘n Snore” which involves a night safari, close encounters with some of the animals, sleeping in a fancy tent overlooking the Harbour Bridge and Opera house, lots of amazing food and to top it off we got to spend the next day at the zoo.
Our continental breakfast in the morning was great, cereals danishes, fruit, juices and tea/coffee, really feeling spoiled now as we went off to meet the giraffes. We walked in the paddock and got to feed them some carrots. Their tongues were pretty slippery and very long so there was a technique but it was a lot of fun! We then headed off to the nocturnal house to get a talk about feeding the animals and got to hold the smallest glider in the world; the feather tailed glider. It was so small but so cute! Next we headed to the education centre where we got up close with kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums and quokkas. These had all be hand rescued and hand reared at the zoo so loved attention from humans. Unfortunately it is illegal to hold koalas so we only got to stroke it, but he was cute! That was roar and snore over and it was amazing. We got the whole day in the zoo, which was great early in the morning as it was really quiet so we got to see everything from wombats, emus, kangaroos to elephants and their 3 babies at bath-time, and the tiger at feeding time. There was a seal show and a bird show which were great and that was our Taronga Zoo experience.. Amazing! (more pics on the "Going Solo" album on the signpost).
When we picked up our car we were told to give it a bit of a test drive to make sure we were happy so we took her for a spin to the Blue Mountains, just over an hour away from Sydney. We stopped off at Ikea to buy the basics for sleeping in the car; pillow etc and headed for Katoomba. We decided to check into a campsite so we could ease into the camping on the road and we were spoiled with a kitchen and great bathroom facilities. We settled into our nice new bed (in the back of the car) and had a great night sleep.
The next morning we headed off for a walk to the mountains and Katoomba town. Katoomba is set at the top of the mountains on a plateau so the walk we went on was on the cliffs (so no climbing was involved). Ended up at Echo Point, the best place to view the three sisters (3 rocks) for some photos. The Blue Mountains are like a green (or blue) version of the Grand Canyon; spectacular and named for the eucalyptus oil which evaporates to give them a bluish tinge, theses trees cover the mountain range. We then went to Katoomba for a few more essentials for our car; camp-chairs and storage boxes, surfed the internet for a bit to find out that I’d won $1000 towards a training agriculture program which guarantees employment in Australia. This was something we entered at the travellers expo in Sydney but not something we planned on doing. We have over a year to use the voucher so that might mean having to come back with a working holiday visa (if Taylor can get one too) and work on a farm! Celebrated with a sneaky dominos pizza and a bottle of wine and enjoyed the sunset over our campsite.
