Australia

Friday the 9th of April

G’day, or if you are a whinging pom, hello. Greetings from Sydney everybody and also a happy Easter to you all. If your not religious then I hope you got a lot of Easter eggs and if you are religious then I hope you are thoroughly sorry and ashamed that Jesus died for YOUR sins!

Well today is our fifth day in Sydney and I am proud to reveal we have managed to do absolutely nothing so far. After the hectic schedule of New Zealand, which seemed to involve moving towns every two days, we have decided to just relax in Sydney for a while. I have to say Sydney is a pretty good city to just relax and do nothing in. Apart from Monday we have had fairly good weather all week and as such have made the most out of wondering around the city. We’ve seen the flying foxes in the Botanic Gardens, checked out Bondi Beach, strolled along Darling Harbor and popped into the Opera House. Just incase you are wondering what flying foxes are, no they are not foxes that fly, although that would be quite cool. They are bats and bloody big bats at that, personally I think they should change the name from the flying fox to the bloody fat bat. Rolls off the tongue better and makes far more sense.

Today we headed off to the Olympic Park for the Royal Easter Show. Now I have to choose my words carefully here as I think the show is well liked by the people of Sydney and obviously I don’t want to offend anybody. So here goes, the show was, oh I just can’t do it, I can’t find anything nice to say about it, it was rubbish. It was like a mix of a fair and a farm show and quite frankly you would have to either be aged under 15 or have an unhealthy liking of farm animals to enjoy it. Lou and I managed to last about two hours but then I just had to leave. There is only so much enjoyment you can derive from watching bulls go for a dump, it was actually more than I would have previously thought but still there was a limit. In defense of the show, no sorry again I can’t find any defense, even the candy floss tasted like salt.

We are not sure how long we are planning to stay in Sydney, as we have a couple of months in Australia but I think the plan is to probably start moving up the coast mid next week. There is so much to do in Sydney that that might well change. Also if we go to all the pubs Adam has recommended we might be here until December.

Thursday the 15th of April

After spending an enjoyable week or so in Sydney we are about to embark upon a bus ride up the East Coast to Port Macquarie. We chose to go here to see koala bears, amongst other attractions, which this area is noted for. I am not sure whether we will be allowed to hug them or not due to their big claws, but I will damn but try. Hopefully we will also get to pass through Summer Bay (Home and Away) on the way or as it is really known –Shell beach. If I am really lucky I may even get to see Alf – I am so excited!

Sydney is quite hot at the moment (27degrees) even though it is Autumn and we are presently recovering from walking around with our ever increasingly heavy backpacks to this internet café.

However most the time in Sydney has been spent relaxing. We caught up with my cousin Angela and family, Sean, Jack and the little Samual which was lovely day spent at Darling Harbour and also met up with an old friend of mine, Pria from New Zealand whom I met at work London a couple of years ago. We got a bit razzeled to say the least!

Now I know Ruairi mentioned he was not too impressed with the Royal Easter Show but I think it would have been fine if we had a chance to see the racing / flying piglets! Unfortunately this particular show was too busy to even get a look in which was disappointing as it was the main reason I wanted to go you see. What they apparently do is they grease up the little piggies and then race and slide them off things, actually it sounds quite cruel thinking about it so maybe its just as well we did not see them. It was a fairly educational day though as we saw some massive bulls at 1000 – 1400 kg, and yes before you start wondering they did have big balls! Well that that was the highlight of the day, but we thought we’d go and see what all the fuss was about.

Have to bid farewell as its off to the north to find some kangaroos and koalas! Bye. Lou x

Sunday the 18th of April

I don't believe it! Well were currently in Port Macquarie and are just continuing where we left off in Sydney. By this I mean we are doing nothing much apart from relaxing, things however were not always so relaxed.

We arrived in Port Macquarie on Thursday at about 9.30pm. We were due to arrive nearer 8.00pm but our bus driver was the kind of guy who would have trouble finding his own head with both hands a map. Obviously negotiating the 200 mile journey was going to be pretty tough for the poor guy. You might think I am being a bit harsh to the Mr bus driver and I probably am but I have just reason.

When we arrived to get on the bus we first had to check in, this involved our bags being weighed. I was then informed that at 26.5kg my backpack was over the 20kg limit. After a bit of arguing in which I stated my point of view "don't be such a big Aussie sissy it's not that heavy, I have been carrying it for the last 5 months you big girl." I was told that my only option was to buy another bag and put half the weight into that one. The reason for this was that they do not want their staff lifting more than 20kg in one go thus you are allowed two bags but both must be under 20kg. So quite annoyed I went off, bought a new bag and filled it up and brought them both back to the scales. Then I got really annoyed! After weighing the bags they then asked me to carry them out and load them onto the bus myself so in the end their sissy staff did not even lift them. I am sure they did this just to get my back up and it worked.

On arriving in Port Macquarie, we headed over to our hostel, the less I say about this place the better. Suffice to say that we booked out the following day and I have vowed never to stay anywhere like it again. I am not a 19 year old gap year student who spends every night in the pub drinking alcopops before returning to his hostel to wet the bed so I positively refuse to stay is some hovel the size of a phone box with a plastic mattress.

Now that my weekly moan over, let me tell you about all the fun things we have been doing. Well Port Macquarie is quite a nice little place, it kind of reminds me of Pinamar in Argentina and Lou said it reminds her of Summer Bay from Home & Away. I am not sure who is more accurate but either way we both quite like it here. So far we have walked along the coast, chilled on the beach and visited injured koalas at the koala hospital. Lou has also finally had had her go at para-sailing, but I will leave that to Lou to fill you in on.

Where next we are not sure, we fly out of Brisbane on the 26th but where we go up until then is a mystery. Well not that much of a mystery really as it will be on the East Coast somewhere between Port Macquarie and Brisbane. Well thats all for now folks, I have to go out and find some more things that annoy me so that I something to moan about on my next entry.

Ruairi aka Victor Meldrew

Saturday the 24th April

Hi and gooday. We are presently in Brisbane but have yet to report on much of Port Macquarie and Byron Bay. In the former we visited a koala hospital which was very good. We heard stories about the injured little bears well marsupials actually and saw the recovered joeys high up in the trees. Mostly they are injured from forest fires, cars and a syndrome called 'wet bum' the poor little bleeders. They looked so cute although an old guy who was also visiting referred to them as vicious little buggers! We did not get to hug them though as they are naturally shy creatures so just a peek was good enough for us.

Previous to the koalas I parasailed over the river which was ace in a kind of gentle way, you see it was not quite as fast as I would have liked. Well after that we headed 6 hours up the coast to Byron Bay which was beautiful. The beaches there were just stunning, long, deserted, with clear water and floury sand. Ruairi and I one day kickstarted our day with a race to the lighthouse, the loser would have to pay for the accommodation for the night, I won!! Tee hee hee. We then rewared ourselves with a dip in the pacific, what bliss!

As well as its beaches, Byron Bay is noted for its alternative lifestyles, with many buddists, alternatives practitioners and also its numerous surfer dudes, it seemed practicallly everyone had either a buddah statue in their garden or sported a surfboard. We wondered at the ribbon wavers but all in all was a nice place, very relaxing.

We are now in the not so relaxing city of Brisbane ready to fly to Darwin in a couple of days, insidently on Anzac Day. Our hotel/pub is in the middle of an industrial estate (its cheap) infact it is cheap in a few senses of words as we found out yesterday. In the afternoon we were informed by the landlord that there would be topless waitresses serving in the garden bar, humm, nice. The night was topped off with some delightful karoke singing. Not the best formula for a good nights sleep but never mind.
We have also put the second part of our trips dates into place and will be arriving back on the 16th of November, if all goes to plan.
Still having fun, a tad travel weary but well.

Bye Lou

Wednesday the 28th of April

Sydney reminded me of a warmer version of London. Darwin on the other hand, well quite frankly I have never been anywhere like Darwin. I would imagine the closest you would get to replicating Darwin would be to sit in a sauna on planet Mars while being surrounded by swimming pools full of crocodiles. On re-reading that I disagree, I am talking rubbish, that makes Darwin sound dreadful where as it really is quite incredible. The heat here is something different, I am not sure if this is the hottest place we have visited so far but it certainly feels it. On stepping out of the air-conditioned airport you are hit with a wall of heat and within two minutes you are panting like a dog and are as sweaty as a sumo wrestlers thong. What makes this worse is the fact that you are unable to swim in the sea due to the box jellyfish and the rivers are also out of bounds unless you want to be crocodile food. Trust me after seeing at the crocodile park how fast the crocodiles can move and how high they jump, I am determined to not even look at a river never mind swim in one. This means that as you walk about with the sun beating down, you have the beautiful sea right in front of you but you know it is off limits. If it was not for the hotel pool I think I would have gone mad by now.

Well we have only been in Darwin for a few days now and so far apart from looking in any shop with air-conditioning we have visited the crocodile park and also checked out Cullen Bay. The plan is to head over to Kakadu National Park in the next few days but this is not proving as easy as originally planned. The main reason being our reliance on public transport. It seems that everybody in Australia drives and due to this the public transport is not the greatest. There is also the fact that Kakadu is just a massive park, which stretches inland for over 120 miles. This means that even if we get a bus Darwin and stay out in the park, we are limited on how much we can explore on foot. There is the option of hiring bikes when we get there but in this heat I am not sure how long I could cycle for. Anyway I am off now as I want to go and have a swim in the pool, adios.

Tuesday the 4th of May

Well we are still in Darwin and it's still hot. In fact it is hot here all year round with an average of around 30 and there are only two seasons, dry and wet. Just imagine - no such thing as winter - I don't think I'd like it much. Though we are getting used to the heat I personally still feel reluctant to leave the air conditioned hotel in the morning. We have however done loads and explored or should I say exhausted Darwins tourist attractions some what. As Ruairi mentioned we saw the croc park, since then we have visited the Museum and Art Gallery, swam in Lake Alexandra, fed the hungry fish hunks of bread at 'Aquascene', saw a couple of films in the beach side open air cinema at sunset, took a tour of the very interesting Indo-Pacific Marine Exhibition, saw the old oil storage tunnels, and apart from that have been doing lots of late night swimming at the hotel pool. I find it too hot to swim in the day and well to be honest as I wear ear plugs, nose clip and goggles prefer to swim when its dark as I feel a bit of an idiot in a 10 metre pool - don't laugh - it is so much nicer to swim free of water getting up your nose etc.

Now we were gonna go to Kakadu a popular national park up here in the northern territory or top end but we have been advised by some that due to the heat, flies and mozzies that it should rather be called Kaka-don't! So we are basing ourselves in Darwin and may take a day tour to another park instead. A word of warning to anyone considering coming up to the Northern Territory - you need a car! It is almost inconceivable to some people that we want to travel around but without driving ourselves. So it really seems as though the lack of a car will mean we spend the whole two weeks in Darwin. But hey we will try and keep ourselves entertained as Darwin really does have loads to offer apart from Box jellies and crocs.
Louise

Monday the 10th of May

The up and down world of travelling! Well we have had our fair share of slumming it, what with the four-foot caravan in New Zealand and the various backpacker hovels in Australia, so for a change we decided to see how the other half lived. Boy do they live well! On arriving in Perth we had not arranged anywhere to stay so we headed over to the information point to inquire about accommodation, well to cut to the chase we ended up staying in the Sheraton. In our defence they gave us a special rate but still we were living a lifestyle that was beyond our financial standing for this trip. It was really nice to have a bit of luxury for a change but it was a bit over the top. We both had a laugh about the fact they gave you a pillow menu listing the five types of pillow you could choose from and the advantages of each one. Well after our one night of complete indulgence we headed back to the world of the backpacker, well that was the plan. What we actually did was book out of the 5 star Sheraton and cross the road to the 4 star Novotel. Again over our budget but closer to it than the Sheraton, also there was a massive storm so we did not really want to be out wondering the streets with our rucksacks, looking for a backpacker hostel. After the luxury of the Sheraton both Lou and I found the Novotel a bit of a disappointment, no pillow menu, nobody to carry your bags to the room etc. It only took me one night to get accustomed to life in a 5 star hotel whereas over six months I still have not become accustomed to the backpacker hostels. I think I am secretly a rich man trapped in a poor mans body, on the plus side, it is one devilishly hansom poor mans body. Tomorrow it really is back to the world of the backpacker and quite frankly I am not looking forward to it.

Well what can I say about Perth, not much really. This is due to the fact it been raining since we arrived so we have not seen much and also due to the fact that all these Australian cities are starting to feel the same. Darwin being the exception, as quite simply there is nowhere else on the planet like Darwin. I am starting to feel a bit bored with Australia and I am quite looking forward to moving on to Thailand and Vietnam etc. I cant quite put my finger on it, as I do like Australia, it just seems a bit boring. I think after South America, where even get a bus was exciting; Australia seems a bit tame. Although we have three weeks left in Australia so I might well change my opinion.

The plan it to leave Perth tomorrow and head out to see a bit of the countryside. I am looking forward to this as we have found that we have spent a lot of our time in Australia in cities and I think this might be the reason I am getting a bit restless. We are not sure where we are going to go as of yet but it will either be the island of Rottnest (looks nicer than it sounds) or down the southwest coast. I think the weather will play a large part in the decision as it looks like the storms are due to last for a few days more. I am starting to feel like there is some kind of sinister plan to keep Ruairi from going to the beach, if it is not the box jellyfish, it the crocodiles and now it is the weather. Oh well it could be worse, I could be at work. Anyway I am off now as I want to head back to the hotel and make sure I get value for money by liberating as much “complimentary” stuff as I can.

Tuesday the 18th of May

There goes six months and now only six left. Yesterday was our six-month traveling anniversary, which means as of today, we now have less days left than we have already been traveling for. Oh how time flies when your having fun!

We are currently in Melbourne which is cold and rainy, this is not how it is supposed to be. You lot are meant to be in a cold and rainy England while we lap up the sun in our foreign climbs. How can I be all smug and self satisfied when I am freezing my butt off while you guys are enjoying a barmy British summer? Then again in two weeks we will be in Thailand, which will make you’re so called summer look like the mildly warm and short lived thing that it really is. See that is the smugness I am talking about.

Well after the three days of luxury in Perth we decided to jump on a boat and head over to Rottnest Island for the rest of the week and what a great decision that was. After being stuck in the cities for most of our trip in Australia it was really nice to escape and find more tranquil climbs and Rottnest Island certainly fitted the bill. Rottnest is a sand island which lies about 12 miles off the coast of Australia. The island itself is quite small, being only 7 miles long and about 3 miles wide. The size is part of the charm however, this is due to the fact that there are no cars on Rottnest and cycling is your only means of the exploring the place. As such, if it was much bigger you would not be able to get around as well. The island is dotted with various beautiful white sand beaches, which are ideal for swimming, snorkeling, fishing or just lying back and reading a book. I am happy to say that we participated in all of the aforementioned activities with varying degrees of success. I say this as I proved to be about as adept as fishing as I was on the quad bikes.

On our third day on the island we decided on a fish supper so we jumped on our bikes and cycled out to an idyllic little cove where we had been snorkeling the day before. When we got there I got the rod ready, baited the hook, climbed out onto a rock and dropped my rod in the water. Three hours later the sum of my achievements was precisely zero. I did catch something; unfortunately it was a stingray, which obviously I had to throw back. This proved not to be the easiest task in the world, as I had to try and unhook it while it was trying to sting me with its tail. Anyway after sitting there for three hours I was about ready to pack up when a couple of kids turned up with their fishing rods. They then proceeded to catch about fifteen herring in about twenty minutes. On the plus side, after hearing of my vain attempts they took pity on me and gave me a quick fishing lesson and all of their fish. Anyway I had fun and that is the main thing.

Tomorrow the plan is to move on from Melbourne and start heading back up to Sydney. We have decided to head inland instead of going up the coast, the main reason for this is the fact the weather has turned into winter here and as such the beach is not very appealing. Well that’s all for now folks, anyway stop staring at a computer screen and go out and enjoy some of that sunshine.

Friday the 21st of May

Just a very quick entry today for two reasons, the first being this PC costs twelve dollars an hour and the second being I don't have that much to say. We decided to stay three nights in Melbourne instead of two and I think I can speak for both of us when I say we liked Melbourne. This was helped by the fact our hotel was bang in the centre of town which meant everything was on our doorstep. Also staying at our hotel were a group of about fifteen Argentinean cyclists who got most excited when spotting me getting out of the lift wearing my Boca Juniors top. They then got a bit less excited when they tried to speak to me and realised that the only thing Argentinean about me was the top, I did at least manage to remember hello in Spanish.

We left Melbourne yesterday and caught the train to Albury where we are currently. Believe it or not but that was the first train journey on our whole trip. Although quicker and more roomy than the buses I still spent all of the journey wriggling in my seat. No I do not have fleas but I think I have fractured my coccyx bone (bum bone to you.) About five weeks ago in Byron Bay Lou and I were in the sea and I picked her up only for a massive wave to knock us over and the weight of both of us landed on my butt. As the pain is still here and I still cant sit down properly I can only guess that I have broken my bum. Only I could brake my bum, what a stupid thing to break. In fact I would go as far as saying the only more stupid sounding injury would be a sprained nipple or a dislocated ear, if either of them are possible?

Tomorrow we plan to leave Albury and check out the capital Canberra before heading back to Sydney. We only have a week left in Australia and then Southeast Asia here we come!

Tuesday the 25th of May

Well it is Spring for you but here in Oz it is Autumn but its pretty and not too cold. The leaves are falling but in about 5 days time the rain will be falling as we enter S.E Asia in their monsoon season. With Australia nearly 'done' I guess I have to report about the best bits. Well Sydney has to be one, its a great big city that easily rivals London. Darwin was hot in a cool kind of way but Rottnest Island had to be one of the best places for me as it had so much to offer. As you have seen the pictues of us 'fishing' but also whilst Ruairi was 'catching some fish'. I on the other hand was swimming with them as there was some great coral to see. I did make a mistake however as while I was in the sea I have to admit I weed. Not thinking the fish would mind too much but boy was I wrong. Something which resembled a plant slashed me on the arm in revenge and I had to get out the water as I was stung by a coral!The cheek of it. Well that put me off going back in the sea a hurry and next time I can assure you will be weeing mainly in a toilet!

We are now in the Blue mountains to balance out the city / county experience and well it is nice so far. We just arrived from Canberra the capital city which was fairly interesting. We visited the parliament house like all good tourists do and went on a bush walk to the mountain and got lost in the cloud. Yet to see a kangaroo though and most upset about that.

Well I have to go now as I need the loo. Obsessed with weeing - moi??! Fardiwell, Loux

Sunday the 30th of May

And now the end is near, it’s time to face the final curtain. Well for Australia anyway as today we fly to Thailand, where the food is cheap and the ladies have balls! Obviously not all of them just the big hand gang who according to reports chase you down the street, I’d better get my running shoes on.

I have enjoyed Australia, especially Darwin, Rottnest and the Blue Mountains, but I still feel like we did not get the most out of Australia. I really think to truly explore and enjoy this vast country your own car is a must. Lou and I used to look in the guide book and see all the wonderful looking places and then sadly realize that without a car getting there and around was just not feasible. So for anybody reading this and planning a trip down-under make sure you get your own wheels as you really do need them. I think no matter what you are looking for, you can find it in Australia. It is so vast and varied a landscape that you have everything here, snowy mountains, bush, beaches, deserts and forests. It has been a quite chilled out two months in Australia and it probably was what we needed in the mid-way point of our journey.

Bangkok here we come!