Round The World

Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney

jasonspillar — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:05:00 GMT

We reluctantly packed our bags and said goodbye to Vikki and Alison, our flatmates, then jumped in a taxi for the airport. I think the flight to Melbourne took about 3 hours but can’t remember exactly. We’ve taken so many flights now that I get them all muddled up. We were flying south the whole time so were expecting it to be considerably colder when we touched down in Melbourne. It was slightly depressing to acknowledge that our departure from Cairns marked the end of any decent weather for us just when summer would be on the way back home.

We arrived in Melbourne around midnight and took a cab to Base backpackers, which was to be our home for the next few nights. We didn’t want to pay the extra for a private room so it was back to staying in Dorms. We got a late dinner at the 24 hour McDonald’s and retired for the night. We got up late the next day, sorted out a couple of day trips for our time in Melbourne and had a walk around St Kilda the suburb in which our hostel was located.

The next morning we woke up early and boarded a tour bus for a day trip of The Great Ocean Road. We spent the first hour getting out the city. The first stop was at Bells Beach, the place where surfing started in Australia. The world surfing tour visits every year and it was also the location of Patrick Swayze’s demise in the movie Point Break. On the day we visited the waves were about as impressive as they are at Bournemouth, though I’m sure Jacko would’ve been straight in riding the white water! The Great Ocean Road was initially opened as a tourist drive after the 2^nd world war and it’s easy to see why. It winds its way right along the edge of the spectacular coastline for 100s of kilometres. During the day we stopped off to see wild Koalas and tropical birds. We arrived at the 12 Apostles just before sunset to take some pictures. We took the highway back getting back into Melbourne at about 10pm and having covered about 600kms.

On the next day we took a trip to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade. This is the nightly spectacle where shortly after sunset you can watch the world’s smallest penguins returning to shore after spending the day out at sea. They ride in on the surf in small groups then hover at the water’s edge building up the courage to make the dash across the beach to the safety of the sand dunes that they call home.

On our final day in Melbourne we took in the city sights. Shortly before sunset we went up the Eureka Tower, the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere. We went on a ride called The Edge. They put you in what is basically a big glass box which then moves out the side of the building on a hydraulic arm leaving you gazing down through the glass floor to the city 90 stories below. For added peace of mind the experience is accompanied by music designed to sound like glass shattering. Jenn freaked out and decided not to move for the entire time we were on the ride. Once the experience was over we stayed up the tower to watch the sun set over the city.

We took a budget Jetstar flight to Sydney the next morning. We had thought about driving from Melbourne to Sydney but were told not to bother as there wasn’t a great deal to see. It was raining when we touched down in Sydney. We’d booked the cheapest hostel we could find, D’lux Backpackers in the Kings Cross area of town. It was fine for the money and provided us with a couple of good nights out during our stay. The next day the weather in the Sydney had improved dramatically. We walked down to the City Centre and took some more cheesy Sydney Opera House pictures then took a walk through the Botanical gardens. The next day we went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains, which lay a couple of hours drive inland from Sydney. Our guide was excellent and seemed to know just about everything about the local area. Sadly the weather was not so good. There was dense fog which meant visibility was down to about 100 meters so we weren’t actually able to see anything. It’s now time to say good bye to Australia and go over to New Zealand. Hopefully I’ll be back one day as there’s still so much I haven’t seen!

Gallery: Melbourne and Victoria

jasonspillar — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 21:03:00 GMT

Melboure, The Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island

Gallery: Great Barrier Reef

jasonspillar — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:45:00 GMT

Our 2 day reef trip aboard the Rum Runner

Gallery: Around Cairns

jasonspillar — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:36:00 GMT

Places we visited during our time in Cairns

Gallery: Magnetic Island to Cape Tribulation

jasonspillar — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:21:00 GMT

Pics taken on our drive from Townsville to Cape Trib

Gallery: Whitsundays

jasonspillar — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:19:00 GMT

3 day boat trip

Around Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

jasonspillar — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:13:00 GMT

We checked into the Koala in Cairns mid-afternoon, which was to be our home for the next four days. It was a horrible feeling to have to pack our bags again and go back to living in a hostel. We were sorry to see the van go as it had begun to feel like home and we weren’t looking forward to not having any wheels. I was relieved to see that they didn’t spot the small chip that had appeared in the windscreen.

Within a few days we found a room in a shared house for a measly $60 each a week. The house is fine, nothing fancy but all that we need. We also have the bonus of having our own pool!

We’ve now been in Cairns for about 6 weeks, which has completely flown by. The weather has generally been good. It’s starting to get colder down south but is still about 25-30 Celsius up here. We rented bikes for the month to give us a quicker way of getting around and have been on a few rides around the local area. We also rented a car for the day to see some of the stuff that’s a bit further out the city. In the morning we visited Crystal Cascades, a scenic part of the Barron River with a number of swimming holes. We went to the northern beaches stopping at Ellis beach for lunch. In the afternoon we went to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm. We went on a short boat trip where they feed the crocs. We also saw a crocodile show where they entice the crocodile into demonstrating what’s known as the death roll etc. The thud you hear when there jaws snap together certainly makes you realise that you wouldn’t want to be caught between them!

During our time here we’ve been on two trips out to the Great Barrier Reef. We originally went on a day trip on a boat called Compass and enjoyed it so much that we decided to book a 2^nd trip. Prior to going we went to an educational thing in town called Reef Teach where a marine biologist tells you a bit about the reef and the marine life it sustains. It was good to get an understanding of what it was we were going to be looking at and some tips on how to find certain things.

The 2^nd trip was an overnight with 2 days out on the reef. We were aboard a sailing boat called the Rum Runner. The boat can accommodate up to 16 people but we’d had a freak week so there was only 1 other person on our trip. I’m surprised they still ran it! It was almost like having our own private charter. On the first day we did an introductory dive. Whilst onboard the dive master showed us the basics like how to equalise your ears, clear your mask underwater, blow water out the regulator if it comes out your mouth etc. It was then time to kit up and jump in. Once in the water he took Jenn and I down one at a time making sure we could do the things he’d showed us on the boat. Once he was happy we’d both got the hang of it he took us for a dive for about 20 minutes. We were probably never more than about 10 meters down so it wasn’t really that scary and was cool to get a view of the reef from beneath the surface. For the rest of the trip we just snorkelled as the reefs were only about 3 meters below the surface so you could just duck dive down if you wanted to get a closer view of anything. We saw lots of tropical fish, including Nemos (as in the one in the movie Finding Nemo) and some Parrot fish almost as big as me. We found some friendly turtles but the reef sharks eluded us although I’m still not sure if I wanted to see one or not!

We’re flying down to Melbourne on Saturday where we’ll be for 4/5 days before travelling back up to Sydney to fly to NZ on the 3^rd June.

Airlie Beach to Cairns and Beyond

jasonspillar — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:05:00 GMT

After returning from our Whitsunday sailing trip we spent another night in Airlie Beach then in the morning we set off for Townsville, about a 3 hour drive. Townsville is really just another city. We arrived early afternoon and spent the rest of the day having a look around the city. Being a Sunday almost everything was shut. We walked miles along the path by the waterfront and by the time we got back it was getting dark.

In the morning we got up early and drove to the ferry terminal to catch the boat over to Magnetic Island. We bought a bus pass for the island as it was too expensive to take the van over. Magnetic is about 20km across and billed as the perfect island getaway. We spent the day exploring the island’s beaches and also did some inland walking tracks. Towards the end of the day we ran in to Dan again who was on our Fraser Island safari and had also been at the bar on South Molle Island in the Whitsundays. We seemed to be following each other up the coast!

Magnetic was nice but I’m glad we only spent the day there as oppose to the popular option of staying a couple of nights. Once you’ve looked around there’s not much to do but lie on the beach and as we’d just come from a lazy Whitsundays trip we’d probably already done our share of lying around!

We caught the ferry back late afternoon and drove about 60km north to the camping ground at Big Crystal Creek in the Paluma Range national park. The campground was in the middle of nowhere so it was nice to see that we weren’t the only ones staying there. We started to cook dinner on one of the picnic tables when the heavens opened. We put on our rain coats and braved it out to make a rather watery spag bol. By the time we’d finished eating it was dark. I decided to go the washroom to have a shower. I pulled out my pathetically dim flashlight and found my way to the gents. I narrowly missed stepping on a black snake by the entrance and once inside found another snake guarding the urinals. I think it must’ve felt cornered as it reared its head as if ready to strike if I got any closer. I decided that the shower could wait till next morning! Jenn had gone to go the ladies but the rather large spider on the toilet seat caused her to come to the same conclusion. I didn’t fancy getting bitten by something in the middle of bloody nowhere!

In the morning we went up to the creek’s swimming hole and I took a swim in the lovely fresh water whilst Jenn sat on the bank as she didn’t want to get her hair wet!

We decided that as we still had the van for a few days we’d go up to Daintree beyond Cairns. We took the inland highway through the Atherton tableland and went on a scenic drive known as the waterfall circuit. We stopped off at three impressive waterfalls. The last of the three, Millaa Millaa Falls, was the best and apparently the most photographed falls in Australia. We took a dip in the swimming hole at the base of the falls. You could swim right under the falls (it’s more a sheet of water than a torrent so doesn’t force you under) and walk across the rocks behind them which was cool. We stopped off at a campsite in the small town of Malanda. We took a walk through the rainforest and had a look around town. In the evening we had a little campfire and had dinner with some uninvited possums.

In the morning we got back on the highway. We stopped off at Mossman Gorge for a walk before continuing on to Daintree village for lunch. We took the Daintree river ferry over to the Cape Tribulation area. We drove all the way through the rainforest up to the end of the sealed road at Cape Trib. On the way back we stopped off at various beaches and boardwalks through the rainforest. We stayed at the Koala retreat at Cape Kimberly which was 5km down a gravel track and right on a secluded beach.

The next day we got up early and got back on the road over the Daintree River. We took the windy road up the hill to Kuranda to have a look around the markets then drove to the spectacular Barran falls. After that it was time to head down the hill to check in to our hostel and return our van which we weren’t looking forward to.

Whitsundays

jasonspillar — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:01:00 GMT

We made our way down to the marina for 8.30 in the morning. We were shown to our boat, the Anaconda 2. Prior to becoming a tourist charter it had been a racing yacht made in the late 70s. Our skipper had been with the boat since the start and had even been part of the crew that sailed it round the world so had many stories about his voyages. We motored out of the marina and the deckhand quickly raised the sails.

The weather was beautiful so we lay out on deck, admired the views and caught some rays. That was pretty much as energetic as it got for the next couple of days. A few times during the day we stopped off near one of the islands and, after donning our stinger suits, went for a snorkel. The Whitsundays are part of the Great Barrier Reef world heritage site and many of the islands have small coral reefs along the fringe of their coastline. During our trip we saw a variety of coral, sponges, loads of tropical fish of all shapes and sizes, turtles and even dolphins. You don’t need to be able to dive as the reef was often just a meter or two under the surface. The views are amazing it really is like a completely different underwater world! The first night we stopped off near South Molle Island and linked up with some of the other boats at a nearby bar. A couple of people from our Fraser Island safari were there so it was cool to see them again.

On the second day the skipper set sail before light to bring us round to Whitehaven beach for sunrise. We spent a couple of hours at Whitehaven, a picture postcard white sandy beach. Once back on board we continued the theme of lying out on deck mixed with the odd snorkel. We also went for a walk on Whitsunday Island to a lookout with fantastic views over Whitehaven. We spent the 2^nd night moored in a secluded bay. Our skipper shone a light down into the water which attracted all sorts of sea creatures. There was a puffer fish blowing itself up to ward off attacks from the bat fish, a dolphin chasing after food and lots of small tropical fish. We chilled out on deck with a couple of beers before going to bed fairly early.

On the third day the wind had picked up. We had all the sails up and were really flying on some of the exposed stretches. The boat was leaning over a bit and the swell had increased to about a meter. The deckhand was saying they’d been caught in 4 meter swells before so this was nothing but it was still cool to be doing some proper sailing. We were all sat on the high side with our legs over the edge. Every so often a slightly bigger wave would come along and if you were sat up the front the spray would drench you. I sat up the front and got thoroughly soaked before moving back to comfort Jenn who was starting to feel a little queasy. We cruised back into the marina mid afternoon. It was an amazing trip and I definitely wouldn’t mind working as a deckhand for a month or two!

Fraser Island

jasonspillar — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:41:00 GMT

We arrived in Hervey bay and checked into the YHA where you can camp. A nice hostel that seemed quite luxary compared to what we'd become accustomed to. We went for a walk into town and got completely drenched as it decided it to piss it down when we were miles from the hostel. The next day wasn't much better so we were kinda worried that our trip to Fraser would be a nightmare as camping in the rain is never fun. We went to an orientation in the afternoon where they gave us an itinary for Fraser and a quick intro on how not to wreck the 4 wheel drive we'd be taking. They put us into the groups of 11 per vehicle and we had to sort who'd be doing the driving etc.

The next morning we had to be up at 6.30 to go over to the island. The black clouds had cleared ant it had turned to beautiful sunshine that was expected to continue for the next couple of days so we'd totally lucked out! We loaded all our supplies, got a quick intro on how to drive a 4wd vehicle and then were on our way. The barge over to the island didn't take long. We had an Essex guy called Dan driving to start with and set off to lake Mckenzie. The "road" wasn't too rough to start with but it's still a little nerve racking having an unknown bloke with no experience 4wding down some of the tracks. Lake Mckenzie is beautiful turquiose lake with a white sandy beach. The water is so pure you can drink it. Apparently it's fed by an underground freshwater spring. If you swim out into the middle you're supposed to be able to feel the current from it making it impossible to swim down. We swam for ages but finding it is a needle in a haystack. We returned to the beach defeated. We went back to the truck and it was my turn to take the wheel. Driving a massive great landcruiser was a little daunting at first but not as bad as I'd been expecting and definately a bit of a rush! We hit some pretty rough sections that had the people in the back being thrown about a bit but nothing so bad that I thought I was going to get stuck or crash the thing. I drove up to Lake Wabby lookout, a lake perched at the end of a massive sandune. From there it was down to the beach to setup camp. We had an Irish family in our group (mum and 2 grown up kids). She took up her motherly role and cooked us a steak dinner theen just chilled on the beach with a couple of beers. We saw a couple of Dingos near the camp as I expect they could smell the food.

The next morning we were up very early for the drive up 75mile beach to Indian heads. There's only certain times of day you can drive along the beach due to the tides so we had to set out early. We hiked up to Indian heads and could see some tiger sharks in the water below, what looked like mum and 4 baby sharks. You can't swim in the ocean anywhere near Fraser Island as there's sharks everywhere! When we came back down there was a Dingo right next to the truck. They're definately not scared of you but I was pleased to see that they're not that big so I'm sure a firm kick would send one on its way if it did get a bit aggressive. Jenn didn't seem quite so confident and looked more like a scared kid trying to hide behind me! We drove back down the beach to the site of the shipwreck, an old passenger ship that ended up there in the 1930s. After a few pics we went to the village of Happy Valley to get some supplies then returned to our campsite. We walked to Lake Wabby in the afternoon. and attempted to sandboard down the sandbank into the lake with limited success. Great fun even if we were crap at it!. TBC

Noosa to Hervey Bay

jasonspillar — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:34:00 GMT

So when I last wrote we were in Noosa. In the morning we took a surfing lesson which was cool. Not as hard as I expected it to be. Jenn and I both managed to stand up straight away although the waves were pretty gentle. I'm sure if there'd been a bit more swell it would've been somewhat harder! No picures I'm afraid so you'll just have to take my word for it. In the afternoon we went for a kayak up the river. The place reminds me a little of Sandbanks with loads of swanky houses on the river bank. A nice day with no driving as we had a bit of time to kill before going to Fraser.

Gallery: Fraser Island

jasonspillar — Sun, 6 Apr 2008 16:19:00 GMT

Gallery: Sydney to Hervey Bay

jasonspillar — Sun, 6 Apr 2008 15:58:00 GMT

Sydney to Noosa (about 90minutes North of Brisbane)

jasonspillar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:18:00 GMT

We picked up the van on Thursday and eventually found our way onto the highway out of Sydney. We covered a fair few kilometres the first day, spending the night in a place called Port Macquarie. In the morning we visited the town's Koala hospital. A free way to see some Koalas. Some have recovered from severe injuries such as being hit by cars or caught in forest fires but most of them have minor conditions, one of the most common being Chlamydia. Dirty stopouts!!

We travelled up the highway to Coffs Harbour, another resort town on the coast stopping off along the way at anywhere that looked interesting. Wallabies by the road side have now become a fairly common sight, I'm not sure where it was that we first saw them.
We cooked dinner in a random park then went for a couple of drinks in the evening. To save on campsites we slept in a quiet side road.

From Coff's harbour we tried and failed to find a learn to surf place that had been recommended to us. Unfortunately it's billed as an out in the middle of nowhere place and our lack of a decent map made it rather hard to find.
We continued up the Coast to Byron Bay, a lively holiday and surf town with hippie roots. We naively forgot that it was Easter weekend when they hold a festival in the town so again opted to stay in a quiet street as everything else was booked out. Not sure of the legality of doing so around Byron but we got away with it. I think loads of other people were doing the same. We spent a bit of time chilling on the beach then headed in to town for a few drinks. Byron is pretty cool at night, very chilled with a trendy bar on the ocean and lots of hippie type live music. About half way through the night the skies opened in spectacular fashion but luckily we were under cover at the time. At least it's still warm here when it rains and it lasts a few minutes not all day.

In the morning we took a walk through the rain forest up to the headland, seeing wild turkeys (stupid things, they're everywhere!) and a blue tongue lizard. We thought the later was a snake as they kind of look like one with stupid stumpy little legs stuck on the side. After steering well clear an aussie came along and told us it was only a lizard and wasn't going to kill us. After that we headed up the coast, stopping off a couple of beaches before camping at a place called Kirra beach for the night.
After having the first hot shower for a couple of days we continued up the coast, past a couple of top surf breaks, to Surfers Paradise. Surfers, as it's known is a big resort town, a bit tacky but still a cool place. We had a walk around the shops at Jenn's request but didn't dwell for too long. We spent the night at a small campsite a bit north of there in a town called Carbrook. The looks from the locals suggested they weren't too used to seeing outsiders!

From here it was just a short drive up to Brisbane, Oz's 3rd largest city. We wandered around the Queensland museum to fill in on some local history then had a look around the gardens near the city in the afternoon. Come about 2pm we finally realised that it was actually only 1pm as we were now in Queensland which doesn't do daylight saving or something like that. Brisbane is just another city, nothing that exciting to see, so we left to try and find a national park that lonely planet mentioned and had cheap camping. We'd bought a map of NSW but had no decent map of Queensland so drove about 30kms past the place before finally getting some directions. We decided it was too far to go back so stayed the night in a campsite somewhere near Australia Zoo (the late Steve "the crocodile hunter" Irwin's place). That bring things pretty much up to date. We drove on to a small town called Noosa this morning which is where I am now. Another picturesque place with some fancy villa style accom. We've just forked out a big wad of cash for a Fraser Island Safari and a Whitsunday sailing trip. We'll be heading over to Fraser from Harvey bay on Sun 30th so have some time to kill until then. We're going to spend the afternoon chilling on the beach and will be learning to surf tomorrow which should be good. Hopefully I'll be a natural!!

Sydney

jasonspillar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:00:00 GMT

We flew from San Francisco to LA on the smallest commercial plane I've ever been on. The 14 and 1/2 hour flight from LA to Sydney went pretty quick so was not the mind numbing affair I'd been preparing myself for. We're staying in a hostel fairly close the city centre and have mainly just been sorting things out for the first few days, bank accounts, phones, healthcare etc. All very boring but it's got to be done. We're pretty much sorted now so are going to spend another day in Sydney before embarking on a 3 week road trip up the East coast to Cairns. We've booked a camper type thing. It's basically a people carrier that's been customised so the back is sleeping space and you have cooking equipment etc (see http://www.spaceships.tv/). We couldn't really afford a proper camper, and they mainly seem to be manual transmission which Jenn can't drive, so this seems a pretty good compromise and should have all we need. Now it's just a case of sorting out exactly what we want to see between Sydney and Cairns.

Having got all the paperwork sorted we decided to take it easy for the afternoon. We took a short ferry ride over to Manly and went and got burnt on the beach this afternoon (it's about 25" here at the mo). Did a bit of body surfing and wandered aroung the town which is an idylic little place. The ferry goes from right next to the Opera house and harbour bridge so it was also a cheap way to see them from the water. We're going to do the classic Sydney sights tomorrow morning then head to Bondi beach in the afternoon. After that it's 3 weeks on the road so can't wait!!

Gallery: San Francisco

jasonspillar — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:15:00 GMT

San Francisco

jasonspillar — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:10:00 GMT

We flew in to SF from Toronto on Tuesday morning. We're staying at the Travelodge near the city centre. It's not in the best part of town and calling a glass of OJ and a pastry a continental breakfast is a bit of a joke but I'm sure it's nicer than some of the hostels we'll stay in. Tuesday afternoon we went on a Golden Gate tour which takes you over the bridge and gives you a bit of history on the building of the bridge back in the 1930s. On Wednesday we must've walked about half a marathon up and down the hilly streets of SF. You can tell you're in earthquake country as it's just hill after hill like a series of waves. You'd get pretty fit walking around this city. We thought about renting a car but I'm glad we didn't as driving around on a 40% gradient is definately an aquired skill! In the morning we went down to the bay and hopped on the ferry over to Alcatraz, about a mile into the bay. We were given a history of "the rock" in the days when it was a fort, before it became a prison. After that we went up to the prison building. We took an audio tour which tells you about life in Alcatraz, its most famous residents and the escape attempts made by some of the inmates. In the afternoon we did our own walking tour of the city.
Thursday (today) we went out to Marin County on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge to a place called Muir woods to see the Redwoods. Redwoods are massive (300ft) old (up to 2000years) trees that grow in certain parts of Calafornia. After that we went down to a little town called Sausalito for some lunch before getting the coach back to the city.
We fly to LA tomorrow afternoon, which only takes an hour. After that comes the mind numbing 14 1/2 hour flight to Sydney.

Toronto Update

jasonspillar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:38:00 GMT

Just a quick update to let you know that I've added a few pics to this journal. I've also uploaded a couple of videos: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3CCC43A42F8C0BE6. I'll be adding more videos to that link when I take them.

We've had more crazy snow in the last couple of days. We went out in downtown Toronto last night and it was absolutely dead as no-one was prepared to brave the weather. Driving is pretty dodgy! Apart from that our only excursion has been to a 5 pin bowling alley, which was so ancient that we had to work the scores out on a bit of paper. Jenn's condo has a communal gym, pool and hot tub on the ground floor so we've been chilling down there the rest of the time.

The next update will be from San Fransisco or Sydney.

Adios

Gallery: Canada March 08

jasonspillar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:07:00 GMT

The First Leg to Toronto

jasonspillar — Sat, 8 Mar 2008 03:48:00 GMT

I'm currently sat in Jenn's parents' Condo in Pickering which is about 30min from the centre of Toronto. The journey from Poole all went relatively smoothly. Jenn's parents collected us from the airport on Tuesday evening. There was a big storm that night with a lot of new snow. Most flights were cancelled the next day so it's a good job we didn't come a day later.
We've mainly just been catching up with Jenn's friends and family. Unfortunately the tables have turned and I'm now the foreigner with the funny accent that is a source of endless amusement!

Yesterday (Thursday) we went up to a small Ski resort called Lakeridge for a few hours. It's more hills than mountains round here so nothing on the scale of Banff but still good fun. The new snow meant the conditions were awesome and it's nice to know that I can still snowboard. A bit more practice is needed to get back to the level I was in Banff so I'll have to stay clear of those kickers for a few days when I get to NZ.

We're going to be here till Tuesday when we fly to San Fransisco where we'll be for 3 days. After that it's the 14 and 1/2 hour flight down to Sydney!