TravelStream™ news feed for member fayeandrachel on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/fayeandrachel en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:46:18 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1214480700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1214480700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1214480700/tpod.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:46:18 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

This Camper was snazzy to say the least, we managed to get a six berth camper for $5 dollars a day and after a brief trip to Alice Springs emergency department we headed north for Darwin. (Nothing serious but next time I say don't pick your bites they will get infected, hopefully someone might listen to me!) We didn't get far on the first day of driving as we didn't leave Alice till late so we decided to stay at Wycliffe Well again in the hope that we would actually see some UFO's this time, which we didn't.

We had four days to get the van to Darwin which was plenty of time to take it easy. The next day we drove to Daly Waters Pub a strange establishment next to an old aerodrome used as Australia's first international airport (Quantas stopped and refueled between Sydney and Singapore). It also claims to be the Northern Territories oldest pub but so do many others! It is undeniably a place of Australian charm and character with a lot of stuff stuck all over the walls clothing, footwear, money, IDs, hats etc the list is endless. The camp ground attached was really busy with 'Grey nomads' Australians of a certain age with camper vans and four wheel drives who seem to spend their retirement funds driving around Australia for years on end, not bad, better than golf! Some very nice and chatty people who all seamed to be English originally or have relatives who lived in England.

That evening in the pub we were treated to a performance by the 'chook man' a country singer who sang with chickens on his head (i love this country). There were quite a few Johnny Cash covers but also some classic originals such as "when the papers wet with dew" a wonderful ballad about the complications of bush toileting. Don't worry folks I bought his CD for a rather inflated price of $20 but its all his own work so well worth it, although I will say he went a bit overboard on the synthesizers. The next day we drove on and stopped for a dip in some thermal pools in Mataranka, which were warm, crystal clear and beautiful. As we drove North the terrain began to get more tropical and less desertified. There was a lot more forest around and you could see the evidence of bush fires all over the place including a big pall of smoke on the horizon. That night we stayed a short distance out of Darwin and headed in the next day to find a hostel and return the van.
Darwin has two seasons wet and dry. We were arriving in Dry also the busy tourist season and because of that the hostel prices were much higher and everywhere was booked, so we ended up in a huge hostel with a club and rubber mattress,it was horrible. Full of drunk English and Irish people, yay! one night the fire alarm went of at 4 in the morning, no doubt set off by some drunk, so we all had to pile out into the street while the fire brigade cleared the building. Fun Fun. Darwin is actually a nice place I just ended up there with no money so it kind of ruined it for me. But we did go to the sunset markets at Mindil Beach and caught an Indian festival so I could quench my craving for curry and watch some Indian dancing which was great.



We moved into a cheaper hostel halfway through the week and although it wasn't luxury I preferred it to the rubber mattress. We even braved the beach in Darwin and went for a quick swim, suicidal for most of the year but relatively safe in this season. Although we underestimated the danger of salt water crocodiles but manged to get out with all limbs intact. Another highlight of Darwin was the deckchair cinema, an outdoor cinema with possums running around and bats flying overhead. You can sit and watch a movie having a picnic it was really lovely. The weather in Darwin was still in the 30's while the rest of Australia was winter. We also visited the Museum and saw an interesting display on Cyclone Tracy that wiped Darwin out in the 70's and went into a scary room to listen to a recording made of the wind, it was terrifying enhanced by the room being totally pitch black. In the museum we also met 'sweetheart' a 5metre long stuffed crocodile who was accidentally killed whilst being removed from a local river after he had 'played' with some fishing boats. Absolutely terrifying and huge, incomprehensively massive and perfectly designed to kill you, nice! I didn't get to do all the things I wanted to in Darwin as I had run out of money so I dint visit Kakadu national park or Katherine Gorge which is a real shame but maybe I will have a chance to go back one day.

We did go on a trip to Litchfield national Park for the day and visited lots of beautiful waterfalls which where safe to swim in as they had been cleared of crocks! We also went on a Crock jumping tour where a large boat takes you out on the river and dangles bits of meat off the side of the boat to entice the crocodiles to jump.

We saw some spectacular jumps but I'm not sure its an entirely good plan to encourage crocodiles to come up to boats in search of food. And as the guide kept telling us, we are prey and you wont know about it until its to late! In fact he repeated this at least once every five minutes just in case we didn't get it the first time. So after spending a week procrastinating in Darwin we finally made our decisions and went our separate ways, me back to Brisbane and Ben to Perth. There was a lot of work in Darwin but I can make a lot more money nursing and as I am only registered as a nurse in Queensland, it was back to Brisbane for me. Despite it nearly bankrupting me (I am exagerating) I am very glad I did this little desert adventure it was totally not part of the plan but well worth it and its going to be sad being on my own again, but I will have all my friends in Brisbane to keep me entertained. so the plan for the near future is to work agency in Brisbane and apply for jobs that will give me a sponsored visa to stay another year, all before my current visa expires! tick tock tick tock! aaaah.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1214372460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1214372460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1214372460/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:42:56 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Yulara, Northern Territory, Australia

Due to my inability to add simple numbers together we realised we were unable to go to Uluru with the camper van and so booked ourselves onto a 3 day 2 night trip to go to Kings Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). I'm glad we went on a tour as we got to camp under the stars in a swag bag around a fire which was pretty spectacular. So we first went to Kings Canyon and went for a long walk around the edge. Luckily we went on this trip in winter as the temperatures in summer get ridiculous (40C in the shade apparently) and people end up dying of dehydration the guides wont let you go on the walk without about 8 litres of water! I just don't think it would be fun to be in the desert in those kind of temperatures.

So Kings Canyon is a huge gorge 270m high and is the area that the guy at Stewarts Well (of dinky the singing dingo) first opened up to tourists. The views around the rim are absolutely stunning and our tour leader was really knowledgeable about the area so it was really interesting.

After collecting some fire wood at the side of the road we set up camp on a cattle station bigger than Holland! That is a farm, with cattle, bigger than Holland, where they muster the cows using helicopters! This country is very very big! After a few beers we snuggled up in the swag bags and fell asleep watching the stars. The temperature was pretty chilly but the swags are so warm, they are a mattress in a waterproof-ish bag so you wiggle in with a sleeping bag.

They are surprisingly comfortable and I slept really well. The next morning (very very early)we drove to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)a group of large red dome shaped rocks (as high as 1066m above sea level) are only 25km form Uluru and are just as sacred to the aboriginal people. The area is still used for ceremonial purposes but as it is secret men's business it can only be told to men that have been initiated and as I am neither a man nor initiated I cant know it!

But it is very pretty and geologically pretty special and very very very old. We then went to visit the cultural centre at the foot of Uluru to learn some more about the local culture. We then went to watch the sunset over Uluru, which would have been very spectacular if it hadn't been too cloudy to have the desired affect, oh well. That night we camped again under the stars. The camp sight we stayed at this time was part of the Yalara resort and so was busy with other tour groups. I bumped into a guy that I first met in Cambodia almost a year ago, who was working as a guide for the group camping next to us. I also met this guy in Bangkok and I lent them $20 as there cards had all been refused, so he paid me back with interest in the form of beer! Small world. The other random thing was that Ben met a guy who he knew from home who was also on the tour with us. That evening we had a lovely dinner followed by some kangaroo tails which I helped prepare (check out the photos).

We spent another day under the stars before rising very early to watch the sunrise on Uluru which was far better than the sunset and the rock went spectacularly orange, in fact it was emanating an ethereal glow!

We then went for a walk around the rock, as it is a sacred place to the aboriginal people they do not like people climbing it for various reasons. So we walked around instead of over, although many people still walk up it we just felt it was a bit disrespectful to do so. After a great walk we headed back to Alice Springs via a quick camel ride. There are actually wild camels in the outback and we saw a few wandering about as well as some wild horses.

We had a night out in Alice in a bar that had a live web cam so I spent most of the night waving at mum! The next day we had lunch with Bens friend Max, his girlfriend and her sister who runs a baby Kangaroo rescue centre. So we went to go and cuddle some baby Kangaroos whose Mums had been hit by cars. They are raised until they are old enough to be let back out in the wild, and they where incredibly cute.

We also went and fed some wild rock wallabies and despite a few bighty ones they were also pretty cute. We spent the next few days hanging around Alice Springs not really doing a lot whilst awaiting another relocation deal to take us up to Darwin. Next Alice to Darwin!


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1212994560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1212994560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1212994560/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:50:54 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Cairns, Australia

I was alone and penniless in Cairns. I had managed to organise myself so that I would start work at the Hostel the day Sharon left. The work basically involved cleaning the rooms and communal areas for two hours a day and for that I had free accommodation .Tropic Days is possibly the cleanest hostel in Australia and woe betide us if we got forgot to clean the skirting boards and fans! Despite the slightly excessively high standards of cleanliness I met some really great people whilst working there it was like having a big family. I shared a room with three other girls who all worked at the hostel. I managed to get a few nursing shifts when I was in cairns but they were few and far between although I did get one on a bank holiday which was very lucrative. As the shifts weren't very reliable I got my self a job waitressing in an Indian restaurant, my main qualifications for this job being that I'm British and therefore know a lot about curry! So on my first day I was taking orders in Marinades Indian Restaurant the best Indian food in Australia and I'm not just saying that the food really was amazing and as part of our pay we took home vast quantities of it every night. If nursing had those kind of perks I'm sure everyone would want to do it. I also got jobs for two other girls who were staying at the hostel in the same restaurant so we combined our curry feast every night with a few beers. I absolutely loved working at that restaurant and if it paid more could easily do it for the rest of my life, Dev and Meena who own the place where the nicest bosses you could ever ask for and the rest of the staff were great although a bit of an eclectic bunch. The best part about staying at Tropic Days is the really social atmosphere the place has, you can make friends very easily there and so I met Ben, an English guy who I am currently travelling with. If you ever go to Cairns stay at Tropic Days and eat at Marinades Indian restaurant! Enough plugging.
It wasn't all work and no play, I managed to secure myself a day off from Tropic Days and went on a quick trip to Cape Tribulation with Ben, but this time on the back of a motor bike! I must admit I was pretty scared as we went round the very bendy roads but it was worth it as it was a lot of fun and everyone stopped to drool over the bike every time we stopped, which was quite amusing to watch although we had to admit the bike was hired. So after a month of hard cleaning and curry eating it was time to move on from Cairns and head off into the outback. This blog entry looks very dull because I have once again managed to loose all my photos from my camera including ones of my friends in Cairns and the guys at the restaurant I am cursed when I comes to cameras. I hope I can get them retrieved like last time but its going to have to wait until I have a few more spare dollars!
So next installment, driving off into the desert with a guy I've just met, don't worry it turns out well! Hopefully with photos!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1213596840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1213596840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1213596840/tpod.html Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:35:13 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia



After just over one month in Cairns I was getting itchy feet again and it was time to move on. After getting advice from various folk at the hostel we decided our best option was to get a relocation deal on a camper van. Basically involves getting a camper van and returning it to its depot for a lot cheaper than it is to hire one. So we had a luxury two berth camper to relocate from Cairns to Alice Springs in 7 days for $5 a day plus they give you some money towards fuel costs.


So we had 7 days to drive 2510km to Alice Springs and hopefully to Uluru as well. As I am still embarrassingly without a driving licence at the age of 25, Ben did all the driving, whilst I tried to keep him awake. First we headed South to Townsville then inland into the desert. By the time we got into the outback proper it was beginning to get dark , driving in the dark is not recommended in the outback due to wandering livestock, road trains, kangaroos and drop bears. We pulled off the road into a rest stop where you can camp for the night. There are quite a few of these along the paved roads of the outback, some with facilities and some without but pretty much all free. I guess it is to encourage people to stop and rest. Because people drive such ridiculously long distances in the outback and the roads are very long and very very straight (plus suicidal wildlife) the incidences of single car roll over seams to be pretty high. The road sides are covered with remnants of blown out tires, kangaroo carcasses and burnt out car wrecks, all of which made us pretty cautious about driving excessive distances, we never really drove for more than two hours at a time mainly due to my bladder and or hunger!


We had also been advised to fill up with fuel at every petrol station just to be sure. My sense of peril was increased as I had just re-read Bill Bryson's 'Down Under' which is full of tales of people getting lost in the outback and having to drink there won urine but dying of dehydration anyway. I was almost definitely overreacting as we were sticking to paved roads and its winter so the usual sweltering temperatures were absent. So after a not so early start we drove on west, the paved road to Alice Springs goes pretty much straight in land from Townsville till you hit the middle of Australia then straight down to Alice on a road that goes in a line from Adelaide to Darwin. Most of these highways are named after explorers who either died or very nearly died trying to establish routes through the outback.
To keep ourselves entertained on the very straight roads we began a tally of dead to alive kangaroos we saw when we got to 27 dead kangaroos to no alive ones in one day I got depressed and stopped counting. I also wrote down all the names of the creeks from the second day until Alice Springs, a copy of this can be found at the end of the blog if you are seriously bored. There really isn't a lot to distract you when in the outback, a lot of very flat land with scrubby bushes stretching for as far as the eye can see. On some days the type of bush would change or some termite mounds or there would be a hilly area to distract us, it was pretty monotonous but beautifully so. Thankfully we had our I-pods to keep our spirits up and I introduced Ben to my rather eclectic music collection. On the second day we drove to Julia Creek a typical outback town with a couple of pubs and a caravan park where we spent the night.

The next day we drove through Mt Isa, a big town with a huge mine , in Mt Isa there are allegedly 3 men to every women, I wanted to stop and check out this statistic but Ben wasn't so keen. The quantity of road trains increased around Mt Isa.



Road trains are trucks pulling up to 5 trailers and they tend to sway about a lot and it's a bit scary overtaking them, we ended up overtaking the same one four times in one day. We crossed the border out of Queensland and into the Northern territory where the map gets seriously empty and the speed limit goes up to 130km/hr as does the number of wrecks at the side of the road. The highlight of the day was seeing some live, wild Emus running around. We stopped for the night at the Barkly Homestead Roadhouse where we had a couple of pints and listened to an old boy playing the accordion, most entertaining. We pulled up at the caravan park next to a guy we had met in Cairns who was also driving to Uluru, so we may have been in the middle of vast emptiness but the world is still a small place.
The next morning we actually managed to get an early start and got about 60kms down the road and spotted a load of cars at the side of the road and one upside down in a bush up the verge. As we arrived the two ladies where walking away from the car which had literally just rolled over. They where both miraculously walking away from the crash but the car was a complete wreck and they were incredibly lucky. One of them had a very sore neck so after speaking to Dr Steve of the Royal Flying Doctors Service on someone's satellite phone, we fashioned a neck collar out of a towel and turned the van into an ambulance and drove them both back to the Barkly Homestead roadhouse where there was an airstrip and a real ambulance could get them. So after a cup of tea and a chat to the police who took all our details we got back on the road. So after all the excitement we were a bit shook up and out of sorts when we arrived at Three Ways were the road goes three ways! We turned left and went down the country North. We didn't drive as far as planned that day due to driving an extra 120km plus hanging around.

On the road down we stopped at the Devils Marbles which are massive Rainbow Serpents Eggs or massive granite boulders whichever way you want to look at it they are huge and spectacular boulders strewn across the land. Their beauty was only marred by the fly's that want to land in your eyes, ears and mouth the minute you leave the vehicle. We stopped for the night at Wycliffe Well the UFO capital of Australia, the holiday park is bizarre to say the least. With big models of the Hulk and Elvis all over the place, models and paintings of aliens all over the walls, a shrine to King-Kong, a room full of dolls and a train to take you to a man made lake and back really give the place a certain quality.


The next day we drove to Alice Springs got some petrol and drove on towards Uluru before realising that my maths was wrong and we didn't have enough kilometers to make it. When we hired the van we paid for an extra two days with the idea of getting to Uluru and back to Alice Springs without actually realising its about 500Km there and 500km back. The deal with the van gave us only a certain amount of kilometers and charged a fortune for any extra used, so I did some calculations to figure out if we could make it and I thought we could but on the way to Uluru I thought I should double check my maths and as ever it was wrong so we had to turn around and head back towards Alice.


Instead of driving all the way back we spent a night in a roadhouse called Stuarts Well and how glad am I that we did not only did we pump into our Canadian friend last seen at Barkly Homestead we saw the amazing Dinky the Singing Dingo! Wow! Basically a wild dingo raised from a pup who likes to get up on the piano when anyone plays it and howls vaguely in key, there are some very strange people and sights in the outback. Dinky is world famous apparently and is even a trivial pursuit question. Check out the video of him on the piano.


The next day was our last full day and night in the van so we went and parked up in a caravan park in Alice and guess what it was raining, the average rainfall is 298mm a year! It is only me that could turn up to middle of a desert and its raining, not only that but it was bloody freezing! So after wandering around a miserable looking Alice Springs and a night in the rain we handed the van back and booked a tour to Uluru.

So here is the promised list of creeks;
Dead mans Creek, Homestead Ck, Sensible Ck, Alpha Gully, Beta Gully, Suttors Gully, Mundi l Ck, Campaspe River, Granite Ck, Cape River, Tyler Ck, Wire Ck, Betts ck Waringal Ck, Little Emu Ck, Prarie Ck, Skeleton Ck, Jardine Ck, Skull Ck, Station Ck, Scrubby Ck, Walkers Ck, Sloanes Ck, Ladbury Ck, Namoi ck, O'Connell Ck, Chatfield Ck, Nonda Ck, Boundray Ck, Corella Ck, Alick Ck, Spellany Ck, Horse Ck, Eastern Ck, Holy Joe ck, Box ck, Dudley Ck, Fullarton Ck, Cancel Ck, Butcher Ck, Dingo ck, Salmon Gorge ck, Jubilee Ck, Greens ck, Dingo Ck, Gorge Ck, spear Ck, Johnson Ck, King Ck, Inca Ck, Carleton Ck, Whistler Ck, Wooroona Ck, Western Ck, Happy Ck, Blue Bush Ck, Kiama Ck, Shakespeare Ck, Bull Ck, Six Mile Ck, Tenant Ck, Edinburgh Ck, Gilbert Swamp, Milarea Ck, Bohney Ck, Dixon Ck, Hurst Ck, Barrow Ck, Harry Ck, McGrath Ck, 16 mile Ck and Colyer Ck. I would just like to point out that non of these creeks had even a hint of water in them.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1209274380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1209274380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1209274380/tpod.html Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:54:34 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Cairns from Brisbane, Australia

After saying goodbye to pops my good friend Shannon put me up on her sofa for three weeks, but there was no time to relax as we were off to see Jack Johnson. in the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, then St Patrick's day all day drinking session sorry I mean Irish cultural experience! The next weekend was the Easter long weekend so we celebrated by going to the Byron Bay Bluesfest which is a blues and roots festival in Byron Bay, we could only afford to go for one day so we went on the Saturday. What an awesome day, my favourite was seeing Jools Holland and his orchestra play, amazing. Although I was one of probably only about 10 people who had heard of him as he isn't really known in Australia. We saw a lot  of other great bands including John Butler, Bedouin Sound Clash and a great bluesy guy called Guy Davis. It was a pretty exhausting day and very very hot. On Easter Monday we went to the races on the Gold coast, got 'frocked up' again and had a laugh not really understanding how to bet, again it was seriously hot. We spent the night in Surfers Paradise which is frankly horrible. Its a stop on the backpacker circuit but its basically a beach and many many high-rises with crap bars. I then spent a week waiting around Brisbane for my friend Sharon to arrive from Leeds.
Sharon and I used to work together in Leeds, in fact she was my mentor when I was a student nurse. She had just over three weeks holiday so she flew to Brisbane, to see me. I moved out of Shannon's house and into a hostel after picking Sharon up from the airport and spent a couple of days seeing the sights of Brisbane and saying goodbye to all my friends again.
We bought ourselves a greyhound ticket to Cairns which meant we could stop off on the way anywhere we wanted.
So our first stop was Noosa on the sunshine coast north of Brisbane. Noosa has a reputation for being expensive and where the rich Ozzies come on holiday but there isn't a high-rise in site. It has a national park and as mum told me whilst she was on Google earth there are also some big lakes. Sharon and I booked ourselves a day of mountain biking and kayaking. We went mountain biking in the rain and had a great time getting very very muddy indeed. We then kayaked, we were stood at the side of the river being shown how to paddle a kayak in the heaviest rain ever, we were soaked through before we even got on the water, it was hilarious. anyone watching probably thought we were mad. Our guide said he knew we were English, as only the English turn up if its raining. So after paddling round in circles for a while we went on a little tour of Noosa Sound which was very pretty despite the rain.  From Noosa we took the bus again to Hervey Bay to go to Fraser Island (again). Sharon had never been to Fraser Island and its such a beautiful place I didn't mind going twice. We went with a different company than the time before and they gave us bright pink 4WD so I was happy. The weather again was a bit damp but despite one downpour during dinner we managed to stay dry for the rest of the time despite camping. This trip we stuck to the schedule and managed to see everything we missed the first time, the rare moments of sunshine were much appreciated whilst swimming in crystal clear fresh water lakes. Again we spotted some scary looking dingoes and some starry skies. We spent three days and two nights on Fraser and one night in Hervey Bay before getting back on the bus and heading to Town of 1770.
Town of 1770 was named for the year Captain Cook rocked up and 'discovered' it. This is the kind of place you only really visit because other backpackers tell you about it. Town of 1770 is sisterd with another town called Agnes Waters, well town is a bit of a grand term for a few shops and some houses. 1770 has a mariner from where you can go on trips to the Southern tip of the Great Barrier reef. We stayed in Cool Bananas hostel for a few days and basically just chilled out, lying in hammocks and soaking up the atmosphere. At cool bananas the very helpful Greg helped us to book a farm stay and organized our pick up. We took a minibus driven by a guy called Darrell Darly who gave us his card so we could tell other travelers about his wonderful service, the party bus. This guy has got a minibus decked out with a massive sound system, DVD player and karaoke machine and is hoping to ferry backpackers around. Except there is only 5km between 1770 and Agnes which isn't really enough time to work up a song. And apart from the odd transfer to Miriam Vale (where he took us) I cant really see him getting much business. When we got in he showed us all his toys then put on a CD of tunes that where older than me, I get the impression he didn't really do any market research before setting up his business but 10 points for effort though.
The Party Bus left us at Miriam Vale a place with not a lot going on except a diner called the Mud Crab Cafe complete with giant crab on the roof in true Australian style. It was outside this diner we waited for Bill to pick us up and take us to Glassford Creek Farmstay which was a stunning hour drive inland. What an amazing and beautiful experience, we were staying in a beautiful Queenslander with real beds, duvets and towels, luxury!
Glassford Creek farmstay is a kind of bush retreat and working cattle farm, small by Australian standards with 4000 acres. Where they have tourists came and stay and join the family for a few days, help out around the farm and eat home cooked food. We arrived and dumped our begs and went up to the 'smoko' for dinner. A smoko is a shed where workers go for a break and have a smoke therefore a smoko. To speak fluent Australian you just have to shorten all the words and add an O or a Y to the end, easy. For dinner we had real corned beef, mashed potato, mashed pumpkin and white sauce all sat together in the smoko. There was an Australian lady  with her two young sons, the two Finnish Farm Hands, Bill and his parents in law Doug and Nolla, Sharon and me, one happy family for a few days. Sat around listening to Bills yarns. Bill is a big, bald, Australian guy who can talk the hind legs off a donkey but he was lovely and had us laughing constantly. You could really tell that he really loved that farm, the horses and his life. I couldn't believe that he used to be a corporate banker.

After sitting around the bonfire watching the crazy piglets we went to bed. Now the beds were beautifully made with the sheets tucked in perfectly like grandma does then. and me being me I wanted to get to get into bed without ruining the 'envelope' so that you are all nicely tucked in and safe feeling. Now the beds were on wheels, very wheely wheels and the floors where beautifully polished, so as I delicately tried to get into the envelope the bed shot out across the room and I ended up on the floor in a heap. Needless to say Shorn found this highly amusing.
The next morning after explaining what all the banging and laughter was about we went for breakfast. After getting kitted out in riding boots and jeans we went and tried to milk some cows, which isn't easy at all, I got about a cup of teas worth (as long as you don't want it to milky). Nolla was chief cow milker and definitely better at it than us but she had been doing it a bit longer. The cattle on the farm are mainly beef cattle but they keep a few milking cows for the tourists and to feed the pigs. We then learnt to horse ride, actually learnt to ride instead of sitting on a horse I have no control over.  I am no longer scared of horses as I have discovered that I am far more stubborn than a horse, they also do have brakes you just need to know how to find them. We went  horse riding for two hours both days we were there and even attempted a bit of cattle mustering. It was such a beautiful way to see the farm which is apparently looking greener than it has in years due to the summer of rain they had. Apparently the creek was flowing for the first time in five years and the platypus have come back to the creek, not that we saw them.  So we spent two full days enjoying the farm, the food and the atmosphere and having a wonderful time. One of the mornings we were all kitted out to go riding when I needed to pee, so I started to jog across the farmyard to the toilet. There is a goat that lives on the farm which according to Bill is going to be renamed Rogan Josh soon because of its behaviour. As I was jogging along I hear Bill shout "Rachel, The goat!" and I turn round and its running at me with its head down and its horns out ready for the charge, "what do I do?" "grab its horns" so as it comes for me I grab its horns and we start wrestling around the farmyard "what now?' "tie it up" "how?" at that moment one of the Finnish Farmhands came to rescue me! Sounds like the start of a very bad romance novel, I thought he was very gallant until I realised Bill had told him to and until that point had been watching and laughing. Sharon has some great photos of him running to my rescue, nice to see she was concerned about my welfare enough to get her camera out and take some photos.
 I took loads of photos of the farm and of us horse riding but one night I let Nolla look through them on the camera and she accidently deleted them all. I didn't have the heart to tell her as she would have been mortified. But I managed to get some of some of the photos recovered. My favourite experience on the farm (apart form the atmosphere and the people) was driving the tractor! I was so excited when I saw the tractor but it had a flat tire, I said to Bill how I had always wanted to drive a tractor so he pumped up the tires and we went for a drive. So much fun! It was a digger really with a bucket on the front, so not only did I drive the tractor I drove it with two kids riding in the bucket. I think I was more scared than their mum who was watching. We did a bit of digging as well (the children had got out of the bucket) and drove about a bit then went to dump the earth by the smoko but in the process the tractor ran out of petrol, so its now sat outside the smoko with its bucket in the air!
 The whole experience was great, it made me a bit homesick and less homesick at the same time, a bit of home cooking and family atmosphere made me realize how much I miss my family. So we left Glassford creek farm in the horse truck with a one eyed horse who may or may not have been going to the glue factory. So Bill left us back at the mud crab café to await the overnight bus going north. after an indigestion inducing pie and chips we sat at the 'bus stop' waiting for the greyhound. When I say bus stop I actually mean a lay bye outside the local police station . Outside was a sign saying 'opening times Mon-Tues 09-12'  evidently not a lot of crime in Miriam Vale, in fact so little crime that the local bobby drove out from the police station in his car to have a little chat with us and find out what two girls were doing sat on rucksacks at the side of the highway. Why he came out in the patrol car and didn't walk the four steps  from his front door to where we were sat  remains a mystery, maybe we looked dangerous and he needed the car for protection!
After a sleepless night  on the bus we arrived into a very very wet Airlie Beach where we had six hours to waste before getting on a yacht to sail around the Whitsunday Islands. We had crossed over the tropic of Capricorn during the night and were hoping for calm seas and sunshine but no luck there.
We where on a small yacht called the Schooner Friendship which fit 12 people very snuggly, the weather had cleared by the afternoon so we had a pleasant sail to an inlet on one of the islands to enjoy a huge plate of prawns and some beautiful views. The next day the wind had dropped slightly so we were able to sail to Whitehaven beach which is absolutely stunning. The few glasses of wine I had had the night before did not help my sea-sickness and headache issues but despite this I enjoyed the day. In the afternoon we donned incredibly attractive stinger suits (see picture) to protect us from box jelly fish and went snorkeling. The visibility was terrible because of the recent rain (poor visibility could be the title of my entire travels!). We then sailed to another calm inlet for the night where I had an early one to sleep of the seasickness. Which was miraculously gone by the morning in time for some more snorkeling and a sail back to Airlie Beach. I would definitely recommend the Whitsundays and the  Schooner Friendship, despite the skipper who talked constant bullshit, the other crew member and the incredible food made up for it. Oh and don't drink any alcohol if you get even slightly sea sick!
After some hot showers and vast quantities of laundry we got back on the Greyhound for another night of neck-paralysis to Cairns. These bus trips are usually pretty uneventful but sometimes you find some top characters that keep you amused, and it was so on this trip. We had the MOST jobsworth bus driver ever. He was wearing his neatly starched Greyhound uniform complete with shorts, knee-high socks and shiny shoes (in the style of many Australian men of a certain age). To complete the professional appearance he had a blue-tooth headset and a head torch, this guy was prepared for any eventuality. On 'embarkation' he gave his vary captive audience a long spiel about the laws of the road and the bus, he went on and on. He proceeded to repeat this three times through the night. We realised that he was taking his wife along for the trip so he was possibly showing off a little bit. We even spotted her taking photos of him refueling  (complete with high visibility jacket) which is definitely one to show the grandchildren. We must have swapped drivers sometime through the night as when we arrived in Cairns in the wee small hours of the morning Mr. Socks was nowhere to be seen, what a guy. In Cairns we stayed at Tropic Days, a great hostel a little way out of the city but with complementary buses, definitely one of the best hostels I have stayed in. Sharon and I had only one week left together in Cairns before she flew back to Leeds (via Brisbane, Singapore and Manchester). So using the last of my funds we booked a loud of trips  through the hostel . my friends from Brisbane Eline and Emily (well they are actually Dutch and Canadian) met us in Cairns for a few days so we all went on a tour of the Atherton Tablelands, slightly south and inland from Cairns. We spent the day visiting various waterfalls and Crater lakes and got very wet from both the rain and swimming in waterfalls. One waterfall called Milla Milla has been the setting for various adverts and music videos. The old timotea shampoo add and Peter Andres Mysterious Girl video. We spent the night in a little hostel playing Uno and drinking tea after a few hours of not very successful platypus spotting. The next day we went for a lovely cycle ride in the sunshine before a swim in Lake Eacham ( a crater lake) and a massive burger at a road house. In the arvo (see I speak Australian) we went canoeing on a reservoir and went to spot tree kangaroos. Sharon and I had definitely got our act together in the double after our previous experience while Eline and Emily are very good at going round in circles and shouting at each other, ahh well we cant all be experts like Sharon and I! We managed to spot some very cute tree kangaroos despite the racket we were making I didn't manage to get any  decent photos though, we couldn't keep the canoe in one spot and not drop the camera into the water at the same time. Our guide found us some ochre so we had fun painting our faces so we all looked very special for our paddle and bus back to Cairns. In Cairns we had a beer or two and said good bye to Emily and Eline who went back to Brisbane and Sharon and I went on a reef trip.  It would be very rude if you went to Cairns and didn't see the Great Barrier Reef. So we took a big boat out to the reef (about an hour boat trip form Cairns) for some snorkeling and diving. And guess what? the weather and visibility were great, I couldn't believe it, amazing! Sharon and I did an introductory dive together. Obviously I have dived before but I really regretted not diving with dad when he did it as I couldn't share the experience, so this time I came along for the ride. Sharon really enjoyed it and we saw some great things like an absolutely massive clam.  We spent the rest of the day snorkeling and enjoying another massive plate of prawns. We hired an underwater digital camera and I had better luck with it this time and even managed to get some in focus photos of fish and coral instead of just bubbles and sediment! The great barrier reef defies words and I hope that I can come back with a few more funds and dive it properly. The journey back to cairns was spent sun baking and drinking sparkling wine, a hard hard life!
after a night in the hostel we took a trip north to Cape tribulation on Sharon's suggestion. We joined a tour group that took us up to Cape Tribulation via some crocodile spotting. The further north you get in Australia there are more things that can kill you it seems, and many signs warning of  severe injury or death. In the sea are the stingers (jellyfish that can kill or at least cause unbelievable pain), in the creeks are Saltwater Crocodiles (when I asked a guide how fast a crocodile attacks, I think the words explosive force where used) and in the forests are stinger plants whose leaves spike you with glass like tubes that lodge in your pores that cause amazing amounts of pain for anything up to a year with no known medical cure, nice country! That doesn't even begin to cover the sharks, snakes, spiders, insects, birds and lizards that also seam to have it in for tourists in particular.
Cape Tribulation, so named after our friend Cook got into trouble on the reef up there, is where the reef, the beach and the rainforest meet. The Daintree Rainforest is a world heritage site and rightly so as its amazingly beautiful and contains many prehistoric species of plants, the rainforest starts about an hour north of cairns and pretty much keeps going to the top of the country to Cape York. So we went to see the tree tops as best we could  by swinging through the trees on cables,
followed by a delicious dinner and game of scrabble and a few bears before bed. We were staying in a very chilled out and beautiful beach house nestled right in the jungle complete with bar, restaurant and cheap accommodation oh and a scrabble board! the next day we after a rather later start we explored the beach and very small section of forest on foot, and managed to find a swimming spot without any death eating rabbits or other man-eating species (although it did have a cartwheel and a coconut at the bottom of it which was a little surreal it could have been a sign , or the beginning of a song, the Cartwheel and the coconut.....).
We walked back to the resort along the road as it began to get dark  and a little creepy with all the jungle noises and obviously neither of us had brought a torch with us but we made it back in one piece. So we not only celebrated our survival but also our last proper night together by having a bottle of wine and a game of ...Boggle! The next day we took the bus back to Cairns with a quick stop in Port Douglas to enjoy an ice-cream from a shop with 42 different flavours. We also stopped at Mossman Gorge and went for a swim despite warnings of severe injury or death it was safe though mum I promise! Our last night together in Cairns was spent playing scrabble and drinking tea, we really are crazy cats aren't we? Just to let you know Sharon won every single game of scrabble and boggle because I still cant spell.
The next morning at stupid-o'clock I got up to say good bye to Sharon as she flew home. I will really miss her as we had a great time together and had such a laugh, its I had never left we picked up exactly were we had left off which was great. The funny thing about travelling with Shaz apart from her obviously, was other peoples questions about us as they tried to work out the relationship between us probably because of the age gap (our average age is 32 1/2). So we got a bit bored of explaining that we used to work together so we started to make things up, my favourite was that we met in jail, that usually ended the conversation pretty quickly!
So after a great three weeks together Sharon abandoned me alone in Cairns with reduced funds, 3 months on my visa and no idea what to do next!
Stay tuned!
 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1207200180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1207200180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1207200180/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 02:13:05 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Brisbane to Sydney and back again, Australia

So now to update for February and March; I finished work at the beginning of February and had two weeks to spare before pops came over from New Zealand so I recruited some friends to go to Fraser Island for a weekend of four wheel driving on the beach, avoiding getting stuck in the sand, avoiding dingoes and generally having fun. There were five of us girls (four nurses and one doctor) it was a self drive tour so we were put with four French guys, one French girl and a Korean guy, quite a combination. We had a great time but with various mishaps like driving to the ferry without noticing the vehicle had no petrol in it so tried phoning the hostel to get us on a later ferry but this being Queensland there was a power cut and the phones didn't work without power, nor did the petrol stations! Miraculously we made it onto the next ferry with a full tank. Fraser Island was really beautiful with fresh water lakes, forests, beaches and sand dunes. Fraser is a bit of a dangerous place really as you can't swim in the sea as it is apparently full of man eating sharks and rips that drag you off to Antarctica or somewhere, that combined with the dingoes and the backpackers driving at speed on a beach makes it all a bit hairy. Despite the danger we survived and I am probably going back as my friend Sharon who is visiting has not been. I have no photos from Fraser or from most of my trip with pops as apparently digital cameras don't like sand. Oops. After Fraser Gemma and I went to Byron for a couple of days were it rained constantly and we got attacked by leaches, mm lovely! We met up with Sarah (Gemma and Sarah live together in Sydney) and her parents who were over from the UK. On my return to Brisbane (Valentines Day incidentally) I got a call from the Frenchies (well 3 of them) who had traveled to Bris in their van but couldn't find anywhere to stay so they parked in the drive of my house for three nights. So I ended up spending what would have been another lonely valentine's day in a hot tub with three French men, could be worse!
On the 17th Pops arrived in Brisbane and I was so excited to see some family, just because I'm having a lovely time and don't want to go home doesn't mean that I don't miss my family and wish I could see them. With the help of the Frenchies I picked dad up at the airport and brought him back to the house. Were I threw him a slightly belated 60th Birthday BBQ with the help of some friends from work and my flat mates. The skydive DVD had another showing just in case my humiliation wasn't deep enough! Apart from that we had a nice night and it was great to introduce Dad to all my friends. We then spent the next few days seeing the sights of Brisbane and doing all the things I hadn't got round to doing in the last six months. Dad was very excited about the city cat, the boats that bomb up and down the Brisbane River at speed. One night we randomly decided to get off the boat at the power house (an old power station turned arty farty place sound familiar?) we just stopped for a drink but ended up staying for dinner and seeing a comedy show The Umbilical Brothers who are apparently famous but obviously we had no idea, but they were very funny. After visiting every Botanical Garden and park in Brisbane it was time to move on. So we collected our camper van and began our journey south and I became officially homeless again.
First stop was Byron Bay via the high rises and traffic of the Gold Coast, we stayed in Byron for two nights but I won't go into details as I have done before. After Byron I think we went to Station Creek camping ground (my memory is shocking so there may have been somewhere in between). This place is in a National Park off the pacific highway (which goes all the way from Brisbane to Sydney) which my flat mate recommended and gave us instructions on how to find. It was a long drive off the road on an unsealed road to a camp spot by the sea with no one around so after a stroll on the beach we lit a fire (when I say we I mean dad lit the fire!) and had some dinner. There was a lot of wildlife around and so dad saw his first kookaburra and bouncy things (still can't tell the difference between a kangaroo and wallabies) on the drive out we also saw a scary looking snake but didn't get out to introduce ourselves just in case. We then went past Coffs Harbour (stopping at the big banana for a coffee) in land a little along the Waterfall Way a road passing through a set of national parks which climbs uphill to around 1000m altitude so it all got a bit chilly. Despite this we still swam in a rather large waterfall swimming hole called the Dangar Falls we also went for a walk in the rainforest time terrain which was spectacular. This road goes further inland than we wanted to go at this time so after a night in Dorrigo we turned back towards the coast, stopping enroute to do a bit of kayaking in the sunshine near a really lovely little place called Bellingen which had a great old fashioned department store and a lot of coffee shops.
Next stop was South West Rocks further down the coast which is a rather dull place but I wanted to go as it has a rather large underwater cave just off the coast so this demanded a dive! We camped under an old penal colony and the campground was swarming with kangaroos so it was all very Australian. An early start was required the next day so Dad could experience his first dive. It was a nice spot for a first dive as there were loads of sharks about (grey nurse sharks perfectly harmless but a bit scary looking) but I don't think he enjoyed it as much as I did my first dive because he wasn't itching to do it again. I had an excellent dive in the cave which had an air pocket halfway through were you could stop, take your regulator out and have a chit chat but you are still four metres below sea level. There were masses of sharks about and rays and I saw some rare type of lobster. I also saw my first nudibranch which is a slug like thing but is really small and really pretty, there have been loads on previous dives but I never spotted them.
After South West rocks we spent a rather cold and wet night in Port Macquarie and from there we went to the Myall Lakes national park which is an area covering lakes, forests and beaches. We parked up and had a BBQ whilst being harassed by Kookaburras and dingoes. One bird actually stole the sausage off dads fork, impressive flying! The next morning we went for a walk and saw a Koala in the wild, very exciting. We then drove on, to hunt down a pie; the lonely planet mentioned two 'famous' pie shops in the area both of which didn't exist so some fruitless time spent hunting pies in uninteresting towns. The problem with writing this belatedly is that my memory is getting pretty hazy so I may have got stuff in the wrong order. But I am pretty sure our next stop was Sydney.
In Sydney we stayed in a little national park called lane Cove which was great as it was quite but only a bus ride to the centre. In Sydney we did all the usual tourist stuff my highlights were going to the aquarium (check out the very bad picture of some squids), I could have spent all day there watching the sharks swim around. My other highlight was going to the Opera in the Opera House, we 'frocked up' and went to watch Carmen and drink bubbles in the interval looking out into the harbour, lovely. We spent about 4 days wandering around Sydney before packing up the van and driving inland to the Blue Mountains. Less mountains and more big drop but none the less absolutely stunning. On the first day we took the tourist train down into one of the gorges and walked back out, it probably would have made more sense to do it the other way around but oh well. The next day we went on a walk that was supposed to take 4 hours but we finished in about 2 1/2 hours despite all the ladders, so we spent the rest of the day chilling out and doing nothing, a hard life! After another day of walking and investigating we went to the Jenolan caves which are a set of absolutely bloody massive lime stone caves which we took a tour through. The road that takes you to the visitors centre and car park goes right through one of the caves, very cool. We then spent a night in a place called Oberon, a town optimistically named after the king of the fairies, for absolutely no reason as far as we can discern. Sounds like a lovely place doesn't it? Oberon full of friendly folk who dance around in circles holding hands. Well you would be wrong. For a start its bloody freezing (well probably not freezing but we were sat in a cloud) and there is nothing there. Actually that's a lie there is an MDF manufacturing plant, a couple of pubs, some bungalows and a caravan park. It was lovely sitting in the caravan park listening to the soothing sound of MDF being made and thinking that this is probably what passes for a Friday night in the happening town of Oberon. It's not all bad we found a really lovely pizza place which was very busy so maybe that's what passes for a Friday night in Oberon. I'm sure Oberon is really a lovely exciting place but just not when we were there. After Oberon we left the blue mountains to go to the Hunter Valley, we drove along a really pretty road through farming country to Cesspit, sorry I mean Cessnock not just a wine town but also coal, a strange place but a good spot to visit the wineries of the region. So we had an early night in preparation for a day of visiting wineries and sampling wine. We went on a tour so pops didn't have to drive and we calculated that we must have tried around 40 wines and I know I didn't spit any out! In the evening we went to a local pub for dinner with a guy that was on our tour an American called Mike who had hired a Harley on his break from working in Iraq, he obviously had money to burn as he insisted on paying for dinner and our taxi back to the camp ground.
Feeling less than great the next day we drove on North to Tamworth, the beef and country music capitol of Australia apparently. The drive to Tamworth was pretty stunning with open prairie type land but there isn't much else to say about Tamworth really. After a night in Tamworth we drove to the other end of the Waterfalls way we visited before. Enroute we stopped in a tiny town on the 'fossickers' way' called Uralla with the biggest second hand book shop ever, so an hour spent browsing! We then took the waterfall way to Cathedral Rocks national park and camped in a remote and stunning camp spot just beneath a hill/boulder pile which we scrambled up before having dinner by the fire, our peace and quiet only disturbed by some cheeky possums.
The next day we left the 'hinterland' to return to the coast up to Ballina a small town near Byron Bay which hosts the Big Prawn, wow.
We staying in a tourist park with loads of facilities yet we decided to go for a swim in the lagoon nearby instead. Now the van has two sets of keys one for me and one for dad. So I left my keys in the van as we were swimming nearby and not taking bags, clothes etc and dad locked the van and off we went for our swim. After a lovely swim we are returning to the van and Dad is hunting about for the keys and we are sat outside the van dripping wet and getting cold. So it turns out that Dad put the keys in the pocket of the swim shorts I bought him for Christmas and therefore the keys are at the bottom of the lagoon and it was my fault for buying him the shorts! After the use of the telephone in reception and someone breaking into the van for us everything was lovely again. We went out for a lovely dinner that night to celebrate not being locked out of the van anymore. The next day we headed back to Brisbane for the night before returning our beloved van and dad going to the airport to fly back to good old blighty, boo hoo I miss my daddy! and my mummy and my sister and everybody, but I'm not coming home anytime soon he he he.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1205990820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1205990820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/rachel_in_oz./1205990820/tpod.html Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:42:21 -0400 Rachel living and working in Australia and then who knows what!

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Brisbane, Australia

Oh my god I am so slack its been six months since I wrote anything on this blog, most of the time I have been working, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it. So what have I been up to since my last update? Well working obviously and doing what I can at the weekends but now that I'm no longer working there is no excuse. What can I say about the last six months, well I have had a wonderful time in Brisbane and I have made some really good friends along the way. I have been on a few trips to various places, many trips to Byron Bay including a most amusing trip with Faye just before she left when we had great weather and watched dolphins play in the surf. It was super busy in Byron that weekend because it was schoolies week which is when all the kids finish school and go on holiday without there folks therefor go on the rampage, so many 18 year olds' in one place is enough to make you feel old! Speaking of getting old I have had a birthday since the last update, I had a great birthday as I decided that the best way to get over my fear of flying is to jump out of plane! with a parachute I hasten to add. It was absolutely incredible and so much fun. I have a DVD to commemorate the experience but I will never be showing it to anyone again as I look almost exactly like a chipmunk, a chipmunk with severe bingo wings! anyone that has seen it has been incapacitated by laughter for at least half an hour, so maybe it could be used as some form of taser gun/defense tactic by the police to subdue and control crowds, one look at my DVD and they will be helpless with laughter! A dangerous weapon I will be keeping to myself. This experience was followed by a BBQ where my friend Shannon insisted on showing the DVD to all my assembled friends, cheers hun! Faye left me to go back to work shortly after my birthday, so Christmas was a bit of a lonely affair as all my flatmates went home to their various countries. I worked on Christmas day so it was a bit of a non-event. Unlike my New Year which was great as I spent it with friends in Sydney on a roof top in Bondi Beach where we watched Groove Armada play on the beach, the night was topped of by a morning dip in the sea. That weekend in Sydney was a real tonic as the weather was lovely (did I just say tonic? am I in the 50's?), Brisbane has had a very wet summer. I was told before arriving that the state was in a drought and that the summer got seriously hot but it pretty much rained non stop from August when I arrived until February, so the summer has been pretty bearable for me! Despite all the rain there are still water restrictions as the dams are in the wrong place! I don't care what anyone says it is not possible to shave your legs, shave your pits, wash and condition your hair and wash your face in four minutes! And you cant buy two in one shampoo and conditioner, here where they need it most! Fools! This is one of my favorite rants about living in Australia the other being the quality of news broadcasts, half an hour on how spot the dog rescued a small child from the jaws of a crocodile up a cliff, and 5 seconds on violent protests in Tibet/Burma/Zimbabwe/insertinternationalnewshere is not what I call news. But they do have weather reports that include surf, diving, fishing and swimming reports which I love, its always good to know which areas are good for Bass fishing on any given day.I have managed to fit in some diving as well mainly in Byron Bay where they are begining to know my name at the dive centre and also on North Stradbroke Island. A beautifull Island just of the coast of Brisy in Moreton Bay, the diving there was great and we saw loads of leopard sharks which are pretty friendly and well pretty. So I have probably missed a lot of what I have actually got up to whilst working but it turns out summing up six months in one go is a bit tricky. The best and most rewarding thing about my time in Australia so far is having managed to survive. Ive managed to make friends and not give up even when things haven't exactly gone to plan, it makes me think I can do anything! Well maybe not anything, I still cant touch my nose with my tongue but I'm working on it!
More to come on traveling with pops in a camper van.
all my love
Rachel/Squid x
PS it turns out the curious smell in my room was emanating from an amazing form of fungi growing on my carpet, which was wet due to the washing machine leaking on the other side of the wall! Nice.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1192946040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1192946040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1192946040/tpod.html Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:13:34 -0500 Travelling 'down under' until the money runs out!

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Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

So before we got the chance to relax too much good old Buzz picked us up nice and early for the second half of our adventure tour! This tour would be split into two parts; Alice to Darwin then Darwin to Kakadu National Park.
First stop on the commencement of this trip was a nice place called Ti Tree where we had breakfast and looked around the Art Gallery which displayed some lovely Aboriginal art work.
From here we drove to White Cliff Wells for one reason: the U.F.O petrol station. This weird place in the middle of the outback where people dare to fill up their cars, displays aliens everywhere! The owners were obviously bored... In the late afternoon we arrived at our destination, Devils Marbles. The Aboriginal people believe these strange granite boulders to be the eggs of the Rainbow Serpent! As the rocks are slowly eroding, scientists believe that in about 50million years they will be little pebbles!
After lunch we drove through Tennent Creek, a town that was formed purely because a lorry carrying beer broke down here and never got repaired. People moved their belongings around the lorry to be close to the beer and the town was built-amazing!
the relaxing part of the day came when we landed at Mary Ann Damn for a swim, this is also when we discovered that green frogs love living in the toilets! Our camp for that night was Banka Banka, a massive historic sheep station in the middle of the outback. We were able to watch a comical slide show here on how the sheep station is run on a daily basis.

On day ten of our tour, we headed to Katherine Gorge driving through Elliot on the way. This town resides on only one side of the road due to soldiers camping on the other side during WW2 and it hasn't changed! We also travelled via Dunmarra where we were lucky enough to witness the solar Car Race which goes from Adelaide to Darwin and is held every two years. Its odd to see as every now and again on the highway you will pass something that resembles a small UFO. It takes them about 4 days to complete the race and according to the judge, England were 4th at that time! We stopped for lunch at the famous Daly Waters pub, an unusual but highly popular stop off for travellers going through the outback. The walls are full of foreign tat, including T-shirts, signed underwear, currency, hats, flip flops and there was even a Yorkshire flag hung up with a signature from Wakefield!! From here we relaxed at Madaranka thermal springs where we enjoyed a swim in the swampy water..as the day drew to an end we reached Katherine and set up camp. It was here that i met the pilot of the helicopter that takes visitors for short but expensive rides over Katherine Gorge. I asked him if it would be possible to take me and Tia for a ride the following day- for free! He agreed under one condition...we had to be naked! Not one to pass up a great opportunity i agreed (much to his horror), so we booked in a trip for the following lunchtime! The following day was one of my favourite days of the tour. We drove the short distance to the beautiful Katherine Gorge set in Nitmiluk National Park. From here we set off in Kayaks down the river for a four hour paddle! it certainly works the muscles in your arms!


After lunch, Buzz dropped me and Tia off at the helicopter pad in our towels (to the cheers of our fellow travellers!) and we headed nervously to the helicopter. The pilot was great, he was young and more nervous than us! He said that no one had done a ride in the nude for two years and as it was his first time, he agreed to fly us over all 13 gorges.

We stripped off and headed to the sky, it was bumpy and quite scary but probably the most enjoyable flight of my life! The views were fantastic and it was definitely worth it! Life is too short and when I'm old and on my death bed i can always say "i did a naked helicopter ride when i was 25!!".

Still on a high we all headed to Darwin for a nights partying before the final part of our tour!

We left Darwin the following morning with a new guide, Karl and drove to Kakadu National Park. First stop was Rock Hole Billabong for our crocodile cruise down the Mary River. The cruise was lovely and enabled us to see so much wildlife. Of course it wouldn't have been complete without spotting a wild croc or two..It wasn't long before we came across a freshwater croc, these are much smaller and friendlier than the famous saltwater ones.

The funniest part of this trip was when we approached a "freshy" and got really close it jumped out of the water and everybody on the boat screamed and nearly lost their camera's! Before the trip ended we spotted a nasty looking saltwater croc lurking in the mud..scary..
From Mary River we made our way to Barramumdi for lunch and had a short walk over to a lovely waterfall.

That night we camped at Cooinda, this is where me and Tia had a broken and scary nights sleep. We both got woken in the middle of the night by a madman shouting in the bush who then proceeded to walk around out tents...we really did fear for our lives!!
Next day we drove to Jim Jim Falls, a beautiful plunge pool surrounded by 700 feet high rock! During the wet season its difficult to access the falls so when we visited there was no water flowing. Nevertheless it was beautiful to swim in!

In the afternoon we headed to Ubirr where we admired lots of Aboriginal art work and the stories behind them. This day was the hottest day i had experience and we were all suffering in the 45degree heat. This night we camped at Point Stuart and was where i got bit by a March fly, possibly the most painful bite i have ever had!
On our last day we leisurely made our way over to Litchfield National Park to visit some gorgeous waterfalls. First was Florence Falls, then Sandy Falls and last of all Wangi Falls which was my personal favourite...swimming in paradise...(with crocs!)

This brought our two week outback tour to an end. It was a great experience of one of my highlights of travelling. It was difficult in places but the beautiful things i have seen made it all worth while.

I'm heading back to the place i call home, Brisbane.
Bye for now Faye xxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1192257120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1192257120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1192257120/tpod.html Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:59:52 -0500 Travelling 'down under' until the money runs out!

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Adelaide to Alice Springs, Australia

The first part of our adventures took us on a flight to Adelaide where we soon felt the difference in climate, it was bloody freezing! We only had a day in this small city so we visited the busy central market and chilled out before our adventure.
We were picked up from our cosy hostel bright and early by our young and enthusiastic tour guide Buzz (nicknamed due to being bee-keeper by trade!). We picked up 12 other young backpackers and with over 2000 songs on Buzz's I-Pod we headed out of Adelaide bound for the outback.
First stop was the town of Quorn where we had lunch, the only interesting thing here was the rarely seen steam engine we managed to witness. We next drove to Yourambulla Caves to do a short walk and view some Aboriginal Art work. On this journey we also stopped at a petrol station in Hawker where they they own a display a Seismograph, this measures Earthquakes and it was interesting to see it working!.
Next stop was Angorichina where we rode 8km on a mountain bike through Parachilna Gorge- very bumpy! Our last stop for the first day was the small town of Parachilna where we would stay for the night. Official population: 4 people. One of the worlds longest trains runs through this town, it has 172 carriages and we managed to see it pass! So we settled into our 'hostel' and set up the BBQ of tonight's dinner: Emu, Kangaroo and Camel. Kangaroo was definitely my favourite and tasted like Sirloin steak!
It just so happened that we arrived in this bizarre town on a Saturday night and a blues band was playing at the pub. The weirder thing was that the singer was a girl from Manchester!
Next morning was supposedly our only lie-in of the tour with a 7am wake up call! We hit the road and stopped at Wilpena Pound lookout point on the way, this offered amazing panoramic views. Before we reached our destination of Wilpena Pound we stopped at the roadside to look at two big Shingleback lizards. I picked one up only to be informed afterwards that if it had bit me it could have took my whole hand off! nice..
So we began our walk up Mt Ohlssen Bagge which was probably the hardest hike i have done in my life. It was that steep we had to rock climb parts of it and if it wasn't for the ex-Army German guy egging me on i couldn't have made it! The views at the top was worth the blood, sweat and tears and i even had a wee whilst admiring the fantastic scenery of Flinders Range (toilet with a view!) After lunch our slave-driver tour guide insisted me do another walk nearby to see some more Aboriginal Art work- sadist! After this walk everybody was well and truly buggered so we headed to our campsite at Rawnsley Park in time to watch the sun go down. Next morning we rose at stupid-o-clock (4am) and headed to Coober Pedy as the sun came up. Avoiding all the Emu's, Lizards and Kangaroo's we drove 750km's stopping only to admire the amazing Heart Salt Lake and calling at Glendambo for lunch. Vital statistics of this town: Sheep: 20,000, Flies: 2,000,000, Humans: 30! My favourite part of this journey was sitting at the front of the tour bus and talking to the truckers on the radio. When i had finished singing an A.C.D.C song a trucker came over the radio shouting "What the f#*k was that?!"- cheeky sod, i thought i sang it well!
Eventually we arrived at our destination, Coober Pedy: Opal Mining capital of the world!. This strange town houses the majority of its residents underground and is extremely multi-cultural considering its small population. Coober Pedy was named by the Aboriginals and literally means "white mans holes". They themselves choose to live above the ground due to superstitions in their religious beliefs. This town looks like something out of a science fiction book which was probably why it was chose to be the perfect location for the Mad Max films, Pitch Black and Red Planet.

It reaches 53 degrees here in the summer and drops to -6 degrees in the winter so living underground is perfect. It keeps the locals cool in the heat and warm in the cold.
Whilst in Coober Pedy we had the opportunity to visit the Opal Mining Museum which tells the story of how this town came about. Believe it or not it was first discovered by a 14 year old boy!!
We were also given the chance to go "noodling" in the Opal fields (literally go digging for Opal with your bare hands!), seems like a lost cause but a traveller last year found a $10,000 piece of Opal! Needless to say i found sod all.

It was from there we were taken to our hostel and yes...this was also underground. Me and Tia picked ourselves a dorm room down a scary corridor and settled down for the night. The great thing about sleeping underground is it's warm, soundproof and pitch black. Unfortunately if you happen to sleep with someone who snores, this is magnified!
So after a drink in the underground bar we had another early night in preparation for our 4am rise!
Bound for the big red rock we set off through the desert for a further 750kms stopping on the way to admire Mt Conner, a place the Aboriginals believe brings all the bad weather!
We arrived at Yulara camp resort late afternoon and headed the short distance over to Ayers rock (Uluru) to do a short walk and to witness this amazing image at sunset.
Uluru is 10km round and 346km above the plain, its traditional lands are owned by the Aboriginals. The rock is extremely sacred to them and there are certain areas that you are forbidden to climb or photograph. The Aboriginal people also discourage people from doing the 'climb' to the top of Uluru, a mixture of cultural reasons and from people losing their lives doing so.

Witnessing the sun go down on the beautiful heart of the red centre was a highlight of my trip. With Champagne and biscuits in hand we watched the rock change colour from grey, to orange, to deep red before the sun disappeared. We ended a great evening with a disco in the tour bus and a BBQ tea. This night was also the first time we slept under the stars in a S.W.A.G (outdoor bed roll for those non-campers!). I can honestly say it was the best nights sleep Ive ever had! (even if i could hear the Dingo's howling in the distance!)

The next morning we were up at 04.30am to ensure we were at the rock by sunrise and it was definitely worth it! After this we started the 10km base walk around Uluru. This was a nice walk as it enabled you to see everything close up and learn some Aboriginal culture along the way. We nosied in at the cultural centre then headed out to Kata Jtuta for another hike.

Otherwise known as The Olgas and means "many heads", Kata Jtuta consists of 36 domes and is a sacred Aboriginal 'male sight'.
From here we drove to Kings Canyon camp resort, set up camp and slept under the stars again.
The following morning we were up early to commence the Kings Canyon hike. This was the best walk so far, not too difficult (apart from Heart Attack Hill at the start!) and there was plenty to see! The views were amazing!!

After our Kings Canyon walk we headed to Alice Springs for our two day rest! yip hee! This large town in the centre of Australia has a population of 30,000 and is like a city compared with the rest of the outback!!
I'd like to say that we spent our free time productively sight-seeing etc but we basically lay in bed or by the pool during the day and partied through the night! We did managed to drag our arses out of bed to visit the Reptile Centre where we got the chance to hold snakes and lizards!!

Whilst in Alice we all laughed about the past 6 days and what a great time we had had and we also got some rest before our next 6 days adventure from Alice to Darwin!
Bye for now

Lots of love Faye xxx

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1191568200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1191568200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/fayeandrachel/faye-in-oz/1191568200/tpod.html Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:24:33 -0400 Travelling 'down under' until the money runs out!

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Frazer Island, Australia

If your travelling up and down the east coast of Australia, visiting Frazer Island is a 'must see' destination. The worlds largest sand island is named after James and Eliza Frazer who got shipwrecked here in 1836. The alleged story is that the husband died and and she lived with the Aboriginals. Apparently she claimed they treated her as a slave but they strongly deny this...who knows...

So me and Tia headed 6hrs north to Hervey Bay, a quiet coastal town where even the Irish bar closes at 10.30pm (shameful!). We weren't in bed 5 minutes when we had to get up for a 06.15 checkout and a briefing meeting. We chose to do the self drive trip rather than the tour. This entails the hostel placing you in groups of 10, giving you a 4WD van, 3 tents and waving goodbye! This sounded like a more exciting and adventurous option than going on a 40person bus full of OAP,s and sleeping in a posh resort.
So we had our briefing (a boring video on how deep to dig your poo and how to avoid Dingo's) and were sent to a camp shed. Me and Tia had the job of counting and checking all the equipment which sounds simple if you know what the hell your looking for! We then went to the supermarket which also sounds straightforward but when your with 10 people you don't know, its hard to shop for 9 different meals. Me and Tia headed straight to the meat counter and 22 sausages, 30 burgers and tons of bacon later to were on our way to the ferry!
We soon got friendly with our new camping buddies and headed to Frazer Island for our weekend of fun!
We were given an itinerary to follow if we chose to but had freedom aswell.
The beach in Frazer is used as a road which means that you have to keep left and watch your speed, very weird! Not only do you have to watch the road ahead but also in the sky as planes regularly land along side you!
We first visited Lake McKenzie , this beautiful lake is like a beach but with chrystal clear waters. We spent a couple of hours chilling then headed up the beach to camp. You can basically camp anywhere as long as its not in a resort. Driving on the beach can be quite treacherous with unseen creeks and soft, deep sand, a few people recently lost their lives over turning the vans.
The sky at night on Frazer is amazing due to the lack of light and you witness a shooting star every five minutes. There's also an unusual but entertaining trick where if you stand on the hand sand and shuffle your feet the sand turns into glitter, must be the reflection from the moon and stars!
Next morning we headed north and stopped off at a shipwreck of passenger liner Maheno that was washed up by a cyclone in 1935.
You are unable to swim in the sea at Frazer due to the dangers of man-eating sharks and a strong current so we finished the day with a relaxing swim at Eli Creek. We took some pictures of the coloured sand rocks otherwise known as The Pinnacles. We ended the afternoon by setting up camp on an isolated part of the beach and cooking a delicious meal.
Sat around the tents i was paranoid that a pack of Dingo's were going to eat us. ( Due to humans feeding them, they have turned aggressive and have even been known to kill.)
I am also proud to announce that i was the first person in the group to dig a hole for a number 2 (half a meter deep may i add!). Again as i was squatting over my hole in the pitch darkness i was terrified a Dingo would creep up behind me and bite my bum!
Needless to say i only saw one Dingo all weekend but us girls still stuck together with the company of an Axe.On the last day we visited the spectacular Lake Wabby. Surrounded by forest and slowly being eaten by sand (3m a year!) this lagoon style lake was my favourite place.
We enjoyed a few hours here before rushing back to the ferry bound for Hervey Bay.
We had managed to avoid getting stuck in the sand the whole weekend but in typical fashion and two hour before the boat was due to leave we got bogged, proper style!
Worse than anything we were lost and the sun had heated the sand up so much you couldn't stand on the bloody thing! Me and Tia started digging sand away but it was hopeless. We were too heavy to tow out so just as i was waving goodbye to 1000 dollar bond an Aussie guy came along and told us to collect big branches. We used these as mini ramps and there were cheers all round when the van was freed!
Making new friends (pooing in holes together soon broke the ice!), camping on the gorgeous beaches and visiting them lovely lakes all added to a fantastic weekend and compensated for the fact that we hadn't washed for 3 days! Its definitely worth experiencing Frazer Island!
So we headed back to Brisbane ready for our two week tour to the outback!!
Bye for now
lots of love Faye and Tia xxx
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