Down Undah Part2

  Cairn to sydney, Australia
Saturday, July 14, 2007

Our OZ experience continued in Cairns where we only spent one night on the advice of the seasoned travellers who have worn this path before us. We probably aren't completely qualified to judge cairns as we weren't there for very long, but we didn't find it as bad as had been expected. Just like any other touristy resort really, but our hotel bar closed at 10pm which was against type, and should have been the sign for us to get an early night, but alas twas not to be. We scoured the streets for an open bar and ended up..next door at the Holiday Inn where the bar stayed open until 11.30. Wahoo!!! Here, we met 2 Irish girls and two Aussie guys, called Peter and Peter and we had a good chat for the rest of the evening. Peter and Peter told us about their interpretation of the aboriginal situation, and like we described in the last post, seemed pretty frustrated by the whole thing- Peter 1 told us a joke which he felt summed it up perfectly: 'what was the last thing Jesus said to the aborigines? Don't do anything until I get back.' Hmmmmmm no judgement.
The following morning, we got a bus to port Douglas, about an hour north of cairns. This part of Queensland is so beautiful; on the one hand, they have some of the most magnificent rainforests in Australia, and on the other, the Great Barrier Reef. To top it all off, its 20 degrees in the middle of winter! Port Douglas is a lovely town, but very white, very middle class, lots of Australian families enjoying the school holidays. Here we rented an apartment a few minutes from the beach and chilled out for 5 days. Having said that, we saw plenty of sights, from the Mossman gorge,

rainforsts

a fabulous gorge on the edge of the daintree rainforest,

more rainforest

to rainforest habitat which is a wildlife park which claims to create a natural environment for the animals that live there. I don't know what natural environment has its koalas removed for a 3pm photo op with horrible kids but however.

koala1

There were kangaroos

Roo Balls

and wallabies roaming around the park, and they had crocs as well!
Of course, it's not possible to come to this part of the world and not see the Great Barrier Reef. Barry will describe his experience of the reef, but let me tell you mine entitled:'dude, where's my comfort zone?'
As some of you will know, I am aquatically challenged. I can't swim and it has nearly been the death of me on more than one occasion- an unfortunate incident in tiglin adventure centre comes to mind, and more recently on a wave runner in Thailand. We chose to go out on the 'low isles' where it is possible to snorkel from the beach to see all types of sea life. We went with a company called 'shaolin' which promised a unique experience on an ancient Chinese sailing boat.(? we couldnt make the connection either.) The journey out to the island took about 1 hour 45 minute, and once I had ensconced myself on deck I wasn't moving for nothing or nobody. There were no outer railings on the boat so one had to hold on to the railings on the side of the boat itself and only walk on the high side of the ship. Arrgh!!! As we approached the island, this little dinghy yoke sailed alongside to take us there as the water was to shallow for our ancient. Chinese. Sailing boat. So on we trundle, sans lifejacket, and rip off to the island. When we get there, we get our snorkelling gear including those ridiculous flippers that are impossible to walk in. Into the water we get, and are divided up into 2 groups, the proper swimmers ready to go off and explore the reef and the less confident who would be taken on a smaller tour. A girl from Belfast and I were the only 2 non swimmers so we were told to wait a few minutes and the instructor would be back to us after she had sent the other groups on their way. Except that she never came back for us and so my trip to the reef was spent in flippers, goggles and mask in water that was about 4ft deep chatting to Wendy who had just arrived in Oz after a year in New Zealand. We were too afraid to take the gear off in case she came back for us and we couldn't get them back on again. That mouthpiece sure is a communication barrier!
The way back to port Douglas was more of the same heart in mouth fear, and the water got a bit choppier as the sun went down, the views were beautiful though, and hey, it beats working!

great barrier reef

We left port Douglas on 4th July and flew to Sydney. If we could do it again, we would have taken the time to drive down the coast but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and take in some of the spots that some of you suggested. Next time. It was great to be back in Sydney, as we had only had one night there on arrival in Australia. Sydney is a really beautiful city, and it knows it! Even the docks look good! We were lucky with the weather, it was crisp and sunny the whole time we were there. Again, like Melbourne, we walked our little feet off in the place. The usual suspects, the opera house and the harbour are magnificent, darling harbour is lovely too, and a little less daunting than Sydney harbour, lovely bars and restaurants with beautiful views of the city, darling. There is a 'world from the air' exhibition on there at the moment, with fantastic Arial photography from all over the world with an emphasis on conservation. Another must see is the Australian museum which had a particularly good exhibition on the history and culture on the aborigines which was told a really balanced story of the situation finishing with Cathy freeman carrying the Olympic torch at the 2000 Olympics. I found it really moving- what a moment that was!

operahouse 1

We found it really hard to get cheap accommodation in Sydney, live earth was on, as well as a make poverty history event in the opera house, and of course, Australia v south Africa in the tri nations in Telstra stadium which we went to on the Saturday night. It was a big night for Aussie rugby, the last game on home turf for two guys...of course I know! George Gregan and err some other guy. The game itself was good fun but not as atmospheric as we would have thought- no singing, no Mexican waves, in fact the atmosphere in Paddy's bar in Port Douglas for Australia v New Zealand the week before was better, although that was largely down to one guy with what appeared to be severe ADD dressed like John McEnroe at the height of his career. We could teach the Aussie rugby fans a thing or two about support, but they could teach us a lot about logistics- the journey two and from the Olympic park was so seamlessly efficient, with transport costs included in the ticket price.

Austrailia versus south africa telstra stadium

Sunday we got the train to the Blue Mountains, about 2 hours outside Sydney, and stayed in a place called katoomba. We walked into the hotel reception to the receptionist saying to the owner '...b the way, there is a redback outside.. A redback as most of you will know is a really poisonous spider.arrg! the portly Greek owner responded by walking out and standing on him before Barry got the chance to take a photo and pretend that he had found him on the toilet seat in the middle of the night. Katoomba is well worth a visit, but could probably be done in a day trip, unless the weather is better. It was only brassers there, which would set us up for New Zealand (brrr). The mountains are lovely and get their name from the blue hue which sits over them, something to do with science. Our full day there was marred by mist, but we got some good walks in and got the 'skyrail' and a cable car in and out of the rainforest. Overall, a nice end to a great week in Sydney and our Australian adventure. We had such a great time here, and would have loved to say longer and drive around a bit more. But, alas it's on to New Zealand (!!!!!) where weather and scenery await in equally breathtaking measures.

rainforsts

Barry's Cliff Notes:

Cairns:Wierd place, kinda white trash resort, kinda like Ocean city, for any of you guys that have been there!, I think that explains it all. Yeehaw...where's the tattoo parlour Lurlene?
Port Douglas: Kinda like Hyannis, for any of you that have been there, nice town, lots of pubs and The GRAND barrier reef beside it. I say grand, cos I went out on it and it was abit murky, I'm sure other days are better but I got abit unlucky. Still got to swim with turtles which was amazing. Eva was flopping about on the shore having a natter!, On the grand barrier reef I tell ya!!!!???
Daintree Rainforest: Amazing scenery and flora etc, which brings me to the question we could not answer: If a tree falls in the rainforest, does a catholic bear hear it, if the pope is having a sh1t?
Sydney: Nice town, I think I prefer Melbourne, but Sydney does grow on you. Really cool to sit and look at the opera house and just say " Wow I'm in Sydney Australia!!!"

Off to Ski, Bungee and look at Middle earth in NZ now. Cannot wait...