Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Byron Bay

  Byron Bay, Australia
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Hi there! It's that time again! (And it's friday - so a happy weekend to you!)

I am nearly two weeks into my Australian adventure and it's amazing how quickly the time is passing! (Maybe it's all the time I spend updating the blog?!) I'm more than half way through my journey and the time has passed so quickly. It's scary and I don't want to think about when this adventure will come to an end...so I'm not going to!

Australia has been brilliant so far and with summer just starting to kick in the weather is perfect. More or less every day is glorious sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s to low 30s and even I am managing to get the slightest hint of a suntan! Of course you have to be extra careful down here because of the strength of the sun - so a high factor sun cream is essential - apparently Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer on the planet.

Now I'm not one to brag as you know, but I couldn't help putting together a weather comparison between Brussels and Sydney...and it doesn't come out favourably.

Weather Comparison...it's not good!

I spent the first week at Dave's place in Sydney relaxing and wandering around the city. (Dave is an old mate who I used to work with at Proximus in Belgium --- we get around a bit don't we!) He's living in a great location in a great appartment - lucky lad. It's just off Hyde Park in the centre of the city and his apartment complex has a heated pool, sauna and spa pool which were always empty during my stay and I got to use them as if they were my own. It was a lovely and I felt like I was living in a certain kind of luxury after living in motels in NZ. Thanks to Dave for putting up with me snoring on his sofa bed all week and me going on the internet last thing at night. Also Dave was pretty good given that he was working and yet we managed to go out to a bar or restaurant each night I was there. Thanks mate. It has to be said that Dave's a very lucky man that he has "The Gaff" as his local pub - check out their website for a sample of the kind of "cultural" experiences that they offer. http://www.thegaff.com.au (gents please don't look at the gallery pages, especially not the "jelly wrestling" section - and that definately isn't me you can see in the third photo).

At the end of the week we hired a car and drove down to see the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves for the weekend. They are about two hours drive from Sydney (or 1/2 an hour if you drive like Dave). They're called the Blue Mountains because of the blueish tinge the range takes on when viewed at a distance, which is caused by the release of volatile oils from eucalyptus forests (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountains).

The magical Blue Mountains

Waterfall Blue Mountains

Rocky Outcrop - Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters and Mount Solitary

This is close enough

I'm feeling blue!

Taking photos of yourself it's a bit sad!

Me and the Mountains

Mount Solitary

Dave's hiding in the bushes!

There's a lookout at a place called Echo Point where you look down a big canyon and to the horizon beyond and there's rainforest as far as the eye can see. It was like something out of Jurassic Park. The sounds of the birds and crickets and God knows what else coming from the valley floor were pretty amazing. It was more impressive too because as the afternoon wore on and we explored the mountains a storm was building and every now and again there'd be a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder. It certainly added to the atmosphere, in a literal sense.

Blue Mountains Valley floor

Thick jungle beneath the Three Sisters

Jurassic Park

As the storm was building we saw some pretty funky storm clouds. They're known as Mammatus clouds and usually indicate storm activity and general climatic instability. We were secretly hoping that there would be a cracker of a storm, but unfortunately it never materialsed.

Storm clouds form above the Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains Strange clouds

The only downside to some of the sightseeing spots of the Blue Mountains (if you can call it a downside) is that it's a tourist hotspot and as such you have to make an effort to get away from the crowds.

Swarms of Tourists!

More tourists

At one of the lookouts Dave and I were totally surprised when a Wallaby went hopping past us on one of the boardwalks on the side of one of the cliffs. That was a surreal moment. It was made more surreal two seconds later when a woman came running round the corner and asked us if we'd seen a wallaby hopping past. Dave said, without even so much as a moment's hesitation, "Yes love, he's just passed us on the way to the cablecar, you might catch up with him if you hurry." - it was a classic oneliner.

At one of the spots we took a "train" ride down to the bottom of the gorge and had a walk on the forest floor. I say "train" because in fact the train is the steepest in the world - it's more like a very slow rollercoaster than a train. It has an incline of 1.27 in 1!

Blue Mountains - Cool Sign

Giant Ferns in the Rainforest - Blue Mountains

Fern in Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains Valley floor

I can't really explain this one

Dave thinks about stuff...

In the late afternoon we decided to drive the 75Km to the Jenolan Caves and try and find somewhere as an overnight stopover nearby. The roads are pretty narrow and winding so it was taking us a long time to get there, so we decided to call in for the night in a place called Oberon. A signpost on the way said, "Oberon - a friendly, tourist town" so it sounded like a nice place. We didn't realise how friendly it would be and that we would be the only tourists *ever* to visit there! On the way the strange clouds we had seen earlier on in the day reappeared over Oberon...maybe it was a sign!

There's a storm coming!

The strange town of Oberon

Coming into Oberon we found ourselves at the only pub in the town, and it also looked like the only place which offered overnight accommodation. Dave parked the car up and I got out to ask how much a room was for the night. Dave hadn't even locked up the car when a head popped out from the awning over the pub and said in a very strong Aussie accent, "You're not gonna leave your car like that are you mate?!". Dave and I looked at each in puzzlement because the car seemed to be parked pretty normally. We looked back up at the guy looking down at us and said, almost as one voice, "Why? What's wrong with how's it's parked?". The voice smiled and said, "Jeez, you fella's must be blind!". But we honestly couldn't work out what was wrong with the way the car was parked. After exchanging a few confused glances and wondering if we really wanted to stay the night in a pub where the village idiot was living on the roof, the guy finally said, "You've got to park with your front facing the road!" Well of course you do! Dave got back in the car and tried to correct this error while I chatted politely to our new friend. "Where are you from mate?" he asked from his lookout. "Manchester" I said (I know this isn't technically true but no-one in the southern hemisphere has heard of Preston...in fact most people outside of the UK haven't heard of Preston). "Oh really?! I know Manchester! Which bit?". I couldn't believe it, the only person to know Manchester that I'd met so far in the Southern Hemisphere was this loon standing on a roof of a pub! It turned out that this guy had lived for years in the UK (he'd probably been deported from Oz!) and he even knew the village that I'd been brought up in Lancashire. It was freaky! In the meantime, Dave with his size 12 feet and whose hand-foot co-ordination is more suited to driving a JCB was busily trying to do a three point turn in our highly sensitive manual Toyota Yaris which we discovered earlier in the day stalls easily and once stalled doesn't like to start again (it's a sensitive soul). Of course, with a gathering audience it stalled more than once with Dave's 6ft 4in frame wedged behind the dashboard and he started to look increasingly like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him and the car. We watched Dave and the car struggling to park for what seemed like an eternity at which point the Aussie on the roof turned to me and said a line which will long remain a classic, "Where's your mate from? France?!".

It was a very surreal and funny encounter and not the last that night. We had ended up in a place in the middle of nowhere, where nothing ever happens and tourists never stop. So were obviously a natural curiousity - from the man that asked me why I was wearing gay clothes to the same man asking me for 5 dollars for his favourite charity (yeah right) and then being quite offended when I politely declined (why do these things always happen to me?!). It was an interesting evening and one which we'll be retelling for years to come.

We did have a pretty good night there though, there was a disco, where the music got better as me and Dave had more to drink - isn't that always the case?

We were quite happy to get back on the road the next day to visit the Jenolan caves. They are at the bottom of a steep valley and are the most spectacular caves that I've ever visited. I took so many photographs that I had to get rid of a lot of them because there were just so many - and they were all amazing. The cave system is the biggest open cave system in the world. There are 10 cave systems that you can visit as a normal tourist and many more that are open to more adventurous pot holers.

What are you looking at?!!

Jenoland Caves - 1

Jenoland Caves - 2

Jenoland Caves - 3

Jenoland Caves - 4

Jenoland Caves - 5

Jenoland Caves - 6

Jenoland Caves - 7

Jenoland Caves - 9

Perspective of the Caves - 1

Perspective of the Caves - 1

Jenolan Caves - 10

We eventually tore ourselves away from the caves and drove back to Sydney for a quiet sunday night. My last day in Sydney was monday so I took a trip up the Sydney Tower. It's more or less the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere after Auckland's Sky Tower and so it's a great place to get a view over the city and the harbour. It was certainly a nice diversion for an hour or so.

Sydney Tower

Sydney - view from tower - 1

Sydney - view from tower - 2

I met Dave after work on Monday at the harbour side at a place called Circular Quay. From here there are lots of ferries that are run as much for locals as for tourists. You can hop on one here and get a great (and cheap) view of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour bridge as well as downtown and Darling Harbour - all must sees as a tourist. It was a lovely end to my week in Sydney.

Sydney Opera House - 1

Sydney Harbour Bridge - 1

Sydney Harbour Bridge - 2

Sydney Harbour Bridge - 3

Sydney Opera House - 2

Dave and I finished off the night in one of the thousands of asian restaurants (you have a choice of every kind of far eastern restaurant that you can think of in Sydney) near China Town and it brought to an end my Sydney leg. Incidentally the east asian influence is everywhere in Sydney. It is the nearest neighbour to Australia and New Zealand so it should really come as a surprise.

I flew out of Sydney on Tuesday morning and the view out of the plane over the city was pretting amazing - one of the nicer take off views that I've seen.

Sydney from the sky

So now here I am in a place called Byron Bay. It's on the east coast of Australia, about an hour north of Sydney. It's famous for it's beautiful beaches and chilled out bohemian lifestyle.

Tallow Beach near Byron Bay

Tallow Beach at sunset

Footprints in the sand near Byron Bay

Sunset over Byron Bay

Nightfall over Byron Bay

Basically this corner of Australia is a hippy haven. It's probably one of the most chilled out places I've ever been too and with the miles of sandy beaches and beautiful weather it's a little slice of paradise. It reminds me almost of Newquay in Cornwall but with much nicer weather and a much cleaner and bluer sea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Bay).

And I've never seen so many dolphins in my entire life than here (in fact I've never seen any dolphins in my entire life - until I went to New Zealand). Once you see one dolphin you start seeing them all over the place (in the sea obviously!). An amazing thing happened to me on my first day in Byron. I arrived at a really cool guesthouse called Amigos, which is just the most chilled out place I've stayed at. It's basically someone's house with a veranda, nice gardens and 4 rooms. I was the only person there for the first two days so I had the house, kitchen and garden completely to my self. So, on my first day I took one of the bikes that the lady who owns the house lets you use for free, and I cycled up to Byron Bay lighthouse and point.

I took a number of photos of the lighthouse - it's amazing how the mood changes depending on the time of day.

Byron Bay Lighthouse - 1

Byron Bay Lighthouse - 2

Lighthouse - 3

It's a tiring old cycle up and then there's another walk down from the lighthouse to the headland once you've done cycling. So I took a break by a little cove near the headland and watched the surfers further up the coast catching the waves rolling up the bay.

Two men and a dolphin

Our surfer tries to catch a wave

Two men and a dolphin

It was a perfect end to the day as the sun was just starting to set. I figured that life doesn't get any better than this...and then, from the distance, a school of dolphins (or should that be a pod?) came swimming towards me. I don't know if they were playing or trying to hunt or whatever but they seemed to be having a great time. I was mesmerised. There were about 5 or 6 of them (that I could see) and they were about 50 metres away from me and they were just playing in the water without a care in the world. They stayed for about 10 minutes and there was just me and these dolphins and it blew me away. It was perfection on top of perfection! After that I watched the sun go down and the surfers riding the waves in the fading twilight. Wow!

Dolphins -1

Dolphins - 2

Dolphins - 3

Dolphins - 4

Dolphins - 6

Dolphins - perspective

Dolphins - 7

Dolphins - 8

On the second day in Byron I decided to have a go at something that I haven't done for a long time - kite buggying. If you want an explanation of what it is, look here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_buggying. To quote wikipedia it's a light, purpose-built vehicle powered by a traction kite (power kite). I used to do it all the time when I lived near the coast in the UK, but I have been out of the habit these last few years. I saw an advert for it when I came over from the airport to Byron Bay. So I gave the guy a ring and arranged an afternoon's buggying. It was a blast - perfect wind conditions and probably the most beautiful beach that I've ever buggied on. There were no more than a handful of people and just me, my kite, the wind, beautiful sunshine and waves breaking along the shore as I zipped along, completely free!

The next day, every muscle in my body was aching - and still is three days later! I guess it's good for me though...

Kite buggy - 1

Kite buggy - 2

See, I'm really in control!

I'm getting the hang of it again!

Relaxing with the kite at the end of the day

To round off my stay here in Byron Bay I went snorkelling today off the coast of Byron Bay at a group of rocks called Julian Rocks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Rocks. Normally you can see turtles there, but today there was quite a lot of swell and the visibility wasn't great so we didn't see any turtles, but we saw all kinds of amazing fish. We also saw a humpback whale off in the distance on his migration to Antartica for summer feeding. It was funny because normally the whales have finished their migration by the beginning of November, but this one was obviously a bit disorganized and running late. For this reason, I liked him. It was great snorkelling around and we had about 3/4 of an hour swimming around the rocks in our snorkels and wetsuits, bobbing around in the swell. There are a lot of seabirds that nest or roost on the rocks so it was fun to watch them flying around and catching fish, but you had to be careful that they didn't shit on you...sorry, there's no polite way to say it. Because of this I winced everytime I swallowed a mouthful of seawater - still I've not suffered any adverse effects so far and hopefully the beer tonight will kill off any remaining nasties that I swallowed. As I enrolled for the snorkelling I saw three of the people who are staying in the guest house where I am and they'd booked the same snorkelling session, so it was nice to see them and get to know them a bit better.

As it's my last night tonight (Friday 23rd) I'll probably go for a drink with my housemates, and tomorrow I might go kayaking around the headland - I might get to see some dolphins again if I'm lucky - before I fly to Melbourne at 6.30.

So I'll take a long weekend in Melbourne with an old friend Dan who I used to work in London with, then Tuesday I'll drive up to Adelaide along the stunning and aptly named Great Ocean Road with an overnight stopover. In Adelaide I'll make a short visit to see a girl I met in Auckland - she owns a ranch up near Adelaide. Then it's a flight on thursday up to Uluru to see the famous red rock - I'll do three days camping under the stars and trekking around the base of the rock. The following Monday is a flight over to Cairns to do some snorkelling and diving in the Great Barrier Reef and then back to Sydney on the Friday to spend a last weekend there before I fly out to South Africa on the 9th December and the last leg of my journey (I can't believe I'm on the last leg already!)

So I hope this update finds you well and surviving the incoming northern hemisphere winter.

All the best,
Martin