Queensland - east coast australia arriving ...
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2001
1
35
89
Trip End
Ongoing
Queensland,
Australia
Sunday, December 2, 2001
Arriving in Cairns, our intentions were to spend 2 months travelling down the East Coast to Sydney with a Greyhound Bus pass that would allow us to stop and visit as many towns as we wanted. We had formed this plan from chatting to lots of backpackers who had "Done Australia". As soon as we arrived in Cairns we began to have second thoughts. "Backpackers" is a loosely defined term. In our eyes, it conjours up images of roughing it - traipsing across Mongolia in big boots and a heavy pack, drinking bowls of fermented mares' milk so as not to offend the locals, and running to the sand dunes to face the consequences early the next morning! But here on the East Coast of Australia "Backpacking" means something completely different - Living in luxury backpacker accomodation with swimming pools, ensuite bathrooms and fully equipped kitchens; and going out, getting drunk and nightclubbing every night
Cape Tribulation
. Since this is not Tonya's style, and since Paul is far too old to take the pace any more, we decided to split our time and spend a month in New Zealand. This forced us to be selective about what we really wanted to do on the East Coast. We now had just 21 days to get to Sydney.Highlights of the East Coast:
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CAIRNS
* Becoming Certified Open Water Divers on the Great Barrier Reef
We chose a company called Down Under Dive (www.downunderdive.com.au) that had excellent facilities inculuding a purpose built dive training pool and a smart boat "The Atlantic Clipper" - complete with on deck Spa! The hardest part of the 4 day course wans't any of the scuba skills. Taking your mask off and your regulator out 14 meters below the surface was a lot easier than the test to make sure we could swim 200 metres and tread water for 10 minutes. This almost killed us both. The reef was incredible; and we got really close to turtles, hugh wrasse and sharks
Crocodile
!* Tropic Days Backpackers (www.tropicdays.com.au)
This renovated Queenslander is a little way out of town, but they run a free shuttle bus to the town centre. The staff are extremely friendly, and Gabriel and Kathy, the owners, will help you decide whicch of the hundreds of activities to do in the area. They organise a BBQ once a week in their tropical gardens, overlooking the swimming pool and the room rate even includes a free evening meal at the Woolshed pub in town.
* Reef Teach (www.reefteach.com.au)
This is an entertaining and education presentation about the Great Barrier Reef. We laughted so hard our stomachs hurt for days. Paddy, the presenter, is an insane Irishman, who clearly had a bit too much speed with his pint of Guinness! We learnt to identify many reef fish and corals, but more importantly we learnt what we could touch and what could kill us... it ain't the sharks you need to worry about!
* Pub toilets - Rattle 'n' Hum, 67 Esplande, Cairns
If you're going to use the mens toilets at Rattle 'n' Hum then you'd better make sure you really need to go..
Freight Train
. because there is a good chance you might get stage-fright! You walk in, and if it wasn't for the guy already there peeing against the biggest windown you've ever seen, you wouldn't be able to dfind the urinal. After the initial shock of seeing all the diners obliviously munching away and downing their drinks on the other side of the window, you realize that they can''t actually see you - thankfully this is a one way mirror.DAINTREE AND CAPE TRIBULATION
To see these places you either have to take a "backpacker tour" or rent a car. We just couldn't resist when we saw the sign "Mini cars for mini budgets" - but we didnt realize how mini mini could be. Aus$44 got us a Dhiatzo Matiz 800cc matchbox with wheels. This car, which is better suited to Bermuda's roads, got us there and back, albeit at a top speed of 40 mph.
* Harleys Creek Crocodile Farm (www.hartleyscreek.com)
To guarantee seing some crocodile action we called into Hartleys Creek Crocodile Farm at feeding time. Paul resisted the temptattion to jump in with the salties and live upto his "Crocodile-Bob" reputation, he left the experts to bang a 7 metre "salty" on the snout with a freshly killed chicken and yell "Here boy... Din dins!".
* Mossman Gorge
Definitely worth a stop to hike through this rainforest gorge and have a dip in the river
Whitehaven Beach 2
.* Cape Tribulation
"Where the rainforest meets the sea" - This place is beatiful - just what you imagine when you think of a tropical beach: thick vegetation, pure white sand and blue sea (not that you'd want to swim in it - because of the box jelly fish and the salt-water crocs). We wished we could hve stayed longer. There are a couple of backpacker hostels near the beach and staying overnight would allow you time to do some of the excellent hikes / go sea-kayaking / horse-rididng or go crocodile spotting.
MAGNETIC ISLAND
From Townsville we took the ferry across to Magnetic Island which is billed as "a very beautiful and special place... some of the best beaches and most picturesque bays in Queensland... rugged natural beauty...a haven for Koalas, rock wallabies, possums and tropical birdlife".
What we found was a dusty old place with a lack of decent accomodation. We opted for the "small, clean and friendly" hostel option which was..
Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays
. well ... smalll. We knew we were in trouble when Paul pulled the handle of the door and informed our bedraggled hosts who launched into a well rehearsed "Hey honey, do you know when the builder is coming by to fix the door knob?" . We were tempted to say "Tell him to fix the lights and the toilet which doesn't flush, and get him to clean up the kitchen while he's at it".We spent more time at the nearby Arkies backpackers resort. This huge place has good facilities and a rowdy bar with loud and very bad Karaoke. The only wildlife around here is the backpackers, no animals. Although we did see rockwallaby. They are hardly wild though... they just come begging for food because the hostels send tours out to feed them!
SAILING AROUND THE WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS
www.aussiesailing.com.au/freighttrain.html
Our accounts of our three days aboard Freight Train (a 62 foot maxi which has placed in some famous races including the Sydney to Hobart race) differ somewhat:
Tonya's Account:
For me this was the highlight of our Australia trip. Three days racing across clear blue waters, around the most beautiful tropical islands, sitting out on the rail with the wind in your hair and the sun on your shoulders. Stopping to visit some of the world's best beaches such as Whitehaven Beach (see photos), and to snorkel over reefs that are in a much better condition than those we dived around Cairns.
We spent evenings sitting on deck under the full moon and feasted on three excellent meals per day, prepared by our genius hostess, Kirsten, in a galley the size of a postage stamp. Several people took up the invitation to sleep on deck, but I chose to remain in the comfort of my surprisingly spacious bunk down below.
On the final day, just as we were all getting a little toasted from sitting in the sun, Chrisso (our Skipper) gave the go ahead to fly the spinnaker. This meant that we would get some long awaited shade on deck. We powered along in perfect wind conditions. The only problem was the embarrassment factor... the spinnaker was a great big red one... with a mammoth Golden Arches on it. Yes, MacDonalds sponsor this boat!
Paul's Account:
I thought that sitting around on deck for three days with nothing to do but sunbathe wouldl be rather dull, so I signed up for the "Introduction to Sailing Course".
I think it's fair to say that after three days of bouncing and tailing over 2000 square foot of sail three time per day, whinching and grinding until my arms were ready to fall off, having my feet cheese-grated by the rough sand-painted deck (no shoes allowed - this is a true Aussie boat) and being yelled at in an unfamiliar language - a combination of sailing terms and Aussie slang, I was physically and mentally exhausted... And people keep saying we're "on holiday"!
