Sydney to Cairns - The Gold Coast

There are 6 states and 2 territories in Australia...I am foolishly going to try and get through 3 states and 1 territory.....In addition, 80% of Australians live within 20 miles of the east coast.

I arrive in Sydney to find that I have only one day to zip around the city as my bus tour leaves on Friday and as I know I will be pushing it to make it around in 35 days, I decide to depart on Friday....hindsight being 20/20 I should have left on Monday...more about that later.

they never lose the one in the middle

Sydney is a beautiful city and I knew that I would never cover it all in one day so I get some friendly advice from the hostel and begin my tour that evening by going to chinatown and grabbing some dinner spicy shredded beef and there is enough left for lunch what a deal!  I then take a stoll around Haymarket and Darling Harbour which looks lovely at night all lit up.  I awake bright and early and off to the Sydney Cove (via the downtown core and as it is Thursday, everyone is rushing to get off to work, do I miss that? NOPE!) where the ferries take off as I am told the Manly Beach ferry will afford me excellent views of the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge.  I am thankful for another sunny day, however, I get some odd stares as I am in shorts and a tank top and the Aussies are in coats with fur hoods and collars...they have mistaken 24 degrees for winter.  On my way to the ferry I walk through an area called The Rocks which is one of the oldest parts of Sydney and is where the early penal colonies were first established.  The Ferry ride is excellent, but as I am pressed for time, I hop right back on and return so that I can walk up through the Royal Botanic Gardens and an area called The Domain where everyone seems to be enjoying this sunny day playing rugby, soccer, ultimate, there are people getting boxing lessons and personal trainers torturing individuals and groups, Aussies in Sydney are for the most part beautiful and fit!

Up early and off on the OZ Experience Bus!  According to their schedule it should take 10 night stops to get to Cairns, and as I have a few days, I anticipate being able to take a day or two in each stop...wrong!  I find out that as I have joined the tour on a Friday and unlike my Magic Bus experinece OZ does not have a bus going by each stop each day, so, I actually have no time to stop unless I stop for 3 days in one place (which I cannot afford), that is it!  But it is only the first day so I cannot get too bent out of shape so I decide to just go with the flow and see what happens.

Our bus is filled with people from all across the world, but the most interesting is this Irish guy who speaks like Brad Pitt in the movie Snatch...I cannot understand a word he says which makes for some very interesting conversations.  The drive out of Sydney affords us beautiful views of the city and provides us our first intoduction to the main crop of Australia - Sugar Cane.  Out first night stop is at a place called Barrington Tops located on the Barrington River.  It is a wildlfife sanctuary in the mountains just outside Sydney.  They have a very "rustic" setting, but it is perfect and we are able to enjoy the afternoon by the river.  They have a all you can eat Pizza night here for $10.  Sounds good, but a challenge has been made!  They have a girls consumption records to be beaten...24 slices and for the boys 34 slices.  Robbie a young british lad and I decide to give it a go...I make it to 19 and then want to die, I cannot continue as my choices of pizza remaining to eat contain hot peppers, onions and way too many other disgusting toppings.  Robbie makes it to 24 and gives up his effort as we have decided to go "night river kayaking".  Sounds silly I know, consume 3 pizzas a few beverages and then jump in the rapids in an inflatable kayak, suffice to say it was!  On a brilliant moonlit night, myself, two instructors and 8 guys don our wetsuits, lifejackets and helmets with headlights.  We grab out respective inflatable kayaks and get driven to the middle of a field where we walk across in the dark (did anyone check if there are crocodiles in here?) to the beginning of the rapids.  The instructor advises that we should all follow him in a  ducks in a row formation with him in the front and the other instructor bringing up the rear.  I decide to go last and thank god as we hit the first rapids, the boys are all gung ho and decide to play bumper kayaks, but the problem is one of them gets stuck on a rock and they all pile up onto each other.  I am furiously backpaddling so as not to become part of the chaos and the instructor at the rear is saying keep up Sara.. Keep up? Keep up? I know what I am doing, I am trying not to go swimming.  He manages to untangle them and off they go to the second of 8 rapids...once again mayhem ensues and I decide to head to the front of the pack.  I paddle my way around the debris and tuck in nicely behind the lead instructor.  As we arrive at one of the calm pools inbetween the rapids, they guys completly unwind and start stargazing, they point out all the different constellations and are actually quite funny as they go from maniacal kayakers to serene astronomy buffs.  We head over the last and toughest of the rapids with only one slight mishap which resulted in a brief dip for one fellow and then off to the hottub for some more star gazing!  I awoke in the morning, surprisingly no worse for wear from the pizze gourge or the night kayak.  I went for a walk and was rewarded as I spot 4 Black Cockatoos and 2 Wallabies.

We jump on the bus and head for our day at Surf Camp.  The beach at Crescent Head is supposed to provide the ideal waves for beginners with a consistent right hand break (whatever that means).  Our instructors Kimbo, Toddy, Trudy and Sarah are all excellent and despite their valiant efforts I do not make it up beyond one foot and one knee (I will spare you the sad picture of that).  I have great fun trying and am thoroughly exhausted at the end of it.  As we sit around a campfire I have to check myself as 2 dingos enter the campsite, obviously not too worried about the fire or the 12 of us sitting around it.  Kimbo says, don't look at them in the eye and they will move on....needless to say my door will be locked tonight.  So up at dawn filled with the hope that I will enter the Green Room (the wave curl), who am I kidding, I spend the morning in the Blue Room (i.e. the washing machine) resulting in sand in very interesting places.  The waves are truly fantastic, but the instructors call us out early as they fear for our lives in the 10 m waves.

We depart for Byron Bay (the most easterly point of Australia and home of Paul Hogan - the Crocodile Hunter and Australia's most powerful lighthouse (it can be seen from 30 km out at sea)) which is a cruzy little surfer town and I wish I could spend more time here, but alas on the bus I go.  With a new driver (Tania) and another full bus in tow with Forest as the driver, we make up a total group of 48...much more fun!  Our first stop of the day is the little town of Nimbin where they are best known for their propogation and consumption of weed.  They pretty much put it in everything so my trip to the local bakery is tricky as I attempt to purchase some weed free cookies.  We pass by Mount Warning which was named by Captain Cook and is the 2nd highest volcano in the world.  It is part of the Great Dividing Range which runs through Australia for over 4000 km (and I thought of Australia as being flat).  We have great views of wildlife including a type of eagle called the Wedgie.  One of our stops today is ZORBING!  Basically three people, 60 litres of water in a platic ball rolling down a hill at 25 kph...I had to include the pictures of this.

We pull into Brisbane rather late and our group go for a walk around the town, dinner, drinks and bed as we are up early tomorrow for our bus to Hervey Bay.  As we head out of Brisbaine we pass through the Glass House Mountains again named by Captain Cook because they looked like the glass houses of his homeland.  Upon our arrival in Hervey Bay we discover the nightly antics of the fruit bats in the area.  Just as the sun is setting thousands and thousands of them take to the sky, it was an awesome sight and although the picture does not do it justice I had to include it.  I decide to part from the bus at this point as I want to go to Fraser Island for the day so I coordinate my own day tour and then I will jump on the overnight Greyhound to Airlie Beach where I will meet up with my OZ bus.

Fraser Island is the world's larget sand island and is the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 m.  Stretching over 123 km, the main road on the island is called 75 mile beach and is literally the beach.  The highest dunes on the island reach 240 m above sea level.  We take the ferry across from the mainland and board a specially made bus to travel on the sand roads.  We explore a shipwreck called the Maheno which was washed ashore in 1935 when the Japanese were attempting to tow it to Japan.  Unfortunately we do not see many of the 320 species of birds, or any of the most pure bread dingos in Australia.

My overnight bus to Airlie Beach was not as horrific as I had thought (I imagined a sweaty fat guy as my seat mate and ended up with a nice, skinny fellow Canadian) and I arrive at 9:30 am.  I decide to go and park myself at the beach for the day and catch up on some missed sleep.  Once again, the most disappointing part so far about Australia is that all of the beautiful beaches are unswimable as they have something or other in them that will kll you.  In the case of AIrlie Beach it was one of 6 different types of jellyfish.  So instead, they create these "Lagoons" which are essentially swimming pools right next to the ocean.

Our next stop is a place called Magnetic Island.  Magnetic Island is situated in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and is just across from the mainland of Townsville.  It has a population of only 2000 and was named when Captain Cook was sailing past and his instruments went wacky so he thought there were minerals on the island that held magnetic qualities...turns out his instruments were just broken, but the name stuck.  We are staying at a great hostel right on the beach and head out for a guided walk through the rainforest to see old war stockades and in search of the elusive Koalas.  The views from the island are spectacular and we do spot a Koala, who unfortunately he/she is very high in the canopy sleeping and not very picture friendly.  We head out in the morning for a sea kayak around the headland and go spying on a nudist beach, but as usual at nudist beaches there are only nudists you don't want to see, old and wrinkly, so we paddle away...quickly.

Our bus ride today takes up up to Mission Beach which was an area hit 3 weeks ago by Cyclone Larry.  It was devastated!  The 300 kph winds wiped out so much of the rainforest and our walks are cut short by debris.  This area is the home of the Cassowary (a very old, very endangerred bird, kind of like an ostrich) and as the forest has been destroyed the park rangers are dropping seeds and food to them to keep them alive.  There are only 1000-1500 Cassowaries left in the world.  The most facinating part about these birds is that there are 150 rainforest plants that rely upon them for survival as the Cassowary's digestive system is not strong and as it eats the seeds of plants and travels throughout the forest, it "deposits" the undigested seed in it's poo miles from where the original plant was located.  Disgusting I know, but interesting too!  So enough about that, I ate Kangaroo tonight!  It was delicious!  A little gamey perhaps, but better than any steak I have had here so far in Australia.

Our trip today includes a tour of the Atherton Tablelands, Milla Milla Falls and Lake Eacham (a large crater lake), as we head to Cairns and Cape Tribulation.  Another bizarre thing about the east coast is that each town seems to have a GIANT something....today it was a Golden Gumboot (like a welly boot), yesterday it was a giant prawn (you could climb up his butt and look out his eye), a giant banana, mango, sausage, crab, etc...you get the point, bizarre!

We head off from Cairns on our way to Cape Tribulation and on our way we go to the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary where we are treated to views of all the elusive Australian Animals we have been searching for all these weeks.  The Freshwater Crocodile, Kangaroo, Koala, Cassowary, Platapus (one strange looking creature), etc.  We then take a walk through the Mossman Gorge and finally arrive at our destination Cape Tribulation.  Named by Captain Cook as it was the place where all his trials and tribulations began....mine too apparently as there happens to be a little storm system called Cyclone Monica just 500 km to the north which is preventing me from getting out to the Great Barrier Reef.

I knew it had to come to an end...I had 40 days of sunshine and now, nothing but rain.  I am stuck in Cape Trib for 3 nights and 4 days with nothing but torrential rain!  All the roads are flooded into and out of everywhere from Cairns up to north of us here.  The Cable Ferry river is 4 m above what it should be and is impassable...nice!

I am rooming at a place called the Beach House with a girl from Alberta named Susan.  We met two Australian women and they invite us to go for a little walk, in the rain, to explore a creek that is about 2 km down the road.  As we walk along we encounter landslides, fallen trees, swollen creeks, beautiful waterfalls, a cool strangler fig tree (it basically engulfs another tree and strangles it) and fortunately no crocodiles!  We take this pathway down to the beach which begins to look somewhat like a path that an animal, hey maybe a crocodile would take, yikes...nope, we did not run into one, although there were plenty of warning signs and I made sure to be in the middle of the group as the first and the last are always taken in the movies...they never lose the one in the middle.

I am treated to many different surprises here, one night we are sitting having dinner and a preying mantis lands on my caomflage pants (how do I know it was a preying mantis you ask, Susan the Botanist told me, otherwise I would be writing that it was an electric green grasshopper) and I dared to go very, very close to a Golden Orb Spider to get a picture for Jake (you owe me big!).

Well all is not lost, the rain subsides today, the rainforest is beautiful now that I can look up without fear of drowning.  These trees are some of the oldest rainforest in the world.  Pictures cannot do them justice, it is magnificent.  The rivers have lowered and the bus manages to make it across on the ferry today.  I am back safe and sound in Cairns, and although I did not get to see the Great Barrier Reef I am strangely not too disappointed.  Something to come back to I guess.

I am really looking forward to my next few days as I leave the coast and head into the outback and Alice Springs...

P.S.  Sorry guys no pics at the moment...technical difficulties, I will add some as soon as I can