Category — Round the world
Sydney, the first weeks living in the land down under
I’ll start by apologising to those at home who’ve been missing the tales of my travels. I’ve been incredibly busy, and I hope to make it up to all of you in this blog, that WILL be the first of many regular features on my new site.
So, how did it all begin? Well, I’ll back track slightly to the point when I thought I was probably not going to make it past Sydney. The first few months of travelling made me realise I really enjoyed being away from the UK. I don’t know if that will last, but all the people we met, that feeling of independance and seeing new things - in the sunshine - every day just really made me happy. So, somewhere in Vietnam - I think around Hanoi (seems so long ago) - I started thinking that Sydney would probably be somewhere I’d want to stay put. And how right I was…
We arrived in Sydney from the North, driving in on the Pacific Highway. Now that was a scarey experience. It was the tail end of Sydney’s rushhour, and we were whisked along by 3 lanes of traffic. This in itself is ok, as it was fairly tame compared to London, but it was the lorry driving along just ahead of us that was intimidating. It almost felt like Steven Speilberg’s film, Duel! We just couldn’t get away from it, and eventually settled for lying in it’s wake, allowing it to part the traffic before us. Then there’s the way you drive over a blind hill at the speed limit, to be greeted by a row of parked cars that required the split second decision of trying to skilful swerve into the right-hand lane, hit the car, or make use of the pavement. You’ll be pleased to know that we took the first option! Ok, so that was a long paragraph just about driving into Sydney, sorry. But, I’ll finish it by saying we drove across the Harbour Bridge. And what a way to be greeted into the heart of this fine city.
We stayed in the Sydney Youth Hostel near Central station - after eventually navigating the irritating one-way system! For a hostel, it was very well appointed. Every other floor had washing facilities, then TV rooms. And, on the top floor a dip pool and Sauna! Although I only made it there once.
The first few days, I dived into the city doing my usual wandering trick. I think being the early bird, I spent most of my days on my own, which, when I’m siteseeing, I don’t mind. Armed with my trusty Canon 20D - Dan and Dai were getting sick of me moaning about not having a wide-angle lens for it - very few angles were left unexplored. I’d forgotten how much we’d enjoyed our first trip here, and this time it had a much more homely feel, as if an old friend were welcoming us back. It was one of those moments, where every so often you’d round a corner, see something - like the Opera House - and get that pleasant tingly feeling.
Obviously the nights weren’t neglected either, and we did spend most of them out until the small hours. We were accompanied by Steve and Eugene - the 4th person in our dorm. But, fun as it was, when I moved out of the hostel, it was quite a relief as the pace of drinking and partying suddenly went down to more normal levels - Dan and Dai were started to look and sound quite ill.
Which leads onto how I landed on my feet, and what has subsequently made me decide to stay in Sydney. So, on a friday morning - the 21st April for those of you who like details - I went to look at a house, which I liked and decided to move into the next day. So, later that day, sitting in the Botanical Gardens, overlooking the Opera House and bridge, my friend rings me up and asks if I was interested in an interview at his company. So, in my best “I’ve been backpacking, and don’t own many clothes” attire, I had an interview that evening and started work there on the monday.
Wiliam is a Web Design firm based in North Sydney. Which means that as I live in South Sydney, everyday I get to cross the magnificent Harbour Bridge and see the Opera House. What a way to start the day (is anyone envious yet?).
And the people I live with are great too! Although the downside of the house is it’s location, the plus side is also the location. On the main road from the airport it has traffic, but it’s also slap bang in the middle of everything, and it only take me 30mins to get to work (at £9 a week!). My flatmates are Sarah from Louisiana, Nicole from Germany, Sabrina and Roberto from Italy, and a couple more I’ll ignore as they ignore us.
As you can tell, the first couple of weeks in Sydney were awesome! And I’ve been really lucky to land on my feet running. Anyone who feels like coming to visit, I’ll be here for a while yet…
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Google]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.gregory-brine.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
April 30, 2006 No Comments
Byron Bay, Australia
Byron Bay is described in many guidebooks as a booming town, desperately trying to hold onto it’s small town feel. Sadly, I think it’s days as a small town are numbered, and the march of fast food chains will soon be surrounding the town in all directions.
So why’s it so popular? Well, there’s a very large beach right at the front of town, although a better one is Watego Beach round by the lighthouse. Best mention the amazing view afforded from the climb up to the lighthouse, itself a thing of beauty - and the light shines 27miles in all directions, which looks rather cool wandering through town as it sweeps over your head.
Then there’s the small town, bohemian feel to the place. There’s a lot of people wandering around looking like they may have forgotten to leave the 60’s and 70’s behind. A rash of tattoo parlors, bars and surf shops line the streets, seperated by some great cafes, restaurants and juice bars - not entirely convinced by beetroot in a drink, but they say it’s good for you.
I really do like Byron. It’s one of the places where you can do nothing, and feel like you haven’t wasted the day. Naturally, I did something all the time, but I can’t sit still for very long, except for one time. I headed down to the beach and sat on the rocks watching the sun set, and the evening surfers, all desperate for the last few waves before the light faded. Whilst sitting there, 2 guys turned up with their bongos and started playing a tune. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable moment, staring out to sea at nothing in particular, and absolutely loving it!
One of the highlights for me this time, and something I dearly wished I’d done the last time we were there, is to visit the lighthouse and see dolphins from the Cape - which, incidently is Australia’s most Eastern point. The lighthouse is reached from Watego Beach, a small, slightly less busy beach, surrounded on both sides by rocky outcrops. Wandering upto the lighthouse, you really feel the sense of purpose as to why it was built there.
Looking around from the top is breathtaking. Out to sea, you can watch the dolphins playing in the surf and posing for any people in the water nearby. Looking back inland, we were greeted by the rolling green forests and grassland found in this lush area. Oh, and a hanglider. Look North and South, you see the beaches rolling on for miles in each direction, broken by the occasional rocky outcrop. It’s another place you could just stay and soak up the view, and never get bored of it.
Nightlife in the town is also, excuse this comment, but rather rocking. The Beach Hotel usually has live music on, and serves a good range of drinks and food. Generally the people are friendly in there, except for some little oiks (does that make me sound old?) who started fighting each other for no reason other than ‘He looked at me’. And then there’s the infamous Cheeky Monkey’s, a hangout and party venue for backpackers. One word of caution though, avoid the cheap meals as you eat off the tables that everyone dances on later that night!
One thing I haven’t mentioned up until this point, is meeting our good friend, Steve. A former traveller who made it to Australia, and then decided to stay there. It’s been more than 3 years since he settled in Sydney.
Byron Bay is a must visit place. You can easily spend a week here, and not get bored. We only scratched the surface as there’s so much to do here. One thing on my list for a future time is kayaking out to the cape to meet the dolphins. I can’t wait!
Links
April 7, 2006 1 Comment
Noosa, Australia
What can I say about Noosa other than it’s nice? It’s not the kind of place that really shines in any particular way, in fact, as far as I can tell, a lot of guidebooks don’t give it much of a mention - I know this as I’ve met several people who stayed one night as a stop off and wished they’d stayed longer, but no-one told them to.
It’s much like any other Australian town in so many ways. It has too many - and this still surprises me - of fast food places like McD’s, SubWay and kebab shops. There’s lots of pubs and working clubs. Backpacker’s are well catered for - I’ll come to that point in a minute. And there’s the surf and national park.
So, why did we decide to come back for a longer stay this time? Well, it’s just the niceness of the place. Sorry, that’s so feeble, let me expand on that. The streets are clean, open, generally friendly (apart from Dai being mistakenly accused of stealing some sunglasses - the accuser and the policer office both apologised a lot for that. We thought it was his topless limbo dancing t-shirt that people seemed to keep staring at). Most of the restaurants serve great food, although we stayed in such a nice place that we went for the self-catering option. The bars, again, are clean and friendly with a lot supplying live music.
Then we get onto activities, including Kayaking, surfing and, if you’re like me, walking. This time I made sure I explored the more Eastern parts of the town, including the beautiful National Park, and more upmarket suburbs. The centre piece of the park is a lookout from which you can see Noosa and along the coast to the next mountain range. But, the highlight for me - which I wasn’t expecting - was coming face to face with a Kangaroo! It’s the first time I’ve seen one (that’s not roadkill), and to see it hoping around free in the trees was simply awesome! It got my hopes up that I’d be lucky enough to see a Koala too, but sadly no luck this time. As for surfing, well, I can do that anyway, and besides, the waves looked a bit tame for my liking.
So, why mention the backpackers as a dark side to the town. Well, lets just say that Koala’s is in many ways a great place, and in others it’s a nightmare - well, the next day it is anyway. Cheap beer, great live music somedays, and the people… Oh, and it’s the first (of many) places that I’ve been asked for ID in (ok, so they did to everyone, but even so, kind of makes you feel your youthful looks shine through). We also ran into Steve from Fraser island, who is a bit of a dark horse on the dance floor.
We also took the opportunity to catch up on our washing. I think I heard several people go Eughh… at the meer mention of backpacker’s cleanliness habits.
But as I say, Noosa is a nice place to visit and chill out. I would recommend it, I’m just not sure how better to say why, other than it’s nice. Byron Bay and a weekend with our old school mate, Steve is next on the cards.
April 5, 2006 No Comments
Fraser Island and Hervey Bay, Australia
Hervey Bay… The gateway to Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand bank. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Hervey Bay, but I was dissappointed with it. My vision was of something akin to Byron, a small charming place, growing but still maintaining it’s small, village feel. What you get driving into town is row after row of shopping malls and retail outlets. Then, when you get to the quainter parts, the bit of life that was there, disappears from trace. It’s as if someone had a load of buildings, and decided they’d just dump them randomly all over the place! Besides the malls, there’s not one central area to the town but, infact, several. This makes finding somewhere to eat and drink challenging - assuming you avoid the rash of fast food chains that seem to afflict every town in Australia.
But, there is a plus side to it. We stayed in the Colonial Log Cabins, which is run by the YHA which meant we had clean rooms. But, being cabins, we also got TV and a great kitchen - which meant we weren’t quite so bored by the lack of things to do in town. Then there’s tha aquarium. A quaint little place with some BIG fish - one called Greg - and a tank with sharks and turtles in. The turtles were cool as they come right upto the surface to be stroked - but mind the neck as they bite! Wandering around town, there’s lots of bats, which all come to life at sunset and head off Fraser Island to feed. On a slightly tangent, we also went to the cinema to watch V for Vendetta, which I can’t recommend enough. Excellent film! (Not going to do a review of it though)
So, now comes the good part, Fraser Island. I won’t lie, no matter what I’ve read and seen, I just wasn’t expecting much from this place. My mistake! It was gorgeous from the off! At this point I’ll admit that we took the slightly soft option of going with an organised tour, Cool Dingo, which meant we got to stay in comfort in the evenings and not have to worry about food - just about everyone I met said they’d run out of food on their tours.
Arriving on the island our guide, TK (may have been TC though, akin to Top Cat fame), greeted us and directed us to the toughest looking bus I’ve ever seen! It was basically a cross between a lorry, a bus and a monster truck. This thing was awesome! As you can imagine, there’s no tarmac as such on the island - except in the resorts - so everywhere is sand paths cut through the trees. This means lots of potholes, hitting of overhanging trees, and basic motion sickness problems - not wearing your seat belt is a mistake! And the way TK drove it defied belief. Nothing, and I mean nothing could stop him or his machine. At one point, we helped a trapped 4×4 by ripping it out of the sand trap, almost removing the front of their car in the process. The driver of the other car looked visible shaken, while TK just laughed it off!
Our first stop was Basin Lake, formed in a sandbowl, and home to fresh water turtles. You get an idea of how fragile the eco system is on the island as you can’t apply suncream nearer than 15minutes before swimming as it affect the PH level too much. The water felt so good on your skin, and we had the whole lake to ourselves. Nothing like swimming in fresh water, and the depth was unbelievable - we couldn’t reach it, even with face masks on.
Next, we hiked through to Central Station, a former logging camp on the island, where we stopped for what can only be described as a banquet - there’s was too much food for us. Hiking further into the island along the Wanggoolba Creek, known as the silent river - water in here is around 150 years old as it takes that long to filter from underneath the sand. We were surrounded by the lush rainforest, one of the only places in the world where it grows in sand. On the way, a lizard also momentarily stalled our progress as it was over a metre long.
To finish the day, we went for a swim in Lake McKenzie, which felt more like a typical beach as there was a golden arc of sand around one side where visitors to the island lay idly sunbathing. Although another fresh water lake, this one didn’t impress as much as the number of people made it lose that feeling of isolation we’d felt earlier at Basin Lake.
That evening, after even more food - it’s almost worth the trip just for the amount and quality of food they give you - we visited the resort’s main bar, Dingo Bar. Now, to my surprise (and amusement), Dai, Eamon and Dan decided to do Karoke. Dai and Eamon I understand, but Dan… He hasn’t got a musical bone in his body, or so we’ve all been led to believe. I’m not sure if this is the effect of alcohol or not, but they were actually quite good (I have low quality video footage of it that will get posted at some point). Chris, you may have a rival as the Karoke king! I feel a sing off coming on…
Day 2 saw me being wished a happy birthday by the whole bus - thanks to Dan and Dai for that little wake up greeting. Our first port of call was to head across the island to Seventy-Five Mile Beach, where we were to drive - at the buses top speed - to the Maheno ship wreck (The Maheno’s story on ABC). Seeing that old ship, and how the sea had reclaimed it was astonishing. You could still see it was a ship, and imagine how it had looked, but everything had turned to rust, and been eaten through.
Moving on, we carried on along the beach to Indian Head. Climbing to the top, you get a dizzying view of the ocean below, and the Tiger Sharks circling the bay. Despite having one of the largest beaches in the world, you absolutely cannot swim off it as you will get attacked by sharks! We watched them swimming around below, and then spotted a feeding frenzy going on out to sea with seagulls diving in to grab any remnants that came to the surface, looking like a scene from a David Attenborough documentary.
Past Indian Head, we came to the Champagne Pools, the only seawater on Fraser Island that it’s safe to swim in. These pools are cut off from the sea by rocks, but waves routinely crash over into the pools. Several people were trying to be clever and stand on the rocks as the waves hit, and soon wished they hadn’t as they were hit with such force. To my surprise, there were also brightly coloured fish swimming around in the pools, carefully dodging the human intruders.
Heading back along the beach, we stopped at Eli Creek for a quick paddle and afternoon tea. The creek cuts a path through the trees and shrubbery, and is home to some well hidden fish and eels - although I only know this from Roger who swam along with his mask on (our surrogate Dutch person, who’s name Dan forgot and promptly renamed to Roger, which amusing stuck).
That evening, after the usual spine jarring journey across the island, we all headed to Dingo’s for my birthday drinks. The evening started with a few games of killer on the pool table, laid on by the bar, and involving free shots (the barmaid was trying to make a new drink, and we were the guinea pigs. Thankfully it was really nice, and there was a lot of it). Next up came drinking games, and once again, 7’s was highly effecient at catching out those with poor numeracy skills. We also played a few more involving coins and nominations, which oddly enough usual involved me drinking for some reason. The evening ended for me a 5 in the morning.
The final day… What can I say? Despite having my alarm next to my head - I mean a whole 10cm away - I slept through it, and we all slept through the phone ringing in the lobby of our cabin. Thankfully, the last day was nothing special on the tour, and our chilled out day exploring the rest of the resort and swimming in the resort’s pools, passed the day nicely.
Fraser was great, and if I ever get the opportunity, I would consider going back and probably doing the slightly tougher way of a self drive. On the downside, and you may have noticed a certain abscence from my ramblings, we didn’t see any Dingo’s which I was looking forward to. Especially after someone on the tour before us had seen one up close on the beach as it aparently ‘posed’ for photos. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back there…
Links
Colonial Log Cabins
V for Vendetta website
Cool Dingo Tour
The Maheno’s story on ABC