Sydney continued and Canberra

Tuesday 1 May . Since my last update I have been exploring lots of Sydney.

On Friday night I went to a classical concert in the Sydney Opera House concert hall. It was interesting to see the building from the inside. I was struck by the height of the hall and, unusually, my seat was behind the orchestra and directly facing the conductor.

The public transport system in Sydney is excellent and for about 20 pounds I have a week's pass to get around all the city and suburbs using buses, trains and ferries. I've spent some time just catching the ferries sight seeing around the extensive harbour area. I have also taken a few long scenic walks along the harbour from Manly, the sea front at North Bondi, passing through Bondi beach, to Coogee bay, and also Watsons Bay, which all provided spectacular views over the sea shore and harbour.

On Saturday night I met up with my snorkelling buddy from Hervey Bay, Steve, for a lively night's pub crawl on the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney where we located the oldest pubs and the cheapest beer in town before staggering back to my hotel over the Harbour Bridge in the early hours of the morning.

Despite the after effects of the night before, on Sunday morning it was a beautiful clear sky and Steve took me up in a light aeroplane for a fantastic 75 minute sight seeing flight with two loops over Sydney Harbour and flying along the North and South Beaches (including Palm Beach the location of Home and Away - whatever that is) and some of the Royal National Park to the South of Sydney before landing back at the airfield in the Western suburbs. My pictures do not do justice to the scenery and views but it was an experience I will never forget.

On Monday evening I met up with Sally Mills my distant cousin and her husband, Bob. I don't think I've seen Sally for about 40 years but as my mum is in regular contact with her parents and she is my closest known relation in Australia it was only right to make some contact. Sally has been in Austrlia for 17 years and runs, with Bob, a successful recruitment agency for 'digital' executives. It was great to meet her and Bob and have a few drinks in one of their local pubs, the Welcome, in the suburb of Rozelles . We also entered the quiz but we didn't do too well.

Today I picked up another hire car and I've driven down to Canberra and visited the Australian parliament buildings. Its totally different to London as you can just drive straight into the underground car park, park for free and get a free tour around every half hour.


This evening I went to see a great little Swedish film called "As it is in heaven" which is must see for anyone who enjoys, or like me would like to be able, to sing.

My stay in Cairns - revisited

My past is catching up with me! I've received a complaint from two friends, Gill and Georgie from Manchester, who I met on my last night in Cairns and hadn't mentioned in this diary. Maybe I was trying to forget.

Anyway , I haven't forgotten this night out at Jonno's Blues bar when after persuading Gill she could jive with me, Gill and Goeorgie were up doing their usual thing, line dancing, and, then (shock horror- would you believe it) air guitaring.

The musician/comedian stopped playing his guitar and asked Gill to either stop playing her air guitar, or tune it in properly! So Gill tuned it in and carried on playing in musical harmony. To which Georgie joined in on a 2nd air guitar The next thing, he announced that the Air Guitar Twins from Manchester were in town for the Air Guitar Championships and would be perfoming on stage. They were forced kicking and screaming (not) to the stage for their moment of glory! Here is one of the pictures I took. Gill and Georgie in the middle and the legendary Jonno's the one on the far right

Byron Bay to Sydney, via Newcastle and Blue Mountains

Thursday April 26th

I was sorry to leave Byron Bay on Tuesday but as always the journey is what counts. My plan was to drive to the Blue Mountains , approx 110km west of Sydney, stopping one night on a campsite south of Port Macquaire. My washing wasn't dry so improvised a washing line in the car which worked very well. On the way southward along the Pacific Highway the weather got worse and into the afternoon I was driving under dark skies and through torrential rain showers . I stopped at a tourist info office who told me that the bad weather was expected to last 2 days and that the Blue Mountains were covered in cloud and I wouldn't see anything until the weekend, by which time I was due to arrive in Sydney where I'd already booked my accommodation.

I decided to try and avoid camping and ring ahead to the Newcastle YHA and see if they had a single room available. Magic, they had and they saved if for me. I arrived at the YHA about 5.30pm and it was raining really heavy again. The good news was there was a free meal available for YHA guests at the local Irish Pub that evening and would i like to go? Well yes I would thanks! At 6.30 a posse of 25 young backpackers and me set off to the pub where we were duly served our fish and chips etc. I couldn't, of course, resist the Guinness to accompany it. It turned out there was a trivia quiz evening that night and I attached myself to a local ladies team, "the Muffins" who were hoping I had some knowledge of sport. Unfortunately for them geography is my specialist subject. But, happily they were very tolerant of my ignorance of Australian sports stars and it turned out to be a very amusing evening when I should have been shivering in my tent.

The next day, 25 April, was Anzac Day, a public holiday to commemmorate the dead and living war veterans of Australia and New Zealand, and it was still pouring. To get on the move early to avoid any road blocks due to processions I left the hostel at 7.30am. I drove down about 150kms to the outskirts of Sydney and the weather seemed to get better. I thought I'd take a chance and go to the Blue Mountains. As the altitude increased so did the rain and the temperature fell down to about 13C. I arrived in Katoomba there about 11.00am . The clouds were covering the mountains and there was nothing to see at the lookout points. I went to the campsite and they were reluctant to let me stay due to the amount of rain. So for the second time I decided to ditch camping and i rang ahead to my Sydney accommodation to see if they could fit me in a two days early, as I reckoned it would be better to be in Sydney in a museum than getting soaked walking without a view. Yes, they could so I then drove back to Sydney, and this time drove right over the Harbour Bridge, with the Opera house on the right, to the suburb of Kirribilli. on the North Shore. I quickly parked the car and dumped my stuff and set off to have look around Sydney, taking the ferry from just around the corner to the lodge over the harbour, between the bridge and the opera house. It was beginning to get dark so I made my way to the Opera House to have a look and buy a ticket for almost any concert that's available while I am here. More of that later.

After some dinner I made my way to some pubs recommended in Lonely Planet. These were full of people in uniform and/or with medal, young and old, as part of the Anzac day celebrations. The tradition for Anzac day is processions and remembrance ceremonies in the morning and then all down the pub for drinking and gambling in a game called two-up. Its not just the veterans who participate , its everybody who can walk or drink.

I settled on the 'Heroes of Waterloo' pub as the most hospitable and watched a local duo perform some good songs including my usual request for Bobby Mcghee. I then walked back over the Sydney harbour bridge to my lodge for a good nights sleep

Today, the sun was shining and I still had the hire car. So like the Grand Old Duke of York I decided to go back up to the Blue Mountains for a short day trip. It took me two hours to negotiate the Sydney rush hour and travel the 110kms but it was worth it for some impressive views. This afternoon I returned the car to the hire company. This was exciting, as I was allowed to return the car with an empty tank of petrol, and not to buy any more petrol than I had to, the petrol gauge was on flashing light for the last 20 mins while I got lost in the one way system. I was really worried about running out of petrol in the centre of Sydney and it was a huge relief when I found the hire office and handed in the keys, at least until next week when I will set off for on a four day trip to Melbourne. Before then I have few more days in Sydney.

Brisbane, Queensland, to Byron Bay, New South Wales

Sunday 22 April
On Friday I left Brisbane to travel to Byron Bay. As I haven't yet seen a Koala Bear on the way down I stopped at the Daisy Hill Koala Centre, 25 kms South west of Brisbane. The centre aims to promote Koala's in the wild and care for Koala's who have been oprhaned or are ill. They are the cutest things I've seen but they do have sharp long claws for holding onto trees. I regret I didn't get to see any in the wild but there were a few being well cared for in the centre. And I haven't yet seen them on any menu, which shows the Australians really are softees.

Around lunch time I arrived in Byron Bay, a very popular beach resort with a hedonistic reputation from the hippies and surfers who originally made it such a popular destination. The endless sandy beaches all around the area are the primary attraction. The town has been well preserved by the locals to retain its laid back character and charm, avoiding over sized, multi-storey resorts.

I promptly pitched my tent at a beachside camp site and took the walk around Cape Byron the most easterly point of Australia with its picturesque lighthouse located just outside the town. Last night I met a couple, Dave and Val, on the campsite. Dave is in the RAF and Val, a Breton, lives and works in Kent. They have been over to attend a family wedding and were spending a couple of weeks in a camper van before returning toUK. They generously (today they may say foolishly) invited me to go on pub crawl with them, which was a perfect preparation for today's activity. Being the last weekend of the Easter school holidays the town is busy and the bars and cafes are heaving with the music pumping. There's a real mix Australian tourists, backpackers and locals.

On Saturday morning I decided I better get my act together and plan some activities, not just travel from place to place. This culminated in this morning's early morning (no breakfast) trip to the local airfield for an awesome (local dialect for fantastic) tandem sky dive from 14,000 feet, out over the Bay landing back at the airfield. The freefall lasted about one minute and we reached 120mph. My intructor/life preserver, Steve, was the guy attached to my back and I can tell you I had to do very little. Try clicking on the link below if you want to see the video clip made of the dive.
http://www.realxstream.com?XStreamID=42175&Vid=1

The most distressing aspect to the whole event is seeing in the video how grey my hair has turned. I don't think that just happened today, but it may have contributed. Hopefully my Espley good looks will help me through.

Over the last couple of days in Byron I enjoyed the company of Ann, a local woman, I met through a backpackers website when advertising lifts to Sydney. As well as giving me the inside information on life in this part of Australia we've shared a couple of meals and walks and it has been a very welcome change to have good conversation with someone closer to my own age.

Brisbane

Yesterday I arrived in Brisbane for a 2 night stop. I'm camped on a site 4 kms from the city centre. Yesterday afternoon and today I've had look around and I'm quite impressed with what I've seen. yes its another modern city but there seems to something going on so I can see why people like living here.

Public transport is very cheap. I paid $5.20 (2.25 pounds) for an all day ticket for two zones . The city centre parks are very well designed and attractive and they give guided tours. They seem to be well used by the locals for keeping fit, exercising children and as social and educational meetings. The traffic is greater than other Australian cities I've visited.There are lots of attractive apartments overlooking the river.

I may have been positively influenced by the beautiful weather they're having. But they do have a severe drought problem.

Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

After a great steak and a few beers in Rockhampton on Satuday Night I drove down to Hervey Bay on Sunday and parked in a beach front camping site. What I hadn't realised as i checked in was the 20,000 parrots that lived above the tent and created seriously loud 'white noise' for several hours at dawn and dusk.

Monday morning I got up very early (no need fo an alarm with the parrots) and took a tour with 12 others to Rainbow Beach then onto Fraser island, famous as the largest sand island in the world and as a nature reserve. The trip must be is taken in a four wheel drive vehicle as there are no surfaced roads and the main road is the east coast beach, otherwise known as 75 mile beach, which gives you and idea of its length. The beach is also used by light aircraft as a runway to land and take off.

The coast line is beautiful, although you can't swim in the sea due to rip tides sharks, jelly fish etc. but we did have swim in a fresh water creek . However one tourist attaction is the remains of a wreck of a passenger ship which sank in 1930 when it was being towed to Japan for scrap

Overnight we stayed in cabins inland from the beach and played frisbee in a creek of 'black water', coloured by the roots of the tea eucalyptus trees, and said to be very good for the skin.

Next day we walked through walked through some rain forest and had another swim and sunbathe at a most beautiful freshwater lake where the white sand is the finest I've ever seen.

Today I've driven 300kms to Brisbane which I'm just starting to explore

Cairns to Rockhampton via Airlie Beach

Saturday 14 April

On Wednesday I collected the hire car in Cairns in order to travel down to Sydney. I'd ordered a small car but I was given a great big 3 litre Mitsubishi. I was hoping to find someone to share the trip. After one initial enquiry which came to nothing I got another phone call three hours after I'd left Cairns. Never mind, there are advantages to travelling alons The car is now my living room and the little tent I bought for about $50 (22 pounds) is now my bedroom.

The first stage of my trip to Sydney was to drive south approx. 350kms to Townsville. For a large part of the journey the scenery was large forested mountains and sugar cane fields. Townsville is popular coastal resort for sailing, especially taking trips to Magnetic Island, a large nature reserve. But I've forgone that to keep the journey on schedule. Nevertheless I had an interesting, if short, time in Townsville. I stayed in a cheap camp site on the outskirts of the town which had a fair no. of permanent residents. These may be characterised as the the less 'successful' element of Australian society. After eating dinner in the town I returned to the campsite for my evening cocoa and an early night.

In the camp kitchen I met three Australians called Lauren, Rowan and Dwayne who were preparing a barbeque dinner. Rowan and Lauren are temporary residents. Lauren, in her earley40's described herself as gypsy, never staying anywhere too long but always finding work, most recently as a plasterer, next as house keeper/ accommodation manager to a large construction site accommodation site.

Rowan is a skilled builder who left his home in Perth for a change and moving around, investing in property. I have the impression from this and some earlier encounters it is quite common for single Australians to move around for years. form job to job.

Dwayne is a young man (18) with Aboriginal heritage but living living permanently with his 'pop' (grandfather) of Scottish origin, and an Australian version of Alf Garnett. Dwayne is taking poorly paid work collecting supermarket trolleys and another job, and proud that he's not relying on the benefits system.

We had a good time drinking, eating Lauren's excellent BBQ and salad and discussing the state of Australia, the universe and everything, until Pop arrived and delivered his acidic take on his grandson and the world in general. After sometime Pop left with Dwayne and we continued to discuss what we had witnessed.

My first night in the tent was successful getting several hours sleep. Next day I packed up and went for made a daylight tour of Townsville. The best views were had from Castle Hill which gives views over the town, nearby military base and sea, including magnetic island.

I then drove on to Airlie Beach approx 400kms south and booked into a campsite on the edge of town for 2 nights. Having got my tent up I went to explore the town and get a haircut. Later I had dinner and tried the pubs and got talking to some friendly locals until midnight. During the night it rained but happily the tent did its job and kept me dry.

On Friday I went on a sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. The yacht, the Ragamuffin, won the Sydney to Hobart race on two occasions in the 80's and several other major races before being retired into tourist trips. It was a mainly sunny but windy day and the boat was skimming along at 45 degree angle with the edge of the deck touching the water. Once we reached Hayman Island I went snorkelling off the beach to see the beautiful coloured coral reefs and fish. It was a great day out.

Incidentally swimming in Eastern Australia is potentially hazardaous. If its not sharks, snakes or crocodiles there are box jelly fish which can sting and paralyse your nervous system. I do wonder about Austraila some times. To protect yourself from the jelly fish (which are very small and almost invisible) its advisable to wear a stinger suit , although the hands toes and neck are still exposed. I cannot quite work out the level of risk as on the one hand they say don't swim, then they say its Ok if you wear a suit.

Today I have driven about 500kms down to the of Rockhampton as half way stage to my next destination of Fraser Island. Rockhampton is a sizeable town known as the capital of beef because of the importance of the cattle industry in this area. So shortly I'll be trying a steak in the local hotel bar.

Adelaide to Cairns

In my short one full-day stay in Adelaide I chose to watch the international rugby 7's. It was a lovely warm day and England and Wales were both competing. The stadium, Adelaide Oval, was only a short walk from my hotel which was convenient. It was a good day out although watching Wales being hammered by the All Blacks wasn't comfortable. They played better against Australia but were still resoundingly beaten. Thank god they beat Hong Kong. And I was pleased to hear they won the shield or some such runners-up trophy the following day.

Although they had no trophy to take home, England were more successful with two Harlequins players, Danny Care and Charlie Amesbury, both scoring important tries in a great win against Fiji, the eventual winners of the competition.

Next day, Easter Sunday, I flew to Cairns where in tropical fashion it was raining and has rained regulalry since I arrived. To allow m my socks to dry, I went to a locals bar which led to a fun night of dancing and drinking ending up in the local casino, but I didn't gamble. I had no money left!

Since then its been a much quieter affair. Today I went on a long cable car ride (7.5kms) over the tropical rain forest behind Cairns and then a short touristy train ride. I probably haven't appreciated Cairns enough but I really appreciate that umbrella i bought in Malaysia.

Tommorow I pick up hire car and head south. Having bought a tent for my accommodation for the next two weeks lets hope the rain is less than tropical.

Alice Springs to Adelaide

Friday 6 April 2007
Since Sunday I've been on a six day trip to arrive here in Adelaide. The latest tour group of thirteen comprised 3 German blokes, 2 dutch( one of each) , two Korean guys and one girl (not together) one Swiss bloke , 1 Canadian girl, two English girls, the Kiwi tour guide, known as Kiwi, and me. This time I was the oldest by quite a few years, (even decades) but I managed to keep up even if i go to bed earlier. After the last two weeks getting up at 6am now seems a luxury. We've varied between 4am and 7am but that latter was the exception. And admittedly I am pretty good at falling asleep on the bus.
From Alice springs we travelled south and west to Kings Canyon, Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and a small mountain range known as the Olgas where we did some brilliant hiking. Uluru is no doubt the best known in Australia and to some extent suffers from tourist overload. The popular spots are the sunrise and sunset car parks where cars, coaches and trailers converge to watch the changing colours of the rock. It is allowed to climb the rock but the Aborigines , who own the land, prefer you not to, so I opted for the 9km base walk. I personally found the walk around the Olga more interesting due to the change of vista from a canyon into a view of mountains and then into a massive open plain. It gave me the greatest sense of an outback experience so far. May be because we also did it with out Kiwi leading.


After this section of the tour we moved further south to the strange tow of Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the Australia, if not the world. What makes Coober Pedy peculiar is that 70% of the people live under ground. Homes are carved out of the rock. the population is very diverse with 53 different nationalities trying their luck at making a fortune digging for opals. The temperatures can reach 50C although when we were there it was mere 29C. Our bunk house accommodation was also built under ground.

Talking of accommodation I've spent 3 nights sleeping outside in a swag. (That's a roll up canvas bag with a mattress sewn in, into which you put your own sleeping bag.) Even on the one or two quite cool nights I felt very warm and cosy while looking up into the moon and stars.

On the way down we stopped at a salt lake where they carry out explosive tests and the town of Woomera which used to be the UK/Australian missile and rocket testing base. Its still controlled by the military but much reduced in population from its hey day in the 60's.

In the latter part of the trip we went on various walks in the Flinders Range. the most impressive sight being the Mount Ohlsen Bagge, on the rim of the crater known as the Wilpenda Pound, approximately 500sq kms.
We've also seen more wild life since leaving Alice; wild camels, poisonous snakes, eagles, emus and of course, kangaroos.

Last night we stayed in a town called Parachilna, with a permanent population of 6, but popular with weekenders from Adelaide. The main features are the railway line which is used daily by a coal train, purported to be the longest in the world - a massive 186 trucks and 2.8kms long, which takes 3-4 minutes to pass by.

The other feature is the hotel bar where I had another enjoyable session chatting to some Aussie tourists, Kiwi and the rest of the group. And as the hotel sign says camel, emu and kangaroo are on the menu! Australia, the only country that eats its flag.

This afternoon we've arrived in Adelaide. I have the luxury of a ensuite bathroom for two nights before I fly to Cairns on Sunday to start another episode. Tomorrow I have to decide whether to watch the international rugby sevens at the Adelaide Oval , or look around the city. I'll let you know what I do.

Finally, thanks for all the comments I'm receiving. Keep them coming.