AUSTRALIA - East Coast

SYDNEY

Very happy to be on the train again and it was probably just as nice as The Ghan. There were a few stops along the way including Broken Hill where we could actually get off and wander around the town. It was another warm one so we just had a short browse. In our opinion there wasn’t much to see anyway. It’s just an isolated mining town in the outback on the state New South Wales. The next afternoon we had finally arrived in Sydney!

The Indian Pacific, connecting the West to the East Coast

Examples of the street names in Broken Hill

We spent the first couple of days doing all the touristy things like checking out the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour. One afternoon we caught a ferry to Manly and on the way got to see the harbour and many of the islands in it. We didn’t go to the beach as it wasn’t very nice weather but instead did a bit of the scenic coastal walk starting from Manly Wharf. We did another suggested coastal walk from Coogee to the famous Bondi Beach which was gorgeous but busy as it was a Saturday. 

An overcast day at Darling Harbour

Sydney Harbour Bridge from a distance

A shot of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour from Pylon Lookout (a tower on the Harbour Bridge)

Our first ocean pool encounter along our walk from Manly

Made it to Bondi!

That evening Adrian caught a train to Melbourne so he could go check out the Formula 1. He linked up with a couple from Tasmania which took him around the venue which involved a two hour walk around the track. He was amazed at how fast the cars go and was happy he remembered to bring earplugs! Megan was nice enough to give him a place to crash for the night before he was back on a train to Sydney the next morning. I didn’t get up to much other than planning our next leg of travel and hanging out with some of the girls I was sharing a room with. Sydney worked out to be much cheaper than we had budgeted as our hostel was awesome at providing free meals and drinks or discounted meals and drinks at partner bars close by.

Adrian with an old school F1 car

On the track after the championship

BYRON BAY

After six nights in Sydney, we caught a train to Casino then transferred to a coach to take us to Byron Bay. Byron Bay is known for being a good spot to learn to surf and a chilled out atmosphere. I think a big part of this is because so many modern day hippies live there. We loved it and ended up staying a week. Not sure where the week went though. We did a lot of lazing around and beach bumming with our hostel about 50m from the beach. Never did any surfing although we did go boogie boarding a few times using the hostel’s free boards. 

One of the mornings we woke up early to catch the sunrise over the “most easterly point of Australia” which actually wasn’t really worth waking up for. So we went back to sleep and woke up later to start our walk to this point – Cape Byron. Taking our time I think we did the walk in about 3 hours walking through a mix of beaches and forest area. On our last day we tried out the quickly developing water sport of stand up paddle boarding. We had a private afternoon with our instructor on nearby waterways and got to see a bunch of wildlife including sting rays! Awesome way to spend our last afternoon in Byron. 

A shot of Byron Bay from Captain Cook's Lookout during our Cape Byron walk

Stand Up Paddle Boarding with some sting rays

SURFERS PARADISE

From Byron it was a short coach ride to the popular Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise. Once again we didn’t do any surfing although we did have good intentions the last day we were there but it rained the majority of the day. We actually didn’t do anything beach-y while we were there! 

The first full day we were there we decided to go up to the Q1 Observation Deck to get a good view of the city and learn a little bit about the area. The second day we booked a pub crawl for that night as we heard/read Surfers Paradise is supposedly THE place for backpackers to party. It was nice to meet new people and get to know the city a bit better but the night was lame. I think it was partly due to the fact Easter was coming up but most places were pretty quiet except for the people on the pub crawl. 

A view from the Q1

A couple days after the pub crawl we went to a waterpark called “Wet n Wild” which helped us get over the disappointment of that night. Sylvan Lake has nothing on this place! I think there were about 12 slides, a mix of body and tubes to go down in, and it took us all day to do all of them and only a couple twice. Soo much fun! 

At the "Tornado", one of our favourite slides

Our second last day in Surfers we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where I could be a tourist and cuddle a koala. But the place offered so much more than that. While it’s always better to see animals in the wild, we were excited to hand feed kangaroos, see wombats, Tasmanian devils, lizards, frogs, snakes and Adrian did a zipline/ropes course in the park. While we could have made our stay in Byron Bay a bit shorter, we felt like we could have spent a couple more days in Surfers.

Hanging out with Mama Roo and her joey

Adrian on the ropes course

BRISBANE

From Surfers we took another short coach ride to Brisbane. Our original plan was to stay in Brisbane for a day or two in order to go to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. But after looking into the costs of admission ($59) and transportation out there ($40-50), plus my photo with a koala ($40), we decided to opt out. Instead we spent one night and one day in Brisbane before the long haul up to Cairns. Brisbane was a nice enough city but we were happy with our decision to only have a day to explore. We wandered around the main shopping street in the CBD, took a free ferry service along the river, hopped off at the Parklands to check out the lagoon and walked back to the hostel just in time to gather our packs and head to the train station.

Story Bridge

Brisbane's lagoon

CAIRNS

After our last >24 hour train ride in Oz, we finally made it to Cairns! Cairns was at the top of our list for places we were looking forward to so we were pretty excited to be there. We booked a week but ended up staying 9 nights total. This was probably the best hostel we stayed at during our time in Oz. Clean, cheap, great staff and other travellers, and free or cheap upgraded meals every night. 

The first activity we did was the snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. The sun was out but the water was choppy. Quite a few people ended up getting sick on the way out, unfortunately including Adrian, but once we got to our first location he was fine. Our first stop was Michaelma’s Cay and the better of the two. Although the Cay can see up to 70,000 birds a day and it was definitely loaded that day, the water was clear and calm and the snorkeling was great! We were able to see some really colourful fish and coral, giant clams and a stingray. After a couple hours there, we boarded again, had some lunch and jumped off at the second location. 

Ready for some snorkeling at Michaelma's Cay

Giant clam

Adrian

Sting ray

The second place was on the Outer Barrier Reef and we were back to waves. It was pretty challenging to swim out to the Reef and stay in some good spots without getting pushed around by the waves and getting your snorkel full of water. Despite this, we still saw quite a few jellyfish (thankfully we hired stinger suits), more coral and no Nemo but Gill, a moorish idol. We would have liked to do more snorkeling but I guess ~3 hours is all we were going to get. The ride back was much more pleasant as we opted to sit in the front of the boat and the waves didn’t seem as bad.

Ahh jellies!

Gill from Finding Nemo

On the way back to Cairns

The next activity we were scheduled in for was skydiving over the Great Barrier Reef at 14,000ft. We woke up to rain in the morning so initially it didn’t seem promising. The dive kept getting put on hold and was eventually canceled for the day. As this happened I was getting more and more nervous and ended up psyching myself out. So Adrian rebooked for the Monday and I canceled. When Adrian did get to go on the Monday he said it was such an unreal experience. And comparing bungee jumping to skydiving, we said he preferred skydiving. He said I would like it but I didn’t think I would be ready for it. Maybe if we didn’t have to wait the first day with less time to think about it. The view wasn’t that great for Adrian as it was pretty cloudy but he still had an amazing time freefalling for 60 seconds and parachuting the last 4-5,000ft to land in a cleared sugar cane field where I met him. He got the photos and DVD package so you can see the photos below but you will have to see the DVD later. Absolutely hilarious the contorted ways his face gets pushed in to.

Freefall

Parachuting down

Landing

Our last activity around Cairns was heading North to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation (where the rainforest meets the Reef). We did this on a tour and our first stop was the Daintree River Cruise where we would hopefully spot some crocodiles! But by the time we set out on the boat, the rain was coming down pretty strong and all the crocs were hiding deep underwater. Still pretty thrilling to know you are cruising around in croc-infested water! We did end up seeing the tail of one (~3m long in total) when crossing the Daintree River via the vehicle ferry. We were also hoping to see a cassowary but that one never happened. Our second stop was a rainforest boardwalk where our guide showed us iconic trees, etc. of the area but it was pouring and hard to hear him so those 20 minutes weren’t too enjoyable. 

Starting out our search for some crocs

How bad it was coming down at the end of the cruise

Old and new trees near the boardwalk

We had our lunch in Cape Tribulation and had a chance to head down to the beach but it was still raining. It was actually raining so hard that when we left to start heading back, we had to wait for low tide so the water flowing over parts of the highway were passable. On the way back we made stops for ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream Company, Mossman Gorge for some aboriginal education of the area, a scenic drive through Port Douglas then back into Cairns. A fun and somewhat adventurous day but it would have been more enjoyable with better weather. 

How high the water was over the road

We thought we would let someone else try it before we did

Our ice cream on the go

Our last day in Cairns was spent getting ready for our flight to Singapore to start our SE Asia adventures. Australia was amazing and we really enjoyed our time working and traveling there but it was also easy and safe with the Canadian culture and lifestyle being so similar. We are now looking forward to experiencing completely different cultures and ways of life. We expect there to be some major challenges along the way but we are almost looking forward to those, being pushed out of our comfort zones and learning a lot. About ourselves, each other, what we can tolerate, what we can bring into our lives…SE Asia here we come! 

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AUSTRALIA - Red Centre & Adelaide

Our time traveling Australia has come and gone so quickly! Hence why we haven’t posted a blog update for a while. We do apologize for this and appreciate the accountability we have got from some people, wanting to know we are okay and what we have been up to.

We spent the five and a half weeks in the Centre and the East Coast of Australia and we are now currently in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. Because there is so much to catch up on, we have divided this update into a couple parts.

MELBOURNE TO ADELAIDE

 

We spent our last night in Melbourne, our home of nine months, with our friend Megan visiting and playing Dance Central. A fun time but sad to say see ya later. Unfortunately our whole night wasn’t as enjoyable. Once we returned to our hostel for the night (we couldn’t check out of our rented place on the weekend) it was like walking into the twilight zone. Our room was cluttered, stinky and right beside the main street with all the nightlife action. We already had a couple sharing a bottom bunk but even with them aside it was overbooked. We encountered two people that got bed bugs but chose to stay at the hostel. The upstairs kitchen was packed with drunken backpackers smoking cigarettes and weed. Sure there were three festivals going on that weekend but that’s no excuse for the state of the hostel.

Needless to say we weren’t well rested for our travel day to Adelaide but I was thankful we were traveling by train which would be comfortable to nap on to recover from the night. 

We decided to travel the country by train because 1. It was actually the cheapest transportation option and 2. We thought it would be a relaxing way to get around.  Soo happy with our decision. It has been a great way to see the landscape, very comfortable with lots of legroom and reclining seats, and we were always able to travel on the days we wanted to (pre-booking the Centre, Adelaide and Sydney) as these services only traveled once a week).
 

We arrived safe and sound in Adelaide that evening. We only stayed there for the night and would be off again the next morning to Alice Springs but back again for a long weekend after our tour in the Centre. So we were excited when we found out that March is actually the best month to visit Adelaide with the Fringe (second largest in the world) and a few other annual festivals on. The evening was spent having supper, showering and heading to bed early in our clean and comfortable beds.

The train that operates from the south (Adelaide) to the north (Darwin) is called The Ghan and the entire line was actually only completed in 2004, believe it or not. It was such a relaxing and comfortable 24 hours. From the train we were able to spot an emu and kangaroo in the wild before a beautiful outback sunset.

Boarding The Ghan, over 700m long!

Outback sunset

  

ALICE SPRINGS / THE RED CENTRE

We arrived in Alice Springs around mid day to a hot dry temperature of 33 degrees with a max for the day of 36. Once we settled into our hostel we had a walk around town but just a short one because the heat was absolutely exhausting. Not to mention there wasn’t a very good vibe with barbed wire at the tops of most buildings’ and houses’ fences and walls and the separation and hostility of the aboriginals still very prominent. 

At the Alice Springs train station

Our hostel, Annie's Place. Notice the barbed wire I made reference to.

The main street in Alice Springs, Todd Street

DAY ONE - The next morning we were picked up from our hostel just after 6am for the start of our 3 day tour to the “Red Centre” (Uluru [Ayers Rock], Kata Tjuta [The Olgas] and Kings Canyon). After a couple pit stops our first official stop was at a camel farm. We thought it pretty odd until we learned that camels were brought over from the Middle East long ago to be used for carrying supplies while traveling in the outback and now Australia supposedly has more camels than the original places they came from. So we went for a short camel ride before continuing on our way. 

The sunrise we experienced while waiting for our tour bus to arrive

Ready for our camel ride

After that there weren’t any significant stops until lunch around 2pm. Once we cleaned up we had a bit of a wander around the cultural centre before starting our educational walk of Uluru at 3pm. Not the best timing on the tour’s part as this was the hottest part of the day with a temperature over 36 degrees. We were given the option of doing a shorter or longer walk around the base of Uluru but not a climb. Not only are you asked to respect the local aboriginals’ wishes and appreciate the sacredness of the Rock by not climbing but we wouldn’t have been able to anyway because you cannot climb when the temperature is over 36 degrees along with some other factors.

Where the climb begins

Overall view of Uluru. An actual photo Adrian took but it looks fake, doesn't it?

I opted to do the shorter walk while Adrian did the longer one. I was exhausted by the time I reached the bus while Adrian was just a bit hot and tired. I ended up getting heat stroke so the rest of the night was not enjoyable for me but I tried to take in the Uluru sunset as best as possible. I always have the photos to fall back on although they don’t really do the Rock justice in its magnificent existence. 

Uluru sunset - looks at all the beautiful reds and purples!

We camped that night and slept in what the Aussies call a “swag”. This is essentially a canvas sleeping bag with a bed roll inside. Pretty comfortable but a bit unnerving knowing what creepy crawlies could potentially be around you.

DAY TWO – started  just after 4am in order to have breakfast and get our spot in time for the magical sunrise over Uluru and the Olgas. It was absolutely beautiful but would have been a lot nicer with less people, or ideally with no one but the two of us. Still recovering from heat stroke and Adrian with his blisters, we took it easy this day only doing a shorter walk through the Olgas and stopping briefly to look at the massive salt lakes on our way to Kings Creek, our camping destination for the evening.  At this campground we had a big fire pit in the middle with everyone’s swags circling around it. It was nice to be able to take in the beauty of lying under the stars before falling asleep, heat stroke free.

Uluru sunrise

The Olgas

Adrian making the fire for the night

Getting ready for bed in our swags

DAY THREE – Another early start of 5am where we had a bit of a breakfast then we were on our way to Kings Canyon to begin the walk before it got too hot. We started the walk with a hill known as the “Widow Maker” and then continued onto the beehive looking natural structures. Halfway through we took a dip in a swimming hole near the “Garden of Eden” and laid over the edge of part of the canyon to look below. The rest of the walk was pretty quick as it was starting to really heat up. We went back to Kings Creek for lunch then began our drive back to Alice Springs. Overall, we were a bit disappointed with some aspects of the tour but still really enjoyed and appreciated the magic and sacredness of the “Red Centre”.

First part of our walk around Kings Canyon

Hanging over the edge for a better view ;)

ADELAIDE

As the train only leaves Alice Springs to go back to Adelaide once a week, we opted to take the Greyhound back instead of waiting around. The bus was brutal compared to the train! Minimal legroom which resulted in swollen legs and cankles, smelly and loud people, expensive stops for food and sleeping really wasn’t an option for the 21 hour trip. The one stop off I was looking forward to was Coober Pedy, where we had some extra time to look around and stretch our legs. Coober Pedy is known for its opal mining and hot weather so there are many houses and business underground. I was hoping to check some of them out but instead, as soon as we got out of the bus it began to rain like crazy! The rest of the bus ride was damp and like just mentioned. We definitely became train snobs and were so happy we had the train booked for our next leg from Adelaide to Sydney.

Adelaide was fun because it was the long weekend and Megan came out to join us in taking part in the city’s activities. The first night we checked out what the Adelaide Fringe Festival had to offer. Such a bizarre artsy festival but so different and fun! We spent most of our time in the “Garden of Unearthly Delights” which had different circus, comedy and music acts, a freak show, and loads of clothing and food stalls. The next day we went on a wine tour through the Barossa Valley with Megan, her roommate Dave and his wife Heather.  Beautiful day, great company, lovely wine – no complaints from us! The third day we decided to check out the local beach, Glenelg. A good day to do it as the temperature was around 35 degrees. Megan flew home that night and we caught the “Indian Pacific” train to Sydney the next morning.

People lining up for the "Freak Show" at the Fringe

The gang enjoying our wine at our second stop

The three of us at the Glenelg pier