Cambodia Slideshow: Andy’s trip to 2 cities including Singapore was created with TripAdvisor TripWow!
Friday, 19 July 2013
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Back on the Road Again
Wow, it's been about 5 months since my last blog update, I've got so much to write! I meant to carry on doing it the whole time, but just never had a (working) computer, so I had to pay for any internet access, which made me a lot less inclined to write hour-long blog updates! I discovered in my last couple of weeks in Brisbane, that I could have been getting free internet in town anytime I liked, which is rather annoying! But never mind, I'll just give some limited highlights of my time in Brisbane and concentrate some more on the good stuff since I left!
I told you all about my yearly ticket to Dreamworld, which worked out to be amazing value, as I've now been 4 times! And also got Jess (from the OBP farm course I did), who I've been travelling with, in for half price on Saturday (saving her nearly $50!) I also saw most of the other essential sites around SE Queensland, including Australia Zoo - which was great, although not quite on the same level as Taronga Zoo (Sydney). I did, though, get to pet kangaroos, wallabies and koalas as well as feed an elephant! Which, when added to the tiger I got to stroke at Dreamworld(!) gives me quite an impressive array of exotic animals I've now petted, including (in order of appearance): wild African rock python, rhino, tapir, warthog, wild monkey, kangaroo, wallaby, koala, elephant, tiger and any others I've forgotten! There really wasn't a great deal more to do around SE Queensland, with Brisbane itself being notorious out here for having virtually no sights to see! Most days off were just spent on the city beach, topping up my now very impressive tan! The job was enjoyable, despite the fact that (for reasons known only to him) the boss never really trusted me handling the horses, to the point that he wouldn't even let me go into the yards with them to feed them. Although the foreman (Janaya, who arrived about a week and a half after me) and the guy from across the road (Clayton) were both a bit more considerate and gave me some more handling experience. I did get a bit of a pay-rise towards the end, with my boss putting me on a flat rate of $700p/w (which was at the top end of what I'd been getting on an hourly wage). He also then tempted me to stay for longer than planned by paying my $200p/w rent on top of that for (I think) 4 or 5 weeks, which was a great boost to the travel funds when I finally left just after Christmas.
The timing also worked quite well, as Jess's job also finished at about the same time, so she came up to Brisbane for about a week over New Year and we left for travelling together, as we both wanted to see the East Coast before getting down to Melbourne. Our first stop was the amazing Fraser Island for 3 days/2 nights, camping in tents on an Aboriginal campsite right near the beach. The tour, which we got down from an initial offer of $420 to about $320 each, was almost certainly the highlight of my time in Aus so far and probably my whole >6 months away! We stayed in Rainbow Beach (on the mainland) for 2 nights before the tour and one after the tour, which was all included in the price; which gave us a chance to both meet a few people beforehand who had already done it or were on the same tour as us and to chill with everyone from our tour (and get talking to excited people leaving the next morning) on the last night. It was a self-drive 4WD tour with a tour guide driving the lead car and the 8 people in each of the other 3 cars taking turns to drive ourselves, which was great fun - as it was all on sandy beaches (i.e. the single 75-mile beach!) or on bumpy inland tracks, with people's ipods blasting out over the speakers!
About the first thing of note was that we saw one of Fraser's famed dingos (one of the purest strains of dingo in the world), just driving along the beach about 10 minutes after getting off the ferry! Later on that first day, we went to the freshwater Lake McKenzie (which would have been improved by clearer, sunnier weather) before getting to know everyone over goon (cheap box wine) in the evening, which of course inevitably turned into a massive piss-up. The second day, with a horrible hangover, took us to the Champagne Pools in the morning - called this because of the way the waves crash over the rocks and bubble up in these beautiful saltwater pools. After this, we climbed up to Indian Head to look out over the cliffs with the typical incredible panoramic views of beach, stretching as far as you could see in either direction, also giving us views of sharks and a turtle in the water below us! After that, we went to Eli Creek, a (freezing cold) springwater creek that flows down into a pool at the bottom and watched an insanely drunk guy trying to kick/throw a rugby ball while his mates (and pretty much everyone else there) laughed at him falling over! After that, it was back to camp for tea and another goon-filled night before the final morning, when we went to the awesome Lake Wabby, another freshwater lake with a massive sand dune rising out of it (which is great fun to somersault down!) That was sadly the last stop though, and we got the ferry back to the mainland after stopping for lunch, allowing us a great view of the smoke rising from the serious bush fire around Brisbane!
So, after a great, chilled out night at the hostel in Rainbow Beach with all the amazing people I met on the tour, myself and Jess were on the coach back to Brisbane at 7.40am. Thankfully I'd not drunk enough to be hungover, but I was feeling quite ill all day and am pretty sure it was a minor bout of tonsillitis (which I'm still sort of fighting 4 days later). It turned out to be an awful day to be ill, as I had to get back out to my old house in the northern suburbs to drop off/pick up some stuff before going back into town to get the train and bus to our hostel in Surfers Paradise, which I'd already been to for a few days with my housemates (Fred and André) just before Christmas and enjoyed immensely. We got in at about 8.30pm and I just had to go straight to bed. I did feel much better in the morning though, after 12 hours' sleep and about 6 litres of water in the past 24 hours! Surfers wasn't quite as good the second time around (things rarely are!) but was still a very nice few days spent on the beach and of course the return to Dreamworld with Jess (as it's closer to Surfers than to Brisbane.)
We just got the coach down to Byron Bay today, with a very entertaining Welsh driver, and I've done basically nothing except sit in Wicked Travel on the internet! I'm in a different hostel from Jess here though, as she has booked a tour down to Adelaide through Peter Pan's (the same travel agents that we booked Fraser Island through, and who are just generally amazing!) which I couldn't afford even if I wanted to! But I prefer to just make my own way and do things at my own pace a bit more and so I have the opportunity to visit anywhere that the people I meet recommend along the way. My current plan is to get to Melbourne, via Nimbin (the Amsterdam of Australia!), Coffs Harbour, possibly Sydney and a couple of other places, by 25th January, so that I'm there for Australia Day (the 26th) and my birthday (the 29th) before starting to look for another job down there. I'm really looking forward to Melbourne, as everyone I meet seems to tell me it's the best city in Aus and just generally amazing. Made all the better by the fact that I've got a cousin and a couple of mates all in Melbourne already.
But I'm now well in need of some food and a drink, so I'll hope to keep up the regular updates again as I'm pretty sure I enjoy writing these more than you all enjoy reading them!
Lots of love from down under, and a happy Christmas/New Year to everyone!
Andy x
I told you all about my yearly ticket to Dreamworld, which worked out to be amazing value, as I've now been 4 times! And also got Jess (from the OBP farm course I did), who I've been travelling with, in for half price on Saturday (saving her nearly $50!) I also saw most of the other essential sites around SE Queensland, including Australia Zoo - which was great, although not quite on the same level as Taronga Zoo (Sydney). I did, though, get to pet kangaroos, wallabies and koalas as well as feed an elephant! Which, when added to the tiger I got to stroke at Dreamworld(!) gives me quite an impressive array of exotic animals I've now petted, including (in order of appearance): wild African rock python, rhino, tapir, warthog, wild monkey, kangaroo, wallaby, koala, elephant, tiger and any others I've forgotten! There really wasn't a great deal more to do around SE Queensland, with Brisbane itself being notorious out here for having virtually no sights to see! Most days off were just spent on the city beach, topping up my now very impressive tan! The job was enjoyable, despite the fact that (for reasons known only to him) the boss never really trusted me handling the horses, to the point that he wouldn't even let me go into the yards with them to feed them. Although the foreman (Janaya, who arrived about a week and a half after me) and the guy from across the road (Clayton) were both a bit more considerate and gave me some more handling experience. I did get a bit of a pay-rise towards the end, with my boss putting me on a flat rate of $700p/w (which was at the top end of what I'd been getting on an hourly wage). He also then tempted me to stay for longer than planned by paying my $200p/w rent on top of that for (I think) 4 or 5 weeks, which was a great boost to the travel funds when I finally left just after Christmas.
The timing also worked quite well, as Jess's job also finished at about the same time, so she came up to Brisbane for about a week over New Year and we left for travelling together, as we both wanted to see the East Coast before getting down to Melbourne. Our first stop was the amazing Fraser Island for 3 days/2 nights, camping in tents on an Aboriginal campsite right near the beach. The tour, which we got down from an initial offer of $420 to about $320 each, was almost certainly the highlight of my time in Aus so far and probably my whole >6 months away! We stayed in Rainbow Beach (on the mainland) for 2 nights before the tour and one after the tour, which was all included in the price; which gave us a chance to both meet a few people beforehand who had already done it or were on the same tour as us and to chill with everyone from our tour (and get talking to excited people leaving the next morning) on the last night. It was a self-drive 4WD tour with a tour guide driving the lead car and the 8 people in each of the other 3 cars taking turns to drive ourselves, which was great fun - as it was all on sandy beaches (i.e. the single 75-mile beach!) or on bumpy inland tracks, with people's ipods blasting out over the speakers!
About the first thing of note was that we saw one of Fraser's famed dingos (one of the purest strains of dingo in the world), just driving along the beach about 10 minutes after getting off the ferry! Later on that first day, we went to the freshwater Lake McKenzie (which would have been improved by clearer, sunnier weather) before getting to know everyone over goon (cheap box wine) in the evening, which of course inevitably turned into a massive piss-up. The second day, with a horrible hangover, took us to the Champagne Pools in the morning - called this because of the way the waves crash over the rocks and bubble up in these beautiful saltwater pools. After this, we climbed up to Indian Head to look out over the cliffs with the typical incredible panoramic views of beach, stretching as far as you could see in either direction, also giving us views of sharks and a turtle in the water below us! After that, we went to Eli Creek, a (freezing cold) springwater creek that flows down into a pool at the bottom and watched an insanely drunk guy trying to kick/throw a rugby ball while his mates (and pretty much everyone else there) laughed at him falling over! After that, it was back to camp for tea and another goon-filled night before the final morning, when we went to the awesome Lake Wabby, another freshwater lake with a massive sand dune rising out of it (which is great fun to somersault down!) That was sadly the last stop though, and we got the ferry back to the mainland after stopping for lunch, allowing us a great view of the smoke rising from the serious bush fire around Brisbane!
So, after a great, chilled out night at the hostel in Rainbow Beach with all the amazing people I met on the tour, myself and Jess were on the coach back to Brisbane at 7.40am. Thankfully I'd not drunk enough to be hungover, but I was feeling quite ill all day and am pretty sure it was a minor bout of tonsillitis (which I'm still sort of fighting 4 days later). It turned out to be an awful day to be ill, as I had to get back out to my old house in the northern suburbs to drop off/pick up some stuff before going back into town to get the train and bus to our hostel in Surfers Paradise, which I'd already been to for a few days with my housemates (Fred and André) just before Christmas and enjoyed immensely. We got in at about 8.30pm and I just had to go straight to bed. I did feel much better in the morning though, after 12 hours' sleep and about 6 litres of water in the past 24 hours! Surfers wasn't quite as good the second time around (things rarely are!) but was still a very nice few days spent on the beach and of course the return to Dreamworld with Jess (as it's closer to Surfers than to Brisbane.)
We just got the coach down to Byron Bay today, with a very entertaining Welsh driver, and I've done basically nothing except sit in Wicked Travel on the internet! I'm in a different hostel from Jess here though, as she has booked a tour down to Adelaide through Peter Pan's (the same travel agents that we booked Fraser Island through, and who are just generally amazing!) which I couldn't afford even if I wanted to! But I prefer to just make my own way and do things at my own pace a bit more and so I have the opportunity to visit anywhere that the people I meet recommend along the way. My current plan is to get to Melbourne, via Nimbin (the Amsterdam of Australia!), Coffs Harbour, possibly Sydney and a couple of other places, by 25th January, so that I'm there for Australia Day (the 26th) and my birthday (the 29th) before starting to look for another job down there. I'm really looking forward to Melbourne, as everyone I meet seems to tell me it's the best city in Aus and just generally amazing. Made all the better by the fact that I've got a cousin and a couple of mates all in Melbourne already.
But I'm now well in need of some food and a drink, so I'll hope to keep up the regular updates again as I'm pretty sure I enjoy writing these more than you all enjoy reading them!
Lots of love from down under, and a happy Christmas/New Year to everyone!
Andy x
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