BRISBANE:
We checked into ‘Aussie Way Backpackers’, a cool little hostel in an old
‘Queenslander’ house (a wooden traditional layout building). After settling
in, we headed out to explore the city centre, riverside and Queen Street mall and
took advantage of the free public Wi-Fi out and about, even in the little green
parklands, how very civilised! That evening we dropped into the local Woolies
supermarket across the road and picked up some stuff for tea (yes, including
the habit forming Tim Tams – we are working our way through each and every
flavour combination they have, I blame Jade for my weight gain!). Back at the
ranch we cooked in their little kitchen and watched a bit of telly (caught up
on ‘’The Block’) and crashed for the evening.
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| Aussie Way Backpacker - A queenslander |
Next up, we headed to the Queensland Museum, an interesting way to spend
a couple of hours learning a little about the natural history and cultural
beginnings of the state and then grabbed lunch in the city centre. We spent the
rest of the afternoon chilling out on the south bank of the river in the park
soaking up some sun along with a lot of the student population.
En route back to the hostel, the plan was to pick up some nice things
for dinner, these plans were foiled however, as the supermarket had closed at a
crazily early time that day (something to be aware of if you come to Oz,
opening hours for shops and food places may not be when you expect them) so we
ended up getting a couple of takeaway dishes from a shop down the road with an
offer on, it sounded too good to be true and it was! I had a plastic carton of
spaghetti in some sort of sauce – obviously not as good as I make it but it was
OK-ish for me, however to this day I have no idea what Ana got, I think it was
supposed to be lasagne but even after finishing it off (after Ana couldn’couldn't stomach any more) I couldn't tell you what it was!
Another run the following morning, this time fuelled with whatever beige
goodness we had consumed the night before, a longer run this time taking
separate routes, it is proving a great way to get out and explore a new place
and see some new sights that you might not otherwise see. I reckon I wasn’t to far off 13 miles by the time I’d finished! After our run and brekkie, we sought out the
local ‘city hopper’ ferry. A free hop on hop off ferry service that takes you
from one side of the city centre to the other, or it can turn into a free
afternoon cruise to see the city of ‘Brizzy’ from new angle as it did for us,
passing under the Storey Bridge and by the Naval museum and other interesting
landmarks.
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| River shot of Brisbane, that boat you seen is the CityCat, it is not free.... |
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| The little rickety City Hopper ferry however, is! |
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| South bank of the Tham...no, sorry,, the Brisbane River |
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| The Storey Bridge |
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| Old tug boat by the naval museum |
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| And the Brizzy skyline - uh-oh, looks like rain |
Apparently, pies are the thing to eat around these parts and so, never
needing to be persuaded too hard to eat a pie (or all of them), we ducked into
the nearest ‘Pie Face’ (does what is says on the tin. Put a pie in your face) and
I ordered a pie ‘stack’ which involves taking one tasty steak pie, putting it
in a cardboard box and layering it with mash, mushy peas and gravy. A taste
experience not to be missed! More shopping, particularly in the Kathmandu which
has a permanent sale on in Australia by the looks of it, with the knowledge that
we still have some cold places ahead of us I spied out a thick Jumper reduced
by 75% and some branded thermals for less than 10 quid – bargain.
The following morning we boarded our bus out of ‘Brizzy’ on to the next
destination, the old hippy town of Byron Bay. It’s hard to put my finger on it,
but even in the short couple of days we have been here – there is something I
really like about Brisbane. Maybe because I think I could live here….I won’t
though, we are still defo coming back!
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| A 'stacked' Pie Face pie. |
BYRON BAY
We were dropped into Byron bay in the afternoon and walked the short
distance to Aquarius backpackers, a really large hostel set up for the younger partying
kids! Massive kitchen, large bar with pub quizzes and karaoke nights, etc and
we were tucked into a private double room at the end of a 12 bad dorm with a
shared bathroom in the dorm itself, a weird layout but worked for us! We checked
in and paid a hefty deposit for sets of crockery, cutlery, tea towels, etc with
the clear advice of how much each items would cost if lost or broken, nice! We
made ourselves comfortable in the double room and then heard a new intake of
youngsters who all arrived together, it was a bit weird overhearing their
discussion including – what’s that door over there? Lets have a look….Knock,
Knock. So we opened it up and startled them a bit I think! The oldies in the
corner room, they told us to let them know if they were being too loud (they
already were – bah humbug).
We walked into town, it’s a very small, compact place had a little
explore and made our way to the beach, Byron Bay really does have a hippie vibe
that it is famed for, it has notices up encouraging busking and some very cool,
relaxed looking people hanging around. As a tourist hub it was also full of
teens trying to join in and be part of the chilled vibe by not washing, wearing
dreads and buying brightly coloured baggy hemp trousers but we have seen them
all over the place, not just here and you learn to tune them out! Bryon is a
pretty place with amazing beaches and views, that evening we walked to a local
beach with a lookout over a popular surf beach and we watched the real expert
surfers catching waves taking them all the way into shore from a hundred metres
or so out, it was great to see and I had real surf envy!
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| A stroll along the beach at Byron Bay, great views and some awesome surfers (they're round the corner - not in this shot)! |
Afterwards we stocked up on supplies for dinner and headed back to the hostel to cook a lamb chop extravaganza, drank our complimentary welcome cocktail (Ana drank hers too - I think she is converting back to booze!).
I had the running bug when I got up the next morning despite the weather
looking pretty rough so I ran from the hostel back up to the lighthouse in
pretty miserable drizzle and by the time I reached it was pretty cold and wet. I ran over the top and down the hundreds of steps to the easternmost point
again and as a reward spotted a whale really close into the shore spouting, it
was great to see it so close, I spent a few mins down there and turned to head
back. Near the lighthouse again there were a mother and her toddling
daughter stood still looking into a bush so I slowed down to a walk so as not
to disturb whatever they were watching (any excuse - I was knackered!). As I got a bit closer there were 2 wallabies
maybe a meter away in the bush just sat there staring back at the 3 of us – it
was great to see them up close and they seemed quite comfortable just staring
back, after a couple of minutes I continued on and the heavens really opened
leaving me soaked through and squelching back to the hostel. Worth every sodden footstep it though for the animal encounters!
We walked up again later that day and spent the afternoon whale watching and dolphin spotting too - it was great to just see the animals doing their thing, the dolphins were messing around and surfing into the shore in a large group then heading back out to do it again.
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| Looks better in the sun (The lighthouse!) |
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| And even better if you cut off that roadworks bit at the bottom! The camera never lies. |
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| A wave, I think it looks cool! |
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| Ana took ages to take this, she kept saying wait, just one more... |
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...I think she was trying to drown me, it missed - just!
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| Theres a dolphin! |
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| Oh, look, there are more..actually there were about thirty more who came along after this photo! |
The following day, Ana and I went for a run together – back to the lighthouse
again! (it's probably the best place to run or walk to in Byron Bay), no freezing rain today but no wallabies either, we did head to the
lookout point again and hung out watching the whales for a few minutes before
returning. Just as we turned to leave, I looked back at exactly the right time
to see quite a small whale completely out of the water in profile with its tail above his head and watched the whole
body crash back into the sea with an almighty splash. When I had turned round the
whale was already in mid-air so I only saw it for a second or so but a sight
like that imprints itself on your brain!
Later that evening we had arranged to meet up with Alondra (yes, someone
else we met on our trekking around the Annapurna circuit!) Alondra (originally
Chilean) had recently moved from the US to Australia with her husband Dov. We
had planned to head out to dinner together and Alondra and Dov told us about a Hare
Krishna meeting place where people are welcomed and fed by the Krishnas. Dov
drove us all there and we ate a hearty meal amongst the
community and had a chat and catch up with them both whilst tucking in to a free dinner (who said there was no such thing?). It was a quirky and fun
evening and we saw some of the prayers in the Krishna temple afterwards too. A good time – thanks guys!
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| Alondro and Dov - Thanks for a fun time guys. |
Next day I had planned to hire a surfboard and hits the waves just like
the experts we had been watching the other night whilst the experience on the
Pollard’s Malibu was still in my muscle memory! I headed into the hire shop and
the guy behind the counter in a typically straight Aussie fashion told me the
surf was crap and I had better wait until tomorrow. Good on him, he actually
talked me out of hiring the board…
Later, we met up with Alondra and Dov again at a coffee shop Alondra had
recommended and we had a catch up and went our separate ways, them back home
and us to the bus station to catch our onward bus further down the coast to
Port Maquarie…
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| Bye, see you again! |
PORT MACQUARIE
Picked up by Colin (a Scottish guy working at and essentially running the hostel) he was a great guy, very social and a fountain of local knowledge for a young lad (well compared to me anyway!). Taken back to PM Backpackers – couldn’t
be more different to Aquarius a smaller more homely hostel!
Colin whisked us straight off to see the large group of Eastern grey kangaroos (not sure what the collective known is - a hop or a bout of kangaroos?) He was quite excited to show them off and spent quite some time explaining how they were always there and he could 100% guarantee they'd be out to watch. They may have heard him as when we turned up there was only an empty golf course!
For about 20 mins we scouted around with our eyes peeled and really just
saw a lot of ocean, I was starting to say to myself that you can’t promise that
you will see wildlife and that the experience had been fun anyway when someone
spotted a whale in the distance and the boat set after it and slowly glided in
closer as we approached.
There are very clear rules about how to approach the whales depending on
whether they are on their own or with calves and which side to approach and at
what speed etc, I can imagine that whilst this is to avoid stressing the whales
that it also serves to protect the boats from a startled 75 ton whale
retaliating to an unwanted presence – you do not want to pee off a whale in a
small boat!
Difficult to take photos too – just watch they whales or you will end up missing the
whales and taking a lot of photos of the sky or the sea if its a bit rough! We saw a few different groups of whales, all quite small but just seeing the huge hulk of a whale surface a couple of metres away and hearing the rush of air as it prepares for another dive is an incredible experience.
Note to any potential travellers reading - it is considerably cheaper to do this here than in Byron or further north - Almost a third of the cost in Port Macquarie (about 40AUD pp)!
Later that evening we went out for a walk and got lost a bit around the
local lakes, lovely evening and nice walking trails. No Koalas, or drop bears,
a few scribbly gum’s though – my new favourite tree!
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| Getting lost by the lakes |
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| Not even on the path anymore! |
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| I love Australian names for things - they are very direct, the scribbly gum tree close up is covered with zigzag scribbles like a child has drawn on the tree - the result of a moth larvae I think eating its way back and forth |
Our last long haul bus in Oz the next
day so we stocked up on supplies at the local supermarket. The next morning at
5am we boarded the bus to the big smoke – Sydney. This
month seems to be whizzing past far too fast – argh!
See you in Sydney!
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