From what we can tell, the number one thing tourists tend to do while in Australia is underestimate it’s size. Before we got here, we were told by many not to do that, but we still can’t help but be in awe of just how big it is.
There’s a lot to report since our last update. We’ll start with our last day in Sydney in which we spent a few hours exploring Sydney’s Wildlife World. We were both impressed with Wildlife World and got the chance to see all of Australia’s creepy crawlies, rodents, reptiles and animals. Most memorably was the chance to get up close with some koalas. Here are some pictures from our “wild” experience…
Komodo Dragon with his forked tongue… how cool!
Mr. Croc…
***Shiver…
Sometimes I end up in less than ideal situations…
Cute, cuddly… and sleepy! Did you know Koalas sleep 18-22 hours a day?! Apparently it’s exhausting digesting eucalyptus.
Another sleepy bear…
Aus and I with the cutie-pies… (no, one is not sitting on his head, but it’s funny that it looks that way! HA!)
Since arriving in Oz, Austin has admitted that he doesn’t think much of these bouncy creatures. He finds them to be unsightly, sickly,and rodent-like. What do you think?
After our afternoon at Wildlife World we headed to the outskirts of Sydney to pick up our new ride. This time we picked up our Toyota Hiace Hi-Top campervan that we picked up through Traveller’s Auto Barn. It’s got a lot more space than our little Spaceship from NZ. We have a little kitchen and even Aus is able to stand up in the back. We have the choice of having a bed set up or a table with bench chairs. The versatility and extra space have been really convenient and we’ve been really comfortable in our new digs. Here’s a picture to help you envision our set up…
Enjoying a cuppa in the cruiser, currently with the bed setup…
We spent one night in North Sydney at Lane Cove River Tourist Park before hitting the road, heading north. Our goal for the first day was to hit Tiona and the Sundowner Breakwall Holiday Park, which is on a narrow peninsula and we thought would be a neat spot because it would allow us to see the sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evening. As evening set in, we were anxious to get to Tiona as we had been told it’s unsafe to drive in Oz from dusk to dawn because of the danger of hitting a kangaroo. We were lucky enough not to run into any kangaroos, but about 10km outside of Tiona we did run into two excessively drunk teenage drivers who drove around us, taunting each other, and even going so far as to run into each other a number of times and have a very scary game of chicken side by side, very close behind me, as we went around a blind corner. Austin and I were relieved when I was able to turn into the holiday park and get rid of the menaces who scared us half to death. However, when we turned into the holiday park, relief did not fully set in. As we looked around the place and noticed it was completely deserted, we started to feel like we were in one of those eerie and demented horror films. There was a car out front and lights were on and it looked as though someone was inside the reception building, but no one answered to our knock and ring. As we drove around the park there was not another soul to be found. The lighting and everglade, jungle-like surroundings certainly helped set the mood. We double checked the website and there was no indication that the park was closed for any reason. It was perplexing! Maybe we were just irked from the insanity we’d just experienced on the road, but instead of opting for a free night’s stay as our budget-aware travelling selves usually would, we high-tailed it outta there! We did manage to talk ourselves into getting out of the vehicle to take a couple shots of the pretty sunset before we burned rubber. Since we lived to tell the tale and didn’t get hacked up by any holiday park reception clerk, I guess those sunset shots are blog worthy…
We drove about 20km and after being turned away at one holiday park because they had closed their reception for the evening and didn’t feel like checking us in, we eventually found the Great Lakes Holiday park in Forster at about 7:30pm. As it turns out, luck was on our side. Great Lakes was by far the nicest of the holiday parks we’d considered for the night, and we felt completely safe! We had a great nights sleep and a nice lay in before heading out of Forster bound for Byron Bay.
We had planned to arrive in Byron Bay before dinner and had called ahead to a beach front holiday park that we looked forward to staying at. We had some trouble finding the place, and as we pulled up the girl at reception was heading home for the night and informed us that they were full, and had apparently given away our site for the night. Colour us not impressed! We begrudgingly headed out to another holiday park in town. Their reception was open, but unfortunately, they too were full. Here we go! We drove back out of town to a couple holiday parks we’d seen on our way into Byron Bay, but found them to now be C-L-O-S-E-D. As luck has it, it was also raining. We considered the possibility of a hostel, but when then ran into a parking predicament. We sucked it up and realized that our best option was to head to a residential area to park on the side of the road for the night. The price was right, but the amenities at the side of the road in the pouring rain were less than ideal, trust me. The next morning we woke up to more rain. We spent a couple hours by the beach having breakfast and then took another little walk around town getting wet before deciding that the no-place-to-stay and all-rain forecast for Byron Bay that weekend meant we were packing up and moving on. It’s too bad that we didn’t get the experience we wanted out of Byron Bay as everyone we know that’s been there, has raved about it. But unfortunately circumstances that were out of our hands somewhat determined what our Byron Bay experience was to be… and it fell way short of spectacular.
We decided to move on to Brisbane where we planned a meeting with the people at the Chinese Consulate to sort us a visa for our future visit. On our way to Brisbane we took an in-land detour to check out the infamous town of Nimbin. For those of you who haven’t heard of Nimbin, at one time it was the psychedelic capital of Australia. The beginnings of Nimbin’s reputation as Australia’s drug capital began in 1973 when a large festival, The Aquarius Festival, was held near the town site and a group of like-minded individuals decided to stay on and start a cooperative community. The formation of co–operative communities in Nimbin made legal history as the first ever application of group title ownership of land. Kind of interesting when you take the time to hear or read all about it.
It was approximately a one-hour picturesque drive to Nimbin through beautiful hilly countryside and forest. Notable was the presence of what has become my favourite tree, the Blue Jacaranda. They have a really pretty bluey-purple flower that grows on them that looks so striking in contrast to all the green. We’ve seen this tree all along our east coast drive in Oz and it was after our drive to Nimbin that I had to research what it was. I hope it grows well in Canada, because when I grow up and we have our own house like big kids, I want one in my yard.
When we did arrive to Nimbim we found that the town itself was small and the hippy, cooperative vibe was still present.
Here’s one picture we took inside the Nimbin museum.
And a picture of my new favourite tree (the Blue Jacaranda) on our drive to Nimbim…
After our tour of Nimbim we drove the rest of the way to Brisbane and checked in at the Brisbane Holiday Village and parked for the night and prepared our Chinese visa applications. Early Friday morning we headed into the city and after some chaos trying to find downtown parking for our 2.8m high campervan, we made it to our meeting. Once we were seen we were informed that we required a letter from the Australian government confirming that our Visas for Australia were still valid. This meant trekking a couple km’s down the road to the Australian government building to line up and wait to be seen. After two hours of waiting we walked out with the letter the Chinese required in order to have a complete visa application. We returned to the Chinese consulate and arranged to rush the process for an extra fee on top of the already exorbitant visa application fee, and arranged to pick up our completed visas on Monday morning. We headed back south to Surfer’s Paradise where we planned to spend a few days relaxing and rejuvenating while we waited for our visas.
Our weekend in Surfer’s Paradise was exactly what we needed. We had the chance to stop and smell the roses. The sun came out and we enjoyed having a home base for a few days. We lounged poolside and had a great evening out on the town on Saturday. We also took a few strolls on the beach to watch the surfers in action. Here are some Paradise pics…
This was as close as we got to surfing in Surfer’s Paradise…
The beach…
A body boarder back out to catch some waves…
During our evening out in Surfer’s we saw a Australian Aboriginee playing a Didgeridoo..
On Monday morning we headed back north into Brisbane and picked up our passports and visas for China. After we had visa in hand we hit the road with the goal of making it to Rainbow Beach where we could catch a tour to Fraser Island. On our way there was a MUST-SEE stop to make – a visit to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo! We spent four hours getting up close and personal with giant tortoises, crocodiles, Tasmanian devils, dingoes, tigers, elephants, kangaroos, koalas (even red ones!), bearcats, massive pythons, and so much more. Here are some picture highlights…
Of course… more koalas!
My favourite… the tortoises! They were HUGE!
That is one BRAVE lizard!
CREEEEEEEPY!
There I go, getting myself into trouble, yet again!
Another of Aus’s “favourites”… haha
A seriously beautiful specimen…
These tigers were raised in captivity and their handlers have been with them since birth. I guess that’s why they’re brave enough to do things like this….
I wonder if Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy feel this is safe… yikes! Either way, these cats could do some neat stuff… including unorthodoxly climb trees. Now that’s some training.
Next we saw a Cheetah. Wow!
The elephants were a hit for Aus, and his real favourite of the day…
You could see their personalities through their eyes… strange to call animals so big, cute. But they are!
Both Aus and I took a turn feeding Bimbo…
Andy, if you’re reading… look away! Next were the Pythons!
We couldn’t just look… we had to try one on for size! So cool!
We had a lot of fun at Irwin’s Australia Zoo… here we are showing our enthusiasm…
After our fun-filled afternoon at the Australian Zoo we hit the road and drove two hours north to Rainbow Beach. As I mentioned, Rainbow Beach was our jumping off point for our tour of Fraser Island. We were up bright and early Tuesday morning to catch our bus... and it wasn’t any ordinary bus, either. Because our tour of Fraser Island was exclusively on sand (as Fraser Island is made up of 98% sand), our bus was a massive 50-seater, raised, 4x4. We were pretty impressed with the way the driver manoeuvred through the traitorous island terrain. On our Fraser Island excursion we got the chance to explore an area of sub-tropical rainforest at Central Station, which was the site of a logging town until the 1930’s when logging was banned on the island. We also enjoyed a swim at the fresh water McKenzie Lake, where the water was crystal clear and the sand was really fine and almost powder white. We also visited the Pinnacles, which is an area of multi-coloured sand. Later we chilled out for a while at Eli Creek, which was like a natural lazy river. Our final stop was to look at the Maheno ship wreck. Our Fraser Island tour was a jam-packed day, but we were glad we made the effort to get out to see the island. Here are some snaps to help give you a vision of our Fraser Island tour…
Mackenzie Lake and the fine, powder-white sand…
Enjoying the beach on the east coast of the island…
The Maheno ship wreck…
Aus thought it was neat and gave it a thumbs up! Hahaha.
Last night we stopped two hours north of Rainbow Beach at the town of Childers, and stayed in a caravan park that doubled as a work camp for migrant workers in the fruit picking industry. It was a strange place and very weird to see young mostly affluent looking young people submit themselves to the type of conditions we saw… but I guess they need to pay for their flights home somehow, it’s just that they were treated like slaves by the lady running the place. It made me glad that we were not in that position, so I was thankful that Aus and I had saved in Canada for this trip, and also would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who contributed generously to our great adventure through their wedding gifts----you have enabled us to have the trip of a lifetime, so thanks!
We spent a few hours driving again today and have stopped in Rockhampton for the night and plan to continue our drive north tomorrow. Our plan is to get to Airlie Beach as quickly as possible so that we can stay put and chill out for the time we have left on the east coast. We have booked a flight out of Cairns on the 18th and will be flying to the west coast to spend a few days in Perth. Then our next step will be to fly from Perth to Bali, Indonesia. We can’t believe that almost two months of our awesome adventure has almost past, but we REALLY look forward to starting our tour of Southeast Asia!
That’s all for now for now folks. Hope you enjoyed. Love to all and until next time…
Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers
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