26th & 27th February 2010 Friday was spent just relaxing, watching TV, doing our washing in a proper front loading washing machine (which seem to be rather rare here) and checking out the shopping mall (very nice!). It was so nice to be in a home chilling rather than a hostel that we took full advantage and were very spoilt with superb barramundi for tea and quite a bit of wine. ...
25th February 2010 This small coastal town is basically the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. It is full of backpackers tripping into town to embark on the mandatory Whitsunday cruise. We sat for a while enjoying the view before the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos came down to the balcony, obviously expecting some food. Since they didn’t get any they set about destroying the small table on the balcony instead. ...
1st & 2nd March 2010 Monday morning’s weather report said that Queensland has had the wettest summer on record, hmmm, perhaps it’s something to do with Welsh visitors bringing their rain :D. Tina very kindly dropped us into Brisbane to collect a hire car to go out to the coast where we’ll be staying with Aunty Mary for a few days before flying out to Singapore. Back out at the Gold Coast, Ed couldn’t wait to re-aquaint himself with the pool, even though it was starting to overflow with all the rain, which was still falling. I jumped in, but it was much too cold for anything but the quickest of dips! ...
3rd March 2010 We had a visit from Nathan and Sofia this morning, so chance to catch up with what’s been happening in the Morris household. A family outing to the Ferry Road Markets for lunch where we enjoyed the freshest fish and chips we’ve had for a long time with the fish cooked to order from the market’s fish counter. Yum Yum. Back at home and all the adults were feeling decidely sleepy with full tummies, but Sofia had other ideas and a fascinating game of hide and seek ensued. She hasn’t quite got the idea yet and kept on calling out to Nathan telling him where she was hiding. Very cute. ...
24th February 2010 We had always planned to do at least part of the train journey between Cairns and Brisbane and had booked this thinking we were on the famous Sunlander train. However, when we arrived at the station today it turns out we are on something called the Tilt Train. None of the lovely lounges and bars that feature on the Sunlander which was something I was particularly looking forward to. ...
28th February 2010 More rugby this morning, it’s been so good to actually see some Six Nations and with Wales being beaten by France, I was at least happy to see that Ireland beat England too. Then we went out for a ride to the Scenic Rim area. This is a picturesque area of South East Queensland which encompasses some small country towns. It is also a region where there are a few wineries to be explored. ...
20th & 21st February 2010 With yesterday’s very early flight, most of the day was spent just relaxing, catching up on emails and blogs and sleep. We didn’t venture too far from the hostel due to the varying quantities of rain falling from the sky during the day, ranging from light to torrential. Cairns is very much a base for exploring the Great Barrier Reef and areas of far north Queensland such as Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas, and the inland rainforests of the Atherton Tablelands. Tourism is its main industry and it is very much a city about doing, rather than seeing with few monuments, natural or otherwise. ...
23rd February 2010 We awoke this morning to more rain, but were determined to take the bus to the Botanical Gardens regardless, after all, as the guy in the hostel said to us, when better to witness a rainforest, than during the rain. The gardens consist of a collection of tropical plants of both native and exotic origins. Among the attractions are a fernery and orchard house along with palms, bamboo, tropical fruits and flowering trees shrubs and vines. These presented a fantastic display, lush green, dripping with water and quite different from the other botanic gardens we have visited on this trip. We were surrounded by plants which quite often we have seen in greenhouses in other gardens, or houseplants back home. ...
22nd February 2010 The Great Barrier Reef is arguably one of Australia’s most famous tourist attractions with hundreds of boats visiting it every day of the year. The reef stretches from Bundaberg some 2300kms to New Guinea following the outer edge of Australia’s continental plate. The reef runs closer to land as it moves north and is barely 50km from Cairns. Far from being a continuous, unified structure, the nature of the reef varies along its length; the majority is made up by an intricate maze of individual, disconnected patch reefs which sometimes act as anchors for the formation of low sand islands known as cays. ...
19th February 2010 Every year on 19th February the city of Darwin pauses to mark one of the most significant moments in Australia’s history, the Bombing of Darwin by Japanese Imperial Forces on 19th February 1942. It was on this day that the first of at least 64 air raids on Darwin and the Top End commenced. Sadly, many perished during these attacks. This morning we attended the commemoration service which started at 9.58am with the sounding of the air-raid sirens as they did 68 years ago. This was followed by a re-enactment by Defence Force Personnel along with a fly past of FA 18 Hornets. Anyone who didn’t know what was going on would have had quite a fright what with the sirens, then the gun fire, then the planes flying over! ...
17th February 2010 The capital of the Northern Territory, Darwin feels like quite a modern, prosperous city. This is probably due in part to the fact that most of the city has been destroyed on a few occasions, firstly by cyclones in 1897 and 1937, then by Japanese air raids during World War II and the last time on Christmas Day in 1974 when it was devastated by Cyclone Tracey. All the armed services have bases in the vicinity of Darwin and personnel for these services make up a good percentage of the population. ...
18th February 2010 One of our aims on visiting Darwin was to try and get out to Kakadu National Park. We knew we would be limited in what we could do and see out there because we are here during the wet season and vast swathes of the park are under water, but we managed to find a reasonably priced day tour by coach which did the Yellow Water cruise, something we were quite keen on. ...
14th & 15th February 2010 After our 5 days in the outback we spent the whole of Sunday just chilling, catching up on some sleep, getting clean and getting our clothes clean, venturing out just for food. Monday was our last day in Alice Springs and the morning was spent checking emails and booking accommodation, travel and tours for the next stage of our trip. We were leaving for Darwin that evening and would need a hotel for Tuesday night. ...
16th February 2010 We both had a much better night’s sleep than on our previous Ghan journey with room to lie down and the train rocking us gently to sleep, before we knew it we were awoken by the train manager announcing the first breakfast sitting (for gold and platinum customers). Overnight we passed through the remote mining town of Tennant Creek and were well on our way to Katherine where the outback meets the tropics. The landscape had become even greener and there were loads more trees and pools of standing water. ...
9th February 2010 Up before the sun this morning to meet the 4WD tour bus which was to take us on our five day outback tour. There are 16 of us on the tour in all and what a mixed group we are, British, German, French, Swiss, New Zealanders, Dutch and of course our Aussie tour guide Paul. So, off we set towards Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Our first stop was the camel farm at Stuarts Well. Australia is the biggest exporter of camels in the world and also has the largest population of wild camels in the world. This was our first indication of not only the heat we would be encountering over the next 5 days, but also the flies. I asked Paul if they were bad because of the animals here and he said they weren’t actually that bad and would get worse. He recommended some cream that was originally designed for horses to keep away the flies called Desert Dwellers but we couldn’t get any so I guess it’ll soon be time for the fly nets. We had the option of a camel ride around the paddock, but passed and instead went to see the baby camel along with the kangaroos and emus that were also at the farm. ...
12th February 2010 It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, words will have to do today since our walk was going to involve a swim through a gorge in order to complete it. Not an ideal environment for electronic equipment, hence no cameras. Since we have been surgically attached to our camera for the past 5 months, it was oddly liberating to leave it behind for a morning and drink in the beauty of Ormiston Pound and Ormiston Gorge with only our eyes, relying on our memory to capture the moment instead. ...
11th February 2010 With yesterday’s heat towards the end of our Valley of the Winds walk having affected a number of people the group concensous was another early start, before the sun was up so we could hike the rim of Kings Canyon in relative comfort. The bonus about today’s walk though was that we would also get to cool off in a water hole half way round. Also, after talking to a lovely Canadian woman, Patty last night, she has given us her Emu Cream to try (my adopted name for Desert Dwellers and of much amusement to Paul our guide who says it must work because we haven’t seen any Emus!). ...
13th February 2010 Bright sunshine greeted us this morning which was our most relaxing yet. After last night’s late night we slept in until we were woken by the sun, then Paul cooked bacon and eggs, plus the flies who had clearly missed us last night during the rainstorm and were all over us like a rash this morning. While we were eating breakfast, Robbie, the Aboriginal guy whose land we camped on last night came down and had a coffee with us around the fire. Usually his son takes us on a walk and explains about the culture and history, but he has had to go to Tennant Creek where his daughter was in a bus accident last night. Also, the walk we normally take is impossible to do today as the roads have been washed out by the floods. ...
10th February 2010 We were woken by Paul at 4:30am while the stars were still high in the sky, now accompanied by a thin, yellow curve of moon. We were awake so early to be up and away to watch sunrise at Kata-Tjuta. The flies were very much in attendance and pleased to see us as we watched the sun rise over Uluru in the distance and cast its lengthening rays over the red rocks of Kata-Tjuta gradually changing colour. Even so, this is a beautiful time of the day before the heat really gets going. ...
5th February 2010 Our last job in our little yellow peril was to drop Andy at the station early on Friday morning. After 3 days and over 1000kms it seems strange for it to be just the two of us again, but I’m sure we’ll catch up with Andy again at some point, even if its when we’re all back in the UK. After returning the car in central Adelaide, we took a free walking tour around the CBD. This started at the tourist centre on the main shopping street, Rundle Mall. Our guide, Bernie turned out to be a Gog (or a person from North Wales for the non-welsh people). He’d been in Oz for about 50 years though so only the odd hint of an accent remained. ...