Straya in a week

It's getting close to the time where I pack it in from Australia for a fairly extended period. A while ago, I got a Jetstar credit card, which entitled me to a free one way flight within Australia. I connected some deals, and had myself a bit of a tour around Australia, a whirlwind one at that but the basic plan was:

Canberra>Sydney>Hobart>Melbourne>Canberra>Sydney>Hamilton Island>Airlie Beach>Brisbane>Sydney>Canberra.

I think it was maybe 9 days in total I took off for that, but it was a pretty good time all around. Pretty well everywhere I had been before, but they were just places I had a good time in, but wanted to visit again.

My trip kicked off with a bus trip, then I met my friend Kelly for beers in Sydney. I had an early flight so I couldn't have a real rager.

I was up pretty early, I decided to cut down on costs and walk to the airport. I was already staying in the city, and it's only 6km to the airport, a distance I regularly walk. Though my 6km track normally takes me along the bottom of Mt Ainslie, my main companions being kangaroos...this trip took me through the highlights of Redfern...

No troubles though, and I got to the airport and straight on the plane. It wasn't too long and I was contemplating walking to the airport in Hobart. There was a big ad saying YHA members got half price on the bus, so I jumped on that opportunity.

I went in to the YHA. It is a very quiet season, so there was actually nobody there when I went. I headed down the road and got some lunch, then wandered a bit more, and end up playing footbag for about an hour down by the wharf. Once I came back there was someone to check me in, and I pretty well had the entire place to myself.

I was doing Sticky's Target 168 Challenge and that day was the last day to do it. At that stage I hadn't started, so I got a wriggle on, printed off some pictures and headed for Officeworks. Except I walked about 3km in the wrong direction...

The cutting, pasting, folding, sending process took a bit longer than I expected, and entries need to be at the Post Office by 5pm. At 4:59pm I had my postmark, I was in business, I had the night to explore.

The first thing I wanted to check if the TV worked. This is not really something I would normally do, I don't even have a working TV at home. However, the Raiders had a rare channel nine appearance, which was being shown on delay at midnight.

After checking that I headed down to the wharf where I had been kicking earlier. I was meeting with Jeremy, another Footbag player as well as his girlfriend. I first met Jeremy back in 2002, when we had a "NSW Championships" at Homebake. Radio Birdman played that too, it was a pretty awesome day actually.

Anyway, I met him for a beer. We started at a trendy bar which was not really our scene at all, so we quickly moved on from there. For dinner we stopped by a fish and chips place, which was not really better or worse than most other fish and chip places, nothing to write home about.

We headed to another bar a few blocks back from the wharf, where another friend of his was having a farewell do. They also sold pints of Bluetongue for $5. I was sold on that.

I got talking to a guy in a Lagwagon shirt who was pretty excited about the Propagandhi show that night. I admitted that I had kinda come to Hobart for that, but I didn't buy a ticket. Maaaaatttttteee was his original reaction, he was some kind of tradie, I think a plumber. We got talking about punk rock and adventures and after a few more Bluetongues we walked up to the show together. I didn't really have a plan, but he told me there was a front bar and I guessed I would be at least able to hear from there, and I was going to see them in Canberra a few days later anyway.

So we wandered up to this bar, The Brisbane Hotel in Hobart. It was a pretty good pub actually, I liked it, if I was back in Hobart I'd probably pop in there for a few pints, maybe a few less than I had that night.

When it came time for Propagandhi to take the stage, I had myself a nice perch, just outside the band room, but in direct line of sight and hearing of the band. I had no troubles in watching, and midway through the set they just opened up the doors. So that all worked itself out very well.

The show finished just before midnight, so I dashed back to the hostel to catch the Raiders match, where they finally won a game. That was great to see, I was yelling and screaming as if I was at the match, but from the comfort of a nice bed.

The next day I woke up with a fairly severe hangover. I had agreed to have a kick with Jeremy and Lotus, another veteran of Australian footbag. The play and busk at Salamanca Markets every Saturday.

We played for a few hours, and had some people interested in the kicking but the guys said they usually do better. I hit some good tricks, but struggled to keep up the fitness levels. This can be heavily attributed to the large number of pints of Cascade Pale Ale the evening before.

We had a quick beer after the kick, but I definitely wasn't in the mood for anymore, or even so much for the first one. By the water the day before I had seen something about riding a bike to MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art. So I decided to do that. The guy gave me a bit of a weird look and told me I would be only able to go one way.

It was about a 15km ride, mainly flat, though I did take a ride over the Tasman Bridge (oops). This was a good opportunity to see a little bit more of Hobart, as the ride to the gallery in itself is not really all that interesting (mainly flat through industrial areas and suburbia).

I got to MONA about an hour and a half before closing time. Obviously this wasn't going to be enough time to see everything, but even the setup there is impressive. The basic concept is that it a super rich guy's own private museum, so he can show anything he wants. There are some things that are a bit, I guess you might say eye-opening, but the big thing is the variety, and the quality of the content.

There are no displays on the walls, so you use an IPhone like device to navigate your way around, and there are a few different options about what you want to read. To go into the museum you actually descend into a giant staircase, the building is actually carved into the cliff.

To come back, I jumped on the ferry. I only had a t-shirt on, but I really wasn't too cold. I had another early flight, so it was time to take it easy. I just grabbed a pizza for dinner, then had an early night.

Next stop was Melbourne, I was there by about 10am the next day. After my feats of walking in Sydney, I was thinking about a repeat. After consulting Google maps I realised I wouldn't have to walk down the motorway, so there must be a chance for me to get into the city.

I could see the city a long way off in the distance, but the weather was not looking up. After walking for a fair while, I had reached Airport West, and the clouds opened up. Time to seek an alternative, a tram came by soon after and it was definitely the right move to get on that.

I stayed with my friend Chris, who I went to school with. Since my first visit back in 2005 when I came down for Nationals, I have stayed with him a huge number of times. So many that his pet bird actually treats me as if I live there.

I didn't really have too much planned for my stay in Melbourne, it was more of just a transition to get me to the next place. The first night I think we played a whole heap of NBA Jam on the PS3, that was a lot of fun, we were both right into it and improved a lot over the course of the night.

The next day I got to catch up with a few friends, but it was all pretty low key, and I was home by midnight. It wouldn't be too long til I would be visiting Melbourne again, so it wasn't a big deal. Thinking of it now, we spent a lot of the night playing darts. Old men...

Tuesday was my day to leave and I left the apartment with my bag packed, thinking there was a good chance I was going to walk to the airport. My first stop was the Vic Markets to get myself a couple of bargain Borek, then I had a walk through Carlton and Fitzroy, checking out some bookstores. I didn't really want to carry anything more, so I didn't but any books. I continued along my way up through North Fitzroy, then I decided to follow the Merri Creek trail for a while. This trail starts at Dights Falls, where I actually used to spend a bit of time when I lived in Melbourne, that was some moons ago now too.

Once I got to Coburg I got off the trail and started making my across. And across, and across. All up I think I walked for about 30km, but I got to the airport, and my flight hadn't left yet, and I hadn't paid any money to get there.

I saw a couple of friends in the queue at the airport which got things going a bit faster. The Tiger flight was changed to a 6:15 takeoff instead of 5:45. I think when they're not running too late, they just change the time, rather than admitting they are late. The rest of the boards flashed up "cancelled", "delayed" so it was good to get on the plane.

It was just after the last bus, so I took a taxi into the city. Met my dear wife for some dinner, left my bag at work and wandered over to the Propagandhi show.

I Exist were on first and I hadn't seen them for ages, they were in great form, with their new album just about to come out. The long walk was taking its toll on me though, I spent a lot of the night having a strong desire to sit down somewhere. Propagandhi were great again, funnily enough I was probably further away from the action than I was at the Hobart show!

The next day we were up early, more travels were on the way. By the end of the day we would be kicking back in Airlie Beach, but there was a lot to do before getting there. First we had to drive to Sydney. We parked at Kelly's place then took a taxi to the airport, ate some food and jumped on the plane to Hamilton Island. I was glad to notice that things were running smoothly with the flights, booking a whole heap of cheap ones can lead to disaster when things go wrong. There were a number of crying babies and annoying kids on the flight, but it wasn't too big a deal.

Once we got to Hamilton Island, we just had to wait a short while, then we were on a ferry into the town of Airlie Beach itself. I spent about 6 weeks working up there over Christmas/New Year at the end of 09, so it was good to go back there in a non-work capacity.

The Origin was on that night. I was first looking for a place to watch it, but after having a good time watching the game by myself on the previous occasion, I thought that sounded pretty good, so we got some beer and I turned it on in the room. The Blues went down, but only just, a typical Queensland late minute Billy Slater try sealing the deal.

The next day we were off on Ocean Rafting. We had done this before when we were both up there, so we knew what to expect, but it was still a lot of fun.

Hill Inlet Lookout, with Whitehaven Beach in the background. Below is a picture of us on a previous visit...

On Ocean Rafting you get to snorkel, have a good feed, take a bushwalk on Whitsunday Island, then hang out on the beach for a while. We took the south trip, though I think the north trip is better, as you get a second snorkel instead of staying at the beach longer.

It was a fairly quiet night that night we returned to the Down Under Bar, who had a good deal involving a pint of beer and a steak for $10, can barely go past that, then we just hung around the hostel. Before dinner I did play some footbag, and had some good runs. I had returned to my little spot by the lagoon where I put in a lot of hours, and an incredible amount of sweat over those six weeks I was staying in Airlie Beach.

From Airlie we took a bus to Proserpine, and we were accompanied by these most annoying of American girls. Just shut up, hey. It was a pleasure to get off the bus and not hear them anymore.

We had a while to wait for the flight, so I was going through my routine a bit, it was starting to come together a bit more. The Proserpine airport is one of the worst, and it was actually under renovation, so only half the things there were available.

I had a window seat for a great view over the coastline. Last time I flew, the guy sitting in the window seat was snoring away instead of admiring the view.

Brisbane was the next stop, we took a fairly long walk around the city, and we came across a freestyle football player in the Gardens near QUT. Francisca noticed him, and she said to me "I saw that guy taking his pants off, he must be a footbag player or something". Luckily he was not some kind of weird pervert, and we had a kick of the ball. I have a lot to learn in freestyle football, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

That night we went and saw Fires Of Waco, who were playing a free show at Fat Louie's. I also got to meet Crispy, who made the Rock'n'Raider zine, one of my favourites ever. We've been talking online for about 4 years so it was good to meet him. The worst thing about that venue though, was these crazy queues for beer. I was pretty keen to have a bit of a loose night, but the idea of the queue just really put a dampener on that one.

The trip was coming to a close, with just a couple more days remaining. The next day my friend Josh cooked up a storm, we went over to his new place, it's pretty awesome, but a bit close to the train line. They invited us to a party later on, and I have been to Brisbane so many times, that I knew most of the people at the party too.

The next day we finally had a flight delay, it had to be on the last one didn't it....but we got back to Sydney, then from there it was a long drive home back to Canberra, then back to work the next day.

The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road is a famously well traveled road, but in the past I have barely touched upon it. The furthest I had been before was to Airey's Inlet, home to the TV show Round The Twist. So in essence, I hadn't actually been to what is considered the "real" Great Ocean Road. The arch welcoming you to the Great Ocean Road is at Eastern View, just before Lorne.

Our trip to the Great Ocean Road was for our honeymoon. As we are going to live overseas, there's no need to take a trip to a Pacific Island, as nice as it sounds. It turned out it was a good move to also not go somewhere like the Whitsundays, where we had been last year, as TC Yasi, a Category 5 cyclone came down on the coast of Queensland.

So the day after the wedding, we were flying down to Melbourne. We had a flight in the afternoon, so we spent the morning saying our goodbyes and thankyous, then Mum and Dad dropped us off at the airport. Before heading out to the Great Ocean Road, we had a couple of days in Melbourne.

Melbourne was quite busy that day, as it was the final of the Australian Open. We had a wander by the river, and ended up stopping by Rod Laver Arena, where a steady crowd was already building. In Federation Square, there must have been over a thousand people watching the free telecast on the big screen. We watched that for a while, then continued on our way.

We went to Mme Brussels for a drink, they serve cocktails in jugs. It's not really my scene, but Francisca loved the bar, and the idea of jugs of cocktails on a fairly warm evening was a pleasant idea.

The next day we spent just wandering our way through Melbourne. For breakfast we ended up at a sushi bar, that also sold big plates of breakfast, for a cheap price.

Not far away was Missing Link. I picked up a few zines, and had a look to see if anything caught my eye for the next weekend, once we were back from the Great Ocean Road. The day continued, we just wandered around, stopping in shops for books and zines. We ended up doing quite a bit of walking. After going around the city, we walked up to the markets, closed Monday. We continued to walk, and had a look around the cemetery in Carlton. I had never been in there before, despite going past a number of times.

From there we headed up to Brunswick Street and had a look around there. A couple of places I had wanted to go were under renovation, or closed, which was a bit of a disappointment.

At Readings in Carlton I had picked up a copy of Paul Theroux- Ghost Train To The Eastern Star, where he retraces the steps of his travels (or tries to) of The Great Railway Bazaar. He talks of feeling like a ghost, all these memories from a long time ago. Although it was nowhere near as long ago, I lived in Melbourne a few years back, and memories kept reappearing to me all the way through the trip.

That evening we caught up with my friend from school, Chris. He lives right in the city, and that's where I have normally stayed when visiting Melbourne. He also has a bird.

And a pool on the roof

We got some cans of beer, as I thought it would be frowned about to take glass up to the roof. We had some drinks by the poolside and I had a quick dip on the roof. Despite the warm weather and our proximity to the ocean, this was one of the few times I went swimming on the trip.

It was nearing dinner time, and I was hoping to get a cheap parma or something along those lines. We consulted the website, www.thehappiesthour.com.au and I'm not sure I would do that again after this experience.

After seeing a deal for "$8 parma and pot", we were making our way to The Golden Age, up the top end of King Street. Come to think of it, only $8 is suspiciously cheap for a good meal.

From the get go, it was a rather strange experience. There was one guy sitting at the bar, and nobody serving. Eventually a bloke came along, he said we would be still able to get the deal, even though it was close to closing time. There was something wrong with the taps for beer, so we could either have a bottle of VB, or a soft drink. We said that was ok, and had our VB and Francisca had a diet coke. She said it was one of the worst drinks she had ever tasted. It was a long way from the jug of cocktails the previous evening, I'll tell you that much!

The pub was closing, and it's next door to a hotel, so they decided we could eat our meal in the breakfast room of the hotel. So we had that served up to us, and honestly, it was pretty similar to a rock with some parma sauce on the top. Definitely not the best meal I have eaten. It came very quickly as well, so we guest they must have just been sitting in some sort of pie warmer contraption. Once finishing we thought of going for more beer, but the dinner had been a bit of a downer, so we headed our different directions.

The next morning we hired a car and got going out of Melbourne. Driving in Melbourne is not easy at the best of times, but I had some initial troubles, as the indicators and windscreen wipers were switched from their regular positions. Some other drivers just didn't bother to indicate though. A near miss had me wishing I had purchased that extra insurance option.

We wound our way down through the southern suburbs of Melbourne towards the Mornington Peninsula. Locally it is known simply as "The Peninsula", as if there are no other Peninsulas around. We had come this way in order to take the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff, something I had not done before.

We stopped at a couple of beaches, but nothing seemed enticing enough to go for a swim. We headed further south, towards Point Nepean, the end of the peninsula. We started the walk, which was about 8km in total, but stopped at a beach not far along the way. It was quite pleasant there, there were only a couple of other people on the beach.

The water had this great clear colour to it as well. Time was getting on, so we decided to head on towards the ferry. It cost the two of us and the car $70 to get across, which seemed a bit steep, but it wasn't like we were going to turn back and drive, so we paid up and got on board. It was a bit cold outside, so we sat inside most of the way.

On the way out, we were on another peninsula, the Bellarine, and on the other side of Port Phillip Bay. With nothing booked for the night, we were just going to make our way along and see where we got to.

We stopped in Torquay just for a bit of a rest and a look around. It wasn't a surf trip, so I didn't bother with the turn off to Bells Beach. We did stop at the previously mentioned lighthouse though.

From there on it was new territory for me, but it wasn't too far to go to get to Lorne. My Dad had recommended a place to stay in Lorne, Chatby Lane. It's a bit back from the coast, up the hill. They had rooms, so we stayed there. It was a nice change from shared bathrooms, having a spa in the room. We could sea the water from our balcony as well.

We headed down in to the town and ended up having a burger for dinner. Twelve dollars for a hamburger, no chips, no drinks. No nothing. You've got to be kidding me, mate. The worst part was the burger was not particularly hot.

We slept in a bit that morning, just relaxing as we didn't have too far to go that day. To kick things off we had a wander around the town.

Then went up to Erskine Falls. These falls are just over 10km from the town, and it was reasonably busy there when we went. All along the way there are these constant reminders of how powerful nature can be.

It was quite pleasant there, I think it is possible to follow the water right back down into the town, if you had a full day to spare.

Before leaving Lorne, we made a couple of other stops. We stopped at Teddy's Lookout, which gives a great overview of what was to come:

The road wrapping its way, right next to the ocean. Our final destination for the day was Apollo Bay, not too much further down the road, so we could stop wherever we felt like to do some exploring.

At Kennet River, we were told you could see koalas just away from the main road. It turned out a lot of other people got told that too, with buses regular pulling in to this dirt road. We followed the dirt road a bit further, and saw plenty more koalas just hanging out in the trees.

We got into Apollo Bay midway through the afternoon. We stayed at the YHA, which regularly features in the different tourism awards. It's a fairly new building and is extremely well designed.

After having a little walk around the down, we popped down to the beach. I had a quick swim. The water was a little cold, but quite refreshing. That night we cooked at the hostel, Francisca got talking to the other guy cooking in the kitchen, lo and behold, he was from Chile too.

We took a little walk around the wharf with him. There were plenty of boats around, but not so much activity on the wharves. Just a few fisherman, and a few others like us, just wandering around.

We had a couple of beers on the roof of the hostel with our new Chilean pal, we could see the water from there, a nice way to wind down the evening.

Not so nice was a big spider in our room. I acted as if I wasn't concerned, but Francisca didn't want to sleep in the room with the spider. I told her it was gone and went to sleep, but the spider plagued my dreams the rest of the night.

Next day we were off to travel what is probably the most famous section of the road. There were plenty of people around at each destination, but there was nowhere, aside from The Apostles, that seemed overly crowded. Each stop has been designed to keep a high volume of people going along the road, and the school holidays were over, so traffic wasn't too heavy. Had we had come a couple of weeks before, we would have found the roads cut due to landslides, so we had some luck with the weather. All the way along the Great Ocean Road we had perfectly sunny weather.

Before seeing the main attractions, I decided it was necessary to stop in Lavers Hill (population 208), a sleepy town similar to something like Whyndam or Tanja, one of those places with a school, a hall and a church. They also sold petrol at $1.50 a litre, an outrage, but we didn't want to end up stuck with no petrol.

As Rod Laver has found himself being an inspiration to Footbag players, I wanted to get something of me playing Footbag in the town, although the town was around long before the tennis champ. So I got a little video playing in front of the Lavers Hill Hall. Don't think anything much good came out of it, but I was glad to do it.

We carried on, stopping at each stop. The first view of these immense rock formation is from Gibson's Steps. You go down the steps to the beach, and walk in the steps where many have been before

The next stop is the stop for the Apostles, we actually skipped that, as we were going to come back. The sign in that direction (west) was actually a bit confusing. It said something like :

TWELVE APOSTLES

SCENIC FLIGHTS

NEXT RIGHT

So I thought the turn off must be a bit further on, as that must have been the turn for the scenic flights. As we went on I realised there was no more turns, so we stopped at the next, Loch Ard Gorge, which was recommended highly by the people who run the hostel.

There are many paths to walk to get different views of some very impressive rock features that have been formed after millions of years of the sea crashing against them.

One path let you look back towards some of The Apostles.

From here we went onwards to Port Campbell, where we stopped at a fish and chips shop. Once again it was pretty expensive, and I had a feeling the hamburger I had was previously frozen, but I'm not so sure about that. It was less than impressive, kind of like the town as a whole, after seeing these natural wonders, the scenic lookout didn't have much going for it.

There were a couple of guys on the boog just off the wharf. It seemed unclear whether there was actually a wave, but there was a small wave breaking just near the jetty. I have a feeling in a big swell this would be the place to be and you'd be able to ride in under the wharf.

You can continue along this road until Adelaide, or at least til Warnambool, but after a few more stops we decided it was time to go back. We were still based in Apollo Bay and we had come a long way already.

Our turning around point was The Grotto, a much calmer place than some of the others. The water there is not so rough. I could imagine plenty of people drowning along the way, in plenty of places there were pretty rough seas, with plenty of rips for unknowing people to be dragged away in. Opposed to that are the calm bays of places like Lorne and Apollo Bay where you wouldn't know you were just nearby to what is known as "The Shipwreck Coast".

Driving back, we just made on stop, the stop that everyone on the road makes, The Apostles. An essential stop along the road. Unfortunately, everyone else has the same idea, and that's the only place along the road where the crowd made me feel uncomfortable.

We tried to get some footage of me playing in front of the Apostles, but quite simply, it's impossible to get a clear shot with no crowd. Just at the end, in the visitors centre, I did get a nice run on film.

It's only showing my feet, so you can't see that the last trick is a spinning ducking osis, but a small crowd had gathered and they were very impressed.

From there it was back into Apollo Bay, on the long drive home. It wasn't really that far, but it had been a long day of going and seeing the sights, and this can become incredibly draining.

This is all I will write for the moment, but I will complete this over the weekend.

Honeysuckle Lookout

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

BANG BANG BANG

Manager: Private

Sometimes it gives you a feeling of prestige, but sometimes there's no escape, for example, 5 am this morning.

With bleary eyes I eventually made my way to the door.

"We've got no door".
"What do you mean?

What the girl meant was she had locked herself out, could I come open the door. That's not really the sort of thing you want to hear that early in the morning. Conveniently it was just the room next door, so things weren't too difficult.

After a short attempt at getting back to sleep I decided my attempts would not be worthwhile. I thought it might be the only chance to see the sun rising from the sea on this trip. After walking past some very, very late night revellers and some early starting triathletes, I realised today was not the day for that either and headed inland, navigating my way through the backstreets of Airlie (all three of them) toward the top of the hill. The Great Whitsunday Walk is 28km of trek, taking you to Cedar Creek Falls. I didn't want to do that, but my track, to Honeysuckle Lookout would take me through the last section of that track. The track is barely signposted, which after walking parts of it, I think is so that every backpacker and his dog would try and make the Great Walk after a pint or two too many.

There is actually no mention of the Great Walk up until the turnoff to Honeysuckle Lookout, where it informs you to travel further you need to have a permit. I was surprised by the almost complete lack of signage about the walk, even compared to Mt Rooper which I visited a few weeks ago.

The walk basically switches from time to time between open woodland into rainforest, very similar to where we walked in Paluma, which is between Townsville and Ingham, a little while inland. Here is a photo from Paluma, I didn't take any photos today.


I'm glad I wasn't walking all the way up their to get some sort of panormaic Whitsunday spread, as the view from the lookout was completely shrouded in fog. I could only just slightly make out Abel Point marina, if I looked hard. A sign midway along the track told me I would have a splendid view of the islands, but apparently not today.

I saw two cane toads today. One was right in the middle of path, like a sentry blocking the way. It looked like a rock and I didn't even realise until I was right near it. Cane toads are a terrible pest in the north of Queensland, this was actually the first time I've seen one up close. Soon after one jumped right over my foot. Unfortunately I don't have any cool stories about doing a double-round-the-world with it, then giving it a big boot into the boosh, I simply continued along my way, and hoped I wouldn't see anymore.

Early on I encountered a brush turkey. These animals are around a fair bit in the area, they also look incredibly stupid. I began my day at a running pace, I didn't think the lookout was quite so far, I'd just seen a vague map, and thought it would be a nice run. After a while, the path was getting too slippery and I knew I still had a long way to go, so I slowed to a walk. Before this, I came through a bit of a curvy section, where I first met the turkey. At first it was like he was trying to run out of my way, but then it would stop, then I would almost catch up, it would take off again, almost like it was leading me along some kind of path. I started thinking it was really strange before the turkey veered off down the hill.

On coming back from the walk I had a quick footbag session. Training under fatigue is something that people do to train in a lot of sports, and I was fairly fatigued. Too fatigued it seemed, I had a few runs, with some fun tricks, then just tried to hit a fun sick 3 link-> phoenix>blur>paradon. I hit it on my second try.

On arriving back at the hostel, I went straight into the pool. I achieved another goal I have been reaching for in recent times, swimming 3 laps of the pool underwater. The pool would be less than ten metres long, but it's just a little something I've been aiming for, and now I've done it so I'm pleased with myself.

The photo at the top is from my first couple of days in Airlie Beach, the view from along the track in the woodland sections is quite similar to that, in parts looking further down the coast, then in the other direction at Abel Point and Canonvale. The day I took this photo I got a bit lost looking for the track, I was well off the mark in my search location, but in the early hours of this morning I was right in the money.

Just a few days left before I begin an actual holiday, tomorrow I have the day off work, I'm heading out on a kayak tour, should be awesome. I've been able to do some pretty incredible stuff up here.

Hook Island resort or "Dude, where's my boat"

So over the weekend we went out to Hook Island, the second largest island out of the 74 Whitsunday Islands. We stayed at the Hook Island Resort. As an agent we got to go free of charge, which was pretty sweet.

Now I had heard from a few people that the place is looking a bit worse for wear, and they were definitely on the money. It is really relaxed though, it's a pretty sweet experience to wake up , walk out the door and be on the beach.

Now that view was not quite so pleasant for one fellow earlier that morning, who would have walked out to the beach and said "I swear I parked my boat there, straight out in front". Unfortunately for this guy during the night, some heavy seas had tipped up his boat, and now it was under the sea. Apparently he didn't have insurance, which is something I can't comprehend the stupidity of..."hey, honey check out my boat...no need for insurance, it's unsinkable".



What is meant for us is that when we went snorkelling (all the equipment was provided with the rooms) was that we could snorkel over a brand new shipwreck. The boat was re-floated the next day ($4000 bill heading the owners way) so we got ourselves the only day you will see that boat at the bottom of the sea- for the moment anyway.

Hook Island is a major stopover for a lot of the boats making their way through the islands, so we were lucky to go out at a time when there was noone else around. We went out twice within a short period, the sea was not so calm in the Hook Passage, the second time round the visibility was incredibly low, we could actually only just make out the boat. The coral is quite impressive in that spot, once you swim out through the reeds and mud closer to shore, there is quite an array of fish around, both of us saw quite a big blue fish out there (sorry my tropical fish knowledge is incredibly limited).

Here is a picture of us being incredibly good looking in the stinger suits. It is important to wear these so that box jellyfish don't give you a potentially lethal sting. Unfortunately they don't cover your arms, feet or face and apparently numbers are on the rise.

As it is the wet season at the moment, most of the time we were there the rain was absolutely belting down. This was unfortunate, as it meant we could only get out for short trips around the island. We went around the other side of the hill to Pebble Beach, I saw a small wave breaking, I think it crazy storms this could pick up a proper wave. The Great Barrier Reef blocks most of the swell coming into the Whitsunday region, but there must be some surf around somewhere.

In the evening we played pool against a couple of guys that worked there, and had a fish dinner. I don't normally eat much seafood, but this was freshly caught and cooked by the guy that runs the show on the watersports side of things, I thought I should give it a go, it was quite tasty.

We were in a 6 bed dorm room, but there was no one else in there. As a matter of fact there was barely anyone in the whole place. In the afternoon I had a nap and slept like a baby, even though the mattresses were super thin, this probably affected my evening's sleep as I had a lot of trouble sleeping.

Due to the big swells we weren't able to go back on the resort's own boat, so we had to go on Voyager, and do the entire tour. It was kinda cool because we didn't have to pay to go on the tour, but I had a lot of work to get down and would have preferred a more direct route.

We went to Whitehaven Beach "would you look at this, 98% silica sand, isn't it beautiful"- that's what the tour guides say everyday. We were there for an hour and a half, just chilling on the boat. Lunch was provided before stepping off the boat, it was quite a good spread, cold meats and salads. I'm fairly certain all the boats have almost the exact same lunches, as it was quite similar to the lunch we had on Ocean Rafting.

Speaking of them, we saw our driver from when we went on Ocean Rafting and had a good chat with him. He was a really nice guy. They had one of those soft balls for the beach with them and I did a couple of tricks, not very well, and he was mightily impressed. That is definitely the trip I most recommend, such a fun day out.

The Voyager trip is probably not so much for me. Being up in the big boat felt pretty similar to being in a bus, you're quite a long way up from the water. After passing by Hamilton Island and Long Island we had one more stop at Daydream Island. Now I know my daydreams don't involve screaming children and horrendously fat people waddling around a pool, but that's what's there. We ended up playing chess on one of those giant chessboards. I was on the attack, ready for victory, but made a stupid error and that was check, mate. I would have to say Daydream Island is a nightmare of a place and I hope never to go there again.

Getting to Airlie Beach was quite a relief, it was nice to have the bus take us directly back to the hostel. I was sunburnt, quite tired, and I decided that big pile of paperwork could wait until the next day.

Cairns Central

Driving into Cairns once we got down the dreaded mountain, I came to the realisation it was a fair size city. Big wide roads, and even a Sizzler which we unfortunately didn't dine at over the course of our stay.

We checked into the Cairns Central YHA, which was completely different to what I expected. I was expecting some sort of towering building, something like a smaller version of Sydney Central, but it's more like an island resort, which has the pool in the centre.

We had ourselves a family room with our own bathroom. Unfortunately however, there was a big bunch of blokes having themselves a wild time, directly outside our room. One of them had made the purchase of a didgeridoo, which I'm sure he will regret once he leaves Cairns, and various people were having turns, making a similar sound to a foghorn.

We went to find something for dinner. The reception advised that the Green Ant made delicious meals, unfortunately for us however, it was closed for the Christmas period. We headed down towards the water and ended up at a Vietnamese restaraunt, Bobby's. The food here was pretty awesome, and the prices were quite reasonable, which is not customary anywhere in the north of Queensland.

We walked down by the lagoon, another artifical lagoon just like in Airlie Beach. It is not quite as deep as Airlie, I think it might take up more space, but the one in Airlie seems bigger. We timed it quite well as there was a game of canoe polo taking place. This was a surprising omission from the book I bought the next day "World's Weirdest Sports". Basically it's similar to water polo, but you paddle around in a small canoe, and shoot at a goal which is suspended above the water.

Unfortunately for these guys, there was nothing behind the goal, so every missed shot meant someone having to run after the ball. On the way home we actually got incredibly lost. I had smartly left the map we were given inside the room, where it was definitely going to come in handy.

At some stage we just caught the end of the sports news, which was incredibly Canberra-centric for somewhere that's, well, not Canberra. These were the three articles that came up: "Patrick Mills (from Canberra) makes his NBA debut", "Canberra Vikings extend their lead in the George Bass surfboat marathon" and "former Raider Todd Carney in trouble again". The footage that accompanied that story was of him walking past the statue of Laurie Daley at Bruce Stadium dejectedly after being thrown out of the Raiders.

I hadn't really been paying attention at the time, but the story turned out to be that whilst celebrating New Year's Eve, in, of all places...Airlie Beach, one of his "mates" ended up with burns on his buttocks, scrotum and thigh as a result of a "prank gone wrong". I wonder if he was associated with the two blokes who ran in for a dip sans clothes in water that is infested with box jellyfish.

We took a swim in the pool. The Cairns hostel has an excellent sized pool. The one in Airlie is pretty small, if there's anyone else in there, it gets a bit overcrowded for my likings. This pool is a great size, and has two spas adjoining as well.

I had to sort out some work things on the internet, and once I came back, who should I see but our old friend the schoolteacher. I restrained myself from saying "what happened to the third night on Magnetic Island" but tried to make my way off as quickly as possible, as I really didn't want anything more to do with him. Not far away from him was old mate with the 99 year old father, busily planning further adventures. Before he could catch sight of me I made it into the safety of the room.

We didn't really have a plan for the next day. We were hoping to make some sort of trip but our financial resources were dwindling quickly and I had to be back at work the next day and there was a long bus trip in between.

Francisca told me if she was inspired by the city she would stick around a few more days. We took a bit of a wander and then a bit of a drive, decided against going on any tours, and booked tickets on the next bus.

There was a shopping centre across the road across the road and I had some JB vouchers I needed to spend so I got myself Propaghandi- Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes, Miles Away- Rewind Repeat, Rise Against- Siren Songs of the Counter Culture, Converge- Jane Doe and Parkway Drive- "The DVD".

We got some kebabs before boarding the bus, however I don't think we were mentally prepared for the journey. 11 hours...There are a lot longer trips available, especially on the Greyhound network (for example I booked a guy today to leave Airlie Beach at 2.15am before arriving in Alice Spring at 9.30am the next day with changes in Townsville, Mt Isa and Tennant Creek).

However, this was a long trip in itself. The first section didn't go so bad, it was light, I had a couple of books to read- the aforementioned "Worlds Weirdest Sports" as well as Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest". I also had an ipod with full battery (thanks fantastic car) and it was light so we could look out the window.

We stopped in Cardwell, just as we had on the way up, however we weren't ready for dinner at this stage, so Annie and her kitchen didn't have a second chance to give me a heart attack. Cardwell is just across the water from Hinchinbrook Island (picture at the top of this post) and has some impressive views. It was dark on our previous visit, so it was great to see the town in the light.

In Townsville we had to change buses. At this point it felt like we were nearly there...just five more hours! The worst part though, was the "dinner break" which Greyhound always schedule at inconvenient hours in inconvenient places. The dinner break on this trip was in Bowen, less than an hour from our stop. So we had to stand around a horrible, horrible service station for an hour. I ate a chiko roll, which was probably the worst thing I've ever eaten in my life and later a packet of corn chips, which cost me exactly one arm and one leg.

The feeling of relief upon arriving at the Airlie Beach bus terminal was simply unfathomable. The fact it was just a short walk and we were home made things even better. On arrival we simply crashed in the bed. I was certainly glad we took this option rather than going overnight to arrive just a few minutes before beginning work.

As with everyone's East Coast trip, you meet some characters, have a nice enough conversation with them, then cary on and hope you don't have to see them again, which you inevitably will, every time.

There were too such characters on our journey, which was only a couple of legs of the standard east coast trip. We need to go back to New Year's Eve to get some history. I had a surprisingly good new years, considering I finished work at 9pm and was back on the desk at 7am. We watched the fireworks on the beach and met a bunch of pretty friendly people. There was an Irish bloke wearing an Agnostic Front shirt, we ended up talking about Toe To Toe, which was to say the least, surprising. There were a couple of Scottish people, they were making a worldwide trip, first heading down the coast of Australia in just a month (much too short a time really). I gave them some handy hints, and Francisca filled them in on Chile, where they will head to after Australia. The guy was intensely scared of being stabbed in a favela whilst in South America. I told him he should watch the movie City of God, that would put him in good stead for the trip.

Amongst the crowd was an English bloke, a mid 40s school teacher who these days resides in Melbourne. His team was the Saints, only started following them this year as he lived in Brighton. This sounded similar to my saying that I went for the Hawks while I lived in Hawthorn, then the next year they won the premiership. Let's not talk about the year after.

This guy managed to ask us all the same questions again and again, he must have stayed about 5 days in Airlie, which is a lot more than most people stay. He was pretty keen on the Airle Beach hotel local wine from memory. Every day we would talk to him, and every day we had the same conversation. It was a different one though, as he said how much he liked the Airlie Beach YHA, and completely disappointed in the Byron Bay YHA. If only the scores on the website reflected sentiments like that.

So eventually he says he's going to head north. We're thinking of heading north too. We tell him we might head up to Magnetic Island on Monday but end up getting there on Sunday. Within 10 minutes of arrival, there's our mate, ready and waiting for us. He was really the last person either of us wanted to see. He tells us he'll be spending 3 days on the island, so we expect that's the last we'll see of him. Of course when we went to check out, he was there at the desk doing something else.

On new year's day I met another English bloke. It was early in the morning, I had a mean hangover and I was not particularly up for a conversation. This fellow fits directly into the "grey nomad" category of traveller, and was going solo. When these types get you started on a conversation, it's not going stop any time soon. He told me he wanted to get back to England soon as his father was about to turn 99 and he wanted to be there to see the occassion, as he didn't have any other family. This was a nice story, however it was accomanied by quite a few other stories about his recent adventures, along with the story of his entire life, all whilst I was cleaning up the previous night's party.

First thing in the morning I saw him again at Magnetic Island, however I don't think he remembered me. This was probably fortunate as I didn't get any further updates on the rest of his life. Magnetic Island was not the last we would see of either of these two characters.

Both of them were the sorts that just give you a bit of a strange vibe when you talk to them. Not the complete psychopaths that you are bound to meet along you're travels, just the kind of people that just seem a bit lonely and eager to give you the full life story, I guess that comes after spending crazy amounts of time in the Greyhound bus.

I haven't made a post in a while. Christmas has been and gone. I was up early Christmas morning, not as most children were, opening up gifts, but opening up the doors here at the hostel. Dominos provided my Christmas lunch. I had a call from my parents in the morning, this was the first Christmas I've spent away from the family.

Sarah arrived for the afternoon shift, leftovers of here Christmas lunch on a plate. Her Christmas lunch was eaten in the car on the way to work. It was definitely a whole different vibe for Christmas this year.

That paints a pretty grim Christmas Carol, but things definitely improved when Francisca arrived in the evening. We went over to Sarah's place, they had a gathering there of a bunch of people, many who were a long way from home.

On Sunday we went Ocean Rafting again. Once again we were greeted with perfect weather and a humorous commentary on the way out. The view from the Hill Inlet lookout was looking even better this time. We snorkelled in two spots, in Wrass Bay- this was different from my previous visit. We also returned to Mantaray Bay, but the visibility was not as good as my previous visit.

I have booked a stay at the Hook Island resort for the week after next, I am keen to check out some more spots around the island. We are also going to head up a bit further north while Francisca is still around.

I got some good news today, a permanent manager has been found for the hostel here. This means there will be something still around once I'm gone. It also means that hopefully I won't be logging any more 94 hour fortnights. It's going to mean a lot less stress for me, which is something I am definitely excited about.

went out this evening for a little while. For a "party town" Airlie Beach isn't as happening as I thought it would be. Maybe things happen later, but I'm not interested in hugely overpriced drinks for that long to find out if that's the case. Airlie is an expensvie town, that's one of the first things I found out. Lucky I'm earning more than my usual wage, otherwise I would probably not be in a real good situation.

We had dinner at Magnum's- one of the rowdier hostels down the road. They do a deal for 2 pizzas for $22. It's no 2 pizzas and a pint, but it's still fairly reasonable and the food is fairly good quality. I went with Johnathon from Sweden and Chester, he's from Taiwan. Chester's English is not real good, but he is a friendly guy, he's here for a while as well, til next Wednesday, we'll probably drink beer every night from now til then.

I talked to Francisca tonight on Skype, that's the first time I've ever used it, or a webcam at all as a matter of fact. It's a bit of a weird experience. I can't wait til she comes up here. After the new year we will probably make a trip up to Cairns, see a few more sights of this area.

Tonight's my first night on call. I sincerely hope the phone doesn't ring.