The land of Oz.. stopoff Sydney, Melbourne, Uluru and East Coast.

A preliminary introduction to Australian wine on the plane smoothed over the dose of morning rushhour at Sydney airport. The beach called.. Bondi, trendy with prices to match. Found a pleasant area to rest our weary selves in Randwick, 10 minutes walk from Coogee, another popular beach spot. Plenty of cafes, bars, the odd pub where locals resided to bet or chill. Perfect. We didn't move for a month.

The Bondi-Coogee cliff walk reminded me how unfit I was, however the scenery and blast of sea air was invigorating. A 'sculptures by the sea' expo revealed the creativity and diversity of artists this side of the world. Sculptures were littered along the cliff walk overlooking the ocean, many making environmental statements, others using the backdrop of the ocean to compliment them.

'Coogee Bay Hotel', rated in 'The Blue List 2007' as second best pub to visit in the world.. 'What?', I thought having past it several times en route to the beach. True to its word though Saturday night 'rockin the foundations' we partied. Live band, dj, beer garden, tourists and locals 'giving it socks'! Irish backpackers appear everywhere.. in Sydney anyway. We hit the town with couple of Tipp blokes and ended up with an A & E encounter at the end of it.. Well it involved chasing an ambulance and stuff.. not for the faint hearted like myself.

Sydney zoo.
Surfing. You have got to try it. I only attempted it once mind you.. I wouldn't rule it out again. Perhaps I would choose a beach or a day when the waves are less mammoth. Crashing white waves, clear sky, sun radiating down.. The instructor informed me my wetsuit was on back-the-front.. embarassing moment. Surfboard under my belt we headed for the waves. The water whirled me round in circles. Instructor to the rescue. The muscley Ozzie pulled me and the board out to sea and the fun began. Whoosh! Lying flat on the board on top of a wave gliding to the shore. I didn't manage to unglue my blody to stand but it was thrilling. Moments later I noticed a grimey thing wrapped around my toes.. pulled half of it off, then realised I had decapitated a 'bluebottle' or 'Portuguese Man of War'. He managed to sting before being beheaded. I could have chewed my arm off with the chainsaw like pain.. I now have a sting suit and look like a 'space man' when I wear it.

The night before leaving Sydney we hit the Opera House to watch a cabaret performance by 'Camille', an half Irish, half French! She grew up in Ireland and made to the Sydney Opera House. She was spectacular, giving energy, power and character to her performance.


One of Melbourne's groovy cafes.. ultimate chill out zone..
Melbourne, a city of culture and diversity was our next destination. We chilled out in a little smelly apartment in St. Kilda, the later being my fault. Delighted at the prospect of having a bath, I threw the large warbly looking pipe hanging in it alongside. A couple of days later I heard a concerned holler from the bathroom. Washing machine churning.. two inches of water was already covering the bathroom and now flooding the bedroom. As if I was on a sinking ship I grabbed a small bucket and lauched into throwing water from the floor into the bath for an hour. The floor was still intact.. just about.

The buildings around Melbourne range from old colonial style churches to dramatic architecture, such as Federation Square in the centre. The G20 summit was happening that weekend coinciding with the 'Make Poverty history' concert. We hadn't the 'golden tickets' into the main venue, however chilled out at an alternative concert. Bono and Pearl Jam created a stir at the main event.


'The Esplanade Hotel' in St. Kilda is what appears to be a 'rundown' old fashioned hotel along the seafront. It turns into a happening spot at nighttime when djs transform the night and sanity goes out the window.


We bumped into a Spanish Festival in the city. Streets were spilling over with people with a cloud of smoke wafting from the openair tapas! Tim, an Ozzie from Melbourne showed us around one of the largest casinos.
We rented a car and headed for the 'Great Ocean Road'.

Despite the haphazard weather driving along the windy roads and scenic views of the coast was thrilling. People were randonly stopped at one point along the road gazing up at the trees. We pulled over and spotted koalas and their young perched on branches. Before sunset we spotted the first of the 'Twelve Apostles' standing stones in the ocean. Stolling along a beach in awe of the glistening waters and misty atmosphere. The wind changed and the sand swirled up hitting against our legs.

In Australia spend long enough driving on the roads and you start losing the plot..



The following morning we stopped at various vantage points, 'the Grotto' being the most amazing. A winding stairs lead to the point where you could look through the cave out to sea. This reminded me of how powerful and spectacular nature is. Man could never create this.
Brighton Beach in Melbourne is lined with several wooden huts along he shore. Surfers glide with kites in the water. Yaughts are scattered everywhere. There is a bar along the edge from where you can savour the views. Ok. I've rambled enough about how great Melbourne is..

You could see Uluru and 'the Algas' mountainrange from the plane as we were landing. The heat hit me like a giant hairdryer as we left the plane. 'Can I get back on please??'
One day would have been enough for me at Ayer's Rock. We were stuck there for two. The water in the swimming pool was too hot to swim in. We took a tour to watch Ayer's Rock at sunset from a distance. We were given lots of wine as we waited in anticipation to see the changing colours of the rock. It was overcast so the changing colours weren't that visible. Nevertheless we clicked away, let the wine flow and were happy! We stayed up chatting to Richard an American sharing the for bed bunk. 4.30am we rose for sunset and the 'Valley of the Winds Walk' in the Algas. The walk started at 6.30am and by 7.3oam the temperature had reached the 30's. The walk was challenging yet enchanting. The sun peered behind red rock, casting a mist over the valleys... 'The Lord of the Rings' meets the desert.

Cairns, the gateway to he Great Barrier Reef was our next stop. A nice setting.. a lagoon pool overlooking the sea with mountains in the distance. We rented a car and headed for 'the Tablelands' reccommended by the bloke who hired us out the car. 'Millea Millea Falls' were sensational. The best bit was you could swim in the enclosed lake under the falls. Further inland we stopped at a crater, a drop looking into a green water pit which had been blasted from the earth. It looked like a witches cauldron. We stopped at 'Mission Beach' that night. It was like a ghost town. We found one lively bar that seved gigantic portions of pasta.. the waiter must have been huge. The beach was deserted the next morning.. surrounded by palm trees. Green froth lined the shore.. remnants from the coral of the Barrier Reef (coral beaching because of the ozone layer..eek).
Little Cyrstal Creek was next on the map. A lake surrounded by by rocks and leading into a river.. 'swimmers paradise'. It was in the middle of nowhere. I thought I saw 'Huckleberry Finn' swimming down this river. Driving along the windy mountaineous roads was scarey. Exotic birds fluttered across the road. A lizard quietly making his way across stood up on his hind legs at the sound of the car and shot for cover. We travelled through 'farming country' where sugar beet was transported by rusty 'toy trains'! The land was luscious and green.

'Magnetic Island' renouned for unspoilt beaches and walks followed. We stayed at 'Horseshoe Bay' and started our '1 hour' walk to Florence Bay. The bus only travels along one road on the island. The other raods joining the walks are not accessible by bus. We climbed up one path and down another to the first beach.. took a wrong turn and were lost. 2 and a half hours later we arrived at Florence Bay. Breathtaking. Deserted. The South side of the beach had the 'Yongala shipwreck' where scuba divers ventured. We still had about 3 km to get to the main road. We passed by an elderly man struggling to walk in the 32deg C. We tanked him up with some water for fear he wouldn't make it to the top of the hill. To my relief he did.
Airlie Beach was the next stopoff before the WhitSundays. We met a man from Holland who filled us with his survival tales from the bush.. befriending and going hunting with the Aboriginals. He was travelling Australia alone. He crashed his car at high speed in the outback and resorted to eating dead game from the roadside at night when he had no food and was hungry. I locked my door.

The 'Wings' boat bringing us on a two day trip of the WhitSundays consisted of 25 passengers and 4 crew. It was a great laugh. We lazed on deck under the sun, ate lots of yummy food on board and had a few beers. Most people attempted scuba diving. I got as far as 'the skills' in shallow water. Equipped with a tank and weights to drag me under (hello) I breathed. Christian the instructor let water into our goggles to prepare us for the unexpected and I lauched myself to the surface.. bye bye. I contented myself with snorkelling over the Reef which was fun. I tried to follow some of the fish chasing them under rocks. One kept on hiding until I went away. One fish had huge pink lips taking over half of her face, others were multicoloured blue and green flourescent. Although not the same as diving it was fascinating to watch the underworld from above.

We headed to Bundaberg to catch a glimpse of the turtles coming ashore to hatch eggs after nightfall at 'Turtle Beach'. We headed to the National Park and waited at 'Turtle Beach' until after dark. The rangers brought us to a spot on the beach near the sanddunes where a giant turtle, 90cm long had her hindlegs raised over a hole she had buried in the sand. We watched as the moon cast its light over her eggs plopping out of her hindquarters. She lay 54 eggs in total, covered the sand over them and crawled back along the beach into the waters. The eggs are due to hatch Feb-March when the hatchlings run into the water in their hundreds after dark to begin their journey. Fascinating stuff.

We stopped off at Rainbow beach where a sanddune the size of a mountain (Carlo Sandblow Pit) stood high along a cliff overlooking the coast with miles of beach underneath. Talk about blowing your mind away... It looked like a giant skislope covered in sand , appearing to swallow up any human in the distance. This rivalled Uluru with breathtaking views. Tin Can Bay, 30km down he road was our next destination. We arrived at 8am in time for the morning feeding session of two dolphins. I plopped a couple of fish into their mouths before heading up the road to Noosa, the Gold Coast's holiday venue for the famous. A river runs through the city joining onto the beach. Noosa National Park had plenty of the Native Australian bird, cassowaries wandering aound and carefree coastal walks to savour.

Sydney at Christmastime was thriving. The atmosphere was upbeat, not so much because of Santa and the snow.. because it was hot. You could smell the barbaques and the beer : )


Shoppers and 'happy go lucky' tourists were abound everywhere. Coogee, where I was staying for New Year was full of sunworshipers. New Years Eve, we headed for the Harbour Bridge to watch the firworks.. along with the million others. Adrenaline was pumping as crowds made their way. People spilled out of the pubs, drink flowing and flying. Fireworks popped, cracked and sparked complemented by gin in plastic cups. The flenzy to clear the streets after was like ballet dancing in a tin cup. Fun!

Nuno's long lost (literally) relatives, Elizabeth and Joe were calling us to visit. Landed in Oz from Portugal 40 years ago I was suprised when this middle aged couple in sunnies and thongs greeted us at the train station in Entrance with a big grin, wave and a 'thumbs up'! Ozzies with a Portuguese- Ozzie accent, this pair were comical! Joe lit the bbq for us the first evening, cows, lamb and everything thrown on top. His sense of humour was funny and scary..This man is nearly 70 and talks about the various 'fish' on the beach.. snipers or whales.. Wacky yet good crack.
Storks fighting for dins at Entrance.

Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world was our next muddy adventure. 11 of us were socked into a 4WD. We went shopping the evening before and some bright spark suggested we buy 100 litres of water for tehb 2 days.. as well as all our food, crates of beer, bottles of gin, whiskey and 20 litres of wine. HELP. Where were we going? Someone who had gone on the trip before suggested we take plenty of drink.. 5 Germans, 2 Italians, a Portuguese and 3 token Irish (including myself) off we launched. The first day was tricky on the dirt roads as most of the luggage threatened falling down on top of our heads as we richoted over the bumps. Hands were holding up the luggage.. plenty of squeals from the backseat as 'Per' from Germany took the lead as chief Navigator in the group.

Tins were cracked open to help the situation. We found a gorgeous warm lake to swim in. Later we set up camp and feasted on what we had. The dingoes were whiffing around the camp in the middle of the night burrowing deep into the sand where we had burried our leftover meat. The second day it felt like time had stopped. Per woke everyone up at 5am to see if we could see whales from Indian Head. Nice views and no whales we drove around till dark.

Crack was good though everyone was glad to get back to mainland by day numero 3!

Byron Bay was our next stopoff as we drove along the coast back towards Sydney. I loved the place. Simple, colourful village, not too 'touristy tacky'. Hippy Haven yes, relaxing trendy and simple cafes with a 'Bob Marley' feel. Only stopped for 2 nights, could have stayed a week. The beach was a mix with people. At nightfall the town got even more atmospheric.. live music from one pub to the next. The beach hotel had 2 djs getting the crowd rocking with what sounded like a mix of Leftfield, Portishead and Underworld thrown together. You had to dance.. or try!

At the most Easterly point of Oz, Byron Bay.
Zip down the coast to Coffs Harbour.. a quick runaround the marina and bird sanctuary island attached to the mainland, Port Macquarie, Newcastle (a slightly industrial city with nice beaches and lots of live music), the Entrance and Sydney airport via train. The morning we left I scarpered down to the beach to feel the sun and waves.. my last vision of Australia. Sad yes but New Zealand is next.