Back in Sydney (32468km driven)

It was both nice and sad to arrive back in Sydney after five months on the road. Nice because Sydney is my home in Australia and I love the city and sad because it's raining the whole time and I only have 2 weeks left before I fly home. Actually I am looking forward to come home to see my family and friends again, but I will miss Sydney and the rest of Australia for all it has given me.

Our first task in Sydney was to sell the car. We had exactly two weeks and we hoped that that would be enough time. The first thing we did was put the car on different add sites and print out posters to hang in different hostels and travel agents around Sydney. We had only one response the first days and that turned into nothing, so a couple of days later we decided to try and park the car along the famous car selling strip in Kings Cross. It was there me and Kristin found the car in the first place. We sat there for about five hours without anybody even looking at the car, then suddenly an English guy showed up and wanted to have a look. After he had a mechanic look at it and we discussed the price, he ended up buying it from us. We were really happy because we heard a lot of stories about people that tried to sell their car for 3-4 weeks with no luck. Finally we could take all our stuff out of the car and movie into a hostel, a welcoming change from living in the car for so long! The pictures are of our bed in the car (that we slept in for four months) and the alley we camped in. All together we drove 32.468km in the five months I owned the car!

I never went to the Chinese garden during the time I lived in Sydney so me and Annina decided to go there and check it out. The garden is located in Darling Harbor and it was easy to find. The gardens full name is the Chinese Garden of Friendship and it was built to celebrate the Chinese community in Sydney and the close relationship with Guangzhou, a city in the Guangdong Province, China. From the outside it looks fairly small, but once inside the walls you realize that it has some size. I found the Chinese garden very beautiful with a lot of Chinese art, architecture and plants making the walk through the garden diverse and fascinating. Normally I am not the biggest garden visitor, but I enjoyed it. Be sure to check out the "Sydney 4" album when I post it to see more photos from our visit.

Another thing that we said we would do but never did during my time living in Sydney was the walk between Bondi and Coogee beach. So as soon as we had a day with some blue sky we got on the bus to Coogee. The path follows the coast running in and out of small bays and over cliffs and beaches. The best known beach along the track (not counting Coogee or Bondi) is Bronte beach. The weather was great considering the rain we had the last week but the water and air temperature was still to cold for swimming. It took us about 1.5 hours to complete the walk and we enjoyed it a lot! About half way the path ran next to a huge cemetery. It was a spectacular sight to see the graves in the hillside, from the top of the hill to the cliff edge with the ocean below. Almost at the end the path rounds a sharp corner and Bondi Beach comes into full view down below the cliffs. It was beautiful.

The last thing I will write about in this blog post is the two movies we watched in the cinema. Annina wanted to watch another movie in the IMAX and I am not the person to say no to an IMAX experience, so we bought the cheap cinema vouchers on eBay again and went to watch Toy Story 3. I love 3D movies when they don't misuse the 3D effect and Toy Story 3 was a great example. I will try and get a review up on my movie blog so keep an eye out for that. :) Being a fan of Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) I got very excited when I realized that his newest movie Inception had just been released. And since Tuesdays are 40% off we decided to go watch that as well.

My plan is to write one more post about Australia before I fly home. My flight is on Wednesday the 4th of August at 16:40 and I arrive in Norway the 5th of August at 11:00. I will try and get all my photos and videos online before I fly home and I will also write a couple of stand alone pages with stuff I have seen and done so stay tuned for that.

Last East Coast

This will be my last post about the east coast so bear with me if it gets to long. Anyways, from Fraser Island we drove back towards Brisbane but this time we stopped about half way at a place called The Glasshouse Mountains. The Glasshouse Mountains are a collection of small jagged hills sticking up from the surrounding landscape. They are the volcanic cores of a series of volcanoes that were present about 26 million years ago. There are two good lookouts over the Glasshouse Mountains, the best one is in my opinion the Wild Horse Mountain lookout on top Wild Horse Mountain. The hill has an amazing 360 degrees view and on a clear day you can see all the way to the outskirts of Brisbane. The picture is of Mt. Coonowrin, the most impressive of the Glasshouse Mountains.

We drove right past Brisbane this time and headed for the Gold Coast, Australia's top tourist destination. The capitol of the Gold Coast is Surfers Paradise, a strip of tall buildings along Surfers Paradise Beach. The name might suggest that surfing is good here, but the truth is that Byron Bay and even Coolangatta just half an hour away is a better surfing spot. Surfers Paradise is famous for something and that is the crazy nightlife, rich tourists and lazy days on the beach. However it is winter now and the weather was to cold to chill on the beach so we looked around the city instead. We quickly discovered that there is not much to do in Surfers Paradise in the winter. We looked around in the shopping centers and bought discount tickets for Movie World, one of the many theme parks in the Gold Coast. I also remembered that the only Hard Rock Cafe in Australia is in Surfers Paradise, so we found that and Annina bought me a Hard Rock Cafe singlet. :)

When I did my ultimate surfing adventure back in September our last stop was Coolangatta and I have never forgotten the amazing fries they sell at the hostel where we stayed. I wanted Annina to taste them as well and since we were this close to Coolangatta we took the trip there. The hostel looked just like it did 9 months ago and the fries still tasted amazing. I also showed Annina the view of Surfers Paradise from the beach in Coolangatta.

Movie World

The next morning we got up early and drove the short distance from where we camped to Movie World to get there before it opened. All of Australia's theme parks are located in the Gold Coast and after looking through brochures and reading about the different ones we decided on Movie World. We could see roller coasters from outside the entrance so it looked promising! Movie World reminded me a lot from when I went to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida with my family. Every roller coaster, ride, shop or other attraction has a theme connected with a movie or franchise. We went on a Saturday and I was afraid it would be as packed as Universal Studios, but I think we got extremely lucky. It was a gorgeous day, but because of winter it was the off season. The longest we ever had to wait in line was 30 minutes and on most rides we waited 5-10 minutes.

Movie World has two good roller coasters, Superman Escape and Lethal Weapon. We both decided that Superman Escape was the best ride and took that the most number of times. After a slow circuit inside a building where you get the story of the ride, the roller coaster shoots out of the building reaching 100km/h in 2 seconds and then climbs straight up a vertical climb. Here it almost stops before plummeting down again on the other side. The Lethal Weapon roller coaster was also great. It is a steel inverted roller coaster which means your feet are dangling in the air and the track is above you. The Lethal Weapon ride was the loopy ride of Movie World with many loops and twists. I won't go into detail about every ride, that would make this post both boring and way to long. However I will comment on a show we watched called Hollywood Stunt Driver. It was set up to look like a movie set with a director and crew filming a few car chase scenes from a movie. The show we (the audience) were watching was the stunt drivers driving around doing all sorts of tricks with the cars at high speed. The best trick was when three cars were all driving around on two wheels. Also the finale was really good. It is hard to describe but if you ever get the chance to go to Movie World Australia don't miss Hollywood Stunt Driver.

It was illegal to bring food inside the park (yet another way to milk money from the customers) so we decided to just go the whole day without food and then eat when we left. Although I was really hungry in the end I was also happy that we did it like this. Usually after I eat I start feeling a little bit sick after to many rides, but this time the whole day flew past and I could do as many rides as I wanted while feeling great. At 5:00PM the rides closed and everyone gathered along the main street in the park to watch the closing parade with all the different characters from the rides and shows. My favorite character was Batman. He even drove the real car that was used in the movie "The Dark Knight". We both agreed that Movie World was worth the money and that we both had a great time.



Movie World: 17. July 2010

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Our next stop along the east coast towards Sydney was Nimbin, a small but famous town to Australians. For the last 30-40 years it has been known as the hippie capitol of Australia and attracts a special group of people. In later years tourists flock here to look at the oddly colored houses, meet the free thinking community and buy ecological produce. Some people travel to Nimbin to buy what is legal in Netherlands, but I will not go down that road now. The real reason we went to Nimbin was because it was along the way to Mt. Warning, one of the highest mountains in northern NSW. We only stopped for about an hour in Nimbin to look around and visit the local Museum. However the Museum is something special and unique and captures the atmosphere of Nimbin very well. It was very interesting and cool to walk through it.

Mt. Warning

We reached Mt. Warning in the afternoon and set up camp. Mt. Warning is 1.156 meters over see level and because it is located so close to the easternmost point of the Australian continent it is the first place in mainland Australia to receive sunlight each morning. Our plan was to climb up during the night and reach the top in time for the sunrise. The path to the top is 8.8km return with 500 meters in the end that you have to climb with a chain. We got up at 2:30AM and started the walk by 3:00AM. We brought a bag with food and warm cloths and a flashlight. Without the flashlight it would have been impossible to do it. It was pitch black along the track and all we saw was the meter ahead of us that the torch lit up. After about an hour we reached the halfway mark where we stopped for a quick rest before continuing on. After another hour we reached the chain climbing section. Here we had to take turns climbing, first I climbed a few meters then I had to light the way for Annina who didn't have a flashlight. We finally reached the summit after two and a half hours of walking. The first light was just visible over the horizon but it would be another 45 minutes before sunrise so we sat down and ate cookies and relaxed.

At first we were alone but as time passed and the sunrise came closer more and more people arrived. By the time the sun came into view at least 20 people had gathered on the lookout atop Mt. Warning. And this was a Monday morning! The sunrise was very beautiful and we both decided it was well worth the climb in the dark. The view was also spectacular. We could see the cape of Byron Bay in the horizon and small towns scattered across the landscape. What made it even more beautiful was the mist that lay thick in the valleys. Green forests, white mist and the golden sun! I tried to capture the magic on camera but I think to be there is more impressive. There are more photos in the album below!

When the sun was fully visible we started our hike back down. We could now properly see the track we had walked earlier in the night. The chain climb was the most shocking, that we did that in the dark was unbelievable. The path further down was also narrow several places with steep banks on either side. If we had fallen down there in the dark it would not have ended good. I don't want to scare anyone though, it is possible. I mean all 20 of us made it up that night and I am sure there are at least the same number of people any other night. And I have not heard of any accidents and it's not illegal to climb up during the night. Just be careful and you will be okay. The walk back down only took 1.5 hours and we arrived at the car happy and proud. We had done everything we wanted on the east coast and it was now time to drive back to Sydney and sell the car.

Mt. Warning: 19. July 2010

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Fraser Island

On the way towards Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island is Bundaberg, a town known for it's Bundaberg rum and among backpackers for it's working hostels. We didn't go to Bundaberg to work, but we dropped by the distillery. We hoped that the distillery shop had a broad selection of the various non alcoholic drinks that they produce in addition to the liquor, but the shop turned out to be a big disappointment. We also arrived to late in the afternoon for a tour of the distillery. We ended up with a few photos from the outside and a bottle of apple cider.

South of Bundaberg just of the freeway was another large fruit, a huge pineapple. The large pineapple was hollow inside and a staircase went around the inside up to the top. On the inside was a mini museum about the pineapple industry in Australia which was located in the area where we were. At the top was a nice little lookout and you could see pineapple fields to the northeast. Of all the big fruits, animals and other weird things we have seen, the pineapple was the best.

Our next stop was Brisbane. Technically Brisbane is south of Fraser Island and a detour, but we drove the extra 100km south so we could watch the World Cup third place game and final. I was in Brisbane before during my second month in Australia so I am not going to go into details about the city now. What I can say is that I showed Annina around so she could see the city as well. Like I mentioned the main reason we were in Brisbane was because of the World Cup and we watched both games in the Brisbane casino. The casino has free entry, is open 24 hours and has lots of big screens so it was a easy choice. Germany secured the third place and Spain beat the Netherlands, but I am sure you all know that already. After the final was finished and we beat our car getting towed away by like 10 minutes, we drove straight to Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow Beach is a small village next to the south tip of Fraser Island. It is the main gateway to Fraser together with Harvey Bay. While waiting for our Fraser trip's information and safety briefing we walked down to the beach that the town is named after. The name Rainbow Beach comes from the color of the sand on the banks of the beach, from light yellow to dark red. The tour company that we were going with was called Dingo's and was also a hostel. They were very friendly and let us sleep in our car in their parking lot for free. We could also use all of their facilities.

The next morning we got up at 6:30 AM and got ready for Fraser Island. By 7:45 we were all waiting in the parking lot where our rental cars were already waiting. It was no surprise that we were driving Toyota Landcruisers, reputedly the best 4x4 car in Australia. After going through the normal procedures when renting a car and packing all the gear, we got in the cars (8 people in each) and headed for Fraser Island. The type of tour we had booked was a tag along tour which meant that we drove our own car, but had to follow a lead car. Since 7/8 people in our car could drive we had to take turns.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world at 1840 square kilometers and is among the many World Heritage listed places in Australia. There are over 100 freshwater lakes on Fraser and they are among the cleanest on the planet. The beach that runs along the east coast of Fraser Island is over 120km long. Fraser Island is famous for it's dingo population which is regarded as the purest in Australia due to the isolation from the mainland. Dogs are prohibited on the island to prevent cross-breeding. Dingo's are smart animals and they tried to steal our food several times while we were there. One was hiding under our car just waiting for us to turn our backs to the food.

To get to Fraser Island we had to take a barge (kind of boat) across. It wasn't very far and the whole trip took less than 15 minutes. While waiting for the barge we saw dolphins jumping in the waves. There are no real roads on Fraser Island, you drive on the beach most of the time. Driving on the beach is a bit harder than on normal roads, but is not overly complicated. The main things to remember is to stay close to the ocean where the sand is hardest and to look out for freshwater streams that flow across the sand from the forest edge. It is also important to remember that normal road rules apply.

The first thing we did was to drive to our campsite and set up our tents. Then we headed towards Lake McKenzie, the most famous freshwater lake on Fraser Island. The road to Lake McKenzie went inland through the rainforest and was not much more than a dirt track. The 11 kilometers to get there took over an hour to drive. Lake McKenzie was really beautiful, clear blue water in the middle of the rainforest with white sandy beaches around. In fact it was weird to see such a nice beach next to a freshwater lake, normally the beaches are next to the ocean? Me and Annina went for a short walk next to the lake and enjoyed the view. After Lake McKenzie we drove back to the campsite, made dinner and partied until late.

Our first stop the next morning was a place called Eli Creek. Here a freshwater spring cuts through the forest out to the ocean. A boardwalk is available next to the creek and you can follow that inwards a few hundred meters. Then you can wade back out to the ocean through the creek. The deepest the water gets is just over the knees and the bottom is covered with sand, making it a nice little walk. After Eli Creek we drove further north along the sand on the east coast of Fraser Island until we came to Indian Head. Here we climbed up and had an amazing view both north and south. Out in the ocean we could see dolphins surfing the waves and really far in the horizon a whale was jumping and blowing water.

Between Eli Creek and Indian Head is a shipwreck stuck on the beach called the Maheno wreck. Depending on the tide it is either half way underwater or all the way above. It must have been fairly low tide when we stopped because most of the wreck was above water. I am not sure how old it is, but it was very rusty. However, there was still a good portion of the boat left especially in the front where everyone stood to get a good photo. Since the whole thing was rusting away it was dangerous to go inside. Technically it was illegal to go closer than 3 meters, but nobody cared about that.

The last day we packed up our camp, put everything back into our now sand filled cars and headed for our last destination, Lake Wabby. To get there we had to walk a 2.4km track through the rainforest. In the end the woods opened up into a huge sandblow (the Hammerstone Sandblow) and at the one end was Lake Wabby. It was like a desert surrounded by forest. The bank down to the lake was really steep and the water was freezing. We could see fish swimming around and I also saw a turtle sticking it's head up to get some air. The whole place was very unique. At one place in the sandblow the color of the sand changed from yellow to white for no apparent reason. It was an almost perfect line.

Everyone was pretty exhausted and tired after the hike to and from the lake and because of the party the night before. It was therefore with not to much sadness that we climbed into our cars and headed back for the barge to the mainland. Me and Annina had shared our car with a group of six Irish people, four guys and two girls. They turned out to be incredibly friendly and nice and we had a great time with them. When we got back to Rainbow Beach they even let us use the shower in their hostel room. Thanks Neil, Angela, Shanet, Berry, Paul and Brandon for a wonderful trip!

Fraser Island: 13. July 2010 - 15. July 2010

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The Whitsundays

Our first small stop on the way to the Whitsundays was Townsville. We went to the man made beach they have and the esplanade next to it. Townsville is a pretty ugly town and there is not anything special to see there. The only cool thing worth mentioning is the hill in the middle of the city called Castle Hill. It sticks up high over the houses and has a good lookout over the coast and city. Townsville is also the gateway to Magnetic Island, a nice island just off the coast. All the backpackers go to Magnetic Island but we decided to skip it and continue south. We stopped one day each in Ayr and Bowen, two towns on the way between Townsville and Airlie Beach. Here we watched the World Cup quarterfinals, used the free WIFI at McDonald's and slept.

There is not much to write about Ayr, but Bowen is more interesting. It was in Bowen that Baz Luhrmann filmed the Darwin scenes in the movie Australia and there was still remnants of the set that we looked at. Bowen also has many good beaches especially Horseshoe Bay. Apparently there is a reef that you can see if you snorkel just off the beach. We didn't check as the weather was cold and so was the water, but next to Horseshoe bay is Horseshoe Bay lookout with a nice view of the bay and surrounding beaches. We climbed up there instead and took some nice photos of the landscape. Just south of Bowen is the big Mango which we of course stopped at and took some photos.

Airlie Beach was just an hour drive south of Bowen. We got there around midday and after checking into our Whitsunday cruise we decided to look around. Airlie Beach has a nice lagoon just next to the beach with several pools in different sizes and depths. There are also several beaches the most famous being Airlie Beach! But we were in Airlie Beach to sail the Whitsundays and that's what we did the very next day.

The Whitsundays

The Whitsunday Islands are one of the most known spots along the east coast. 74 in total all located in tropical waters next to the Great Barrier Reef. The climate and location makes it ideal as a holiday getaway amongst palms and white sandy beaches. Although most of the islands looked nothing like the palm fringed tropical flat islands I had imagined they were still really nice to sail around. There are resorts on most of the bigger islands ranging from high class hotels to more affordable hostels, however the cruise we "choose" was a 2 day 2 night sailing cruise were we slept on the boat.

The boat that we "choose" was called Tongarra and was a "sailing" catamaran. I write "sailing" because for most of the trip the boat was running on propellers and "choose" because the boat was part of the bigger package that we bought. We were 21 people plus a crew of three on a boat not very big. I had expected a way bigger boat and was a bit shocked when I first saw her. It was also a party boat and everyone had brought a lot of alcohol except us. The first evening we just sailed out to Nara inlet and anchored and the party began. Luckily most of the people were really nice. There were only 8 beds for 21 people, but the crew put a big tent on deck so people could sleep there. We got lucky and found a bed inside and it was nice to fall asleep to the movement of the waves.

We got up really early the next morning and sailed towards Whitsunday Island (the biggest island in the Whitsundays) and Whitehaven beach. (The most famous beach in the Whitsundays and among the top tree most beautiful beaches in Australia). First be walked up to Hill inlet lookout where you could see out over the Hill inlet and Whitehaven beach. The view was amazing with the turquoise ocean, the white beach and the green forest. We then walked down to Whitehaven beach and relaxed. When we first arrived the weather was gray and overcast, but suddenly the clouds were away and the sun was shining. Just next to the beach was a tiny sand island and next to that again we saw stingrays swimming around. At lunch time Tongarra picked us up from the beach and we headed north towards our first snorkeling spot, Mantaray Bay!

On the way to Mantaray Bay we saw a whale swimming past the boat and the crew feed eagles that caught the food in the air as we through it to them. A seagull was flying next to the boat and it came closer and closer when we held food out for it. In the end we were feeding it in the air as it flew next to the boat at the same speed as we were sailing. It seemed to never get full and always came back for another snack when someone else wanted to feed it.

The snorkeling spot was amazing. Just next to Hook Island in the bay that we had sailed to was tons of corals and fish just under the surface. We put on our stinger suits (to protect against dangerous jellyfish and keep you warm and afloat) and our snorkeling equipment and jumped into the water. The reef here was in my opinion even better than the reefs up by Cairns and I was really sad that I didn't have an underwater camera. I saw tons of fish in all different colors and a Napoleonfish which looks like the fish in the picture. They are really big! We went to two different snorkeling spots that afternoon before anchoring. My only complaint was all the jellyfish in the water. Even with a suit they stung me on my hands, feet and in the face. That night we saw the most amazing sunset and just to make the picture perfect a sailboat crossed the horizon as the sun sank in the ocean.

By the last morning we had made new friends and emptied a four liter casket of goon. We started the day with a quick snorkel at a third spot called Caves Cove also referred to as "the third snorkel spot" by the skipper. We then headed back towards Airlie Beach. The weather was fantastic that whole day and it was nice to just relax on deck and enjoy. That evening the crew went out with us to the pub and everyone got drunk, especially the skipper. We had booked a hostel for the night because Germany was playing their World Cup semifinal and the game was 04:00 in the morning. They lost :( The next morning we left beautiful Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays and headed south yet again, this time towards Fraser Island!

The Whitsundays: 05. July 2010 - 07. July 2010

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