Blogging Monkeys

We arrived in Singapore in the evening of the 30^th July after an 8 hour flight from Cairns via Darwin. The heat and humidity reminded us that we were now in Asia (try walking around with 20kg+ backpacks in 35 degree heat!) We had 3 nights in Singapore before we had to head into Malaysia and on to Kuala Lumpur before catching our 7am flight to Borneo on Sunday morning.

Singapore is famous for shopping and Raffles so we did both! We spent the next 2 days shopping. Iain wanted an underwater camera ready for diving at Sipidan and I wanted to window shop all of the high street favourites such as Top Shop, Miss S, Zara, Warehouse, River Island etc. We spent the one evening visiting Chimes, a restaurant complex in Singapore in the grounds of a church, and enjoying Singapore Slings at Raffles. Whilst in Singapore we posted back our heavy winter clothing back to the UK trying to lighten our packs (it is much cheaper here than Australia) and spent hours walking from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to buy Malaria tablets ready for Borneo. Contrary to what info you can find on the internet and to what we were being told by pharmacists we visited, you can buy Doxycycline over the counter in Singapore but only for foreign passport holders who have a ticket to leave the country within 2 days (and they are less than 2p per tablet..).

Saturday morning we took the bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur where we had to spend the night before our flight to Borneo. We arrived in KL to find it was even hotter than Singapore! After being ripped off by the taxi driver for the fare to our hostel (something that would continue for the rest of the time we have spent in Asia so far but it’s all part of the experience!) we had a few hours to check out the main sight in KL, the Petronas towers before an early night.

Our flight to Kota Kinabalu was at 7am on Sunday and with KL international airport being an hour outside the city we were up whilst most people still hadn’t made it home from their Saturday night out in KL. We checked in for our Air Asia flight (official airline of Manchester United in Asia!!) to be told that we only had 15kg of baggage allowances each, and the extra charge was more than the cost of the flight! After repacking and wearing most of our heavy clothing we managed to get away with a small charge for a few kgs.

Arriving in Kota Kinabalu we flew over a national park just off the coast of the city, which comprises off white beach fringed islands in turquoise seas. After checking into our hostel to be told our room wasn’t ready, we headed off to the jetty to catch a boat to the islands we flew over. We chose Mamukan which we were told was good snorkelling with lots of fish. We spent the afternoon in the sea playing with Iain’s new underwater camera and finally finding about 20 Nemos (clown fish or anemone fish) after searching tirelessly in Oz and Fiji.

Monday was a planning day for the rest of Borneo trying to arrange tours and accommodation for the rest of our 2 weeks in Sabah – Sabah is the Malay region of the Island located in the North East, Sarawak, also Malay is North West, with the southern part being Indonesian. We were trying to arrange our accommodation and excursions ourselves rather through travel agents to save money but soon learnt that everything in Sabah is managed through agents, you just can’t contact anyone directly yourself to make a reservation. Also, as it was August we had hit peak season (school holidays) and everything was booked up! Note to anyone heading to Borneo – if you’re travelling in peak season book in advance and be prepared to use travel agents as you can’t simply book direct with a tour or resort. This was especially true for Mount Kinabalu climbing, Turtle Island and the Kinabatang River.

Tuesday morning we checked out of our hostel and walked to the minivan stop to catch a van to Mount Kinabalu. Mini vans are a great way to get around Borneo. They are cheap but you have to wait for the van to fill up before it will head off. The vans hold about 10-12 people so after waiting about an hour in the midday heat we were full and ready to go. The drive to the mountain took about 2 hours; climbing up to about 1600 meters where thankfully the temperature was cooler and cost RM15 each (about £2). Mount Kinabalu is the 2^nd highest mountain in south East Asia and is popular for climbing as you don’t need any mountaineering equipment and is suitable for all ages to climb. But again as we were visiting in peak season the climb was already booked up (only a hundred or so climbers are allowed to climb each day.) We had struggled to find accommodation in the national park of the mountain itself and booked a room which was supposedly 1km away from the national park which we found on the internet. After getting dropped off by the minivan to the entrance to the national park we spent the next hour walking around trying to find the lodge we booked. We eventually found it, down a little lane on the side of the mountain more than a few k’s away from where it was suppose to be. The location was gorgeous if a little remote and as it had no restaurant we had to hike back up the mountain to find somewhere to eat. The lodge had only been open a few weeks and no one else was staying there which at night was a bit creepy! As we couldn’t climb the mountain we spent Wednesday walking the trails through the rainforest of the national park. Every afternoon the clouds would come in and cover the mountain. Our lodge would disappear into the cloud and then we would get the heaviest tropical down poor cooling the mountain and being soaked through before then sun would come out again. As the lodge was surrounded by the rainforest, at night we would hear loud smacking noises against the window as the biggest moths and butterflies we had ever seen flew into the glass trying to get into the light. See the photo.

Thursday morning we caught the a/c bus to Sandakan from the national park. Sandakan was the city we were going to be based for our visit to Sepilok, Turtle Island and the Kinabatang river cruise. As the journey took 6 hours, Thursday was mostly spent sat on the bus watching the most awful Malaysian films. On arriving in Sandakan we found out that Turtle Island and the river cruise were booked up for days and as we had planned to head to Sipidan to go diving we couldn’t wait for the next available date. We decided to visit Sepilok tomorrow (Friday) then head off a couple of days early to spend some more time diving.

Being backpackers and trying to survive on a budget we decided not to visit Sepilok, the Orang-utan rehabilitation centre, as part of a tour and make our own way there on the local bus. The centre is 20ks away from Sandakan city but the local bus took well over an hour to get there by which time we missed the 10am feeding of the Orang-utans. As the entrance fee allowed us to visit the afternoon feed session at 3pm, we had a few hours to kill as the park closed for lunch. We spent some time walking around the rainforest trails around the park trying to see if we could spot any Orang-utans in the trees before the feeding session. In a park information video it was explained that at the feeding sessions we would only see the smaller Orang-utans as the older Orang-utans are being weaned off human contact and encouraged to try and find food for themselves in the rain forest of the reserve. We saw 5 at the feeding as well as Macaw monkeys who are wild and come to steal food from the Orang-utans. Unfortunately we didn’t get any that came down on the walkways for a close up picture, but as we sat waiting for the bus at the end of the day after the park closed, we did get to see one of the Orang-utans being taken for a walk through the car park with its keeper and they strolled right passed us!

Saturday we caught the bus from Sandakan to Semporna, the jumping off point for the islands Sipidan and Mabul. Sipidan is classed as one of the best dive spots in the world. It is a small island that rises out of the sea off the East Coast of Borneo, almost on the border with the Philippians. It is surrounded by a coral reef with a vertical limestone wall that drops 600 meters to the sea bed. There used to be resorts on the islands so you could stay right next to the dive spots, but after kidnappings of tourists in 2005 and uncontrolled expansion of dive operators visiting the island with potential to damage the reefs, all resorts were closed and the island is now uninhabited apart from the Malaysian army personal guarding the island and protecting the tourists. The closest island to Sipidan you can stay on is Mabul. We had planned to splurge a little and stay at one of the water bungalow resorts on the island with all diving included in the price, but yet again they were all booked up! We didn’t want to be based in Semporna and have to make the hour long boat journey out to the dive sites everyday (as well as Semporna being a bit of a grim town) so the other option (and considerably cheaper) was to stay on Mabul at a home stay. The home stay is staying in basic accommodation of wooden homes, built on stilts over the water. You stay with a local family in their home within the local village. Iain had originally planned to take his advanced dive course whilst at Mabul but due to my bank stopping my cash card due to what they thought was fraudulent activity we only had the money we had on us (no credit cards accepted) so we had to switch to a 3 night stay with a one day dive package which gave us 3 dives as well as a refresher dive as we hadn’t done any diving since our Padi course in Thailand back in Feb 2007. We spent from Sunday until Wednesday evening on the island, diving in various spots around Mabul. It was great to get back into diving and to build our skills back up. One the dives we saw Turtles, Frog fish, Lion fish, Ghost Pipe Fish, Harlequin Shrimp, a Sea Horse, Cuttlefish, Nudibranchs (a type of sea slugs in techni colour!) as well as loads of things we can’t remember the names of! Diving around Mabul was great but the island its self is far from picture postcard paradise as many of the beaches are dirty and the island is littered with rubbish. You are there to spend your time underwater not above it!

After our diving we had to head back to Semporna Wednesday evening where we spent the night before we travelled to Tawau to catch a flight back to Kota Kinabalu on Thursday. We spent Thursday night at what seemed like a lovely hostel which was highly recommend in the Lonely Planet until I discovered my bed was infested with bugs and bed bugs. We had the biggest cockroach run across the wall which we got the staff to remove and then started to find loads of baby cockroaches before we moved rooms in the middle of the night! I am still having nightmares about it now.

Friday we spent the day out at Mamutik, Island, a different island of the national park just off the coast of Kota Kinabalu and had dinner in the local market near our hostel, after having a walk around – we saw a huge variety of fish and sea food, most of which we had been swimming around with on Mabul. We set off Saturday morning for our flight to Penang.

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Below are some photos from one of the dive masters, Lee, who was diving with us.  I sorted out backup of his photos along with some ‘cleaning up’ and colour correction in exchange for copies of the photos he took when diving with us, (and a few days before).  Below are his pictures and we thank him for letting us show you what we saw whilst diving with Billabong Dive company.

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After finally arriving at Airlie Beach we got picked up and taken to our next (and most definitely last) Koala Hostel. Anyone wanting advice on hostels around Australia - avoid Koalas, most hostels are ok, some great, some adequate but Koalas are just run down, and when the staff are fed up from hearing complaints and tell you that the owner won’t spend a penny (cent) doing anything up - you realise that you should probably just avoid them.  The one in Airlie beach, as with Noosa, was an old Motel, that had had the beds taken out and the bunk beds put in.  It was terrible!  I realise that as backpackers we can’t demand 5-star hotels, but we had Koala hostels where the rooms stank of urine, mattresses that were so old you could feel the slats below, they charge for linen - yes charge you a deposit and washing fee! Require a deposit for cutlery and room keys and do not allow you to bring your own alcohol on site.  The best thing about Koalas is leaving!  We used their 4×4s on Fraser Island and on reflection they are a complete rip-off - a $50 per person charge for fuel and gas aside from insurance etc. for a small gas bottle that you would have huge trouble using all of, and a tank of petrol in the car that even if it was jet engine fuel with gold flakes in, would not equate to $550!  I lie - the best thing about Koalas are the people you are travelling with, the second best is leaving.

So back to Airlie beach, this town is the jump off point for the Whitsunday Island group.  They are a collection of 74 islands just inside the Great Barrier reef off Queensland.

Airlie beach is a really nice place but is without a good beach (surprising considering it name) - instead they have a purpose built lagoon beside the beach, which is hugely popular and where we spent a couple of days catching some rays and relaxing before our 2days/2 nights sailing trip around the islands

We decided to book a smaller, less ‘crazy’ and drinking oriented boat when in Sydney, and were not disappointed when we arrived at the Marina on Saturday lunch time.  Our boat, Prima, carried 13, of which two were crew - the Captain Adam, a truly top guy who was knowledgeable on all of the Whitsundays, its flora and fauna amongst much else, and Jesse, the first mate, who’s food was lovely and plentiful (and a welcome change)and really pleasant to be around.  The ‘customers’ were: us two, six Germans, One French, and Two Canadian and everyone got on really well.  The trip took us out to Whitehaven Beach - apparently where NASA and others get their Silicon from - both at night and first thing in the morning when no-one else was on it. Something we all appreciated once the hoards of other boats and people arrived.  The beach had the whitest and finest sand I have ever seen, and was really beautiful - I hope the photos portray this..  We went snorkelling four times - although Danni unfortunately only managed one due to the now whole in her stomach from the infected wound.  The coral at some sites, particularly the Coral Garden were spectacular with a large variety of fish and other animals including turtles.  We were very fortunate with the weather and only got a tiny amount of rain - we have spoken to people who sailed both before and after us and they got thoroughly drenched.  The only downside to our good weather was the lack of wind, so a lot of the time we had to have the motor running. I definitely recommend the Whitsundays and Prima.

Whitehaven Beach Panorama from the boat

Whitehaven Beach

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We returned to Airlie beach Monday lunchtime and made our way to our new hostel - Magnums, we got a lovely little hut, but the only downside was still having to pay for pillows!! and sheets.  We spent the rest of the day doing laundry, internet and sunbathing.  The following day was an early start for the bus to Townsville to enable us to get the ferry to Magnetic Island.

Magnetic Island is reported to have the most sun in the whole of Australia - over 320 days per year without rain.  We picked two days when it poured down. Almost as soon as we got off the ferry it rained. The first 24 hours were bearable and we were able to do a little exploring off this tropical island, which has one of the largest colonies of Koalas (this time the animal!).   From about 4pm the following day, the weather had truly turned and the heavens opened, even causing a power cut at our hostel.  We  all (back with Holly, Liann, Durmuid and now Ciaren) just decided to go to bed instead of waste our torch batteries at about 8pm. We awoke with our dorm slightly flooded, the footpaths around the hostel more flooded, tree branches blown down but totally refreshed!  We made our way to the ferry just as the sun seemed to come out.  It’s really difficult to give an opinion of Magnetic Island - it looks nice, it has huge boulder rocks everywhere, and is covered in rainforest!

From Townsville we got the Greyhound bus to Mission Beach and luckily the sun stayed out!  (Actually right up till we left Australia!)

We arrived in Mission beach and 150m walk away was our hostel - what you may Not appreciate in this is that we are carrying our complete life on our backs, fronts, shoulders and in our hands; and it’s heavy for any length of time.. So 150m from the bus stop is a great place to put a hostel!  The hostel was called Absolute Backpackers and was definitely the best in Australia we visited.  Although it started out with us getting told off by the strict Dutch lady owner, we soon realised we had made a good choice.

What constitutes a good hostel (in Australia..)? Clean rooms and common spaces, big kitchen (one the enables the majority of ‘guests’ to use at the same time), enough cooking equipment and cutlery, clean sheets, no bed bugs, helpful and knowledgeable staff, generally no liquor licence (this allows the guests to purchase their own booze off site and drink it on site - too many places have signs telling you that because they sell alcohol you are breaking the law bringing your own and drinking it on the premises - so drop the prices on your alcohol to enable us to comfortably drink as much (or as little) as we wish!). Enough space for the majority of TV room, or space where you can sit down and hide away from the rest of the hostel.  Facility to book tours, trips, and anything else you wanted to do in the area from reception or a travel desk, without feeling as though you had paid a huge mark-up or provided them with over 10% agents kick back.

Absolute backpackers had all of this and more, it is across the road from a ‘bottle shop’ (off-license), the beach 200m away, supermarket 200m the other way, and had a reasonable pool.  Needless to say, when we found out that the majority of cheaper accommodation in Cairns was booked up for the night we wished to stay, we extended our stay in Absolute.  The town of Mission beach is a fairly small one which is set between the beach and rainforest, along with crocodile watching night safaris and rainforest trekking.  I went for a long walk through the rainforest for an afternoon, but as for the other adrenalin ‘sports’ some in our travelling group did them (and they looked really fun), but we both decided once again to hold on to our money, as they are not cheap, and some of the companies seemed extremely unreliable.  The beach in this area is renowned for lots of stingers (in season - not the stingers, the time of year..) and on certain beaches, Salt water crocodiles.  We didn’t pick those ones to sunbathe on needless to say.

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From Mission beach we caught our last Greyhound to Cairns, and arrived across the road from the Shangri La Hotel (Dannis favourite), where not for the first or last I doubt, I heard “Please can we stay there!?” Constantly the bearer of bad news I had to remind her that she had booked the accommodation in Cairns, based on our discount vouchers from Wicked travel.  So after hanging around for the hostel pickup bus we finally arrived at Serpents, a short way out of town, but an reasonable hostel with reasonable facilities.  We were still a group of 6, so got our own room together.

Cairns is most definitely still a town, it is diddy certainly the centre is! It is nice though, geared almost solely to diving on the Great Barrier Reef, its beaches are not safe to swim at due to Crocs and stingers - so the council put a huge lagoon on the towns beachfront. The majority of our time in Cairns was spent sunbathing, as the sun was still out in full force, although it was cool-cold at night, something the locals didn’t seem to like much.  With Dannis wound still not properly healed, and the salt water temperature perfect for bacteria cultivation we disappointedly decided against going out on a boat to the Reef, but heard mixed reports from those who had taken trips. We heard stories of lots of dead coral, massive groups of snorkelers seeming to scare all wildlife away, and constantly crashing into each other, people standing and walking on the coral (this for me is a huge concern, and doesn’t therefore surprise that much of the reef is dying/dead).  It is only what we had been told, but it does sound like the authorities in charge of protecting the Great Barrier reef must slow down its commercialisation or risk it being irreversible damaged.  Cairns economy seems to thrive on tourism, if the reef gets worse, then the ‘city’ will also be hurt.  Below are some shots Danni took from the Plane as we left Australia.  Summary ofAustralia to come at the start of the next post - Bring on Asia!!  Look out Asia..

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Luckily this time, there were no delays and no damaged bagged and we arrived on time at midnight, going forward 2 hours for time difference as now we were back on the East coast. After checking in at our hostel - Bunk (a huge hostel, just on the city outskirts) we went straight to bed. We had only planned 1 day for Brisbane, keen to get moving on up the East Coast. We spent Wednesday wandering around the city and along the river front, sunbathing in the Botanical gardens and window shopping along the main shopping street.

Thursday morning we caught our first Greyhound bus to Noosa. Noosa is 2 hours north along the Sunshine Coast and a major holiday destination in Australia. Many Australians have holiday homes in Noosa and as we arrived in the middle of the winter school holidays, it was busy! We checked into our hostel, a resort run by a company called Koalas who offer the bare minimum in terms of facilities in exchange for bed bug bites. The only reason why we were there was for the money off vouchers we were given back in Sydney, and we needed to save money. With the weather being the first bit of warm sunshine we had in Australia, we hit the beach. After a few hours of sun, we headed back to the hostel. After meeting 2 English lads in our room, we all headed to the Koala resort bar where we spent the evening watching the locals and backpackers get smashed! Fridays weather was a lot more overcast and cooler. We decided to go the national park, just beside the beach where you can take a coastal hike, spotting wild Koalas in the gum (Eucalyptus) trees.

Saturday morning we caught the Greyhound bus to Hervey Bay. We had to be at our hostel for 3pm to meet our team for our Fraser Island self drive Safari. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island situated off the East coast. With only a few small villages and no roads, the only way to get around was to hire a 4×4 and drive along the dunes and beaches. With limited facilities we were going to have to camp for the 3 day/2 nights. Our Fraser Island experience started when we met our team at our briefing the day before we were due to depart. Our team was a total of 11 people – Hollie, Liann, Amy, Laura, Keith, Scott, Ciaren, Dairmuid, Ray, Iain and I. Comprising 3 Irish and the rest British - it made for a great dynamic. We were definitely lucky, other groups didn’t seem to get on very well, or even be able to communicate easily. We were team B, soon to be renamed Team Best! There were a total of 4 other vans due to depart the following day, all with similar numbers in their groups. Our first task was to work out how much food we would need for our adventure. With a shopping list in hand we went to the supermarket, brought all the supplies, then headed to the bottle shop for the most important purchase of all – the Goon. That evening we had to pack a small bag ready for the following mornings 6.45am start!

Sunday morning at 6.45am did not look good. The weather was overcast and wet. We were told to expect rain. We were shown our van, given all of our camping equipment and then shown the best way to pack the van ensuring that all of the gear fitted in. We were then given a map of how to get to the barge over to the island and set off with Iain driving. Once at the barge we were joined by other 4×4 off road vans from different tour companies. The first challenge for our driver, Iain, was to reverse the van on to the barge, ready to drive straight off at Fraser Island on to the sand. This proved to be an easy task for Iain, but the same couldn’t be said for the other drivers who were having difficulty reversing up the ramp of the barge into a small parking space. It proved much amusement for the hundred or so passengers watching.

Once on the ferry Iain realised that we had forgotten to pack our sleeping bags. The reason for such an error was “partly” my fault. Whilst in Noosa I had been bitten by something on my stomach, possibly an ant. It was just a small red bite, but over the following the days the bite had hardened, started to swell and turn black. I woke on Sunday morning unable to move and in a lot of pain, my right side of my abdomen being totally swollen. In a panic before we left for Fraser I went to the local pharmacy who told me I needed to go to a doctor or the hospital as I was developing an infection and needed some antibiotics. We were due to leave in 15 minutes for Fraser, so I explained that I had already paid for the tour, all of the food, and the petrol money. The pharmacist suggested trying to change the dates (not possible with our tour company as they were pretty unhelpful and generally crap - Koala again!) as being stuck on an island with no facilities and no shower for 3 days would not do me any good. We were undecided what to do, knowing we would lose a lot of money and being on such a tight travelling schedule we couldn’t think when we could fit the tour back in. Ciaren then suggested that he had left over antibiotics from a previous illness, so we ran to the Pharmacy to explain that we had managed to find someone with some spare antibiotics and were told that it would be the same as the doctor would prescribe so we decided to go, buying strong pain killers to help with the immediate pain. In the mean time we totally forgot we needed to pick up our sleeping bags. So we were stuck with no sleeping bags and bad weather reports. After explaining the problem to a member of staff working on the barge, it was suggested that we call a shop on the island (one of only a couple located on the small villages) to see if they had any. They did so we reserved 2 for only $27 each, not bad considering that our sleeping backs back in Hervey bay cost $30 to hire each.

Once off the barge Iain drove us along the sand roads through the giant ancient Eucalyptus forest of the Island to our first stop Lake McKenzie. The lake is a blue colour with the whitest finest sand we have ever seen. It is supposed to be a perfect swimming spot, but as it was starting to rain and the water was freezing only a few of the lads jumped in - Obviously Iain included. After the lake, we headed over to the other side of the island for our detour to pick up the sleeping bags. Once at the shop we were told that there had been a mistake and that the sales assistant we spoke to had read the price upside down and in fact the sleeping bags were $72 each! We were stuck so decided to buy one hoping to get by. In the end one sleeping bag was fine as I ran such fever the first night because of my infection I was too hot, and the second night Iain was so drunk he just passed out in his clothes.

The first nights camp was suppose to be on the beach along the south of the island. As we and the other 3 vans part of the tour all arrived late, the tide had come in and being unable to drive through salt water (we would lose our deposit on the vehicle) we headed back and set up camp besides Lake Boomanjin. Once camp was set up and dinner cooked on our camp stove, we played drinking games until bed time.

Monday morning was suppose to be an early start (5am get up) but due to the excess alcohol we managed to get up and pack up camp ready to leave at 7am. Today was beach driving, and the weather had improved so we had some sun. We had to drive along the east coast beach called 75 mile beach for 2 ½ hours up to the Indian Head the furthest point north on the island we were allowed to travel to. Iain drove this too… Indian Head is a rocky outcrop at the top of the 75 Mile beach that runs along the east coast of the island. Whilst standing on the rock you can see down into the sea below and hopefully see Stingrays, Dolphins, Tiger Sharks (Fraser Island is a breeding ground for Tiger Sharks therefore no swimming in the sea is allowed on the island) and Whales playing out in the Ocean. We saw none but have since seen fellow backpackers’ videos of whales swimming along by this point from both before and after we were on Fraser! After Indian head we drove back along the beach stopping to see the Maheno - a ship wrecked in a storm in 1935 which was blown ashore and is slowly being eaten away by the salt and the sea. We had to drive through creeks and wash outs along the beach, ensuring we didn’t get stuck often passing the other 4×4 vans that had, including other Koala vans!

Monday night camp was along the beach just behind the dunes. Whilst having our briefing about Fraser it was explained that the island is home to Dingoes, Australia’s purist strain. We were told strictly no feeding the Dingoes or we would get fined. The video made out they were an aggressive animal and may attack. During cooking our dinner, a Dingo came right up to our food box and stole our chocolate chip cookies, needless to say all the girls got pretty upset. After that we had Dingoes hanging around the campsite all night after more food.

Tuesday was our final day on Fraser. After packing up camp we drove along the beach to Rainbow Gorge, where a short walk in land brings you out into desert landscape surrounded by massive sand dunes. The sand here is a variety of colours ranging from bright white, golden yellows, reds and blacks. We met a tour guide here who explained and demonstrated about the cavernous nature if the ‘insides’ to Fraser Island. It apparently sits on top of a huge volume of fresh water (”more than that in Sydney Harbour”) which has been travelling underground for hundreds to thousands of years. In places on the island this ancient water emerges at fresh water springs. The guide dropped a huge rock into a hole at the bottom of Rainbow gorge, and the sound and vibrations it caused definitely suggested we were stood on top of a gigantic cave filled with water - eerie!

After the gorge we drove further down the beach to a walking track where we could walk inland to Lake Wabby. The lake is slowly being engulfed by the sand dunes and won’t exist in the next century, possibly 20 years. Due to the lakes constant retreat, we had to walk for several kilometres over enormous dunes to finally reach the water. It felt like crossing the Sahara! The lake was deep green in colour, and most of the group went for another swim.

Our barge back to the mainland was at 4pm, so on our way to the barge landing we stopped for some lunch at Lake McKenzie before heading back. After the crossing back we drove back to Hervey Bay where we had to check back in the van and all the camping equipment. There was a real rush as all 4 vans came back at the same time and we all wanted to get it over with as soon as possible so that we could have a shower! After 3 days of no showers and limited toilet facilities, everyone was pleased to be back, especially myself so I could visit a doctor as the bite and the swelling was no better. To treat ourselves after the camping our team met up and went out for ‘all you can eat’ Chinese buffet, please to be able to have some food without traces of sand in it!

The following day I visited the doctor - a staphylococcal infection most likely - and we packed up ready to move on. Our original plan was to head to 1770, a town just up the coast, but we were unable to reserve any accommodation as everywhere was booked up. Instead we took the overnight bus to Airlie Beach now travelling in a team of 5 as Hollie, Liann and Dairmuid all decided to stick together after getting on so well at Fraser.

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We arrived in Sydney on Monday 20^th June at lunch time after a 4 hour flight form Fiji. After picking up our luggage we made our way into the city centre where we checked into our hostel Maze backpackers (Maze as it was a maze of corridors catering for the backpacker masses) for the following 3 nights. We didn’t have any real plans for Sydney so we spent that afternoon walking around the city, checking out Circular Quay, the Opera House and we then walked round to Darling Harbour through the CBD, under the bridge and past the Port where the Pope would be a week later. Tuesday was spent visiting the Botanical gardens and their noisy (massive) fruit bats, lazing around in the sun in the gardens before a drink at the Opera Bar for sunset. We spent the evening planning the rest of our time in Australia in a travel agent (Wicked Travel) booking our Fraser Island and Whitsunday trips. Wednesday we met Ash, a former student of Iain’s Dad Peter who was living in Sydney. We met up and had lunch (Sushi, as with almost every meal it was of Asian origin) followed by a few drinks. Ash gave us lots of info about Sydney and was great company. Thanks Ash! Our last day in Sydney, Thursday, was spent visiting Manly. We took the Manly ferry over at lunch time, intending to have some lunch along Manly beach. After lunch we walked around the beach along to Cabbage Tree Bay and Shelley Beach before heading back to Sydney on the ferry at dusk so we could get some photos of the city, bridge and Opera house by night.

Friday morning was an early start as we had an 8am flight to Perth. After checking it at the airport and killing some time, we boarded the flight. Whilst backing out of the parking bay the pilot was unable to start up one of the engines. We had to wait to be towed back in and then off-loaded whilst the engineers came out to “hopefully” solve the problem. Two hours later we were told the flight would leave at 12pm. Then at 12 pm the flight was cancelled. (Thanks Qantas) All passengers were rescheduled on to later flights, ours being 7.30pm. With 7½ hours to wait we were given a day room at an airport hotel where we could make use of their facilities. Our bags had to remain at the airport. After staying in hostels for the past 9 weeks, the airport hotel was like luxury especially having a clean bathroom with a bath! We made full use of the free buffet lunch, tea and coffee facilities in the room before we were taken back to the airport for our flight. This time we left on time and arrived at Perth at 10pm (-2hrs time difference from Sydney). Whilst waiting for our luggage, Iain’s name was called. His bag had made it on an earlier flight. Mine was no where to be seen. An hour later it appeared, open with the zip ripped off. After speaking to The Most Unhelpful Qantas baggage desk attendant it was suggested I take my bag at my expense to their designated repairer. I was then offered a plastic bag to carry my belongings in. Thanks again Qantas. Feeling tired and thoroughly pissed off; we were taken to our hostel - Emperors Crown - for the night in Northbridge, Perth.

Saturday morning was an early start as we had to see if we could get my bag repaired before we left Perth. Our hostel was located in Northbridge and the bag repairer was in Mount Lawley. On the map it didn’t look too far. Once we started walking, we experienced what can l only be described as a tropical downpour! We were soaked by the time we arrived at the repairers. This worked in our favour as they couldn’t believe we had walked through the rain (and that far - about 2.5miles) and repaired my bag whilst we waited. We then caught the bus into the centre of Perth where we wandered around looking around the shops not buying anything due to having no money and no space in our backpacks. As the sun had come out we headed into Kings Park. This is the major park of Perth and overlooks the city and the river. We spent a few hours walking around the war memorials and visiting the Botanical gardens before we headed back to the hostel. As it was Saturday night we thought we should check out the nightlife and as we were staying right in the focal point of Perth’s nightlife we headed out into the local bars.

The following day, Sunday, we met a Matthew and Loretta, friends of Iain’s through Lynton. They kindly offered to take us out for the day. We drove along the river edge admiring the massive multimillion dollar homes before heading to Fremantle, the major port and fishing area of Western Australia. After a walk along the sea front we had lunch at a restaurant called Little Creatures where they brew their own ales. After that we drove north along the beach front to Cottesloe. There we had afternoon coffee and the largest slice of cake (ever) whilst watching the surfers. We then headed back into Perth where Iain and I went back to our hostel to have a chilled out evening.

The following morning (Monday) we hired a car. We moved hostels as there was no space for us to a very odd looking, but lovely hostel called The Witches Hat - guess what it looked like. As Iain had spent a few years living in Perth in 1990 we set off to visit where he lived. We drove to Connolly and Joondalup to look at his old home and school. The buildings hadn’t changed but the surrounding area was now all residential and extended North as far as the eye could see. We then drove to the Swan Valley, famous for its Vineyards, to enjoy some wine tasting. After a brief stop at tourist information to find out the best vineyards to visit, we did a mini tour, including stopping off at a chocolate factory for some free samples! Whilst in the swan valley it was recommended that we visit the nature park. We spent the remanding of the afternoon walking around the park visiting the native animals of Australia. I held a baby kangaroo 4 months old, petted a Wombat (the fattest Wombat I have ever seen), stroked Koalas, checked out Tasmanian Devils and was chased through the Kangaroo pen by the largest red Kangaroo!

Tuesday morning we checked out of our hostel and spent the morning walking around Perth before heading to the airport for our evening flight to Brisbane.

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Photos I had forgotten to put up from the last week or two in New Zealand are now added to that post.  See here

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So we get on the flight to Fiji, and before getting on I (Iain) get flagged up as something wrong with my seat, and so get reissued a boarding card and moved further down (wrong way!) the plane away from Danni. I am sat next to two Missionaries from the Church of Latter day Saints, one from Vanuatu and one from Kiribati - Both South Pacific Islanders and both quite young. So I get talked to about religion in my