Week 24: Merry Christmas from the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest!

As you may, or not have realised my blog title has slightly changed. Well, very quickly after arriving here I was duly informed that Aussi's use the term prawns rather than shrimp, so 24 weeks later I have finally got round to changing the title. Throw another steak on the barbie seems a bit more accurate as I have had so many barbie cooked steaks in the past 6 months. Anywho, on to this week...

The week started out with a journey from Sydney to Cairns. We had a quick walk by the beach at Double Bay before making our way to the airport. It was the first internal flight I have ever taken and by golly isn't an internal flight so much easier than international. No passport faffing, security checks were quick on the down side there was no duty free. We had an uneventful journey thankfully, Geek Alert: I managed to complete a monster soduku filling in numbers 0-9 and letters A-F, I know right! After picking up the hire car which coincidentally was a VW Golf again and the same colour, we made our way on the coastal road on our short journey to Port Douglas. We arrived at our surprisingly spacious self catering apartment and went for a walk to the Marina to see what was going on. Not much it turned out.

Just a quick note about the weather up here, hot and humid.... lovely!

Christmas Eve was spent pretty relaxed, we went into Port Douglas and I finished my christmas shopping before spending the arvo by the pool reading the first bourne book in the sun. For all of you who know how brown I usually am, well imagine the last time you saw me; Aussi's double it and all the Poms (Brits) multiply be about ten! Early evening we headed down to the Marina for our sunset cruise. We jumped aboard a pretty swish catamaran and set sail (proper sailing) out along the coastline. We were treated with drinks and canapes, it was great getting out into the ocean, peacefully sailing along.

Along came Christmas Day, I am fairly certain this will be my weirdest Christmas Day ever. I opened a few presents from friends and family before settling in for a feast that Mum had cooked up for breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and toast mmmm. After filling our bellies a walk was definitely in order so we headed to the coast for a very hot and sweaty walk to what turned out to be a disappointing viewpoint. On the flip side we bought ice creams on the way back. To make christmas even weirder we decided to go for a swim in the sea... the 29 degree sea, inside the shark and jellyfish nets of course. It was the most peculiar feeling walking into sea water that was warm, I have never been in a sea that warm and not many pools that warm either. For Christmas dinner we had a BBQ by the pool, steaks, prawns, sausages were all sizzled up by yours truly. Can I take a moment to boast about my steak cooking, it was amazing! Throughout the day it was necessary to take a jump in the pool and the evening was no different!

A cable car tour took us over the "mountains" on Boxing Day. I use quotation marks because they are not quite proper mountains but then again they are bigger than hills. We stopped off at stations along the way and got a feel of what the tropical rainforest is like. Flying over the canopy was great, you can see how dense the forest is. After arriving in Kuranda we had a mooche around the shops and grabbed a great but expensive bagel for lunch by the River. Our return journey was on a pretty traditional train that wound its way down the mountain side, it was one of the slowest train rides I have been on I think, but the scenery was great, even if we were all pretty sleepy from the heat. To finish the day off I made my infamous fajitas for dinner.

The Great Barrier Reef was our destination for Friday, we set off pretty early to catch our luxurious catamaran/boat our to the Lowe Isles. We were given fruit and a selection of drinks for our journey out there. Before long it was time to don our lycra suits (to give a bit of protection against the sting rays), flippers and snorkels. We moored a few hundred meters from the Low Isles and took a snorkeling tour from the boat to the island. It was amazing to see a coral reef in real life rather than on TV! We swam over all manner of hard and soft corals, with fish swimming all around us, from the size of a gold fish to the massive bat fish. Once we arrived on the island we took a tour of the island and was taught a little bit about the reef and the island. We then took a snorkeling trip back to the boat for a splendid lunch (I don't know how else to describe it and im bored of using amazing!). Just as we were finishing lunch a couple of Black Tipped Reef Sharks appear around the boat to we scrambled to get our kit back on and slipped back into the water. It was very surreal having two or three sharks swimming around you as well as many other large fish. Check out the photos and videos (that will be uploaded when I can). Without a doubt seeing the Great Barrier Reef is definitely up there with seeing the Grand Canyon as the most amazing experiences of my life. We headed back as the afternoon heat cooled off, the sails went up and we relaxed on the boat. We didn't feel like cooking after the day we had so we headed off into the quaint town of Port Douglas and found a pub/bar to get some grub.

Check out a selection of clips from Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef!

(Watch in HD!)

It was a lot more impressive in real life believe me!

Hello Mr Sharky

Rockin' it right?!

The previous days had been relatively strenuous so we deserved a lie in on Sunday. We didn't get going until after lunch and decided to head over to Mossman Gorge. This Gorge is located in the Daintree National Park, which I remember learning about in GCSE Geography and never in my life had I imagined that I would be there only a few years later. We took a leisurely stroll around a circular walk in the rainforest, luckily we were out of the heat of the sun but it was still pretty humid. On completion of our walk I went for a swim in the Mossman River which was very very refreshing.

To finish the week off we were picked up nice and early by a Land Cruiser for our day in and around the Daintree Rainforest, we were joined by one couple so there was only 6 of us for the whole day! Our guide took us up and across the Daintree River, giving a comprehensive commentary on various topics along the way. We took the chain ferry over the croc infested river, spotting a turtle on the way across. A short walk was next on the cards at Jindalba Rainforest, where we got a education in the fauna of the rainforest. We spotted a great looking lizard and I managed to see my first Aussi wild snake! Finally! It was a red bellied black snake and is not quite lethally venomous, but nearly. Morning tea was held on the Kulki Cape Tribulation Beach and I managed to drink a cup o tea in order to sooth my sore throat... maybe I am a true pom. We had a walk along the beach before heading over to a freshwater creek for a swim.

Red-bellied Black Snake, can you spot it? 

It was lovely and refreshing. Our next stop was a great little ice cream place, where they made ice creams out of locally grown fruits, so we had raspberry, macadamia, mango and whortleberry (I think). By this time it was gone lunchtime so we headed to the Daintree Tea Rooms for a steak lunch... yes steak... again... it was delish... my steak was accompanied by a range of exotic fruits such as passionfruit, dragon fruit, lychee, mango and quite a few more that I had never heard of. They were surprisingly good, but I dont think I am quite brave enough to buy them in the supermarket yet. The afternoon consisted of a boat ride on the Daintree river, we came across five crocodiles on our adventure, which included the skipper crashing the boat into a tree, typical Aussi's.

Baby Croc

Muma Croc

On departure from the boat we were given a try of the miracle fruit. So we swirled the fruit in our mouth and then sucked a lime and the taste left by the fruit makes the lime taste like an orange, it was extremely peculiar! Apparently it makes bitter things sweet and sweet things ever sweeter. We finished the week with a BBQ by the pool and a well deserved early night.

Week 23: The family has arrived!!! (Still having technical difficulties so no photos im afraid!)

Bright and early I headed down to my flatmates graduation. It was an experience going to an Aussi graduation. I wonder if my UEA graduation will be very different or not. I then headed down into to town before heading up to Thirroul to meet my mum, dad and brother :). It was so great to see them after so long but they were very very jet lagged and we went for a walk along the coast before getting an early night. We spent Tuesday going around kb and Wollongong, showing the fam where I have been living and studying the past 23 weeks. They were really impressed with the uni!

Wednesday we made a trip up mt keira, via car and had to take a major detour because of a road closure up the short way. The view from the top was as amazing as ever and the ocean looked a very rich blue colour. We then headed to the Nan Tien Temple before stopping my Lake Illa for lunch. We made our way around the lake, stopping off at Warilla beach on the way back up to Thirroul via Uni. Thursday was  bit of a lazy day, we went down to the beach and walked up to Austinmer Rock Pools for a swim and then another walk along the beach in the evening in the opposite direction.

Friday came around all too quickly and we jumped in the car and headed for Sydney, we drove up the Grand Pacific Drive stopping off at various places to get some great views of the coastline. We stopped off for a swim and some grub and made our way to the Savoy Hotel in Sydney. It was a scorcher of a day, with highs of easily 35 degrees, wowza! We wandered around Double Bay in the evening, before stopping off for a lovely Italian dinner.

Saturday was my chance to be a tour guide around Sydney for my family. We kicked off with a ferry ride from Double Bay to Circular Quay and then jumped straight on the Manly ferry, in order to avoid the queues later in the day. We walked along to Shelly Beach, where I had to go for a swim! We grabbed some lunch at a great little sandwich place in Manly and jumped on the ferry back to circular quay. Our next destination was Sydney Harbour Bridge and we climbed to the top of one of the towers and got a great view overlooking the Opera House and Sydney CBD. After a little history of the Harbour Bridge, which is more interesting than you would think, we headed down towards the Opera House, through the Rocks market and grabbed some dinner in a great place right on circular quay, (and it wasn't too pricey either). By this time it was getting pretty dark so I navigated us on the self-guided bright lights tour of Sydney. This is a short walking tour of a load of Christmas lights put up around the city. By this time we were all exhausted and ready to catch the 11pm ferry back to Double Bay. It was a long but really great day!

To end the week we had a well deserved lie in before making the trip down to Darling Harbour. We went for walk around the botanical gardens, it was a really really muggy day in Sydney which made the heat feel really really close. After this we made the trip over to Darling Harbour then a subway before up to Paddy's market. I saw a great black and white picture/photo of the Sydney skyline that I was tempted to buy, maybe next time I am in Sydney :). We cam back to Darling Harbour via the Chinese Gardens which were really pretty and thankfully there was ample seating, much needed as my feet were beginning to get pretty sore... D of E sore! By this time it was time to head back, we jumped on a couple of ferries and grabbed a great dinner just over the road from our hotel.

Just a note on the area that our hotel is located, I have seen two lambo's parked outside, a Maserati, multiple BMW's and Mercs all parking up on the street. I think mum has brought us to the wrong area of Sydney :S!

Week 22: Road Trip Conclusion!

So I believe I finished at Mudgee last week. A smaller group of us headed off to a town called Gunningbland, near Bogan Gate. I decided not to take the bumpy dirt track back, so we went the long but smoother way around. We stopped off in Dubbo for a Maccas lunch and continues on our way in the dry heat of the west, I think it was around 37 degrees wow! We made it to Gunningbland my mid arvo and had a pretty chilled out evening, with another great healthy meal.

Tuesday I headed out to Condobolin. I stopped off at Utes in the Paddock to check out some wacky utes decorated very imaginatively.

Upon my arrival in Condo I sampled some local soft drinks, YUM! In the arco I took a ride on a motorbike for the first time, it was a great experience! I zoomed along behind their ute as they checked the sheep in the paddock. We also had a little shoot with an air rifle, we took aim at a few apples, water balloons and a very random metal decoration called ned kelly! T-bone was in order for dinner at a local pub before getting a well earned rest.

Water Balloon Explosion!

Wednesday was a day of travel, I made the 275km journey from Condo to Warrimoo (in the blue mountains). I took the journey pretty easily stopping off to drive around bathurst racecourse, only to find it closed. I also took a lengthy stop to try out some wines in Orange... oh it was great to taste real wine again, rather than goon. I arrived at Warrimoo and jumped straight in the pool before having burgers for dinner. We went a drive to look at all the christmas lights in the evening and we went for a night bushwalk and got a great view of the lights over sydney.

View at Victoria Pass on the journey

Trying to pose on the car LOL fail!

We had a very touristy day in the Blue Mountains on thursday. We made the trip to Lincoln Rock which gave a great view of the Blue Mountains. After this we took a 2hr bushwalk around Carrington Falls, it was really great to get back out into the bush again and the blue mountains are really spectacular. We came across many waterfalls and I was tempted to go for a dip! The sun came out for us and we worked up a big appetite by the time we had finished. We had a wander around the very fancy shops in Leura before heading back for another great meal! I pretty much passed out in the evening with tiredness, it may have been due to the anti-histamine tablet for the bites on my arm but even so I had a great nights sleep.

There seems to be a lot of pictures of me in waterfalls recently :P

 We made the journey back to Wollongong to drop off some stuff before heading up to Coogee to pick up a new phone off gum tree. Oh i forgot to mention, in the past weeks or so my phone's screen died and my laptop hard drive had failed. Not good at all! So I eventually found the address for my gumtree purchase of a Samsung Galaxy S3, with a bit of help. I then made it back to Illawong in what was without doubt the most stressful day of driving, Sydney drivers are crazy! If I was given a dollar for everytime I was undertaken today I could buy enough tim tams to last me a lifetime. It was made worse by not having a map but regardless my knack for directions got me almost there and to Illawong, where I chilled for the evening.
Saturday continued in a similar relaxed trend before heading out to a Ukranian 21st birthday party. It was pretty similar to an UK or Aussi birthday except they sung happy birthday in Ukranian. On another note the food was to die for! I'm talking major bbq plus a feast of cakes and treats for dessert!

To finish off the week I dropped the car off safe and sound at my friends after 2864km exactly! I then somehow managed to invite myself to my hostesses family gathering. One minute the house was relatively empty, next thing I know 20 people had rocked up and they were all really tall! I think I was the smallest chap there. Even so it was great to meet some more Aussi's, the highlight of the night was definitely playing Cards Against Humanity. This card game revolves around playing funny answers to phrases given in each round and the best response wins, it was so funny playing! After this it was a mad rush to the station to put me on a train back to Wollonging for the night.
Just to keep you all updated my laptop has broken but I will do my best to keep my blog updated using my phone :)

A squeaky clean car ready for delivery back to its owner. 

Week 21: Road Tripping It Still

So this week kicked off with a trip to Bournda Beach and Lagoon, which was a picturesc beach with woodland behind it. Just as we were about to go for a swim in the lagoon we had a little intruder. Mr Kangaroo hopped up to us before getting scared and hopping away. As we walked along the beach barrier we came across a couple more who were content for us to watch them whilst they nommed on some grass.

Merimbula :)

 We then headed down to Pamula beach and went walking across the rocks (bare-foot I may add ouch!) before grabbing some fish and chips and heading back up the coast to Merimbula to have a mosey around the shops. In the arvo we headed out to my hostesses second house, called "The Block" which is near the Brown Mountains. We arrived and went for a quick dip in "the black hole" a beautiful river system that runs along the bottom on their property.

Before dinner we went for a walk around the property and bumped into about 50 kangaroos, playing a cat and mouse game with them as we walked back to the house.

What am I doing with my hands :S

Lake Jindabyne

On tuesday morning I headed over to Mt Kosci via Cooma and Jindabyne.

I managed to find my campsite for the night at a place called Thredbo Diggings, which was inside the national park. I went a pitched my swag right on the river and got all my kit soreted out before heading off for a little walk and check out this fella! He came storming along the path and wasn't phased by me standing right next to him.

I rustled up some tuna pasta bake for dinner and settled in for my first night in a Swag. So a swag is basically a cocoon that you get in to sleep, its not tall enough to sit up in but is so easy to set up. A few spots of rain decided to fall on me but eventually they stopped and I fell asleep below the cloudy skies.

I was woken by the sound of animal movement bright and early the next day. I turned my head and saw a family of kangaroos not 5m away from me having a feed on the grass, I sat and watched them for quite a while and experienced a kangaroo fight, I am sure you have seen on them on TV but it sounded really brutal in real life.

Breakfast consisted of soup which definitely hit the spot ready for my ascent of Mt Kosci. I headed over to Thredbo, a snow resort in the winter months, it was fairly quiet it being summer. I headed up the cable car, yes mum and dad I went on a cable car and enjoyed it! From here it was a 13km round trip to the summit of Mt Kosci, Australia's Highest Point! I set off in my shorts and quickly added layers as the wind picked up. I overtook an elongated group of school children as I ascended, some of them were obviously not kitted out for the weather and were looking a bit cold. I definitely wouldn't have taken that many children up there so unprepared especially as the cloud descended as the morning went on.

Snow! In Australia! 

By the time I got to the top I was completely submerged in cloud and didn't get a great view, it was also really windy. I grabbed a bit of a feed at the top and got moving again quickly as I was getting cold. I arrived back at the top of the cable car by 12.30. 13km in 3.5 hours is pretty good going if I do say so myself.

I headed back down the cable car, with a slight lurch of the stomach as I went off the steepest part but I arrived back at Thredbo in one piece! From here I made the trip back out of the National Park and over to Michelago, which is just south of Canberra.

My new host lives on a 2000 acre farm... I know right! HUGE! We took a trip in their massive land cruiser around the farm and up the mountain on the side of the valley. The view was great and we headed back for a delicious home-made lasagne and chocolate brownies. The flies descended on us in the evening so we hid away and watched Django Unchained, im very glad I waited to watch this on a large screen! Great movie, if a bit long!

This dog was sooooo friendly :)

On thursday I had a private tour of Canberra. We headed to Scrivener Dam first off because I wanted a piccy infront of the sign (you know who you are). We then went to Parliament House and had a quick look in the Sennate, which was really interesting to see all the modern governmental building. They really contrast to the relic UK buildings. We then grabbed a subway lunch before heading over the War Memorial, I was surprisingly moved by all the poppies on display for all the soldiers who have passed away in the variety of conflicts. We had a look around the museum about the world wars before it was time to continue on my journey.

I am not sure what is happening to my knee there.

Roses at the War Memorial

I headed off north up to Cowra, originally I was going to swag it up here but the rain came in and I fortunately knew someone who lived in Cowra. I experienced my first karate lesson, I didnt take part but I watched and we had a KFC before getting an early night.

I had a late start on Friday and made my way up to Dubbo, the trip went fairly uneventfully. We all converged in Dubbo and had some amazing sausage sandwiches for dinner and had a few grogs as the night progressed. We ended up getting very merry, wrestling matches took place and there were some hilarious videos revolving around a treadmill! Somehow we made it to half four in the morning before getting some shut eye. Saturday arvo we headed over to Dubbo Zoo, it was pretty darn hot and we got to see most of the animals, some were hiding away in the shade though. We made it back to Dubbo in time to get ready for the 21st party. We piled in a few cars and headed over to our venue, which was really cool a BYO café with indoor and outdoor areas. The pizza and drinks flowed and the speeches came which were absolutely brilliant! We headed out to a pub/club called The Pastoral afterwards and we all had such a great evening.

It's safe to say that collectively the house was the most hungover we had ever been and the smell and sound of bacon in the morning perked us up slightly. What perked us up more was the dip in the pool over the road, it was so refreshing! We eventually managed to get ourselves moving and a smaller group of us headed over to Mudgee to stay for Sunday night. I took the most direct route which consisted of a very bumpy dirt road which lasted for tens and tens of km's, regardless we made it there only slightly after everyone else and the drive was very scenic. I went for another dip in the pool at Mudgee and we had an amazingly fresh and homemade selection of salads, chicken wings and salsa. It was without a doubt the healthiest and tastiest meal I have had in a very long time.

Blissfully cold water :)

That was the end of my second week on the road :)!

Pictures to come soon!

Week 20: ROAD TRIP!

So sunday night I headed up to Illawong, near Sutherland in Sydney. I had an amazing BBQ evening meal on sunday! Steaks, sausages, potato bake and salad, oh this was the ultimate "home cooked" meal :). Monday morning I was treated to bacon and eggs on toast... YUM! I then had a chilled day at my friends epic house in Illawong, I chilled by the pool (trying out my underwater camera), did some CV stuff and watched a few movies.

Tuesday, after some troubles I was able to take my friends car. I got used to driving again, stalling many times and headed down the great pacific drive which goes from sydney to wollongong. It was so great getting back in the driving seat and the views from the road were great. Some great beaches and I stopped off at the famous Sea Cliff Bridge. This bridge curves out over the ocean around a headland, it was an experience!

I arrived in Wollongong and then headed to the Nan Tien Temple,  after a slight debacle with my friends short shorts (you have to wear non-revealing clothing apparently) we had an enjoyable arvo looking around :). In the evening, the leftovers at KB had a bit of an evening together, having banter over dinner and then we watched hitchhikers guide to the galaxy :) it was a great evening.

The car I had borrowed had a crack in the windscreen so I headed down to the Glass Repair place for 8am, I dropped it off and went down for a cheeky swim for a couple of hours while it was done. Once back to KB I helped out a friend move flat, which involved going up and down lot of stairs. This was pretty hungry work so we decided to hit fishnets for lunch, after taking a slight wrong turn we ended up going up the M1 to Sydney so made a diversion back through some bushland. We eventually got there and got our burgers on! We hit some supermarkets before hitting the beach and got some cheeky rays. After heading back to KB again we had a cocktail night with a little group of KB people, dare I say it was one of the best nights I have had since getting here! My speciality was kiwi, mint and lime with a bit of vodka yum yum yum :). We had a great night playing a few games and having some chinwags!

After a late start on thursday I properly started my road trip. I had a road trip buddy for the first leg, we headed down to Kiama and then headed to the Minnamurra Rainforest. We had some great views of the Aussi countryside and by the time we got to the Rainforest it was unfortunately closed, despite this we were still deafened by the Cicada's! We headed up to the top of the escarpment on some very steep and winding roads, I was in 2nd most of the way. We also stopped off at the Carrington Falls, which was really spectacular and cooled our feet off in the river. We made it to Bundanoon in the evening and did some flips on the trampoline before chilling out for the evening, we watched The Lone Ranger which was good but pretty long.

Friday came with haze and rain descending, a weird highlight was the amazing shower that they have here, it is great! So powerful! (Yeah im lame). We had a late start and headed into Bowral to meet a friend, where we walked his dogs and then went up to Mt Gibraltar lookout. In the arvo we grabbed a sushi lunch (well, I had teryaki chicken) it was as good if not better than the last time I had japanese/sushi. In the evening we had a birthday celebration, my hostess was turning 20. So we made homemade pizza's for dinner, YUM, and swiftly got into a great night of bevvies, games and celebrations. Its safe to say it was a late night and a relatively late start with a BBQ breakfast on the porch overlooking grass and woodland. After some packing and more pizza to set me on my way I begun my journey to my next destination... Bega!

I headed back down the very windy and steep woodland roads back down to the coast. I made a few stops off on the way, one of these being Jervis Bay. I couldn't stay long but it was good to see a place that I had heard so much about. I also experienced the smallest waves so far since arriving in Aus, they were piddely.

After a pretty long journey along gradually winding woodland roads I made it to Bega and was greeted with a delicious roast dinner (my fav!), before catching an early nights sleep. I stumbled across Christophers Road so I had to stop off and take a wee piccy.

We kicked off sunday by heading down to Tathra Warf, we got a great view of the coast before heading over to the Bega River to check out the sand barrier system. It was a geeky morning talking about estuaries, marine/subaerial erosion of cliffs blah blah blah! We then headed off to Mumbulla Falls, we drove on a dirt track for a good half hour hoping we were going the right way, we eventually got there and had snags on the barbie before going for a jump and slide off and down the rocks in a plunge pool. Luckily it was pretty warm and the water wasn't too cold. After a bumpy ride back over the dirt track we headed down to Bermagui for a deep fried mars bar (YUM) and gelato. We also tracked down a bunch of pelicans, check out how big they are!  

 

On a final note I ironically found this in the supermarket!!!!