Australia - Week Five

After scaling Mount Warning, I was thoroughly ruined on Sunday! I was meant to kayak on the Tweed River, just beside the hostel, but I could barely rouse myself from bed that morning! I also meant to have a wander around Murwillumbah, but there was no energy left for that either - so I spent the afternoon doing a 750 piece jigsaw, which of course, me being me, I couldn't stop until I had completed it and added the final piece!

Anyway, it was gone 6pm by that point and I felt bad that I hadn't been out kayaking, but Tassie found me and said that if I wanted, I still had a little time before sunset to have a bit of a paddle. So out I went, not far downstream and back, but it was a lovely time of evening to be out and I saw a tiny little kingfisher flit through the riverbank undergrowth, and a spoonbill, which I thought was only seen on the savannahs of Africa!!!

"How do I get out of this thing?!!"

It was a great wrench to have to leave Murwillumbah and Tassie as I had really enjoyed my time there and felt very much at home, but northward I had to continue to Coolangatta. I was at the bus stop nice and early for the Greyhound, as usual – shame it was 40 minutes late though! Especially as I missed the free shuttle pick-up in “Coolie” and had to take a public bus there with all my bags, which by this point were roughly 20kg (if not more) in total! Plus, the bus didn’t drop me off outside the YHA, so I had a bit of a trek there and I must have looked a sorry state as a local lady asked if I was OK and if I wanted to pop in for a swim to cool off!

By the time I’d checked in at Coolie, I was still exhausted from the surfing, walking, climbing and kayaking so I managed to do a big load of laundry and that was about it for the day! On Tuesday I headed down to the beach, from where I could see the high rises of Surfers Paradise in the distance. The sea was pretty choppy, so I spent most of the morning reading on the golden sands. I think I’ve read at least 8 books now since I’ve been away, shame the damn things are so bulky to carry! That afternoon, I took the free shuttle back into the main town to the local mall. I was quite amused to see signs in the windows saying that their opening hours were based on New South Wales time – especially as I had crossed the border into Queensland by this point, an hour behind NSW as they don’t have daylight savings time here. Funny old Aussies!

I decided that I’d leave my shopping and so on until 4.30, so I didn’t have to carry around all afternoon, which was plenty of time before the bus returned at 5pm. I was rather annoyed to find that the post office had shut when I returned… and then it hit me… all the shops closed at 4pm QLD time, because I wasn’t in Coolangatta anymore, I was in its twin town of Tweed Heads, in New South Wales!!! - hence the notices about the opening hours. What a pillock I was! Doh!

The next day, I was up early again to move on to Brisbane. My bus was due at 11 am, but the closest free shuttle from the YHA was at 8am! I didn’t fancy the public bus ride back again, loaded up like a pack horse, so I braced myself for the 3 hour wait! I got chatting to some other backpackers who were due to catch the 8.30 Greyhound and one suggested I asked their driver if he had space to take me early – which luckily he did! So I was off to Brisbane hours ahead of schedule without a boring wait in the blistering sunshine!

After trying to check into the wrong hostel in Brisbane (whoops!), I was soon in the YHA which was really friendly and pleasant. I spent the afternoon trying to work out a plan for the remaining fortnight along the East Coast, plus a tour for Ayers Rock, as I only had planned up to Noosa, the next port of call. I went into the YHA Travel shop and found out that all the tours for Ayers Rock start there but finish in ALICE SPRINGS or vice versa!!! I don’t need to go to Alice Springs; I need to fly in and out of Ayers Rock Airport and a transfer from Alice back there would be $100, completely negating any benefit of booking the flights in the U.K. rather than out here! Apparently, a lot of tourists make the same mistake; it’s a shame that AUStravel (note the AUS part) didn’t tell me this last June!

Luckily, I found one company that starts and ends their tour in Ayers Rock Resort, phew. Except they don’t go on Mondays… they only day I’d be able to start the tour. So, I had to phone my friends at Qantas AGAIN and shift the flights there and back one day forward, which they did with no problems at all! By this point, the YHA Travel branch had to close, so I pledged to return the next day and book the Rock tour and all my other bits and pieces up the coast, as everything had to work with military precision for the next two weeks if I was to fit in all the trips I had planned! Back I went at opening time on Thursday and it was 1pm before I left, $1500 lighter! I decided to throw caution to the wind and do Cape Tribulation, Fraser Island AND The Whitsundays, plus a really expensive dive trip to the SS Yongala wreck, Australia’s top dive site and the world’s best wreck dive according to National Geographic. Well, when in Rome…

So I didn’t really get to see Brisbane properly as I had only enough time to visit the South Bank briefly and go to “Game On”, an exhibition about the history of computer gaming, at the State Library. I was in my element, as was Hannah (UK), my Brisbane roommate who was similarly geeky enough to be enthralled with all the consoles and a chance to play Pac Man on an original arcade machine!!! I liked the South Bank including its fake beach as it was full of Brisbaners and their families have a great time in the pools and sunshine. It beats Bridge Street in Warrington any day. Hannah and I grabbed some food at one of the open air cafes there and I was greatly amused by the “DO NOT FEED THE IBIS” signs! Not pigeons or seagulls… IBIS!!!

Then off I went again to Noosa, at 6.30! Well, I thought I may as well get there nice and early to make the most of Friday there, before heading to Australia Zoo on Saturday. So when I arrived at 9.30, I was gutted to find that I could only check in at half past noon, so although I could store my luggage until then, I didn’t have a place to sort through my bags and take out what I needed for the day. By the time I did check in, it was so hot and humid that I had little energy for a walk in the national park. I decide to take advantage of the free surfboard hire instead, seeing as I had lessons and all.

Well, what a disaster! By the time I made it down to the beach and along to the surfing area, my arms had nearly fallen off with the weight and size of the board, plus it was fairly windy, so it took all my strength not to whack half of the people on the beach in the head with the damn thing! At last, I found a spot to surf, so off I went into the swell, only to find that even though the hostel’s board was big, it was tiny in comparison to the one I had learnt on and so I couldn’t even get my feet on it, never mind stand up! After about 20 minutes of flailing around like a Pommie prat on one of Australia’s smartest and surfiest beaches, I gave up in embarrassment and read some more books on the beach.

The Irwins

Today I finally went to Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter. It was hilarious watching old episodes of his show on the courtesy bus there, but also incredibly sad, knowing that the world has lost such a remarkable character. I’m glad everyone else on board seemed to be equally as engrossed in the programme, so as not to see the old tear or two roll down my cheeks! The zoo is great, I watched the Croc show in the Crocoseum, presented by Terri, Bindi and little Robert Irwin. He’s a little tyke, father like son! I spent plenty of time wandering around all the animals and I especially enjoyed feeding, stroking and just sitting with the kangaroos and wallabies. I still like eating them though!