Over-used phrase or not, I can’t believe its time for my third blog already. And as ever, I am still loving my time in Aus.
My latest experiences come from my mid-term break, during which I went on a 2 week trip to Brisbane, Airlie & The Whitsunday Islands, and Cairns. I got up to loads over my trip, so I’ll try and focus on the highlights.
Following the list of “sights to see”, the highlight of my time in Brisbane was the Brisbane Bridge Climb. It was by no means a challenging climb, but the sight at the top of the bridge was breath-taking, and i’m not surprised its ranked #1 on the list. I booked to go on the 4:30pm climb, with the idea that I would see the final hour of sunlight, the sunset, and the night scene, and each transition did not fail to disappoint. Whilst we toured the bridge we were given a full spoken tour by our group leader on a headset, a small addition to the copious amount of kit we were already wearing, as well as first-rate photographs at the top of each summit (which of course we had to pay extra for at the end). The Brisbane Festival was also on throughout the duration of my visit and the city was absolutely buzzing, especially at night. Every night I went to the American Music Club for all sorts of live music. During my stay I also hiked up Mount Grevatt for another view over the city, and also managed to get over to the Gold Coast to spend the day on the famous Surfers Paradise.
The second stage of my trip took me to Airlie and the Whitsunday Islands. The first highlight was my trip to the Great Barrier Reef. On another hot, clear day I kayaked to White Rock Island, and after my first unsuccessful attempt at finding the coral reef, I swam about 30-40m off the island to finally find what I had been searching for, and it was an incredible sight. The colours of the coral reef were definitively clear, as were the colours of all the fish swimming about, and it was a sight that I will never forget. The second highlight was my trip to Whitehaven Beach; after my experience in the depths of the Great Barrier Reef, I was determined to see more of Australia’s natural wonders, but with it being the holiday season I was having no luck at getting on any of the trips. So at 5:45am the next day I made my way down to the marina to see if I could get on any of the trips, and fortunately luck was back on my side, and on the very same day I sailed around the Whitsunday Islands to the famous Whitehaven Beach. As we were sailing over I did think to myself, “What’s all the fuss about? Its only a beach”, but the second the beach came into view and we stepped off the boat, it was already money well spent. The sand was the cleanest and whitest sand that I had ever seen, the water was absolutely crystal clear, and the island was completely undisturbed. The beach stretched for well over 5km (I think it was nearer 7), and it was another fantastic sight.
The final part of my trip was spent in Cairns. My highlight of Cairns was easily my trip to the Daintree Rainforest. With some friends from home, we hired a car and began our trip by driving up the coast to Mossman Gorge, which was an incredible journey in itself. Again with the weather on our side, we then walked up to the gorge and the rainforest as a break and as a “warm-up” for the heart of the Daintree. After crossing the Daintree River by cable-ferry, we started our rainforest experience at the Alexandra Look-out, which gave us a fantastic view of only a fraction of the rainforest, the coast, and we could even see over to Port Douglas! The main part of our trip was our walk through the Barrja part of the rainforest; everywhere was incredibly green, and in the heart of the rainforest, unbelievably loud! The final stage of our Daintree experience was to Cape Tribulation, where we had another walk through the rainforest, and then a chill on the deserted beach. We visited Port Douglas in the evening, which rounded off what I’d probably say was the stand out experience of my whole trip.
It was a fantastic couple of weeks. I have by no-means now “seen” Queensland, but I think I saw a good majority of the sights and saw much as I could and will in the little time that I had and have left. The trip has also left me wanting to see more of Australia, in particular Australia’s natural sights. With the Daintree Rainforest, it was a relief to finally be on a trip without all the camera-happy tourists!
Although I have described all of these, what I think are, incredible experiences, as an Englishman no trip is ever complete without a few incidences. Put it this way; I’d be lying if I said I didn’t complain about being too hot (on multiple occasions), I got in a taxi that took me no more than 400m down the road, and the colour of my arms and back closely resemble the design of an Arsenal shirt.
An Idiot Abroad? You decide.
Sorry that there are no photos in this blog. There’s been a few problems with the site we’re using, but I’ve added a few links below if you want to see some of the things i’ve been up to. Hopefully this problem will be sorted in time for my next blog.
