Eumundi Markets and Noosa

Today we hired a little Hyundai i20 and took it up the Bruce Highway to Eumundi and its famous  Markets. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the many stalls. It's a real variety of crafts, foods, local produce and clothes. Janine could have spent a fortune but I am not sure any of the stuff would fit in a rucksack!

There's a jacket potato under there, seriously

Who wouldn't want a bag with a monkey on it?

Lloyd manages to find a (ginger) beer

After lunch we headed to Noosa for an afternoon on the beach. It was warm and sunny, perfect to try and get rid of the t-shirt tan... still not quite gone though. We hung around for sunset and watched some junior lifesavers in training. Then headed for a burger at the surf club. The drive home was uneventful but the night time views coming into Brisbane were amazing.

All too energetic for me

Something odd here

Crikey....

On Monday we took the chance of a lie in, then headed on the CityCat ferry into the centre of Brisbane. Both of us had been to the city before but it was still nice to see what's new. There is a really nice public park and lagoon which we spent an hour or two walking round. One good thing that's changed is the vast number of sushi restaurants that are here now. It's hard no to stop at each one to pick up a quick $2 roll. After an ice cream in the city we headed back and cooked a thank you meal for Emily and Selwyn who we are staying with.

Tuesday meant a visit to Australia Zoo, made famous by Steve Irwin. His presence is still felt around the place and it's clear that his passion and drive lives on in the many people working there. We had an excellent time, feeding Elephants, patting Koalas and Roos. There are also a number of wildlife shows, including the Croc feedings. The zoo keepers are unlike those in the UK, they take the animals on walkabouts around the zoo. This gives you the opportunity to meet some of the residents normally behind a fence or window. We managed to get up close to a baby alligator, parrots, kookabura, an eagle and some camels. All the keepers are happy to answer questions and will pose for as many photos as people want. By the end of the day and after the long journey back we were shattered.

Elephant Feeding

Lunch?

Taipan - 4th most venomous snake in the world

Croc feeding time

Janine helping out

Not the Whitsunday Islands

After what seemed like a lifetime of travelling, but was actually only 24 hours, we arrived in Airlie beach. This is a fairly small party town mostly occupied by backpackers waiting to go on a Whitsundays trip. It's much busier than the towns we were used to on the west coast. There is also a nice swimming pool/lagoon that is free for the public. 

We boarded the catamaran on Thursday lunchtime and head out to the islands. Its about 3 hours to our first night stop in Hook Passage. Once we had dropped anchor we had some time to get to know the rest of the passengers over a few beers. It was a good mix of nationalities, only 3 Brits, and everyone was really friendly and was excited about the rest of the trip. The boat was extremely comfortable and spacious. The skipper then gave a little talk about the history of the place and how the name is wrong, the islands are actually the Cumberland Islands but the passage between them and the main land is Whitsunday Passage. We had a private cabin with a hatch that looked up to the stars. The boat even had a hot tub that Lloyd enjoyed but he did admit it was a little too hot to be relaxing.

The next morning we headed for the famous Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island. Both of us were still recovering from the travels of the previous few days so tried to sleep in a little. This turns out to be a bad idea as the water was a bit choppy and we didn't get on with sleeping while on the move. Once we got off the boat we both felt fine again, but we vouched that the next day we would be up before the boat started moving. Whitehaven beach is the purest silica beach in the world the sand is 98% silica. If lightening struck the beach the sand would instantly fuse together in one ball of glass.  NASA took 5 tons of the sand to use in the lens for the Hubble telescope (Lloyds favourite fact about the beach). Its an amazing beach, the water is so clear you can see baby sting rays swimming and the sand is so soft to walk on its hard to describe.

Once a couple of hours of messing around on the beach had passed we headed for some snorkelling in bays around some of the other islands. In Mackerel and Mantaray Bay we saw huge sections of the Great Barrier Reef populated with so many different fish. Its really was amazing, everywhere you looked a different species of fish would swim past. We eventually had to get back on board the boat and sailed off to Langford Spit where we would spend the night. The evening flew by with a few drinks and the entertainment of some large fish swimming around the lights underneath the boat. We also spend a lot of time star gazing with the help of an ipad app, something that is made a lot easier with the almost zero light pollution. 

The next morning everyone was up by 7 for an early breakfast and snorkel. This time the star of the show was a giant green turtle about 3 foot in diameter. Even in the spot that is renowned for turtles we were lucky to see one that big. The skipper told us that at that size they will be about 150 years old. I saw a giant Sting Ray but sadly Lloyd was to far away too see it. Last time I was there Colin cut his foot on some coral, this time Lloyd went one better and hit his head on it while filming underwater. No serious damage was done though and hopefully the video is good.

We chilled out while the boat sailed back to Airlie beach. Just in time to let us get some lunch before checking back into the hostel. In the afternoon we met up with some of the other people from the boat before heading to one of the backpacker bars for a cheap meal and some free drinks to celebrate the end of an awesome trip.

Just chillin'

Crazy hair

In case of emergency

Lookout nr Whitehaven Beach

Sunset on the first night

Adventurer gang

Taking the plunge

Rocking a t-shirt tan

The route we took

Albany To Perth and beyond

Yesterday we took a 6 hour bus ride from Albany to Perth, passing through a town called Williams which amused me. The journey wasn't too bad, it actually flew by as were are becoming quite accustomed to travelling long distances now. As all the hostels in Perth are awful we used some going away money from Lloyds parents to check in to a nicer hotel. Everything was fine and it was great to sleep in a comfy bed. We had a lovely meal in a 'posh' burger place, I had a healthy veggie stack and Lloyd enjoyed ordering the Captain America burger.

Today we explored Perth some more, mostly taking in the amazing Kings Park and surrounds. This afternoon we have indulged in a little retail therapy and had some sushi. Sushi is the first meal out in OZ where we have eaten well and spent hardly any money.

The UK's Steve Irwin!

Close up with some (metal) roos

Now we are relaxing back at the hotel waiting for our shuttle to the airport. We fly to cairns then get on a train then a coach all so we can go on a sailing tour of the Whitsunday Islands on Thursday. I imagine it will be a lot of this...

zzzzzzzz

One day in Albany

After getting soaked in Walpole yesterday we took the bus to Albany. We decried we didn't want to cook especially since the kitchen at the hostel was manic. So we had a nice Chinese meal, the service was a bit slow but the food and portion sizes were excellent.

Today we took advantage of crap weather and our last lie then headed out to explore Albany. We ended up buying some charity hot dogs for breakfast and walking for about 4 hours along the coast. Along the way we found Ellen Cove and Middleton Beach. Both were lovely and although it rained it meant the dreaded flies disappeared  for a while.

We have an early bus back to Perth in the morning so will have to try and get to sleep earlier this evening.

We got soaked in Walpole

Lloyd's always picking his nose

Here comes the rain

Tortoise Crossing apparently

The Brig Amity - Replica of the ship that brought the first settlers to Albany 

Around Walpole..not getting any roo pics

In Pemberton we had a few hours waiting for another bus, using the time to catch up on some reading, the TV was broken in the hostel which turned out to be a good thing as it stopped us watching crap all day. The Walpole YHA was our next stop and in many ways is like stepping back into the 70's. The patterned carpet and Motel style accommodation. This being said its clean warm and well equipped with a lovely manager who also offers car hire. 

So the next day we signed up to hire a little old Suzuki Swift, of course Janine was the driver for the day. First off we headed to the Giant Tingle Tree which is the largest tree in the area, you can walk through the middle as the core wood has been burnt out over the years of bush fire. This is natural for the tingle trees as the living part is a thin layer just beneath the outer bark. It can lead to some spectacular sights, there used to be a tree that you could drive a car through. Next stop was the Valley Of the Giants tree top walk which is a man made 600m long walkway 40m up in the canopy of the forest. It's definitely worth the price of admission on a good weather day. We got luck and could see blue skies and only a few clouds.

We headed for a fish and chip lunch on the beach in Peaceful Bay. The WA flies were out in force but they only had eyes for us, not the food. Peaceful Bay is as the name describes and it was a great spot for lunch. We took a quick stop off on the road back to see Boyd rock, but it's not that impressive, it's just a rock in the sea, sorry Boyd! As the rains came we took the longest journey 60km up the road of the day up the Mount Frankland. Half of it on unsealed road, something we are not used to too much at home, although the potholes reminded us of home. The car was filthy when we arrived and we were glad we wouldn't have to clean it.

Mount Frankland is only 410m high but gives anyone willing to climb the 200 steps some amazing views of the area. On one side it was blue skies with some white fluffy clouds on the other we could see the rain hammering down from dark stormy clouds. You had no indication of any civilisation, except the weather station next to us in the rocks and the odd straight line through the forest where roads were. We had beaten the rain and watched it sweep over the roads we had just been driving up. As we walked back down the rain caught us for a couple of minutes but really the rain coats were not needed.

As we drove to our final planned stop we realised we hadn't seen another car or person for over an hour. It gave us an amazing sense of the sparseness of population there is in this part of Australia. I saw two wild kangaroos worryingly Janine didn't see them despite them bouncing on the road where she was driving. maybe I should have driven. The final place we hoped to visit were Fernhook falls which were some waterfalls and a rock pool that people swim in during summer. It's not summer yet so we didn't swim, also the water is stained with tannin here which gives it a dark red colour. It's clean to swim and drink but still a little unsettling, especially when the falls causes the water to foam up like Fairy liquid has been poured in.

We were finally on the route home and decided that we still had some light to take another unsealed road detour off the highway. Turns out this was the best decision as we ended up at Mandalay Beach. Named after a Norwegian ship that was wrecked on 15th May 1911, we noted the date was my birthday although a few years before, I'm not that old! This is the first beach we have found in WA with the real wow factor. Clean white sand, amazing views and a small island off the coast. The pictures don't fully do it justice although this might be because my camera was out of battery so we were using Janine's point and shoot. On the way back, as the sun was setting and as the manager of the hostel had warned, Janine's saw two kangaroos chilling by the side of the road. I failed to get a picture as I fumbled with her camera even though she was pointing and shouting Roo, Roo, Roo get the camera.

The Giant Tingle Tree

Hi Lloyd - In the Giant Tingle Tree

Don't Jump - Valley of The Giants, Tree Top Walk

Valley Of The Giants - Tree Top Walk

Valley Of the Giants

Scrummy fish and chips - Peaceful Bay

On the way down Mount Frankland

Cheesy couple shot

Mandalay Beach

Janine has found her favourite beach

Our car for the day "Tingle"

Obligatory sunset shot

Pemberton

On Monday we took the coach from Augusta to Pemberton. The coach driver was mental, hammering round corners, slamming the breaks on for kangaroos. Both of us felt a little sick, it was like a bad rollercoaster. We arrived in Pemberton late so didn't get a chance to look around that evening. The hostel was really nice, its a small cottage for people travelling rather than workers. We met some nice people from the dorm and chilled by the fire sharing stories or horrible hostels we had all stayed in. The next day we walked with a Dutch guy, Hans, from our dorm to the Gloucester tree. This is a 61m high fire look out tree that you can climb using metal spikes in the side. Health and Safety is a minimum here and there are a few hairy moments where the climb is pretty steep. The view at the top was cool but you can feel the whole tree moving in the wind. Coming down is a bit easier but the legs were pretty wobbly by the end. 

We then decided to walk along some of the Bibbulman track (a famous 1000km walk from Perth to Albany) to the Cascades. The walk was fun Hans saw a Dugite snake but they are pretty quick so we only caught a glimpse of the tail. There were loads of trees and branches blocking the track so it made the straight bits more interesting. The Cascades were a touch disappointing after the trek but we saw a Laughing Kookaburra who followed us around for a while.  Instead of taking the same route back we climbed onto the tram tracks to walk back to the town. After some discussion of the safety of this we decided the "twice a day" tram had already passed so we started walking. Literally a minute after this we head the horn of the tram and then very slowly it rounded the corner. We laughed as it passed by, safe to say we had plenty of time to get out of the way. Walking along the track was cool, although there were some unsettling moments crossing high bridges just by stepping on the sleepers. You get a weird perspective distortion which means something as simple as walking on specific points very difficult. We arrived back and popped open a few well deserved beers.

A long way up the Gloucester Tree

Janine's amazing picture of a Laughing Kookaburra

Walking on the first bridge

View from the top of the canopy at the Gloucester Tree

Hello down there

Oh dear