Port Macquarie: sun & surf

The boardwalk; where people sit and chat and fish

This will probably be the last blog update, as in a few days I’ll be flying back home from Sydney. The last few days have really been packed with fun though, and Port Macquarie really is the most awesome place on the planet. It’s a groovy beach town with lot’s of surfers and hardly any tourists,  and the tourists that are there are mostly aussies who are visiting for the weekend. 

Back in Sydney I was lucky enough to meet a nice german dude called Stefan, who happened to go to Port Macquarie as well, and he offered me a ride on a whale watch tour-boat (he works on it). At first I didn’t think it would be that spectacular, but that was because I thought we would only see the whales from a big distance and they wouldn’t be doing anything cool. More proof that I'm an idiot sometimes:

A whale "breaching"; apparently their way of scratching an itch

Also, as I mentioned before, Port Macquarie has lots of beaches, and as the weather was really good, I spent quite some time just reading a book and chilling out there. They’re also quite pretty..

 

The koala’s are abundently present as well, and on a visit to the koala hospital I even learned some stuff about them. Too bad I couldn’t really take any pictures, as they like to sit really high up in trees and the camera on my phone doesn’t zoom…  Nevertheless, here’s an attempt:

Yep, that's a koala right there - just so you can recognize it when you run into one.

The last day in Port, today, I went surfing, which is pretty tricky at the beginning, but after a while you manage to ride your first wave and it’s just really cool to do. This is definitely something I’m gonna be doing again (Linda, you promised to teach me to windsurf. I’m keeping you to that one, just so you know it). Tomorrow is a day filled with riding the train back to Sydney (what joy), then one more day there and after that flying back home…

Broken Hill: The Silver City

As I wrote earlier in the last post, I’ve spent a week in Broken Hill. Though there are quite some things to do, I actually mostly spent my time wandering, and cycling, through the desert and looking at local stuff that was just around, instead of going through museums and art galleries. What’s surprising is that there’s actually a lot of wildlife going on in such a dry place, which might be because humans haven’t built everything full all around so the animals have more space to live. At a certain point, I even saw a couple camels walking around:

Quite a surprise when I saw this guy walking around

Aside from the wildlife, the surroundings themselves are really something that made the trip out there worth it alone. As I mentioned before, it’s really impressive to stand somewhere where there is nothing around you except for sand and some bushes. Though I’m not sure it shows what it’s really like, I made a panorama to give an impression (it’s not all around since then it would really become a ridiculously thin stripe): 

Pretty... empty

Ok, fair enough - it's not entirely empty, there are structures!

At one of my trips through the desert, I came across a sign saying “historic daydream mine”. Sounded pretty interesting, so I went ahead. Too bad they were just closing down for the day, but the good thing was there were some locals who ran a tour through the mine there, who not only offered to give me a ride (with my pushbike in the back of the car) back to Broken Hill (which saved me about 3 hours cycling) but also offered to give me a tour through the mine the following day (they even drove me up there!). You might not think them to be, but mines are actually incredibly interesting. The main thing they mined in the beginning was silver, which is why the nickname of Broken Hilll is Silver City. Lots of deaths, disease and money are involved, and during the tour of the mine it became pretty clear that mining is not really something that’s good for your health. Apparently you were lucky if you made it to 40 – since that was the retirement age for most miners. Most of them didn’t even make it.. This is talking about the 1900’s though, nowadays ofcourse this isn’t the case anymore. What surprised me when we went into the mine (we went about 30 meters deep) is how small it actually was! There’s hardly any places where you can stand up straight, and it’s corridors were really narrow too (I honestly think an obese american could get stuck there).

Not something they just placed there for tourists; they actually used this equipment right up until the mine closed down in about 1950.

This picture may be dark, and you can't see much on it - but that actually shows perfectly how it is when you're walking through the mine.

By now I’ve moved on again – and I’m now in Port Macquarie. This is about 400 kilometers north of Sydney (1500 from Broken Hill – another 20 hours of riding the train) and a nickname for it is the Koala Capital of the world. Needless to say, there are lot’s of koala’s here, but cool thing is they ‘re living in the town itself as well (in the parks, that is). Aside from having a lot of koala’s, Port Macquarie is also the place with the best weather for entire New South Wales this week, which will be my last week in Australia, and has about 9 beaches to enjoy it – with good opportunities to go (wind) surfing..

Rockhampton – Brisbane – Sydney – Broken Hill

The last week has been filled with travelling. 

I’ve travelled all the way from Innisfail to Rockhampton, then to Brisbane, Sydney, and now I’m in Broken Hill (or Silver City). As most of you probably don’t know that much about Australian geography (and why should you): it adds up to 2700km. To put it into perspective: that’s about as far as from The Netherlands all the way to Turkey.

The itinerary: A. Rockhampton, B. Brisbane, C. Sydney, D. Broken Hill

First of all Rockhampton; it’s a city that’s really been made for normal urban aussies. That having said, it’s not made for tourists. Looking back on it, I’m glad I only stayed there for one day, as it turned out there was little pretty or fun about it. There was a pretty cool zoo however, with all kinds of exotic animals. What was particularly cool was that the birds were flying all around the park, for some reason they didn’t have to be locked up (i’m guessing they stay for the food). When I was having lunch at the park they even came checking out my food, and I was happy to let them think I would let them have some for a second, so I could take a picture, as they were truly beautiful..

Exotic birds that were out to get my food - good luck suckers

Though I was in Brisbane, I haven’t really been there again: I was only there because there is no direct train connection between Rockhampton and Sydney, so I had to make a stop (just like on my way from Sydney to Cairns – Rockhampton is in between Cairns and Brisbane). I only stayed there for one night, and didn’t even have any daytime there. Sydney is a different story though, as I had three days there again. Since I’d already seen most of the touristic-scenic stuff, I decided to just enjoy the city as much as possible. This included going to Manly again, but now exploring the other side, which is again totally different. Though there wasn’t really a path, and it took ridiculously long, I had a great walk at the waterside and through the forest, and once again Manly proved to be quite pretty: 

It's not all beaches, but nontheless pretty

One of the postcard-like views

After, I went to see The Dark Knight Rises at the Sydney IMAX theatre at Darling Harbour, which boasts the largest screen in the world: it is massive. At the beginning of the movie I was actually a bit dizzy, and if the focus in a scene shifts from the left side of the screen to the right side, you actually have to turn your head a bit to be able to see everything. As a last, I payed a visit to the Hard Rock Cafe..

Couldn't not go there..

Too bad I couldn’t stay there til very late though, as the train to Broken Hill already left at 6:20 am. Though I had to spend 15 hours in the train, it doesn’t even feel that long anymore as I’ve gotten used to it for a bit; Middelburg-Borne (a bit more than 4 hours) won’t feel as bad as it did before anyways. Something pretty cool, which I hadn’t expected, is that the sand out here is all red, and not just a bit: 

The sand is red unlike I've ever seen before - this picture isn't bad-coloured

As for Broken Hill itself, it is a whole different Australia here than it is at the coast. Broken Hill is rather small (20.000 people) but it is the biggest town in a 350 km radius, which makes that despite its few inhabitants has most things you need. It is a typical western – desert town, the kind you see in the movies, and a lot of movies actually have been filmed here (pretty big ones too, such as Mad Max II and Mission Impossible II). Back in the old days everybody used to work in the mines; and even now there are still a couple mines open, although not as many as there used to be. They've been mining in Broken Hill since 1890 however, making it one of the longest continuing mining places of the world.

A closed mine - one of the many

I haven’t seen much of the place and the surroundings yet, but what I’ve seen so far is pretty impressive. There are vast open spaces where there is simply nothing, just desert. Though that sounds rather boring, it’s really got something to it. To stand in a huge open space where there hardly grows anything (however you do see kangaroos every now and then, and there are lots of snakes) without being able to hear traffic or see any civilization is really an experience,  there’s a certain peace to it. There are plenty of things to do too though; there are mines, art galleries, museums, national parks and plenty of history, so I don’t really worry about getting bored for the week that I’ll be here..

From jungle tripping to angry farmers – Mossman Gorge and Innisfail

A couple days back by now, I went on a trip to Mossman Gorge, which  is a nice rainforest national-park near Port Douglas. Josie and Simon already told me that the bridge to the main part of the area was broken (which is the only acces road), but they also told me to go anyways since it would still be nice to visit. Unfortunately, the part before the bridge was very dissapointing: tons of tourists and hardly anything to see.

 Luckily, it’s dry season right now, and the river is very low. Not wanting to go back after having cycled for an hour to get there, I crossed the river by just walking through it (didn’t get eaten by a croc – yay!). After that it was truly amazing; there were all kinds of crazy stuff: All kinds of butterflies, huge birds, mushrooms in every colour of the rainbow, absurdly large trees, plants/trees with very strange looking purple leafs and more weird stuff like that. 

Strange purple leafs, very strange to just see hanging around

Seriously huge, but also just really strangely shaped trees

Unswimmable unfortunately; as there's a fair chance to get eaten if you do..

Not only was this part of the forest much more nice than the other part, also I was the only one there. I haven’t seen a single person in the 3 hours that I walked around there, which was very strange since a little earlier it was packed with peope. Thinking back on how easy it actually was to cross the river, I’m surprised nobody else did it. 

The bridge over the river, as can see the water was ridiculously low

 After that, I didn’t really do much anymore in Port Douglas. It’s only a small town, and there’s not actually a whole lot to do. They dó however have a 4-mile beach (which they’re very proud of, I think that in The Netherlands we have tons of beaches stretching that long or longer?) and the good weather to enjoy it. Not a surprise I spend two full days chilling out there..

All that’s been a couple days ago by now though – and right now I’m in a place called Innisfail. I read in my beloved travel-guidebook that there are some cool national parks in the area here, which there are. Too bad karma’s a bitch and my not-planning things backfired this time: you need a car to get anywhere, there are simply no buses or trains going.. Despite being kinda stuck and not able what I wanted to do, Innisfail itself isn’t all bad though;

The Innisfail esplanade

One of the many hills around Innisfail - not very spectacular but pretty nice to walk through

 

  

Since I wasn’t gonna go anywhere I decided to just walk around Innisfail for a bit, when I saw a wild kangaroo in the field. Excited as I was I followed it into the field, whereafter it ran away real quick. The fields were verry pretty though so I kinda kept walking through them. That is, until a farmer threatened to shoot me if I didn’t  get my “fucking cunt ass” of his property. He even kept yelling and threatening me as I was not getting off his land fast enough for his taste. Safe to say my lesson’s learnt.

But, I DID see some wild kangaroos! Too bad my phonecamera doesn't zoom..

Diving at the Great Barrier Reef and the first day of Port Douglas!

The last few days I’ve been doing my diving course, which was truly amazing. Diving is just unbelievably cool. At first the idea seemed kinda scary (after all, you breathe through a tube deep under water); but it’s a bit like an extreme rollercoaster: The first time I was quite nervous but after that I just wanted to go again straight away. The Great Barrier Reef is really beautiful, though it’s not even really the coral that’s all that exciting. 

The boat left... Rather early. Thank god for coffee.

A real surprise, for me anyways, is how much life there’s actually going on at the bottom of the ocean. When we were doing some exercises while sitting at the bottom, there were some fish that just came looking at the bubbles we were blowing out, there was a huge turtle we followed around for a while and just enormous schools of fish (more than 200 fish in them at least) all over the place. There were even sharks swimming in the area, although unfortunately I didn’t see any for myself (sharks sound scary, but they only eat fish of about 10cm large, apparently humans are just not on the menu). What we did see, though from the boat and not underwater, were whales! All together, there actually seems to be a lot more animal life going on at sea than there is on land. 

Some people throwing fish food in the sea, as to show how many there actually are

  

After 2 weeks of Cairns I’ve pretty much seen most things there though, and today I made the trip to Port Douglas! Josie, a woman I met at the hostel where I was staying in Cairns, offered me to couchsurf at her and Simons place for a couple days! Really, really cool. They’re both very chill people and I’m pretty sure the next couple days are going to be really great. 

Sunset at the pier

As for Port Douglas itself: It’s like a little paradise. I went into the city to explore for a bit, and walked around on the pier for a little bit when I got talking with an older woman, who asked me whether I liked fishing. As I’ve never fished before I told her so, and she asked me if I’d like to try. Basically we spent the next hour fishing together and we actually caught four fish!

Sue and me after some succesful fishing :)

Cairns, Kuranda, and Green Island

 First of all: Cairns is cool. It’s a real backpackers city, with a very relaxed laid-back vibe to it. Though I’ve met some pretty cool people before I got to Cairns, this is really the place where  Just like in Brisbane; there’s a sort of beach in the city (only here they call it the lagoon) which is usually pretty busy but the two times I was there there were still some spots left. The weather forecast turns out to be complete shit; meaning that the weather is actually really great here and there’s hardly any rain or clouds at all. A little bit outside of the city there’s also a “real” beach, which was a bit nicer. It’s called Trinity beach and what I liked most about it is that it’s purely visited by locals; there’s not that touristic feeling of Sydney and Cairns.

An amazing beach, almost entirely all to myself

Aside from lying on the beach I really did do some other things though.. Last Wednesday I went to Kuranda, which is a little town in the rainforest. The town itself was, just like Katoomba, slightly dissapointing. This time mostly because it was so clearly flooded with tourists however, not because it looked like a ghost town. There were some really nice things to see there though, like the waterfall that runs down one of the mountaints: 

A much advertised waterfall, of which I don't remember the name

Probably the nicest thing about it was a trip on a riverboat there. The boat was manned by just one guy who had an incredible amount of knowledge about the local wildlife and plantlife, which he really seemed to love to share with us. It’s pretty cool to know a little bit more about the place you visit, and it wasn’t until then that I realized that it’s actually pretty hard to get to know more about the wild- and plantlife: mostly there are just trips to nice sights and people trying to sell you tachy souvenirs. 

On the riverboat :)

As for today; I went to Green Island. Green Island is an island that lies in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, but here’s what makes it special from the (numerous) other islands out here: there’s a rainforest on it. It’s verry surrealistic to walk around on an island you can cross in half an hour, but that has a rainforest. As it lies in the middle of the great barrier reef, there was also plenty opportunity to snorkel around for a little bit. Though it was probably not even nearly as exciting as diving is going to be, it was pretty cool. Followed around this huge turtle for a while, and that was when I got kinda sad that I didn’t have an underwater camera..

Tomorrow diving at the great barrier reef, and as some may have seen on facebook already: a girl from the hostel gave me a free diving course! Too bad I already signed up for a introductory dive (basically diving with an instructor, but not getting your certificate or anything), but still really a great gift! Usually it costs around 500$ to get your diver’s certificate in Australia (heard it’s cheaper in other countries, but yeah I’m simply not there), but what’s also cool is that it includes 4 extra dives at the great barrier reef! But more about the great barrier reef once I’ve actually dived there..