Travel: CAIRNS & THE GREAT BARRIER REEF - East Coast Australia Adventures Part 4

Heading up the coast from my time in Magnetic Island (read about that here), I arrived later than expected in Cairns thanks to bus delays, so was pleased to head straight to bed at the delightful Freedom Hostel. This was the first of my hostels to offer free breakfasts, so I took advantage of that before heading down to the Port to check in for that days adventures – a cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef aboard Ocean Freedom.

Once checked in, I made the impulse and expensive decision to rent an underwater camera – you only Great Barrier Reef once, right? We climbed aboard and settled in for the choppy hour and a half ride out to Upolu Reef. I’d paid extra to scuba dive rather than just snorkel (check out the process of gettingmy diving qualification here) so suited up into a wetsuit, hiked on my BCD and flippers, and hopped into the water.

I couldn’t tell you how long we dived for, but it was nice to get up close and personal with the coral and the fish, although I’ll be honest, I’d expected there to be a hell of a lot more fish than there actually were. In my mind, there would be at least as many fish as I’d seen in the Tahitian reefs (check that out here) if not more – this was the famous GBR, for crying out loud! Regardless, beggars can’t be choosers and it was still cool to say I’ve scuba dived in the GBR.

We ate lunch on board and were then offered the opportunity to board a glass bottom boat to again get a different perspective on the sea life beneath us. There was then the chance to snorkel at another destination, including a ‘snorkel tour’ where we followed behind one of the instructors, who showed us the best of the reef, including huge shells which snap shut like Venus flytraps when touched. 

We headed back to shore over the choppy waves and I returned my underwater camera to avoid paying the $650 charge if you lost it. It was then back to the hostel to take advantage of the free GHD straighteners they had behind reception to doll myself up for a pleasant night in.

Thanks for reading! One more stop on my East Coast adventures, so stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry to be the first to know when that's posted. Have you travelled around Australia? I'd love to hear about your travels - drop me a message in the comments below!

Travel: MAGNETIC ISLAND - East Coast Australia Adventures Part 3

Never one to get tied down, I left Airlie Beach and my Whitsundays adventures (read all about them here) with a long day ahead of me to reach Magnetic Island. My bus took me to Townsville where I then hopped on a ferry to the island and walked the half hour to the Base Hostel that I was staying at. Somehow I’d ended up staying at one of the overwater bungalows (pretty fancy for a hostel, eh?). However, the hostel was hardly close to anything, which meant I settled in for the night in preparation for a big day the next day.

First thing in the morning, I caught the bus to The Forts, a walk which I’m sure had some kind of military history behind it, but I was more interested in trying to find the koalas who are said to reside en route. The walk in to the viewpoint was unsuccessful in that respect, but did nice 360 views around the island, and we did spot two koalas on our way back. This was also a good opportunity to take photos with the islands famous Barbie cars, which do indeed look like the one driven by Barbie herself.

Given that we’d bought day bus passes, it only made sense to head the beach, and I chose Radical Bay as our destination, having heard that it was probably the nicest to visit. This involved hopping off the bus at the touristy Horseshoe Bay and trekking about 40 minutes in the heat until we reached the bay. A dip in the sea would have been much relished, but the previous days news of the shark attack had left me a bit hesitant to venture into Australian waters.

Nonetheless, the beach was deserted and pretty, and helped us pass the time between the irregular bus times. Back at Base, I had intended to try and fit both a visit to Alma Bay to see the rock wallabies and a hostel-organised sunset trip in, but was told there was no way I’d be able to get to Alma and back before the group left.

However, the receptionist helpfully pointed out that there was a little marina a twenty minute walk away where we might find wallabies, and we’d also be back in time for sunset, so I was sold. I wandered over to the marina and spent a good twenty minutes peering down at the rocks for any sign of wallabies.

On the verge of giving up hope, I decided I’d have a look at some of the rocks further up, and lo and behold, whilst I was looking over the edge, up popped a wallaby. Further along, a few more appeared. In retrospect, I was pleased I’d come here instead of Alma Bay as the latter was certainly more touristy with more domesticated wallabies. Here, I didn’t have to share them with anyone, and we both appreciated the others personal space.

Checking my watch, I decided it was time to head back to the hostel so I could head out on the sunset walk. ‘Oh, we’re not doing that today,’ the receptionist said. Okay, great. Guess I was just going to have to do it on my own then. ‘How long will it take?’ ‘About twenty minutes’ Perfect.

I followed the vague directions I was given… and followed them… and followed them. It became very clear that I was not getting anywhere within twenty minutes, and eventually reached the start of a path up to the lookout where I knew we were supposed to watch sunset from. The sign detailed an hour and a half round trip. No thank you.

I headed back to the hostel and instead enjoyed a pleasant sunset from my balcony, complete with rock wallabies playing down below. What more could you want? The following morning I took a stroll along the beach before returning to the ferry port and back to the mainland for my final bus journey of the trip – up to Cairns.

Thanks for reading Part 3 of my East Coast Australia adventures! I can't wait to head back to Aus for even more exploration - do you have any recommendations of where I should visit? I'd love to hear them - drop me a message in the comments below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry where you can also be the first to know when I post a new blog!

Travel: AIRLIE BEACH & THE WHITSUNDAYS - East Coast Australia Adventures Part 2

Following my restless night on the bus from 1770 (read about my adventures there here) and I arrived in Airlie Beach. Things  were already looking up. I headed to GST Aviation for something I was very excited to do. I first thought I’d do a skydive over the Whitsundays, but figured I’d ticket that off the bucket list in Noosa. What could be better then? How about a scenic flight?

I checked in and hung around a while before we were collected on a bus and brought down to the airfield. Six of us were brought to a tiny plane by the pilot. ‘Who wants to co-pilot?’ he asked. My hand shot up. ‘Hop in.’ I felt cool as anything sitting up front with dials and switches galore as we took off over towards the coast and the Whitsundays.

Glorious blue water speckled with white sand islands stretched before us. I was living. We flew over the shifting sands of Hill Inlet and to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The pilot warned us as we approached The Heart of the Reef, which is what it says on the tin – a heart shaped reef which is really something to look at. The different shades of blue on the reef were stunning and a smile was plastered on my face all the way until landing.

I was having a great day, and even great days can be improved by food, so I caught up with a girl I’d met in 1770 for lunch at Cook’s Bar & Grill – a thick halloumi sandwich coupled with a yummy iced chocolate. We wandered along the coast before heading to the Marina to watch the sunset by the luxury yachts of the rich and famous. Airlie Beach had my heart.

The last thing I want to do when I’m travelling is feel like I’m wasting time, so I was up early the next morning to see what I ought to do in Airlie. I opted for the Honeyeater Hike, which was challenging enough to get to in the first place as it was perched at the top of a hill. I endured a sweaty hour or so of just me and the goanas and cockatoos before it was time to head back to Magnums hostel to pack up and head on.

After lunch we made our way down to the Marina to board our home for the next two nights, Wings catamaran. We were met at the group by our host Robyn we brought the twenty-something of us down to the boat where we surrendered our shoes for the next few days and hopped aboard. We were served a light lunch of pizza whilst we were introduced to Robyn and our skipper Christian and given a brief itinerary of what we would be up to for the next few days.

It was then time to head to our quarters. I was in one of the pointy parts of the catamaran (boat fans, I’m sorry!) along with 7 others. It was a tight squeeze, but by the end of our time aboard Wings, everyone aboard would be as close as anything. We chilled aboard the boat, getting to know our fellow travellers and playing cards before arriving at our first snorkel destination.

We decked ourselves out in snazzy Wings wetsuits and snorkels and hopped in to spend some time with the fishies. Again, life was good. Back on board we were treated to sunset snacks artfully prepared by Robyn and then to the front of the boat to watch the sunset before enjoying dinner and each others company until the wee hours of the morning.

It felt like I’d just gone to bed before I woke up again to watch the sunrise over the ocean. I mean, you don’t get that many chances to do that, so you’d best believe I was going to take every opportunity I could get. We were anchored on the back end of Whitehaven Beach, and watching the sunrise near to the glistening white sands was a sight not to be missed.

A few hours later and the rest of my new pals rose for breakfast and a morning swim before we took the dinghy over to Whitehaven. A little walk later and we arrived at the stunning silica sands that make up just about every photo of the Whitsundays. We had a few hours of free time to swim, take Instagram photos and play beach football. Like Fraser Island’s Lake Mackenzie, this was undoubtedly the place to see and be seen in the Whitsundays.

We walked up to the three lookouts to get the best views of the beach and the inlet before getting back on the dingy to return to the boat and be swept off to our next snorkel destinations. We docked at Hook Passage for dinner and sunset.

I woke up early the next morning for another sunrise, although this one was less spectacular than the last as the sun rose behind the land mass we were docked behind. After breakfast we had a final chance to snorkel – now if you’ve been keeping up with Aussie news, the name Hook Passage might be familiar to you. This is where a shark attack which resulted in a mans foot being bitten off took place, less than two hours after we’d been swimming there. The thought that we were swimming in the same waters as that shark still gives me the heebie-jeebies…

Alas, we weren’t to know this, and were blissfully ignorant as we sailed back to port to bid farewell to our crew and fellow passengers. Having so much fun over the past few days had caused me to build up quite the appetite so we headed to Anchor Bar for burgers overlooking the ocean. Bliss. That evening I walked back over to the marina for another sunset before a Wings after party at Beaches Bar.

 Thanks for reading today's blog! I loved spending time in the Whitsundays and would absolutely recommend it - is it on your list of places to go? Let me know by dropping a message in the comments and be sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to be notified of upcoming blog posts!

Travel: 1770 & AGNES WATER - East Coast Australia Adventures Part 1

I’d been in Australia for over 6 months and yet had seen little more of the country this time around than my adopted hometown of Noosa, and Byron Bay (you can read about that here). It was about time to change that, and so I booked myself an East Coast adventure that would take me from Brisbane over 1,600 kilometres to Cairns, and then on to the Northern Territory for good measure.

All about getting maximum impact for minimum money, I’d booked myself onto the cheaper of the two coaches which take you around the country, the Premier Bus Service. I packed light, with just a backpack and string bag to last me over two weeks, but this sure made travelling around a hell of a lot easier, even just in getting to Brisbane Coach Terminal to start my adventures.

And so we began, driving North. The bus driver kindly allowed me to hop off the bus at Noosa to say hello to my friends, and then it was straight on through. Having left Brisbane at 2pm that day, I didn’t arrive at my first destination, the town of 1770 / Agnes Water, until 12:10am. To say it had been a long day would be an understatement, and it wasn’t even over yet.

Now, one of the disadvantages of being as frugal with transport as I am is that it doesn’t always take you exactly where you need to be, and so I was dropped off 25km outside of town. I’m not really sure why the Premier can’t head into town like the Greyhound does, but this did mean ordering a $50 return shuttle to take me to my hostel.

Things didn’t get off to the best start when I arrived at Southern Cross Backpackers in the middle of the night, as no staff were around, and apparently no arrangements had been made for me to stay the night. Thus, I was placed in the first empty room to be found (Southern Cross is bizarrely a ‘keyless hostel’, meaning none of the doors get locked…) sans any linens or comfort that I wouldn’t have strange animals or stranger people walking into my room in the middle of the night.

Circumstances didn’t necessarily improve the next morning when I was up bright and early to check in as soon as reception opened, which it didn’t until 40 minutes after advertised. Delightful. Alas, I was here and it was time to see all of the delights that 1770 had to offer. The hostel kindly offered free shuttle transport to town at various times throughout the day, so I hopped on the shuttle at 10am and was dropped off in the small town of Agnes Water.

First (and only) stop – the beach. I spent an hour or so wandering along the beach as it is indeed one of my favourite pasttimes, and to be quite fair, there really didn’t seem to be very much else to do here. The bus returned after midday and I headed back to the hostel to prepare for the first of the activities my travel agent had persuaded me to get involved in – Scooteroo.

Where do I begin with Scooteroo? If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know that I do sometimes get myself involved in strange situations – the Moulin Rouge being a notable example – and yet even that pales in comparison to Scooteroo. On paper, it’s a scenic tour of Agnes Water and 1770 via chopper bike. In reality, it’s what seems to be a drug-fuelled hallucination.

We lined up at the bike shed and were greeted by our instructor Craig, who had undoubtedly ingested every kind of drug known to man, quite possibly that day alone. I make no exaggerations when I say that all of us were slightly concerned that this man was to be in charge of our safety. But then again, pretty much all of the people I’d met on this leg of my journey so far appeared to be on drugs, so maybe it was just their way of coping with living in 1770…

There was a brief trial period on a dirt track for us to get used to riding a chopper. It was at this point that I wondered why I, who is not even confident driving a car, had decided to sign up to this. Here we were, already feeling pretty shaky on a dirt track, and we were about to be released onto the roads.

Deemed road-safe (ha), we filed single file out onto the roads and started tearing off at 50-60 kph. Trust me when I say that the less you thought about what you were doing, the better. We stopped at some kind of forest area for a brief walk through the woods, not seeing an awful lot, and then back off we went.

Riding along straight roads was fine, but corners were hard for me. The bike was heavy, and I found it very difficult to steer the handlebars enough to make a tight corner, sometimes veering into the other lane and panicking to pull myself back straight before I headed off the road. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as we took a corner and behind me I heard an ear-piercing scream. We were going fast, and didn’t know what to do until Craig zoomed ahead of us, flagged us to stop, said ‘there’s been an accident’, and zoomed off again.

Down the road behind us, one of the girls had been thrown off her bike taking a corner. We waited up the hill as she was taken off to hospital. Let me tell you that it was at this point that we became very aware of our mortality, and that perhaps this hadn’t been the smartest thing to do Day 1 of my tour, when I still had so many activities that would be so much better without a broken arm, and indeed, still alive.

The rest of the ride was tense, and the main topic of conversation as we stopped for potato wedges and sundown at the port of 1770 was hoping the girl was alright. We raced home before the sun fully set, and were all relieved to arrive home in one piece and find our compatriot safe and sound.

I’ll be brutally honest – I’d had more than enough of 1770 by this point, and indeed was rather confused as to why I’d been sent there in the first place. My travel agent had been so adamant that 1770 was not to be missed, but I can’t say I’d agree. And here I was, with another full day ahead of me before my bus onwards arrived to pick me up at 12:10am that night.

What was I do to with myself? Head back to the beach, I guess. But even that didn’t last long, and we found ourselves back at the hostel by lunchtime. With nothing to do, we wasted time watching a movie before the kangaroo sanctuary nearby opened for the brief period of 3-4pm. I walked over and spent a little time feeding the kangas sweet potato slices before heading back to the hostel.

You’ll know I’m a big fan of sunsets, so that was my next idea, and I found myself accompanied by one of the hostels resident loons who offered to take me to his secret ‘beachside workshop’ where he was building a raft to sail to Indonesia… You’ll be pleased to know I declined. I’m not sure I’d still be writing this blog post if I’d agreed.

Thank God that a full Greyhound full of people arrived at the hostel that night as I’m really not sure what I would’ve done otherwise. The tour group happily integrated me into their ranks, and we spent the night playing cards and chatting before my shuttle returned to collect me and take me far away from that town.

Thanks for reading today's blog! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures in 1770 and Agnes Water - have you visited these towns before? If so, was your experience any different to mine? I'd love to hear about them - drop me a message in the comments below and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to stay up to date with future posts!