Jacqstravels's Blog

SPIDER

jacqstravels — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:59:27 +0000

ughhhh

nuff said

BRISBANE 1st night CALOUNDRA & Glass house mountains

jacqstravels — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:03:13 +0000

So met up with Brianna for some dinner…..she took me down to Southbank and pointed out lots of intersting things on the way to get food….and then i had…shock horror…a KEBAB. it was actually really nice, not in any way like kebabs in england, more like having a toasted wrap, very satisfying! after eating and a little bit of retail therapy I headed back to the hostel for some food and an early night ready for…
a road trip (back) up to the sunny coast for the day…. after a nice(?!!) early start we took a wander through some markets where Bri lives and bought pastried for brekkie and then hopped in the car to the Glass house mountains. Not really mountains in comparison to some other places-more just lumps in the ground! so small they didnt have roads going up them -thank god!! We stopped off at a lookout point and took some pic and then went for a walk through a eucalyptus wood…no koalas though, shame
Then we headed up to Caloundra- a cute little seaside town not dissimilar to england to be honest! had a look around the shops ( we were hoping for markets but got the day wrong) and then went for fish and chips and got accosted by seaguls…sound familiar??! I still maintain that Bristish fish and chips is so much better!!!! although im hoping for some good seafood in malaysia and indonesia
We then headed, on my request….to dicky beach….and the wreck of ‘ss dicky’ i couldnt resist getting a pic with the sign blocking out the Y. yes, i was having an ‘i am really five’ moment…in fact, i waas like an excited child for most of the day….was good fun…..VERY big thanks to Bri for being my taxi and putting up with me ALL day!!!

Surfers paradise

jacqstravels — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:23:11 +0000

2nd last stop on my journey around australia….got off to an interesting start….the guy driving the hostel bus has a sister at Queen annes, where i lived for two years…..very small world!! and then i got to the hostel to be told by two girls in my room that the reason there were two empty but half made beds was because they had bed bugs NOOOOOOO so i proceeded to strip everything off my bed and found a dead one ARGH. managed to get moved rooms to one that was smaller, nicer, and thankfully clean! didnt really actually do a whole lot of anything in surfers. Had a hideos headache the first and second night….useful as i was only there for two nights….but did manage a trip down to the main beach
It was actually a really nice beach, but lo and behold when i went to take a photo my camera flashed that it had no battery…arghhhhhhh frigging rubbsh piece of crap!!! So i consoled myself with three hours of sunbathing as i decided i should probably leave Oz with some semblance of a tan!
Left the hostel bright an early to get to my (non greyhound) bus up to brisbane feeling pretty upbeat…only to realise i had left my camera charger in the hostel- IDIOT. and cue ridiculous trip back to the hostel yelling at traffic lights and generally willing the bus to go faster. Alex the driver did a sterling job though and got me back to the transit centre with 4 whole minutes to speare-phewf! only for the bus to be 20minutes late hahahahaha! sodding typical, it could only happen to me!
The premier bus was way better than greyhound, and with no fuss arrived into brisbane…..

Byron Bay

jacqstravels — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:50:43 +0000

so after no longer having an afternoon i resigned myself to doing nothing, which was actually quite satisfying!
The next morning i proceeded to wash EVERYTHING i own (thank god for free laundry) to make sure i dont have any more bed bug issues, and then took a walk to the local shop to buy lots of fruit and veg as i have become incredibly unhealthy since leaving the uk. A bunch of English folks arrived lateron in the day and so I decided to head out with them in the evening.
What a mistake….The bar/club was horrific and i cant say the company was much better. Its the first time since Iv been away that i have REALLY fully wanted to come home. I have been told alot that homesickness kicks in right around the 2month mark, they werent lying….the last week has been really hard, and i think i had reached the crux of my rubbishness. Luckily just as i decided to make a start in the 45minute walk home alone, the rest of the group decided to leave-wooop! as i slowed to write a text however all but one of the group ditched me, oh how charming english people can be, i had almost forgotten!!!! Managed to aviod them for the rest of my stay and spent some time in the town and at the beach, bumped into stephanie and martin AGAIN…and a group of girls that iv seen just about everywhere at some point as iv travelled down the coast…the world does become very small here! and thankfully my opinion of Byron wasnt marred by bad company. Tallow beach,right on my doorstep was deserted-literally noone on it for most of the time i was,so no complaints there!! managed to get some cheap postcards at last!! I found Byron to be the place closest in likeness to england.probably why i liked it!!
spent my last evening watching ’10,000bc’ with a cup of tea and some folk from the hostel, which was actually really nice! then onwards once more the next morening to surfers…….

Noosa

jacqstravels — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:38:36 +0000

I was pleased to see some familiar faces board my bus halfway down to noosa, stephanie and martin, a german couple that had been on my boat in the Whitsundays who i had also spotted on a self drive tour on fraser. I didnt have accomodation booked so I headed to the same hostel they were booked into. First impression was good, a kitchen bathroom and tv room for every two doorms, and even though they didnt do girl only dorms they shifted things around for me. After a relaxed afternoon and a nice dinner with steph and marting however it all went abit tits up. BEEDDDD BUUUGSSSSSSS oh my god they are so rank. I woke up at 7am COVERED in bites…and when i say covered i dont exagerrate! feet, calves, thighs, lower back ( so bad you couldnt see skin anymore) arms….you get the idea. I went straight to reception and asked for clean sheets and to move beds. They told me it ‘didnt look like’ bed bugs, and refused to do anything about it. Having never been bitten like this before i had no idea what it was but just kind of accepted it, moved beds, and some other poor soul got put in my bed! then to top my irritation they tried to put a BOY in my room -shock horror! so i got him kicked out and thought all was good, until the following morning they tried to put ANOTHER boy in there…what a bunch of incompetent fools!
other than the rubbish hostel noosa was really nice. Me and the germans went on a beach/bush walk for almost 3 hours along from sunshine beach where we were staying to noosa heads and the main beach-unfortunately we didnt spot any wild koalas but at least i felt fit! We also hired out surfboards and headed down to the beach for a surf….clearly im not destined to b e able to, within minutes of arriving at the beach it was raining to heavily i had no idea what was rain and what was a wave, and gave up and went back to the hostel!!!!
had a pleasant few days though and mostly felt very relaxed after a hectic non stop few days down the coast.
With only a week left in Australia, and alot of bad reviews of brisbane, I decided to take some time to head to Byron bay and the Gold coast….and so, onto another bus, this time to Brisbane before getting a ticket on to Byron. It was during these two bus trips that i vowed never to go on a greyhound again! In Noosa i was shouted at for not producing my passport as ID….i was told repeatedly that my driving license wasnt acceptable, even though it has a photo…..when i finally admitted defeat with my argument, i had to get ALL the bags out of the bus to get to mine where my passport was, he tried to kill me with my stare as i handed it over-mean man that he was. Once on the bus I checked Stephanies paper ticket….which clearly stated ‘driving license OR passport’ arghhhhhhh!!!!!
then my second bus…..the driver was very pleasant…..but got hopelessly lost on the way to birabeen. A stop that should have taken 40 minutes to get to took 2hours and 40minutes and instead of getting to byron at half 4 i arrived closer to 7….

FRASER ISLAND!

jacqstravels — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:21:55 +0000

Quite probably the best money I have ever spent…..fraser island was WELL worth it I had the best time ( i think it JUST about topped the Whitsundays) but i also think the island is highly weather dependant, and yet again i got freaking AMAZING weather!
I aarrived at the island the night before my tour with one other girl, a swiss called nicole…soon to be nicknamed miserable swiss….wow she was a barrell of laughs…telling me all about how her boyfriend was untrustworthy and she thought he was cheating on her…but making massive excuses for his behaviour as he was ‘so lovely’ only to admit she had cheated on him…HAH. what an idiot! I had the BEST fun sitting listening to her for an ENTIRE night and at breakfast the following morning before the rest of our tour arrived!
Finally respite came in the form of the 10am ferry. having been up for breakfast at half 7 I was ready and raring to go! The 4×4 bus was the wierdest vehicle-nothing like any 4WD iv ever seen thats for sure. Our guide damien was awesome, he knew everything there was to know about the island and pumped us full of facts as he drove us to our first stop. A bush walk to basin lake…which was utterly unimpressive when compared to what was to come. another longer bush walk through some amazing jungle down the Wanggoolba Creek before a massive lunch (not dissimilar to the whitsundays food-no wonder people iv met seem to complain they have got fat in australia) then we headed on to lake Mckenzie, which looks just like it does in the photos you see advertising fraser. absolutely beautiful, alot like whitehaven beach only on a smaller scale and next to a lake. the water was crystal clear-and freezing!!! but i managed to persuade a few fellow travellers into the water for the typical mckenzie photos-just to be a cliche!
As the cars arent allowed to drive in the dark we had to head back to the lodge after a good rest and afternoon tea and cake at the lake, with just enough time to jump in the shower before MORE food with a mexican themed dinner-excellent!
Day two dawned early, a good breakfast before being picked up at 8am for a super busy day. The day started VERY well….we spotted 3 dingoes harrassing some fishermen within minutes of pulling onto 75mile beach-which is frasers highways,and strangely only 65miles long! And then a quick look at the coloured sands….and then on to the Maheno shipwreck….we were really lucky and there was noone else there when we arrived so we were all able to get some postcard worthy shots without masses of tourists in the background
En route to our next stop our guide wanted to find a natural spring he had been told about, where water just randomly bubbles out of the sand…..and cue hilarious photos of everyone losing a leg into the sand…actually pretty scary-feels alot like you’re going to sink and never come back! then we headed to the north of the island for a swim in the champange pools-so called because the sea water crashes over into the pools making them bubble. again, the water was very cold but was a good point to relax as the weather was baking hot!
next we climbed up a bunch of rocks to indian head…..a precarious look out where you can spot various creatures of the sea. we werent lucky enough for sharks or turtles….but we did spot masses of manta rays and a pod of dolphins that came fairly close to where we were….after staring into the sea for a REALLY long time we gave up and went for some lunch-chicken salad with wraps left over from last nights mexican!!
As we headed down to our last stop major stop, Eli Creek, we spotted another dingo yay! only two more and we would beat our tour guides record of 5 in a day!
So to Eli, apparently it used to be deep enough to be able to get in at the top and float down to the bottom as if it were rapids…unfortunately that wasnt possible but we walked the length in freezing cold but super clear water before MORE tea and MORE cake and then back to the bus. Driving down the beach i suddenly spotted a dingo, and yelled for the bus to stop…there were two….so we had out done our tour guides record-i think we were all pretty happy about that, even if a dingo is just a glorified fox!!
We were doing well for time so we stopped to look out over the sandblasts on the way back- they were kind of like a mini desert with random dead trees in the middle giving a really eerie look. Damien drover uber fast back to the lodge so we were in time for the sunset. I proceeded to take about 50-60 photos as the sun set over the ocean…one of only two or three places you can watch this happen -either in just east coast, or all of oz,cant remember-but anyway, it was pretty special and made a really good end to our day
then down to the bar for ‘chinese’ and a few drinking games to round off the trip….well, when i say drinking games, i had juice as i had to be up at some un godly hour for my ferry back to mainland in the morning
Went to sleep full and happy, didnt even mind getting up early the next day! even managed a quick catch up with the parents before my ferry left-was lucky enough to spot a smaller ray swimming under the pier which was cool…
and then…….ANOTHER BUS….god help me!! on to Noosa i go!!

TOWN 17/70 /AGNES WATERS

jacqstravels — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:44:02 +0000

Just a 24hr stopover to break up my journey to hervery bay, i decided that I should take advantage of the cheapest surf lessons on the east coast, 17 bucks for 3hours!! this also prevented me from being called shit by paul for noth surfing!!
got off my bus at 9.30 and by 10 I had been picked up for the lesson. Id like to blame extreme tiredness but i cannot tell a lie, i was absolutely crap! after manageing to ‘stand’ ie….get to a point where both feet were on the board and my body was in a vague upright position, for apporximately 2/3 seconds, i gave up trying and found it was far more fun to use the board as a bodyboard and coast the waves in while clinging on for dear life. Took up far less energy and was way more enjoyable. I think the nickname i gained after about half hour said it all ‘drowned rat’ i pretty much spent more time under the board than over it….All in all had great fun tho!!
Spent the rest of the day sunbathing and doing menial crap like laundry-woohoo!!! then a good rest before ANOTHER coach journey fraser island here i come!!

Airlie beach/WHITSUNDAYS

jacqstravels — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:37:39 +0000

airlie beach- the most boring town in the world!!! Literally only there to serve as a port for the whitsundays! Unfortunately I had to spend three nights there as I cocked up my timings. The weather was crap and the only thing to do was walk to the supermarket 5k away or swim in the lagoon-not good when it’s raining. Hung out with Charlie for abit before he went for his boat trip which supressed the boredom for a while but I just could not wait to get on my boat! Finally the day came and well stocked with kwells tablets I headed off to the marina. The weather was brilliant- I couldn’t have been happier. My boat was small-20 people and 3 crew and mostly they were all friendly which was good. The ride out to the first snorkel spot was choppy and bumpy but unlike cairns- no sickness!yay! After donning our super sexy stinger suits (complete with wierd head covers) we headed into the water. There were fish EVERYWHERE and when we fed them they went mental. Very cool. Also saw a giant trevalli(?) and a hump headed Maori wrass that was bloody huge- got told a story about how they can change sex and the one we saw , George, used to be a girl-strange!
After a good swim we headed back to the boat for a snack and then off to our mooring for the night. Chicken curry for dinner-wooop! Then some star gazing before falling asleep on the deck. The next morning after a massive breakfast at 6.30am we set off for Whitsunday island. On the way across to the island from the big boat on a little boat we saw turtles swimming around the boat which was pretty cool. Did a bit of a bush walk to a lookout over whitehaven beach which was beautiful. 3rd best beach in the world! on the walk we saw a couple of goannas (a lizard) and got to lick the bum of a green bull ant…tasted like a sour nerd but apparently they are full of vitamin C! (iv since been told that in some places you can get gourmet chocolates with candied green ants on the top-sounds delicious) Spent a couple of hours enjoying the scenery and getting some sun then back to the boat for a massive lunch- apparently all the happens in the Whitsundays is you get fed!! Then onto a snorkel point at Hook island where happily for me we saw a turtle and swam with it-fucking amazing- made my trip! (did also see a dolphin but can’t really compare!) then we were fed AGAIN- nachos followed by spag bol and garlic bread. And off to our overnight spot and a game of cards before an early night on the deck again got woken up by a noisy kookaburrah at half 5, I was pretty convinced we were being attacked by monkeys! Then in for one last snorkel before breakfast( yes more food) and back to land.

Unfortunately due to battery issues i got very few pictures from the whitsundays-gutted…but waiting on other people to put photos online so i can steal them!!

Was pretty wierd being back on solid ground- I was wobbling for the entire day- im sure that’s not normal though! Had a lazy day then caught up with some people from the boat for some food and drink and then headed to the bus stop for another overnight bus to 17/70 and Agnes waters. 10 hours journey this time so was definately hoping nothing would to wrong!

magnetic island

jacqstravels — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:31:08 +0000

wow this has taken a while! So, left cairns on an overnight bus at midnight- not fun! Tried to get some sleep- was doing pretty well until the bus stopped in the middle of a road up a mountain. The engine and electrics all failed and we were left in the dark until the Police arrived to help out. After a 2hr wait (and a nice nap on the bed at the back of the bus) we finally got onto another bus to Townsville and I got a ferry over to magnetic island. I arrived worse for wear but still managed to blag an upgrade to a room with free towels and champagne sweeeeeet! Got introduced to some Swedish girls and we decided to enter the bar wars competition. Hilarious night, but more hilarious that we won a 50 dollar bar tab!the night didn’t end well tho, one of the drunk swedes accused me of stealing her drinks ( I wasn’t drinking) and emptied her drink over me, and then went mental at her fellow swedes for siding with me. Brilliant.
The next day I headed across the island to the koala place. Very very excited by the prospect of holding a koala the place was really cute and small and there were only a few of us on the tour.We got to say hello to a wombat and kiss a croc among other things and then held the koala. Luckily he didn’t poo on me! Was pretty happy to have finally held a koala- another box ticked! After we got to feed lorikeets- there were millions of them, was insane! And I got to see my first kookaburrah-its taken long enough (turns out there are masses here)
Headed back to the hostel for my free dinner of the best chips ever with a massive cheeseburger- yummy! While sat on my own a couple of random English people- Charlie and Tor took pity on me and looked after me for the night with some smuggled vodka and some interesting people watching and dancing like loons on our own. Decided to stay for an extra day to relax and literally spent my last day doing NOTHING at the hostel. Had an awesome late breakfast- oh how I have missed a full english! Then vegged out by the pool trying not to burn. Had a way more relaxed evening- and another cheeseburger! Did alot more people watching….there was a random african band playing which was evidently the highlight of the islanders week and they turned up in droves to see them…cue AWFUL outfits (lots of pyjamas type trousers, wierd floral shirts, and ankle swingers) and the worst ‘dad at a wedding’ dancing iv ever witnessed….I finished the evening pretty convinced that they were all high on something..not entirely sure what but they were clearly loving every minute!

My final morning I woke up sweating- gross. Some idiot had turned off the air con and it was so hot the doorhandle was hot to touch from the inside. By the time I made it to the pool I had literally melted. Probably my hottest day yet and I had to go get on a bus to airlie beach- gutted!! Managed a small ammount of time soaking up the sun before my ferry ride during which i saw my first turtle-result! then onto my bus and onwards…..

CAIRNS 2-TABLELANDS

jacqstravels — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:23:29 +0000

So thursday rolled around and I headed out on my trip to the table lands……what an awesome day. I was picked up from my hostel at 7am (urghhhhh) after the worst night sleep yet (bloody 18yr old drunk idiots) and we were driven in the dodgiest bus EVER to….wait for it….a service station.woop. where we found a random stray tree frog who we took with us on the bus to release into the ‘jungle’

Then drove on to the bambinda boulders, a kind of cascade over these MASSIVE rocks. Had some breakfast cooked for us, I ate ALOT of bacon ad fried egg sarnies, it was free after all!!! After this we headed on to Josephine falls where there is a natural water slide-awesome! The water was FREEZING, by the time i got up the guts to go in past my knees i could no longer feel my feet-but after battling through the rapids to get to the rocks on the other side I was pretty glad i didnt wuss out-had great fun and forgot about the cold almost straight away

josephine fallsme looking awesome (HAH)

Onward from Josephine and on to Milla Milla, so called peter andre waterfall….which i argued out with the driver for a very long time. Im pretty sure its not, but seasonal changes could make a massive difference to appearance. but Peter andre definately did not ponce about in that waterfall in wet season, you could only just stand up in it….and again, the water was FREEZING. saw them filming ‘WANTED down under’ which was fairly hilarious as the presenter was caked in make up and pulling the most ridiculous poses for the camera

Milla Milla fallsVisited a bunch of random little towns and a cheese factory that STUNK.....then our last stop was to lake Eachem....absolutely beautiful. its a crater lake, 60metres deep-altho not sure how they know this. The water is so clear and clean. its wierd, loosk black from the surface, but you jump in and you can see so clearly. I didnt want to get out. was fairly determined to swim to the other side, but noone wanted to go with me and it was a REALLY long way. darn!lake eacham

All in all though, a bloody awesome day, and well worth the 50 bucks I paid for it!!!