Australia Road Trip - Part 1

Australia was the most 'unplanned' bit of the trip, which was a little nerve wracking. I had flights into and out of Sydney firmly booked, but that was all. The vague idea was to drive from Sydney up to Brisbane (to visit Baz and family), and carry on up to do the Barrier Reef.

Don't show this to the llama I kissed - she'll get jealous.

While in the NZ travel agent booking Fiji, I asked them for ideas for Australia as well, and one of the ladies there suggested Lady Elliot Island. It sounded great, and absolutely ideal for the 'Barrier Reef' part of the trip, so I booked that. That then left me in Brisbane, so I just reversed my planned route and drove from there down to Sydney after doing the Reef - a much better plan in hindsight as the Reef was more important to me than the drive, and this way I already had that under my belt when I was just wandering aimlessly.

My first stop after the Reef was now going to be Brisbane and visiting Baz, a dear old friend from university that I've not seen for around 20 years. Baz, or "the Pad" (he's Irish), was in GUGS (Glasgow University Gaming Society) and I was lucky enough to get to do a lot of role-playing with him and many other fantastic people from GUGS, particularly on the regular extra-curricular Sunday nights at "The Independant Realm of 1 up, 31 Thornwood Road". Simon had been in Baz's group at GUGS and had hugely enjoyed Baz's GM'ing. It became a goal of mine to somehow wangle an invite along to the Sunday night game, which I did eventually get, much to my delight, and I can't tell you how much fun we had there.  They are some of my fondest memories of  my time at University.

Baz is now married to the very lovely Mandy (she's so right for him!), and dad to Gulliver, the cutest little bundle of Aussie trouble there is. I spent some lovely quality time with the McCallisters, and Baz even took me to a cinema premier! (he writes for the entertainment section of a newspaper). A lovely relaxing few days before I picked up my camper and headed off.

On my various trips to NZ, I've seen Jucy camper vans all over the place, and without anything else base my choice on, I went with them. This little beast served me very well being both transport and accommodation for 2 weeks. Camping overnight with the van was about $30 per night, where a hotel would have been well over $100, and I didn't need to book in advance either, which made things very flexible.

The van wasn't luxurious, but it did the job. Easy enough to drive and park and the back seat folded down to a bed. It was a bit hot on occasion at night, even with the windows and doors open, but it had a small fridge and gas stove, so I was fairly self sufficient. By the end of the trip the rev counter wasn't working any more and there was something wrong with the clutch, but I got there!

With suggestions from various people I met, browsing on TripAdvisor, and random whim, here's the route I ended up taking.



While the Gold Coast is a big tourist destination on Australia's east coast, I had been told that the Aussies themselves go to the Sunshine coast instead, so my first stop was Mooloolaba.

I thought that New Zealand had some weird place names, but they have nothing on Australia. They also have some a fair amount of, to me, unusual wildlife!

Preprandial drinks my first evening in the van

White Ibis wandering about the place

Little Corella?

Fruit bats!

Mooloolaba is a nice little touristy seaside town, pleasant enough to wander around. That's about it really.

I did some TripAdvisor searching that night and next day headed off to Kondallia National Park to see a waterfall and swimming hole. A short walk through the woods brought me to a lovely pool so I dutifully had a dip!

And on the way back, a snake!

On the walk I was aware of the incredible waves of sound made by the cicadas. It would swell and quiet periodically and I've no idea why! Listen to the video above for an example.

Next was on to Maleny Gardens and Bird World, where they take in unwanted parrots. You get to go into the bird enclosures and the friendlier of the occupants come and say hello. Repeatedly and loudly sometimes!

Meet Yoghurt, who would not stop screaming in my ear.

Lady Elliot Island - Great Barrier Reef

After the delights of Fiji, I cranked things up a bit with 5 nights on Lady Elliot Island, an Eco Resort 80 km off shore of the Australian mainland, at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

A short flight out from Hervey Bay got us to the island, which as you can see is just long enough for a runway! Their website calls their accommodation 'unpretentious', which you should feel free to read as 'basic'. No air conditioning, no TV, no phone signal, no internet. But lots of birds. And fish. And some turtles. And did I mention birds?

This is my shack for the 5 nights. A tin hut with very little air and 2 wall mounted desktop fans to keep me cool in the 30 degree heat. I didn't spend very much time in here as during the day it was a total oven. Even at night it was fairly hot. I ended up sleeping on the single bed in the hut as the air from the fans didn't reach the double bed at all.

View from my door

View from the restaurant

The beach was lovely

The runway

Path to the restaurant, lined with bushes full of nesting Noddys!

As well as the noisy Noddies, there were a variety of terns, gulls and other sea birds.

As it was nesting season, the island was a little bit noisy at night, just slightly. So noisy in fact that we were given a little warning sign in our room, and complimentary earplugs! As you might imagine, this was not too much of a problem for me, and I do believe that some of the birds actually came and knocked on my door asking me to keep my snoring down. I didn't hear them.

Baby Turtles!

It was turtle nesting season while I was there and there were nightly 'Turtle watch' briefings from the staff. They told us where there might be hatching nests, and gave us instructions for what to do and what not to do, and when there was the most chance of activity.

I dutifully walked along the beach near the water looking for baby turtles. I must have been wandering up and down for an hour as it got darker and darker. I had my torch off so as not to disorient any turtles and preserve my nightsight, but it was eventually so dark I could barely see at all. Then, possibly in my imagination, a small dark shape scuttles cockroach-like down the beach and into the water. I stopped immediately and waited, just in case there were any more, as I didn't want to stand on any of the little blighters. Another 2 shadowy dark blotches scuttled past and into the waves, but I couldn't make out any details or even really be sure I'd seen anything at all. After another 5 minutes or so, someone else moves along the beach with their torch out, and I go over to them to say that I might just possibly have seen some baby turtles!  Turns out to be one of the staff, and she says that there is indeed a potential loggerhead nest directly up the beach from where I am.  We go and have a look at it, but there's nothing much to see. She was pretty sure from my location that I did indeed see some baby turtles, and logged them in the islands record book. I was a little bit thrilled!

The following few evenings I went and waited just down beach from the same nest in case there was any more activity. I made myself a little more comfortable though, sitting on a sun lounger in the dark with the stars coming out. Unfortunately I saw no mote turtle-lets, though others said that 10 or so did show up one night later that week.

Waiting for turtle-lets

The nest my turtle-lets came out of.

Frog encountered on my way back to the oven after turtlewatch.

The rest of my photos from LEI are all underwater ones of fish, turtles, rays, sharks and other beasties, but I won't bore you with those.

Oh, go on then, since you insist!

In addition to this lot, I also saw 2 Leopard Sharks and a number of eagle rays, but didn't manage to get photos as my underwater camera ended up going on the blink :(

I didn't see any Manta Rays at all, which was a disappointment, particularly as LEI is touted as 'home of the manta'. It was out of season for them, so they are not as common as they can be. One of the other dive groups did eventually see some on a dive I wasn't on.  I wasn't jealous or upset at all.

Turtle waiting at a well used cleaning station

Cow tail ray

Nudibranch

Featherstars

Wobbegong - a type of camouflaged shark

Bull ray

Dawn on my last day

Heading back to the mainland