The Pink House

After 1770 we went to Hervey Bay where we stayed for a couple of nights and went whale watching where we saw several pods of humpback whales. Headed back down to Brisbane from there where we spent a couple of nights staying with my Cousin Scott and Kitty chilling out before heading down the coast towards Sydney.

We're currently staying in King's Cross at a place called 'The Pink House' which is one street over from Sydney's Red Light district, don't get the wrong idea though, it's a fine upstanding establishment. They even have a Strip Joint called 'Porky's' just around the corner!

Spent the last couple of days wandering around the city and taking in th sights. Went to the Aquarium today where I saw my first live Platypus, they truly are the oddest looking creature around, I'm almost certain they were stuck together out of leftover parts. We're booked in to do the obligatory climb over the Harbour Bridge tomorrow and have also booked to go and watch Hansel and Gretel at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday. Looks like I'll have to dig my one smart shirt I brought with me.

Well, that's it, I'll try and come up with something a bit more interesting and maybe some photo's when I've got a bit more time....

.... oh, I can't believe what's happened in the cricket, all I can say is that I'm glad I'm in Australia and not back in England. All the Aussies over here assume I'm English and so avoid talking about it.

I've been to Hicksville and it was fun!

On our way back down to Brisbane we decided to stop of for a night in a town called 1770. It was renamed from Round Hill in 1970 in a fit of patriotic fervour to represent the fact that it was here that Captain Cook first landed in, you guessed it, 1770!
Apparently it is the only small Aussie village you can get to on the coast on a sealed road.

We watched the sun set (the only place on the coast where you can watch it set into the water apparrently) and then went to a place called Agnes Water Tavern for the evening which being the only pub around has a monopoly on custom in the area. It soon puts its claim in for 'Worst Pub Ever' especially after serving me up the only meal I haven't wanted to eat since being in Australia. However, after we'd sat down and had a few Schooners of VB, it all started to grow on me and developed it's own individual charm. As it was Saturday night they had a live band playing called 'The Wishy Man Jokers' (I think!?) which consisted of just two members. While one played lead guitar the other played bass guitar, drums with his feet as well as saxaphone, flute and harmonica at different times throughout the night. Not surprisingly they played a mixutre of Country Rock with Creedence Clearwater Revival and Lynyrd Skynyrd both making appearances. The locals started to pour in at this point with mullets and beards being the latest fashion. On guy actually brought out his own pair of spoons and started doing freestyle accompaniment to the band, no one batted an eyelid so I can only guess this is a weekly occurence. He was quite good, for a spoon player, but in the end it is just two pieces of metal being slapped together. He was soon joined by 'King Mullet' who took centre stage to dance around and play air guitar, he was pretty good too although I reckon I could take him!

Don't remember much else about the evening except running out of money and presumably staggering home to pass out.

After both waking up with hangovers yesterday as a result of our evening out we sensivly decided to eat in and have an early night, no beer. After a good 12 hours sleep I woke up this morning and was just congratulating my self on my first night in Australia without a drink before realising that we had gone on the Bundaberg Brewery tour at 11am yesterday and I'd sunk a few complimentary rums afterwards. Oh well, there'll be other days!

Magnetic Island

Well, we've started the arduous journey back down South. We left Cairns and stopped off at Magnetic Island for a couple of nights first in order to rest from our travel excertions. Magnetic Island, as I am reliably informed by Rachael and her guide books, is called such because when Captain Cook sailed past all his instruments went haywire so he assumed the island had magnetic qualities.
We didn't do much while on the island really except walk around, sunbathe, eat and drink. We took a walk around to some of the other more secluded bays and at one point practically had a whole beach to ourselves. Despite my entreaties we didn't go to Balding Bay which is an unnofficial nudist beach as Rachael didn't fancy it, boo! Having said that the only people we saw coming from that direction were massively overweight and at pension age - isn't it always the way!?

This was Horseshoe Bay where we stayed on Magnetic Island.

The 'luxrious' cabin we stayed in while on Magnetic Island. It was basically a big garden shed with a mattress on the floor, we were right at the back near the 'bush' and had to sleep through a chorus of animal cries.

Gimme a home among the Gum Trees..

Well, I finally oulled my finger out and posted some more pictures, do you notice how healthy I'm looking!?

Rachael is writing a post detailing most of what we've been upto these last few days but I'll fill you in on what has been the highlight of my week so far. On Friday night we went to a place called Johno's Blue Bar which is of local and international fame. A nice dingy looking little club with . The house Blues band came on and played a lovely mix of stuff like Curtis Mayfield and B.B King, some of there own stuff such as the aptly titled 'I went out and got drunk and came how with a new tattoo' and even a Merle Haggard song. They then halted proceedings in order to get on with the other highlight of the night, Cane Toad Racing. Obviously we sponsored a toad and I even had to go out and pick him up and put him into the starting blocks, as Cane Toads are poisonous there was a dirty towel privided to wipe your hand on afterwards. Unforutnately our toad finshed a lowly 4th and we received no prize money. This was followed by Johno himself coming onto play a load of tunes including a few more contempory tracks such as 'Sweet Child of Mine' and John Williamson's 'Home Among the Gum Trees'' which is an Aussie classic.

A few people have commented that my posts centre slightly on beer which is a lie, on that note I'm off for a few Schooners of VB....

Chantler's first post

I thought it was about time I posted on this blog as a couple of people have mentioned Sadler's apparant obsession with alcohol. Although we have spent much of our time boozing, I thought I'd add my own side of life in Oz.
I'm having a fantastic time but to be honest, Australia isn't that different from back home, especially being surrounded a load of Brits most of the time anyway. The obvious difference is the weather and I'd imaginge that's why most people don't want to leave. Its the middle of winter and yesterday we spent the day by the man-made lagoon in the middle of Cairns. It was 27 degrees, blazing sunshine and most of the population of Cairns were down there sunbathing.
We've been up to Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest today and the thing I've noticed is that the Rainforest here is actually just like any forest you'd get in the UK whch was quite disappointing - I was expecting something a bit more jungley.
I'm sure you've all read Adam's post about our boat trip round the Whitsundays. They really are one of the most beautiful islands and the sand was so white - I think that'll be the location of one of our first holidays when we're settled in Brisbane. (Although Adam's just pointed out that we're actually on holiday now!) And as for my first forey into the world of snorkelling....well it was eventful and although I did actually start to hyperventilate and think I was about to die, we're going out again tomorrow to the Great Barrier Reef to do some more snorkelling . Snorkelling isn't, in fact, as easy as you'd think. The skipper of the boat we were on told us just to spit in our masks, put our flippers on and bite onto the breathing tube, which doesn't actually work as I found out the hard way when I began breathing in water and my mask clouded over. And you definitely can't swim with flippers on - Sadler thought it was hilarious as I was trying to doggy paddle to the shore. When I finally calmed down enough to put my head in the water and breathe I was only confront with two jelly fish and I gave up pretty much after that. But I'm sure tomorrow will be different so I'll try and get some pictures to post of the sealife and Coral.
Anyway I'm off to have my tea and watch the Aussie get beaten yet again in the cricket....

Rachael out at Cape Tribulation. There was a lovely sandy beach just to the right of this picture and rainforest all around behind it.

Me out on the bolders at Mossman Gorge. Not surprisingly, after this photo I risked a broken leg by jumping out right into the middle onto a stone no one else had reached. Disappointingly no one was impressed with my daredevil act, a few shakes of the head and being told 'you'll hurt yourself you idiot' by Rachael was my only reward - somehow it was still worthwhile though.

Rachael on an 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' style swing bridge in Daintree National Park. After everyone else was off I went and jumped up and down in the middle just to check it was safe!

This is me soaking up the rays on Whithaven beach at the Whitsundays.

Landed in Cairns

We went out on a boat trip to the Whitsunday's last Tuesday and had a snorkel around part of the Barrier Reef. I'll try not to bore you with superlatives but it was absolutely fantastic, we even managed to swim next to a large turtle around the coral (this was after Rachael got the grip of snorkelling and stopped announcing to me every few minutes that she couldn't breathe was going to die!).

We've clocked up over 2000 kilometers on the car and finally made it to Cairns. First of all I'll fill you in on what all British really love to talk about : the weather is definitely improving and while not blazing sunshine, any activity more strenuous than lifting a pot of beer can induce a sheen of sweat. The City centre is pretty compact and seems to operate 24 hours a day. We're planning on going to a Blues Bar tonight which also stages Cane Toad racing.

Spent today wandering around the Atherton Tablelands walking around lakes and through rain forests. Apparently it is teeming with life but all we saw was a load of wild turkeys and some saw-shelled turtles which interestingly can breathe through their bottom's when under water. Could be a good skill to add to my already brilliant procto-speech!

Believe it or not I've also lost my pale, drug addict, only eats vegetables, palour and replaced it with a healthy looking shade of whitey-brown. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pale for the locality but people no longer stop me in the street to ask if I'm ill or not. I forgot to bring the camera with me to the internet cafe but will try and post some pics later in the week to prove this!

I can here the pub calling me so I'll leave it there.

On the Move

Well we finally left Brisbane and started on our expedition up North. We left on Friday and stopped at Bundaberg (famous for its Rum) for a night then moved onto Rockhampton (Beef Capital of Australia) for a night before getting to Airlie Beach, 1000km (600 miles) North of Brisbane.
We're stopping here for a couple of days and I managed to land myself a job working behind the hostel bar for a couple hours at night (in exchange for free accomodation) about an hour after we got here.
We've got a day trip out to the Whitsundays planned for tomorrow and a day of mooching around the beach planned for today.
Spent last night drowning my sorrows after watching England scrape home a victory. Fingers crossed that Glen 'Pidgeon' McGrath can make a comeback at some point.

Take it easy everyone... I am!

I've had an Epiphany...

Yep, that's right, I've decided that upon finishing travelling and settling down I'll become a Professional Aussie Rules player. I watched a game on TV the other night (Adelaide Crows just edging out the Sydney Swans) and it all looked pretty straight forward and fun. With this aim in mind I bought a few essential props (as pictured above):
- a guide to Aussie rules so that I know what I'm doing... kick, run, jump, punch... all fairly simple
- an Aussie Rules ball to practice with and...
- a Stubbie Holder to keep my beer cold after I've played

This wont be for a while yet but I'm hoping to sign for the Brisbane Lions as they play their home games a the Gabba so I might be able to sneak some free Cricket tickets as well. Anyway, watch this space....

Australia Zoo

On Tuesday we took a drive to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. We watched a live Tiger show and a live Croc show in the imaginatively named 'Crocoseum' and had a 'decko' (more Aussie slang for you) at a load of other stuff. Unfortunately Steve himself didn't seem to be around.

On the right is a picture of Rachael with a Red Kangaroo (the little ones), you can probably just about make out the fear in her face as I kept urging her closer for the photo.