The Glitzy Gold Coast & BrisVegas

Surfer's Paradise

The Queensland coast south of Brisbane is known as the Gold Coast, and right at the heart of this glitzy, commercial stretch of land is Surfers Paradise. Surfers is the best example of what the Gold Coast is all about - impressive sky scrapers, golden beaches, theme parks, and non-stop partying. Though this isn't quite my cup of tea Justyna and I felt that it would be an interesting place to stop for a day and night to ogle at the glitz.

With a name like Gold Coast you are right to expect that everything is very expensive, so in our short time at Surfers we stuck to beach walks and window shopping!

Brisbane

The capital of Queensland and the third largest city in Australia is called Brisvegas by the locals because it carries on in the tradition of glitz and glamour of the Gold Coast. Spread over a large area with a healthy mix of high rises and normal sized buildings, with plenty of green areas around the winding river that makes it through the city, Brisbane makes for a nice place to spend a few days. Though the river's murky brown waters look like they'd give you something contagious if you so much as dipped your little toe in, there are places you can swim in the city! On the south bank of the river are the Brisbane Parklands, site of the '88 World Expo and now a large park and green area with an artificial lagoon and plenty of shady walkways.

With our time on the East Coast close to running out we decided to make the most of the free internet available at the State Library to plan out the rest of our journey in Australia - from a 4x4 adventure on Fraser Island, to camping in the Whitsundays and a drive along the outback!

Crickey!

One of our days in Brisbane was dedicated to visiting that great Australian institution that is Australia Zoo - home of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. I think that no trip to Australia would be complete without stopping at Australia Zoo.

Steve Irwin was dedicated to protecting native Australian animals and habitats, and the staff at the zoo carry on in his legacy and preaching his message. Steve believed that people would only really start to appreciate the environment if they fell in love with it, and there is no better way to do this than to have a close encounter with wild animals in a safe environment. Obviously you can't get close to the crocodiles, let alone give them a hug, but the display in the Croccosuem goes a long way in dispelling myths about these living dinosaurs and teaching patrons how to be 'Croc Smart' and live in harmony with the wildlife in their surroundings.

The zoo displays a plethora of Australian wildlife, from Echidnas to bearded dragons, from cuddly Koalas to hopping Wallabies. There are also some endangered species that Steve has rescued from less suitable homes, such as the giant Aldabran Turtles - relatives of the Galapagos Turtles that live on an island off the coast of Africa. These two turtles have been in Australia since the 1930s, going from one zoo to another, in fact they travelled around most of Australia before Steve got permission to house them permanently in Australia Zoo. The story goes that Steve drove his ute (pick-up truck in normal English!) down to Brisbane where the turtles were living, popped them into the back, and drove back up to Beerwah. As he was driving along he heard on the radio that people had spotted ET riding in the back of a pickup truck - his Aldabran Turtles had stuck their head out of the side to enjoy the breeze, and some Australians with a wild imagination thought they saw the friendly alien in the back of the truck!

A unique experience at the zoo is to hand feed one of the three Asian Elephants that were rescued from poachers by Steve - hundreds of zoo patrons form three orderly lines, and in the space of twenty minutes the elephants get their morning helping of fresh fruit, strait from the hands of excited travelers. Though its a very wet, sticky experience, there's nothing quite like seeing a 150kg trunk swinging towards your hand to pick up a quartered apple from your hand!

While walking around the zoo you get to meet plenty of locals, the kangaroos especially like being hand fed and don't mind the occasional pat or two, while the Koalas take a brake from sleeping and chewing on Eucalyptus leaves to receive a pat on the bum. Though for you and me the bum of the Koala feels really soft and fluffy and leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, the Koala hardly notices the interaction. Since they live and sleep in trees Koalas have developed a hard cartilage plate that they sit on while up in the trees, so they can hardly feel your touch.

The visit to Australia Zoo was certainly worth the admission price, the interaction with the animals left me with a greater appreciation for the beauty of nature and the conservation work being carried out by the Steve Irwin conservation foundation and its various branches working to protect tigers and elephants in Asia. This was also the best zoo experience I've had in my life - its the animals that get priority, rather than the humans paying the entry fee; the emphasis here is on giving the animals the best experience possible, and if the visitors can get a few kicks out of it too, then all the better.

That's it for Brisbane, next stop Hervey Bay, from where we take a 4x4 onto Fraser Island, the world's largest Sand Island. Stay tuned!

In the meantime you can see some photos here

Byron Bay and Nimbin

Byron Bay

Byron, as it is known to the locals, is just south of the Queensland border, but it gets plenty of nice weather just like the Sunshine State. This was a welcome change from the chilly Blue Mountains, and after setting our tent up at Arts Factory Lodge we headed to the beach. Here we saw first hand the damage that bluebottles can cause - the lifeguard station had a constant queue of people needing treatment for bluebottle stings. This meant that my foray into the water was a quick and cautious dip - I wasn't in the water for longer than ten minutes, and in my time in the water I saw several stingers float by. Needless to say I beat a hasty retreat back to the sand to watch the welts inflicted by the electric blue creatures.

Cape Byron is the eastern-most point of the Australian mainland, so we decided to take the two hour walk along the coast to visit. The walk takes in most of the souther part of Byron Bay, rising up into some coastal forest and back down to a small beach, before climbing to the Cape Byron lighthouse. Besides affording spectacular views of the bay and the sea, the walk along the ridge to the lighthouse is a great place to look down into the sea for turtles and manta rays. When we were there we say a good dozen turtles and manta rays, though being so high up the cliff we couldn't get a very good look!

Nimbin

A short day-trip from Byron Bay leads the intrepid traveller to Nimbin - once a sleepy dairy town on the brink of disappearance, and home of the '73 Aquarius Festival. The Aquarius Festival brought many hippies and alternative thinkers into town, and they liked Nimbin so much that they stuck around. Nimbin was saved, and its identity was changed forever. It is likened to a bush Amsterdam, with liberal marijuana smoking by the locals, a hemp museum, and the Hemp Embassy - a pro-legalisation shop that seeks to raise awareness about the benefits of medical marijuana. There are also plenty of locals offering backpackers cookies and ganja… though it does get quite annoying when you're offered weed a hundred times in the space of ten minutes! That being said, Marijuana isn't all that Nimbin is about - the Aquarius Festival called for a change in the way we live, and Nimbin has a thriving sustainable farming culture and the emphasis is on natural, organic produce and a way of life that has as little impact on the environment as possible.

Our first stop on the way to Nimbin should have been Minyon Falls, but due to the rough weather our bus driver decided to save the falls for the return trip, in the hope that the rain would have let down. I didn't realize it but the change of plans was quite a fortunate turn of events…

Minyon falls are situated in the caldera of what may once have been one of the world's largest volcanoes, and there is evidence to suggest that the trees growing here are from Australia's original forest cover that once may have spread across most of the continent.

As we were driving along the dirt road to the falls a campervan was parked just before a ford, with its drivers testing the depth to see if they could make it across. As we passed the van I realized that its occupants were none other than half of Tribali, a Maltese Roots/World music group, and one of them was a colleague from my time working at Salesian Press in Malta! Try as I might, I couldn't get the bus window to open, and I thought that I wouldn't get to meet my old friend and the rest of the group. Fortunately as we got out of the bus at the Minyon Falls carpark Antoine and his campervan pulled up, and we couldn't believe the odds of meeting! Tribali had been in Byron Bay since Easter to perform at the Byron Blues festival, and Antoine, Alessandro and Grigal decided to stick around for a week to explore. They had even been to the Arts Factory Lodge on Saturday night but Justyna and I were having an early night! It felt like we were destined to meet and the guys came around to the Arts Factory that evening so we could have a drink and a laugh.

Our few days in Byron were quickly over, but from the little I've seen I can see why so many travelers decide to stick around for more than a couple of nights - there's plenty of backpacker oriented entertainment, the weather's really good and the opportunities to bum around on the beach or surf the waves abound.

For photos of Byron & Nimbin click here

Katoomba - The Blue Mountains

Just outside Sydney are the Blue Mountains, a very popular weekend getaway for Sydneysiders and possibly one of the most visited attractions in Australia. The Blue Mountains get their name from the bluish haze that is ever present in the distance. Whereas most vistas generally have a bluish haze the thick Eucalypt forsest in the Blue Mountains contribute to making this haze a very pronounced blue - Eucalyptus oil evaporates from the trees and refracts blue light.

Katoomba is the most central and best served of the towns in the Blue Mountains, and is also home to the famous Three Sisters rock formation. When we arrived in Katoomba the mountains were swathed in thick mists which made for some very atmospheric photos and gave the whole area a spooky appearance, but it didn't provide for great views of the mountains! While the mists were around we opted to take a rainforest walk.

On our second day in Katoomba the weather to a great turn for the better, and we could fully appreciate the vistas afforded by the various lookouts around the town. It is no wonder that Echo Point and the Three Sisters are one of Australia's most popular attractions: they are within easy reach of Sydney, making for a great day-trip if you are short on time, and the views are incredible! The sisters are three columns of sandstone that glow orange in the sun and have as their background the eucalyptus forests of the valleys below and the mountain ranges with their blue tint in the distance.

With plenty of time in Katoomba we decided to take a longer walk through the rainforest, passing by a few waterfalls and cascades and seeing some juvenile Lyre Birds. Its a pity we didn't get to see the adults - the juveniles have very plain tail feathers, as opposed to the intricate plumage of the adults - but a forest ranger told us that we were very lucky to have seen any lyre birds at all, they are usually very furtive animals that shy away from human contact. This same ranger also told us that we were walking in the area where a British hiker was lost for two weeks about a year ago - instead of following a track towards the city he got disoriented and walked away. Though he was only about 10km away from where he got lost it took rescuers almost ten days to locate him. Having walked through the same forest I can attest that it is easy to get lost if you venture deeper into the undergrowth rather than sticking to the main walking paths.

After three days in Katoomba we got onto a train back to Sydney, from where we would hop onto the night bus to Byron Bay, and hopefully some warmer weather!

For pictures of the Blue Mountains visit my Picasa Web Albums.

Canberra - Capital City

A two hour bus ride from Cooma saw us land in Canberra, the Australian capital, where we spent the Easter weekend. Like most things in Australia, Canberra is BIG! Our camp site was about four kilometers away from the city centre, and most of the attractions in the city are spread out quite far apart. The city was designed by American architect Arthur Burley Griffin, and the Australians so appreciated his design for their capital that they named the artificial lake at the heart of the city after him.

Being the capital, Canberra is home to a plethora of attractions with "national" attached to them - some more entertaining than others, but all with free entry! The Australian National Museum is an interesting modern structure located on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. It houses a nice variety of exhibitions about Australia, ranging from the wildlife that makes the country unique, to several galleries of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture, as well as an interesting exhibition featuring the stories of people who migrated to Australia.

Not far from the lake lies the capital hill, which is at the geographical heart of the city. In his design for the city Burley Griffin stipulated that no structure should ever be erected at the top of the hill, and that it should always be accessible to the public, so that the people can always be above the government. The original parliament house, at the foot of the hill, was only meant to serve for about twenty years, but it was only replaced by the new parliament house in the 80s.

The site chosen for the new parliament was Capital Hill, but to keep in line with Burley Griffin's original ideals the hill was pulled down, the new parliament constructed, and the hill rebuilt to its original profile on top of the new building. This design further reinforced Burley Griffin's proposal, with the public having access to the actual roof of the building, and being able to walk over the government! The interior of the building is just as fascinating as the story of the exterior, with representations of the history of Australia throughout. This starts with an aboriginal creation mosaic in the building's forecourt and is followed by the blending of European and native materials in the main entrance to signify the arrival of European migrants. Both houses of government - the parliament and the senate - are open to the public, anyone can sit in the viewing galleries when the process of government is in progress. When sessions run late into the night Parliament house does not close - anyone is free to come and go into the viewing galleries.

The last attraction we visited in Canberra was the National War Memorial, a tribute to all the brave Australians who gave their lives serving Australia. The displays start with an extensive gallery dedicated to the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign in World War One and go right through to the present anti-terrorism commitments that Australians are undertaking in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Much of our time in Canberra was spent getting from one attraction to the other - with it being Easter Weekend the public transport was running on a Sunday Schedule, meaning reduced services, though we would have ended up with a cultural overload if we had got to all the attractions available!

Photos from my trip to Canberra can be found on my Picasa Web Albums

From the sea up to the mountains - Lakes Entrance & Coomalurr

Lakes Entrance

A five hour bus ride from Melbourne on the Victoria Coast one can find the Great Lakes National Park. The "lakes" are a series of brackish lagoons protected by sand dunes going far inland providing plenty of space for water sports, swimming, lake cruising etc.

The main town in the national park is Lakes Entrance, so named because it is situated where the lakes meet the ocean, making for some very nice scenery. Unfortunately that is just about all that Lakes Entrance had to offer to two travelers on a limited time schedule. The Esplanade plays host to lots of ugly motels and motor parks, there's just one backpackers, the Riviera YHA. YHA ho

stels are generally clean and well run, but can be very expensive and are usually large establishments with a very impersonal feel. The Riviera lived up to the YHA reputation, being expensive, having a surly manager and on top of that the room we stayed in wasn't exactly the sort you expect from YHA; the decor was very dated (late 70s/early 80s) and the bedding didn't look quite clean. We had no option but to stay the night since our bus arrived in Lakes Entrance at 23:30 and none of the caravan parks we contacted would let us show up so late.

In the morning we ran away from the hostel as fast as we could to the first caravan park we found - the Main Lakes Entrance Caravan Park. The on site vans looked like they were lived in permanently rather than being holiday abodes, and the camp kitchen left a little to be desired, but at least it was cheap ($19 a night for two people) and our tent was pitched in a quiet corner under some shady willow trees.

As I said before there isn't much to Lakes Entrance besides the scenery, and with the rain clouds that blew in on our first day at the Lakes we didn't get to enjoy that either! The Great Lakes park is definitely an area that needs to be explored in a car to get the most out of it - all that we saw was Cunninghame Arm, the sand spit that forms the mouth of the lagoon; and the aforementioned Lakes Entrance esplanade with its motels and overpriced tourist-oriented shops.

Its a pity that our first experience "solo" in Oz was a bit of a lame duck, but as they say, you live and you learn. We are now making sure there's plenty to be done within easy walking distance or with decent public transport connections before we make a stop on our journey along the east coast of Australia.

P.S. The first picture is a blurry shot from my mobile of a large spider that made its home in one of the public phones in Lakes Entrance. Its snacking on a moth!

Cooma

We're traveling up the Eastern Seaboard with a bus company called Premier Motors - they have a backpacker's pass that for £336 takes you from Melbourne to Cairns with as many stops as you like along the way. The only catch is that the bus routes go from one state capital to the other, so they travel overnight. If you want to stop somewhere along the way then you'll probably get there in the very wee hours of the morning. This is just what happened to us en route to Cooma in the Snowy Mountains - we were dropped off in Eden at 3:00am, and our connecting bus to Cooma wasn't till 7:00am. All that standing around on a cold bus stop has given me a small insight into what it must be like for the homeless - sleeping on a cold bench, waking from your half sleep with every noise, a cool wind blowing… But the four hours eventually wound away, we got onto the warm bus and slept all the way to our destination!

Cooma is the most affordable town in the Snowies, the other small towns are skiing resorts, so prices are much higher than normal, and there isn't much life outside of the ski season. Getting to places like Thredbo isn't easy by bus either - the only way to get there is by hopping onto a school bus for $40 each way! That was enough to rule out any further exploring of the Snowies for us, instead we used our one full day in Cooma to take a walk through the bush.

The informative brochure provided by the Visitors Centre says that along the walk you can occasionally see several Australian natives like the Gippsland Monitor Lizards and the Echidna. The rarity of the sightings spurred us on to keep our eyes peeled for the elusive wildlife but all we saw were Cockatoos, and after camping for a few days we had quite grown over the novelty of the raucous the birds make! While on this walk we got first hand experience of how disorienting the Australian bush can be - the reserve we were walking in had plenty of small paths shooting off from the main tracks and somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn. It took us about 15 minutes to realize that the path we were on was taking us in the wrong direction. We tried to backtrack and got even more lost! After another half hour of retracing our steps and playing bush ranger we managed to find our footprints coming from a familiar fork in the road - we'd found our way back to the right footpath! From there it was easy to make our way to the entrance to the reserve and start to walk back to town for some refreshments…

… but that would have to wait as Justyna realized she'd lost her sweatshirt along the way! We figured we'd powerwalk to the farthest part of the path that we'd followed, if she had dropped the sweater before we got lost then we'd be sure to find it, but if it had fallen while we were lost, then it was gone forever! Not wanting to get lost again, this time without water, we employed all the route-finding tricks we've learnt from watching so much Born Survivor (Bear Grylls), we clearly marked every turn of the path that we made as we walked along the trail. The sweater was happily recovered - Justyna had dropped it at the end of the trail, where we decided to turn back and make our way home (and subsequently got lost). With all our trail markers along the way it was easygoing back into town for a much needed cold drink and some tucker!

All in all Cooma proved much friendlier that Lakes Entrance - the locals certainly were more helpful to a couple of tired travelers, and there was certainly much more going on around town to keep us entertained.

From the Snowy Mountains we caught a bus to Canberra, where we would be spending the Easter weekend.

Pictures will be going on to my picasa web album soon!

Halls Gap

Halls Gap

The Grampians National Park is about four hours from Melbourne by coach and train and is a popular mountain retreat for Victorians. Halls Gap is the central town in the Grampians, from where you can easily access most of the bush walks and trails - if you have a car! Once you get to Halls Gap there is no way of getting around except on foot or in private cars, so we were "stuck" in the town. Luckily the best walks in the Grampians start from Halls Gap :)

We set up our tent at the Halls Gap Caravan Park, where we were surprised to see a few wild kangaroos lounging close to our tent site. The brochure did say that kangaroos were regular visitors but we were in for a surprise - as soon as the sun has set behind the hills the 'roos hop down into the park to graze on the green grass of the campsites - dozens of kangaroos within stroking distance… The kangaroos are fine with people taking photos but they'll promptly hop away if you reach out to stroke them.

The main bush walk in Halls Gap is called the Wonderland Loop - a 10km hike through the Wonderland Ranges starting from the Halls Gap botanic Gardens. With daytime temperatures hovering near the 30C mark we decided to tackle the hike in the late afternoon, setting out at 3:30pm, hoping to be back before sunset (the suggested time for the hike is 4-5 hours). The walk takes you through a cool valley past the Venus Baths to the Bridal Veil falls - though the latter were only a trickle because there had been no rain for a good few weeks. Once past the Bridal Veil falls the hard work starts as you have to gain about 800m of elevation over 2km of track, and here most of the track is exposed to the baking sun rather than being in the shelter of cool rock walls. That being said, the hard work is worth it as the views along the Wonderland Loop really pay off. Sights along the way include the Grand Canyon and Silent Street, a narrow alley between sheer rock walls that leads you to the top of the wonderland ranges and the astounding look out point called The Pinnacle. From the Pinnacle you are rewarded with panoramic views of the Grampians National Park, with Halls Gap beneath you and Lake Mackenzie to the right.

From the Pinnacle its 2.5km downhill to Halls Gap, and here our timing was rewarded as the sun was blazing on the other side of the Wonderland ranges. We reached the end of the track at about 6:30pm a good two hours ahead of the suggested time, and we stopped for quite a few breaks along the way. In hindsight, we could have set out a good hour later than we did and still have made it back to camp before sundown.

Halls Gap is well worth a visit if you are in Victoria - if you're coming by public transport then you have to be prepared to walk everywhere and not see much - there is so much more to do than what we managed in two days, but you really need your own wheels to be able to see it all. Not even two weeks into our holiday we were beginning to realize how hard it is to get around in Australia if you're relying on public transport. A word of advice - if you're planning on touring around Australia you really should consider buying a cheap car to get you around.

For photos visit my Picasa Web Albums

Our first camping adventure over, we headed back to Melbourne for one final night with my relatives before catching our night bus to Lakes Entrance.

P.S. A note of warning to anyone who might be visiting Halls Gap in the future - bring your own supplies, unless you want to pay extortionate prices for everything from the local general supplies store. Some examples of their daylight robbery prices: $3.60 for a bottle of water, $4.95 for a bag of crisps etc etc.

Melbourne

Australia is big. Very big. Very, very big. I knew that. But still, I didn't realize just how big this country is! Our hosts in Melbourne were my mum's cousin Moira and her family, and they were kind enough to take us out for a drive one day. We drove for about two hours to get to Mt Dandenong, and we were still in Melbourne! Up on the mountain we got a hazy view of the huge sprawl that is Melbourne. As far as the eye could see there were buildings (with plenty of green spaces in between), and all made up the greater metropolitan area of Melbourne. When you arrive in Australia from Europe you need to take your idea of big and throw it out of the window. You need to think HUGE - and then you're close to realizing just how big the continent/island/nation is.

Now that I've got the size issue out of the way, back to Melbourne! Our time spent in Victoria was mostly dedicated to catching up with cousins and grand-aunties and getting ideas about places that we should visit while traveling in Oz. Meeting relations didn't get in the way of our sight seeing though, and we got to see a fair bit of what the greater Melbourne area has to offer.

Our first outing was a drive through the city at night, seeing the bright lights and glitzy glamour of the Docklands, as well as a drive around the Australia Grand Prix circuit - which was held the week we were staying in Melbourne. Just like you can drive around the TT circuit in the Isle of Man, the Melbourne GP circuit is open road for 51 weeks a year. Car racing isn't the only sport that is loved in Melbourne - there are plenty of sports grounds to be found in the city - ranging from the facilities left over from the Melbourne Olympics, to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and the Etihad Stadium, home of Aussie Rules Football.

The city's tallest and most recent high rise, the Eureka Tower, provides a great viewing platform to look out over the city. It also houses the southern hemisphere's fastest lift, taking less than 40 seconds to get you from ground floor to 88. And just to make the building that little bit more flashy, the windows of the top 8 floors are plated with 24 karat gold!

Joe, another Ozzy cousin, took us out to Healsville WIldlife Reserve - a wildlife park showcasing Australian fauna that also houses Victoria's largest wildlife hospital. During the bush fires of February 2009 the frontline was only 11km away from the sanctuary and it was feared that the area would be destroyed, but luckily the fires didn't get any closer. Lots of animals that were rescued from the fires were rehabilitated at Healsville, and those that could not be returned to the wild will see out the rest of their days in the comfort of the sanctuary. At Healsville you can tick plenty of animals off your list, including Koalas, Kangaroos, Echidnas, Wombats, Goannas, Frilled Lizards, Dingos and the Platypus. Though the animals are there, you don't see them all, as they can be hiding, or resting, or just couldn't care less about the humans ogling into their enclosure! The animals that you will definitely get to see are the birds of prey. The falconers at Healsville have a few of Australia's top winged hunters - harriers, hawks, barking owls, buzzards, and the mighty Wedge Tailed Eagle.

A good day trip from Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road - a scenic highway that hugs Victoria's south coast from Geelong to Warrnambool. There are plenty of great sea side towns to stop in along the way, but the highlight of the drive has got to be the Twelve Apostles. The Apostles (of which there are now only five left) are limestone stacks that have eroded away from the cliff face. The blue waters and crashing waves make for plenty of pretty pictures.

Plenty of photos to be seen on my picasa web albums

Having finally bought a tent and some more camping gear in Melbourne we were eager to try them out, so we took a train out to Halls Gap in the Grampians National park...

Sydney

Sydney - even the name sounds good… A city of four million (that's as many people as there are in all of NZ), home to the Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, incredible Sydney harbour and plenty of modern architecture. After spending two months in New Zealand, most of it in small towns, finding ourselves in a big city was a welcome change from the norm.

Our stay in Sydney was focused on Circular quay and the Central Business DIstrict as both were within walking distance of where we were staying, but before we could begin our touristic explorations we got the business of sorting out our Thai visas out of the way. Once we had all the paperwork in order we headed for Circular Quay and our first good look at the Sydney Opera House. This building is a masterpiece of modern architecture - plenty of curves and lines, wide open spaces, and an air of sophistication without being alienating or intimidating. Needless to say I went back to the Opera House at different times of the day to take photos in different lighting conditions.

Although we didn't attend any concerts in the Opera House (way too expensive!) we did get to listen to a Massive Attack concert that was being held in the Opera House forecourt for free. If you're ever in Sydney and concerts are being held in the forecourt don't fork out any money for tickets - just head to the sea-level promenade beneath the Opera House and you'll be able to listen in perfectly well and absolutely free of charge!

The high rises in the CBD create a very nice skyline, and walking in the city you don't feel crowded in by the buildings around you. This feeling is greatly enhanced by the wide roads and plenty of pedestrian zones that run through the city. A short walk from Circular Quay takes you to the Harbour Bridge, known as the coat hanger to Sydney-siders (the shape makes the name an obvious choice). At the time of its completion the Harbour Bridge was the longest of its kind in the world, and walking along the Bridge you appreciate what a feat it is to suspend all those tons of metal, concrete and tar over the sea.

On our first evening in Sydney I couldn't help but be amazed by the swarms of Flying Foxes taking off from the botanic gardens - Flying foxes are giant fruit bats - about the size of a small cat - that make the Sydney Botanic Gardens their home during the day. It is quite an unnerving sight to see all those huge bats flying overhead. When in the Botanic Gardens at dusk you can't help but notice the fracas being made by the Cockatoos - hundreds of these beautiful parrots also make their home in the Botanic Gardens, but they are out to play when the Flying Foxes are sleeping.

Sydney Harbour is world famous for its beauty and a ferry to Manly is a great way to go out on the water and look at the city from a different perspective. Manly is on the North Heads of Sydney, facing the Tasman Sea, so the ferry takes you along all the harbour from Circular Quay to the open sea. Manly started out as a seaside resort for Sydney-siders wanting to get away from the city, but as the city grew Manly became part of it, but that doesn't stop people taking the regular ferry out to Manly for a break from the city. There's plenty of sun-worshipping and surfing to be done on the beaches, but swimming isn't recommended due to the rips, the jellyfish and the pollution, so we stuck to sunbathing while we were at Manly.

There are plenty of interesting museums and galleries to visit in Sydney but as we were on a tight schedule we only got to see the Art Gallery of New South Wales, home to a varied collection ranging from European renaissance art, Far Eastern arts, and obviously a wide range of Aboriginal and Australian art.

Three days in Sydney fly by very quickly, but that's a recurring theme in our travels so far - we're trying to see as much as we can of this huge country in ten weeks, so as we boarded our plane for Melbourne we had quite a long list of things to be done in Sydney on our next visit!

For photos click here

Live and Direct from Australia

Hi guys
Its been a while since I gave you a heads up on my travels, and you'll just have to hold on for a couple more days while I try to find a reliable internet connection that won't cost an arm and a leg!
Updates will be upcoming in the next few days as we'll be going to a backpacker-friendly place called Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.
See you in a couple of days!