Nimbin, Minyon Falls, near the lighthouse
I flew into Byron Bay to save time and skip all the southern bit that I had already seen on my mid semester break. I stayed at the Arts Factory which is this hippie inspired little commune sort of place. I immediately met some cool people in my room. James and crazy English guy, Odette from Holland and Adam who came to Byron Bay solely to smoke pot. I had heaps of fun with them. The next morning, I went out to Nimbin the famous hippie town with Jim’s alternative Tours and was very disappointed. I was expecting a really cool, laid-back, fun time in Nimbin but it was so fake and had this really intense atmosphere and was full of dodgy, cracked out, drug dealers. I’m glad I only spent an hour there. The next stop on the tour was a old Californian hippie guy’s place. This guy bought a cow pasture and built a tropical rainforest on it. It was really amazing. And I saw my first wild Aussie snake. Next we went to Minyon Falls lookout and returned to Byron Bay at around 6pm. I was so sick and tired that I fell asleep at around 7 and didn’t wake up until the next morning. It had been raining since I arrived in Byron but in the morning the clouds had cleared, the sun was shining and I would not see another drop of rain until I was nearly in Melbourne a month later! I got up early and went for a long walk out to the lighthouse and the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. I had to take my backpack with me so I got a really good workout climbing up seemingly endless stairs to the lighthouse. Exhausted I walked back to town and caught the bus to Surfers Paradise at noon.
Surfers Paradise
My hostel in Surfers was really disappointing after my amazing stay in Byron. I had booked a 12-share dorm thinking that I would meet more people in a bigger room but I discovered that in big rooms people don’t talk to you because they don’t have to. N a small room you’re forced to talk to everyone and get to know them. I walked into my room said hi to a few people and they didn’t even say hi back. It was not the warm welcome I was looking for. So I spent basically zero time in my room. I went for a stroll around town in the concrete paradise and went down to the beach to snap a few photos on the skyline. That night thankfully there was a backpackers pub crawl. So I wasted some time watching tv in the hostel’s bar until the pub crawl started and met a cool girl from Germany named Alex and hung out with her for most of the night. The bars we went to weren’t very exciting so I didn’t stay out very late. I met a cool, wealthy, Argentine polo player named Alejandro who owned a couple stables (one in Argentina and one near Surfers). So I got to practice my Spanish and he taught me some really weird South American drinks.
Brisbane
I flew into Byron Bay to save time and skip all the southern bit that I had already seen on my mid semester break. I stayed at the Arts Factory which is this hippie inspired little commune sort of place. I immediately met some cool people in my room. James and crazy English guy, Odette from Holland and Adam who came to Byron Bay solely to smoke pot. I had heaps of fun with them. The next morning, I went out to Nimbin the famous hippie town with Jim’s alternative Tours and was very disappointed. I was expecting a really cool, laid-back, fun time in Nimbin but it was so fake and had this really intense atmosphere and was full of dodgy, cracked out, drug dealers. I’m glad I only spent an hour there. The next stop on the tour was a old Californian hippie guy’s place. This guy bought a cow pasture and built a tropical rainforest on it. It was really amazing. And I saw my first wild Aussie snake. Next we went to Minyon Falls lookout and returned to Byron Bay at around 6pm. I was so sick and tired that I fell asleep at around 7 and didn’t wake up until the next morning. It had been raining since I arrived in Byron but in the morning the clouds had cleared, the sun was shining and I would not see another drop of rain until I was nearly in Melbourne a month later! I got up early and went for a long walk out to the lighthouse and the most easterly point on the Australian mainland. I had to take my backpack with me so I got a really good workout climbing up seemingly endless stairs to the lighthouse. Exhausted I walked back to town and caught the bus to Surfers Paradise at noon.
Surfers Paradise
My hostel in Surfers was really disappointing after my amazing stay in Byron. I had booked a 12-share dorm thinking that I would meet more people in a bigger room but I discovered that in big rooms people don’t talk to you because they don’t have to. N a small room you’re forced to talk to everyone and get to know them. I walked into my room said hi to a few people and they didn’t even say hi back. It was not the warm welcome I was looking for. So I spent basically zero time in my room. I went for a stroll around town in the concrete paradise and went down to the beach to snap a few photos on the skyline. That night thankfully there was a backpackers pub crawl. So I wasted some time watching tv in the hostel’s bar until the pub crawl started and met a cool girl from Germany named Alex and hung out with her for most of the night. The bars we went to weren’t very exciting so I didn’t stay out very late. I met a cool, wealthy, Argentine polo player named Alejandro who owned a couple stables (one in Argentina and one near Surfers). So I got to practice my Spanish and he taught me some really weird South American drinks.
Brisbane
The next morning I hopped on a bus to Brisbane. I got the in the early afternoon, grabbed a tourist map and did a whirlwind tour of Brisbane in 3 hours. First I went to the museum of Brisbane which was not on my map but I found it on my way to St. John’s Cathedral. It had some cool history of the city and you could go up this ancient elevator into the clock tower and get a beautiful 360 degree view of the city. Next I went to the cathedral where there was a huge fundraising luncheon on to raise funds to finish building it (it’s a new building but looks hundreds of years old). I was still able to look around. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Next I checked out the Customs House which was a beautiful old building with a nice view of the river. I was the only tourist there and felt really weird because people were working while I was looking around the hall outside their offices and it felt like I shouldn’t be there. Finally I went down to the Queen Street Market and looked through a few shops but wasn’t very impressed by anything so I went back to the hostel. I was staying at a new hostel called the Tinbilly. It was really nice and even had an elevator! A very nice change from the awful hostel I had in Surfers. That night I met up with Jay who was staying Brisbane with a buddy and looking for work. While I was waiting for him at the bar this creepy, incredibly high drug dealer kept talking to me and asking me my name every 3 minutes and telling me about some guys who stole a hundred dollars from him and if I had seen these guys and if I would like a drink and what is my name? He was nuts and it didn’t take long for security to toss him and his duffle bag of drugs out of the bar. Thankfully Jay and his buddy Julian showed up soon and we had a couple drinks and said another sad goodbye. I was getting really sick of goodbyes. Jay was the last Canberra friend I would see before coming home. It was a sad thought.
Noosa Heads
Early the next morning I caught yet another bus to Noosa Heads. My plan was to spend the whole time there surfing but when I arrived the guy at the hostel told me the surf was crap and I should wait until the next morning. So I did. I loved Noosa! My hostel was amazing, the town was gorgeous and the weather was perfect! The people at this hostel were the nicest of any hostel I stayed at in Aus. They treated you like a friend not like a customer. It was great. I spent the day walking through the national park and exploring the beach. I saw the most beautiful sunset that night.
Early the next morning I caught yet another bus to Noosa Heads. My plan was to spend the whole time there surfing but when I arrived the guy at the hostel told me the surf was crap and I should wait until the next morning. So I did. I loved Noosa! My hostel was amazing, the town was gorgeous and the weather was perfect! The people at this hostel were the nicest of any hostel I stayed at in Aus. They treated you like a friend not like a customer. It was great. I spent the day walking through the national park and exploring the beach. I saw the most beautiful sunset that night.
The next morning a very gorgeous 20-something year old guy pulled up to the hostel in his van full of surfboards and picked me up for my surf lesson. There was only one other person in my lesson. I was standing about after an hour but it was really easy because I had a giant 9-foot board (the larger the board the easier it is to stand but the harder it is to do anything cool). Because there were only two people in the lesson our instructor was able to take a few photos of us. It was a great morning. I spent the afternoon lounging by the river watching the pelicans. I didn’t want to leave.
Bundaberg
I arrived in Bundaberg at 10 pm and stayed in an old prison turned hostel. It was a strange place and I felt very unwelcome there. Bundaberg is near tons of farms and plantations so backpackers usually stay there for months to do harvest work. So everyone at the hostel knew each other and I felt pretty left out. I went to sleep early and the next morning walked down to the Bundaberg Rum distillery. I had to walk because the buses don’t run on Sundays. As I walked through the town it felt very much like I was walking through a ghost town. Everything was closed except the supermarket and the coin laundry and there was not a car or person in sight. It was very eerie. The tour of the distillery was really fun and at the end you get some free drinks to try. I tried the Bundy dark and stormy which is a mixed drink of ginger beer and rum. It was okay. I also tried the Bundy liqueur which was a delicious creamy, chocolaty, caramel delight sold exclusively at the distillery. I spent the afternoon doing laundry and reading (that’s really all there is to do in Bundaberg). Then I caught the overnight bus to Airlie Beach.
Airlie Beach/Whitsunday Islands
I arrived in Airlie at 6:30am and watched the sunrise. Then I checked into my sailing trip I had booked for two days two nights in the Whitsunday Islands. I spent the morning sunbathing and hopped on my boat at noon. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to SCUBA dive because I had been so sick but the dive instructor on the boat said it would be okay because I was nearly well again. I was pumped! There were 25 passengers on the boat and 4 crew members (Carley and Christian the dive instructors, Courtney the chef and cleaning staff and Wayne the skipper). Our first stop was Luncheon Bay where I did my first SCUBA dive. It kinda sucked because I got stuck in a group of these stupid Irish girls who didn’t even know how to swim. So after like half an hour of trying to get them to calm down we finally got to go for our dive but they were still freaking out so we only got to go a few metres deep. But it was still super cool and I saw heaps of amazing coral and there were fish everywhere. The Great Barrier Reef was totally different from what I expected… It was WAY better! The beauty was breathtaking. So that night we watched a pretty sunset and went to sleep early to get up in the morning for a sunrise dive. The boat had really cramped sleeping arrangements as most boats do so the tables in the kitchen folded down into beds. As a solo traveler, this is where I got to sleep. It was okay for the most part because it forced me to get up early and not miss out on anything but I couldn’t have a nap in the day or go to bed early because I had no bed until everyone else went to bed. Before bed Wayne the skipper took us all out on the deck and showed us all sorts of constellations and told us how to find south by the Southern Cross (the constellation on the Aussie flag).
The next day we went for our sunrise dive in Mackerel Bay. I was excited to not be with the Irish girls this time and we saw heaps of cool stuff. I got to touch Bubble coral that was soft and slimy and I saw a giant sea turtle! It was really exciting! Next we went to Pitstop Bay for our third and final dive. I saw another sea turtle and the coral was the most beautiful in this spot.
After the dive we all went to Whitehaven Beach which has 98% silica sand making it some of the softest, whitest sand in the world! It was so beautiful I felt like I had been transported into a postcard.
The next day we spent sailing back to Airlie Beach to end our voyage. On the way we sailed through this area where water enters from five different directions and it is all different temperatures. This causes crazy whirlpools all over the place and has been known to turn good sized boats 360 degrees! It was so cool sailing through there as our boat kept getting thrown off course by the water. Then we sailed past George Harrison’s old house on one of the islands – very luxurious.
We arrived at around noon and I had nowhere to go until 8:20pm when I had to catch my bus to Cairns so two British girls Rachel and Gemma to their posh resort and lied by the pool. Gemma told me that her mom would never stay in a crap hotel like this (this was a four-star resort that had been featured in Vogue magazine!) I was so not used to spending time with wealthy people it was very shocking and I felt like a peasant compared to these girls. I left the resort around 3:30 to make sure I got to the place where I had left my backpack before they closed but they didn’t close until 8 so I spent the afternoon wandering around town and I booked a tour of the Daintree Rainforest for the next day when I would be in Cairns. After supper I had a little time to kill so I went and sat at a bus stop. I have discovered that sitting in random bus stops is the best place to meet the craziest and/or coolest people. As I was sitting there a pretty 30-something year old woman came and sat with me and chatted to me all about Cairns where she used to live and all the cool things to do there and how the people are so nice and that everything there is so much cheaper than in Airlie and she hoped I had an amazing trip and so on… She was so cool. Then she hopped on her bus and I walked down to the Greyhound bus stop at the other end of town. Two Irish guys from my sailing trip were on the same bus as me to Cairns which I thought would be great except that I slept the whole way there and didn’t even talk to them until we arrived in Cairns the next morning.
Cairns
I had neglected to get the address of my hostel in Cairns so when I arrived in Cairns I had no idea where I was supposed to go and ended up walking around aimlessly with the Irish guys until we found some guy on the street who gave us directions. So I got Naill’s mobile number and made plans to possibly meet up somewhere for a drink that night. As I was walking in the direction of the hostel and waiting at a stop light a girl asked me if I was going to the YHA. She was going there too and conveniently had a map AND she was from Toronto! It was really cool. I got to the hostel just in time to change my clothes brush my teeth and meet my tour bus for a day tour of the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. We started the tour at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary after a beautiful drive on the Captain Cook Highway right on the coast. Our tour guide Troy was full of information about sugarcane and showed us the AJ Hackett bungy tower which made me really nervous. He taught us all about cassowaries, endangered keystone species in the rainforest. The seeds of many plants will only germinate after passing through the digestive system of a cassowary. Also we saw the only pair of breeding black storks in captivity in the world and I got up close to a HUGE crocodile.
Cairns
I had neglected to get the address of my hostel in Cairns so when I arrived in Cairns I had no idea where I was supposed to go and ended up walking around aimlessly with the Irish guys until we found some guy on the street who gave us directions. So I got Naill’s mobile number and made plans to possibly meet up somewhere for a drink that night. As I was walking in the direction of the hostel and waiting at a stop light a girl asked me if I was going to the YHA. She was going there too and conveniently had a map AND she was from Toronto! It was really cool. I got to the hostel just in time to change my clothes brush my teeth and meet my tour bus for a day tour of the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. We started the tour at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary after a beautiful drive on the Captain Cook Highway right on the coast. Our tour guide Troy was full of information about sugarcane and showed us the AJ Hackett bungy tower which made me really nervous. He taught us all about cassowaries, endangered keystone species in the rainforest. The seeds of many plants will only germinate after passing through the digestive system of a cassowary. Also we saw the only pair of breeding black storks in captivity in the world and I got up close to a HUGE crocodile.
Next we went to Mossman gorge for a short nature walk and a swim in a freezing water hole. Troy told us about all these really cool plants (one species that is 350 million years old!) and he found a deadly wild snake. Next we were off to our Daintree River cruise to see some wild crocs. We saw about 7 including 2 huge males, a tiny baby, a couple midsized females and a couple 7-10 year old males. We also saw a green frog that had hopped onto our boat and some green tree snakes. After the cruise we drove up to Cape Tribulation where I got to hang out at the beach for a while. On the way there, we saw a wild cassowary and his three chicks (chicks are raised by the dad). Apparently it is very rare to see wild cassowaries and especially chicks. It was very exciting. After the beach we drove all the way back to Cairns and saw a cane fire and the most magnificent sunset that turned the whole ocean pink.
Once back in Cairns I attempted to call Naill to meet up with him and Brian for a drink but his phone wasn’t working or something and we got cut off. I tried to call again a bit later but we got cut off again. I gave up trying to get a hold of them and went on a hunt for some supper. I also gave up on that hunt and ate some street pizza because it was already 9 pm and everything was closed except pubs and sit-down restaurants (I just wanted some take-away). Then I went to bed. Yes, I know, I am very cool. The next day, however, was bungy day and I needed to save my energy. So I woke up at the crack of 10 and met my courtesy pick-up at 11. I was truly terrified. There were about 10 other people in the van heading out to the tower that day all of whom expressed varying degrees of fear in their eyes. Once we got out to the tower I waited around for what seemed like an eternity to pay and get my ticket to go up to jump. The girl at the counter was totally incompetent. Anyway, once all that was sorted out and I had my ticket I could climb up the tower at any time whenever I was ready. I was stalling waiting to watch some other people jump first and build up my confidence but the guy who drove us out there came up to me and said I better get up the tower right away or I would have to wait until after lunch. So I climbed up the stairs to the top of the 50 metre tower and watched a bunch of people jump before me. Then it was my turn. The guys working the ropes were crazy and tattooed and dreadlocked but they actually made me feel quite safe. As the guys were tying up my ankles I was told that I was going to touch the water and I had no choice about it (I guess they could tell I wanted to but was too scared). The choice I had was how far in I went. If I jumped out far I would just get my hands wet but if I just dropped like a sack of potatoes I would go in up to my waist. After prying my death grip off the railing and counting down from 5 I had no choice but to jump. And I did. It was the most amazing rush of my life. Way better than any rollercoaster or any drop of doom. I was most surprised by how smooth it was. When you see videos it looks like people are getting jerked around by the bungy but it was nothing like that. You can’t even tell you’ve reached the bottom until you start going back up (unless you touch the water). It is totally smooth. I guess I did a perfect jump because it was only my hands that touched the water. It was soooooooo cool. I had to do it again. They had a deal on that day that if you did a second jump it only cost $35 as opposed to the $99 for the first jump. And a third jump would only be $25 and if you did a $25 fourth jump you could have a fifth jump for free. I had to wait until after lunch to do my second jump so I chatted with a British guy and a German guy until we could all go up for our next jumps. At the top of the tower I saw s really tall Dutch guy who I had seen at the front desk with his dad. He looked terrified. So I chatted with him and told him how much fun it would be. It was his last day in Australia so he decided to do something crazy. He was really cool and I probably could have chatted with him all day. He jumped right before I did and enjoyed it but didn’t do a second jump. For my second jump I went backwards. I felt free as a bird feeling the wind rush past me. It wasn’t nearly as scary the second time as the first but I did have a few choice words for the tower guy as he pretended to push me off the tower. I would have done more jumps but the driver came by to tell me he was taking a group back if I was ready. I took the opportunity to escape before I spent all my money. The Dutch guy came back to and we chatted some more all the way back to town. What a cool guy. I spent the late afternoon and early evening wandering aimlessly around town and discovered the night markets which were full of cheap souvenirs and yummy food. I wasted some time there and meant to go out that night but I had another failed attempt to get a hold of the Irish guys and ended up just going to bed early after a very tiring day. The next morning I checked out early, caught the airport shuttle, and hopped on my flight into the outback to start part three of my adventure.
