John's Around the World Adventure 2005/2006

To cut out the incredibly long travel time of over 30 hours on a bus, we decided to fly 'Jetstar' to Newcastle, an industrial town north of Sydney, to begin our east coast adventure. Newcastle offered some good beaches, and the Carlton beer was also a highlight!

Traveling north, next on the list was Port Macquarie, a seaside town with lots of water sports on offer. We only spent a couple of days in Macquaire, but still managed to visit the highlights of this small yet quaint town!

Coffs Harbour, further north was a favourite destination of mine since it combined three essential elements: a good hostel bar crawl was organised, excellent beaches were close by and it won the record for the first hostel accommodation with a pool.Wonderful! Coffs Harbour was the venue for a little Banana spotting at a huge local plantation. We also took the opportunity in Coffs to hire body boards, tipping ourselves to be the next surfing prodigies. Poor Sol became separated from his board and proceeded to shout 'John' whilst waving the distress sign. Not known for my life saving expertise, I was pleased to discover that all was fine and Sol was only in shoulder deep water and no longer in trouble after all. Few!!

Next on every backpackers agenda was the unanimous Byron Bay. The beach and nightlife were pretty good here, despite my dislike of an abundant number of hippie wannabees. Here too we also met some really nice guys including Edmund (Zidane look-alike) and Ed and Wes, all from England. We traveled alongside these guys further up the coast. In Byron, we also attempted sleeping under the stars in a large 10-man tipi... not a good night's sleep when the rain began to seep through at 4am!

The ultra modern beach city resort of Surfers Paradise was to be our next venue. The beach simply epitomized the word paradise, miles of lush golden sand and waves ideal for the most hardened of surfers! The accommodation here was also excellent, with a swimming pool, tennis come volleyball court and gym a bonus. Inevitably, we also went on a bar crawl here, the night almost an instant blur!

My next stop was the city of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. The city's skyscrapers, man-made beach and lagoon, bridges, botanical parks and main going out area Fortitude Valley and Chinatown, were all highlights during our stay here.

Swiftly moving on, our dizzy heights landed us in Noosa. Excellent national parks, beaches and rugged coves and scenery once again made it another enjoyable stop. Noosa also is the home of the notorious Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo where we had a chance to come up close with some popular Aussie wildlife. Crikey... a good day out all round!

Next was what we had all been waiting for; Fraser Island, the giant 'Sand Island' containing more sand than the Sahara Desert! We explored the island by 4x4 in a group of 11 people from around the globe, camping and cooking along the way. Two of the many highlights included a visit to a large and spectacular lake consisting of pure filtered drinking water, Lake MacKenzie (this was amazing!) and a visit to a traditional aboriginal camp, sleeping under the stars, watching aboriginal dance next to a bonfire amongst countless friendly dingos. Needless to say we all had our fair share of beer, no more so than our good friend Tim (we forgive him though as he's German, after all!).

My next stop was the town of Bundaberg and the Cellblock Backpackers Hostel, a former prision wonderfully restored with a massive swimming pool. We could not decline a trip to the famous 'Bundy Rum' factory whilst here, despite its not so wonderful taste.

Airlie Beach was the gateway to our Whitsunday Island sailing adventure. There are in excess of 70 islands comprising the Whitsunday's collection and they can only be accessed by boat! Fortunately then, we had chosen an excellent boat to undergo our tour. Named the British Defender, commissioned by Prince Charles and the British Army for the Round the World Ocean Race in 1992, this 83 ft maxi yacht was to be our home for the next 3 days, both sleeping and eating onboard, with 28 passengers and 4 crew in total. Whilst sailing round the islands, we were encouraged to take part in the winching and trimming of the sails, a memorable experience.

The scenery was simply breathtaking, snorkeling amongst the vast assortment of tropical fish of every size and colour imaginable in the Great Barrier Reef. We also took part in a bushwalk through to the outstanding Whitehaven Beach, pure brilliance with its 98% pure silicon sand which refuses to get hot! Clear marine blue water and white golden sands made me crave to stay here for ever and ever! If you are thinking we would not have had a chance for a sly beer on the boat you are slightly mistaken, even this was catered for in numbers!

You simply cannot get bored of this beach/ view!

Townsville, the gateway to Magnetic Island was our next stop. Magnetic Island received its name from James Cook, who believed the magnetic forces of the island interfered with his compass, a theory now rubbished. Magnetic island was a wonderful retreat and getaway from mainland Oz. We stayed in Beach Hut style accommodation with sea and pool views at Base Backpackers. A tour of the island took in some of the main sights and we even got the opportunity to feed Rock Wallabies and spot a Koala truly stoned half way up a gum tree!

Stopping briefly at Mission Beach, a jungle and rainforest clad region, later severely hit by a tropical cyclone, we motored it up to the 'real' tropics of Cairns. We had especially good accommodation here with a lovely pool, made all the more attractive by the abundant lively nightlife nearby.