Iain Plank

Just after the new year, when it became clear that the world was still reasonably intact and that the expected demise of everything that we take for granted didn’t quite happen, I figured that it was safe to board a Greyhound bus and head up to Sydney to begin a great loop that would take me all the way up the east coast to Cairns and then back down to Melbourne, via Alice Springs.

Sydney
I arrived in Sydney early in the morning and had to wait a few hours before I could get any accommodation. So to fill the time I dumped my stuff at a hostel and decided to walk towards Circular Quay. It’s one of moments that leave you breathless. All my life I’d seen pictures of Sydney: of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the bay etc and then suddenly I was there, in the midst of it all. It was a beautiful hot summers morning with blue cloudless skies and I was just speechless – it was utterly stunning.
So what can I say about Sydney ? I absolutely adored it. Maybe Melbourne is more cultural and takes time to grow on you but Sydney just hits you as soon as you arrive – the immense harbour giving a real focus to the city.
I was able to meet up with lots of friends in Sydney including Carmen and Natelie who I’d met independently in Darwin, Adam with whom I travelled down the West coast, Heike who I’d met in Sumatra, and Jen and Gavin, an aussie couple, who live in Belgium and who I used to go mountain Biking with when I lived in Germany. It’s a small world.
So what did I get up to in Sydney ? Heaps ! Lots of walking around, a couple of really good barbies, getting the ferry over to Manley and exploring the northern beaches, galleries, gardens, harbours – loads. Two of the highlights were probably the Blue Mountains which get their name from the mist exuded by the Eucalyptus trees that grow there – they are really beautiful – and climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge which gives quite a unique view of the city and surrounding area.
Whilst in Sydney I backtracked a little to see a city that I’d missed when coming from Melbourne.

Canberra
When trying to decide on the nations capital there was fierce competition between Melbourne and Sydney as to which one should hold the title. To settle the dispute the government decided to build a new city in a new territory (the Australian Capital Territory or ACT) which was pretty much equidistant from them both. That city is Canberra.
Now to say that Canberra is a tad boring and sterile is a little harsh – but only a little !! Any town that is created by politicians is bound to reflect their ability for putting the dampers on anything which could be construed as “fun”.
Canberra is all artificial lakes, wide boulevards and road systems that look great from above but are completely incomprehensible when on the ground. If you want to get lost…go to Canberra !!
To be honest it’s not as bad as it sounds, it just lacks character – that indefinable quality that makes something rise from the depths of ordinariness and makes it interesting.

There are some good things in Canberra though which make up for some of its shortcomings:

• • The Parliament building is on top of a hill overlooking the town and was built into the hill so as not to look too out of place. This means that there is actually grass growing on the roof. Someone pointed out that this was so that people could walk on top of Parliament so that the politicians should never forget that they are under the people. Nice idea except that the House of Representatives and the Senate are on either side of this hillock – showing how the politicians managed to side-step even that !!
  • The Anzac memorial (Australian and New Zealand Arm Corp) houses a free museum which goes through every conflict in which Australian forces have played a role. It’s extremely well down and is definitely worth a few hours.

Other things to see are the National Gallery in the Old Parliament Building and the Science Museum which has lots of interactive displays. Inevitably, though Canberra couldn’t hold my attention for too long and it was back to Sydney for a few days before moving north.

Byron Bay and Nimbin
About 12 hours by bus north of Sydney is Byron Bay. It’s an extremely laid back place with lots of restaurants, beaches, bars, and those following more alternative lifestyles. You couldn’t help but relax in Byron. A typical day would be getting up – eventually, having lunch, going to the beach, sitting in a cafe, cooking dinner, going to a bar for a few drinks and then going to the beach for a good chat and a relaxing smoke before retiring to bed. I met some great people there (you know who you are) and we had a ball. I even tried my hand at surfing and managed to stand up a couple of times !!

Nimbin is a small community west of Byron which is renowned for growing Hemp from which they make an alternative form of tobacco and rather interesting cakes. It was a good day out. On the bus there everyone was chatting and listening to music. On the way back everyone just sat there quietly – completely off their heads !! To be honest I found Nimbin a little sad. It’s one thing to enjoy a good smoke once in a while but stoned mothers walking down the street with a small child in a pushchair trying to sell you “cakes” was more than a little sad. It might be an “alternative lifestyle” but you can’t help thinking that they’ve missed the plot somewhere down the line.

It was difficult to actually leave Byron in the end but an old friend awaited me in Brisbane.

Brisbane
Ben and I went to college together in Wales in the early nineties. He was in his 2nd year as I was doing my Finals. A few years ago he married Rae and they came out to live in Brisbane.
It was really good to catch up them both and to remember old times, discuss the latest “college crowd” gossip and to wonder where we would all be in the years to come. It was a really nice time.
Brisbane itself is the capital city of the state of Queensland. Although a sprawling city with its many suburbs it’s centre is actually quite compact and very clean with all of the amenities that you would expect. It’s also in easy reach of the sea with the Gold Coast to the south and the Sunshine Coast to the north, where I was heading next.

Noosa & Fraser Island
En route to meeting up with some friends in Hervey Bay I stopped briefly in Noosa Heads which is a nice holiday town which seems to attract a quite “well to do” crowd of holiday makers and is actually quite nice.
At 120km in length, Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island, is covered with an amazing variety of vegetation and has the purist form of Dingo in Australia. As there are no real roads on Fraser, only sandy tracks, 4WD vehicles are the only viable means of transport. The tour that we took was a typical 3 day self-drive, self-guide 4WD tour. There were 8 of us in our 4WD and it was a real laugh. It was fantastic being able to drive a 4WD through the forest tracks and along the beach – every kids dream. Fraser Island is extremely beautiful and there was loads to see but one of the highlights was probably Lake Wabby which is a fresh water lake with an immense sand dune running down into the water on one side and with dense tropical forest on the other.

Rockhampton
As we headed further north we stopped briefly at the town of Rockhampton. There’s not much to say about it except that it straddles the Tropic of Capricorn and has got some nice Botanical Gardens.

Airley Beach & the Whitsundays
All around Oz I’ve heard about Airley Beach. Well finally I made it and it’s actually pretty nice. It’s not a big place but as they say: “its not the size, it’s what you do with it thats important”. Airley actually does a lot with it ! It’s a beautiful place with lots of restaurants, bars, clubs and a really good atmosphere. It’s the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands so named because Cook got there on…..yes you’ve guess it – the day AFTER Whitsunday !! (Apparently he forgot that he went over the date line when calculating his dates ! Good to know that even people like Captain Cook made mistakes. That said, it wasn’t as bad as his decision to accept a dinner invitation with the Hawaiians but…!!).
Anyway, where was I ? Oh yes, the Whitsundays. We went on a 3 day yacht cruise around some of the beautiful Whitsunday Islands which was great but unfortunately this is where the weather started to close in on us. Australia might be perceived as having summer at this time of year but as you head into the tropics, Summer and Winter give way to Wet and Dry and at this time of year it’s the wet season. The nice thing about the wet is that when it rains, it really rains. None of this halfhearted drizzle stuff, just full on torrential rain !! What’s more, it’s warm, so even though you get wet, it’s not so bad.
We had a few good party nights in Airley but eventually, with one eye on the calendar, it was time to start heading north again.

Townsville
Townsville, Townsville, Townsville – enough said !! If you’ve ever been to Townsville you’d understand.
By this stage the weather had really broken. Roads were beginning to flood and travel was becoming more uncertain. I decided to abort going to Magnetic Island and Mission Beach as there was no point in going somewhere just to stay inside while it flooded outside. Instead I headed further north to Cairns to meet up with friends that had gone on ahead as I savoured the delights of Townsville, Townsville, Townsville – enough said !!

Cairns and Cape Tribulation
Cairns isn’t so much famous for itself (apart from the Woolshed) but more for what you can do from Cairns, such as: The Atherton Tablelands, Cape Tribulation, bungee jumping, diving and of course the Great Barrier Reef.
It rained for most of my first week there, to the point where all of the roads out were impassable and there was nothing much to do except for reorganise flights, sleep and party – Nomads in Cairns is the only hostel I’ve stayed at that positively encourages you to jump into the pool, fully clothed, at 2 o’clock in the morning! Luckily, the second week the weather cleared up and I was finally able to do some more strenuous activities.

I decided to do a 4 day live aboard diving trip that went out to Holmes Reef, 240km offshore in the Coral Sea. The diving was fantastic with 60m visibility – yes sixty !! Absolutely amazing !! If some of you remember from my first ever update from Singapore, one of my dreams has been to dive with sharks. Don’t ask me why it’s just one of those things. One of the reasons that I chose this dive trip was because it included a shark feed ! I don’t want to get into the ethics of feeding wild animals but it was absolutely amazing. During the dive before the feed they were trying to entice the sharks by running water through dead fish up on deck. This led to an interesting safety stop – hanging in the water at 5m with at least 20 sharks swimming around you !! For the feed itself we knelt in a line on the bottom at 9m (no cages) and they lowered an ‘A’-Frame into the water with dead fish attached. We were simply in awe as 5m away the sharks went into a feeding frenzy. There were 3 types of shark present:
White tips, Grey Whalers and Silvertips and they were in front of you, behind you and swimming between you. You could reach out and touch them as they swam past. Beautiful animals and an amazing experience.

Back on dry land I headed north to Cape Tribulation to spend a couple of days in the rainforest before moving on. It’s apparently 110 million years old and is designated as a World Heritage site. Remarkably, though, not all of it falls under this category and the part that doesn’t is openly for sale to anyone thats interested. The government say that they are trying to buy it but nothing seems to be happening. Bear in mind that it was the government that sold it in the first place !! Experts apparently give it around 25 years before the rainforest is all but destroyed (incidentally they give the Great Barrier Reef only 34 years unless the government start doing something). Whilst there we swam in the streams, did a night “safari” in the rainforest which was fascinating and went horse riding through the forest and Tea plantations. I even achieved my first ever gallop.

With only 2 weeks left in Oz it was time to leave the east coast and head to the centre. It had been a great 7 weeks and I felt as if I was 30 going on 21. Like most things in life it’s not so much “what you do” as “who you do it with” and I was very fortunate to have met and travelled with some fantastic people over the weeks. You know who you are – Thank you !!

Talk to you all again soon,
Iain