Brisbane

After experiencing a couple of nights out in both the city and the valley, I felt I'd seen all I could see of Brisbane.

Coincidentally enough, my parents arrived in Brisbane 2 days after us, and were staying with my brother, who works and lives here. I went to see some sights with my parents, such as the koala sanctuary, and well....thats it. All there is to do is go shopping in Queen st mall, or go drinking...

Contrary to this, we decided to stay here for a month or so, and get jobs. This also suited me as Anne-Marie decided to come over to Australia and come travelling with us, and this would mean we would be in Brisbane when she arrived here so I could pick her up at the airport.

I applied for some jobs, as did the others, but Dave was the only person to get a job. He went out for one day...and then didn't go back! Haha.

While here I also bought a bicycle. I did some cycling at home and craved a bike so had it in my mind I wanted one. I went looking around town and bought a Giant Rock in a Giant store for 450AUD, but then had to buy a helmet, lights and lock, which put the price up to 600AUD. Hmmm, not a very wise decision, considering we were getting low on cash!

The plan was to lock it up outside the van at night, and then put it in the back while we were driving, which actually worked out fine. Funnily enough, it was the same bike as I had back home, except a newer model. I liked it. I also went for a few cycles on it around Brisbane. Firstly, I had to cycle it home, which was fun, especially considering I didn't actually know the way so kinda had to wing it. I then went on a few cycles around the caravan park and surrounding areas. I got adventourous one day and went a way I'd never been before....big mistake!! I got lost and was cycling around for a long time before I found a postman who gave me directions! I arrived home covered in sweat, probably after losing around a kilo. That place is full of hills!

I had a bit of fun anyway in Brisbane. The casino was cool, the Brisbane lookout was cool, and the bars were cool. My brother also brought me to a few restaurants around so I'd say I seen enough of Brisbane.....for now!

Christys Birthday - Fri, 22nd Aug 08

Yesterday was Christys 24th birthday. Christy is one of the people I'm travelling with.

The day started off the same as usual. Crawling out of bed, bit of breakfast, and planning for the day. My parents wanted to meet up for dinner before they flew home to Ireland so I had to get that out of the way first, before any beer related activities could commence!

We went to Breakfast Creek hotel for a nice steak dinner at about 7pm, then I headed off into town to meet the rest of them, while accidentally forgetting to say goodbye to my parents!! What a cabbage! I jsut jumped into the front seat of the taxi and went. It wasnt until a few minutes into the taxi journey that I realised I won't see them again for 10 months!! Oops! :(

Anyway, the festivities started in Mick O'Malleys Irish pub, in Queen St Mall. We had a few there, watched a live band, then headed onto our next port of call......Showgirls Strip Club!

It was only around the corner from O'Malleys so we walked up the mall towards it. Christy went off to buy cigarettes, so while we were waiting, I got talking to the girl on the door. I was wearing my black bomber jacket so while I was standing at the door talking, it looked like I was working security. Wish I got a photo of that now....

Anyway, we told her it was Christys birthday and she informed us that we can get him a private lapdance from any of the girls, or, as se recommended, we could get him a stage show, which basically entailsW dragging him up on stage in front of the whole club, and getting a lapdance lasting 4 songs! We talked about it and decided we'd get him the lapdance anyway, since its his birthday and all.

So, we went inside, paid the 15 dollars, and had a few beers. I went up to the supervisor lady and asked her about the previously mentioned "services", and she told me more about the stage show, so in the end I opted for that......best 100 dollars spent EVER!!! :D

Christy is a timid enough bloke so the girls were worried he wouldn't go up on stage, but when the time came, we all pushed him up. The "show" started with her taking off his top, and sitting him on a chair on the revolving podium. She began teasing him, as strippers are known to do, and got fully naked pretty fast! The look on his face was priceless. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take any photos! Bummer! But the show went on. She eventually got him down to his boxers and had hom on the floor, on the chair, up against one of the poles!! It was hilarious! She then got a scissors and sneakily cut off his boxers! The poor chap was completely starkers in front of a club of maybe 60 dirty pervy men! Lets just say it'll be a birthday he'll never forget!! haha, oh and afterwards, she brought him backstage to get dressed in the ladies dressing room, where he was telling us all the girls were just walking around completely starkers too. Brillaint!! haha.

So, as we were leaving, I was stopped as I still had half a bottle of beer left, which I wasn't allowed take outside. I got talking to the American girl on the desk and the security guy, who I lied to and said I'd done security work in Dublin, and who said to come back on Tuesday and he'll see about getting me a job working security there!! Haha brilliant!! Watch this space....


Oh and the rest of the night was pretty tame in comparison. Just so ya know, we didn't actually spend the whole night in the stripclub, we actually went clubbing afterwards, though it wasn't great. I'm yet to find a niteclub here that I like.

Arrive: Brisbane

So we arrived in Brisbane. My first impression is that its very eh....city like! There's not many parks or beaches or anything stereotypically Australian, or even consistent with what we've seen so far on the east coast. It'll be interesting to see how things go here....

We drove around for a bit, following Dave and getting lost as usual, until we found a petrol station with a guy who gave us directions to a caravan park. A place called Newmarket Gardens. We headed straight there so we could get settled and then go exploring!!

The price was decent enough, and it had wireless so that suited me perfect! We settled in and headed down around town. Now, according to my brother, there are 2 main parts to Brisbane. The City itself, and the Valley. The Valley seems to be where all the messyness goes on. All the main night spots are there, where as the sort of grown up clubs are in the city!

Other than that, theres the Brisbane Lookout, the river tour on the boat, and I think thats it. I know there's a few other places of interest, but none that suited six travelling, beer hungry Irish tourists!! We had found a nice Irish bar called Mick O'Mallets in Queen St Mall. This was to be our first port of call on the majority of our nights out in Briss-vegas!

More driving

So, we left Hervey Bay and Fraser Island behind, and continued our long journey south, and embarked on what would be our longest session of driving since we got the vans.

We drove through Proserpine and Mackay before it started to get dark, so we decided to stop off at the next place we came too. This seemed like a bad idea when we turned up at a place called Marlborough. This was basically a small little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" town, as I called it, whos population doubled when we strolled into town. In order to actually get to the place, we had to drive down a pitch black dirt track, passed signs of "bridge out - detour this way" signs and also a random set of trains tracks (which Christy decided to feckin stop the van slap bang in the middle of!!). These things combined with the fact that all 3 of us had gotten separated had started to send a chill through each of our spines. Imagine it, lost in the middle of an isolated town, that we haven't told anyone we were going to, since we didn't actually know the name of it until the following day when we were leaving, and also that we hadn't a clue of its geographical location, other than its in Queensland somewhere between Hervey Bay and Brisbane!

We broke through into the town from the detour along the backroads and felt like all 35 of the local eyeballs were staring at us. 3 camper vans emblazened with all sorts of funky lookin graffitti tend to stand out in tiny little towns. Basically, the "town" is literally one street, maybe 100 metres long. It had a pub and a few houses. That was it. We asked a local if there was a caravan park, not expecting much luck, and were told we can park up behind the pub. We had a look but it was too tight a space for 3 vans to fit so we drive up around the corner and asked in the petrol station and out of pure dumb luck, there was a really good caravan park literally right across the road...the road being the Bruce/Pacific Highway that we've been driving along all day! What we thought was a totally solated backward town, was in fact just off the bruce highway and surrounded by a pretty densely populated area! I we had've taken the next exit off the highway, we would have ended up where we were now!

We stayed there in the caravan park the night for roughly 9 dollars each, and headed off the next morning. I picked up the new Offspring album in that garage. Wasn't great...:p

So off we went again. Rockhampton, Bundaberg, stopping in Maryborough to pick up some tourist information brochures, and found out that Australia Zoo was just a few hours down the road, as was a big fish world amusement park. Myself, Christy, Dave and Nikki went to Waterworld, while Donna and Ciara went to Australia zoo. On the way down, we stopped off at a Toys R Us and picked up the biggest super soaker they sold, as back in Maryborough, Dave and Nikki had bought small little water guns in a newsagent to destroy us with water. This resulted in a full length water war (which stretched from Maryborough to Brisbane!) which actually started when I flung the contents of a 2 litre bottle of water out the campervan window at the girls, followed shortly by the bottle itself! When we purchased the super soaker, we did it as stealthily as possibe. We picked up a bit of speed and made some distance between us and "Pacman" (corresponding to the design on the side of Dae & Nikkis van). Just enough distance, in fact, for us to go into the nearest toy shop and buy a super soaker!!

So we returned to the van after the purchase, just as they pulled up beside us. I had to stash the gun up my jumper. We then headed on down the road again with them still unaware of our purchase. During our many pitstops/pullovers, Dave pulled up beside us to talk through our windows. This was when they found out about our new weapon in the form of litres of high pressure water in their respective eyes!! The look on their soaking wet faces was worth the 50 dollars I spent on the gun, but it also stepped up the stakes a bit. Water bombs were bought, and mid-motorway high-speed water fights ensued. Yes it ws dangerous, but hell it was fun! And sure isnt that the impotant thing!!

At the next garage stop, me and Christy cornered Dave in the toilets when he went in to use the facilities. Lucky for him, hes a lot quicker on his feet than he looks! When we got back to the van, we saw Nikki messing with it. As it turned out, she had placed some form of cream, like suncream or some woman sustance, in the handle of the van. Luckily I noticed this as Christy was about to open the van.

We drove on again passed Rainbow Beach, Gympie, and Noosa heads, before we drive past Australia Zoo just before Beerwah. The girls had gone into there, but it was late by the time we got there so we headed on to the waterworld, which was open later, and was jsut a better option at that time of the afternoon.

We drove back up towards the zoo afterwards, where we met the girls again and parked about a kilometre down from Australia zoo. This was so we could get an early start and a full day in the zoo, which inceidentally was really cool. It had some huge crocs, and all sorts of weird creatures, including the super smelly koalas, and giant turtles. cassowaries, snakes, alligators, elephants, tigers, and pretty much everything else ya'd expect! I'd recommend it to anyone in the area. The croc shows are pretty cool too!

While we were in the zoo, the girls drove on, as they'd been there yesterday, and we followed them down at about 4pm. They had gotten to a place called Redcliffe. Last stop before Brisbane.

We found a nice little car park beside the surf club to park for the night. The gates were locked at 11pm, and didnt open til 7am, but that was fine by us, since we were staying the night, and wouldnt even be awake by 6am when they re-opened. We could see Brisbane across the water. One more night and we'd have some form of relative stability, accomodation-wise.

Fraser Island and Hervey Bay

We got here in the late afternoon and immediately got lost! Haha, it seems a daily occurance that anywhere we drive to we get separated from each other and spend about an hour texting and ringing to try find out where the hell we are!

Luckily, along our aimless driving trying to find the others, we found a nice little caravan park close enough to the water. It had nice facilities and they gave us a nice little corner to ourselves for our camper vans.

Back inside in the bar/restaurant, we ran into a dublin couple who we'd bumped into back in Airlie Beach. They were travelling down the east coast by bus, and had a 14 hour bus journey to get here. It only took us a few hours!! Apparently the bus goes all over the place! Remind me never to get a bus over here!! Thats as long as our flight from Thailand to Australia!!

Luckily, the lady at reception was able to hook us up with a deal to go to Fraser Island. We'd be picked up in the morning in a big 4-wheel drive heavy duty bus that would drive us to the boat, and would also act as out transport on the island too. The bus driver was pretty eccentric. I suppose thats part of the job description, as he was also there to entertain 50 or so people on his bus!

We got over to the island anyway, and the bus drive off the boat directly onto the beach, and off into the jungle! The early part of the tour was the driver telling us all about the local plants and trees etc etc...which was quite boring. The only entertaing part was the numerous mounds and hills which sent the bus almost airborne. We got flung out of our seats and if it weren't for the seat belts, we would hve all been splattered on the floor! I was loving it! It was like a rollercoaster!

We finally got through to the middle, where there was a lake, slap bang in the middle of the mountain side on the island. He explained it was there because the rain water gets stuck and doesnt go through the sand, or something like that. We went off looking for snakes while the girls stayed to clean their jewellery and exfoliate in the sand, which incidentally was the same sand from the Whitsundays (99.98% silica). Needless to say, we didn't see any snakes! :(

We left the lake and went to the backpackers resort in the centre of the island where we got fed. It was a nice little place, powered entirely by solar power. As its a national park, they cant really be building powerlines etc on the island, so solar power is their only option. The toilets were "natural toilets" too, as there wasnt really a sewer system on the island. Nasty business, but ya'd get used to it easily enough.

After we had our grub, we went on again in our big bus, this time to 74-mile beach. This was the main attraction of the island. The beach was actually only 54 miles long apparently (what a ripoff!), but it had a shipwreck and they ran a service where you could get in a small plane and fly the island for 70 dollars. The girls went for it but we stayed in the bus.

The beach was nice. The shipwreck was cool, and we also saw some clearwater river that you could walk up, with little or no chance of a crocodile biting your ass off!! It was fun.

After seeing the rest of the landmarks on the beach, it was back to the backpackers resort to clean the bus, then off we went again into the depths of the jungle. We stopped off for tea/coffee and muffins in amongst the trees where our bus driver partook in a Q&A session with us. After a few minutes we boarded the bus and headed back to the beach to await the boat. All in all, we enjoyed the island. Nice scenery. Nice tour. Its some thing I'd do again anyway.

On the way back, we saw dolphins doing tricks in the wild, which had everyone on the boat interested. They were jumping out of the water and doing back flips and stuff. Definately one of the highlights of Fraser Island.

Anyway, we got back to the caravan park and checked out the following morning. It was gonna be a long drive to Brisbane, so we left early and got back on Bruce.....more driving ensues.

The Whitsundays and Airlie Beach

A few hundred miles south of Cairns is a nice little seaside resort of Airlie Beach. Its basically one street with a load of shops, travel agents, and a few pubs/clubs.

The main purpose of this place, from a backpackers point of view is The Whitsundays. These are a group of islands that are supposed to have one of the nicest views on the east coast....so says their local tourist bureau!!

Our first job here was to scope out the trips and deals the local offices were offering. We looked up and down and eventually found one we wanted. There was an option for an overnight or 2/3 day trip, but on the advice of a friend who had done that before, we opted for the same day round trip.

We went out early in the morning and had the option for some scuba diving/snorkelling with the barrier reef fishes. We then drove around to another island and went up a trail. This trail led to a viewing spot of the whole of Whitehaven Beach (the main beach on the main island, ie the main tourist attraction). This was the view we were told about. I was actually impressed. The view was really nice. I'm not really into this sort of stuff, but honestly it was actually a really nice view, and well worth the trek through the island. We got our photos taken by the guide, and took a few of our own, and headed back down the trail. We got back on the boat and headed around the island and on to Whitehaven Beach.

Apparently the sand on this beach is made from 99.8% silica from a crack in the water or something. The guide was telling us about tectonic plates under the water that rub together and thats where the sand comes from. She also said you can exfoliate and clean your jewellery with the sand.....hmmm, ye, where's the bar??

We stayed on the beach for an hour or so and then headed back. We saw some turtles too, which was very cool. I'd never seen any before so it was an experience.

We stayed in Airlie Beach another day or 2 and then decided to leave. I actually liked it here. Definately one of my favourite places of the holiday so far. Hopefully I can return here again, maybe with Anne-Marie once we get settled with jobs and, more importantly, cash!!

So anyway, off we went, further south, joining up with our companion Bruce (the highway) down to our next stop, Hervey Bay. Home of Fraser Island!

Goodbye Cairns!!

So today we said goodbye to Cairns, our first port of call here in Australia.

We had plenty of fun, I met family I hadn't seen in a few years, and met more family who I hadn't seen in 15/20 years!!!

We seen the pubs, clubs, restaurants, beaches, backpacker spots, did a skydive, got some photos, memories and pretty much did everything we could. We even secured our beds for the next 2 months in the form of our Wicked camper vans! What more could ya want? Maybe Alf from Home and Away being your personal tour guide......we can all dream!! haha


So off south we went in our camper vans. Next stop along the Bruce Highway: Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays...