Rio de Janeiro Day 7
6 Mac 2025, Brazil ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We got up, had breakfast, and made a quick getaway to go to the beach before the sun was too hot and it got busy. We ubered to Copacabana Beach around 9. The beach wasn't busy, and it was a good temperature, hot but still manageable. We set up our towel, got the sunscreen on, and relaxed. Allan had some difficulty just being relaxed on the sandy beach, but did go in the water. I stuck my legs in, but the ocean was far too cold to go swimming like he did. I also took advantage of Allan playing in the water to read my book on the beach. It was peaceful and a perfect way to start the last 12 hours in Brazil.
Around 10:30 the beach started to fill up, and the sun was starting to get more intense. We were also aware that we needed to check out by noon. We got an Uber back to the hotel, had time for showers and to finish packing. We were out of the room by 12:00, and then chilled out at the hotel for a few hours. Allan took a walk to Maracanã Stadium, and then we got our Uber to the airport.
Once at the airport, we saw the check in desk was open early, bonus! When we got to the desk, a very helpful man told us our plane was most likely grounded for technical reasons, and booked us on new flights to Miami and Charleston to Panama City. It took a while to get things rebooked, and then he waited a while. Then had to undo all the changes because the flight to Miami was getting grounded so we were getting their plane! We got back on our original flight, and an added bonus of a new flight from Dallas to Panama City with a shorter layover.
We then made our way to the airport lounge before the flight. We had some decent food and drinks, and then it was time to board! We were on our way back 🇺🇸Baca lagi
Rio de Janeiro to Newton
6–7 Mac 2025, Brazil ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
After some drama with our flights, and an explosion with Space-X, we were on our way from Rio to Dallas and then onwards to Panama City to Newton. Our flight was quiet and American Airlines had so many movie options! It was so hard to choose something to watch and I was bummed I wanted to try and sleep so I couldn't watch all of the movies.
The flight to Dallas was long, but uneventful. When we touched down in Dallas, it was very early and we were closer to the front of the plane so we got off fairly quickly and didn't have a long wait at passport control. We got our bags and rechecked them.
Once we were back through security, we made our way to the lounge in Dallas. We had a small breakfast and a couple of morning cocktails to start off our second travel day. Our flight to Panama City was a little delayed, but we still arrived in Panama City well before our original flight would have got us there.
Mom was waiting with snacks and water which was perfect! She's the best ❤️Baca lagi
Newton, AL R&R
8–23 Mac 2025, Amerika Syarikat ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We spent about two weeks at mom and dad's catching up on admin, travel plans, and some much needed sleep and chill time. We did make the trip up to Louisville to get Freya, and again to drop her back off. Freya got a bath and a brush. She enjoyed the warmer weather and chance for a walk in the sunshine as well as playing in the hot tub. Soon after we brought Freya back, I baked a brownie cake for Allan and we celebrated his birthday with cake. It was very rich, but delicious.
Our second weekend there, Sarah, Joe, Elly, and Teddy came down to do some gardening. It was nice to see all of them and spend some time. It's been especially nice to interact with Teddy as a baby since I missed out on all those moments with Elly.
We enjoyed our time with mom and dad too and tried to help out around the house where we could. They always take good care of us, so we try to do little things. I was a little bit obsessed with keeping the pool clean. For some reason the crane flies are out in swarms and constantly drown in the pool in large numbers which just looks horrible. We also did some cooking and I did some baking. I miss cooking and having access to good food!
We caught up on some Netflix: Squid Game, Nobody Wants This, and Sweet Magnolias. There's still so many things to watch, but we might just have to leave them at this point. It was nice to watch things again. Allan also finally watched The Sandlot and understood where 90% of my quotes come from. Truly one of the best movies ever!
The next Hunger Games prequel came out on March 18. I managed to get the book and read it before we left for Australia. It was a good book and I liked seeing how all the different characters from all of the books tied into this one. I finished it on the way to the airport so it was pretty close!
The next time we will be here, our travels will be over, and we will have been to all 7 continents. Where will we go from here?!Baca lagi
Louisville, KY
21 Mac 2025, Amerika Syarikat ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C
We decided on our way back to return Freya to Nick that we would do some sightseeing in and around Louisville. Our day started with a chilly walk to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. We didn't check the weather and didn't bring a jacket (it was below freezing 🥶).
When we got to the museum, it was just in time for our tour of the factory. We took a couple of quick pictures of the outside with the world's largest bat and then went inside to join our tour. The tour was led by an older woman. She shared some tidbits about the bats and the process, but the tour information was predominantly imparted via a pre-recorded video voiceover.
We learned about the three different woods used to make bats, birch, maple, and ash, and how a player will choose a wood for the attributes the wood gives a bat. For example, ash is lightweight, but chips, whereas maple and birch are stronger and heavier, but break in splinters easier if hit in the wrong place. The factory tour walked us through the machines that make the bats in 30 seconds via a programming plate, which is good because the average professional player will order 120 bats each season! There are a lot of different ways to customize the bats and apparently where the logo is placed on the bat isn't random. The type of wood determines where a ball should be hit. The logo is placed in a certain way to ensure the player using the bat hits the ball in the best place. Often, the logo needs to face up when a player uses the bat. I'm certainly going to try and keep an eye out for this when I watch a game now!
After our factory tour, we collected our mini bats as our tour token and then had a walk through the museum. There was so much to see and I was in baseball heaven. I can only imagine what it would be like to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We saw lots of statistics about batting averages and home runs. It was pretty special to see bats used to break records like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. One of the last sections we walked through you had the opportunity to hold a bat from a player. They had current players' bats, but also historic ones. I couldn't resist and held the bat that was once held and played with by Babe Ruth. There were so many good ones to choose from though.
We couldn't linger in the museum or visit the bat room though because we had to get back on the road and head towards Jim Beam. We got there just before our tour was due to begin. We went around the distillery learning how Jim Beam makes their bourbon.
Our guide took us around the distillery showing us the different steps to making bourbon. Having been to Makers Mark, a lot of the initial steps and process were the same. During the tour we sampled some of the bourbon. It was nice, but it didn't hold a candle to Makers Mark. We wandered around the shop to let some of the liquor process before getting back in the car.
Once our time at Jim Beam was done, we finished the drive back down to Alabama. We hit some traffic, but it wasn't too bad and we got back before bedtime which was a bonus, even with our stops.Baca lagi
Newton, AL to Sydney, Australia
23–25 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Our travel day started with a drive to Fort Moore for a quick visit with Sarah, Joe, Elly, and Teddy. We spent about an hour there soaking up baby cuddles, getting some lunch, and listening to Elly's three color challenge.
After the stop, we continued the hour and a half to Atlanta. When we got parked and went in, we couldn't find American Airlines. Apparently, we needed to be in the domestic terminal and not international because our first stop was LAX. We had a bit of an annoying wait on the terminal shuttle bus, and a strangely long 15 minute drive to the domestic terminal. We raced through, dad's long legs getting him to the counter first, and got the bags checked. Luckily there was no line and no issues. We said our goodbyes and went through security.
Before we boarded our flight, we managed to get a couple drinks at Starbucks, and didn't have a very long wait. The flight to LAX was about four and a half hours. We had twin babies behind us which made for a loud flight, and one of them behind Allan kept kicking his seat, not ideal. I was also sat next to a rather large, man spreading guy. Good thing neither me or Allan are very big and I could scoot towards him.
Once we landed in LAX, we were disappointed to discover there were no airport lounges. No free food or drink in sight, we got a little something from KFC to share before we went to the gate to wait. Our layover was about four hours. Allan has a little massage in a massage chair and I did some reading.
Our flight from LAX to Sydney was fairly empty. The business class and premium economy were full, but the main cabin was pretty bare so we all spread out, many people having whole rows to themselves! Shortly after we were airborne, we had some dinner before we tried to get some sleep. Allan and I didn't have anyone in the middle of us, so I snuggled into the window and Allan lay across the seats. We managed to get some sleep, albeit broken.
In the morning about an hour and a half before we were due to arrive we got some breakfast. It was actually pretty decent as far as a plane breakfast goes with some fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, and a breakfast bar. After breakfast the pilot informed us that the airport was busy, so we hovered around for a bit before we could finally touch down in Sydney.
We got our bags, and I nervously went to declare my granola bars. I'd never had to declare anything in customs before! It was all fine though and the nice man checked our bags in the scanner, asked some questions, and let us carry on. We got our Opal travel cards, got the shuttle to domestic, and then we were on our way to Marg's sister's house to collect some keys.
It was a long couple days of travel, but could have been much worse!Baca lagi
Sydney Day 1
25 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
We left the airport and headed to Rosemary's house. Rosemary is the sister of Marg, who we met on our Galapagos cruise in September. Marg is kindly allowing us to stay in her apartment while we are in Sydney. We picked up the keys from Rosemary and met her husband Brad. We stayed and chatted for about an hour before Rosemary drove us down the road from Maroubra to Little Bay.
When we got to the apartment, we settled in and had showers. We also had a cup of coffee and planned the next few days in Sydney. Today we decided to take a coastal walk up towards Bondi Beach. We got a quick lunch wrap in the grocery store across the street and we were on our way!
Marg mentioned that we could start the coastal walk at Little Bay Beach, but we couldn't see a path that didn't go through the golf course, which wasn't allowed, so instead went inland around the golf course and the local prison. Once we got to Malabar Beach, we entered Malabar National Park. We walked along the coast over sandstone and vegetation on a metal grate to not disturb the environment. It was a peaceful walk and we encountered some people running through the park, but not many other tourists.
When we exited the national park, we were at Maroubra Beach. It wasn't very busy. We walked along the promenade watching surfers catch the occasional wave. We kept going admiring all of the beautiful, and huge, houses along the coast. We were only about halfway to Bondi at this point despite walking for almost two hours, and we realized that Marg's three hours estimate to get to Bondi via the coast was a gross underestimate. We were about 20 minutes from Coogee Beach at this point, so we decided to at least get to that spot before reevaluating our plans.
Once at Coogee, it was a further 6km on top of the nearly 13 we had done already. The travel and jet lag were definitely starting to get to me, so we stopped at Coogee Beach and went in some of the saltwater pools near the cliffs instead. When I first dipped my feet in, it felt cold (not as cold as Rio, but still cold). When the waves got higher, I got a shock from the chilliness, but over time my legs didn't feel the chill as much. We sat and enjoyed the water for a bit, but it started to get busy so our pocket of peace was broken.
We walked back along the beach to another pool, but the sun was going down and that made it feel colder. Allan went in, and I stood at the side with my feet in the water. He didn't last very long before he got out. We changed out of our swimsuits and got a cheap McDonald's for dinner. Can't beat £1 hamburgers and £0.50 ice cream.
We got the bus back to Little Bay. The bus system seems pretty good here, and not too expensive with the Opal card. Back at the apartment, we had showers and a cup of tea before heading to bed. With the time change and the jet lag, my body has no idea what's going on, but it was tired.Baca lagi
Sydney Day 2
26 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
After breakfast we got a couple buses from Little Bay into the City Center. Our first stop was St. Andrew's Cathedral. We almost walked past the small cathedral because it was hidden behind some tall trees. The doors were locked when we got there, but an information poster listed dates for free lunchtime concerts on Wednesdays, which was today! The concert was in about 45 minutes, so maybe they were getting some things ready. We decided to visit some nearby sites and come back for the concert.
Next door to the cathedral is Sydney Town Hall. It was a pretty cool building , especially from the side when you could see all the different towers and sections. There were also some interesting red artificial flowers decorating part of the exterior. It was sadly closed for visits, so we walked across the street to the Queen Victoria Building which is a shopping center. The building looked like a standard shop or government building from the outside, similar to town hall, but it extended pretty far back for about a whole block. Looking at it from the side helped appreciate the size. We walked into the building and up to the top floor. Each floor has different mosaic tile designs. There was also a red and green glass dome in the center of the building. Hanging from the ceiling were two large clocks. Each has different moving designs. The first one we saw was more playful with little doll-like characters revolving and moving to change the scene. The second has different scenes that relates to the history of Australia, like James Cook's landing. It also has the days of the week on it.
After we walked through the Queen Victoria Building, we went across the street again and had a peak at the State Theatre, the most beautiful theater in Australia. Guided tours are available on Thursdays, so we had a small look around the room that was open to the public, and took a picture of the outside. The outside of the theater didn't reflect the opulence inside. Now used for live performances, it used to be a place to go and watch movies. The tiled floor and gold ceiling were a fraction of the fancy decor that we peaked through heavy iron doors to see in the next room with marble landings and flooring. It would have been a cool building to look around.
Once we finished at the State Theatre, we took the short walk back to St. Andrew's Cathedral for the performance. The Australian Police Band performed. The first group was a brass quintet that did a medley of things. Then a woodwind group performed Rhapsody in Blue. Finally there was a small jazz group of three people. We left as the jazz group was starting to make sure we had enough time to see all the things we wanted to. It was a nice venue and lovely music.
We got some lunch and then made our way to Pitt Street Mall. The pedestrianized area was lined with fancy stores and nice cafes. Branching off of the street was The Strand Arcade. This glass roofed building reminded me of the Queen Victoria Building. It also has tiled mosaics on the floors with colored glass ceiling. This building was also full of very nice stores and cafes. It was a beautiful building.
Our city center walk then brought us towards Hyde Park. We stopped in at St. James Church. We walked right past it at first not realizing it was a church. It looks more like a government building. We later learned that the Anglican church was originally meant to be a courthouse until the governor was overruled and the convict architect added a steeple to turn it into a church.
Across the street from St. James is the Hyde Park Barracks. We spent a couple of hours here on a really interesting self guided tour with a free audio guide. Entry was also free and well worth the time. The audio guide tour walked us through the history of convicts in Australia and some of the crimes that brought convicts to Australia and who lived in Hyde Park Barracks. After the history lesson, we went across the courtyard to the barracks building to learn more about the day to day life of convicts and what happened in the building after it wasn't used for convicts post 1848.
The audio guide was a combination of narration and storytelling from former convicts. We saw a bunch of old clothing, buttons, tools, and even old gambling tokens. We also learned about the impact that the British had on pushing our the aboriginal peoples and some of the wars and conflicts that took place. The top two floors were about the history and lives of the convicts who occupied the building when it was built. The bottom floor focused on the asylum seekers and female immigrants who came to Australia after the Irish Potato Famine. Majority of the narration on the bottom floor was from first hand accounts which was a nice touch. There were so many different artifacts that were discovered under the floor boards and in the walls. Many were lost through cracks in the floor or dragged under by rats, which were apparently a big problem. So many personal tokens, puzzle pieces, pieces of clothing, the list is long. It's one of the largest collections of it's type. There was also hundreds of porcelain tubes from old tobacco pipes. Apparently convicts and women alike enjoyed their smoke!
After our visit to the barracks, we walked through Hyde Park over to St. Mary's Cathedral. This was a huge building, unlike St. Andrew's. It wasn't highly decorated inside, but has some lovely paintings of the stations of the cross as well as some nice stained glass windows of some of the saints. The naves were very wide and spacious and the vaulted ceilings were very high. We didn't stay long so we could get the Manly Fast Ferry and see the opera house.
We walked for about 15 minutes to the wharf and caught the Manly Fast Ferry. It was about 20 minutes across the water to Manly, but gave us the best views of the Sydney Opera House from the water without paying for an expensive boat cruise to see it. It was pretty cool to see the opera house and bridge together from the water and then the skyline of the city as we got further away.
Once we disembarked in Manly, we had a short walk around the cove, keeping an eye out for the little penguins. Sadly we didn't see any, but it was still a nice walk around the beach. Given more time it would've been a nice place to relax and have a drink. We didn't linger in Manly, and got back on the ferry to head to Maroubra.
After the ferry and a bus, we got to Rosemary's house. She and Brad kindly cooked dinner for us. We enjoyed Thai green curry and nice conversation for a few hours. Brad even gave me a small flight of some of his favorite gins! Around 9:45 we said our goodbyes and got a bus to the airport to pick up a car. Tomorrow we plan to do a little day trip to the Blue Mountains which will be a lot easier with a car. Once we had our fancy electric mystery car sorted, we drove back to the apartment, had quick showers, and went to bed before our early-ish start tomorrow.Baca lagi
Sydney Day 3
27 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Today we took a day trip to the Blue Mountains. It was about an hour and 45 minutes to get there, but in the nice car, it was a pretty smooth ride (as a passenger anyway). When we arrived at the Blue Mountains, we were met with some heavy fog and a bit more of a chill in the air. We were getting flashbacks to the foggy day in Cambará do Sul.
Our first stop was the lookout at Echo Point. When we walked up to the edge of the railing, we saw absolutely none of the eucalyptus forest below or the Three Sisters rock formation. However, we'd already paid for parking for an hour, so we went for a small walk down to the Three Sisters and Honeymoon Bridge. It was a nice walk through the forest, and when we got down to the Three Sisters rock formation, I could see the rock from up close! Honeymoon Bridge was closed, but we could see it and it wasn't very big anyway. We kept walking a little further down the Giant's Staircase until I gave up on all the steps knowing we had to go back up in time for the parking. Allan went a tiny bit further, but not much once he realized there was no lookout until the bottom.
Once back at the parking lot after hiking back up the steep stairs, we drove over to Wentworth Falls. We originally planned on going there after Scenic World, but we wanted to give the clouds time to lift. It was about 10-15 minutes drive to Wentworth Falls.
We got parked and began our walk. The loop we did had a few different lookouts and smaller circuits that diverted off the main loop. It was still a pretty easy hike. The good news was, it has cleared up a little so we could see more of the waterfalls that were closer to us. At the Queen's Cascade, there were stepping stones and a small pool with the waterfall. After Rocket Point, Allan decided to head down the cliff to see the waterfall from the valley floor and I continued on the loop to the Undercliff Walk.
I really enjoyed the walk under the overhang of the cliff above. It wasn't busy either so I had the whole path to myself. At points I stopped and just listened to the water dripping off the edge of the cliff onto the forest. I then continued back up the hill to get out of the forest and back to the parking lot. Just before the exit, I stopped at Prince's Rock and had a great panorama of Wentworth Falls, the cliffs, and the forest.
Once Allan and I met back up at the parking lot, we drove past Echo Point on our way to Scenic World. We had some quick lunch, and then entered the park. Our first stop was the world's steepest railway. We waited a few rounds of up and down so that we could get the front carriage. It was pretty steep, but it didn't go very fast. I wonder how they control the speed so well when it's so steep. The ride was only about a minute and a half, and given more time to visit Scenic World, I would've loved to do it again (your ticket gives you unlimited rides on everything).
After we disembarked, we quickly walked through the forest to the Skyrail. We made the same steep journey back up, but it didn't feel steep because it was a cable car that leveled out. The clouds had fully cleared at this point and we had some beautiful views over the forest. The Three Sisters was also visible in the distance. It was great that we finally saw that rock formation.
It was a bit tight for time, so we raced up from the exit over to the Skyway and waited in a pretty long line. Thankfully, the cable car fit quite a few people so large groups got on each time. We rode the cable car across the gorge and saw a waterfall on one side and the Three Sisters and Solitary Mountain on the other. So glad the weather continued to cooperate for this last ride! Not long after we got there and across, as well as a few pictures, the clouds started to roll back in. By the time we got to Echo Point, the view of Three Sisters was once again completely shrouded by clouds.
We lingered for a little while, but it was clear the clouds weren't going to lift. We drove back to the airport, said goodbye to our fancy car, and got the two buses back to Little Bay.Baca lagi
Sydney Day 4
28 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
We had another sightseeing day in the city center after our day in the Blue Mountains yesterday. The Lonely Planet book for Australia has a lot of small walking tours so we decided to do one of those again.
We got the bus to the Customs House which also serves as a library and visitors center. The floor inside has a 3D model of Sydney underneath glass floor panels. It was pretty cool to see, especially from the balcony of the library floors above. They also have a cafe on the top floor of the Customs House with a good view of Harbor Bridge.
Our walk continued past the Museum of Contemporary Art, which we didn't visit so we could see more of the city, and then past Cadmans Cottage. This is one of the oldest buildings in Sydney and was the home of the government coxswain. It was right on the harbor, which made perfect sense for someone in charge of boats and sailors. It didn't sound like a very fun job though. The building was designed by Francis Greenway, the same convict architect who designed St. James Church and Hyde Park Barracks.
We walked through The Rocks seeing different buildings and alleys. The area is called 'The Rocks' because of where it is placed near the rocky harbor. George Street was full of old pubs and hotels. If you kept walking down the street, it turned into the nicer area we were in the other day with brand shops and nice restaurants and cafes. Off of George Street is Suez Canal, so naked because it sounds similar to sewer. It's an alleyway that's very narrow at one end, and gradually gets bigger. Apparently a gang called The Rocks Push used to operate in the area and you didn't want to be caught down one of these alleys. They had a specific style of dress and they heavily influenced public perception of the area (that it was to be avoided). The Rocks consisted mainly of working class people, and the violent gangs didn't help its image.
We kept going through The Rocks and walked through Greenway Lane, so named after the convict architect who lived in a house here for a bit in order to make better improvements to buildings for the governor. The cobbled lane was discovered under asphalt and restored. You could see the lines from old carriage wheels. Down from the lane, we stopped in at The Rocks Discovery Museum which takes your through the history of The Rocks, Sydney, and Australia as a whole. It also covers a brief history of colonization around the world.
We started heading out of The Rocks and passed under the Argyle Cut. It's a huge underpass that was dug out with shovels, and eventually some dynamite, by convicts. Shortly after passing under it, we walked past the small Garrison Church and Argyle Place which is lined with some nice houses. We crossed the street up to Observatory Hill which is where you can find the Sydney Observatory which does evening tours. We also had a great view over the harbor from here.
With our walking tour finished, we decided to walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was a nice day for a walk, but a bit windy. Luckily the rain we saw in the distance held off! We walked across the bridge and took some pictures from the other side. We then got the ferry back which passed underneath the bridge. Back on the other side of the harbor, we visited Fortune of War- Sydney's Oldest Pub. It was unfortunately undergoing renovations inside, but we had a beer outside it in their garden area instead.
After our quick pints, we rushed for the bus to get back to Little Bay to shower and change before heading back to the city center for our performance at the Sydney Opera House. We saw Daniil Trifonov perform a piece by Rachimanov alongside the Sydney orchestra. It was a lovely performance and he is a very animated pianist. After the intermission, Daniil was finished performing, which I didn't expect, and the orchestra played a five part piece.
After the performance we rushed over to The Spice Room for a curry dinner. It was a bit of a mess because our booking was for 2 hours from 9:15, but when we arrived they told us the restaurant closed at 10:00 and they were doing last orders! I was a bit annoyed, but luckily we kind of knew what we wanted. The food was nice which sort of made the trouble worth it.
It was raining when we left the restaurant, but we wanted some pictures of the opera house at night. We did get some nice pictures, and decided to walk around the building as well. It was a nice temperature, but the rain did start to pick up which was unfortunate. We kept walking back towards The Rocks to go for a drink. We assumed Friday night it would be pretty lively with all of the pubs there, but when we got there, we were disappointed to see most things had closed or were closing within the hour. A bit defeated, we walked back to the bus stop and got the bus back to Little Bay. In hindsight, it was probably for the best, because on the bus a wave of exhaustion hit us and we started feeling tired.
Back in Little Bay, we sorted out some laundry we'd started and I did a bit of organizing before we get ready to head to Cairns in the morning.Baca lagi
Sydney to Cairns Day 1
29 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
We didn't worry too much about setting an early alarm today after being out a bit late last night. We didn't plan on trying to fit anything in before we needed to go to the airport. Good thing we didn't plan anything because the weather was absolutely awful! Torrential rain, gray skies, and even some thunder when we were getting ready to leave.
We cleaned up the apartment before making our way to get the two buses we needed to get to the airport. Once at the airport, the chaos began when we went to the JetStar counter. People and suitcases were everywhere and not in an orderly manner. We waited a while to drop our bags, so I'm glad we gave ourselves two hours before the flight.
After the bags were finally dropped, we went through security, where my purse was emptied and put back through (no explanation as to why, they just emptied it and put all the individual items back through outside of the bag). Annoyed at all the delays standing between me and food, I packed my purse back up and we went to see what the one lounge was like. It was pretty crap, in a word, but it has some free sandwiches and bottles of juice so we grabbed a sandwich and juice and left for better pickings.
We went to a restaurant and used Priority Pass to get some lunch and beers which we rushed for finish only to have our flight be delayed with no message stating the delay. We finally boarded and had a relatively smooth flight.
Once in Cairns, we got our bags out of a very fun baggage claim where the bags went in and out of sea creatures' mouth and then we got the fanciest Uber to our hotel. The guy was super nice and his car has fake plants everywhere, pillows, and green lights. Certainly not wheat I expected when I went into that car. We got dropped off, checked in and settled. Then it was a late evening quest to get some breakfast and lunch for tomorrow atBaca lagi
Cairns Day 2
30 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Today was a pretty fun day! We were up and out of the hotel by 7:30 and walking towards the central rail station in Cairns for our scenic ride to Kuranda.
After getting checked in, we sat on the long, red, cushioned benches while we waited to leave. The train cars were pretty plain on the outside except for the front car which was blue with some pictures painted on it as well as the Kuranda Scenic Railway logo. As we sat and read through our information fan (it was SO humid and hot), we learned that the train cars are from the early 1900s which accounts for the decor and all the wood. The interiors have been restored.
The Kuranda railway has a dark past with many of those that worked on it dying due to the dangerous conditions. It was also very hard work digging out tunnels with only shovels and picks and working on the edges of cliffs. There are 15 hand-made tunnels and 37 bridges built to climb from sea level to 328 metres up the Macalister Range. Three million cubic metres of earth had to be excavated during construction. The railway was finished in 1891 and was significant in both World Wars and was crucial to being supplies to and from the Kuranda region eventually becoming a passenger train.
There were some beautiful views of the mountains and valleys and at one point we could see all the way to the coast where the Great Barrier Reef sits. Some of the bends were pretty tight for a train to be taking which was interesting to watch as a passenger. One bridge also had a beautiful waterfall on one side. It was a nice train journey with some spectacular views.
One we arrived at Kuranda, we raced from the station through the village up to Koala Gardens. I had pre-booked entry, which we were late for, in anticipation of holding a koala 🐨. Once we got to the koala desk after entering the gardens, I realized I'd only booked patting instead of holding (only patting was available online apparently)! Luckily there were still some holding slots available at noon, but that meant we had an hour to wait. It was not an hour wasted! We visited the koalas that were sleeping on their trees and spent a good chunk of time in the wallaby area. The kangaroos and wallabys are out and about in their enclosure and you can feed and interact with them. It was great! After much effort and patience, a little kangaroo ate some food from my hand.
We said goodbye to the kangaroos and went back up to hold the koala. The koala I held was called Milky. She was soft, like a wool sweater, and much smaller and lighter than I expected. She clung right onto me, but the claws weren't sharp. She looked right at me at one point too, and I swear she smiled! The koala keeper said Milky thinks I smell good and that's why she was looking right at me like that.
We said goodbye to Milky and finished our walk around the Koala Gardens area visiting quokkas, nocturnal animals, and some reptiles. Allan had an interesting encounter with a snake. When he put his face near the glass, the snake climbed up the glass and then it fell back down to the bottom of its glass enclosure like a tree in slow motion. It was pretty cool!
After the Koala Gardens we had some lunch (ramen noodles are basically what we life off of these days) and took a slow walk through the village and all it's little shops. Back down at the bottom of the village, we got the Skyrail back towards Cairns.
The Skyrail is a long cable car with a couple of stops along the way. It was great to see the rainforest, one of the oldest in the world, from the sky. We scoured the trees for animals, but didn't see any. Our first stop was the Baron Gorge that we saw this morning from the other side of the forge while on the train. With all the rain they've been having in the area, the gorge was very powerful. The sun came out at one point and we got a rainbow over the area.
We got back on the cable car and went about 15 minutes to Red Peak. This stop has a boardwalk where you walk through a small section of the forest and see some of the trees and plants. We arrived just in time for the ranger talk at 3pm. He walked us along the boardwalk for about 20 minutes and talked to us about the forest. The Kuranda Forest has been around for over 200 million years and has been largely unaffected by changing climate, unlike other forests, so the animals haven't had to adapt. One of the trees in the forest grows until it's about 2-4 meters above the canopy, and then stops growing up and starts growing out and the trunk gets bigger and bigger. The tree is also coniferous, like a pine tree, but hasn't adapted to pine needles so the leaves are the texture of pine needles but the size of small leaves. We also saw basket ferns which grow on trees and can hold up to a metric ton of water if big enough. That's a lot of water! It was a pretty neat little talk, and was great to learn more about the forest we'd spent our day in.
We got back on the Skyrail for the last 10 minutes or so if travel above the forest. We kept an eye out for the plants that the ranger told us about. We saw the climbing palm that grows something similar to a vine out of its leaves with little barbs on it to stick to trees and climb to the top of the canopy all the while growing leaves off of the barbed vine thing. It made the trip back like an I Spy game.
Once back at the entrance for the Skyrail, we got a shuttle bus back to Cairns. We popped into the shop for some dinner before walking back to the hotel via the esplanade and boardwalk. The ride was out so we saw the mud flats and mangroves. There's not really a beach in Cairns, but eventually the mud flats did turn a bit sandy for people to walk in. Back at the hotel, we had showers and dinner before some trip admin and getting ready to visit the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow 😄!
It was a beautiful and wholesome day ❤️Baca lagi
Cairns Day 3
31 Mac 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Today was absolutely magical 🤩!
We were up and out even earlier than yesterday to get to the pier for our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. To say I was excited was an understatement!
We walked the boardwalk most of the way. The tide was in this morning, which was nice to see the difference from last night. It was also already so warm, so a day out on the water was sounding really good. The check in office was right at the end of the boardwalk and we got checked in quickly and easily, and got our safety numbers, before making our way down to the boat. It was much bigger than I expected with 3 levels. We entered the boat on the bottom deck (bottom for us, the boat went down at least one more level) and we were assigned seats. The assigned seats thing was a bit weird, but maybe they're just trying to keep things orderly.
Once everyone was onboard, we got a short safety briefing and some information about our day. We also went up a deck to get our snorkel and fins. It was then an hour or so before we got to the first reef, Saxon Reef. We waited for the big crowd to disperse before we went out to get in the water. For the first time the whole trip, the water was super warm! It made it so much nicer to swim around.
Immediately after sticking my face in the water, I saw so many colorful fish. There were big ones, small, and everything in between. The reef where we first jumped in had some colorful spots, but as we swam across to the other side of our area, it got super colorful. I particularly loved the blue staghorn coral and a small neon purple coral. The fish were also so colorful which makes sense to blend in with colorful coral, but I'd never considered that before. Obviously, not all fish and coral were bright, but the bright stuff was eye catching and unique.
They were also so many different shapes. Some corals were super pointy, others looked soft and squishy. Some had tiny little bits stuck to it that moved in open and close motions, others flowed with the water. While we were swimming at Saxon reef, all of a sudden a bunch of jellyfish started swimming through the area. We had stinger suits on to protect us, but it was still a little nerve wracking, but at the same time super cool to see them swimming. They looked see through and were shaped like an upside down bowl.
After snorkeling here for about an hour and a half, we got out to have some lunch. There was a small buffet with cold salads, bread, grilled fish, steak, and prawns. We filled up our plates and enjoyed the meal after our time in the water. While we finished the meal, everyone got back on the boat and we moved to a second location.
Our second location was Hastings Reef. Before we got our things on to snorkel, we got ready for our helicopter ride. We were one of the first groups for the ride which was great because we could then get straight into the water. We got a short boat over to the helipad, got life jackets on, and got in the helicopter for our 10 minutes in the sky.
The ride was pretty spectacular. From above, all the colors of the reef and varying depths of water created a collage of blues and greens. We also saw some sharks and turtles swimming around the reefs, which surprised me that they were so visible from up high! It was a smooth ride, and the weather was perfect to see everything. I can see why my dad loved flying! It's definitely an experience we'd like to do again.
Back on the helipad after our flight, we watched some big fish and saw some manta rays while we waited to head back to our bigger boat. As soon as we got back on the boat, we got our stinger suits on and jumped in for a snorkel. The reef was much shallower here and much more colorful than the first reef. I couldn't believe all the colors we saw here. And because it was so shallow, we were really close to the coral and could see it up close. I wish we had more time at this reef because the snorkeling here to see the corals was really special. It almost looked like a blue light was being shone underwater because of how neon some of the sections were.
Sadly, we didn't have as long to snorkel here as the other location, so after about 45 minutes we were called back in and on our way back to Cairns. We took our complimentary glass of wine and sat out on the sundeck to dry off a bit. The sun wasn't too strong (neither was the UV) and there was a nice breeze, so it was quite pleasant up there. Allan stayed up until we were docking back in Cairns, but I came back down after about half an hour.
Once back on solid ground, we walked to the grocery store for some dinner and headed back to the hotel. The biggest highlight for me was seeing all the colorful coral, and Allan really loved the helicopter ride (I did too, but it wasn't the top highlight, second place for me probably).
It has been an incredible two days in Cairns doing Australian things 🐨🦘🐟🐠🐡🪼🪸Baca lagi
Cairns to Sydney Road Trip Day 1
1 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Today began our camper van relocation from Cairns to Sydney. We have a week to drive it back down, making some stops along the way. Today is a pretty boring day, just driving to get as far as we possibly can before we are too tired. Rockhampton, 12 hours away, was the goal, but we only made it to Waverley Creek about 2 hours north of Rockhampton.
We picked up the camper from Cruisin Motorhomes, went back to the hotel to load up and check out, and then we were on our way! The drive wasn't too bad once we left Cairns. We stayed on the A1 highway the whole way occasionally going through small towns. The potholes on the road were absolutely awful, huge and deep and gave me a shock every time I couldn't avoid one. Hertz and all the tire drama has really stressed me out!
We stopped for an on the go lunch to cover as much ground as possible before it got too dark. We didn't make any other stops along the way, waving at Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays as we drove past. It got dark early, and quickly; the sun did not linger. A combination of bad windshield wipers, horrible potholes, and a huge van made it nerve-wracking to drive at night. We drove a few hours in the dark, but knew we wouldn't make it as far as we wanted.
We parked up at Waverley Creek, went to the bathroom, and then got ready for bed. Unfortunately getting ready for bed, meant chasing and killing cockroaches while we brushed our teeth and put pajamas on. Over the course of the next hour and a half, we killed many little cockroaches. It was deeply unpleasant and once we finally did turn out the lights and try to sleep, occasionally being so paranoid that they were crawling on the bed that we turned flashlights on to double check and then kill them on the walls. It was going to be a long night...Baca lagi
Cairns to Sydney Road Trip Day 2
2 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Today went a bit smoother than yesterday. We woke up around 7:30, probably because the temperature was rising again. It was a pretty sweaty night, but once we shut our eyes and tried to ignore the fact that our van was crawling with bugs, we did get some sleep. I woke up in the night more because I was sweating than anything else bothering me.
We left the Waverley Creek rest stop and got on the road around 8:30 after having some coffee and taking some time to organize ourselves. Thankfully, today's drive isn't as long as yesterday, even with the extra added on with cutting the drive short last night. We were on our way to Rainbow Beach, a jumping off point for K'gari, or Fraser Island.
We stayed on the A1 the majority of the drive today, coming off only about half an hour left in the drive to cut into Rainbow Beach. We had some spells of rain, and potholes were much easier to see in the daylight again. The roads here really are terrible for deep potholes! We also drove through a patch of fairly flooded road which was a little nerve wracking. We stopped after about 2 and a half hours in Rockhampton for some breakfast and much needed water before getting back on the road and that was our only stop besides a quick driver switch and the bathroom.
The last half hour or so to Rainbow Beach was a bit tricky. The weather took a turn, maybe because we were driving through a forest, but it was very foggy and rainy. By the time we got to Rainbow Beach and drove up to the sand blow, there was no point walking up for sunset; there was nothing to see nevermind the sun! It was a short drive back to the campsite we are staying at tonight. We parked up, plugged in, and tried turning everything on before we turned it all off and ran to the small grocery store across the street for some dinner (and getting soaked in a deluge of rain that started just as we left).
Once we were back, we navigated how to cook and operate in the small space of the campervan all the while reflecting on how horrible sleeping in a car would be with the rain and then being thankful for our dry, albeit cramped, space. We had dinner, did some admin, and packed our small bag for our trip to Fraser Island 🏝️.Baca lagi
Fraser Island Day 1 (Road Trip Day 3)
3 April 2025, Australia ⋅ 🌧 26 °C
A brief respite from driving 9+ hours a day, we were up with the sun to join a 3 day, 2 night tour to K'gari, or Fraser Island.
When we left the campervan site, it was a short drive basically down the street to the hostel where the tour leaves from. We parked the van, said goodbye to it for the next few days, and made our way inside after dropping our backpacks into a storage container while we are gone.
We had about 2 hours of admin, check in, and safety briefings before we finally made our way out to the cars. We left Rainbow Beach around 9:30 and headed to Inskip Point to get the barge across to the island. We unfortunately missed the first one, too full, so we waited on the beach for about half an hour and dolphin watched. Finally, the barge was back and we made it to the island!
We drove along the 75 mile beach for a few hours stopping for lunch at a spot unaffected by the ride. It was a nice drive on the beach with the waves on the right and sand dunes on the left. We also saw a few dingos along the way! They look pretty scrappy and their looks totally match the description of behavior (dangerous, don't give a fuck, etc).
We drove past Indian Head, a lookout point that is unfortunately closed, to the Champagne Pools. We walked off the beach to a boardwalk that led to the pools. They are the only safe saltwater swimming area on the island because riptides and sharks make swimming off the beach dangerous. The pools are named 'Champagne Pools' because of the way the waves wash over the rocks and foam into the pool made by the rock formation there. The pools are not sandy and have some sharp rocks around them. Some were flat and had algae which helped to walk to the pool, but we had to be careful on the edges where sharp rocks covered in oyster shells and barnacles can cut you. It was a nice temperature in the water, not as warm as the Great Barrier Reef, but still ok once you were in. There was also a lot of little algae bits floating around, which wasn't the best, but it was cool to see the water foam over and crash against the rocks.
After our hour and a bit at the pools, we got back in the car and drove down the beach to camp. We found a tent, got sleeping bags, and had quick showers after the salty, algae water from the Champagne Pools. After that, we chilled in the tent for a bit before heading to the picnic area for dinner. People were grilling bacon and burgers for dinner, so we jumped in to help. We had a beer and a nice conversation with a young Northern Irish girl called Kristen before brushing our teeth and heading to bed. Allan fell asleep pretty quick, but I got really into the last 200 pages or so of my book and read for the next two hours before finishing the book and trying to get some sleep myself.Baca lagi
Fraser Island Day 2 (Road Trip Day 4)
4 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
It was a damp night with buckets of rain pounding the tarp over our tent most of the night. Allan woke up pretty rested, me not so much. We had some cereal for breakfast and managed to chug a coffee before it was time to get in the cars and head out.
Our first stop today was the Maheno Shipwreck. The rusted carcass of a ship was hard to imagine as a once semi luxurious steamer. Our guide told us that it was a passenger ship for people traveling between Australia and New Zealand before it became a ship for medical purposes during WWI. It went back to being a passenger ship before the Chinese bought it for spare parts when the Maheno ran out of use. While the Chinese were towing it, an unseasonably late cyclone broke the tow rope and the Maheno washed up onshore of Fraser Island. After a couple of rescue attempts, the ship was left to rot on the shore. It was crazy to see a ship that deteriorated on the beach, and not underwater.
After the Maheno, we drove over to Eli Creek, the island's natural lazy river. We got our big floats and walked up the boardwalk from the beach with our dingo buddies to the top of the creek. With all the rain recently, the water level was high and the water was chilly, but fresh and clean. After the initial chilly butt, the trip down the lazy creek was quite relaxing despite having to paddle every now and again to avoid a tree or get away from the edge. Allan and I went down three times before going to play catch with a small ball on the beach to dry off a bit before getting back in the car. It was a lovely morning, even if it was a bit cold and drizzly.
We then continued on to Central Station. We stopped here for some lunch and had a look around the little general store. They even had WiFi! After lunch we went back towards our camp, Allan was captain of our car for this drive. We drove past our camp inland up towards a river. Unfortunately a couple of idiots took a turn too quick and tipped their car (they were both fine) and blocked the road. We went back to camp to wait about an hour for the accident to clear.
After the hour, the car was cleared from the 'road' and we could drive all the way up to Lake Allom. We drove through some pretty big puddles in the rainforest on the way up, and some of the trees were labelled with their names. The tree named 'Scribbly Gum' made me chuckle. Some of the trees in this forest were truly majestic.
After about 45 minutes of bumping along, we made it to the lake. Simon, the guide, told us that this was his favorite lake and only small groups can come here. The water was a ruddy brown color because of all the tea tree and eucalyptus oil. It was a bit chilly in the water, but not too bad and had random patches of warm which was weird but nice. The water also felt really dense when treading and swimming which was a weird feeling. Allan swam the width, but I stayed not far from the shore in case I got tired and to try and spot little turtles in the reeds.
With about 15 minutes before we had to leave, I got out of the lake and watched for turtles from the deck. After a little while, tiny little turtle heads started popping their heads up. As we waited and got quieter, more and more turtles swam towards us. They were so cute and there were so many of them! I could have stayed there much longer, but the sun was going down and we had to head back.
It was my turn to drive, and I was feeling a bit nervous after seeing the drive up with all of the deep puddles, but Allan reassured me that I'd be fine, so I gave it a go. It was bumpy, and a bit tricky at times in the softer sand, but I was fine and it was a fun drive. I'm glad that he encouraged me. It's also not everyday you get to drive on the largest sand island through a rainforest!
When we got back to camp, we had quick showers before heading to the picnic area. I was antsy, so even though I helped cook dinner last night, I helped again tonight (not that the two dudes grilling listened to me...which delayed food being ready...). We had steak and sausages with caramelized onions and a variety of salads. Allan and I ate, cleaned up most things (lazy group) and then sat down and had a beer while chatting and people watching. We were about to head to bed when Kristen invited us to have one of their drinks and sit with her and a couple others. We ended up staying and chatting with her, Jade (from Newcastle), and Carly (American girl). They were all lovely and we had a nice time. About an hour and a half later around 2230 we all decided to head to bed before our 6am on the road start in the morning.
Unfortunately, some of the 18 year olds decided they'd just stay up all night long blasting music and drinking...sleep was a bit difficult and the music didn't turn off until about 4am....it was a long night.Baca lagi
Fraser Island Day 3 (Road Trip Day 5)
5 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Today was our last day in Fraser Island. After a shit sleep, we still planned to make the most of our day. Around 6am we all left saying goodbye to our campsite.
This morning was a longer drive as we made our way back to the southern end of the island where we got the barge the first day. At Eurong we began driving inland towards Lake McKenzie. It was a bumpy inland drive, but not as much as yesterdays. Once we got to the lake, the sun had come out and was shining on the water. It was a light blue color and scientists believe that the oils from the trees, the same oils that made the water brown in the other lake, must react with something in the sand that creates the beautiful blue color.
We got our sunscreen on and headed into the water. It was nice and warm. The lake has no inlets or outlets, so it only fills up with rain water and heats up under the sun. It was so nice to swim around and enjoy the sun and the warm water after rain the last few days. The sand was also very soft and a soft tan color. The first half hour or so we had the whole lake to ourselves which was amazing, but soon it started to fill up with other tour groups and people coming over to enjoy their Saturday at the beach. We left just before 10 and it had filled up considerably.
We drove back to the 75 mile beach and kept heading towards the barge. We stopped at one of the resort areas for some quick lunch shortly after getting back on the beach. Our final wraps were accompanied with muffins and lamington cake, a yellow sponge with chocolate and coconut flakes on the outside. We filled up on lunch not knowing what our plan was for dinner and that we needed to get back on the road to make some progress to Sydney tonight.
After lunch it was a pretty straightforward drive back to the barge. It had just left when we arrived, so we had some time to chill on the beach before it came back. When the barge was back, we loaded up into the car and onto the barge. Once on the barge, we got out of the car and went to the top deck for some nice views of Fraser Island and Rainbow Beach.
The barge didn't take too long, and then it was time for the last little bit of drive back to the town. We got our bags from the storage area, repacked the car, and then walked down to Rainbow Beach. We hung out there for a while enjoying the warm sand and the nice warm water. We also got a nice picture of the rainbow steps that lead to the beach from town.
We said goodbye to the beach and drove up to Carlo Sand Blow. This is a large sand dune at the edge of town. You get some good views of rainbow beach as well as some of the forest and harbors on the opposite side from the beach. After a bit of debate, we decided to stay for sunset and we were rewarded with a pretty good one. The sky lit up with some amazing reds and oranges and the clouds began turning a nice pink. However, we couldn't stay and see all the color changes because we still needed quick showers and to get on the road and make driving progress.
We showered at the campsite we stayed at a few days ago. The code for the door hadn't changed so we were able to utilize the showers despite not staying there that night. Once we were showered, we got on the road. Our destination was just outside Brisbane.
The road was uneventful and mostly nicely paved highways. Some were a bit bumpy though which was weird. It felt like we were vibrating at times because of the quick, but slight bumpiness in the road. We drove through Brisbane, and I wished we had a bit of time to stop and see the city. It looks like a nice place and the bridge was lit up with pretty colors like purple, blue, and yellow.
After driving through the city center, we were about 15-20 minutes from Johnson's house. He's the Chinese guy we met in the Galapagos that Allan made friends with. He had been out fishing that day, so we ended up getting there before him and confusing his poor mother about the random white people at the door. It didn't take long for Johnson to get back, and soon he had ushered us inside for a watermelon snack and we had a bit of a catch-up before we all made our way to bed (we were feeling pretty tired by this point after the lack of sleep from the inconsiderate girls the night before).
Despite the cockroaches coming back out, we managed to get some sleep because we were just so tired. It was also cooler, so there weren't as many to kill before bed 🙃.Baca lagi
Cairns to Sydney Road Trip Day 6
6 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
This morning we got up and had breakfast with Johnson before getting back on the road. He really wanted to cook some fish for us, so Allan took one for the team. While Johnson cooked the fish, I had a quick shower which was nice. When I came out, Allan and Johnson were sharing the fish, rice, and some green beans. Allan said the fish was pretty good and cooked well too. Johnson just kept feeding him. I had a lot of watermelon. Once the bowl was empty, he cut some more! Eventually, he also had some things to do, so we all left together.
It was a long drive back to Sydney, and Byron Bay was on the way, so we stopped there around lunchtime. We drove through the bustling town crawling with tourists and locals alike and there were many surfers too. We continued to the edge of the town towards the lighthouse. Before we went for a walk up to the lighthouse and Australia mainland's most eastern point, we had coffee and some ice cream.
The lighthouse was stereotypical but had a little rectangular building connected at the front, and was up high on the cliff. We walked around the lighthouse and down the cliff to the most eastern point. While we were down there, a group of young people (2 white guys and an Asian couple) were all chatting. A guy from Lithuania took our picture for us, and got to chatting with Allan. We then started talking with the other guy in the group who was American on a bigger trip. He had a drone, so he shared his drone video of the lighthouse and cliffs with us. So we got a drone video which is pretty cool!
After we got the video, we realized the time and said our goodbyes. We quickly popped our heads into the lighthouse and saw the small museum of different artifacts before getting back in the car and heading down to Sydney. Once again, it was a pretty boring drive all highway back to Sydney. We parked up in Maroubra outside Rosemary and Brad's house. The cockroaches were back too in full force which was not great, but luckily it's our last night in this van.Baca lagi
Sydney to Canberra Day 1
7 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
This morning we woke up in front of Rosemary and Brad's house. We got our things tidied up before heading inside to meet Rosemary and Marg for a coffee. She also kindly gave us some cereal for breakfast. We updated them on our travels and they gave us some of their recommendations for Canberra. They also shared some of their Australia travel stories.
Unfortunately, we couldn't stay more than about an hour and a half because we needed to pickup the car from the airport to go to Canberra and drop off the camper. We went to Europcar, same one we used for the Blue Mountains, and I picked up a nice Ioniq 5. It was a nice car! We set off for South of Sydney to drop the camper off. Luckily Allan talked a lot and made friends with the guys, so we ended up not getting charged for the two chips that we put into the windshield. Seems like our cockroach problem was helpful in the end!
The downside to Allan making friends with the campervan people, was he chatted a bit too long, which made us leave Sydney later than planned to get to Canberra in time for our tour of Parliament at 3pm. When my subtle hints to leave didn't work, I had to say we would be late for our reservation. We drove slightly over the speed limit, but with the electric car we also had to drive efficiently in order to make it to Canberra on a single charge. Allan called Parliament to let them know we'd be a bit late which they said was ok. That made me feel better about slowing down to drive efficiently. We managed to get to parliament with about 25km left on our charge. It was close, but we made it!
We rushed into the building from the underground parking lot and checked in at the information desk explaining we had called earlier and were 15 minutes late for our tour. This was a different worker, and she said we were too late to join. I was not a happy chappy, and she said she could give us a quick run down on some of the information that the tour would give us. Before she launched into her session, Allan stopped her and asked the closing time. She told us Parliament closes at 5. So instead of staying at Parliament, we left and drove about 5 minutes over to the Australian War Memorial, Canberra's number 1 attraction.
I know what you're thinking, the war memorial is number 1? Really? Yes, really. The memorial is housed inside of a museum dedicated to the Australians that fought in WWI and WWII. It also has sections for wars fought during the Cold War era and modern day. With only about 25 minutes until they closed, we raced up to the main event, the Roll of Honor and Memorial Hall. A huge domed room has stained glass windows with different types of service members, such as nurses, soldiers, etc. in the center is the Tomb of the Unknown Australian, similar to that in Westminster Abbey. In the front do the Memorial Hall is a reflection pool and the everlasting flame. On two sides of the domed hall are all of the names of men and women who lost their lives fighting for Australia. Red poppies are placed in the crevices between bronze panels with striking effect. After visiting this area, we tried to see some of the galleries, but they were getting closed off due to the imminent closing time. A bit annoyed by that, I decided I'd come back tomorrow and have a proper look. It's just a shame that Allan didn't get to see it all.
After the war memorial, we hurried back over to Parliament before that closed in just under an hour. The entry foyer is composed of marble and the black sections of marble have fossils in them. One of the prawn fossils is called Steve apparently. We walked straight through the foyer to the Great Hall. The huge room has wooden panels and a shiny wooden floor. The back wall has a colorful mural. We left the Great Hall and ascended the white marble staircase on the left side of the foyer. There was a balcony around the edges of the Great Hall, so we had a quick peak at the bird's eye view before moving on and trying to find the Senate Chamber. Our time was limited and a security guard gave us a 5 minute warning as we made our way to the Senate. We quickly went in, for some pictures, and power walked across the building to the opposite side where the chamber for the House of Representatives is. They both looked pretty standard to me, but I'm sure we may have learned more on the tour we missed.
With both chambers visited, we squeezed in a visit to the Magna Carta on our way out. Unfortunately we missed the rooftop views, one because we couldn't find it, and two because it was most likely closed. But we managed to see most of the building...I think.
We left as they shut the door behind us. We needed to charge the car, and the Parliament parking lot has chargers. We got it all hooked up and took a small walk out front to get pictures of the building and also managed to see Old Parliament House and some foundation stones. We were disappointed when we got back to the car and saw it had barely charged. Allan went out and got some more pictures and I changed my clothes for dinner with Penny. She has messaged to say her parking lot has chargers, so we abandoned Parliament and drove to her apartment block, later than planned (I'm sure there's a theme here for this day...). We managed to find a charger, and downloaded the app at an agonizingly slow pace, only to click "charge" and discover the charger wasn't the right shape for the car. We drove to a new charger, downloaded that app and finally got it on charge. Poor Penny was catching us at the end of a long and busy day!
We walked along with Penny to a nice Aussie bistro place called Rebel Rebel. They do small plate sharing style so, with her recommendation we ordered a few things like the prawns, rib eye, stuffed zucchini flowers with chili and burrata, and cabbage with tahini and harissa. Everything was absolutely incredible and it was so nice to catch up with Penny. So much has happened for both of us, and it was also so lovely to see a friend after being away for so long. After dinner, we also decided on dessert, a mango ice cream sanga (sandwich) and rhubarb and lemon ice cream crumble. It was divine and a taste of home (Scotland).
We walked back with Penny to her apartment and we put a very necessary load of laundry on. We shifted that over to the dryer, said our goodbyes, and had to race over to the airport to pick up another relocation for Allan to use tomorrow to climb Mount Kosciuszko. Tomorrow I'll spend the day with Penny while he climbs. Then it was just the last drive of the day to our hotel just outside of Canberra. It was a truly hectic day, and I'm looking forward to some sightseeing tomorrow with a friend.Baca lagi
Canberra Day 2
8 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Today Allan and I went out separate ways for adventures of our own. While we was climbing Mount Kosciuszko, I went on a major sightseeing journey through Canberra.
My day started by meeting Penny at the National Capital Exhibition. This building has different exhibits detailing how Canberra became the capital of Australia. Similar to Brasilia, Canberra was a purpose built capital and there was a competition to design it. An American couple won the bid and so Canberra began. There was a lot of debate about where to put the capital and one of the exhibits showed pros and cons for different areas that put themselves forward as the new location. Things like weather, farm land, and population were some notable factors. I also liked the section of all the different proposed names.
After the National Capital Exhibition we headed over to the Australian War Memorial to revisit all the different galleries that I couldn't walk through yesterday. We were here for a few hours and didn't even read that much, more walked around taking it all in. There were so many dioramas, artifacts, stories, pictures, and so on. Something I never considered was Australia's role in the wars being so close to Asia and the Pacific. The galleries were organized by conflict with the two world wars being the biggest areas. The bottom floor had galleries with information about the Cold War and related conflicts such as the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Some of the areas in the galleries hit harder than others. For example, sections detailed POWs, but also cruelty of Japanese soldiers towards women. The impact of the wars when the survivors came home was also so heart wrenching. Men who came back had mental and physical injuries that many never recovered from. Some exhibits, after highlighting mental and physical struggles, such as limbless men or those with PTSD, showed what communities and the government tried to do to help like teaching the men to sew and embroider. Many were also given jobs that contributed to society and required them to work as a unit.
The Australian War Memorial is definitely worth the trip to Canberra if you ever visit Australia. It was so special to be able to visit.
It was lunchtime by the time Penny and I left the memorial. We drove over to a burger joint that Penny told me used to just be a small food truck near the university and has grown into a franchise with a few buildings around Canberra. I had a lamb burger and some onion rings which were both amazing. Then it was time to bid Penny farewell. I dropped her off at her apartment, picked up our laundry, and headed back into the center. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with Penny and have her also fill in some blanks for me about Canberra and Australia during our two tourists visits in the morning.
After I left Penny's, I headed back towards the National Capital Exhibition for the parking lot and to start a walk around some smaller sights nearby. The walk followed the lake along RG Menzies Walk. It was a beautiful day and perfect for a walk beside the water. I stopped at quite a few places along the way:
Captain Cook Memorial- a globe fountain commemorating Captain Cook's 'discovery' of Australia
Commonwealth Park- a nice park near the lake with ducks and a pond
Rond Terrace- orange gravel in front of a government building for military parade and formation practice and ceremony
Blundells Cottage- an old cottage in Canberra
Queen Elizabeth II Island- this has benches and trees as well as the National Carillon on it with a little bridge from RG Menzies Walk to the small island
National Carillon- the building with the bells in it on Queen Elizabeth II Island
Merchant Navy Memorial- a small memorial beside the path for the merchant navy
Kings Avenue Bridge- I walked across this simple bridge to the other side of the lake
National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden- the sculpture garden was lovely with a myriad of different sculptures and artists
International Flag Display- over a hundred international flags are on display and lit up at night, as per the UN
Australians of the Year Walk- at least one Australian a year is acknowledged for contributions to Australia and is given a plaque all of the waterfront on the walk
I walked back across a second nameless bridge back to the National Capital Exhibition to get the car. I headed to Mount Ainsley to meet Allan for sunset. I was there a bit before him, so I read some of the signs and started a new book I picked up at the war memorial about the only animal POW, a dog called Judy. I'm looking forward to learning about her.
Mount Ainsley gave good views over the city and the viewpoint is dedicated to Marion Griffin, the woman of the husband and wife pair that won the bid to design Canberra. She was the mastermind behind the whole thing, and an architecture student. Her husband spoke of her contributions and genius, but they put his name first to have a higher chance of winning. The sun was to the right of the viewpoint that overlooked the city and it was a bit blocked by trees, so it wasn't the best sunset spot, but it was a good spot to see the layout of the city, similarly to the TV Tower in Brasilia.
We drove back to our hotel and got some dinner before going up to our room to end a very busy day. Tomorrow we begin another journey onwards to Melbourne and Adelaide.Baca lagi
Canberra to Melbourne
9 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Today was a big driving day. We got up early, finished packing the last little things, had some breakfast and got on the road.
The first stop was the Canberra Airport to drop off the car that I'd picked up a couple days ago. It was. A quick drop off and we were on the road again to Melbourne. It was highway most of the way and pretty uneventful. I did some admin while Allan drove the 7 hours. We also talked to Hannah which broke up the journey.
Our first stop was the campervan company, Calypso, to pick up the camper. Public transport between here and the airport was almost two hours so we decided to get the camper and both drive to the airport so I could get Allan after dropping off his car. We got to the camper place and did the damage inspection, Allan then left to bring his car to the airport (an hour drive away) and I had a walk through of the car. This camper is much older than our other one, and is about 20 years old. This thing has seen better days...
I was nervous about driving without Allan in a new car, even more so when I discovered there was no way to hold up a phone to see Google maps and it's a manual transmission (and a very difficult one). My drive to the airport was hard; the stuff clutch, tricky gear stick and winding directions with tradfic really tested me. I was glad when I made it to him with no incidents.
We drove a bit away from the airport and stopped at a McDonald's for a while. We had coffee and some dinner here while charging the phones (0 way to charge in the car...for the next few days...). It was unfortunately dark by the time we left to get to our campsite in the forest. The drive took about an hour and a half and was mostly highway, a nice change after all the town driving and traffic on the way to the airport.
The campsite was off the main road nestled in the forest. It was quiet which was also nice. We made the bed and for our sleeping bags out. Thankfully, this van was staying bug free. Tomorrow we begin the Great Ocean Road!Baca lagi
Great Ocean Road Day 1
10 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Today we started the Great Ocean Road. As soon as we left our campsite and began driving towards the GOR, kangaroos came hopping across the road! We watched them as several hopped around through the forest. It was a great way to start the day.
We drove to Torquay to start the drive after a pit stop for some breakfast and gas. After that, our first planned stop was Split Point Lighthouse. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints a long the way before making it to the lighthouse. It's a skinny building with stark white paint and a bright red top. We walked down a nearby path to a couple of viewpoints of the cliffs and ocean with the lighthouse behind us. The views are already pretty stunning!
We left the lighthouse and continued on to the Memorial Arch. The arch has been rebuilt a few times, once for road widening and another after a fire. The arch commemorates all the veterans from WWI that needed jobs and a purpose, so they built the GOR, receiving a wage and a place to live while they did it.
We drove under the arch towards the village of Lorne. Once at Lorne, we diverted inland to Erskine Falls. We parked up and walked a short way through the forest to the waterfall. It was a bit underwhelming, mostly because there clearly hasn't been a lot of rain. We walked further down the steps to the bottom of the falls and it looked nicer from there. The slight trickle was complimented by all of the greenery and many small pools that the waterfall feeds into. There were a lot of big chunks of tree, so we think that the water can flow much more powerfully than we saw it today.
We went back the way we came and stopped at Teddy's Lookout on our way to Mount Defiance Lookout. Teddy's Lookout was pretty cool with a beautiful view of the water and cliffs below. The water is a crazy turquoise color today and there's not a cloud in the sky. This has been my favorite viewpoint so far. It was a short 10 minutes to Mount Defiance Lookout and a quick stop there to get a picture of the small mountain at the end of the row.
After Mount Defiance Lookout we continued to Kennett River to visit Kafe Koala and do the koala walk. We got a quick coffee and started to walk through the eucalyptus trees, and then decided to drive to make it a bit quicker. There were a bunch of eucalyptus trees as we drove up the dirt road, but no koalas and I was starting to lose hope. Then, just as I was about to say turn around, I spotted one! We drove past it, Allan let me out to walk back down for a bit to see if I could find some more. I walked back to the tree I saw the koala in while looking for others. I didn't see any more, but the tree I saw one koala in actually has two! It was great to be able to see some in nature, even if only a couple. We kept looking for them as we drove away, and didn't see any, but I was glad I saw the two.
Our next town was Apollo Bay. It was a small town, but had a lot of surf shops and restaurants (more than Lorne anyway). We stopped here for a beer and snack at Great Ocean Road Brewhouse. Allan had the light and refreshing Summer Ale and I had the Chardonnay DIPA. They were both lovely (and local). We enjoyed the break from driving before hopping back in the car to head to Cape Otway Lighthouse, the oldest in Australia and most southern.
Cape Otway Lighthouse was unfortunately closed when we got there. Unlike Split Point, this one had a gate that closed off the path. The last entry was 1630 and we arrived at 1642. It was really disappointing, but there was no time to linger in order to get to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. We got back in the car and raced through the Otway National Park (as much as one can in an old camper).
After getting stuck behind a couple of slow people, we managed to get to Twelve Apostles about 10 minutes before sunrise. We ran through the parking lot and up the 1km path to the lookout. We got there just in time to see the sun leaving out from behind the clouds on its way down to the horizon. The sky was beautiful with bright oranges and reds and as it descended beyond the horizon, the clouds lit up a lovely pink color. We stayed a little bit after sunrise to try and see if the sky would light up any more, and to try and spot Little Penguins that come out at dusk. The sky turned a grayish color, so we walked to the other viewpoint before heading back to the carpark.
After a stop for the bathroom before the car, it was dark, so our plan to do the Gibson Steps was out. The sky has also turned a deep red near the horizon, so we walked back to the lookout to see the sky. While we were there, down below, we could just make out a moving cluster of penguins. We managed to see them! It was pretty dark, and hard to make them out, but we still saw them!
It was now too dark to even see penguin clusters, so we really did leave the parking lot this time and went to Port Campbell for some groceries for breakfast. While we were there, we had dinner and decided to try and sleep here rather than drive to a free campsite 45 minutes away. Fingers crossed all goes well!Baca lagi
Great Ocean Road Day 2
11 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
We were up early before the sun. Luckily no unexpected knocking on the van to say move on from our sleeping spot. We packed up our things and went back towards the Twelve Apostles.
We got to the Twelve Apostles before sunrise, but it was pretty cloudy, so we didn't see the sun light up the rocks. At least we got a good sunset yesterday! We could see all the little penguins footprints from the penguins coming ashore last night, so they definitely exist! We walked back to the parking lot and drove a couple minutes to the Gibson Steps. Hugh Gibson carved the original steps out of the cliff face to better access the beach. We walked down the now concrete steps and headed along the beach. We walked to the end where Allan gallivanted over the rocks towards a cave while I looked for shells and took pictures of snails.
Then we walked back in the soft, orangey sand and up the steps.
We drove back the way we came towards Loch Ard Gorge. The gorge is named after a shipwreck that took place nearby in 1878. The ship traveled from England and carried predominantly cargo. It has 36 crew and 18 passengers as well as the cargo. They spotted the coast and had a party on May 31 to celebrate the last 3 months at sea coming to an end. Thick mist rolled in and by the time the crew realized it, they were headed for the rocks. Despite their best efforts they crashed. The only two survivors, Tom and Eva, washed up in the gorge and were rescued.
Unfortunately, erosion prevented us from going down the steps to the sand in the gorge, so we walked around it from as many different paths as we could. The water was crazy blue, even though it was a bit cloudy. We also walked over to two stone pillars in the water, aptly named Tom and Eva, as well as a long, skinny rock formation with lots of bumps called Razorback. It was a nice walk around the area and once we got back to the car, we headed back into Port Campbell for gas and coffee on our way to Timboon Railway Shed Distillery.
Timboon Railway Shed Distillery was about 25 minutes inland and is a single malt distillery in Australia. We both ordered the whisky flight which includes 5 samples of whisky. As we made our way through the whiskys, we picked our different smells and flavors. We both really liked the 4th one, Christie's Cut, as well as the 5th, the limited edition Distiller's Cut. The nice barman also brought us a free sample of the coffee cream and the salted caramel whisky liqueur. They were both dangerously delicious, so I ordered an espresso martini that included both of them. It was pretty tasty! We bought a bottle of the salted caramel and he waived one of our tastings, which was a nice bonus too. We really enjoyed our little diversion to Timboon!
We left Timboon and headed back to Port Campbell to get back on the GOR and head to London Bridge. At London Bridge, we realized we could see a bit of it from Loch Ard Gorge. This rock formation has a small carving from waves that looks like a rock bridge. At one point there was another chunk that connected to the mainland too, but that eroded and fell. London Bridge is falling down and all that 🎶. The waves were pretty big, and as we visited different viewpoints, it put the size of the waves into perspective. We also saw more penguin feet and the lookout points are much closer to the sand so it would be a lot easier to see them from here rather than Twelve Apostles. The water was also that crystal turquoise I've come to learn spans the coast here.
Two minutes down the road is The Grotto, former swamp land that slowly went through the clay into the limestone and then eroded the limestone to form the grotto area. It was very quiet when we got there and slowly got busier. It was a beautiful little place, and behind the grotto the sea was crashing into the rocks and sucking back out in a way that was mesmerizing. We walked back out and had some snacks in the car before continuing on.
Our next stops were the Bay of Martyrs and the Bay of Islands. These were very close together. The Bay of Martyrs was an open bay and we could go down and walk on the small beach that was there. We took some nice pictures and Allan got surprised by a big wave while trying to clean his flip flops and got a bit wet 🙈. It got its name from the tragic killing of indigenous people who were pushed from the cliffs by European settlers. The Bay of Islands has lots of rock pillars that look like small islands in the bay. There were a couple viewpoints at the Bay of Islands and it was much busier than the Bay of Martyrs. Both were very beautiful and I liked the really jaggy rocks at the Bay of Islands.
We left the bays and passed through Nullawarre, the last town of the GOR. Then it was time to head a bit more inland and on to Adelaide. Luckily there are still some nice things to see along this last part of the drive! We drove over a crater lake at Tower Hill. Soon after reaching the visitor's center, I was jumping out to see two koalas sitting in a tree right where we had parked. There were also two emus wandering the parking lot! They came pretty close to us (and Allan sought refuge in the car at one point when they got a bit too close). We walked a couple paths and saw at least 4 more koalas while we walked around. It was so exciting and they were so cute! The Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve is well known for its koalas, emus, and kangaroos. We didn't see any kangaroos, but I can vouch for the other two!
We left Tower Hill, sadly saying goodbye to the koalas, and carried on towards Port Fairy. It's a little village with a river. We made a stop at Battery Hill (it should be called "Battery Smallish Mound") to try and see sunset, but it was so tiny we saw nothing. We walked around to Battery Point to try and get a view, but still nothing. We drove towards the beach to see the sky lighting up, but there weren't any clouds so the sky didn't do much. We left Port Fairy en route to Mount Gambier.
We got to Mount Gambier just after 8. It was dark, and we'd had an early start, so we decided to get some food and find a rest stop for the night. We got a cheap pizza at Domino's and tried to charge our phones a bit. It's been tough trying to keep them charged with no way of charging them in the old ass camper! We decided to find a quiet corner of a parking lot to sleep, much like yesterday, to save ourselves the extra drive outside of Mount Gambier. Hopefully it goes as well as it did yesterday!Baca lagi
Great Ocean Road Day 3
12 April 2025, Australia ⋅ 🌙 16 °C
This morning we woke up half an hour later than planned. We had to move from our original sleeping spot after a car drove through some wooden bollards, started shouting at a random person sleeping in the park, and then drove into a tree tearing the door off their car. They then held the door on while they sped away. Shortly afterwards, another car went into that same grassy area with the now missing bollard and then made a loop around the block, entered the parking lot where we were clearly looking for the car from earlier. It was off-putting to put it mildly. We ended up at a rest area 15 km outside of the town.
We drove 15 minutes back into town and stopped at Umpherston Sinkhole on the edge of town. A man called James Umpherston bought the property and turned the limestone sinkhole into a beautiful garden. His Victorian house was at the back of the land behind the sinkhole before it was demolished in 1964. Now just a beautiful garden with benches and walkways, it used to have a pond and small island in the middle with a little boat! James really went all out on developing the tourism factor for this sinkhole. Today it doesn't have a pond, but it is a beautiful place with flowers and vines as well as lots of beehives in the limestone and it has a tiny pond (more puddle size) with a fountain.
After the sinkhole, we went over to Mount Gambier and the Blue Lake. You can walk and/or drive through entire way around the crater where the lake sits. We didn't have time for that, so we parked up at the viewpoint and had a look. It was a deep blue, and at the edges it was a cerulean color. It was beautiful, and it also provides water for the local residents too.
We said goodbye to the Blue Lake and left Mount Gambier behind. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us to Adelaide! Now that we were away from the coast, the Great Ocean Road behind us, the drive was pretty flat and pretty boring until we got closer to Adelaide. Then the roads got pretty windy and hilly. It really put my manual driving to the test! But we got there ok around lunchtime, if not a bit tired and hungry because we didn't have time to stop for breakfast. Ian, Allan's friend in Adelaide kindly picked us up from the suburban area as there was no public transport. We went back to his house for some quick showers and a cup of coffee before we were on our way again!Baca lagi
Uluru/Ayers Rock Road Trip Day 1
12 April 2025, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
After picking us up and letting us shower, Ian also kindly drove us to the next campervan place! We dropped one off and picked up another two hours later. It's a pretty hectic schedule, but saves us a ton of money with all these $1/day relocations.
Unlike our last camper, this one is brand new and our biggest yet at 7 meters long. Not gonna lie, I shit myself a bit when I saw how big it was and knew I'd have to drive it. It was nice and clean inside though and seems very fancy. The downside to being brand new, is that all the hookups are USB C. None of our cables are USB C yet. We decided to get some food, because it was almost 4pm and all we'd had all day was a banana, some almonds and chips. We stopped for McDonald's nearby and popped into the gas station for a cable so we could also get the GPS from a phone hooked up to the car. Then, we were on our way.
Our destination today was 3 hours away, Port Augusta. This means the drive tomorrow will be about 12 hours to Ayers Rock Campground (Ayers Rock is also called Uluru in the traditional language). Allan drove the first little bit so I could see how he took the turns and positioned himself. This thing is just so big...my feet can't even touch the ground from any of the seats! When it was my turn to drive, I had to be on my toes and my feet can't sit flat on the ground which makes it uncomfortable on my legs after a while.
When the sun went down and it got properly dark, Allan took over driving again. Unlike yesterday when I drove in the dark and there was a shit ton of kangaroos and wallabies at the side of the road, there were none when Allan was driving, of course. We got to Port Augusta, filled up with gas, and went and got some groceries for the next couple days.
We got back on the road to drive to a rest stop about 30 km outside the town. We saw the sign saying we were entering the outback, and that's when the animals started coming out. There were some kangaroos, but the surprise was when a goat nonchalantly walked across the road! Not what I expected to have to stop for...
We got to the rest stop in one piece, had some salad for dinner, and got ready for bed. It's an early wake-up tomorrow to drive 1200 km!Baca lagi