Byron Bay to Sydney

We took the bus in Brisbane on Sunday at 7:00am to Byron Bay. We did not stop to Surfers Paradise as it was initially planned but it seemed to be a nice place! The weather and the beach were really nice. But guess what we found when we arrived in Byron Bay?.. Rain! But not so much as it stopped right away.

We spent the morning in the city, doing some shopping. Then we started a walk along the beach. We stopped at Watego's beach, where we had a lot of fun with the waves :) We headed to the Byron Bay Lighthouse, after stopping at the most easterly point of Australia! We went back through a nice rainforest. We eventually took the bus at 9:00pm towards Sydney.

After a (not so good) night in the bus, we arrived under a really nice sun! We first met with my friend Mr. L who hosts us before starting our visit. The first spot was Google :) and then we headed to the Queen Victoria Building. Linh could not resist to a shopping frenzy (OK, she just bought a few items...). We also went to The Rocks, and then to the Sydney Opera!

This is where we met my friend Matthieu, who arrived a few days ago for a 1-year trip around Australia (with his friend Jeremy). They showed us their van they will be travelling with, I'm sure they gonna have a lot of fun! We also had the opportunity to see Kings Cross, a very animated neighborhood where they were staying.

The next visits are not planned yet... Beaches, shopping, beaches, and maybe shopping :) We have 2 and a half days left, so we'll try to optimize :)

Brisbane

After a really short night in the bus (1:25am to 6:05am...) we arrived in Brisbane. A friend I met in McGill University (Montreal, Canada) lives here, and has been really kind to come to the city before going to work to pick up our bags! It was more comfortable for us to visit!

After some breakfast and shopping, we went up on the City Hall clock tower. It was the first time I see a clock tower from the inside. Then we walked around the city center and crossed the Victoria Bridge and visited two really nice and interesting museums. Then we walked along the river on South Bank: it's a really nice area built after an exposition in 1988 (if I'm not wrong). You can find a Nepalese Pagoda as well as a really beautiful lagoon, where a lot of people were having fun! There was also a small market that we visited.

Our walk ended with the Botanical Gardens. A few trees were really interesting but we felt frustrated about some lack of signs and information about the vegetation.

Tonight is Aussie BBQ with our friend's friends! Yummy!

Back from Fraser Island!

We spent the last three days in Fraser Island, the world biggest sand island! :D This time was a little bit different as it was a self guided tour! We were with 7 other people (a French couple, a German couple and 3 English guys), and we've been provided a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser with a suggested itinerary for the trip! The weather was sometimes cloudy but the landscapes were still beautiful. In particular, Lake McKenzie was gorgeous! The water was clear and turquoise.

The island is also known for its animals, especially the wild dingoes. Unfortunately, we only saw two, and they were not really wild (it was in an aboriginal campground). No turtles, no shark, no dolphin :(  But we saw several monitors (like big big lezards) and two pythons! We also saw the wreck on the beach of an old luxury boat...

It was a really interesting adventure! Driving in the sand was really fun and sometimes scarry! We met nice people and had a really good time!

Whitsunday Islands

We just came back from a boat trip in the Whitsunday Islands. We spend two days and two nights on the Samurai, a sailing boat. We walk on incredible beaches, like Whiteheaven beach which has the finest sand of the world. It was amazing! We also had the opportunity to snorkel at two different locations, saw some nemos, small sharks, turtles, and a lot of corals! Unfortunately, because of the recent cyclone, the underwater visibility was not really good, but we had a good time though!

We are still in Airlie beach at the moment and we'll take the bus tonight to Hervey Bay...

Too many things to fit in the title

Wow it's really hard to actually keep two blogs updated, given the restricted internet access and the free time we have...

So the last episode was our arrival in Adelaide. Then we went to Kangaroo Island for two days, that we accessed by taking a 45-min ferry at Cape Jervis. We saw a lot of seals, koalas, and even more more kangaroos :-) The weather was not always friendly but it was not too bad. We also "sandboarded", which was pretty fun!

We came back to Adelaide and after a short night, we went on a 3-day tour with Melbourne as the final destination. We spent about one day and a half in the Grampians National Park and saw amazing landscapes. We spent the last one day and a half on the Great Ocean Road: it goes along the coast and offers beautiful landscapes on the ocean, like the Twelve Apostles or Loch Arch Gorge.

We spent one more day in Melbourne. Our host had prepared a nice trip for us and we went on a hike on Philip Island. I was very happy as I've been able to see a small part of the Philip Island Grand Prix track :-)

The next day, we flew to Cairns, in Queensland (north of Australia). The weather is completely different from the South, it's really wet and humid. We went snorkelling and scuba-diving on the Great Barrier Reef, it was amazing! We saw several giant clams and we've even been able to touch them and put our hands in their "mouth".

Today, we've been to the rainforests. We had a really nice weather and did several swims, ofter next to waterfalls. It has been raining often recently (wet season) so the water was clear and the waterfalls gorgeous!

Here we are! We're about to take a bus to Airlie Beach, and spend two days and two nights on a boat in the Whitsunday Islands. Let's go!

Last day in Alice Springs, first steps in Adelaide

My last entry was a poor translation, so I'll try to avoid this in the future...

Let's catch up! Our last day in Alice Springs was fun! After some sleeping, we went in the city to relax and shop around. During the afternoon, we attended a free Didgeridoo workshop! We did a lot of noise but definitely had a lot of fun! Then we went up on Anzac Hill, a 5-min hike to see the city from above.

The next day, we flew to Adelaide. It seems that we went on the first flight Alice Springs - Adelaide with Tiger Airways! Once in Adelaide, surprise, it's raining :-( We then spent the evening with our hosts.

This morning, we went to Cleland Wildlife Park to discover Australian animals and approach them. First time we saw koalas (and we cuddled one!), wombats, monitors (reptiles), big kangaroos and a lot of colorful birds! The afternoon was dedicated to the visit of the city center. We were lucky as the city is currently holding a festival, the Fringe 2009. We watched two shows tonight, a Canadian (from Montreal) puppet show as well as a circus. We laughed a lot and had a really good time!

Tomorrow, we're leaving for two days on Kangaroo Island :-) Hopefully we'll see a lot of animals too!

The Rock Tour

We came back yesterday from our 3 day tour which includes a visit to Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock. The tour included a long road trip, several walks (about 3 hours per day at each site). The hikes were not extremely difficult but very exhausting because of the heat! I never thought I would hike with the temperature being over 40 Celsius degrees, under an overwhelming sun, almost no shade and at the worst time of the day! Because there was a guide, I did not search for trouble ... In any case, the scenery was wonderful and it is worth the suffering ... Ah yes I forgot to mention flies that were absolutely unbearable by flying around the face and not moving at all even if you hit them! Fortunately we bought flynets before leaving ... We slept in aussie swags, under thousands of stars, but it was a little bit too warm at night :S

On the way back, we had the opportunity to ride a camel and it was really nice. I hope that I'll be able to do a longer ride in the future!

Otherwise, out of 21 people in the group there were 7 Frenchs (including us), 6 Germans, 3 Malaysians ... In short the majority of the travellers were French!

NB: Linh actually wrote this article in French. The quality of this translation is really bad as I am trying to do it quickly! Sorry!