By date
By place
- Agra
- Arugam Bay
- Australia
- Bali
- Bangkok
- Battambang
- Beijing
- Buryatia
- Cambodia
- Chiang Mai
- China
- Chongqing
- Delhi
- Galle
- Goyambokka
- Guilin
- Halong Bay
- Hanoi
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Hoi An
- Hue
- India
- Indonesia
- Irkutsk
- Java
- Kandy
- Koh Samui
- Koh Tao
- Lake Baikal
- Laos
- Listvianka
- London
- Luang Prabang
- Malaysia
- Mekong Delta
- Mirissa
- Mongolia
- Moscow
- Mumbai
- Nanning
- New Zealand
- Nomad ger camp
- North Island
- Northern Territory
- Nuwara Eliya
- Penang
- Phnom Penh
- Polonnaruwa
- Rajasthan
- Russia
- Saigon
- Sapa
- Siberia
- Siberian village
- Siem Reap
- Singapore
- South Island
- Sri Lanka
- St Petersburg
- Tangalle
- Tasmania
- Thailand
- Tissamaharama
- Tourist Ger Camp
- Trans-Siberian Railway
- Ulaan Bataar
- Ulan Bataar
- Ulan Ude
- Unatwatuna
- Uncategorized
- Vietnam
- Western Australia
- Wuhan
- Xi'an
- Yangshou
- Yangtse cruise
- Yekaterinburg
Category Archives: Australia
Australia day 20 – Darwin
A short bus journey away is Parap Market, one of Darwin’s longest running markets. This small Saturday market is situated in the Parap Village shopping precinct, in a pleasant suburb 5 km north of the city centre. It’s a mixture of arts and crafts, clothes and food. Among the stalls are several selling south east Asian take-away and the sounds and smells transport us back to the street food in Thailand, Laos and the rest. This afternoon we spent some time starting what will probably be a long process of researching where to go after Australia. East or West? India or South America? Initial research into flights costs suggests that the cheaper option is India. Sri Lanka was a possibility until we checked the Foreign Office website which advises against all travel to the north and east of the island – and since the west and south will be in the monsoon season when we want to travel we have discounted it as a destination. Research to be continued….
Yesterday afternoon we returned to the hostel to find the street closed and police milling about. Outlines of a car accident had been marked on the road, but the vehicles involved had been towed away. Today, we read in the newspaper that there had been a road rage incident just outside the hostel; a man in a 4wd had deliberately driven at another on a motor scooter causing him to swerve head on into an oncoming car. The 4wd proceeded to run over him as he lay in the road and had then driven off. This would be a shocking event anywhere, but it seems particularly so in this pleasant and seemingly laid back city. Fortunately the victim survived and the perpetrator has been caught.
Darwin is famed for it’s spectacular sunsets and today we went down to the waterfront to see for ourselves. We left it a few minutes too late and the sun went down so fast that we missed it disappearing below the horizon, but the aftermath was beautiful nonetheless as the sky turned a deep orange and the clouds took on a golden hue.
My arm is much better; the Deep Heat seems to be doing the trick and I’m gradually getting a wider range of movement and less pain.
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
Tagged Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory
Leave a comment
Friday, 3rd April – Australia day 19 – Darwin
It’s hot and we are beginning to realise just how acclimatised we were to the heat by the time we left south-east Asia; Penang was much hotter than Darwin but not half so draining. Hopefully we will re-acclimatise over the next few days otherwise we are going to be in a permanent state of exhaustion! This morning we walk to Cullen Bay, which is a couple of kilometres from our hostel and not as interesting as the tourist literature would have you believe. The main attraction is the marina – full of expensive yachts – and the ferry terminal. There are a few shops, cafes, restaurants and modern holiday apartment blocks. But not really worth the walk in the heat. We toy with the idea of taking the ferry across the harbour to Mandorah Beach but decide against it as there is little there but beach and one hotel complex. Instead we walk a further kilometre or so to the Botanical Gardens,.by which time we are starting to flag. The gardens are lovely and we picnic by the fountains which shoot about 20 feet into the air and then walk around the rainforest and shady gardens. Not far away is Mindil Beach which is famous for it’s sunset markets held here on Thursdays and Sundays from late April until October. There is a sandy beach and a small park between the foreshore and the road, but little else including people. Everywhere is so quiet! We bus back into Darwin city centre exhausted and I crash out around 8!
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
Tagged Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory
Leave a comment
Australia day 18 – Darwin
34 degrees today and sunny – lovely! We spend the morning at the Aquascene in the heart of Darwin at Doctors Gully. Here, at high tide, hundreds of fish come to shore to be fed by hand. Only open at high tide, this attraction is situated in the grounds of a private residence and visitors can get up close to a host of different wild fish. Bread is provided and visitors are actively encouraged to get into the water and feed the fish which throng the waters around their feet. Meat-eating fish are fed by a member of staff, who provides a extremely interesting and informative commentary. We spent a couple of hours at the centre and saw Diamond mackeral, milk fish, bream, sweet lip, barramundi, toad fish, archer fish, shovel nose rays, garfish, eel tailed catfish, bronze catfish, mangrove jack, crocadilian long toms, and coral cod and probably several others that I can’t recall by name. A fascinating experience and definitely worth the $11 entrance fee.
The hostel has a bar, two small pool and jacuzzi on the a terrace on the 1st floor and after lunch we take a dip to cool down and refresh. After the walk to Doctors Gully in the heat it was just what we needed. Afterwards we take a rather longer stroll passed Parliament House and down the escarpment to Stokes Hill Wharf where we sit a cafe over-looking the enormous natural harbour. Stokes Hill Wharf was bombed by the Japanese not long after Pearl Harbour and there is a memorial on the quayside to the many people who were killed on that fateful day. The wharf area is undergoing a major regeneration and there is large-scale development of a residential complex in progress which will include shops, restaurants and bars as well as a wave pool and landscaped gardens overlooking the wharf area and the harbour beyond. We walk back through the lovely tree-filled Bicentennial Gardens that run between the waterfront and the Esplanade
Darwin is an attractive modern city; the aftermath of the war and more recently cyclone Tracey in 1974 which destroyed some 60% of the buildings in the city have meant that there are few old buildings remaining. It has a laid back vibe, beautiful beaches, inviting sea and lush vegetation. Unfortunately in one of nature’s ironies it isn’t possible to swim in the sea between October and May due to box jellyfish (their sting can be leathal) and during the rest of the year protective suits are recommended. We like Darwin!
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
Tagged Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory
Leave a comment
Australia day 17 – Darwin
We weren’t able to book a camper van before we arrived in Darwin and now we are discovering that the start of the dry season and the beginning of the peak season on 1st April means that campers are in short supply. As a result we aren’t able to get an off-road camper and have to settle for a bog standard van through Wicked. Wicked specialise in backpacker vans which are characterised by lairy graffiti-like paintwork and fatuous slogans emblazoned across the bodywork. But they are the cheapest and, after ringing round a few other hire companies, the only company that has a van available. Even then the earliest we can pick it up is Monday; so we will be staying in Darwin for at least a week. We’ve now decided to take the van right through to Perth and allowed ourselves until 30th May to do the trip. But first we will go east to Kakadu National Park as far as Jabiru and then doubling back to visit Litchfield National Park.
Darwin has a very compact central business district (as the Australians call the town centre) and is very quiet (only 110,000 population) and few cars it seems. It’s also very cosmopolitan and…. extremely hot! The bars stay open after 9.30pm (unlike in Tas!), in fact some were still open and had people in them when we arrived in the early hours of this morning! There is a lovely park on the Esplanade looking out over the sea and we have a stroll through them passing a couple of groups of Aborigines sitting around chatting.
The hostel prices have gone up today reflecting the start of the peak season by more than 50%! So we have moved into a cheaper room until Monday. Superficially this place is much like the hostels in China, but far more security conscious. The swipe card keys also operate the lifts and restrict guests movements to certain areas of the building to prevent men accessing the women-only floor. There isn’t a common room as such but there is outside terrace bar with two pools and spa. The communal kitchen is a far-cry from those on the caravan parks in New Zealand and Tas, which by and large are clean and tidy; here the sinks are full of dirty pans and crockery left from the night before. Is it something to do with the backpacker profile perhaps????! The strangest aspect of the kitchen is that all the hob rings are permanently making the kitchen unbearably hot. Why??
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
Tagged Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory
Leave a comment
Australia day 14 – Queenstown to Lake St Clair
The Lyell Highway winds for 56km through the heart off the World Heritage-listed Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park between Queenstown and Lake St Clair. The park covers 440,000 hectares and is the epitome of magnificent scenery; forested valleys with fast-flowing rivers, deep narrow gorges; button grass plains and mountains carved by glaciers, the most notable being the grey/white, slanting peak of Frenchman’s Cap There are several short walks into the wilderness areas along the route and we make stops at Nelson Falls, Donaghys Lookout and the Franklin River arriving at Lake St Clair late afternoon.
The Nelson Falls are an easy 20-minute walk through the rain forest. What started out as a misty and dismal day has turned into a warm and sunny one by the time we arrive at the start of the walk. The waterfall turns out to be quite spectacular and with plenty of water tumbling over the 85ft drop.
Our second stop is a short 40 minute walk to Donaghys Lookout which affords spectacular 360 degree views of the wilderness mountain tops and the Franklin River and a button grass plain way below from a rocky outlook point.
The Franklin River walk through the temperate rain forest runs, for part of the way, alongside this well-known wilderness river, and the Surprise River. There are numerous kinds of fungi, and mosses and litchens the latter cloaking everything. Towering trees reach skyward, fast-flowing, gurgling rivers and fallen and decaying tree trunks and branches cover the forest floor offering a glimpse into the beauty of this wilderness landscape.
It’s late afternoon by the time we reach Lake St Clair. We haven’t booked any accommodation hoping that we will find something reasonably priced on the edge of the National Park. Fortunately there is camp ground with cabins right on the edge of the lake and we take what is called a ‘dorm’ room but is is in fact what Andy likes to call a bed-in-a-shed. A basic room with shared use of the site amenities. Since I was last here some 25+ years ago a huge visitors centre and cafe have sprung up to cater for bushwalkers making the 5 day trek along the Overland Track which runs between Lake St Clair and Cradle Mountain. A bit of a shame as it rather spoils the isolation of this beautiful lake.
It is a glorious evening, sunny and still. The lake is perfectly flat, not even a ripple disturbs the surface and the silence is only broken by birdsong (and a couple of people sat chatting further round Cynthia Bay. We take a short stroll around the shore line before dinner. It’s been impossible to find anywhere to buy any food since we left Queenstown and there is only a very limited selection of groceries on sale at the visitors centre. We manage to cobble a meal together out of bits and pieces we have with us supplemented by a rehydrated pasta meal.
Afterwards we take a torch and out in search of wildlife – much of which only comes out after dark. Immediately we see a possum. Possum are extremely common here as in New Zealand and more often seen dead on the roadsides; this is the first live one we’ve seen this trip. There are also some wallabies about, but no platypus which are notoriously shy and hard to identify.
.
Australia day 13 – Strahan to Queenstown
After spending some time booking a campervan for pick up in Darwin and buying a replacement phone for Andy – his current one is no longer charging – we take a look round Strahan. It’s a small township on the north-west shores of the beautiful and unspoilt inlet that is Macquarie Harbour. Neat, Federation-style buildings built from local Huon pine line the harbour front, most, if not all, of which are either cafes or hotels, and several tour operators offering cruises, seaplane and helicopter excursions and the scenic rail journey to Queenstown. We shun these latter in favour of a walk through the Peoples Park and a drive out to Macquarie Heads. The track in the Peoples Park runs alongside Botanical Creek as far as the small but rather beautiful Hogarth Falls. The park is 70 acres of native rain forest which was donated to the township in the 19th century. It is a lovely area to stroll through, particularly today with the dappled sunlight penetrating through the tree canopy. There are Black Gum, Blackwood, Dogwood and Sassafras trees as well as enormous tree ferns, all towering above us. We picnic above the falls from where we can watch the water cascading into a dark pool beneath.
A short drive out of Strahan is an unsealed road leading to Ocean Beach, a 30km, wild and windswept stretch of sand which, judging from the swirls of tyre marks, is a favourite spot for 4wd-ing. Gusts of sand are being blown into the air as we make our way onto the beach to watch the pounding surf of the Southern Ocean. A further 11 kms brings us to Macquarie Heads. Known as Hell’s Gates this is where the calm harbour waters clash with the ocean beyond. We walk along beach to the point at which the it turns up the coast .battling against the winds that blow the sand in rivulets along the beach. Wild, windy and isolated.
The drive to Queenstown takes about 45 minutes along windy roads. The approach into the town is quite striking; the surrounding mountains long-since laid bare by a combination of logging, bushfires and erosion and stained purple, grey and pink by the sulphur fumes from mining processes. Strangely beautiful and yet at the same time starkly ugly, it is a landscape that engenders mixed reactions. Queenstown itself is small and very quite, in fact is appears almost deserted – where is everybody? We’ve booked a room in the Empire Hotel, a rather grand Victorian building opposite the ABT railway station. The interior has seen better days and would benefit from a facelift, but it does boast a magnificent National Trust staircase which was made in England using native Australian wood.
Andy goes in search of the football (tonight there is an England match at 2am) drinks until the early hours in the hotel across the rroad, in the vain hope that they remain open until 4am. Always unlikely. He is turfed out, worse for wear and doesn’t return to our room until 5.30am! Apparently he had spend the intervening hours collapsed in another room in the hotel.
There is an England match on the television at 2am, so while I snuggle up in bed, Andy goes the bar across the road in the vain hope that they will remain open to show the match. Always unlikely, he is turfed out in the early hours rather worse for wear and having seen none of the match. He returns to our room a 5.30 having apparently spent the intervening hours collapsed in another room in the hotel. Or so he says…
Australia day 12 – Stanley to Strahan
The wind has dropped, the temperature is mild and there occasional bursts of sunshine. So we decide to tackle The Nut. Avoiding the chair lift as the wimpy option we climb the steep ascent surprisingly easily and quickly, discovering that it is less exerting to walk up the path backwards and doing so has the additional benefit of allowing us to take in the rather impressive view of the surrounding coastline as we go. It’s a 40-minute walk to circumnavigate the top of The Nut, which is a lava plug rising to 153m with sheer cliffs on three sides On our walk we come across several wallabies and even more remarkable a shearwater fledgling hunkered down in one of the many holes in the ground, which up that point Andy had been convinced were rabbit warrens. We follow this up with an hour’s walk along the ‘endless’ beach where there must be dozens of dead starfish and several dead fish including a ray. After lunch we drive south to Strahan on the west coast. The route takes us through some impressive indigenous forest, pine plantations and windy mountain roads as well as some areas that have been ruthlessly devastated by logging and left strewn with the unwanted detritus. The descent into Strahan gives a glimpse of the wild Southern Ocean. Strahan is a tiny village of 600 which caters for visitors who come to cruise the Macquarie Harbour and Gordon River or ride the scenic railway to Queenstown. And the prices are marked up accordingly.. Here a basic cabin with little more than a bed and a few sticks of furniture and no heating is $75 compared to Stanley where we had a cabin with cooking facilities for $55.
The caravan parks in Tasmania are rather shabby and dated in comparison with the big franchise operations like Top Ten and Kiwi in New Zealand and are far more expensive. Maybe we have been unlucky, but The Big 4 site in Strahan definitely could do with a facelift and there is no heating in the cabin.
In fact the cost of living here is quite a lot more expensive overall compared to New Zealand. Prices are higher dollar for dollar and the exchange rate against the pound is about 25% lower. All of which is puts our modest budget under pressure a bit of pressure..
Australia day 11 – Shearwater to Stanley
Our first task today is to deliver a copy of Steve’s father, Ben’s memoirs to his sister, Pat, in Ulverstone, about half-an-hour from Shearwater. Lost to her brother, Ben, for 30 years, Steve has recently managed to locate Pat in Ulverstone whilst researching the family tree. Research that has also uncovered a cousin of ours in New South Wales. We’d talked a couple of weeks ago about delivering a letter and photos to Pat, but it wasn’t until last night that we got a message from my sister to ask if we would deliver the manuscript. As luck would have it, we are leaving Shearwater today and driving through Ulverstone today on our way to Stanley on the north-west coast. But life rarely runs smoothly; there aren’t any printing facilities at the house in Shearwater, so Andy goes to the local internet cafe to print the manuscript from the internet while I pack our stuff and tidy the house. But it takes two visits to the internet cafe and a couple of calls to Steve before the memoirs are located on the internet and the 68 pages printed. In the meantime Steve’s learned from an electrican working in Pat’s home that there has been a fire and she has had to move out temporarily to stay with friends leaving no contact address, so we’re unlikely to be able to deliver the manuscript to her in person. We find Pat’s house easily and leave the manuscript with the electrician. We’re shocked to discover the extent of the damage; apparently the fridge had caught fire during the night gutting the kitchen and causing smoke damage in the hall. The rest of the house seems intact, but Pat was lucky – it could easily have been much worse.
From Ulverstone we drive along the coast road, making a detour to Table Cape for some great views up and down the coast. Interestingly Alexander of the Alexander Technique fame was born close by and there is a plaque in his honour on the cliff top. The stretch of coastal hinterland between Ulverstone and Stanley is vibrant green pastures in contrast to the yellows and browns of the countryside between Hobart and Shearwater. The earth is a rich, rust red. and the air is reputedly the cleanest. The coast is dotted with small villages, rocky outcrops and sandy beaches. Stanley is a small fishing village of 600 people in the remote north-west dubbed the ‘edge of the world’. Sitting at the end of a 7km isthmus and tucked under the striking rocky outcrop known as the Nut, it faces a seemingly endless arc of white sandy beach on one side and a crescent beach on the other. The historic centre has many pretty colonial weatherboard houses with picket fences and wrought iron detailing. Almost all given over to providing accommodation for holidaymakers. It’s very windy today; the sea is full of white horses and the chair lift to the top of the Nut is closed. Too windy to make the climb to the top of the Nut an inviting prospect ….perhaps tomorrow.