Australia 2011

Two facts separate this blog entry from all others: First of all I decided to write it in English language. The simple reason for this is that I want to give also people the chance to read it who don’t understand German but might (hopefully) be interested in it – first of all my people back in Australia! Knowing that my English is still far from perfect I apologize to all (nearly) native speakers upfront for all misspellings and bumpy phrases – all feedback for corrections is appreciated!

Second fact is the more personal character of this article, which is simply caused by the fact that I will be talking about our main vacation this year to Australia. Of course focusing on the photographical aspects of this journey, it is unavoidable to give also insights to more private aspects – I hope you can excuse this!

Back in down under

It has been the second time for me to visit this huge and wonderful country after 1999. Like back then it was clear and duty in pure positive meaning to start with a visit in Perth / Western Australia, as I have an aunt and two cousins living there. Different to my first trip, which brought me to the “red centre” after that (Northern Territory with the famous Uluru (better known as Ayers Rock), Olgas and Kings Canyon) I decided to spend the main part this time at the for me yet unknown Eastern coast, which is without doubt the part of Australia that is most frequented by tourists.

Sadly the whole trip started with some serious problems, nearly causing the cancelation or at least major rescheduling: The people of British Airways did not want to even let my girlfriend enter the plane, as she had no transit Visa for London (we booked separate flights from Vienna to London and then further on to Australia, as this was much cheaper than direct flights from Vienna – stupid when you think about it, as this means to fly then from London passing Vienna again to Australia….). It was an awkward situation, we were really very panicked and frustrated. Without going in too many details now, finally after 3 hours(!) of intensive discussions we could convince them (but only partly) that they were not informed correctly, and we were allowed to fly with them (we still had to check in all our baggage under my name, and pay for this as excess baggage, without any good reason – this story is not yet over between BA and myself…), and like expected we had no problems at all with our transit in London.

So luckily we arrived in Perth, the capitol of Western Australia, like expected – and were welcomed by my cousin and a lot of clouds in the sky. As we sadly had to realize the clouds and corresponding rain followed us pretty well on our whole journey, as you will see on some of the photos.

Perth

The capital of Western Australia is the only city I have seen so far in which I could seriously imagine to live, beside my home city of Vienna. To meet many kind people may not be anything special, as they are like that – relaxed and “easy going” – everywhere in Australia (of course, there are always exceptions). But the really big bonus of Perth is how the city is structured: On an area of 5.386 km² – which is more than 12 times(!) the size of Vienna – there are living “only” 1.6 mio. people, i.e. 308 persons/km² (Vienna: 4.132 persons/km²). And in regard of city structure it is also a good example that some things are really just “upside down” in “down under”: All the skyscrapers are not in the suburbs, but in the center of the city, while the people are living mainly outside of the city center, in big houses that sizes are measured with the number of their bedrooms. There is just really “room to live”, which reflects in less annoyed people – at least this is one of my explanations why people there are in general so much more relaxed than in big cities in Europe…

Sydney

Next station was Sydney, which caused us to fly over the whole continent to the eastern coast. Here our next disasters followed, one self-made and one caused by the next airline: I had to find out that the top of a car is no good storage for a wallet and a mobile phone once the car starts moving, and Virgin Airline canceled our planned overnight flight to Sydney. Therefore (after again a lot of stress and troubles, in which my poor cousin was extremely helpful) we moved to Sydney one day later than planned, and with a couple of hundred dollars, credit cards, driving license and one smartphone less than before…

In Sydney we were welcomed by…? Yes, clouds, of course, even more than in Perth before. As we had now only two days instead of the originally planned three days of time, we had to focus on the really “must see” highlights, which means of course especially the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Several hours I had to spend for an official paper from the Austrian consulate, proofing that my lost driving license is valid, otherwise we would not have been able to pick up the rented car at our next destination Townsville. So our time was sadly very limited, and we could therefore only see a very small part of this big city – beside the mentioned “must sees” mainly the area around China Town, where our hotel was located.

The planned day at the close National Park Blue Mountains was sadly a victim of the lost day…

Townsville

Next station was Townsville, the starting point for our trip by car down the coast to Brisbane – and the last station for which we had booked accommodation in advance. 3 more nights there, and from then on it was a bit of adventure to find nice places to stay for the rest of the trip.

After we had a quick look at our booked apartment we decided to pay one night cancelation fee and find another place, rather than staying there – let’s say they had a good photographer, who let the rooms look nicer on the website than they are in reality… The hotel that we found had very decent rooms, like – to finally come up with positive news – all rooms for the rest of the vacation were nice, or even quite luxury!

From here we tried to go to Wallaman falls – the largest single-drop waterfall at 268m – but guess what… after two hours of driving, the only road leading there was closed due to flooding! This was the moment where we really started to believe that some “higher power” might have any issues with us… so, we headed back toward Townsville, but on the way we figured out that there is an area with some smaller waterfalls (Paluma), and believe or not – we could approach it this time! Some of the resulting photos are – like many more that are even not shown in this travel report – part of the gallery, so don’t miss it!

But finally, finally – for the first time we made it to put our towels on a sandy beach on “Magnetic Island” – a short ferry trip from Townsville away! “Thanks” to the stinger season we could only enter the water in a small area, protected by stinger nets – and had a lot of empty beaches left and right to it, to stroll and make some first nice beach photos!
Another important, exciting and wishfully expected highlight there was the koala hugging, which can be done in a small zoo on the island. But not only koalas could be hugged, but also snakes, crocos and several other reptiles…

Airlie Beach

Next station was Airlie Beach, a small but nice town which is starting point for many activities – like the famous Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Islands, a beach that is said to have one of the whitest sands in the world! And, believe or not – we could make it there! Beside the spectacular views on turquoise water and perfect beaches the most fascinating for me was the consistency of the sand, which can best be described as baking powder. Walking on it was a feeling that we’ve never experienced before, and not comparable to “ordinary” sandy beaches at all. The trip to it was much longer than the only 90 mins. of stay on the beach – but well worth it!

Blackdown Tableland National Park

As our way to the next station was a bit longer (875 km) we decided to spent one night in the car in the Blackdown Tableland National Park, which was (more or less) on the way. We arrived there pretty late at night, which was a bit of an adventure – it was our plan not to drive at dusk or night, but it was just unavoidable. So we entered the camping ground in complete darkness – and we had it for ourselves! I felt a bit stupid, but still I searched for the correct area that had been assigned to us (they are marked with numbers), then we arranged our “bed” (back of the car) and – well, tried to sleep…:)

I woke up at about 5 in the morning, it was cold and I was freezing, so I decided to get out of the car and walk a bit, as also my legs already started to revolt with muscle cramps. I am no “early bird” at all, sleeping in is more my second name – but this morning in the park was a time that I might never forget! The birds were flying around me, there was an orchestra of their singing in the air, and I really felt like being a part of this “family” in nature there, waking up together with them! The Kookaburras were having their breakfast (dug out of the ground), drops of morning dew let sparkle the plenty of spider nets – and our car was standing there, lonely on the camping ground! It was just great atmosphere that even the best photos can hardly catch…

Agnes Water / Town of 1770

After spending half of the day in the national park we moved on to Agnes Water – like with most destinations in these weeks without any concrete plan to go there for any specific reason, it just seemed to be the next logical place to stay for the next couple of days. We checked the local offers for tours and found a day cruise with a catameran to the close “Lady Musgrave Island”. The first two days of our stay this tour was canceled due to the heavy wind (here it was again, the nasty weather…), but on the third day the crew decided to dare the trip. We were prepared for 2 1/2 meter waves on open sea, and told that seasickness might become a problem… how right they were about it! About 70% of the people on board had issues, after 80 mins of the 90 mins trip I joined them… I only say: They called them “breakfast bags”…

But it was worth it, because it brought us to the place where we could finally snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! Again we had mainly cloudy skies, but for about 30 mins. the sun could break through – all snorkeling photos shown in the gallery were taken within these 30 mins with my small, waterproof Sony CyberShot DSC-TX5. Now I know how important it is to really have bright sunlight when snorkeling – only then the colors of the reef are like they should be, bright and saturated.

Hervey Bay

The last destination before Brisbane was Hervey Bay. Frazer Island should have been our main target departing from Hervey Bay, but sadly – the weather did not give us a chance. With three days of rain straight it made no sense to visit an island made completely of sand, and honestly this was quite frustrating. It was the last week of our vacation, and the forecasts showed no sun at all anymore for the rest of the week. But luckily, the weather gods showed some merci, and on Thursday the sun came out again! We took the chance and hired a short Jet Ski tour to Frazer Island – go there, see the beach, have a short break on some “sand dune” in the sea, head back – 90 minutes of pure fun! This plus the couple of hours that we could spend on the beach could at least propitiate us a bit for the days before…

Brisbane

The last day in down under we spent in Brisbane, but we had no time to make any sightseeing there – which was not our plan at all. I am happy that we could make it to visit one friend of mine, who moved (from Austria) to Brisbane several years ago, married there and got just recently her second baby (Hi Monika – and by the way: Yes, this plastic part in the rented car was for charging the fees for the bridge! )

Heading back home…

After 3 1/2 weeks we were heading back home… and I was in mixed emotions. We had some wonderful days with exciting and funny events on one hand, but on the other hand quite some bad luck with the weather, and several other disasters to come over.

With this mixed emotions we reached Heathrow airport after one 14,5 hour flight to Dubai, and another 7,5 hour flight to London, and guess what…? My girlfriend was not allowed to enter the UK anymore, to pick up the luggage and check in again for our flight to Vienna, just like we did on our way to Australia in the same way! The reason given: The visa for Australia was not valid anymore (it got a stamp “not valid for further traveling” when we left Australia, as it was a “one-time-entry” visa only). My argument that we are just coming BACK from Australia, and just need to go the same way back that we came from, did not change anything (but was replied with the statement  “shut up!” – no comment…!). Only I was allowed to pass the immigration area, so I had to pick up and check in our both bags alone, which of course needed some management decision at British Airways again… Luckily this time they did not charge me again some exceed fees, and finally we could meet again in the transit area to continue our way back home.

So, here we are back again! If you really read this whole travel report – wow, thanks! I hope you did not come to the conclusion that it was only a waste of time!  Leaving even any comment here, you would completely make my day!

And very important: Do not miss the photos in the gallery!