On 25 April 2004 I was in Sydney with a few friends. We had just been to the wedding of a friend from back home (Scotland) and had 3 full weeks to go. What to do next? Drive the 2,500 kilometres north to Cairns obviously!
This is the story of that journey and why I would recommend the places I visited to anyone, just don’t drive!
We had 13 days to see a bit of Australia and get back to Sydney before flying to New Zealand. Loads of time we thought! How wrong was I. The funny thing was when we eventually got back to Sydney I noticed how cheap the internal flights are in Australia…we could have flown everywhere and had a lot of time to spend on the finer things in life.
But I’ll come back to that later…
***Sydney***
I have a number of friends who have moved to Sydney and it was great to see them again. I’ll go into Sydney in more detail in another Review but can mention a few highlights here.
It was Anzac Day (designed to celebrate the Australian & New Zealand armed services that have fought and died together over the years) on our first night in Sydney. I arranged to meet a couple of friends in the Cargo Bar in Darling Harbour.
What a mistake. I couldn’t even squeeze sideways into that bar! The whole of Sydney seemed to have had the same idea as me except they arrived 5 hours before me and were hanging from the light shades! I’ve never seen so many drunken people in the one area – not even in Scotland at Hogmanay (where there are thousands of sober tourists to dilute the drunken scene). I quickly texted them and we arranged to meet along the road a bit at a less busy bar. Darling Harbour at night is a scene you have to see. The towering offices show off huge, but somehow tasteful, neon advertising, proudly presenting the latest massive company to pay for the privilege.
There are large numbers of clubs and restaurants in Darling Harbour and you can spend all night in a safe, popular area.
The next day was beautifully sunny. That time of year was technically autumn and my mates who had lived there for a couple of years were wearing jackets when I met them the next day to catch the Manly ferry. I felt odd in my sandals and shorts but they were crazy odd, it was roasting!
Manly is a province of Sydney that can be reached more quickly by ferry than by car. It is a popular destination for tourists and is definitely worth a visit. You get an excellent view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the ferry (see piccies).
***Planning the Journey***
After spending a lovely day in the pub in Manly and eating some of the wonderful cuisine we decided it was time to relax and plan our journey. There were certain things that were essential. “Lonely Planet” and “Rough Guide” books are crucial and really do go into a lot of detail every step of the way – no matter what journey you opt for. A large car is also good – we opted for an eight seater people carrier. This turned out to be a good move as you do need a little room when spending up to 8 hours in a car at a time, oops will come to that soon. WATER – don’t forget water – the cars have air conditioning and it really dries you out. You can’t open the window either because the air is warm (unless you do this in winter).
***Setting Off***
Yawn. Another satisfying but unmemorable sleep in one of the many Rydges Hotels in Sydney and we were ready to start the journey.
Drive north out of Sydney and follow the signs for Newcastle and you can’t go wrong. In the outskirts of Sydney the Pacific Highway starts and you really don’t need to leave this road all the way to Cairns.
*****Niggly Bits 1****** [The volume and type of music you play & drinking the water straight out of the bottle after smoking are just 2 of the things that really get on your nerves after a while cooped up with 4 other people. You REALLY need to be solid friends before you set off and try to stay calm with each other – communicate! Don’t let it build up]
***Port Macquarie***
We didn’t manage to leave Sydney as early as we wanted so looked at the maps in our guide books and picked a wee place called Port Macquarie to spend the night. We had only been driving for 5 hours (changing drivers once) and done about 400 kilometres so when we bunked down for the night we felt quite proud – but this was to be one of the easiest days! We stayed in the Macquarie Hotel (there is nothing I can remember about this hotel!) and paid about 50 Aussie dollars (about £20) for B&B.
***Nambucca Heads***
Back on the Pacific Highway and time for a bit of sightseeing. We chose Nambucca Heads which is beautiful and has some great viewing platforms – but nothing else to do other than look at the view (piccy below). As we stood gazing out at the beautiful sands we turned and noticed a lone grave of a young Scottish sailor from Leith who had died while swimming in the 19th century. The grave was erected by his shipmates.
***Byron Bay***
300 kilometres further on and the sun was setting. At that time of year it sets about 6pm and you don’t want to drive in the dark on roads you don’t know. Cue Byron Bay! You have probably heard of Byron Bay. It is legendary for attracting fun loving young free spirits who go there for the surf, sex, drugs and booze. I had heard there were beautiful beaches in Byron so we phoned ahead from the car, picking an apartment from the Rough Guide and booked 2 nights to enjoy this wonderful sounding little place.
Torrential is the only way I can describe the non-stop rain that came down over the next 2 days. DOH! Things I did in Byron Bay...can be summed up very quickly. We went up to the Byron Lighthouse that towers over the most Easterly point in Australia. You can walk from the lighthouse right down to the sea as the waves crash off the rocks (see piccy). In the summer you can see whale pods drifting past in the distance…but this wasn’t summer! So I went to the Cinema and watched Kills Bill 2!
We stayed in the Lord Byron Resort in a 3 bedroom apartment for about 70 dollars a night. However the whole place was up for sale when we went for 140,000 dollars (cheap!!) so it is probably another herbal medicine store now.
***Brisbane calling***
Only 175k later and we were in Brisbane. We decided to stay only one night because we hadn’t been driving at all long that day. Brisbane is a lovely city and we wandered around just taking in the street buzz for the first day. I’m not so much of an attraction goer when I go abroad – I prefer to mingle with a crowd and watch how other people go about their daily lives. There are lots of nice shopping areas in Brisbane – it seems like a very cosmopolitan little city and I got a good vibe from the place. We went to the casino that night – you don’t get in with trainers or track suits on, by the way. I didn’t gamble – that’s a vice I’ve since picked up though!
Again, relying on our slightly out of date Rough Guide we phoned a hotel called “Accatia” and ordered 3 rooms. Well we got 3 rooms alright but the place was a DSS B&B for unemployed old blokes who had no other home. They weren’t alcoholics or anything (that I could see) but I’ve never seen such a regimented system. We ate breakfast with the residents (at a certain time) and had to queue up in line for our cereal (1 portion) toast (one slice) and tea. I thought it was quite funny at the time but looking back these poor souls had nothing else to live for. Maybe they needed the regime in their lives to keep them going. While I think these places provide a great service for the residents when you are on holiday you don’t need the mental baggage. It was cheap but don’t stay there.
***1 May***
We had now travelled nearly 1,000k and it had taken us 4 days. We drove that day for a long time and after a couple of driver changes and comfort breaks we arrived in a wee place called Rockampton. To save some cash we decided to stay in a motel and get a very early start the next morning. Rockampton is known for its huge beef steaks. I have to admit it was the biggest steak I’ve ever seen outside the USA but it didn’t have much taste to it. We were now in Queensland and smoking is not allowed in confined public spaces. So my mate got to stand near the window at the bar to smoke. Amazing how that law has evolved over time to be okay if there is ample ventilation. Nothing was happening in Rockampton so we decided to get some beers and go back to the rooms and watch the Chelsea match on TV. There were 5 of us on the trip. A couple (Paul & Rhona), Karen (who was a friend of Rhona) and me and my pal Pete from work. Karen obviously got a room to herself so we decided to crash her room as it was more spacious. Pete was sharing my room and wimped out after 5 minutes. I told him, I ORDERED him, to leave the door unlocked. We watched the footie, had a few beers and I was ready for bed. I walked across to my room and the door was amazingly open! PRAISE BE! Bed awaited. I opened the door slightly (my room mate had complained about my phone making noise previously) creeped in and put the snib down on the door. Just then my mum phoned from Scotland! She has never really understood that 3pm in the UK means about 3am in Oz!! I shut the door quickly so I didn’t wake sleeping ugly. I had the briefest of conversations with my mum, something was in the back of my mind, something about a snib…the DOOR! I had locked myself out!
***Niggly Bit 2*** [Don’t lock yourself out of a room when the only person that can help you sleeps like a log when drunk, wears ear plugs and an eye mask. Even if they do hear you phoning the room phone (from Karen’s floor) all they do is search through your backpack for that “damn bloody mobile again”]
***Airlie Beach***
6am I got into that room! Just enough time for a shower and then we were off. Another full day driving and we arrived in Airlie Beach. This time we didn’t use the Rough Guide to find an apartment. We went to one of the many Tourist Information Centres along the main street. We stayed in the Mediterranean – another 3 bedroom apartment - really good quality for a total of about 280 dollars a night.
We decided to stay in Airlie Beach for 3 days and take a few days off from driving. The apartment had a garage for the car which was a bonus. The night life is heavily geared towards young people and drinking and foam parties – you know what I mean. Good fun but the hangovers were not so good!
Airlie Beach is one of the first gateways to the beautiful Whit Sunday Islands off the East Coast of Queensland. Apparently the journey out and back takes all day and you have a very early start so we opted for the shorter ferry style excursion. We went to South Molle Island which is very small – in fact it has a 9 hole golf course and not a lot else! Well it does have wonderful wee birds that get fed at the same time every day (2 piccies below).
After spending a lazy time in Airlie Beach we noticed we had 2 days before our flight back from Cairns to Sydney. Airlie Beach is 1,700 kilometres from Sydney – only 800 kilometres to go…gulp, where had the time gone? Where had the planning gone?
***The Changing Scenery***
A large section of the scenery so far on the Pacific Highway had been completely dull. The road is relativelt straight and although it goes through a lot of towns there are long sections of nothingness. Well when I say nothingness I mean dry looking bush and scrub land with a few flea bitten roos along the side of the road. The Highway is actually about 60 or 70k from the Coast in some points so don't think you're getting a lovely coastal drive. The towns we stayed in were on the coast so you can see how much extra this adds to the drive.
As you move from New South Wales to Queensland and keep moving north you do notice that the plant life becomes more tropical. It is hotter up north and does seem like a different continent!
***Cairns at last***
One LONG slog later we limped into Cairns and booked ourselves into an apartment at the North Cove which is near the esplanade. Again that was under 300 dollar per night in total. We had to do the jump in one day because we wanted to leave ourselves one full day in Cairns to go to the Great Barrier Reef!
Snorkelling is a word I couldn’t even spell last year. I had never swam in the sea out of my depth and never worn a wetsuit. That was all to change!
A walk along the pier in Cairns and you are hit by the multitude of different day trips available. We opted for the cheapest (about 95 dollars) that would give us an experience never to forget.
Our huge catamaran boat thing sped off into the grey sea and we bounced along praying for some sunshine. As we had driven up the coast over the past couple of weeks we had gone at the same speed as the clouds. We watched the weather forecasts every day and the same darn cloud kept following us! I know how fast Aussie clouds travel – hey!
Anyway, we eventually arrived at a rather choppy area (I took travel sickness pills – I’d advise you to do the same) of the reef and after the usual safety talk got ready. Flip flops, wetsuit mask and snorkel. I jumped in…and out…coughing and spluttering! I hadn’t angled the snorkel properly to keep the water out and my mask was too big. A quick change of equipment later and I tried again. After initially swallowing half the sea I started to get the hang of the breathing and the bobbing around. After a while I got used to just floating around watching the many beautiful fish of all different shapes, sizes and colours. It was just like watching an underwater TV programme – the same fish and everything! They are very inquisitive and come really close to you. My mate is an experienced snorkeller and claims to have chased a turtle. One of the girls was a wimp and went out on a glass bottom boat – she says she saw a shark. UHH HUH…
There are options available on these excursions too, such as diving and taking the return journey by helicopter. A few people looked a bit green after the choppy outward journey so they paid the 140 bucks extra for the 30 minutes helicopter journey. Diving for beginners is also possible but they spent more time learning about the equipment and even when they were under the water my flippers nearly extended down to the level they went to.
Well worth the experience. I snorkelled for about 3 hours non-stop and although I didn’t have an underwater camera I don’t think I could ever forget the images.
***Why not to Fly***
Every little place we stopped at up the coast is serviced by an airport. We could have spent so much time in the places we didn’t get to see like Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast for more than an hour (see piccy of glorious beach below).
Hiring a car for this length of time and picking it up in Sydney and dumping it in cairns really costs. From my memory 5 of us paid over 200 quid (sterling) each. Then you have to put the petrol in…
It takes 31 hours of actual driving time to get from Sydney to Cairns. I think we did more than that because if you want to stay in a town or city you drive quite a bit off the highway. We also got a speeding ticket on one part of the journey. The Pacific Highway stretches a long way but the speed limits change fairly regularly and it is really difficult to keep your eye out for the signs.
I had a great experience in Australia and really managed to sample a few things that I want to spend more time on when I go back (such as more time in Sydney – I loved it!). The people are relaxed and fun - heck they understood my accent - how good can you get!
***Highpoints*** Great Barrier Reef Darling harbour nightlife with friends Seeing a different culture - amazing Really nice people
***Low points*** Spent too much time in the car Didn’t research the stop overs well enough in advance
(This is a personal experience and not a tour guide so is of limited use to anyone wanting to find out everything there is to know about the places I visited – Rough Guide or Lonely Planet books are good for that).
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