After couple days in Sydney I head north to Gold coast by plane, also here they have a low fare airline.

They are very efficient and they check in people until 15 minutes before the flight.

I stayed one night in Surfer's Paradise, a line of concrete building along the coast with a huge beach and vawes for the daring surfers. Definately nothing special but the usual must see on the tourist trail.

Next stop Brisbane, where I re-join Ken. The city is definately quieter than Sydney , and to be honest it doesn't have much to see, but it has a good vibe. As in Sydney at night you can see many huge bats flying on top of your head.

The 26th is Australia day and as all the major city there are free events organised and the fireworks at nite ( I could have done better with less money )

North again to Noosa: on the bus we were only 4 people, I kind of get the feeling the place is not that fun....We get at the bus stop and we have to walk for 1km with the backpacks that despite the boxes sent home are still damn heavy and the sun 'surely doesn't help.

After one night in the vibrant town we move on to hervey Bay, base for the Fraser island discovery.

We arrive at the hostel check in and head for food as we were starving. We then should have a meeting to meet the group that we'll go with to Fraser with the 4WD. We get at the meeting at 4 (that we thought was the right time) and everybody was sitting at the table ans stared at us. I looked at the watch and said, jez we are only 1 minute late....and the guy quickly replied: we started at 3 ! How to get urself notice straightaway , and start in the best way with a group...

The following morning the last briefing b4 departing for our self safari of the Fraser Island. The lecture given by a very entertaining caracter, a 70 years old local: " every year loads of people die or gets injured on Fraser because of lack of responsibility driving the4WD,....and u backpackers take all our beds in hospital....Beware of the Island"...We got the message and only 2of us at the end wanted to drive: Ryan and myself. ( in fairness the self safari tours will be stopped in July due to the high amount of accidents.)

We get tio the island by ferry with all the other groups and after 5 minutes in the road a Japanese family got stuck in the sand, generating a big gridlock...a promising start!

After 15/20 minutes they finally anage to drive away and right in the same spot another Jeep is stuck....this is gonna be a long adventure...

We had no problem driving through and we then followed the itinerary given by our company: go to lake Mckenziestay there 10 minutes, then go to the beach, drive north,.....just like a trasure hunt. We had a very old map with a huge hole in the middle and few "instructions".....but we managed to get to our first camp site. As soon as we pulled in the ranger gave us the lecture on the Dingo ( no, not bingo, ur favorite game that u play at least twice a week...), a wild dog that we easily encounter on the island wandering around for food. 

Ken and myself were obviously the oldest of the group ( backpackers age is between 19 and 25...) and we found out we were also the slowest at setting up the tent, a not very nice sight ...:)The night waspretty painful as I had no mattress and in the tent it was roasting.

The second night camping waseven worse, no water nor facilities (for ur number 1 or 2, go away with a showel and dig ur hole..), just a beach in the middle of nowhere...and we didn't have any powerful light, just torches.....back to basicsasthe cave men.

We had a very good time and the group (check picture) was great fun, loads of drinks, jokes, sandwiches and sun burnt

We had ome more night in Hervey bay and then last nite we took an overnight bus, our old frind, to reach Arlie Beach from where we'll head for our sailing adventure.

NB: check latest picture on the album

http://www.motime.com/mediablog/grecofla/album/all

Postato da: grecofla alle 22:17 | link | comments |

Well I must say that Fiji it's an incredible place.

When I first arrived in Nadi I found my self back to Central and South America: crappy roads, heat, mosquitos and not much around. The hotel was in the middle of nowhere.

Thank god the following morning I took the boat for the island. I stayed 2 nights in the Mamaluca islands, and 2  nights in Naviti.

All the island we went through are just like a postcard. The othet thing was that it was low season, so I found my self sleeping on my own in a 35 beds dorm and walking and swimming alone in a empty beach. To kill sometime I tried to emulate Tom Hanks in Cast Away: do u remember when he tries to open the coconuts. I suppose we all laughed at that part: well let me tell u, it's a pretty hard thing to do when u have no tools. It took me around 45 minutes to open one, and I used a stone....Try this at home and let me know ur time

fter a week it was time to head back to Auckland where I was supposed to spend the nite at the airport and then head to Sydney. Luckily I managed to get on a earlier plane and made it to sydney in the evening.

First glance at Sydney: amazing town. Tonite I even met a girl that used to work with me in Dublin when I was sitting on my own in the middle of the park at a free concert with around 50000 people...The world is too little for me !

Postato da: grecofla alle 12:38 | link | comments |

After couple months of break here we are again on the road,....or better, on the plane!

Ken left yesterday for Australia, and I'm off to Fiji tomorrow: I needed a vacation after all the hard work of the last months....I will find, beach huts, cold water and.....

In January we managed to go up north to the famous Bay of Island to start and get re accustomed to the hostel life: a dorm ( the size of my room in the apartment) with 7 beds,  full with people and backpacks, the old good travelling life .

Highlights of the trip up north was the sand surfing, the only problem was to walk back up the sand dunes, no lifts, and let me tell u, it's pretty damn hard to walk uphill in the sand...

We were on the bus again and at one stage we forgot one passanger...Do u know that sensation: " I know there was somebody sitting here, oh well he/she might have changed seat, and so nobody tells the driver....You damn idiot, the person ihas been left behind! "....And at the end we managed to miss our bus, as we were back late from the cruise around the island. Luckily we managed to get on another bus almost straight away.

Last sunday I also tried the infamous water sledging, an adrenaline rush activity in the river, where u r on ur own with ur sledge going with the flow, which is pretty strong....I managed to get smashed against the rocks, drink liters of water, and have my upper body muscle sore for 2 days...and the best part is that I paid for all that! Again, the older, the wiser...

I better go pack now.

 Ciao

 

PS(for the ones who know her): yesterday I met Ughetta and Eamon and we had a fun evening out.

 

 

 

Postato da: grecofla alle 09:02 | link | comments (1) |
on the road again, trip goes on

Some food for your eyes from our latest trip up north

(this time I'll spare the words....)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavioandken/

 

 

Postato da: grecofla alle 21:40 | link | comments |

www. flick r .com

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