It’s been forever since I’ve updated this travel blog and I don’t even know if people are reading it anymore. I also think that I probably start the majority of these posts with that line. Anyways, don’t get your hopes up, there’s not going to be any pictures because the internet connection that I have is pretty slow but I’m going to try and write a few posts as our trip winds down just to finish it off.
I think the last thing that I might have written about was the Margaret River trip but I don’t think I’m going to try and think about what came after that and do it in any sort of order because it’s been a long time. I’m just going to write a bit about our road trip.
As a side note, it’s April 13th today which means there’s 8 days left on our trip and we spent last night sleeping in the car and I don’t think that I’ve been this cold yet here. I’m FREEZING…like feet, hands, nose…everything. If I wasn’t warming warm pants and a sweater wrapped in my favorite junior size sleeping bag I’d probably be dead. I think Canada’s weather may actually kill me.
Alright, so road trip. We rented the car on I think February 22nd with the intention of having it in Sydney on the 16th of April. That gave us just over a month in the car checking everything out and exploring. We got on the road and it was doing nothing but raining. I guess though it was the wet season so we should have expected it…but we had no idea. We drove around Cairns for a few days checking out Port Douglas, this cute little tiny town Karrunda I think. They had some amazing waterfalls there and also a really cool market. After Cairns we headed down the coast. We didn’t do it very slowly. We made some days just driving days and got down the coast fast. We stopped at Emerald, so that I could take a photo of their ridiculous van gough painting that matches the one in Altona. We stopped at Mission Beach where we set up our tent for the first time and slept in that. Too bad it rained the entire night….luckily our tent did prove to be nice and water proof. While we were in Mission Beach we also cracked open our first coconut and ate it for dinner along with some strongbow, Malibu and grapes. They had a really nice beach there as well, but the entire way down the coast we were unable to swim because of crocs and stingers…up until a town of MacKay. We stopped in Townsville which was terrible, we made dinner on a concrete parking lot at a truckstop. We stopped at Bundaberg and had a tour of their rum distillery and then we got to one of our favorite places – Airle Beach.
It’s a pretty small town with not a whole lot to do but such a nice laid back vibe. We checked into our first caravan park and decided to stay for 3 days. This was a really nice place. The people were nice, the camp kitchen was right near our site, and it was really clean. After three nights we decided we would stay in Airlie for a bit longer because we still hadn’t gone snorkeling or to Whitehaven beach. So we booked 2 nights at a smaller, less desirable place. And then someone followed us…like full on pulling over and trying to be all sneaky following us. We did successfully manage to lose him but where we were staying was a little sketch so we both decided we would be more comfortable at the original place. So we both gave up 10$ and went back to the first place where we felt much much better and safer. We weren’t shoved in a dark corner of the park.
We spent the rest of our time at the caravan park and while we were in Airlie we did go on a really awesome snorkeling trip on the boat called Camira. We got to see a whole bunch of the islands including one that looks like a monkey’s face and Hamilton Island , Whitehaven Beach which was amazing, unreal, can not even begin to explain it. We also got a chance to go snorkeling on the great barrier reef and Mandy’s lips got so burnt the swelled up to twice the size. Fantastic. All in all it was a really amazing day and definitely one of the highlights for both of us on the trip.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Ridiculously Long Recap Part 2
We took the bus down to Margaret River and were both exhausted from the day before so it was pretty awesome that we got our own seats the majority of the way so we weren’t super cramped and could stretch out rather nicely. The bus was filled with grey hair so for a second there we wondered what we were getting ourselves into. After we got off the coach it was a hunt to figure out A) our hostels name B) the telephone number of our hostel and C) how the hell we were going to get there seeing as it’s about 10 km away from town. Hannah did some investigative work at the office store across the street and found out that if we hurried we could get the shuttle bus because it was due to leave pretty much immediately. Luckily the shuttle bus was directly across the street from where we were. So we got on it and started talking to the guy who was super nice and from Hawaii. It was so nice to talk to someone who didn’t have an accent. This is a luxury now and one that’s always nice to get. So we chatted with him while we drove an absolutely beautiful drive to the hostel. It was amazing, nothing but rolling hills and green trees and of course beautiful beautiful ocean. I really don’t know what I’m going to do without the sea every day. We got to the hostel and realized that we were really far from anything which was alright except for the fact that we wanted to save money while we were there and had no food to cook.
So, of course the first thing that we did was book a wine tour for the next day and we couldn’t wait. We got picked up at 10 the next morning and spent the next 45 minutes picking everyone up. Then we were on our way! We toured four different wineries, a brewery , a chocolate factory and a cheese factory. I’ll start at the end…the cheese factory we had like five minutes at so that was pretty rushed, we basically ran in, got in line, shoved some cheese down our throats and left. It was really really good cheese though. The chocolate factory was amazing. We didn’t really do much here except for buy copious amounts of chocolate. It was some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had though not going to lie. The wine tastings were good. Hannah didn’t really like much of the wine, the majority of it she thought was too sweet but I loved most of them. At our last winery we got to try some liquers and had some pretty crazy shots. Our favorite was white chocolate, coconut and macadamia nut liquers topped off with a tiny tiny bit of cream. So so good. We also tried some of the grapes off the vines at the vineyards. Not sure if we were supposed to but we couldn’t resist. They were unreal. So tasty.
Other than that Margaret River was pretty uneventful. Except for the night before we were supposed to check out. We’re relaxing, watching a little Kill Bill when we suddenly hear a key in the door and then the door opens (it wasn’t locked), a guy wanders in, in nothing but shorts, with his tshirt in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. He looks around see’s that there is an empty bed and decides that it’s his. Then starts singing and talking and laughing to himself. Hannah and I had trouble not bursting out laughing at him. Hannah decided to check if he was in the right room and the minute she got into reception and asked about it, the guy knew exactly who she was talking about. Oh and while she was away he asked me if I wanted to come up into his bunk bed. Uhmmmm no thank you. He was a gong show and thankfully the night supervisor removed asap. Oh and we were lucky enough to see him in the morning with another fresh bottle of wine.
So, Margaret River was beautiful, very green and a big change from Dampier. We did a lot of beaching it (although the water is so cold), and just a lot of relaxing. After Margaret River we took a late night flight to Cairns where the flight started off with a bottle of wine being poured all over me…more on that later.
I'll post photos later, this connection is too slow.
So, of course the first thing that we did was book a wine tour for the next day and we couldn’t wait. We got picked up at 10 the next morning and spent the next 45 minutes picking everyone up. Then we were on our way! We toured four different wineries, a brewery , a chocolate factory and a cheese factory. I’ll start at the end…the cheese factory we had like five minutes at so that was pretty rushed, we basically ran in, got in line, shoved some cheese down our throats and left. It was really really good cheese though. The chocolate factory was amazing. We didn’t really do much here except for buy copious amounts of chocolate. It was some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had though not going to lie. The wine tastings were good. Hannah didn’t really like much of the wine, the majority of it she thought was too sweet but I loved most of them. At our last winery we got to try some liquers and had some pretty crazy shots. Our favorite was white chocolate, coconut and macadamia nut liquers topped off with a tiny tiny bit of cream. So so good. We also tried some of the grapes off the vines at the vineyards. Not sure if we were supposed to but we couldn’t resist. They were unreal. So tasty.
Other than that Margaret River was pretty uneventful. Except for the night before we were supposed to check out. We’re relaxing, watching a little Kill Bill when we suddenly hear a key in the door and then the door opens (it wasn’t locked), a guy wanders in, in nothing but shorts, with his tshirt in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. He looks around see’s that there is an empty bed and decides that it’s his. Then starts singing and talking and laughing to himself. Hannah and I had trouble not bursting out laughing at him. Hannah decided to check if he was in the right room and the minute she got into reception and asked about it, the guy knew exactly who she was talking about. Oh and while she was away he asked me if I wanted to come up into his bunk bed. Uhmmmm no thank you. He was a gong show and thankfully the night supervisor removed asap. Oh and we were lucky enough to see him in the morning with another fresh bottle of wine.
So, Margaret River was beautiful, very green and a big change from Dampier. We did a lot of beaching it (although the water is so cold), and just a lot of relaxing. After Margaret River we took a late night flight to Cairns where the flight started off with a bottle of wine being poured all over me…more on that later.
I'll post photos later, this connection is too slow.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Ridiculously Long Recap Part 1:
We apologize sincerely for not posting earlier. I know you’ve all been waiting at the edge of your seats, uhmmm maybe not waiting at all really…more likely completely stopped checking this blog.
However, this is where it all begins.
We left Dampier sad but excited in the early morning of Tuesday, February 9th, after a delicious egg mcmuffin. Our flight was short and sweet and we were estatic to arrive in Perth. However, not so much for the fact that we had 3 hours to kill. Our first few days in Perth we did nothing but eat and shop. It was so nice to be back in the real world again and eating food that wasn’t soaked in grease. On Wednesday night we went to Karleen’s, a friend of Mandy’s from Aus that I met in Canada 6 year ago. We had dinner and just sat around and talked, it was so much fun. Tep (her boyfriend) cooked us this amazing spinach pie and some sort of made up plum cake. It was amazing. So good to have a home cooked meal, and not one cooked in a hostel.
We spent a few more days shopping, relaxing, going for walks…Saturday Karleen took us touristing and we went to Kings Park, which is absolutely gorgeous. It was massive and so beautiful and had such a nice view of the city. Then we went to the fremantle markets and had some sushi and smoothies then went to her house to change into our swimmers and went to the beach.
Sunday was a day that we had been waiting for all week. Good Vibes. We took the train to Tep’s and Karleen’s and then had some drinks, met a few of their friends, had some food and then it was on the train to the concert. The show was amazing we saw Kid Cudi, Salt N Pepa, Gossip, Arman Van Helden, Busta Rhymes, and Basement Jaxx. Our favorites were definitely Salt n Pepa and Gossip. They were amazing. After the show we got on the smelly, filled to the top train and headed back to the city where we crawled into our beds and woke up nice and early to head to Margaret river…
However, this is where it all begins.
We left Dampier sad but excited in the early morning of Tuesday, February 9th, after a delicious egg mcmuffin. Our flight was short and sweet and we were estatic to arrive in Perth. However, not so much for the fact that we had 3 hours to kill. Our first few days in Perth we did nothing but eat and shop. It was so nice to be back in the real world again and eating food that wasn’t soaked in grease. On Wednesday night we went to Karleen’s, a friend of Mandy’s from Aus that I met in Canada 6 year ago. We had dinner and just sat around and talked, it was so much fun. Tep (her boyfriend) cooked us this amazing spinach pie and some sort of made up plum cake. It was amazing. So good to have a home cooked meal, and not one cooked in a hostel.
We spent a few more days shopping, relaxing, going for walks…Saturday Karleen took us touristing and we went to Kings Park, which is absolutely gorgeous. It was massive and so beautiful and had such a nice view of the city. Then we went to the fremantle markets and had some sushi and smoothies then went to her house to change into our swimmers and went to the beach.
Sunday was a day that we had been waiting for all week. Good Vibes. We took the train to Tep’s and Karleen’s and then had some drinks, met a few of their friends, had some food and then it was on the train to the concert. The show was amazing we saw Kid Cudi, Salt N Pepa, Gossip, Arman Van Helden, Busta Rhymes, and Basement Jaxx. Our favorites were definitely Salt n Pepa and Gossip. They were amazing. After the show we got on the smelly, filled to the top train and headed back to the city where we crawled into our beds and woke up nice and early to head to Margaret river…
Thursday, February 11, 2010
We're done up in the middle of nowhere, and it was a good time. Sometimes pretty damn difficult but all in all a pretty fantastic experience and I don't think that either of us would take it back if we could. Plus we made some pretty sweet cash & some awesome friends.
We're travelling again but haven't done a whole lot of anything besides eat and shop...oooh and I (Mandy) and Hannah came along had a visit with someone who was pretty much my best bud for half a year in grade 10.
Once we do some more travelling and take some photos we'll be sure to update this...like after the really fantastic music festival we're attending in the very very near future.
Talk to you all soon!!!
xoxoxo
We're travelling again but haven't done a whole lot of anything besides eat and shop...oooh and I (Mandy) and Hannah came along had a visit with someone who was pretty much my best bud for half a year in grade 10.
Once we do some more travelling and take some photos we'll be sure to update this...like after the really fantastic music festival we're attending in the very very near future.
Talk to you all soon!!!
xoxoxo
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
I'm finally actually blogging again..
If you read my blog you will know by now that we have an internet connection in our room now. Since we changed rooms to a much smaller...not so awesome room. But we still have a bathroom so that's a plus that's for sure. It would suck to be back in the rooms using the staff bathroom.
We only have 20 more working days and we can't wait to be done. It's been fun but we're definitely ready to be travelling again and can't wait to get back on the east coast. We have some pretty big pretty awesome plans for the coast. We've become friends with a girl here who is from the gold coast and will be there when we are there and she's able to hook us up with some free tickets to all of the amusement parks so it's going to be a really fun time. Hannah is so so so excited. We're also pretty excited to hang out with her not at work.
I don't know what else is new. We have both managed to save quite a bit of money so hopefully when we're on the coast we'll have money to do a lot of the things that we want to do including skydiving, scuba diving, snorkeling and all that fun stuff. There's also this mountain that we're going to climb at sunrise because it's the very first point in Australia that the sun hits. It's going to be pretty beautiful I think.
There's not a lot else to mention at the moment. Today we have the day off so we're going to do some laundry and clean our old room and then the rest of the day just chill out. We plan on going to the pool and floating around on some floaties and maybe going with a couple girls from here to Karratha to actually go out for a proper dinner. That's about it. When we're here it doesn't feel like we're in Australia. It feels like it's just normal life...if that makes any sense. I showed Hannah the video that I've started to make about our trip and we both got very excited to be back on the east coast.
We only have 20 more working days and we can't wait to be done. It's been fun but we're definitely ready to be travelling again and can't wait to get back on the east coast. We have some pretty big pretty awesome plans for the coast. We've become friends with a girl here who is from the gold coast and will be there when we are there and she's able to hook us up with some free tickets to all of the amusement parks so it's going to be a really fun time. Hannah is so so so excited. We're also pretty excited to hang out with her not at work.
I don't know what else is new. We have both managed to save quite a bit of money so hopefully when we're on the coast we'll have money to do a lot of the things that we want to do including skydiving, scuba diving, snorkeling and all that fun stuff. There's also this mountain that we're going to climb at sunrise because it's the very first point in Australia that the sun hits. It's going to be pretty beautiful I think.
There's not a lot else to mention at the moment. Today we have the day off so we're going to do some laundry and clean our old room and then the rest of the day just chill out. We plan on going to the pool and floating around on some floaties and maybe going with a couple girls from here to Karratha to actually go out for a proper dinner. That's about it. When we're here it doesn't feel like we're in Australia. It feels like it's just normal life...if that makes any sense. I showed Hannah the video that I've started to make about our trip and we both got very excited to be back on the east coast.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Sweet Sweet Update
Oh wow, I haven’t updated this in a long time. Most of you probably don’t even check it anymore because you’re so sick of seeing the same post everytime you come to this lovely blog address. Well at least this time when you check it BAM there’ll be a new post. I’ve sat with this screen open in front of me for quite some time. Probably a good half an hour thinking about what to write and I got nothing.
Christmas and New Years has come and gone. And they were both good, definitely not the same but they were good. I think I have done a pretty thorough recap on my blog so this one might not go into quite as much detail. Plus it’s almost 3 weeks ago now so my memory is fading.
Christmas was good but both of us shed some tears because we missed home. We definitely opened up presents when we got home from work Christmas eve night because we didn’t want to wait until the morning. Hannah got me a really awesome watch and book about Australia that’s going to be awesome to have when we’re on the road or in the air again! I got her a robot shirt and a wallet..she really liked both of them. The next morning we were woken up pretty early to start drinking but we took our time. We went into one of the girls room and hung out while they opened some presents and had some bubbly. It was a good morning. The only time that it actually felt like Christmas was at one point when we were all opening presents together. The day consisted of a great deal of alcohol intake and lots of trips to the pool, Hannah and I spent a lot of time swimming which was nice to get out of the pub.
New Years Eve we both worked and it was insanely busy so that wasn’t really all that good. When 12 hit we did find each other and wish each other Happy New Years though.
Okay I wrote about a week ago so I have a tad bit to add on. We have booked our flights out of here and are leaving on the 9th of February. We are both very very excited to be travelling again and can’t wait to be back on the east coast. We may have someone travelling with us for part of the way so we’re pretty excited about that. Someone to split gas with and someone who we both really really get along with. She’s coming to Canada pretty soon after we’re back home so we can’t wait to see her again. She leaves just about a week of so before we go I think so it will be nice to not have too long without her here.
Other than that there isn’t a whole lot new. We’re just getting on and trying to make time go as quickly as possible so we can get out of here. We’re changing rooms again but at least the one we are moving into still has a bathroom. It’s just frustrating because we’re leaving so soon that is sucks to pack up just to have to unpack again and then pack up again…I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone but me.
Anyways, just thought I would send a little update seeing as you’re probably sick of those pictures. Soon we’ll we on our road trip and updating a whole bunch again. We miss everyone from home so so much and love you all like you wouldn’t believe.
Christmas and New Years has come and gone. And they were both good, definitely not the same but they were good. I think I have done a pretty thorough recap on my blog so this one might not go into quite as much detail. Plus it’s almost 3 weeks ago now so my memory is fading.
Christmas was good but both of us shed some tears because we missed home. We definitely opened up presents when we got home from work Christmas eve night because we didn’t want to wait until the morning. Hannah got me a really awesome watch and book about Australia that’s going to be awesome to have when we’re on the road or in the air again! I got her a robot shirt and a wallet..she really liked both of them. The next morning we were woken up pretty early to start drinking but we took our time. We went into one of the girls room and hung out while they opened some presents and had some bubbly. It was a good morning. The only time that it actually felt like Christmas was at one point when we were all opening presents together. The day consisted of a great deal of alcohol intake and lots of trips to the pool, Hannah and I spent a lot of time swimming which was nice to get out of the pub.
New Years Eve we both worked and it was insanely busy so that wasn’t really all that good. When 12 hit we did find each other and wish each other Happy New Years though.
Okay I wrote about a week ago so I have a tad bit to add on. We have booked our flights out of here and are leaving on the 9th of February. We are both very very excited to be travelling again and can’t wait to be back on the east coast. We may have someone travelling with us for part of the way so we’re pretty excited about that. Someone to split gas with and someone who we both really really get along with. She’s coming to Canada pretty soon after we’re back home so we can’t wait to see her again. She leaves just about a week of so before we go I think so it will be nice to not have too long without her here.
Other than that there isn’t a whole lot new. We’re just getting on and trying to make time go as quickly as possible so we can get out of here. We’re changing rooms again but at least the one we are moving into still has a bathroom. It’s just frustrating because we’re leaving so soon that is sucks to pack up just to have to unpack again and then pack up again…I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone but me.
Anyways, just thought I would send a little update seeing as you’re probably sick of those pictures. Soon we’ll we on our road trip and updating a whole bunch again. We miss everyone from home so so much and love you all like you wouldn’t believe.
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