For 1 year around the globe – part V

As many for others our first contact with Down Under was Sydney – a city right by the ocean, with the most iconic Australian building, the Opera house. Of course we did a tour of it, to see all the concert halls and we were so lucky to hear two songs of The Beatles tribute show All you need is love. A tip: From Sydney Harbour YHA you get a stunning view of the Opera house. We enjoyed walking over the harbour bridge, although it was pouring, we took a look at the Rocks district, walked downtown, went to the Sydney tower to take in 3600 views of the city, enjoyed the ferry ride to laid back Manly beach and walked the famous Bondi to Coggee (and further to lovely Maroubra) walk. But the highlight of our Sydney stay was the New Year ’s Eve harbour cruise – we booked a boat, which took us in front of the Harbour bridge and the Opera house before midnight. It was so amazing, we cannot describe it with worlds.

We stopped briefly in Brisbane, but enough to visit Steve Irwin´s  paradise – the Australia zoo. I´m sure, you all know Steve, the famous crocodile hunter, who was unfortunately killed a few years ago by a stingray. His family now runs this zoo, which is really cool and you can see the animals are well taken cared for. With different encounters they try to bring the wildlife closer to us and to help us understand animals better. At noon everyone gathered in the amphitheatre for the big show – first different birds, from parrots, eagles to harpies were flying over our heads, then a big crock swam in and the presenter showed us how to treat crocodiles. In the zoo kangaroos, wallabies and koalas can be cuddled. 

 

 

Back in the city we enjoyed our rooftop pool with a nice view of the city in Brisbane City YHA.

It´s a small island just off the eastern Australian coast, where you can see koalas in their natural habitat. We based ourselves in Magnetic Island YHA, just next to the Koala sanctuary. It was interesting, because we could hold crocodiles, snakes, koalas, parrots and lizards. 

 

But there are plenty of things you can do on Magnetic island – let’s say snorkelling (but in certain times of the year you should wear a stinger suit): they have a snorkelling trail in the Geoffrey Bay, where a shipwreck can be seen, but the visibility at our visit was just catastrophic. At this beach rock wallabies come down to the street and you can feed them (if you have proper food – please don´t give them human food as they will be sick). We went to another beach, Arthur bay, where the visibility was much better, but you have to hike a little to get there. We were almost alone on the beach and snorkelling was good, but then we saw a shark. And you know all this stories of meeting a shark in the Australian ocean … We swam back nearer to shore and snorkelled there. 

 

 

The next days we enjoyed at Horseshoe bay, as there is a stinger net and we could swim (almost) without worrying about stingers, the beach is nice and just over the street are many cafes and restaurants. 

This northern Australian city is the hub for the Great barrier reef. We went straight to Cairns Central YHA, as we had only good experiences with these hostels. Swimming in Cairns isn´t a good idea, as a river merges the ocean and often crocodiles can be spotted. But they have a nice lagoon just right on the promenade and for the real beach feeling you can lie on sand. 

 

We went on a snorkelling tour to the outer reef and it was amazing! We snorkelled a lot in many places and oceans, but we have never seen corals sooo huge. The fish were everywhere, giant clams  were really giant, we could see sharks, stinger rays and on the last snorkelling spot we even swam with a turtle.  It was a day to remember. 

Finally we arrived in the centre of Australia. Again, Alice Springs YHA was our home for the night, before we started our 6 days Outback tour – a great tour we booked with YHA Australia, where 6 days, 7 nights, all meals, entrance fees and transport with the ending point in Adelaide are included. Perfect for us! But the Australian Outback greeted us in its own way – with a huge storm. So we enjoyed the amenities of the hostel and went to bed early, a big adventure was waiting for us.

From Alice Springs we drove with our cute group of 16 people and a passionate guide Niki to Kings Canyon. This was our first contact with Aboriginal culture, as many locations in the canyon are sacred to the Aborigines. We walked up to the rim, around for stunning views from different angles and down to a waterhole called Garden of Eden. This is one of the special Aboriginal places, where water shouldn’t be touched. The next day my wish came true and I saw Uluru for real – the biggest monolith in the world stands proudly in the red dessert, still having an enchanting power over people, who are willing to understand. We went to different places around the rock, our guide told us stories connected to the sights we saw, at the end we went to the visitors centre. In the evening we hoped for an unforgettable sunset at Uluru, but mother nature was stubborn – cloudy grey weather didn´t allow not one sunray. The next day was the same with the sunrise – no colours. We went to Kata Tjuta, let´s say Uluru´s sister. The Valley of the winds was easy to walk, as the sun was still hiding and it wasn´t hot at all (we imagined the Outback differently ). But then it cleared up! In the afternoon Niki was so nice and took us to Uluru again, so we could do the base walk – a 10km walk around the Rock. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and Uluru was shining in all her glory. Imagine how happy I was. But that wasn´t it – the sunset was beautiful and the night sky was so full of stars, you can´t imagine a night can be so beautiful. 

 

An underground town in the middle of nowhere. Why would someone live here? It´s because of the opals - precious stones are buried here, waiting to be discovered. We visited a Mine museum, afterwards went to the shop (yes, I got a beautiful solid opal ring), we tried our luck with finding opals, we had dinner and again we could enjoy a colourful sunset. 

The last two days we spent at the foothills of Flinders ranges, where we visited salt lakes, which reminded us of the ones in Bolivia, Alligator gorge, where we bumped into wallabies and a kangaroo and we ended our trip in Adelaide – a nice, calm town with a beautiful picturesque beach (the sand was one of the softest!). Again, we chose Adelaide Central YHA for our stay, but we couldn´t enjoy  it, because we left already the next morning.

 

We had 3 days for this section of the southern coast. We went hiking in the Grampians, where we liked the McKenzie Waterfall. Sleeping in a local village was a special experience, as there are kangaroos everywhere! The next days we finally arrived at the great ocean road. The sights are breath taking and the sunset was really rewarding. I also went down to the ocean and there you´ll get the feeling how powerful the ocean is and how huge these erosioned rock are. Our German friends were so lucky to see a tiger snake! The next morning we woke up early again and went for sunrise, but it was cloudy and rainy again (what is it with the rain in Australia?). We went to the beach and the ocean was raging – now we could see, how this coastline was formed. Ending our trip in Bells beach was cool: we could see surfer pros doing their magic on the waves and the Split Point Lighthouse gave a final coastal touch to the experience.

 

The main reason to end our trip around Australia in Melbourne was to go to the Australian open and ideally see Roger Federer play as Jure is a huge fan. The first thing we did, when we arrived at Melbourne Central YHA was to pull out the computer and buy tickets for the next day. We had a great time at Australian Open: first we saw two women´s matches, one with Sharapova and then he came – the one and only Roger Federer. He won in 4 sets against Grigor Dimitrov (baby Fed). The remaining days we enjoyed the city. The Yarra river winds through the tall skyscrapers, the promenade invites with numerous cafes and restaurants and now and then we took a look at different public viewing events. We went to a brewery with our new Canadian friends, where we all got 6 samples of beer. Then we all entered a competition in tapping beer and we won another 7 glasses. Needless to say, we went right into a restaurant for some food. We really liked Eureka 88 – the highest building in the southern hemisphere – seeing Melbourne by day, marvel at the sunset from so high and at the end watching how the city puts it´s romantic shiny dress on was memorable. 

 

Australia was great – we totally loved it. It´s easy to travel, everyone understands you, the food is good and the coffee is great. It offers a lot: from big cities, stunning coastlines, red dessert with some amazing rock formations, beautiful animals and colourful coral gardens. It can be a little expensive, but look for good deals. We found one at YHA Australia, where you can buy an ePack – 10 nights in HI hostels around Australia for 280 AUD  or 15 nights for 405 AUD. We also booked other trips with them (Rock to water), and everything was just great. Thank you so much YHA Australia for all the support and help and see you soon again.