Good-day from Downunder

25/05/05 Wednesday - 26/05/05 Thursday (Day 180-181)

Moved out to Freemantle, a suburb of Perth.


(Ship moored of the beach at Freemantle)

27/05/05 Friday (Day 182)

In exchange for acting as guinea pigs me and some other backpackers get a tour of the tunnels beneath Freemantle prison. Afterwards I strolled around Freo Market and paid a visit to the motor museum.


(Ferrari 250 GT/L, Freemantle Motor Museum)


(Rolls Royce, Silver Ghost)

Freematnle is a nice little place with a good deal more character than Perth.

28/05/05 Saturday (Day 183)


(Boats moored just off Rottnest Island)

An easy day spent on Rottnest Island (originally christened rats nest by the Dutch who discovered it in the 1600´s after the "Quokkas", the marsupials native to the Island).


(Quokka, Rottnest Island)

29/05/05 Sunday (Day 184)

Another relaxing day this time spent at Cottisloe beach finishing off "Vietnam the 10,000 days War".

30/05/05 Monday (Day 185)

Visited the Freemantle Maritime Museum (which included a tour of a real Ozzie Sub) before heading back to Perth.


(Torpedo Tubes of Submarine, Freemantle)

31/05/05 Tuesday (185)

North to Cervantes and a gander at the Pinnacles


(The Pinnacles, Cervantes, Western Australia)


(Striking yet another pose at the pinnacles)

01/06/05 Wednesday (Day 186)

Further north to Kalbarri National Park

02/06/05 Thursday (Day 187)

Trek through Kalbarri National park before canoeing down the nearby gorges.


(Natures Window, Kalbarri National Park, Western Australia)

03/06/05 Friday (Day 188)

Sick....

04/06/05 Saturday (Day 189)

Off back to Perth

05/06/05 Sunday (Day 190)

Flew into Ayrs Rock airport from Perth and join my tour group for the next three days. This was to proof to be the highlight of my time in Australia...due in no small part to the great bunch of people in my group.


(Ayrs Rock by day)


(Ayrs Rock, later in the evening)

06/06/05 Monday (Day 191)

Up early and off to the Olgas


(The Olgas)


(....me at the Olgas)


(The Olgas yet again)


(Around the campfire in the red centre)

07/06/05 Tuesday (Day 192)


(Mount Connor as seen on the way to Kings Canyon)

Kings Canyon and a novelty ride on a camel before making our way back to Alice Springs, followed by a great night out later that night at Melanka´s disco......oh the reckless abandon of it all.


(Yours truly at Kings Canyon)


(me again...)


(Kings Canyon)

08/06/05 Wednesday (Day 193)

I spent the day wandering around with Anna an English girl from our group. It was bloody baking hot so we decided against walking to the airschool although if we hadn´t been hungover from the night before we might just have given it a shot. So instead we head off to visit the botanical gardens. To be honest I was surprised they actually had one here in Alice Springs. The phrase "botanical gardens" conjures up images of romantic strolls through leafy walkways surrounded by colourful flowers with the sounds of birds chirping in the background. No such natural wonders in Alice Springs, I´m afraid. Instead we are greeted with a sign announcing our arrival at the botanical garden "arid zone"....well I´m being extremely euphemistic in describing it as a bit of a disappointment....ah well in fairness I suppose we weren´t expecting it to be that spectacular anyway.

09/06/05 Thursday (Day 194)

Said goodbye to all and headed off to Cairns....


(Cairns so-called beach....more of a swamp really)

10/06/05 Friday (Day 195)

Off up to Kuranda a little town in the Jungle/rainforrest above Cairns where I had some glorious food. Later went out in the notorious Woolshed of Cairns fame....something similar to Copper face jacks back home in Dublin....great craic.


(Train to Kuranda)

11/06/05 Saturday (Day 196)

Spent the day soaking up some rays at the lagoon and headed to the woolshed later I believe.

12/06/05 Sunday (Day 197)

Not much happening.....but I did book a tour to Cape Tribulation for the following day.

13/06/05 Monday (Day 198)

Sampled the delights of the exotic fruit farm, Cape Tribulation.

14/06/05 Tuesday (Day 199)

Strolled around Cape Tribulation for the day.


(Crocodile spotted on the Daintree river)


(Me in the Daintree)


(View from a look-out point above the Daintree)

15/06/05 Wednesday (Day 200)

Arrived in Port Douglas a very nice place but probably the most expensive place I´ve been to in Oz.

16/06/05 Thursday (Day 201)


(Raising the sails on the Shaolin)

Went out on the great barrier reef with the crew of the "Shaolin" a restored chinese junk boat. Its a fairly amazing sight unfortunately my photos don´t do it justice.


(A Section of the coral reef)


(One of the Ozzie guys who did most of my underwater photography)


(...and his friend)


(Pulling back into Port Douglas)

17/06/05 Friday (Day 202)

Cairns again....

18/06/05 Saturday (Day 203)

Got me one of those hop-on-hop-off bus tickets all the way to Melbourne.

19/06/05 Sunday (Day 204)

Hit Townsville but didn´t stay there long as a friend from home texted me to let me know himself and the girlfriend Jennifer were on the way to Hervey Bay to do the Frazer Island tour.

20/06/05 Monday - 22/06/05 Wednesday (Days 205-207)

These few days were taken up with our tour of Fraser Island.


(Old Shipwreck, Fraser Island)


(Niall and Jennifer, Fraser Island)


(Lone Dingo, Fraser Island)

23/06/05 Thursday - 24/06/05 Friday (Days 208-209)

Two fairly unremarkable days spent in Brisbane.


(Bird posing, Brisbane)

25/06/05 Saturday (Day 210)

Day trip to Movieworld, Surfers Paradise. The Police Academy show was pretty good but the rest of it was fairly tacky...I thought.

26/06/05 Sunday (Day 211)

Its raining extremely heavily in Byron bay so I had to abandon my hopes of a walk to the lighthouse.

27/06/05 Monday (Day 212)

Off to Port Macquarie.

28/06/05 Tuesday (Day 213)

Raining heavily here also went for a walk anyway and grapped a Guinness in the local Irish bar.

29/06/05 Wednesday - 13/07/05 Wednesday (Day 214-228)

The entire of this time was spent in or around Sydney.


(The Sydney Opera house by night)

The first few days I spent seeing some of the main sights like Sydney harbour, darling harbour, the opera house and the botanical gardens to name a few etc.


(Two Cockatoos pose for the camera, botanical gardens, Sydney)


(A duck glides gracefully by, botanical gardens, Sydney)


(Bats in the trees, Botanical gardens, Sydney)

Finally my sister arrived from Ireland suffering from a severe case of Jetlag. So I left her rest for awhile and updated the old blog. Eventually Mags arose predictably enough with shopping on her mind.


(My Sister Mags rocks into Sydney airport)


(Sydney Harbour)


(Mags on the Sydney Harbour Bridge)

While Mags was about we tended to eat out more...although in fairness I didn´t need much persuasion in that regard. My own personal favourite being Thai Power in Kings Cross. Cheap and absolutely fabulous.

Somewhere along the line we met up with the brothers Kenihan from home...remarkable hosts. Brian led us to probably the best pub in Sydney "The Old Fitzroy" a pub with a nice cosy atmosphere....like a nice quite local back home.


(The Limerick/Sydney mafia having a late night Shindig at an undisclosed location somewhere in Sydney)

After a night in Chez Kenihans myself and Mags headed up to the blue mountains, just outside Sydney. Its a very scenic place and I enjoyed it much more than many of the much hyped places on the east coast. They have a really nice hostel there too with a reading room that smells exactly like my granny´s house all the way back home in Tipperary.


(Big Fish swimming in the Sydney Harbour Aquarium)

After two days trekking around the blue mountains we headed back to Sydney where Brian took us top-roping for the evening....and was good enough to drive me to the airport the following morning on his way to work.


(The three sisters in the Blue Mountains, outside sydney)


(From this close up you can see just how big the three sisters are by comparing them to the people crossing the bridge)

So there you have it a full report from an upside down world where gravity works miracles.....stay tuned for an account of my travels in New Zealand where I was privileged to encounter some of the most scenic landscapes of my travels so far.