loveliness.

Category: Australia

• whitehaven beach: whitsundays

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 22, 2014

  The day we visited Whitehaven beach was probably one of the best ones I’ve ever had. There really isn’t anything I can say to describe Whitehaven, you just really need to go and see it for yourself.

  

  

  Our boat captain set us free for a few hours to explore, but warned us against trying to walk all the way down the beach, because it’s seven kilometers to the end and lots of times people try it and miss their ride back.

  

  

  The sand on the beach is exactly the consistency of brown sugar. I spent about ten minutes taking close up photos of the sand so I wouldn’t forget. It didn’t taste like brown sugar though. I’m assuming…I obviously didn’t lick it just to be sure.

  

  

  We ate lunch at a little picnic area back in the trees, and it was really nice, except for the monitor lizards creeping around everywhere. They have been living there for so long, and seen so many people come through that they aren’t afraid anymore, and they will literally crawl over your feet hoping you’ll drop some food for them.

  At least 3 times I turned around to find one directly behind me. Luckily I was too terrified of them to take a step backwards without checking first, otherwise I would definitely have lost a toe. It didn’t help that we had just been to Indonesia, and these little guys looked exactly like baby Komodo dragons.

  

  

  There were also a few snakes around, one in particular would not be deflected and kept trying to crawl up the table legs while we were eating. The boys thought this was quite entertaining, but me and the other girl at the table were not very amused and ended up standing on top of our chairs to finish our meal.

  After lunch we wandered off into the trees, there are a few different walking trails that take you to different places around the island. The one we followed was only about ten minutes of walking before we arrived at an amazing lookout point.

  

  

  

  Eventually we tore ourselves away and went back down to the beach to walk as far as we could before it was time to go. We only had about 3 hours on Whitehaven beach, but I loved every second of it.

  It’s kind of crazy that places that beautiful even exist in real life, and it’s even crazier to think that I got to see it for myself.

  

  

  Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Australia, beaches, boating, travel, whitehaven, Whitsundays

• low tide

  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 20, 2014

  During low tide in Airlie Beach, which happens around noon (and then presumably again at some point during the night, but I wasn’t generally in any condition to investigate this) the water goes out hundreds of meters, leaving a very wide beach, tons of tide pools, and access to some small islands on foot.

  At first, I was just wandering along the beach looking in the tide pools, but then I decided to brave the unknown and walk out to the island that was quite far out, but walkable at that moment. I was a bit worried that I would get out there just as the tide was rushing back in and I’d be trapped out there for the next 12 hours, but I must have read Baby Island a hundred times when I was young, and it gave me (probably false) confidence in my ability to survive alone on a desert island.

  

  

  I started squelching my way out there, it got very muddy after awhile, and even though it was only about 6 inches of water, I was convinced there was one of those sharks that blend into the bottom to lure innocent fish waiting for me to step on it. Again, why someone with such a rampant phobia of sharks spends so much time around the ocean is really anybody’s guess.

  

  

  I finally made it out there, with both ankles intact which was no small feat when you consider the mud I had to slog through, followed by the millions of slippery, jagged rocks that made up the rest of the path, and started to investigate, keeping an eye out for any signs of buried treasure or Tom Hanks.

  As far as I could tell there was only one other person out there, a middle-aged German lady who had followed me to the island. I thought it was courageous of her to trust me, a perfect stranger in a floral print onesie, not to lead her into certain doom, but there we were.

  

  

  Just as I was turning the corner beside the first mandrake, an older Australian gentleman poked his head around the tree and cheerfully announced that there was a dead tiger shark on the island, just up the way, and then continued strolling along back towards the beach.

  I passed the message along to my new German friend, but instead of turning around and heading the other way, she got very excited and rushed off to find it. Even though I really didn’t want to try to find the shark (it was probably dead, if it was, in fact, on the island, but it could have been an elaborate ruse) I felt sort of responsible for her being out there in the first place, so I went along with her.

  

  We walked all the way down to the other end of the island along the rocks, searching for the shark, but we couldn’t find it, although at one point we both noticed a putrid smell, but we couldn’t see where it was coming from. I think we were both looking for a small animal washed up right along the water.

  We were about halfway back to where I’d met the man, when all of a sudden she stopped and and gasped and pointed at something wedged in the mandrakes.

  

  It turned out to be a massive, dead shark, and also the source of the smell we hadn’t been able to place earlier. It was really scary, and also really sad.

  After that my companion and I parted ways. I crept around the island a bit more, but once there are sharks in trees all bets are kind of off, so I was too jumpy to explore by myself for much longer, and I started the long, muddy journey back to the main beach, checking carefully for buried sharks before each step.

  

  Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged airlie beach, Australia, islands, low tide, sharks, Whitsundays

• airlie beach: whitsundays

  Posted at 6:28 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 16, 2014

  We spent almost a week in Airlie Beach, and I loved every minute of it. It was so beautiful there, it was kind of like a dream.

  

  

  It actually really felt like a dream because to get to Airlie Beach, you have to drive down this quiet highway through small farming communities, it actually really reminded me of the small towns in Saskatchewan where I grew up.

  But then you take two rights, and drive 20 minutes past a field full of kangaroos, and emerge on a beautiful white sand beach and turquoise sea.

  

  

  

  We stayed at the Magnum’s Backpackers, and it was great. Magnum’s is right in the middle of town, so it’s really easy to walk everywhere, and it’s right beside the Woolworth’s, and it has a nice big kitchen, so we were able to save a lot of money by cooking almost all of our meals, rather than eating out.

  Also, they have live music almost every evening, and falling asleep to acoustic guitar music every night was lovely.

  

  

  We also did the Airlie Beach Pub Crawl one night, and it was actually really fun. We met a group of Aussies from Brisbane who were in Airlie on vacation, and a girl from Texas who was WOOFing in Australia on a chicken farm, and had a great time with all of them.

  

  

  Airlie Beach has a huge park along the water with a gigantic, free swimming pool for everyone to enjoy, and it has a walking/biking path that stretches 5 KM along the ocean. We rented bikes one day and cruised the boardwalk.

  

  

  

  We also found a hike that would take us up to the top of the hills to see the view of the Whitsundays, but we only made it about ten minutes in before we saw a snake on the path, and then we spun around and ran as fast as we could back the other way.

  

  

  Airlie Beach is a pretty small town, and it doesn’t have a lot of diving, so even though our original plan was to stay there and try to find jobs, we decided pretty quickly we wouldn’t be able to stay there long term, but our time there was amazing, and I would absolutely recommend it to anybody who is traveling through Australia.

  

  

  Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged airlie beach, Australia, beaches, islands, Whitsundays

• natural bridge

  Posted at 9:18 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 15, 2014

  On the day we left Byron we were planning to spend most of the day driving, but I’d heard about the Natural Bridge and was hoping to get there, and it had been awhile since we did any hiking, so we decided to take a little detour to see it.

  

  

  

  The road through Springbook National Park to get to the Natural Bridge is a bit treacherous, it has a lot of animal crossings and some very steep inclines, but it’s a very pretty drive with lots to look at.

  

  

  

  The actual hike to get to the Natural Bridge is pretty tame, it’s really more of a walk, it’s all paved with railings, but it’s nice to be strolling around in the trees anyway.

  It was actually kind of cold in the rainforest, a group of people were walking out dressed in long pants and jackets and they looked at me like I was crazy as I was strolling in in my tank top and shorts, but it wasn’t too bad.

  

  

  

  The Natural Bridge was formed by a small river flowing through the rock over millions of years. It eventually carved out a cave. The waterfall is pretty cool, but we didn’t even get to see the very best thing about the cave, which is the glowworms.

  At night, the entire place is completely lit up by thousands of glowworms, and it’s supposed to be amazing.

  

   

  I reallllly wanted to stay to see it, but since it was only 9 a.m., and we were hoping to make it a few hours north of the Sunshine Coast, we decided it didn’t really make sense to sit there all night waiting for nightfall.

  

  

  If you are going to be in the area, try to plan it so you can go later in the afternoon, and stay to see the cave all lit up at night.

  

  Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, natural bridge, road trip, Springbook National Park, springbrook, The Natural Bridge, travel

• byron bay

  Posted at 8:56 am by jasminedesirees, on October 14, 2014

  We loved Byron Bay almost as soon as we arrived, it’s just such a cool, laid back surfer town, with lots of art, music and interesting people from all over the world.

  

  

  

  My love for Byron was solidified permanently when we stopped in at the Aquarius Backpacker’s for lunch, and they had poutine and Caesar’s on the menu, a legacy from having so many Canadian travelers staying and working there over the years.

  

  

  

  We actually ended up coming back to Byron Bay a month later and staying at Aquarius for a week, and it was a great experience. We met some awesome people, and had a blast, so if you are looking for a fun, cheap (relatively) place to stay in Byron, definitely check it out.

  

  

  The beaches in Byron are gorgeous and huge, so even when there are a ton of people there, you still don’t feel like you don’t have your own space. There are some really nice hikes in the area, including the lighthouse trail, and there are lots of good bars and restaurants.

  

  On our way through Byron the first time, we had beach picnics every night to watch the sunset. We also met a really smart dog that kept trying to catch seagulls, and then bring them back to us so he could share in our picnic. We gave him a bit of chicken, but decided not to try any of his seagull. He seemed kind of offended.

  

  

  I really wanted to spend a few more months in Byron, but I also didn’t want to have to sell one of my kidneys on the black market, and that would have been the only way we could afford to stay. I’m glad we got to spent a few weeks there at least, it is one of my favourite towns on the Gold Coast, which was my favourite area in Australia.

  

  

  Posted in Australia, travel | 4 Comments | Tagged Australia, byron bay, gold coast, travel

• byron lighthouse

  Posted at 8:16 am by jasminedesirees, on October 13, 2014

  The Byron Bay lighthouse is up on top of a cliff, surrounded by the most beautiful turquoise water and green hills. We had just gotten into town, and were cruising around getting the lay of the land, when we saw signs pointing toward the lighthouse, and we decided to check it out.

  

  

  

  There is a walking/jogging path all the way up to the top from town, with offshoots leading to different beaches, and the most Eastern point of Australia, which is pretty close to the lighthouse.

  I was feeling kind of lazy after spending most of the morning at the hospital (I had touched some fire coral while diving in Komodo the week before, and my hands were a mess) so we drove most of the way up and stopped at the last parking lot before the top.

  

  

  

  As soon as I got out of the car I was besieged by this sweet older guy who was a hang gliding instructor, and was wondering if I wanted to try hang gliding off of a nearby hill, landing on the beach below.

  

  

  

  I’ve never been hang gliding before, or really had any urge to go, but the sheer beauty of the hills and the beach was kind of overwhelming, and I wanted to go as bad as I’ve ever wanted to do anything in my life.

  Unfortunately my hands were basically just decorative at that point, so I wasn’t able to take the leap, but we stood there and watched the gliders for a really long time.

  

  

  

  Then we made the last hike up the hill to see the lighthouse. If you know me, you know I kind of have a thing for lighthouses, and this one was stunning. The view from the top of the cliffs was amazing, and I could see surfers and whales enjoying the water down below.

  

  There is even a cute little cafe at the top, so you can reward yourself with an ice cream cone if you make it all the way up to the top.

  

  

  Even if you are just passing through Byron Bay, be sure to take the time to stop in for a visit, you won’t be disappointed.

  

  

  Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 4 Comments | Tagged Australia, beach, byron bay, lighthouse, travel

• free as we’ll ever be

  Posted at 7:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 8, 2014

  This is the story and a few photos of our road trip up the Eastern Coast of Australia. We started in Sydney, and drove all the way up to Cairns, stopping in at the Whitsundays, Byron Bay, and lots of neat little towns along the way. Whenever we saw something interesting, we’d pull off and check it out.

  

  

  We didn’t really have a time limit for when we wanted to get to Cairns, but we knew that’s where we were headed, we hoped to get jobs on a dive boat and we were told that was the place to go.

  The drive from Sydney to Cairns is about 30 hours, but it really didn’t seem that long, because we did it over about two weeks, with longer stops in Byron and Airlie Beach.

  

  

  

  We were sleeping in the car most of the time, we bought a Subaru that was quite roomy once the seats were laid down, and we bought a cooler and a few utensils and things so we could stop in at a grocery store every few days, and not have to spend money on eating in restaurants. It worked out really well, although there came a point where I was sure I would never eat rotisserie chicken ever again.

  We had our towels, the sarong I had to buy in Cambodia so I could go into Angkor Wat, and a few sweatshirts that we hung around the windows to block out the light, and we bought two yoga matts, two pillows, and a quilt to sleep with.

  

  

  

  We actually bought four pillows, because at first we were just trying to save money everywhere we could so we bought the $5 pillows, but they were really terrible, so we had to go back and get better ones a few days later.

  Let me tell you, if there is one thing you shouldn’t skimp on when you are sleeping in the back of a car, it is pillows. Splurge on the $10 ones, you will be glad you did.

  

  

  As for bathrooms and showers, if you are going to be living the gypsy life, there really isn’t any better place than Australia. Every town has a beach with a nice bathroom and showers, and a lot of them even have free electric beach BBQ’s that anyone can use.

  

  

  

  That was one of the things I liked most about Australia, is that they have all of these awesome free amenities for people in their towns to use. At least 4 of the towns we stayed at had huge, free pool/waterparks along the beach for anyone to use, as well as BBQ’s, fitness equipment, and free wi-fi. And people seemed to take care of these things, so they were always nice for the next person to use it.

  I was astonished that I didn’t see a single trace of graffiti penis, and nobody had thrown any of the playground equipment in the pool. I guess some people can have nice things.

  

  

  All in all, we made it up to Cairns without major incident (if you don’t count how horrible it was to see so many kangaroos dead on the side of the highway), we didn’t have any car troubles at all. We got pulled over by the cops twice for speeding, but we only got a ticket once (it was ridiculously expensive though, $225 for going 113 km/h), and we never had any issues with sleeping in the car, except for one night when we tried to sleep in Byron Bay.

  Because Byron is such a big tourist area for backpackers, and there are so many hostels competing for business, they don’t want people camping illegally, or sleeping in their cars, so they hire a private security officer to prowl the town at night looking for offenders, and the tickets are about $1,000 per person.

  

  

  

  Luckily a friendly local knocked on our window and told us about the by-laws before we got into any trouble, and we moved one town over for that night.

  

  

  Our months in Australia were completely amazing, and being able to see so much of such a massive country in such a short time was definitely part of the reason.

  It was so nice to not be tied down to a schedule, and to just see everything at our own pace, and follow our whims, discovering new destinations along the way.

  

  

  Posted in Australia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged Australia, freedom, road trip, travel

• bondi

  Posted at 12:00 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 7, 2014

  Bondi beach is probably the most famous beach in Australia, and I was excited to go check it out at some point while we were there.

  I didn’t realize how quickly it would happen though. We landed in Sydney, got our rental car, and set off bravely, or as bravely as you can in a new city, in a new country, driving on the wrong side of the road, with no GPS.

  

  

  

  We were immediately lost, and I can’t really blame it all on the lack of GPS, since my map app was still working, it just wasn’t voice navigating me explicitly from Point A to Point B, I actually had to read the map, so we were basically set up for failure.

  As luck would have it, we, as they say, “failed so hard we almost won”, and we ended up accidentally driving straight to Bondi.

  

  

  

  It was August 1st, so technically the “middle of winter” in Sydney. I use the term loosely, since I’m from Saskatchewan where we still have school when it’s minus 30.

  But it was a beautiful day, even by Sydney winter standards, and there were lots of people out on the beach, including a few people in bikinis, who I suspect were foreigners as well.

  

  

  The area around Bondi is great, with a running/biking trail, some cute little shops and a park. They were even setting up for a free concert on the beach that night.

  My favourite thing about Bondi was the murals along the walls, all the way down. I posted pics of a few of them, but there were hundreds of beautiful ones.

  

  

  We wandered around people watching and enjoying the sunshine for awhile, but apparently all of the excitement (combined with a 1 a.m. flight from Bali) was too much for me, so after about an hour I had to crawl into the back of our rental car and have a little nap.

  

  

  I didn’t find out about the Bondi to Coogee walking trail until after we were a few days north of Sydney, but if you are going to be at Bondi and have a few hours to kill, I would definitely check it out.

  

  

  Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, beaches, bondi beach, travel

• writer’s walk

  Posted at 7:13 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 6, 2014

  When you get off the ferry in the Sydney Harbour, all along the way to the Opera House there are dedications to well-known authors who are from or have spent time in Australia. It’s known as the Writer’s Walk.

  It’s kind of like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, except way better.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Posted in Australia, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged art, Australia, sydney, sydney harbor, writer's walk, writing

• forgotten songs

  Posted at 12:30 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 3, 2014

  I read about Forgotten Songs on the plane on the way to Sydney, and it wasn’t too far from Sydney Harbour, so we decided to check it out while we were wandering around one day.

  

  

  

  It’s kind of hard to find, especially if you are me and are blessed with the combination of being utterly unobservant and also really terrible at directions. I consistently say “left” whenever I mean “right” and if I ever get a divorce, that will likely be the predominant reason.

  Forgotten Songs is down a little side alley, over top of a cute little restaurant. I thought the exhibit was beautiful when I saw it, but since I’d only been in Australia a few days, the significance was kind of lost on me. As I spent more time there, and traveled away from the city, I started to notice the very distinctive and interesting bird calls of the native species.

  

  

  

  I’m not much of a bird person, although I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a strong opinion either way until I moved to Hawaii, but spending four years dodging pigeons at every turn will put you off the whole species pretty quickly.

  

  

  But even I had to admit that the bird calls we were hearing in Australia were very unique. There was an especially interesting one that sounds almost exactly like a woman screaming bloody murder, so that was a fun addition to the ambiance while we were sleeping in the car on deserted dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, but I got used to it eventually.

  I’m not sure how long the exhibit will be there, but if you’re in Sydney over the next few months, stop in and check it out. You can learn more about the exhibit here.

  

  

  Posted in art, Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged art, Australia, birds, forgotten songs, sydney

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