Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
The Best Of Australia
Australia, My
Uluru shadows
Where to begin with Australia… So many things I loved about it and so many things I have my reservations for; always accepting the fact that I only spent a bit more than two months in the country… My reason for visiting from the beginning was my good friend Timmy that we had studied together in England. I would see him after many years. While at it of course I wanted to see as much as possible – as much more things Australian possible to be exact.
The East Coast of Australia had its ups and downs for me expectation-wise. It sometimes reminded me the Costa Brava of Spain. Places like Surfers’ Paradise or Gold Coast should really be avoided by independent travellers. The cost of moving around Australia is big enough as it is… but even if that was not the case, I guess there is nothing Australian about it – except the Australian dollars made waterproof for the surfing community 
Byron Bay is a special place but all the community around it state the same; it is changing. Cairns… well I guess the diving of the Great Barrier Reef just about saves it.
Melbourne has a special place in my heart, for it could be a city I would move in to live and work. Its people are just amazing but like all cultural and multiracial centers of other countries (Barcelona, Berlin, Cape Town etc.) it does not represent the country on its whole.
Arriving in Adelaide and beginning the journey through the outback, I felt I was seeing something authentic and ancient. The walk by the Uluru rock was a lifetime experience. Thanks to our guide we got where no other people were. Everybody is starting from the sunrise point, we did not. Words cannot describe the feeling – something really mystical. Arriving in Darwin I was both trying to grasp whatever meaning Australia had for me and both plan the journey to Southeast Asia.
All and all, Australia is a great place and the visitor can see everywhere the huge gap that’s created when you put a new man on an old land. The aborigines are a great examples of how the so called “integration” is a white man’s polite way of saying “be like us”. But they can never be in my opinion. Not when this white man lives under so many rules and laws and considers correct to be babysat by his government. I wondered so many times; why can’t Australia do without British or American influences? I guess it is a mark that the John Howard administration left. They have the land, they have the sources and Australia can be a country of its own if its people wanted it. All and all I thank them for their hospitality and I wish I sometime could go back and live more of its wilderness and natural beauty – which is a difficult beauty to catch by tourist-brochure standards but when you catch it it follows you forever…
Melbourne to Darwin a.k.a the Outback
soon to come…
Melbourne
soon to come…
Brisbane to Cairns
Brisbane
soon to come…
Rainbow Beach
soon to come…
Airlie Beach
soon to come…
Mission Beach
soon to come…
Cairns
soon to come…
Great Barrier Reef Diving
soon to come…
The one-month plan for Australia
I just finished booking / planning my route for the rest of my time in Australia. I would normally try to avoid so much planning but Australia is big (as big as Europe) and the distances are ruthless so here I go
The East Coast part of the trip will be passing from Byron Bay – Brisbane – Rainbow Beach – Fraser Island – Rainbow Beach – Airlie Beach – Mission Beach – Cairns. In Cairns I will try to do some diving as the Great Barrier Reef is a one-off chance for me to experience the depths of the ocean and of course exercise my newly possesed diver’s license!
Continuing I fly from Cairns to Melbourne on the 19th of March and then after staying there some days I will head up to Adelaide and then Alice Springs where I’ll be doing the outback in a week (Uluru, Kakadu etc.), finally arriving in Darwin on the 2nd of April. From there I am free to fly wherever I want and begin the next part of the trip to Southeast Asia. Indonesia is the cheapest country to jump to from Darwin so I’ll probably do that. I will keep you posted of any changes of course. For now; ciao!
PS: By the way I have gotten rid of my daypack (sent it back to Spain) and I am now traveling only with my big backpack – a good exercise for Southeast Asia in the months to come.
Walking down the beach in Byron Bay…
Creature on the shores of Byron Bay...
… I found this creature. Afterwards many other followed of the same species. They were washed out by the surf and I just could not believe its beauty and its perfection. Of course I have not seen anything like it in my whole life so if anyone knows what it is please let me know. To me it seems like a monster that you have to kill in one of those computer games in order to pass the level. But this is probably not it. Australia is full of creatures like this; both exotic (to me) and strange. I could not help wondering… who designed all this? What are they supposed to be here for? At the end of the day… what is this thing?
SSI Open Water Diver course
So I am back in Australia, Byron Bay. My original intention when I got back from NZ was not to stay more than one week here and until now I am keeping this promise to myself. Strangely enough I decided to become a diver in between (something to do while I get ready for the next move) and today I did it! I finished my classes and from now on I can dive in open waters!!!
Starting Tuesday this week, the classes were pretty hectic but once I got the hang of it, there was no problem “graduating”. We have done four dives in open water near the well known (amongst divers) Julian Rocks in Byron Bay. The next dive I plan it to be in the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns. The excitement levels are pretty high especially when I am thinking about underwater photography (yummy).
Choosing between SSI and PADI; the two most popular worldwide known Scuba diving courses, I chose SSI as it is more flexible when taught. At the end of the day they are both acknowledged and prepare you for exactly the same thing; being able to breath underwater. I also have to thank my instructor Mick for his patience and send him a big “G’day!” if he ever reads this. We were lucky to have seen many marine species in only four dives; green sea turtles, leopard sharks and so much more whose names I do not even remember but have written in my diver’s log (hehehe).
That is all for now, I’ll let you know the exact route of the rest of my time in Australia soon (probably weekend). For now, be good and d(r)ive safe
Scuba Schools International
