Eighteen days to go...
As we embark on our first bus journey in Oz, and it couldn't have gone smoother. In fact, given we have the 18 days over and done with now, we can go ahead and say the backpacker trail/east coast of Australia is one of the most well set up places to go travelling. The hostels are amazing, usually massive with great social areas, industrial-sized kitchens, and just an overall great experience. We've a lot to get through, so we'll try and power through it and highlight our...highlights.
First up was a short bus from Cairns to Townsville, approx 3 hours. We didn't stay though, as we got the early bus so we could catch the ferry straight over to Magnetic (Maggie) Island, where we'd be spending three nights. You get what you pay for here, way more expensive than the ferries in Bali, or the Philippines, but you don't constantly feel like you could die at any moment - so it made for a nice change. The public bus is waiting for you as you get off the ferry, and on we went to Base Magnetic Island - one of the many absolutely class hostels we stayed at.
This is the view you wake up to every morning, as the hostel has access to its own beach:
The chill out area has hammocks to sit in the sun, and attempt to catch up on a travel diary which seems forever impossible to catch up on:
Nearby hiking trails, to venture through and find a decent spot to get a glimpse of the coastline and sunset - keeping an eye out for spiders/snakes too:
And that covers the start of our quick stay here - one thing the island is famous for is that you have a very good chance to spot Koalas in the wild here, so on we went in the morning sun to try and find some:
And find them we did! Though after spotting them in the eucalyptus trees having a snooze we wondered would they be any more active or was this our lot. Looking it up after, it appears koalas sleep for approx 20 hours a day, and are nocturnal. Still, getting to see their faces poking out from the branches was one to tick off the bucket list for here in Australia.
Our last night we decided to do boozy bingo in the hostel, which appears to be a thing here given it's our 2nd time in a week. Thankfully this one was a little bit more tame, still good craic, plenty of drink/prizes to be won. Stu got caught being bold beforehand and drinking a can of Aussie craft beer in the room (big no no when there's a bar in the hostel), and it was the bingo caller who caught him, but thankfully his blushes were spared this time. We met a lovely couple from Birmingham too there, Jack & Hannah, but we managed to not get a picture of the four of us. You'll have to take our word for it!
Maggie island over and done with, we had to say one last goodbye to this view:
We got ourselves supplies in the supermarket, Dani whipping up a veggie Thai green curry that will be one of our go to's for the rest of our trip. More importantly, though, we grabbed a few cans of beer and wine (yes, cans of wine are a thing here), for our day trip that we'd be setting off on the next day.
The Whitsunday tours are usually a three day/two night affair, sailing around the islands on a boat which from reviews seems to often end up being a bit of a booze cruise. Nothing wrong with that, but given they can cost about 300euro per person, and we're on a bit of a budget, we decided to go with a day trip that would cover the highlights of it in one day, at less than half the price per person. After some confusion with the booking agency, we ended up being upgraded to the Thundercat fast boat for the day. I don't think anything could have prepared us for how good this would end up being:
Lake McKenzie being the main attraction here, it scrubs up pretty well:
On we went down to the beach:
Stu fitting in a sales shot for Balter IPA - good stuff. Their invoice is in the mail.
We spent the next couple of days chilling with Ole and his friends from the hostel, Christina and Kathleen, who were living in Byron for the next while. We stocked up on supplies and finally made use of a Barbie on the beach, cooking up a storm, veggie of course, for lunch.
Thankfully, we just about made it. Overnight greyhound to our second last stop in Oz, Sydney. Absolute whirlwind in the 2.5 weeks, but it was absolutely incredible, and we absolutely loved every stop we made. Backpacking down the east coast of Australia is something we'd 100% recommend - we were way more impressed than we thought we would be. We've a bit more time to chill out now to end our time in Australia, so looking forward to being able to relax a little, but amazed at how good it's been up to now.
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
First up was a short bus from Cairns to Townsville, approx 3 hours. We didn't stay though, as we got the early bus so we could catch the ferry straight over to Magnetic (Maggie) Island, where we'd be spending three nights. You get what you pay for here, way more expensive than the ferries in Bali, or the Philippines, but you don't constantly feel like you could die at any moment - so it made for a nice change. The public bus is waiting for you as you get off the ferry, and on we went to Base Magnetic Island - one of the many absolutely class hostels we stayed at.
This is the view you wake up to every morning, as the hostel has access to its own beach:
The chill out area has hammocks to sit in the sun, and attempt to catch up on a travel diary which seems forever impossible to catch up on:
Nearby hiking trails, to venture through and find a decent spot to get a glimpse of the coastline and sunset - keeping an eye out for spiders/snakes too:
And that covers the start of our quick stay here - one thing the island is famous for is that you have a very good chance to spot Koalas in the wild here, so on we went in the morning sun to try and find some:
And find them we did! Though after spotting them in the eucalyptus trees having a snooze we wondered would they be any more active or was this our lot. Looking it up after, it appears koalas sleep for approx 20 hours a day, and are nocturnal. Still, getting to see their faces poking out from the branches was one to tick off the bucket list for here in Australia.
Our last night we decided to do boozy bingo in the hostel, which appears to be a thing here given it's our 2nd time in a week. Thankfully this one was a little bit more tame, still good craic, plenty of drink/prizes to be won. Stu got caught being bold beforehand and drinking a can of Aussie craft beer in the room (big no no when there's a bar in the hostel), and it was the bingo caller who caught him, but thankfully his blushes were spared this time. We met a lovely couple from Birmingham too there, Jack & Hannah, but we managed to not get a picture of the four of us. You'll have to take our word for it!
Maggie island over and done with, we had to say one last goodbye to this view:
And get the ferry back to Townsville, where again it linked up with the Greyhound bus, and on we went on another relatively short journey, four hours down the coast to Airlie Beach. This was a lovely little stop where we spent three nights, and really enjoyed it. Airlie Beach itself is a pretty small coastal town, but its main selling point is that it's the main spot to go on a tour of the Whitsunday Islands, one of the many "must-do's" on the east coast.
We settled in to life here at Airlie Beach Magnums quickly, where a private room cost around 35euro per night. Wouldn't get that in Dublin!
Happy hour down at the yachts in the sun, life here ain't too shabby.
We got ourselves supplies in the supermarket, Dani whipping up a veggie Thai green curry that will be one of our go to's for the rest of our trip. More importantly, though, we grabbed a few cans of beer and wine (yes, cans of wine are a thing here), for our day trip that we'd be setting off on the next day.
The Whitsunday tours are usually a three day/two night affair, sailing around the islands on a boat which from reviews seems to often end up being a bit of a booze cruise. Nothing wrong with that, but given they can cost about 300euro per person, and we're on a bit of a budget, we decided to go with a day trip that would cover the highlights of it in one day, at less than half the price per person. After some confusion with the booking agency, we ended up being upgraded to the Thundercat fast boat for the day. I don't think anything could have prepared us for how good this would end up being:
The main attraction is Whitehaven beach, pictured above. We've both never seen anything like it - the sand is incredibly fine, soft, and white - so much so it reflects the intense sunlight and stays cool all day. The water changes colour with the depth of the water in a way that we've never seen before. Hard to put into words, but it's very, very hard for us to imagine that there's a more picturesque beach in the world. We'd a great crew on the boat, the food provided was great, and the snorkelling was out of this world - huge tropical fish we'd never seen before, and we even managed to swim above a giant manta ray. Overall, one of the most incredible experiences we've had all year. We were blown away by it, spending our last evening meeting back up with Jack & Hannah talking all about our day, only to be distracted by the hostel hosting a cane toad racing event. Australia, it has it all.
Back on the bus, this time down to Rainbow Beach - staying at Pippies Hostel - a pretty basic hostel, nothing special at all, but pretty much a requirement to stay as we were heading with the hostel on our 4x4 tag-along tour on Fraser Island. This was an insane couple of nights, where we got the ferry over and put into groups to drive around the island by 4x4, camping for the duration. We had to decide between the two nights here, or Whitsundays, and we really think we couldn't have done it better - driving around this island was an experience we won't forget. Driving in sand is scary - the car follows the paths made by the wheels of the SUV in front of you, so you can pretty much let go of the wheel and let it take its own course. Considering you've a car of eight people, best to keep your hands on the wheel though just so you can make it look like you're trying to keep them safe.
Lake McKenzie being the main attraction here, it scrubs up pretty well:
And that was that - the sights we visited were all spectacular. The group we had was full of incredibly sound people, none more so than Aido, our guide. Running out of superlatives to use to describe our stops in Oz, but its safe to say, it's been one of the overall highlights so far.
We'd one last night in Pippie's after arriving back from the island. We got through it, and again we were on the bus (across the road from our hostel, same as usual. Incredibly well set up!).
This was a little bit of a longer journey, next stop being Noosa. We stayed at Noosa Flashpackers, great, again, as we've come to expect by now. We arrived in the evening, caught a sunset, and prepared for the coastal walk which we'd been recommended by many, many fellow travellers:
On we went down to the beach:
Stu fitting in a sales shot for Balter IPA - good stuff. Their invoice is in the mail.
Again, the coastal walk. Can't put it into words, so hopefully the pictures do it some justice.
One more bus journey, this time to our final stop of this whirlwind trip down the coast. Final destination: Byron Bay, where we'd be staying for four nights at Wake Up! Byron Bay. One of the best hostels, considering the high standard here, that's saying something.
We'd cooked nearly every meal on the way down the coast, so decided to treat ourselves to some brunch+coffee. A full Aussie breakfast, the first we've had in 8 months or so - safe to say it hit the spot.
Byron Bay has a lovely chilled out vibe, with buskers everywhere - the best of the best seem to get the chance to play down at the beachfront, so we made sure to chill out for a few hours every day here and take it all in.
Dani was keeping things more up to date, and uploaded a video of the busker we were watching to her Instagram story - only to get a reply from Ole saying "you're in Byron Bay??" - They both went to the yoga retreat in Goa in March, and managed to bump into each other here thousands of miles away. It's a small world!
We spent the next couple of days chilling with Ole and his friends from the hostel, Christina and Kathleen, who were living in Byron for the next while. We stocked up on supplies and finally made use of a Barbie on the beach, cooking up a storm, veggie of course, for lunch.
The hostel provided free bike rental, so one day we had free we decided to head out to Stone & Wood, a brewery based in Byron - with good beers, and good dogs:
And that was that, we spent our last evening trying to fit in a happy hour - cheap oysters and beers in a very fancy place Christina worked in - until we (Stu) realised he thought the bus left 45 mins later than it did, so we had to gulp everything down and race to the bus.
Dani & Stu.
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