Bangkok

Wow...have arrived in the crazy city of Bangkok - difficult to describe it really, it's just total madness. My flight got in early morning, so I got a train into the main station, then a bus (took forever, was packed with people, and no A/C, but its all part of the adventure :) ) Then I walked the final bit to this guesthouse/backpacker area I'd read about it in the guide book, ...it's clean & quaint, and about 10 mins walk from the really busy central area so quite a bit quieter. The whole journey took about 3 hours, and cost me 7 baht, which converts to about 10 pence/15 cents - it is totally insane how cheap things are :)





Bangkok City: noisy, dirty, smelly, hot, packed with people, stalls selling everything you can possibly imagine, terrible driving, and yet somehow...quite good fun :) There is a constantly buzzing atmosphere about the place, and its fascinating to watch everything going on. The buses, taxis, and especially the "tuk-tuk" drivers are incredible - there seems to be some magical way of squeezing 7 vehicles into a 2-lane road, and the 'right-of-way' rule is totally non-existent. The traffic jams are ridiculous - but of course if every driver leans on their horns for 30 seconds at a time, they're bound to clear up instantly :)


We're having a good time though as you can see from this pic! Bartering for goods is quite good fun, yet after a while you start to feel guilty because everything is ridiculously cheap anyway.

See more pics!

Margaret River

We rented a car and drove down to Margaret River for a few days - Gav worked there for 4 months, and Leask has just been working there for the past 6 weeks. It was brilliant to see him again, and we had a fun night out with him (I know...I'm stating the obvious on that one!) Stayed with Barb, who was Gav's "Aussie mum" while he was here, she's a really lovely person, and so welcoming! Her house was amazing too, right on the river.





The first day we went climbing at a place called Willyabrup - spectacular granite sea cliffs. Domhnall has all the gear, so it was really easy to set up - he led most of the climbs, then we top-roped them. It was great fun.







Second day we did the tasting tours!! Cheese, chocolate and wine tasting, all in one afternoon - pure happiness :) Margaret River is really famous for its wines - there are literally hundreds of vineyards in the area. We stopped at the brewery for good measure, it had a really cool slogan - "an oasis of beer in a desert of wine"!






Watched a couple of videos and had a quite evening - "Rabbit Proof Fence" is a really excellent film, about the aboriginal hardships faced (mainly in the 1800 and 1900's) when whites tried to 'breed' them out and separated all half-caste children from their families. Very moving, and mostly set in Western Australia, so it was kind of appropriate to see it here.


PD & I did a bushtucker tour on our last day there which was also loads of fun. We canoed up from the river mouth, and had lots of interesting stops...learned all about the traditional foods, plants used for healing, and aboriginal way of life. We tried throwing boomerangs and spears, and attempted to start a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together :) Lunch was a mix of berries, fruits, pastes, meats (emu, kangaroo & bustard), and grubs...it was really fascinating, although some foods were definitely preferable to others!







We walked above the cliffs which had great views over Margaret River, and then visited some burial caves. Our guide (Clinton) played the didgeridoo - really impressive - and then we crawled through one of the caves for a bit of excitement :)





Finally there was a race back down the river in the canoes. Our team won (PD & I, plus an Irish lady Celine and her Aussie husband Sean...they were good fun) - and we got a bottle of wine!! A really fun tour, and a great few days in Margaret River.

See more pics!

Perth

We arrived in Perth in the early hours (1:30am!)...staying with an Irish friend of Patrick's here, called Domhnall (bet he has to spell his name out even more than me!)


I did my usual 'running city tour' in the morning, which was really nice...there seem to be loads of parks, rivers and lakes throughout the city, which make it a lovely area. Kings Park has loads of trails, and it was really nice down by Swan River as well.






The three of us got the train to Freemantle (known as Freo), and spent the afternoon wondering around there - it was a really nice town, lots of old buildings and architecture. We went to the shipwreck museum, and found out about the Dutch ships that played a major role in starting the large trading industry between Europe and Indonesia. Many ran aground off the west coast of Australia, Batavia being one of the most famous stories. We were warned about the seagulls down by the port too... :)
On the way back we walked along the beach at Cottisloe, and Domhnall even had a swim (pretty good effort...the water's not that warm yet!) Certainly didn't feel like we were 15 mins away from a major city though.

See more pics!

Kuranda, Cairns

Kuranda is a quaint wee market town just NE of Cairns. We spent Saturday morning there, didn’t buy anything (a bit of a disappointing effort, but I blatantly have no room to carry anymore stuff anyway!)Barron Falls were really spectacular, well worth the visit. Then we tried to find a couple of trails in another section of Barron Gorge National Park...which took a while. I ended up hiking/running a circuit which had some great views over Barron Gorge and out to Cairns. Really enjoyed it but it took way longer than I expected. Check out the one good deal I saw in Kuranda: :)





Went into Cairns for our last night on the East Coast, and after walking down to the Esplanade, we had a fantastic meal out at a traditional Aussie restaurant called “Dundee’s”. We shared a mixed meat main of kangaroo steak, crocodile kebab, buffalo & emu sausage, and a seafood platter of barramundi fillet (type of fish, delicious!), garlic prawns, octopus, lobster, and scallops. Really excellent food, and quite the feast!

Spent Sunday morning packing our stuff and cleaning out the van – quite sad to say “bye” to our home of the last 7 weeks. Its been so much fun to travel in, and we’ve become quite attached to it! Since picking it up in Melbourne I traveled 9,389km in it...:)

See more pics!

Devil's Thumb, Port Douglas

We did a random hike up Devil's Thumb, just north of Port Douglas. It was a steep climb, and definitely a route not taken by many people, but really fun and worth the views.




Now in Port Douglas, we've both been catching up on e-mails and blogging, nice and relaxing. I had a run along the beach late afternoon which was really nice - the views were great, and I even saw a wedding!

See more pics!

Daintree, Cape Tribulation

Into the Daintree Rainforest - we stopped at Mossman Gorge, then headed on to Cape Tribulation. We did a few short walks, with a great variety of rainforests, more fig trees, mangrove swamps, and coastal lookouts. They were all really pretty, although the area was a bit touristy...we've seen nicer places more "off the beaten track"! Still, it was worth the visit and nice to see.

See more pics!

Misty Mountains

In the Misty Mountains, we both hiked through a rainforest track which led up to a place called Rhyolite Pinnacle - the trail was pretty 'tangly' and overgrown, but it was still nice to explore a bit!

We went to Lake Barrine - a crater lake - also surrounded by rainforest, which was really pretty. Then drove around Lake Tinnaroo, which is pretty big, and has loads of beautiful camping spots down by the lake - looked like a great family place!




We did a couple of huge walks - like at least 200m :) - to some fig trees, and some old volcanic craters. The fig trees are really cool: basically, a small seed starts to grow on the branch of an already existing tree. The roots stretch down to the ground, so they are long and dangly. They start wrapping around the host tree for support, creating a kind of lattice. Eventually the host tree dies, and there is a hollow left inside a criss-cross pattern of the 'fig' tree roots. With the curtain fig tree, the host has fallen sideways into another, so the roots were spread out quite wide - it had a really pretty effect!

See more pics!

Alligator Creek , Atherton Tablelands

Heading north towards Townsville, we had a brief stop at Alligator Creek to stretch the legs. I had a fun run along a track to Alligator Creek Falls, but wasn't amused to be attacked by mosquitos while trying to take a picture at the far end. Still, a really pretty spot and worth the stop.



Heading into Atherton Tablelands the next day, we both did some trails to various waterfalls along the way. I ran between North Johnstone, Tolcheba and Wallacha Falls, and emerged at a campground where I met PD. We both went to Nandroya Falls, which passed by Silver Creek Falls...I feel waterfalled-out! They were all really beautiful though, and it was a really nice trail. I think Tolcheba was my favourite, but Nandroya was a close second :)

See more pics!