Boogity, boogity, boogity...

My first day in Hervey Bay was very leisurely and mainly consisted of sitting doing absolutely nothing whatsoever other than enjoying the sun.  Suitably rested, however, my second day was far more constructive as I’d signed up for a trip over to the nearby Fraser Island.  I was collected from outside the campground and, after a trip across town to pick up my fellow passengers, we headed off to Urangan Harbour to board the barge which would carry us and our big 4wd truck across the bay to the 120km long UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I had chosen a tour with the imaginatively titled Fraser Island Company and our guide for the day was the ever-so-crazy German, Henning who explained, as we crossed to our arrival point at Moon Point, what was on the agenda for the day.

We arrived on the island with the engine running, as if arriving in France in 1944, and roared off the barge-the moment the ramp was down.  Throwing up plumes of sand as tore across the beach, we made straight for a gap in the mangroves and lurched onto a narrow track.  With trees rubbing along both sides of the truck we headed off through the wetlands, past an American continue reading...

I don’t know what it is with us Brits - maybe there is some sort of chemical imbalance - but we do seem to have a strange desire to hire a camper van when we travelling around Australia.  I don’t like to play up to a stereotype but, here I was, Pacific Highway… in a camper van.  I wasn’t trying to be ironic or predictable - it just didn’t make sense not to.  It all started when I decided to head up to the Gold Coast for the Indy 300 race weekend at Surfers Paradise and, having booked my race tickets, I was shocked to discover the average room rate in town was running at around 500 bucks a night whilst the race was in town.  Being the tight arse that I am, I wasn’t prepared to pay that and frantically scoured the internet for alternatives.  I soon discovered that I could get a camper van for three entire weeks for less than the cost of two nights in a hotel in Surfers.  It was a no-brainer.

I was keen to end my first day on the road nice and early so continue reading...

Having a car was great but the city of Sydney - particularly the area around Potts Point and Kings Cross where I was staying - is decidedly unfriendly to the motorist and, unless you want to spend big bucks to park in the private car park, you have no choice but to take your chances with the on-street parking lottery.  This usually involves driving round and round in circles in the vain hope of finding a vacant space where you can park for a couple of hours before having to return to move it to a different zone.  The process is time consuming, frustrating and, if you are hoping to spend your day exploring the city, a royal pain in the arse.  I decided that, to save stress, the best thing would be to return the car early or make use of it by heading out of the city for the day so, early on a cold Tuesday morning; I set off across town to visit the nearby Royal National Park.  Established in 1879, Royal National Park was Australia’s - indeed the world’s (Yellowstone was originally a described as Yellowstone Recreation Area) - very first National Park and I figured it had to be worth the trip.

It may have been a cold and dark morning - very continue reading...

I’d only been in Sydney for a few hours before I was heading out of town again.  It wasn’t that I had a problem with the place - far from it - I was heading three hours west to the town of Bathurst.  It wasn’t a randomly timed visit - I was heading to the Mount Panorama Circuit to see an Australian icon: the Supercheap Autos Bathurst 1000.  The race is Australian motorsports FA Cup Final, Grand National and Superbowl all rolled into one and Huge with a capital H.  Even I hadn’t appreciated just how huge until I saw the TV schedule for race day - it was simple - everything else was cancelled for the day.

My route out to Bathurst took me through the Blue Mountains National Park and I couldn’t resist stopping several times to check out the scenery.  A short while down the road I turned off the main highway and headed towards the abandoned race track of Catalina Park.   It presented an incongruous sight surrounded as it was by a school, a leisure centre and people going about their everyday life as if it had never existed.  It was a narrow track and, although it didn’t seem to offer many opportunities for continue reading...

The overnight flight from Singapore had been thoroughly miserable - ruined by a group of drunk shouty passengers who refused to shut up despite repeated requests and, on occasion, threats of violence from another passenger.  Even the cabin crew weren’t in the mood to calm them down… not when they could be selling them more alcohol (and presumably boosting their Christmas bonus.)  Yet, as I stood and waited for my bag to come off the plane, I couldn’t help but smile for, despite the reality of the freezing Melbourne morning; I was back in Australia once again.  Life really wasn’t that bad, was it.I picked up my rental car - if car is a word that can be used for anything built by Kia - and headed off into the Melbourne rush hour without the faintest idea of where I was heading.  I really needed a map but, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find anywhere that could sell me one: a sign of the times where we all use GPS navigation systems, perhaps?  After an hour of getting increasingly frustrated at going round in circles, I finally realised that that phone book that had randomly been left in the passenger continue reading...