pet sitting – Sam & John's Travelogue

Awesome Australia: Six Months Of Amazing Adventures

After six months in Australia we have left this incredible country for the tropical delights of Fiji, and it’s time to reflect on our experience. Rather than a rehash of our itinerary we thought we’d run through some of the things that delighted us, some which left us slightly bemused and others that are just plain interesting. They are in no particular order and we aren’t telling you which fall into those three categories. However, we should say that the verdict on Oz is overwhelmingly positive. This is a truly great country that has so much to offer.

We’ve been salties on this trip, sticking to the coastline starting in Perth and wandering down to Margaret River and Albany in WA, before hopping across to Adelaide. From there we traversed the coastline east and north all the way up to Cape Tribulation with just a couple of gaps. We haven’t seen any of the interior, Northern Territories, Alice Springs or Uluru, all of which will have to remain on the “to do” list, and gives us a great excuse to return – which we definitely will.

Beaches

We’ve seen a lot of beaches in the past twelve months. Many of the places we visited in South East Asia are held up as “must-see” or bucket list destinations for any self-respecting traveller who loves the feel of sand between their toes. But let’s be absolutely clear about this – they don’t hold a candle to the beaches we have visited all over Australia.

We aren’t talking the headline grabbers like Bondi, Manly, Glenelg or Noosa either. It’s the unheralded ones you discover that overwhelm you with their beauty: pristine water; next to no one on them; not a scrap of litter; and not a hotel or avenue of sun-beds and loungers in sight. Archetypical Aussie heaven.

House and Pet Sitting

We will never be able to thank our friends Deano and Leesa enough for putting us onto the idea of house and pet sitting our way around Australia. It completely changed our thinking on how to traverse the country and in doing so opened up a new way of travelling and experiencing Australia. Living like a local in a neighbourhood, saving oodles of money on accommodation and being able to self-cater, spending time with some absolutely gorgeous animals and meeting wonderful people whose homes and pets we had the pleasure to take care of.

We ended up doing sits from Fremantle to Cairns, with Adelaide, Hobart, Brisbane, and Maryborough in between.

We started off with mad Max, the crazy and lovable nine month old Kelpie, and finished with Xena, a gentle giant Great Dane. But our favourite two were sheepdog Harley in Adelaide – our morning walks on the glorious Grange beach were the perfect way to start each day.

fullsizeoutput_2285 — Harley on Grange Beach, Adelaide

…and Sprocket a weimerarner from Nudgee Beach, Brisbane. A swimming marvel who rang a bell with her nose when she wanted to go outside. She was our pacesetter as we ran around Boondall Wetlands and caught the running bug.

Sprocket on the Boondall Wetlands Walkway, Nudgee Beach, Brisbane

We only had one cat to look after – Leo in Maryborough, who was so easy to care for that we really felt we should be working harder.

There seems to be a very strong house / pet sit culture in Australia and with really slick, simple to use websites it took us just a week between registering our details and landing our first sit.

Wonderful Wildlife

It doesn’t matter how often you see a kangaroo, you never get bored of them. Even over five months into a trip we got excited spotting one lounging on a lawn on Daydream Island in the Whitsundays.

fullsizeoutput_21ac — Margaret River Roo’s

Inevitably they are the poster boys/girls of the wildlife, with the Koala probably coming a close second. These gorgeous creatures are starting to become threatened and an Australia without Koala’s would be unthinkable. They were flourishing on Raymond Island though and we delighted in seeing so many of them amongst the Eucalyptus trees.

52595296_2508848402477655_1779924074839932928_o — Raymond Island Koala

We saw few snakes and spiders – just enough to remind us that they are around, but not enough to have us nervously watching our every step. The two surprises for us were wombats – they are HUGE balls of furry gorgeousness….

Less lovely, and something you certainly wouldn’t want to try cuddling, are cassowaries. But they are magnificent creatures, who along with the crocodiles of northern Queensland seem to maintain a modern-day link with a pre-historic past. Just don’t go too close to either of these!

fullsizeoutput_2857 — Cassowary wandering into someone’s Mission Beach garden

Dolphins, devils, dingoes, wallabies, pademelons, penguins, pelicans, possums (heard, not seen), monitor lizards, wild pigs…the list of weird, wonderful Aussie critters goes on and on.

fullsizeoutput_228f — Pelican’s on The Coorong

We aren’t twitchers, but you can’t fail to be impressed by the colourful birdlife that routinely fly by – although there were a few times we could have strangled one or two with their early morning alarm calls.

fullsizeoutput_28ca — Unidentified Bird on Hamilton Island

Gawd Bless You Ma’am!

For reasons we can’t understand the country still has the British Monarchy as Head of State and the Governor General. Guys/girls, when are you going to cut the apron-strings? You are a proud, fantastic, independent nation tens of thousands of miles from the UK, you are even in a different hemisphere for God’s sake! And let’s be honest, we are a bit crap right now!

A Climate To Die For

It seems to be stating the bleeding obvious that the weather in Oz is wonderful, but it really is worth repeating. During the summer you can feel the warmth right through to your bones – as Poms there’s no better feeling than gently cooking on a day in mid-December. After S/E Asia it was a wonderful dry heat rather than oppressive humidity, although reaching Cairns quickly reminded us of what living in a tropical climate is like.

fullsizeoutput_286b — Magnificent Maggie Isle

And with a bit of careful planning as Autumn sets in in the south and temperatures start to dip towards a shocking 20 degrees…..you can start to head north to maintain that year round summer feel. Not that it was wall to wall sunshine. Melbourne gave us a bit of everything, Sydney got a bit soggy, and we saw snow in Tassie!

Well…. what can you expect from the nation that has given us Neighbours, Home and Away, and The Sullivans. The fare is pretty meagre and is very UK content focussed. You know things are dire when you are looking forward to watching an episode of “Call the Midwife”. ABC seemed to be the only channel offering any in depth current affairs / political analysis. Having said that when we got more into the sticks i.e. Queensland, there were some toe-curlingly hilarious adverts on local TV channels where the marketing budget must have stretched into literally tens of dollars. This is when the Netflix subscription really pays off.

The Outdoor Life

With the the climate comes a culture that is all about the outdoor life – especially the beach and the sea, and a lot of the Aussies we saw make the most of it.

It’s fantastic seeing so many people from the very young to the very old swimming, surfing, sailing, kayaking….giving off this great vibe of healthy physical activity.

fullsizeoutput_2094 — Boating on Mandurah

One of the most charming examples of this was watching a large group of young school-children being taught to surf on the beach at Lorne – what a fabulous classroom! We are so envious of weather that breeds such an active and fun-filled lifestyle, and we loved our time messing about on the water, a particular highlight was sailing a mini-catamaran on the Swan River in Perth.

fullsizeoutput_20e6 — Catamaran on the Swan

….and our paddle-boarding has come on leaps and bounds – entirely the wrong description for an activity that mostly involves standing still!

The novelty of being able to enjoy open-air cinemas is something we will never tire of or fail to appreciate. Watching great films curled up under the stars with a beer in hand remains a treasured memory.

Pubs (not)

Aussie pubs, with a couple of honourable exceptions we experienced in Sydney, just aren’t proper pubs – not in the way we know and love them in the UK. More often than not they are part bookies, part hotel, with too many screens showing too many Aussie Rules Football games. Odd.

Terrific Tasmania

Although we said we wouldn’t list the places we went, an honourable mention must go to this wonderful diverse island. From the moment we drove out of the airport at Lonnie we felt a different atmosphere. Tassie has it all, scenery, wildlife, history, and culture including one of the very best art galleries in the world.

Understandably many travellers with limited time head to Melbourne, Sydney, and the Great Barrier Reef, so Tassie remains a bit off the beaten track. But during our visit we sensed that real efforts are being made to draw more visitors to this corner of Australia and it really is worth the effort of spending at least a week, but preferably longer here.

Anger is an Energy

It’s fascinating to see the struggle the country is having on the future of coal mining. An industry that flies in the face of a climate change movement that is getting louder and more youthful; but employs so many people, particularly in rural areas where there appears to be no Plan B for communities that would probably die without it. Ask any two Aussies about their views on the proposed Adani mining project and you would probably get four opinions. It feels as though the time has come to make a real leap to sustainable and clean energy, but at the moment that step seems to risk political suicide. Our abiding memory on climate change was experiencing 48 degrees in Adelaide: interesting for about five seconds, after that it was not fun.

We noticed a strong awareness and celebration of the history and legacy of indigenous people, especially on the east coast. More controversially the growing number of people protesting Australia Day which they rename Invasion Day was interesting to witness on 26th January. With the 250th anniversary of Cook’s arrival due to be marked in 2020 expect to see more acrimonious demonstrations and divisions on this increasingly contentious view of history.

Town Planning / Architecture

A strange mix. Sadly a lot of the smaller towns and main streets comprise of low rise, unimpressive, bland development with no character. Big, garish signage dominate the streets with no thought to appearance or aesthetic appeal. One characterless settlement just merged into the next. The big cities – especially Adelaide – did offer some lovely respite from the uniformity, with its impressive Victorian city centre.

Melbourne also has a wonderfully atmospheric centre and grid system, that is really attractive with stylish arcades and impressive buildings.

fullsizeoutput_26c6 — Flinders St Station

On a smaller scale Fremantle is full of historic buildings that have been conserved and act as a lovely contrast to the modernity of Perth.

fullsizeoutput_2119 — Freo CBD – gorgeous buildings and buzzing

Maryborough was also exceptional but unlike bustling Freo suffers from too many vacant retail units in its CBD.

Maryborough CBD – gorgeous buildings but on life support

Of course there are architectural gems that stand out, with Sydney’s combination of the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Harbour and Botanical Gardens combining to create one of the iconic urban settings of the country, and indeed the world.

fullsizeoutput_244e — Sydney Harbour and Opera House

Stunning Scenery

Brutal rugged landscapes, windswept isolated coastline, towering volcanic mountains, sumptuous valleys, gushing rivers and waterfalls, dense pre-historic forests, vibrant coral-reefs, mysterious mangroves, inexplicable sand islands, incredible lakes,….do you get the picture?

fullsizeoutput_2652 — Dunalley Beach, Tassie

Yes, it is an enormous country so you would expect a fair share of wonder, but that doesn’t make it any less incredible. The variety is astonishing…and we didn’t even get to the interior!

fullsizeoutput_2443 — The Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains

We don’t have the vocabulary to do the scenery anything like the justice it deserves and we hope the pictures we have posted in our blogs go some way to communicating the awe we regularly experienced as we traversed the country.

51822119_2491498594212636_2996618473628499968_o — Blue Lake, Mount Gambier

Politics

We had the bad / good fortune to watch the 2019 Australian Election campaign unfold. As Brits we accept the we are currently sitting in the most fragile and brittle of glasshouses and throwing stones at politics elsewhere is really inappropriate. However, the Aussie Election campaign was shocking for its negative campaigning, especially by the Coalition who only seemed to have one policy – tax cuts benefitting the wealthy. Other than that it was full on negativity about the opposition expansive (probably too expansive) policy agenda. All of which was enthusiastically regurgitated and exaggerated by the Murdoch dominated media. Worse still are the emerging right wing populists who seem to find succour in Queensland. Katter, Hanson and Palmer all represent the horrible face of politics in Australia. You have to pity the Australian public who have to put up with compulsory voting every three years: a shockingly short Parliamentary term. How does anything get done…..yes, I think we all know the answer to that question.

Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?!

Bob is big on immigration. He represents the Kennedy constituency in Queensland which is slightly bigger in area than Spain (!) and has a registered electorate of 107,000 people (that isn’t a mis-print – yes 107k). It really sounds overrun to us Bob – can’t swing a cat without hitting an immigrant. Our experience of Kennedy was that there are more banana trees and sugar canes than people. Pauline meanwhile runs with the deeply profound strap line “I’ve got the guts to say what you’re thinking“. I think that probably tells you all you need to know about the modestly named Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.

The People

As a huge cricket fan I have had quite a fixed view about Australians…which are not entirely complementary. I have to confess to experiencing unreserved schadenfreude during the ball tampering scandal and the sight of Steve Smith blubbing on TV. Despite these deep rooted prejudices shaped by the likes of Waugh, Warne and Warner, we have to admit the Australians are an incredibly warm and sociable bunch. Friendly welcomes were received wherever we went. Genuine sympathy was offered when the subject of Brexit came up, with Aussies sharing our bewilderment at the self-mutilation of our homeland. We suspect there was some element of relief as well, with the UK drawing unwanted limelight away from the political fratricide soap opera in Canberra. The parkrunning people of Maryborough should get a special mention for their enthusiasm and general loveliness – great ambassadors for their wonderful city.

fullsizeoutput_2795 — Maryborough Park Runners!

Fantastic service is the norm and we were especially blessed by the people we met at the AirBnB’s we stayed at and the house sits. Nothing was too much trouble, folks were always keen to share ideas on where to go, what to see and genuinely wanted us to see their country in the best possible light. It was all rather heartwarming. Of course all of the above will become a distant memory the moment the first ball in The Ashes is bowled this summer and I start foaming at the mouth at the sight of Smith and Warner.

fullsizeoutput_2163 — Optus Stadium, Perth

Accommodation

Thankfully we jettisoned our original plan to see the country from a van. Discovering house-sitting quickly put paid to that idea. When not sitting we AirBnB’d our way around Australia. With only two exceptions the quality and vfm was outstanding.

fullsizeoutput_26ca — Our AirBnB View – Mallacoota

We met friendly hosts who went above and beyond in making our stays comfortable. Generally we stay in self-contained AirBnB’s, but where we stayed in the same home as hosts we found that many had such large places that we were as good as in our own place with en-suite facilities. A special mention must go to Lorna in Robe….a perfect AirBnB host and home. Being treated to wine and chocolates on arrival was rather special.

Thank you Australia, you have been one of the most memorable experiences of our lives.

Next Up: Tropical Paradise in Fiji

Into The Wilds: Far North Queensland

Danger: FNQ!

When it comes to warnings about the risks of nature, Queensland certainly pulls out the stops! In our previous blog on Maryborough, on the States’ Central Coast, we mentioned the threat of wild dingoes and err…killer cones on Fraser Island.

Of course there are dangers throughout the country with snakes, spiders, sharks and riptides to name but a few. However, Far North Queensland takes danger to another level. In addition to all of the above you have the proliferation of crocodiles for which FNQ is famous; a multitude of unpleasant Marine Stingers; sea-snakes; toe nipping mud-crabs; the astonishing and terrifying Cassowary; wayward Coconuts of ill intent; the venemous Gympie-Gympie Stinging Tree (we aren’t making this up!); and Bob Katter, an equally poisonous populist politician whose views and values have been carbon-dated back to medieval times. These were the ones we came across, and we imagine there are many, many more we remain happily oblivious to.

Palm Cove Beach: A typical local warning sign

Port Douglas and the Daintree Forest

After flying up the coast from Brisbane to Cairns we picked up our umpteenth hire car and drove north towards Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a lovely spot and is very popular with tourists on account of Four Mile Beach, which became our latest running track….

….and a busy town that had a real buzz about it and possibly the most picturesque Chapel in Australia.

More importantly though, Port Douglas is the ideal jumping off point for a trip up into the stunning Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation, up in the north easterly corner of the country. The trip to the Daintree Rainforest feels like journeying back to Jurassic Park.

A wonderful set of walkways and a tower take you through a verdant jungle full of palms and ferns. The view over the forest reveals a sea of shades of green

Thanks to my brother Dirk we had become aware of the remarkable but illusive Cassowary, a prehistoric looking bird with striking features but with a fearsome reputation as one of the most dangerous birds in the world. One recently killed a man in Florida slicing through arteries with its fearsome claws. Full size males can stand 2 metres tall and there are warnings about what to do if you meet one and it becomes aggressive – back away slowly and calmly. Unless mating or chick rearing they are solitary creatures searching the jungle floor for fruit.

As a result it was a real mixture of excitement and fear when we saw one appear close by on one of the forest boardwalks. They are bizarre and look as though they’ve been put together with a random set of left over parts from other animals. Although similar to emus and ostriches they are quite unique and despite the striking plumage your eyes are drawn to those huge dagger like claws. Over the next hour we enjoyed a few sightings and fearless Sam showed remarkable calm to record the cassowaries wandering by. They are likely to be more aggressive if they are male and with chicks. Fortunately we seemed to have a close encounter with a smaller female. A meeting with an intimidating full size male was to follow later in our travels.

The Daintree Rainforest spills down onto the coastline and the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef, with more beautiful stretches of sand and mysterious mangroves at Cape Tribulation. With the heat, humidity and lush jungle landscape it really did feel as though we were back in South East Asia.

Of course no trip to FNQ would be complete without seeing crocodiles. There are croc warning signs galore by beaches and rivers but spotting one randomly is quite rare…unless you’ve done something very silly and they’ve spotted you first! For some reason German’s have been fatally disposed to not heeding warnings and all the signs now include an “Achtung!”

Having ridden our luck with the Cassowaries we decided the best way to see crocs wasn’t to goose step into the sea while singing “Deutschland Uber Alles” but jump on a boat tour on the Daintree River where a trusty and experienced guide would hopefully spot a few for us. Sure enough we soon found a few lazing on the river bank.

They are terrifying. Our guide ran through their extraordinary senses when monitoring prey, the speed they accelerate when attacking (35kmph), and of course the bone-crushing pressure they apply with those astonishing jaws and teeth. It’s little wonder they are top of the food chain.

Another excellent local diversion is Mossman Gorge, with more boardwalks, bridges and jungle walks that take you past the fast flowing river and craggy gorge….

…into the jungle where we stumbled upon another unexpected wildlife sighting: a wild pig snuffling away in the ground.

Apparently there are lots of these pigs in the jungle and some make the treacherous swim across the Daintree River to “Pig Island” but many don’t make the short crossing instead providing the crocs with a rather tasty bacon snack.

Cairns

Cairns saw our seventh and final house / pet sit of our Australian travels, and we went out with a bang looking after a Great Dane called Xena and Rio, a temperamental parrot!

Xena is a gorgeous gentle giant who loved her cuddles and just wanted to laze around in our company. She did enjoy playing in the garden and with a dog that size you need to be quite careful to avoid her flattening you – she isn’t the most graceful dog in the world as this slow-mo of her trying to catch a ball shows

Despite the enormous difference in size, it was Rio who was the most bossy of the two by far. While docile Xena happily dozed away, Rio would squawk loudly demanding food and attention. Much to Sam’s horror I developed quite a rapport with Rio by having extended conversations with my new feathered friend which mostly involved my blasting out a series of high-pitched whistles. Rio seemed to appreciate my efforts.

The main tourist attraction in Cairns is the Skyway, a series of cable car journeys that take you high into the mountains that tower over Cairns to the village of Karunda.

Here there is a strange mix of authentic aboriginal stores and goods, along with a surprising number of Chinese retailers! From Karunda you can either take the cable car back down or jump on an old vintage railway rattler that takes an hour and a half to trundle down the mountain – obviously we went for this option.

It’s quite an amazing feat of engineering, with the track wending its way down the mountain through countless tunnels that were excavated with the help of a lot of explosives, several bridges, and turns so tight that you could see most of the train up ahead.

Wongaling Beach

Okay, try saying Wongaling without bursting into The Wombles song – no, we couldn’t either…for three days we intermittently sang the theme tune to a kids programme as we made this our base in the Mission Beach area – a very easy going backpacker kind of place that enjoys a vast stretch of sand, but it’s only the small netted off area you can safely swim in the sea – a real frustration when you see these super beaches.

Swimming Net at Mission Beach – low tide

Inland from Mission Beach is the small town of Tully in which you can find an enormous gum boot – this is rural FNQ after all – and if you feel so inclined (we didn’t) you can go inside it and climb to the top to view the uninspiring town centre. However, we are doing Tully something of a dis-service. Tully sits under what we in the UK would definitely consider mountains, and seeing tidy residential streets with the mountains for a backdrop looked slightly surreal.

Better still a short drive from town is Alligator’s Nest a freshwater lake with no nasties to contend with and gorgeous clear water that you could drink without getting any salty aftertaste. Unlike the sea however it had a really cool edge to it, the waters having come down from a high altitude. Despite appearing calm, a strong undercurrent soon took you downstream quickly if you didn’t swim against it.

Tully does have a major claim to fame….and it’s not the giant Gum Boot. A week after our visit it was hosting the White Water Rafting World Championships upstream at Tully Gorge.

We drove higher and higher into the gorge stopping regularly to scramble down the riverside to see the roaring River Tully. We doff our caps to the crazy folks who launch themselves downstream carried along by the swirling torrents through the jagged rocks and boulders.

It took about an hour to get to the Gorge and it was interesting to drive through acre upon acre of agricultural land that comprised of huge fields of either sugar cane or banana plants. You cannot overstate how important the agricultural crops are here and how few people there are.

Mission Beach turned out to be Cassowary central with signs everywhere warning of them in the vicinity. We saw a pair at South Mission beside the road. Having got quite close to them up in Daintree we pulled up, got out of the car and took a good look at them.

Unfortunately it was at this point that they also took a good look at us and we saw just how big a male Cassowary is – close to 6ft – muscular and intimidating. We quickly abandoned the “stay calm and back away slowly” advice, instead we both screamed turned on our heels and legged it back to the car locking ourselves in from these angry birds!

fullsizeoutput_2861 — Look at the expression on that face!

Magnetic Island
So what is it that attracted us to this beautiful small island? Well it’s a great alternative to Townsville which you leave to get to “Maggie Island”. Small enough to drive around in less than an hour it has great beaches and a series of snorkelling spots.

Everything you need to know about Magnetic Island in one photo…..

We found Horseshoe Bay and spent a couple of idyllic days on the beach carefully positioning ourselves in the shade of palm trees but not directly beneath the flight path of Coconuts that sway high above unsuspecting sunbathers waiting to commit grievous bodily harm, or worse.

We didn’t brave swimming outside of the beach nets despite assurances that the Stinger season was over, and when I went out to sea on a Paddle Board I have to confess that even the remotest chance of jelly fish saw me “engage my core” and maintain perfect balance for an hour’s paddle around the bay – funny what you can achieve with the right motivation!

Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays
The longest stay on this drive was at Airlie Beach which we would use as a base for our travels into the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef. After two sun-filled days on Maggie, we hit really poor weather. On our first day at Airlie it rained so much and constantly that it became an “admin day” – a very necessary evil when travelling long term. Emails were dealt with, future accommodation researched and booked, blogs written and published. I even sorted out my consultancy accounts and tax – that’s how much it rained! These are the unglamorous but wholly necessary days that travellers rarely mention but are incredibly important to a successful trip.

With a slight improvement in the weather the next day we explored the coastline at Hydeaway Bay and Dingo Beach, both quiet and picturesque spots where we had next to no one for company.

On our last trip to Oz, a few years ago, during the horrible return crossing from Rottnest Island to Freo, my nephew John recommended ginger for sea-sickness. We have religiously followed this advice ever since and it’s worked (thanks JC!). So with tummies full of ginger bear sweets we coped admirably with the choppy journey to Whitehaven in the Whitsundays. The crossing was quite rough in parts which saw waves crashing overboard and soaking us.

Here you find the archetypal white sands and turquoise sea of the reef. It looks too good to be true, and despite the tourist Insta-frenzy there is more than enough space to explore and escape the posing hordes.

We combined this trip with beach time and snorkelling where we got to see the coral of the Great Barrier Reef for the first time. Normally we get really excited by the incredibly colourful fish when we snorkel, but here it was the coral itself that was mesmerising, looking like it was breathing as it moved in the sea currents. Sadly no pic of this as the Go-Pro was lost several weeks ago (see Adelaide blog for that disaster!). So here is another of Whitehaven Beaches.

The next day we boarded the ferry to Hamilton Island, another small isle that acts as a hub for trips to the outer areas of the Reef. Here transport is by golf buggy only and we spent the day traversing the island admiring its wonderful views..

..glorious bird life…

…and finding more reasons not to go into the water:

Airlie Beach Park Run

Our running continues apace… a very pedestrian pace but I’ve taken the bold step of joining a Running Club… I say “Running Club” it’s more of a non-running club: The Derek Zoolander Centre For Kids Who Can’t Run Good. With no restrictions on entry other than a love for all things Zoolander and a complete inability to run, this is the Club for me. Club tradition has it that on seeing a photographer at a parkrun event members should try to “pop a z” at the camera, creating a Z with your hands in homage to our idol. Sounds easy? When you don’t run good having the wherewithal to create alphabet hands shapes is really quite difficult as evidenced by my shocking effort below.

This wasn’t the only mishap of our run as Sam managed to get lost, run up a hill totally unnecessarily and wasted even more energy abusing a parkrun volunteer for not guiding her in the right direction. I regret to say there is no photographic evidence of this incident. It was, however, a lovely setting for a run adjacent to one of the local marina’s.

Our last few days in Australia saw us travelling back up the coast to Cairns, but we did manage a stopover at Alva Beach, a very far flung spot with a huge wind blown sandy bay and spit that had a wild, untamed feel to it. It was such an unexpected find and end to our FNQ road trip, another example of the seemingly endless wonders this country has tucked away if you are lucky enough to stumble on them.

We loved our time in FNQ – it has so much to offer beyond the obvious attraction of the Great Barrier Reef. We plan to return as we want to see more of the Reef. It’s not a place we could live though. To have those gorgeous beaches teasing you, calling you to come in and try the water when you know you can’t – it’s impossible. Just take a look at this sign on the dangers of Marine Stingers: “victim may stop breathing and rapidly lose consciousness” …..”a dreadful feeling of anxiety and ill health”. Thanks, but no thanks!

Next Up: Our Australia Round Up

Maryborough: Queensland’s Heritage Gem

Maryborough represented a bit of change of pace for us on our tour of the east coast of Australia. This would be our longest house/pet sit in a city slightly inland, rather than the beach locations we’ve been used to. However, a bit of relaxing downtime was called for after our action-packed tour of Tasmania.

It’s a three hour drive north from Brisbane and on arriving at Maryborough on Saturday lunchtime we were immediately struck by two things: how pretty and interesting the city centre architecture of Maryborough is; and that there appeared to be no one there, with no shops open….rather like a zombie apocalypse film set, minus the zombies. We found the local tourist information centre and to our relief they explained that everything closes at lunchtime on a Saturday. As they politely guided us out of their Centre in the magnificent City Hall (they were also closing) we were directed to one of the cafes that remained open for a delicious lunch.

One of the many quaint things that immediately strikes you about Maryborough is its pedestrian crossing lights….

…that pay homage to the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers whose home town this was…

They are one of many delightful Poppins themed features that crop up all over the city centre, including an excellent life size statue of the legendary nanny…

Our housesit was in an absolutely gorgeous traditional Queenslander house (timber construction, raised on wooden stilts, and huge verandah) where we met Jane, whose home and cat (Leo) we would be looking after for four weeks. Jane was a lovely host who treated us to dinner on the night we arrived, and gave us loads of tips and recommendations on what to do in Maryborough and beyond. Suitably enthused, we launched ourselves into Maryborough life, going to its excellent Brolga Theatre to see two National Theatre recordings from London: Alan Bennett’s ‘Allelujah” and Shakespeare’s Richard II; an evening soiree at the art gallery; attending the local cinema club; Park Running; and regularly checking out the Thursday morning market where we discovered the sticky delights of Custard Apples – yes “apples” that taste of custard! As for Leo, having looked after several dogs, chucks and rabbits on previous sits, he was the easiest and least demanding of the lot. Spending the day doing his own thing and curling up at the end of our bed at night purring away happily. He does have a very disarming stare though…..especially when he greeted us at 5.30 am with this look!!

Maryborough has a rich history and at one point was vying with Brisbane as the capital of Queensland. Its growth from 1847 onwards was based on its port on the Mary River (the only river in Australia that flows north into the sea), and the influx of colonial immigrants in part attracted by the gold rush taking place to the south in what became the city of Gympie, and mining to the north. Timber and sugar industry developed, however in time it became a centre of manufacturing, particularly shipbuilding and train engineering.

During the high point of these labour intensive industries Maryborough thrived and the City features images of the “5 o’clock whistle” when the working day ended and the streets were engulfed by workers riding home on their bikes or to one of the many hotels for refreshment. It must have been quite a sight.

A Typical Scene From Maryborough’s CBD Streetscape: lovely building but no people

With this interesting history, the centre of Maryborough is a goldmine of fascinating architecture that sits beside thoughtful and whimsical street art and sculptures, an entertaining eccentric mural trail and other relics from the past, alongside a beautiful park and the river.

fullsizeoutput_2751 — Environmental Health never really changes

The great shame of it is that there are so few people around to appreciate the city centre, and worse still, a large number of the shops are empty. Maryborough is a city centre crying out for investment and a regeneration plan that makes the most of its remarkable assets.

City centre retail revival has faced three fearsome foes, two if which are all too familiar: the inevitable growth in online shopping, and the development of out of town shopping centres. The latter is an own goal and is particularly galling as when you visit the local one a majority of the outlets would comfortable fit in the empty units in the city centre. There is another major threat painfully familiar to Queenslanders: flood. There is plenty of history to show the extraordinary flood levels the City and its centre has suffered in the near and distant past.

There are several tours of the city available delivered by incredibly knowledgable guides who clearly have a passion for Maryborough that they want to share. The guide is dressed as Mary Poppins – naturally! In addition there are self guided tours that take you to dozens of sites, and another that guides you to all of the murals.

fullsizeoutput_274a — One of Maryborough’s Wonderful Murals

It’s hard to imagine many other cities of the modest size of Maryborough taking so much trouble to celebrate and show off its past. Turn another corner and something else pops up to intrigue and delight you such as a display of retail advertising lovingly collated from Maryborough’s heyday.

Anzac Memorial.

Our stay in Maryborough coincided with Anzac Day on the 25th April. There is an excellent Anzac Memorial in the city commemorating the forces, with detailed displays on the Gallipoli and WWI campaigns.

An excellent walk with panels and commentary, is complemented with superb sculptures that make the display both informative and a moving tribute.

It’s also the site of the cenotaph and on learning that there would be a Dawn Service we woke up early to attend the first of days three services, starting at 5.30 am. We were amazed at the turnout, with hundreds of people attending what was a moving service as the sun rose.

It’s not possible to overstate the importance of this day in the Australian psyche, especially in a city like Maryborough that is so connected to the past and the members of the community who have served the Forces, including the first man on the beach at Gallipoli, Major Duncan Campbell, immortalised by a statue at the memorial.

Fraser Island

One of the “must-do’s” in this part of Queensland is a visit to Fraser Island – the world’s largest sand island and a World Heritage site. It’s a fabulous mix of sand dunes and rain forest all of which can only be traversed by four-wheel drive. After bumping along the track from the ferry onto the island we made our way along a short stretch of sealed road until our driver gleefully announced that that was the end of the comfort and we suddenly found ourselves bouncing up and down sandy tracks, on our way to out first stop for the day: Lake McKenzie

This must be the strangest and most beautiful lake we’ve swam in. It’s a freshwater lake that sits on a sandy bed, high up on Fraser Island. The water is pure rainwater and it’s prevented from draining away by organic matter that has created a seal. The sand is pure silica and produces astonishing colours as well as a very soft feel on the foot.

Despite the unquestionable beauty of this lake it is quite intimidating. After wading into its shallows you can see a steep shelf where the water drops away dramatically into dark depths. This creates the different stripes and shades of blue you can see in the picture above and below.

Very sadly, just two weeks before our trip to Fraser, two Japanese students went missing at the Lake. Initially it was thought they were lost in the Bush that surrounds it. With light fading the search was resumed the following day when they were both found drowned in the Lake. Quite how this happened – especially given the apparently tranquil setting with no tide or rips to worry about – remains a mystery. It certainly makes you think twice about respecting the water regardless of how gorgeous it looks.

Fraser offers great contrasts and from the Lake, after more kangarooing along sand routes, we went along a rainforest boardwalk where we were presented with another natural risk…falling Kauri cones!

Here the forest felt distinctly ancient with species of palms and ferns dating back 300 million years. To add to the prehistoric atmosphere, a large monitor lizard duly scuttled into view…

fullsizeoutput_271c — Posing for the camera – a Monitor Lizard

From this vibrant and lush setting we made our way to the Fraser Island Highway….or as its otherwise known 75 Mile Beach as we careered along the sand yards from the ocean. This was wonderful and like so much of Fraser Island, a unique experience.

75 Mile Beach is official highway where the rules of the “road” apply, albeit with some flexibility to take account of the prevailing tide, and its nothing if not versatile doubling up as the runway for the local light aircraft….

fullsizeoutput_2725 — Fraser Island Airport Arrivals & Departures Lounge

Remarkably the drive on the beach and the aircraft aren’t the main attraction here. Instead the impressive remains of the Maheno Shipwreck take that honour. The Maheno has a special place in Australian history having been involved in the Gallipoli campaign and subsequently used for target practice by the airforce in preparations for WWII. Given all the natural beauty of the Island its odd that this large rusting relic is such a major attraction, but in a way it’s the contrast of its decrepit state against the gorgeous sand and lapping waves that make it quite mesmerising.

Having said that, when you turn away from the Maheno and look along the beach you just have to stop and stare at the jaw-dropping magnificence of this coastline. It really is quite overwhelming.

One of the Island’s most famous and notorious inhabitants had been conspicuous by its absence during our trip – the Dingo. We’d just about given up hope of spotting one as we made our way back along the sand when one suddenly slipped into view stalking an unsuspecting sunbather.

They certainly have a sense of menace about them and once the sunbather spotted it, she joined a nearby family for safety in numbers, and the dingo moved on. With no dogs on Fraser Island the local dingoes are the only pure-breed ones in Australia and they remain a source of controversy. A week after our visit a 14 month old toddler suffered a fractured skull when two dingoes grabbed and dragged him away from his family into the bush before he was saved by his father who heard his screams. On the local media there followed discussions of culls and the importance of campers staying in safe areas the dingoes can’t access. The incident was another reminder that so often in Australia you are the visitor in the territory of wild and dangerous animals.

fullsizeoutput_2729 — Never turn your back on a Dingo – unless you’re Usain Bolt

After our dingo sighting, time was tight so our 4W Driver decided to take a short cut back to the ferry port. This involved going along a relatively unused route (which really is saying something by Fraser Island standards) and a journey that felt as though we travelled as far vertically as we did horizontally such was the undulating condition of the track. There was certainly no danger or dozing off and it made the crossing back to the mainland feel quite serene as we enjoyed another glorious Australian sunset.

fullsizeoutput_272e — Return from Fraser Island

Maryborough’s Museums

As you would expect from its heritage, Maryborough is blessed with a handful of excellent Museums. We especially liked the Bond Store Museum with its interactive displays, one of which was like operating the HG Wells Time Machine. Press a few buttons, push a lever and years click by in front of your eyes until it stops and a film plays to correspond to that year – so simple and so much fun.

However, our favourite museum in Maryborough is Brennan and Geraghty’s Store, a shop that is heritage listed and was saved by the National Trust. Dating back to 1870, this store looks as it did over 100 years ago, with paperwork and records found onsite that are over 140 years old.

As you step into the store it is truly like stepping back in time. Run by brothers-in law Brennan and Geraghty, it managed to hit a century of business before it closed in the early 1970’s. The store was left with old products and artefacts in situ and has been lovingly conserved by the National Trust and a great band of welcoming local volunteers who now staff it. Every item is from the actual store, and nothing has been added or removed.

It’s a bit off the beaten track in Maryborough but well worth the effort of finding and spending an hour or two marvelling at the products, fixtures and fittings. Maybe a reflection of the diet at the times but there seemed to be an extraordinary number of constipation related wares on sale!

Beach Report

An Aussie blog wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory beach report and photos. Although not directly on the coast, Maryborough is a good jumping off point for some great stretches of sand. Twenty minutes up the road is Hervey Bay with its huge sweeping beach – but it has to be said, far from the softest sand we’ve enjoyed (to be fair we are talking world class sand as the benchmark).

An hour south are the wonderfully named Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach, the latter being a top beach option.

Our favourite was Bargara Beach near Bundaberg about an hour north. A really lovely spot with enough surf to make it fun and interesting, and a super little beach-side cafe. Bargara was meant to be a brief stop before we checked out Bundaberg. Thankfully we swopped that arrangement around as we found Bundaberg to be a bit bland.

Towards the end of our stay we ventured a couple of hours south to Noosa Heads. This is a much larger and more well-established resort. Forgetting it was Easter Monday we went there expecting it to be reasonably quiet – it wasn’t. Instead it was choked with horrendous traffic. We briefly saw a very busy beach with great surf, but it wasn’t for us. We have got spoilt by quiet deserted stretches and the likes of Noosa, Manly and Bondi are not for us – the backpackers and surfers are welcome to them. Instead we headed to another beach on the Noosa Heads peninsula and found the Aussie beach calm we so relish on Sunshine Beach.

Wildlife Sanctuary’s: Hmmm…

Sometimes a wildlife sanctuary is just that, a place of protection and recovery for animals that have been injured or mistreated in some way who can’t go back to the wild. At Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary they seemed to get the balance right in most cases, especially their roo’s and reptiles. Here it was possible to get very up close and personal with snakes…

… and kangaroos who are being well cared for by passionate staff. There is something very magical about hand feeding kangaroos, but you do have to watch them nibbling your fingers!

How adorable – the ‘roo is cute as well.

Having said that it wasn’t always clear why so many birds were in cages, but on balance we felt this was a well run Sanctuary with its heart and head in the right place. Sadly, we couldn’t say that for the Dolphin Centre that operates from Tin Can Bay, which was a dispiriting experience. Admittedly, we may have been slightly prejudiced by one remarkably rude volunteer who helps to run this experience. Here every day between 7.00 – 8.00am you get the chance to see and feed Humpback Dolphins. Much emphasis is placed on the dolphins being wild and the Centre operating in accordance with Government regulations by not over-feeding them. However, it feels rather cheap and exploitative, and to our mind a really successful day would be none of the dolphins turning up, having caught all they need to eat in the wild. No stars and no pics for this – it’s one of the few things on our trip we regretted doing.

Park Run!

Remarkably Sam and I have managed to maintain our new running habit (thank you Chris and Julianne for inspiring us when we were in Sydney). Our extended stay in Maryborough gave us the chance to finish our Couch to 5K programme (which by the way we can’t recommend highly enough) AND complete our first ever Park Runs! Having found where the local Park Run takes place, we used this as our training circuit every other day. Up at 6am to beat the heat, it is a beautiful spot, and I always enjoy seeing a golf course when I’m running (Sam, less so).

The first week we attended Park Run the organisers asked if there were any visitors and having owned up to being from the UK we got a lovely cheer, as we did the following two weeks, although as one of the locals pointed out, if we came to any more we would be considered locals as well.

The people we met at Park Run, and indeed at every event we went to in Maryborough, were incredibly friendly. Everyone seemed to know Jane, whose house and Leo we were taking care of, and were pleased we had come to visit their city as part of our travels. For us it was a delight to spend four weeks off the beaten track living like a local in a fascinating corner of Queensland where the modern history of this part of Australia is cared for and celebrated with zeal and heart-felt passion by its community. A real treasure.

Next:

The end of our Australian Travels: Far North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef