Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1998 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

March 24 till April 20, 1998

Down Under

Hanging Loose in the Land of Oz

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Australia’s East Coast, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Yungaburra, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

I am close to collapsing, completely overworked, got hardly any sleep over the last days. Worst of all, I am emotionally upset. That’s actually an understatement. I am raging within. About the worst state you can be in for a 29 hour journey to one of the places furthest away from central Europe: Australia. I had to touch down in Frankfurt, Bangkok, Singapore and Sydney before I finally made it to my destination: Melbourne. The many hours on the plane did not help to reduce my anger and physical exhaustion. A bad start, to say the least.

It took me a week to overcome the anger and frustration. While I overcame the psychological down the physical exhaustion caught up with me. I caught the flu and had the "pleasure" of working despite the fever and throat infection. Responsibility towards others can be a bad thing. Despite the bad shape I was in I tried to make the best.

Melbourne

The next thing you notice: there are restaurants everywhere. I can’t remember a city with so many choices for food. It is certainly impossible to starve here. Everything is available. The immigrants have added a lot to the cuisine. It ranges from Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Burmese, Italian, Greek to the global chains from KFC, McDonalds and Burger King (called "Hungry Jack" here). I have Vietnamese most of the time in places that were packed with the locals, i.e. the Vietnamese. I figured that the food would be good and authentic. Luckily they had some English on the menu. The best and finest restaurant is a Chinese place in China Town. I am amazed to see such a high Asian population. I have no official numbers but maybe every forth person is Asian. Greek food is also popular. This does not surprise if you realize that Melbourne is the third largest Greek city after Athens and Thessaloniki in terms of population.

While the best dinner is served in the city, I would head to St. Kilda for breakfast. St. Kilda Road is a tree lined boulevard leading south from Victoria Bridge towards to suburb of St. Kilda. St. Kilda is a bit of a hippie-influenced town. Some unusually dressed people run around. St. Kilda has a harbor and a pier. When I was there the wind was stormy and it rained. The big ferry to Tasmania leaves from here as far as I know. They also have a sand beach, but the water looked too cold to even stick my toes in. The interesting part of St. Kilda is Aceland Street. The best bakeries line the road. The pastries in the windows look so tempting. A visual delight that is irresistable. They have German specialty bakeries, etc. Anything sweet your heart desires, you can find it here. No wonder that on weekends, the sidewalks are jam packed with people strolling to their favorite Italian coffee place where they indulge in latte and French pastry while they show off their newest dress, hair do or shoes. Local fame is held by the hair stylist. He has transformed his roof into an outdoor museum for colorful iron art. It is certainly an eye catcher. You can get the postcard version of the coiffeur palace just down the road.

Now that we have done dinner and breakfast we need a place to rest. Nothing is better than the Botanical Gardens for a nap or a digestive stroll. There is one in Melbourne as well as in St. Kilda. On weekends it is also a favorite spot for wedding pictures. There are generally a lot of green spaces and parks in Melbourne. They make the cities more attrctive and raise the living quality for people like me. Another good strolling area is the Southbank where a boardwalk runs along the Yarra River. It ends at the Maritime museum. At night this stroll shows the skyline reflected in the Yarra. On the southern side is the Crown Casino; Melbourne’s little Las Vegas. Crown Casino is a large entertainment complex. Typical look, typical shops, no surprises. Besides the casino (the one-armed bandits are called pokies here) are Planet Hollywood, the All Star Sports Bar, upscale shops and restaurants. All squeaky clean and air- conditioned to the point where you start freezing. In the hall connecting the complex to the integrated hotel they have light and water shows. I forgot the exact number, but an unbelievable high number of the world’s production of slot machines is sold in Australia. It was something like 10 percent. Considering that Australia has only 18 million people this is amazing. That makes Aussies heavy gamblers. Pokies are on many street corners and even in small hotels. The gambling-bar chain TAB has franchises in every little town across Australia. One of the largest chains of this kind in the world. You can bet on anything; horses, motor cycle races, Aussie football, cricket, etc.

Bargainers head for Queen Victoria Market. During the week it’s a produce and fruit market and on weekends they sell anything from souvenirs to art. It is popular. The size of the parking lot proves that. The surrounding snack shops and coffeehouses give the weary shoppers an opportunity to rest their legs and sip some cappuccino. Melbourne claims to have the best coffee in Australia. It’s so popular that even McDonalds sells McCappunccino.

Trendy shoppers of course would rather be dead than caught shopping at the Victoria Market. Chapel St. in South Yarra and Prahran is the place to be for them. Here it is fashionable and trendy, cosmopolitan and en vogue. Just make sure to wear something black when you come here. With blue denims you will look completely out-of-place, as did I. I might be exaggerating a bit, but black is obviously the "in" color. Some of the restaurants and coffee places had only customers in black shirts, pants or dresses. I doubt that they have a formal dress code; it just shows that birds of a feather flock together.

Any tourist sights in Melbourne? Yes, the green trams. They get you everywhere and are the best form of transport in the city. Another thing I noticed, during my stay in Melbourne I saw just a single aborigine.

Sydney

I find the old buildings like Parliament and Mint not so exciting. On the other hand, I found the Royal Botanic Gardens extremely lovely. A made the big loop around from Woolloomooloo Bay via Farm Cove to the famous Opera House. The opera house acoustics supposedly are poor and there was a lot of political fighting about and during the construction. It was x-fold over budget but most likely still worth the money as it is a magnet attracting tourist dollars. Most foreigners will think of the Opera House first when they think of Sydney. Right now the white roof tiles are falling off and the roof is going through renovation scheduled to be completed in time for the 2000 Olympic games.

Circular Quay separates the opera from the second biggest Sydney sight: Sydney Bridge. Circular Quay is just a busy ferry terminal with added tourist souvenir shops. The bridge has more charm. It is way bigger than I thought. It has 6 lanes for traffic, a separate railroad and paths for pedestrians and cyclists. It is 60 years old and has the nick name "old coat hanger" because of its shape. On the northern end is the Sydney fairground. The bridge’s importance today is reduced as there is a faster tunnel connecting CBD and North Sydney. And like on Golden Gate you pay toll for crossing it.

Not far from the bridge are the piers. Good music streamed from the Sydney Theatre Company on Pier 3. Good background setting to sit down on the water and enjoy a quick snack. Walking along the waterfront eventually ended up on High Street that overlooks the western portion of town and the suburbs across the water. High Street features lovely old wooden Sydney houses. The view gets even better as the road climbs uphill to the Sydney Observatory. Heading down the hill on the eastern side brought me to St. Patricks. It is another one of those churches that have survived and are located right between skyscrapers. The wedding bells were ringing and a couple ceremonially stepped into the church. Outside the wedding entourage had parked their Bentleys and Roll Royces limousines.

Not far away from the wedding bells, Irish folk music was in the air. The Rocks is the oldest area of town, the place where the British original settled. It has gone through rebuilding and is now a lively borough with narrow streets and entertainment on weekends. Live music comes from the popular pubs and a market sells everything from chimes to brain teasers.

Strolling back to Hyde Park I noticed a bunch of people staring at the Regent’s Hotel. People were repelling from it. Repelling is called abseiling in Australian, which is funny, because "abseil" is the German word for "to repel". Not sure how this word made it into the Aussie language. Somehow German settlers had some influence.

Brisbane

The botanical garden was refreshing as always. Giant bats, sometimes also called flying foxes, hang out here and swoop over your head. Their wingspan is about 2 feet, even a bit more. They are nice big fellows. Possums live in the gardens too and come out at night. They look different from the US counterparts.

There are a couple of boardwalks along the river. On one side it starts at Pier 6 and runs along the river into the botanical garden. There it turns into a wooden path on stilts and eventually emerges near the Government Building by the QUT (Queensland University). The other is on South Bank. The pedestrian and bike path goes for miles from South Bank to Milton along the Brisbane River. These boardwalks are perfect for late evening strolls when the temperatures are cooler. The city had various Easter events scheduled including the biggest Australian Harley Davidson meet. Unfortunately I missed the hog get-together. On the South Bank a few musicians showed their skills and a group of space men walked through the park dressed in yellow and black extraterrestrial costumes and masks. Their movement was out of this world and they event had sound and visual effects stemming from small fireworks. The kids loved them; they nearly attacked them. Must have been hate-love relationship.

With Brisie being in the tropics, rain had to be expected. What we got was torrential downpour. It was tornado like. We got 6 inches (14 cm) of rain in a single day. Flooding occurred and a few people died in a Brisie suburb. It rained nearly every day usually at night. On the day I went to Mt. Coot-tha which is about 5 miles (8 km) west of the city it unfortunately rained all day. Mt. Coot-tha has a great botanical garden and a lookout point on a hill from where one can see the city. The city skyline was barely noticeable behind the wall of rain. Needless to say that I was completely soaked within the first two hours. All clothing stuck to my skin. My hair was all wet. Usually that wouldn’t worry me, but since I just got over the flu I was a bit concerned but there wasn’t much I could do. The rain wouldn’t stop and as far as the eye could see there were rain clouds on the horizon. There was nobody else in the gardens. The water dragons were my only company. Right behind the enclosed Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens is the Mt. Coot-tha Forest. It has a few bushwalks. In my dreams I always thought of Australian bushwalks as walks through desert-like terrain with immense heat and the sun beating down on you. My bushwalk was the opposite, through muddy wet terrain with continuous rain. I hiked along the J.C. Slaughter Falls Track and the Aboriginal Art Trail. Throughout the hike, the single line "all I need is a good defense" keeps bouncing around my head. I had picked up this line from a song a few days earlier on TV. As I got cold I turned the walk into a jog to keep warm. Back at the hostel I jumped into a hot shower and drowned myself in several cups of steaming hot English tea. When I woke up the next morning it was still raining, but I only had good memories left.

Cains

Cairns has little to offer as a city. It is bland and its purpose is to act as a base for the surrounding area. There are plenty of hostels and they have inviting and colorful names like "Dreamtime Rest" and "Gone Walkabout".

Guess where I went first in Cairns: The Flecker Botanical Garden. They are 3 km south of the city center. A path running along the Saltwater creek leads to the gardens. By the time I got there it was already dark and the gardens closed. Across the gardens starts a mini-trail through a mini-rainforest. It’s built on a wooden boardwalk that runs through the swamp area and the wetland until it ends up at Centenary Lakes. It was pitch dark and kind of spooky. Especially when something touched me on my legs. I guess it must have been a toad or something. Jokingly I thought to myself "Wouldn’t it be fun if they had crocs here". I was sure there wouldn’t be crocodiles so close to the city. I was astonished when I got out of the mini-rainforest to the lakes and the sign reads "No Swimming. Salt Water Crocodiles." Another less scary but annoying animal that lives here in large numbers is mosquitoes. Nearby is also the Whitfield Range Environment Park but in the darkness there was no point to check it out.

The most famous destination of all of Queensland is likely to be the Great Barrier Reef. They call it he eighth wonder of this world; large enough to be seen from space. A trip to the outer reef is the pinnacle of coming to Cairns. To maximize the snorkeling pleasure I went on an ultra-fast cat boat. A cat does the distance in about 90 minutes. Regular boats take up to 3 hours. The reef is some distance off shore and Cairns is one of the places nearest to the reef. Our first stop was at Hastings Reef. Here the reef is anywhere from 6 to 25 feet (2 to 8 meters) under water. The colors of this underwater world are indescribable. Bright, in the wildest mixes and combinations, sometimes shining like they were fluorescent. The fish came in all shapes and sizes. The biggest ones a foot (30 cm) long. Some were loners, others part of a school of fish. The coral took bolder, brain or antler shape in white, yellow, red and blue color tones. For 2 hours we snorkeled without break fascinated by the colors around us. The water was an unbelievable 86F (30 degrees C) warm. While having lunch on board we moved on to Norman Reef. Our second stop. Here the water is even shallower, 6 to 15 ft (2 to 5 m) deep. We found clams in green and blue colors and a dead shell of a gaint clam of the size of 3 ft (1 m). While this underwater world is peaceful and calm I got scared when we spotted a Moray Eel or something similar hiding under some corals. It was mean looking and its jaws opened and closed. One could clearly see the teeth. It slithered out of the coral and moved like a snake to another hiding spot. It was huge and hence so scary. It looked like my arm would fit nicely into the mouth of this beast. I watched it from some distance. It was brownish in color with dark eyes. When it moved out under that coral it got longer and longer. That thing was 6.5 ft (2 m) long. One experience I will not forget that fast. We got 1.5 hours of snorkeling at that spot. It was a good day on the reef. And I have some sunburn to show for it, despite using factor 30 sunblock. The reef is terrific and words cannot capture the beauty, only your imagination can.

Atherton Tableland

People have placed a rope on a tree to form a ropeswing into the Mulgrave River. Like Tarzan you hold on to the rope, swing from the river bank out and let go of the rope over the river where you land with a big splash. You can be 3 to 4 meters above the river when you let go of the rope. We did a couple of swings in variations of legs up and legs forward. Then we increased the speed by walking further up the riverbank. After another couple of jumps we worked our way to the top spot. It goes without saying that I had to try the top spot too. One of the trees on the right side looked a bit too close for comfort, so I figured in order to avoid it I push myself a bit to the left. Nice thought, terrible execution. I pushed myself too far to the left. I definitely avoided the tree on the right but hit the tree on the left. I saw the tree come closer and closer as I was on the rope in mid-air but there is nothing I could do about it. I put my feet in the front to avoid getting hit somewhere else. Sort of used my legs and feet as a front bumper. The impact was quite hard. One should not believe how much speed one can pick up just by gravity of one’s body weight. After hitting the tree I started spinning and made it over the water were I released the rope. During this second I didn’t feel any pain. Still spinning I fell into the river. I came up again and still felt little pain. The others said they heard some crashing cracking sound and expected me to come to the surface with some bone sticking out of the flesh. It wasn’t so bad. Three bruises on the shin, a little bit of blood where the skin was scratched off. Standing on the riverbank I felt somewhat okay. I figured I had only bad bruises, nothing to worry about. It would be gone in a day or two, I thought. Slowly I realized that the most pain came from the heel bone in the foot itself. Now 2 and a half days have passed and I still can’t step on the foot. It’s time now to get concerned. I just spoke with a doctor. He said it could be anything from a bad bruise, a crack in the bone to a fully broken bone. I need to go to a hospital to get an X-ray to find out. So much for that. Starting tomorrow morning 5am I will be 37 hours in commute from my hostel in Cairns till I eventually arrive in Stockholm. I will then have the pleasure of getting first hand experience with Swedish medical staff. I haven’t seen the movie, but apparently "George in the Jungle" is just like this. A guy swinging on vines and hitting trees.

Not knowing that it might be serious, I brushed it aside and let the day continue. Up on the plateau we stopped at the Cathedral Fig Tree, a 500-year-old fig tree (banyan) with large aerial roots. Banyan trees sometimes start growing on top of other trees, grow roots to the ground and eventually strangle and kill the host tree. This is a beautiful example of that. The tour continued to Lake Barrine. They offer boat cruises there but it looked a bit boring. But the restaurant is nice, both food and view are good, but especially the view. A lush green rainforest surrounding a calm lake. It couldn’t get any more tranquil and peaceful. We did a brief walk through the rainforest. I hopped along like the Easter Bunny. With my left leg I could touch the ground only with my toes and it was painful. This was my style of walking till now. A snake and a couple of baby rainforest dragons crossed our path in the rainforest.

In the afternoon we explored Lake Tinaroo by canoes. The lake is surrounded by thick vegetation. In some spots dead trees stick out of the water. Water lilies grow in some spots. The lake has multiple side arms and turns making it more fun to explore. We didn’t find much wild life except for large majestic blue butterflies and a couple of water dragons. At a spot were a creek feeds the lake we took a break and did some face painting with ochre stones that can be found in the creek. The colors range from cream, bronze, brown, red brown to khaki. The guys turned into abo warriors, the women into princesses. We had a few good designs and it was fun to apply the earth colors with a small wooden stick. All painted and made up we arrived at the lodge in Yungaburra. At sunset we did some platypus spotting without success. Nothing to see but a few frogs. Another two animals we did not spot but live in this neighborhood are the tree kangaroo and the cassowary, a 6 ft (2 m) tall non-flying bird with a red-and-blue head. The day ended with a good BBQ dinner, Aussie tucker. The sausages taste just like in the UK, which is not a compliment. After filling the stomach there was only one thing left to do: rest. The night was cool for a change and the blanket was even useful.

The next day we had rain, forest and rainforest. I missed out on the swim in Lake Eacham to rest my leg a bit. In the afternoon we did the waterfall circle. We started with the Millaa Millaa waterfall. When driving into the parking lot it suddenly pops into view. It is beautiful. The water falls in a 15 ft (5 m) wide line 30 ft (10 m) down into an oval pool of greenish dark water. The rocks on top are black and small blocks the size of a football are covering the lakeshore. The water is deep enough for a swim. One can swim through the curtain of water to end up behind the falls. The water comes down thundering. It’s hard to keep the eyes open when near the falls. Spray and mist is everywhere. The slope of the fall is covered with plants and all around the lake is dense greenery; the rainforest. It was breathtaking beauty. As wonderful as any waterfall in Hawaii. Less tall maybe, but not less dazzling.

On the short trip to the second fall we went through dairy country with many cows on the farms between the patches of rain forest. Zillie Falls was next. It might be 70 ft (20m) tall. A trail starts on top and leads down to the bottom where small rapids are formed. Small pools act like natural Jacuzzis. You sit down in them and the swift water massages your back or shoulders. Different pools massage different body parts. By now we had our usual tropical rain shower. But it didn’t matter, we were wet anyway. The rivers are a lot colder than the ocean. It was not for the fainthearted to step into the cold river for the massages.

Last fall on the circle was Ellinjaa Falls, which was similar in size and shape to Millaa Millaa. The lake was less deep and one can stand in most places. If you put yourself directly under the falls holding on to some rock for stability you get the back massage of your life; one that warms your body despite the cold water. The surroundings are as nice as at the other falls; rainforest as far as one could see.

Summary

Aussies are more relaxed than central Europeans or the average American. Australians, even the business people, always have time for a chat – unlike me. They seem to have a cool attitude and a good skill in avoiding and managing stress. Hospitality seems to be part of the culture. For example, they insisted on picking me up from the airport where in most places it’s understood that people are independent enough to hop in a cab. I would be too selfish with my time to spend it on airport commutes to pick up business associates. Not everybody I met in Oz was a shining example of friendliness. When I was wet to the bone with rain running down my face, cold and jogging on the sidewalk along a busy road to the bus stop in Brisbane a guy threw a full cup of Fanta at me as he was driving by. Nice move mate; next time get a bit more practice though. He missed me by an inch. Not so easy to hit a moving target from a moving object. And then there was the bus driver who refused to give me information about bus connections. A passenger made up for it. She told me what I needed to know, where I needed to get off and even walked me to the bus stop of the second bus to which I had to switch. These were the exceptions. Most people were friendly and went the extra mile to help.

Australia is reasonably cheap. The exchange rate to the US dollar dropped by 25 per cent in the last half year, making everything good value. Furthermore, Australia caters to travelers of all style. Services offered to travelers are comprehensive. Everything from airport pickup, storage facilities, bike and car hire to tours is catered for. Backpacking is a recognized and acknowledged way of life here with enough competition to assure good service. Finding cheap dorm-style accommodation in the city center was always a snap. The typical hostel has full kitchen, living room, pool, shady backyard, etc. Enough to make for a comfortable stay.

Australia is just slightly smaller than the 48 contiguous states of the US. Every airplane hop I did was one to two hours flying time. Quantas is doing a good job in entertaining the passengers with Seinfeld episodes. I wish they would do that on intra-Europe flights too. Anyway, with a country so big it is obvious very quickly that I have seen only a teensy weenie bit of down under. I have learned just enough about Australia to know where to go to the next time. Queensland, Aussie’s vacation state, seems to be the place to be. Hot and tropical with plenty of adventures left to be found and experienced. Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and the national parks north of Cairns have plenty in store to look forward too. In good Austrian Schwarzenegger accent I can say, "I’ll be back". Even better, I’ll be back within a year.

Addendum