Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone!

Sydney

I noticed that it has been a very very long time since I've written any updates. Lately, things have been moving along alright. After leaving Cairns and heading South to Sydney, I couldn't find any work that allowed me to save up money like I would have liked. So instead of just floating on in Sydney, I decided to come back to Moree and work on a cotton farm again. It's almost poetic really. Starting and ending my Australian in the same town, doing the same work. It feels a lot different this time though, compared to last time. I can remember just getting here a year ago, and having that feeling like everything is new and exciting... because it was. This time however, it just feels like a anti-climactic end to an amazing story. A story that brought me half-way around the World, in contact with some very amazing people, and an experience that I will never be able to forget, only to end at a Cotton Farm in Moree.

Bondi Beach

I came out to Moree with an Australian friend named James, who I met in Sydney. We work on the same farm, and live in town. We rent a room at a boarding house full of Serbians, who for Christmas cooked up a really good feed. Other than that, for Christmas all I did was sit around and watch shit movies.

Sunset at a Cotton Farm

Christmas Dinner

If I'm coming across as depressing, then I apologize. It is not my intention to depress, it's just that I guess I expected a little bit more a crescendo. It's my own doing though, I was the one who chose to come back here and save the money. I could have easily stayed in Sydney and burned through my saving hoping for a better climax. And why did I choose this? well, I will tell you.

THAILAND!

I can see it in the horizon. Out in the vanishing distance, I can begin to make out the beginnings of a new epic journey. With rasta bars, full moon parties, ladyboys, cheap drinks and cheaper cigarettes. And rocks! That's right, rocks! Sam, my little brother, who hasn't updated his blog since last time he was in Thailand will be making a 2nd trip to the country and meeting me there. He has been working on a lobster boat in Southern California, and when his season finishes he will be meeting me in Thailand sometime in March. I will be there at the end of January. My flight leaves Sydney January 30th. I only have a one-way ticket to Thailand  so I don't really have any plans on how things will go or what will happen. All that I do know is that come March I will be heading down to Phuket, getting on a speed boat that will take me to Ton Sai, where I'll meet up with my little brother who I haven't seen in well over a year.

So there we have it. I might get one more posting here in Australia before heading to Asia, I might not. Only time will tell.

Sydney

Sailing Whitsunday Island, Australia

VIDEO OF WHITSUNDAY ISLAND

It's been a good couple months since I did this trip, but I finally sat down and put together a video about the Whitsunday Island trip. 

The boat is called Tongara and it is a catamaran. I think there were about 25 people or so on the boat, and we sailed around the island and reef, snorkled, drank lots of good, got naked, and had an amazing time. The trip was three days, two nights, and every night we slept on the deck of the boat. It was pretty epic. Definitely worth doing if you ever get around to Australia. 

The boat leaves from Airlie Beach, which is located in central Queensland. It's a pretty cool little town and a lot of tourists and backpackers go though it. 

We went to Airlie Beach after leaving 1770. At one point the road was closed, for whatever reason, and we ended up going on a detour that probably cost us about three hours. When we were about 40k from Airlie Beach, the Van blew a tire and we didn't have a jack. Luckily, within a few minutes a girl pulled over and let us use the jack in her car, but when I couldn't get my spare down because I didn't have any tools, she drove 20k to the next town and picked up a wrench and came back. Once I got the spare down I realized that it didn't have any air in it, so again, the girl drove back to town with the tire, filled it with air, and drove back to us. I was pretty shocked that she went that far out of her way to help us, but I was glad she did otherwise we would have been stranded on the road for a very long time. 

We ended up getting in to Airlie beach much later than expected, and all of the hostels were closed so we ended up sleeping in the van and in the morning we booked a hostel. 

It's been a few months since that happened and as I write this it feels like it was so long ago. So much has changed since being on the Tongara. So much.. 

 

Video: Gopro Hero 2 Backpacking Australia, Fraser Island Tour with Dingos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEzRCLodimY&feature=plcp

Fraser Island is a small, remote, island off the coast of Queensland Australia. The island contains one a large concentration of Dingo, which are a species of wild dog native to Australia. Comedic ads can be found all over the internet about how “a dingo ate my baby,” due to the fact that on several occasions throughout the years, families who have been camping on Fraser Island have had their small children taken and killed by packs of Dingos.

The tour I was on was through the hostel named “Dingo’s,” which is a hostile located in Rainbow Beach, Queensland. The tour consisted of three days and two nights on the island and camping was allowed on the Aboriginal land near the middle of the island.

Primarily the trip was rather basic, and consisted of driving around in four-wheel-drive vehicles through the sand, stopping at different points to see amazing lakes, view points, and other popular destinations. The nights mostly consisted of consuming large quantities of alcohol and marijuana, and running around naked with the other backpackers on the trip. Mornings usually involved a solid hangover, which was easily overcome by jumping into the ocean, or a lake.

Besides how amazing the trip was, the best part was easily the people that were involved. Making new friends and then getting entirely drunk with them was by far the best part.

Backpacking the East Coast of Australia - Town of 1770

I had no intention of visiting the town of 1770 when I initially embarked on my trip up the East Coast of Australia, but when I was booking my tickets for Fraser Island and Whitsunday I was convinced to come by the travel agent. He didn't get anything from it, so his motivation was purely out of love for the town that he "meant to visit for only a week and got stuck there for six months." He recommended the backpackers hostel called Cool Banana's, which as far as I'm concerned was the best recommendation I've ever had. The hostel is by far the best hostel I've been in since being in Australia. The town is small, and there is only an IGA grocery store and a gas station, or "servo," as it would be called by the locals. There are also quaint little restaurants random shops, but there are no commercial food chains, and no massive shopping chains like Wal-Mart or Home Depot. The beaches are amazing and it is in fact the last place that has surf on the way north (coastline north of here is blocked by the Great Barrier Reef).

From what I have been told, the town of 1770 in Queensland, Australia is the 2nd place where Captain Cook stopped after discovering Australia in the year 1770. Hence the name.


After arriving at Cool Banana's, I parked my van and was only charged $10 a night to use all the facilities, including the amazing kitchen, and sleep in my van. To get an 8 room dorm runs anywhere from $23 to $27 a night, which is still a great price.

At night there is a fire pit burning and all the residents sit around smoking cigarettes (or other things), and drinking while listening to music and chatting about the random things. Some people are heading south, some people are headed north, but everyone is usually amazing. Last night a Canadian guy drank half a bottle of Tequila without stopping. It was as though he was dying of thirst and needed water, though he was neither dying or needed water. About forty-five minutes later the alcohol bagan to work and he could hardly stand, which was expected. The whole ordeal was extremely impressive and I commended him for his ability.


Cool Banana's report  

Pros - Extremely Clean, Very Friendly staff, fun owner, very nice kitchen ($6 dollar nightly meals can be purchased, which are amazing homemade meals with fresh ingredients), walking distance to the beach and grocery store and bottle shop, bringing your own alcohol into the hostel is allowed and/or encouraged.

Cons - NONE!!!