Singapore and home

Everything about Singapore seems to work really well. From the superefficient airport, to the transport system and the ease of getting about. This is a city we would be more than happy to visit again.

We met our friend Daren, who kindly showed us around on the first day. The Garden by the Bay, a locals eating place, Maxwell’s food market, and dancing in the evening. Even if it was £14 a pint!!!!!

On the second day we had a lovely time at the Botanical Gardens, had a city bus tour and explored some local markets.

All too quickly it’s time to go home and ...................... to start to plan our next trip. The Quincy Hotel, great location, really excellent service, breakfast, late check out, city tour, cocktails, afternoon snack, evening buffet, free laundry, all included in the price. 

Thanks for reading, I hope it’s not been too tedious. 

Hello Sydney

Well we’re not the first to visit Sydney are we, so dear reader you’ve probably seen it all before. Safe to say as cities go we loved it. It's the first city we’ve been to that’s almost completely built around water.

Our B&B in Newtown, which is a bit like Camden, was great and the hosts Bron and Julian could not have done more to help us. From picking us up and dropping us off, providing us with Opal cards (Oyster equivalent) and feeding us the most delicious breakfasts. The Tara Guest House if you’re interested yourself. The art around the place was lovely and in our room included quite a lot of bare bottoms. This piece was in the hall! Some of the best restaurants we’ve ever been to are in Newtown too.

We visited the botanical gardens, and saw some amazing trees, took the boat to Manly, had lunch and swam with our friends Amanda and James who just happened to be in Sydney at the same time.

We took the ferry to Watsons Bay, then the bus to Bondi Beach and then walked to Congee along the coast.

The beer and pies in the Admiral Nelson were excellent and the evening stroll over the bridge gave us some great views over Sydney harbour.

Sydney is one of those places you’ve just got to visit, at least once in your life. I'm not that impressed by buildings much but the Opera House has got to be the incredible building I've ever seen. Better even with the naked eye,  than you can ever capture with a photo.

Next stop Singapore. 

1500 miles down to Sydney

So Lennox Head is another of those places we would have loved to stay longer. Relaxed, great beaches and great food.

Heading south again but inland for a night near Bellingen, a sort of hippy place. Occasional whiff of pot as you walk around, quirky shops and quite a nice spot for a stopover. Beautiful sunset. Nice touch in the local independent grocer with the fruit. And what’s with the automated dog wash?

The next day we headed for Trial Bay, near South West Rocks. WOW! What a beach, clear aquamarine water and gentle waves. We were joined by 13 kangaroos who seem to live about the campsite.

Along the way we saw the giant prawn in Ballina and the big banana outside Coffs Harbour.

Next up some wine tasting in the Hunter Valley, courtesy of Tex our guide for the day. We stayed in Cessnock, campsite nice but empty on the Thursday we arrived. By the time we got back on Friday it was full of Sydney folk up for the weekend. Delicious wines from small boutique vineyards that only sell through their cellar doors. Of the 150 vineyards in the area 90 do free or nearly free tastings………..! And there was cheese and there was chocolate too.

Two hour trip to Sydney, to return our van and head to the B&B

Lennox Head

Leaving Noosa for our 4 hour trip today, we joined the Bruce Highway for the last time. This road has been our travelling companion for the 9 days as we have driven south from Cairns, down the coast. We’ve now done just over 2500 kilometres in the camper although it doesn’t seem like it. As we approached Brisbane the highway became the Steve Irwin Way, and then we were in Brisbane.

Brisbane

Our route took us right through the middle of the city. We were seduced by the exotic sounding ‘Main Beach’ and ‘Surfers Paradise’ so we took the coast road. What a mistake, high rise hell, Benidorm on the Gold Coast.

Surfers Paradise..............!

Amazing for us, we then drove through a time zone as we left Queensland and entered New South Wales, gaining an hour, just like that! We’ve also swapped the Sunshine Coast for the Gold Coast and the Coral Sea for the Tasman Sea.

We passed through lovely Byron Bay, which was full of schoolies, as we’d been warned, great place but for another time perhaps. Lennox Head is Byron Bays little brother and it is just as nice but on a smaller scale. Our campsite is right next to Lake Ainsworth, freshwater stained brown from the tannin in the surrounding tea trees and lovely and warm. We’re also only about 400 meters from 7 mile beach.

As we’re two nights here we dedicated the next day to the beach. I hired a bodyboard and had fun in the waves. And Deb relaxed. We were both a bit frazzled by the time it came to throw the prawns on the barbie.

Lovely place this that we could stay a week.

For interest – we passed the Versace Hotel in Main Beach where I’m a Celebrity is currently being filmed. Didn’t spot Ant of Dec though. Phew! No bush tucker trial for us tonight.

Noosa Northshore

We would have liked to stay a while longer in Tin Can Bay, but perhaps there’ll be another time! 

On the way to Noosa we stopped off in Gympie for some supplies, a supermarket and a liquor store. No booze in the supermarkets here. Perhaps if we hadn’t allowed it we’d still have 1000’s of local off licences around our country too!

Access to Noosa Northshore is via a ferry again and the campsite is right on the beach. No drinking water but loos and showers. 

The site is full of Ozzie families having fun in the sun and a few kangeroos too. Although the water is lovely and warm a prevailing north wind had blown ‘bluebottle’ stinging jelly fish to the area, so together with no lifeguards, and the prospects of an odd shark or two put us off having a swim. Another lovely spot that needed more than one night.

You can buy a permit to drive your 4x4 on the beach and many do. 

Our last day in Queensland before we head south again to New South Wales and a new time zone.

Eungella to Tin Can Bay

This is about a 12 hour drive so we stopped off about half way in Yepoon. Nice little place and the Coral Inn, owned by a German family ran a nice beach themed B and B.

Tin Can Bay and Rainbow beach are two places we’d like to come back to. Our trip over to Fraser Island (a sand bar 75 miles x 15) was fab and although we didn’t see a dingo, we did fly in a little Cessna plane, swim in lake Mackenzie and bounce around in the 4x4 bus as we drove along the beach.

Tin Can Bay is famous for the esturine humped back dolphins that arrive every morning for a feed. There are 9 dolphins in the pod and the alpha male only ever lets the same 3 come in with him and have a free breakfast. He chases off any of the other 5 that try and come in. The volunteers only ever feed them an 8^th of their daily intake so as to not make them reliant on the process. These are the third generation of dolphins to do this. The first dolphin beached by mistake in the mid 1950’s and since then every day, rain or shine, between 7.00am and 9.30am, tide dependent they stop by.

Next up we’re off for some away from it all camping by the sea at Noosa Northshore.