Here are maps of Australia that you can refer back to when needed.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
On The Road Again...!
Hello everybody, it’s been a while since the last blog entry. Sorry about that! Yes, we are still alive and well, although these past two weeks have been spent agonizing over the car repairs (and trying on our nerves…). One day turned into two that turned into a week and then into two and a half. But eventually we got the car back! Halleluja! In the mean time we spent time getting rained on in Coolum Beach (small town about 110 km north of Brisbane), Brisbane and Surfer’s Paradise. We did the “real” backpacker “thingy” and loaded ourselves with the backpacks and spent hours and hours in busses that traveled in the most remote locations on EVERY road until reaching the destinations we were going to. No wonder other people spend half a year covering the same distance we are doing in two months!
We spent a weekend in Brisbane trying out some excellent restaurants and doing the nightclubs. The “it” places to be at, we were told, were “Family” in the Fortitude Valley and “Friday’s”.( http://www.thefamily.com.au/ ) Luckily, I didn’t go on the super heels and frocks as it was a very laid-back attitude in all the places (my sisters would both LOVE the UK inspired fashion here! Very entertaining 60’s looks…). Pouring rain and excellent air-cons in the clubs made for actually not too sweaty an experience to our big surprise, Europe has something to learn from all this! Music-wise…well…it wasn’t “Hallmark”, more “Highlight” with a younger crowd than I’ve seen for the last five years. We had fun though, and stayed at the Best Western in the City (which even had a rooftop pool! Oh, the luxury of it all!)
...not forgetting Henkka
Henkka exhausted after walking for hours on the hills of Brisbane looking for accommodation..
We spent a weekend in Brisbane trying out some excellent restaurants and doing the nightclubs. The “it” places to be at, we were told, were “Family” in the Fortitude Valley and “Friday’s”.( http://www.thefamily.com.au/ ) Luckily, I didn’t go on the super heels and frocks as it was a very laid-back attitude in all the places (my sisters would both LOVE the UK inspired fashion here! Very entertaining 60’s looks…). Pouring rain and excellent air-cons in the clubs made for actually not too sweaty an experience to our big surprise, Europe has something to learn from all this! Music-wise…well…it wasn’t “Hallmark”, more “Highlight” with a younger crowd than I’ve seen for the last five years. We had fun though, and stayed at the Best Western in the City (which even had a rooftop pool! Oh, the luxury of it all!)
Linda on a river "bus" in Brisbane...
...not forgetting Henkka
Eating Japanese before going out...
Starting to embark on a new trip out of Brisbane...
Surfer’s Paradise was wonderful after the little remote Coolum (where everything closes before 5 pm…they are adamant about not having people hanging around in lounges and cafés after-work which seems a bit strange business-sense so get your daily intake of caffeine well in advance…dinner restaurants also only serve food from 5.30 pm-8 pm…around 7 pm we were always the only ones left eating!) In “Surfer’s” we ate some really tasty chili-Barramundi (it’s a BIG white fish resident to Australia) and tried the beaches in between rain showers. It’s been raining a lot by the way, so my tan is still a work in progress… :(
They actually have drive in liquor stores here...hmm not for Finland!
Surfer’s Paradise (90 km south of Brisbane) is basically a long stretch of land with a beach (Gold Coast) running along it with high-rises casting dark shadows over sunbathers in the afternoon. Talk about great city-planning…!? But around the town there is everything in the way of theme parks wanted; Dreamland, Wet n’ Wild, Warner Brothers Movie world, etc. etc. We spent the day in Dreamland which was a big amusement park with the best rides I’ve seen in years. Linnanmäki eat your heart out! The big 4 were The Giant Drop, The Tower of Terror, The Cyclone and The Claw. Check out the rides on http://www.dreamworld.com.au/
The happiest person ever to sit in stocks...
Henkka behind bars...
Me behind bars...
On the road again! We got the car and drove over about 800km to Home Hill (about 150 km south of Townsville) where our friend Nicole lives. The rain continued during the long drive and met us in the small sugar-cane farming town of 4000 inhabitants. Nic had arranged a wonderful welcome with care-packages and we had fun watching old tapes from when she was in Finland working as a hairdresser. And here we are right now, hanging out in her cool Salon/home and regaining strength for the next leg of the trip, up towards Cairns next week if the weather improves and shines that sunshine on us :)
Nicole setting up the video camera and Linda with Lily the friendly chihuahua...
Me, Nic and Renee during a tradional "pub crawl" in Home Hill
By the way, thank you for all the comments we’ve received from you, it is great to hear something from all of our wonderful friends and family members back home! Although we’ve heard it can be a bit tricky posting comments if you register, but you can also leave messages with ease and speed… by leaving a comment under anonymous, just leave your name in the end of the message so we know who it’s from!
The notorious Finnish....
......horse thieves....
The must go on log ride about to start...
Linda conquering her past fears...
Henkka giving it a go as well!
Its... The Claw!
Linda preparing herself for the ride
Linda screaming on the ride!
Linda screaming on the ride!
The 4 G 119m drop uber ride, The Drop.
Linda waiting for the ride to begin...
...and yes, it was a drop from high above!
On the road again! We got the car and drove over about 800km to Home Hill (about 150 km south of Townsville) where our friend Nicole lives. The rain continued during the long drive and met us in the small sugar-cane farming town of 4000 inhabitants. Nic had arranged a wonderful welcome with care-packages and we had fun watching old tapes from when she was in Finland working as a hairdresser. And here we are right now, hanging out in her cool Salon/home and regaining strength for the next leg of the trip, up towards Cairns next week if the weather improves and shines that sunshine on us :)
Nicole's prepared bedroom for us among carepackages!
Nicole setting up the video camera and Linda with Lily the friendly chihuahua...
On Friday we went for all the pubs in Home Hill...all three of them! Had a lot of beer, vodka and laughs...here are some pictures to amuse yourselves with.
Me, Nic and Renee during a tradional "pub crawl" in Home Hill
Scaring the locals with our musical abilities...
Nic, Henkka and Sy striking a pose in the pub...
The Home Hill gang and me...
Our pretty hostess...Nic striking a pose after a long night...
The crazy dance styles of Home Hill...
By the way, thank you for all the comments we’ve received from you, it is great to hear something from all of our wonderful friends and family members back home! Although we’ve heard it can be a bit tricky posting comments if you register, but you can also leave messages with ease and speed… by leaving a comment under anonymous, just leave your name in the end of the message so we know who it’s from!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Noosa Heads
We arrived in the surfing town of Noosa Heads on Wednesday and decided to stay a long weekend there before heading north to Fraser Island on Sunday. On Friday we spent the day in the mechanics shop (again) after our air-con broke down. On the way there the passenger window fell into the door and refused to work. We were lucky to find a mechanic willing to fix this all on a Friday and that’s when our relationship with our car started to fade. The mechanics found a large piece of wood in the passenger door used as a window stopper (this explained the mysterious clonk-clonk sounds that appeared while turning the car!) It seems the previous owner had installed a “home-made” window stopper! We got the car fixed and we’re very relieved that all was a-okay. Saturday was Henkka’s birthday and we spent the morning shopping for camping gear for our upcoming tenting experience in Fraser the following day. Then we took a hike on the Tanglewood Track in Noosa National Park, which came to a place called Hell's Gate (gloomy name), which are cliffs that apparently can be quite dangerous due to high winds etc. A magnificant view though across the Pacific Ocean...
Funny critter’s in the national park…
Henkka in the depths of Noosa park…with his cool new hat…
Overlooking Paradise beach…
Me at the cliffs…
The cliffs called Hell's Gate…
In the evening we had some excellent Japanese in Noosaville cooked by the Japanese Ambassador’s ex-Chef to Canberra. Yummy stuff!!! Oh, and there was another report of the famous eye-poking method again working! A guy in the news poked a crocodile in the eye after being attacked and escaped! This seems to be the best way to get out of any animal attacks here!
Henkka and I at the Japanese...
...and again...
On Sunday we took the ferry to get to Fraser. After two kilometers the car engine overheated and started smoking like there was no tomorrow. A backyard handy-guy fixed a hose that seemed to have a hole in it.
Henkka cools off our car after the smoke stops…
We decided to carry on, driving on the beach the 75 km to Fraser. The beach was great but with shark infested waters (hence, very empty!)
We got about 10km from our destination until in the 4WD trails in the bush we overheated again…so bad that this time we decided to turn around and get a mechanic look at it back from where we started from (as there was no cell coverage, no people, nothing where we were, we thought we’d better be safe than sorry)…well good thing we did ‘couse when we got to shore the gearbox jammed. We cursed our luck…and the car. So much for a reliable more expensive car! We were not happy campers, and still aren’t.
Stuck in the bushtrails…
At the moment we have been stuck since Sunday night in a small place called Coolum beach next to the repair shop. Turns out our radiator, fan AND the 4WD gearbox is broken! There’s nothing to do around here, no Internet café, no clubs, pubs and the weather kinda sucks…Today we hope to find out when we’re getting the car back, plan what to do the next 5 days when we’re stuck here etc. You could say this is major setback as the insurance company are giving us headaches and we’re most likely to pay everything ourselves! Nice! So no Fraser for our part…we don’t even want to see the wretched island anymore. Oh, and there’s a cyclone flooding up much of north Queensland so we’re probably missing our window of opportunity to head anytime soon up there as the streets are going to be flooded away for some time. Definitely NOT happy campers!!! Hopefully in the next blog I’ll have better news (ie. We’ve escaped this place!) and we are licking our wounds on the white sandy beaches of Whitsunday…hope everybody’s having fun in the -25˚C back home ;)
Funny critter’s in the national park…
Henkka in the depths of Noosa park…with his cool new hat…
Overlooking Paradise beach…
Me at the cliffs…
The cliffs called Hell's Gate…
In the evening we had some excellent Japanese in Noosaville cooked by the Japanese Ambassador’s ex-Chef to Canberra. Yummy stuff!!! Oh, and there was another report of the famous eye-poking method again working! A guy in the news poked a crocodile in the eye after being attacked and escaped! This seems to be the best way to get out of any animal attacks here!
Henkka and I at the Japanese...
...and again...
On Sunday we took the ferry to get to Fraser. After two kilometers the car engine overheated and started smoking like there was no tomorrow. A backyard handy-guy fixed a hose that seemed to have a hole in it.
Henkka cools off our car after the smoke stops…
We decided to carry on, driving on the beach the 75 km to Fraser. The beach was great but with shark infested waters (hence, very empty!)
We got about 10km from our destination until in the 4WD trails in the bush we overheated again…so bad that this time we decided to turn around and get a mechanic look at it back from where we started from (as there was no cell coverage, no people, nothing where we were, we thought we’d better be safe than sorry)…well good thing we did ‘couse when we got to shore the gearbox jammed. We cursed our luck…and the car. So much for a reliable more expensive car! We were not happy campers, and still aren’t.
Stuck in the bushtrails…
At the moment we have been stuck since Sunday night in a small place called Coolum beach next to the repair shop. Turns out our radiator, fan AND the 4WD gearbox is broken! There’s nothing to do around here, no Internet café, no clubs, pubs and the weather kinda sucks…Today we hope to find out when we’re getting the car back, plan what to do the next 5 days when we’re stuck here etc. You could say this is major setback as the insurance company are giving us headaches and we’re most likely to pay everything ourselves! Nice! So no Fraser for our part…we don’t even want to see the wretched island anymore. Oh, and there’s a cyclone flooding up much of north Queensland so we’re probably missing our window of opportunity to head anytime soon up there as the streets are going to be flooded away for some time. Definitely NOT happy campers!!! Hopefully in the next blog I’ll have better news (ie. We’ve escaped this place!) and we are licking our wounds on the white sandy beaches of Whitsunday…hope everybody’s having fun in the -25˚C back home ;)
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Byron Bay/ Brisbane/ Australia Zoo
Surfs up in sunny Byron Bay!
Henkka had his first try at surfing…and loved it! He even managed to stand up on the first day! (More than I did in Portugal’s Billabong Surf Camp 100 years ago…but then again the waves WERE a lot calmer at Byron…no Atlantic-Mediterranean currents and cliffs to avoid, so I guess you can’t compare ;)
Henkka posing...
Henkka burned his hands and I burned my face-off….not a good look, so next came city-life in Brisbane…
We liked Brisbane a lot more than Sydney. Very multicultural and interesting….good ethnic food, yummy!!! We had the best Indian stuff in the Valley and sweated like pigs while doing a walking tour of the city. We even stopped in at the Queensland Museum (just as much for the culture as for the very icy air-conditioning in the building)…Learned a bit again about the dangerous flora and fauna and got introduced to the creatures that walked this land before us.
The view from Brisbane harbour...
Me and Steve....keepin' it real...
Henkka had his first try at surfing…and loved it! He even managed to stand up on the first day! (More than I did in Portugal’s Billabong Surf Camp 100 years ago…but then again the waves WERE a lot calmer at Byron…no Atlantic-Mediterranean currents and cliffs to avoid, so I guess you can’t compare ;)
Me doing the wave...
Henkka posing...
Me doing the sunpyramid...
Henkka concentrating...
Henkka burned his hands and I burned my face-off….not a good look, so next came city-life in Brisbane…
We liked Brisbane a lot more than Sydney. Very multicultural and interesting….good ethnic food, yummy!!! We had the best Indian stuff in the Valley and sweated like pigs while doing a walking tour of the city. We even stopped in at the Queensland Museum (just as much for the culture as for the very icy air-conditioning in the building)…Learned a bit again about the dangerous flora and fauna and got introduced to the creatures that walked this land before us.
The view from Brisbane harbour...
I found some time to contemplate during our city-walk... ;)
An oldie...
A big termite hill...
The snake bones and Henkka....
Henkka getting attacked by a stuffed shark...
Henkka tries to fly...
We stayed in a nice enough motel and then headed out to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin’s Croc farm for those of you not intoned with Discovery Channel). It was another scorching hot day and the crocodiles, dingoes, kangaroos, koalas, elephants, birds and other snaky critters tried to keep the performance up, some better than others. Check out the amazing giant turtles!!!!
Contact with the 'roos...
"You woke me..."
Cleaning out the pouch... "who's there!?"
It's a big one...
...and two big ones...
Me and my friend the little lizard...
Me and my friend the goat...
The croc-show starts...
teasing a crocodile? hmmm...dangerous business...
...a big snake....
After the zoo we made our way back onto the highway and up the coast…next stop Noosa Heads!!!!
This one is for you, Steph!
Me and Steve....keepin' it real...
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