Another instllment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

Hi friends & family, number 15….hope it’s good reading….

If you lot ever read much into Oz, or even heard tales from other people,
you’ll no doubt be aware of the Whitesunday islands found in the Great
Barrier Reef National Park. It should conjure up images of blissfully
desolate islands, crystal-clear aquamarine waters, blistering sunshine and
basically the essential ingredients of those postcards you see. Well, you
can scatch those images, I boarded a Catamaran “Pacific Star” knowing full
well that we were gonna sail straight into an offshore thunderstorm, how
pleasant. Wrenched my guts up as soon as we hit the open sea and received
some mercy in the form of sleep (although I can imagine a phone booth having
more space than my cabin…sardines anyone?). Basically spent 3 full days
cruising the islands, swimming in the turqoise waters of Whitehaven beach
(also seeing rays!), walking through a rainforest just wearing a pair of
boardshorts, scuba diving & snorkelling on some island reefs and enjoying
the limited bursts of sunshine being on the upper deck of our vessel
munching great food and more tea. The highlights of the cruise were a)
snorkelling for 2-3 hours straight on an offshore reef, duck diving with 5
sea turtles and trying to hold on to them as they powered through the water
column. They were so cute and sedate, they hardly reacted to my touch!! b)
Scuba diving at night and seeing a fully-grown white-tip reef shark plough
right through the middle of our dive group out of the darkess. Saw some
cool-coloured shrimps and cuttlefish too- one of them inked me!!!

After 3 nights on my watery home, I headed further up the coast and caught a
ferry to the small volcanic “Magnetic Island”. Only 8km long, this place
was so quiet compared with the rest of Ozzy’s east coast, a nice retreat
from the crowds!! Met up with my Brazilian friends and hired another 4×4
(not pink though), and explored the whole road network of the island,
unsealed and sealed, blessed with much-needed sunshine. Found some great
desolate beaches/ coves to walk and snorkel, as well as feeding Wallabies.
The water was so warm here and on the Whitesunday’s…29oC!! Saw some nice
reef fish here too, but the visability was quite poor, due to all of the
rain the region had received. After Magnetic, I headed back to the mainland
and spent a night in the port of Townsville before moving north to the small
but nice “Mission Beach”- expansive palm tree-backed beach Found a great
backpacker place there, with a swimming pool and BBQ, so put both to use to
cap off my east coast run. My final night in Australia was spent in the
humid tourist-riddled town of Cairns. Didn’t do any more scuba diving here,
as I screwed my budget big time, so just explored the town.

Now in the sqeaky clean and efficient city of Singapore, staying with my
uncle and his family. Explored the colonial distict today, echoing the
distinct British influence over the city and even managing a coffee in the
world-famous Raffles Hotel. It’s really humid here, but I sadly wasn’t
expecting anything less…I just hope I can aclimatise asap.

Hope that a few of you guys and girls received one of the many letters that
I’ve been writing so far, email with you address if you haven’t!! My
writing is crap, so those that haven’t had any air mail through the post
aren’t missing much!!

Let’s see what happens next…..

Cheers & miss you all!

Oli

Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

Greetings to my faithful readers,

Don’t say anything, I know what I kinda promised last time!! My time in Oz
is coming to an end, I give myself a week before I fly off to Singapour and
see my uncle and his family- It’s gonna be so good to see family again!

The last 8 days for me has been lapping up the gorgeous and expansive
coastline of eastern Oz, stopping every few hundred kilometres at various
spots. Port Stevens was my first call north from Sydney, a quiet submerged
valley with some little towns and unspoilt beaches. Explored the Stockton
Blight sand dunes, looking like a cover to that famous Pink Floyd album with
that song “learning to fly” and relaxed on “one mile beach”. Same relaxed
scenario at Port Macquarie, although the swell was better here, but still
relatively cold to enter the sea.

Had a really great piece of driving scenery from the port to Coffs Harbour,
detouring into the interior of the state, driving up the famous “waterfall
way road”. It took me through lush green countryside, just like I was back
in England, where I was surrounded by several world heritage-listed national
parks. Did a 6km rainforest hike in the Dorrigi national park, where the
birds sounded like human babies, the insect clicking sound deafening, the
vegetation sub-tropical and some great waterfalls and lookouts to observe.
Got to Byron Bay in the same day ( a lot of driving!!) and….went to the
beach there. Notice a pattern yet?!! Spent the next couple of days briefly
stopping at the in-your-face commericalised beach settlement of “Surfers
Paradise”. I detested the place as soon as I saw it, high rise buildings
lining the beach and shopping malls/ bars/ tourists everywhere you turn!! An
Ozzie Las Vegas. Funnily enough, I bailed after a whole hour here, sighting
and staying in the infinitly better place of Brisbane. Had a nice couple
days here, skulking around the city and remarking about how pretty the city
looked with its green spaces and artificial lagoon on its south bank, the
botanical gardens with its mangrove swamps, the manditory china town and
downtown’s colonial buildings.

To round off the last leg of my trip, we high-tailed it to Hervey Bay, which
is the staging ground for the 4×4 tours to the famous Fraser Island. We
paid out for a self-drive tour, where the people staying in the hostel were
organised into 3 groups of 8-9 people, each group issued with a land rover,
fuel, tents, cooking equipment, camping permits and barge
tickets…basically everything bar food and drink to take onto the island.
My group was a great mix of 3 Brazilians, 2 Koreans, a danish guy and us two
limeys. The following morning, we gathered around our PINK land rover,
packed our gear and stocked up on BBQ food/ booze before boarding the
morning ferry.

The 3 days spent on Fraser Island were AMAZING. We engaged 4×4 mode once on
the huge (120km long) sand bar, and drove through the lush forested interior
of the island on sand tracks, to reach the eastern beach and arrive at the
walking trail to lake Wabby. Surrounded on 1 side by a huge sand dune
“sandblow” and on 3 sides by Eucalypt forest, the lake had a limpid green
colour to it, filled with catfish and the occasional duck. The water was
blissfully warm (all accumulated rainwater), where the 3 groups relaxed and
chatted away the whole afternoon. Even by that point, there were stories of
all the trucks getting stuck in the sand and everyone having to dig/ push
their vehicles out of the sand!! Made camp behind the sand dunes on the
beach and had an awesome BBQ. The evening was spent with almost everyone
getting ratted on their chosen poison (mine was a bottle of rum), playing
cards and then the hilarious “Viking” drinking game where everyone’s a
viking and has to make pointy helmets with their hands when nominated, their
adjacent buddies having to row in the correct way. I was a victim of my own
game and ended up polishing the rum. I just thought I would show this game,
as there were a few Danish in attendance….the two girls didn’t fare much
better than me!! One of the Brazilians managed to pass out in our pink jeep
as well as me and a couple of guys managing to remove the stereos of the two
jeeps and swap them using a multitool while semi-pissed. A great idea of
mine. Spent our 2nd and day on Fraser checking out the refreshing cold
waters of Eli creek, running through the bush and enabling us to float down
it, and then up to the wreck of the Mahino (pretty screwed, but an
impressive size), some cool banded sandstone cliffs and Indian heads- The
view was spectacular from here, where we could spot huge sea turtles, game
fish and sharks swimming in the turquise waters way below our rocky vantage
point. We could see a lot of the island from here too, reminding us as to
how vast this island is, all from sand accumulation!!! BBQ and more booze
on the second night, 3 litres of wine went down very nicely!! Our final day
was spent at Lake McKenzie- a beautiful clear-water lake that was warm to
bathe in and kinda stupid to swim across (not my idea). Throughout the
whole trip, we must’ve dug and pushed our land rover out of a lot of holes/
ditches…but group 2’s was the best!! Previously that day, I had unlocked
their wheels, so that they weren’t in 4 wheel drive. When we saw them stuck
on the track on their way back to the ferry, we all laughed, knowing exactly
why!! We came to their “aid”, with 8-9 guys pushing the truck out to hear
many “thanks”. They still don’t know who did it…so immature….don’t you
think?

A lot of fun and a lot of relaxation and distance covered. Hope you liked
my latest tales and aren’t planning to flee the UK on my return?!!!

Missing you all,

Oli

Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

Oh yeah, late again….

Melbourne was great, relaxed and busy and bussling at the same time. Found
some great cafes and tasty food in China town, but it was good to finally
leave. Hired a car and hit the “great ocean road” for 3 nights, checking
out Torquay (where a lot of surfing takes place and subsequently where some
of the most famous surfing brands were conceived). Had great hot sunny
weather, taking in the beautiful coastal scenery including famous “Bell’s
beach” (where the movie Point Break was filmed), the fashionable art deco
town of Lorne, lighthouses, soaking in the seas, a beautiful waterfall set
in a bush forest, sheer cliffs, rock arcches, viewing a pod of Dolphins
tracking along the coast. Of note, I saw the famous “12 Apostles” (cool
rock stacks). My favourite part of the ocean road trip was driving on my
own at night along 60km of road, a full moon illuminating the sea waves
slamming against the bays and cliffs and listening to some surprisingly
decent music on the radio. Not a soul around

After 1100km drive up the interstate and unsealed bush roads, we arrived in
the beautiful Blue Mountains, inland from Sydney. Spent our two days there
mavelling at the incredible valleys that constitute this huge elevated green
sandstone plateau. I remember doing a bush trek to an aboriganal cave,
moving on to the cliff edge to see the collosal Nepean Gorge unfold in front
of me. It’s so magnificent that I’d put it in the same league as the Grand
Canyon- it stretched as far as the eye could see, undulating
eucalyptus-filled slopes forming a blue/green carpet, dissected harshly by a
river carving a stark stone channel through the base of the gorge…a green
grand canyon. Aside from this walk, we drove a picturesque loop around the
whole national park and did a 6hr trek into the Jamison valley to a rock
formation called “ruined castle”, which again offered great views across
another portion of the national park. The “3 sisters” rock formation was
beautiful to see at sunset, from Echo point, although Ben wasn’t quite the
romantic company that people would envisage. Me being me, I checked out
loads of cafes in Katoombe town and hunted for a new camera…..rip

The last couple of days were spent in the beautiful cosmo city of Sydney.
My second time there, I checked out its southern districts of Darlinghurst,
Paddington, Surrey Hills and basically the laid-back inner city districts
that you don’t see many tourists, so great to relax with a coffee…which I
had to do.. Did the cheesy tourist stuff too, like Sydney Fish Market and
Darling Harbour, but my attraction to Sydney lays in its architecture and
abundant cafe culture, shared by a plethora of people. Bondi beach was an
average beach worshipped by a loada posers. Beautiful people everywhere, an
outdoor gym and subtlety isn’t in their vocab. Nice to see, but I walked
around the headland to a much nicer, quieter beach to spend my day. Stayed
in an amazing hostel too, which is the closest thing to home since
leaving…home..?

3 nights were ample for me in Sydney, it’s time for me to roll up the coast!

I’ll try and write within a week next time…but don’t quote me.

Take care and cheers,

Oli

Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

A late email again….

The last part of my New Zealand trip consisted of relaxing in Taupo before
meeting Ben’s family in Hamilton and finally having our own comfy beds at
their house, where no-one could disturb me!! Did some last-minute xmas
shopping on christmas eve (which is a rare thing for me) and settled down to
watch some christmas movies and ring around a few friends to wish them
“happy christmas”. Yep,a sedate affair, but the shopping raised my spirits
and gave me some small part of christmas spirit in my heart. Christmas day
was a BBQ with Ben’s family, who realised very quicky how much tea I could
polish…I got some stick for not having a beer….they just don’t
understand!! Met up with a couple of friends (Zeynep and Andrew) in a hostel
in town and spent the night there- it means so much to me to see a familiar
face.

Did a strange thing on boxing day- went to Waitomo caves again and decended
into a different cave system for 3 hours. SPent most of the time gently
floating on an underground river, laying back in my inner tube (just 3 of us
and the guide!!) and gazing at the beautiful familiar glow of 1000’s of glow
worms igniting the narrow cave with a blue haze. This caving experience was
not as active as the first time, but so much more enjoyable as the guide was
a local mauri who wasn’t a chatter box like all of the others, asking why we
weren’t shouting constantly. It was a very sedate beautiful ride,
punctuated with a couple of waterfalls to jump down and negotiating a very
low-ceiling part of the cave, where we drifted within cm’s of sticky glow
worm threads. Emerged to glorious sunshine and then drove to my favourite
spot on the north island- the coromandel pensinsula. Met up with ben’s
family at their beach house and spent 4 days or so just relaxing in the town
cafes, lazing on the beach polishing a loada wine in the night hours,
soaking up the sun and driving around the peninsula again to visit cathedral
cove, stingray bay, coromandel town and Thames. The weather treated us
really well, and gave me a chance to catch up on my fixation with beaches.

Finally said goodbye to my friends on the 29th and flew out of Auckland to
Melbourne to start my Ozzy adventure. Checked into an ex-nunnery in
Melbourne and grabbed some food in the district of Fitzroy, packed full of
bars and restaurants. That night, I was convinced my a girl working at the
hostel that I would only regret it if I didn’t spend new year’s in Sydney.
Being me, I suddenly arranged a surprise car journey with a very old friend
who is currently planning cricket in Melbourne (Aaron Williams), and was
picked up on the morning of the 30th with two of his other friends- road
trip!! We drove 6-7 hours north and spent the night in the strange city that
is Canberra. It felt so dead and artificial, who could guess it’s the
capital! Spent the night in a camp site there and then continued to Sydney
the following morning, completing a 950km journey. Managed to get into
downtown Sydney around dinner time and found some friends who had a great
plot to watch the firework displays…right on Sydney harbour, on the
northshore so that we could see habour bridge, the opera house and the
skyscrappers making up the Sydney skyline. The area was packe dout with
backpackers from different hostels, most of them completely pissed up by the
early evening, but adding to a great atmosphere. The 9pm and 12am firework
displays were INCREDIBLE to watch, millions of dollars of pyrotechnics to
achieve the most amazing display I’ve ever seen. To give you an idea of
magnitude, Sydney had 3 firework displays going off simultaneously, one at
Manly beach, one at Bondi beach and one at the harbour itself. The huge
array of colours reflected off the water, the whole experiece intensifying
as the skyscrappers and harbour bridge also detonated in the grande-finale
of the show, adding a mind-blowing carpet of colour across the night sky,
like a super nova in space. Unforgettable.

Hauled my ass back to Melbourne after spending new years day ambling around
downtown Sydney in the scorching heat, photographing anything that dare
stayed-still long enough. Nice 12 hr coach journey back to Melbourne that
evening to continue my adventures in the place I landed in and to sort out a
car for some (hopefully) crazy moments.

Happy new year everyone!!

Oli