Ravenswood

I have been working at the Imperial Hotel in Ravenswood for over 3 weeks now and I'm loving it. Ravenswood is a small town South West of Townsville and consists of 2 pubs and a shop/post office plus a few houses. I'm working mostly behind the bar at lunch and in the evening so I've learnt lots of new skills which I would never have been given the opportunity to learn in the UK plus I'm widening my taste in country music. The town is heritage listed and was booming with around 50 pubs at the start of the 20th century when gold was discovered in area. Customers are mostly tourists and locals during the day, and in the evening the workers from the local gold mine and cattle stations turn up for and rum. It's been really hard work at times as everyone seems to drink so fast and the accents and slang has taken some getting used to. Everyone's really friendly and the locals are something never seen before- no teeth (one claims a rat stole hers) and everyone seems to have a dog! Although I've liked meeting other backpackers in the hostels it's been great to chat to the people who actually live in Australia. Living wise, I'm working about 45 hours a week for a flat rate and I get my own room and can eat meat and chips every night and I don't have to cook it which is great.

Despite its size there hasn't been a dull moment yet in Ravenswood. I don't want to do everything at once though. Behind the pub there's a huge disused open cast mine and everywhere you look there are remnants of the gold mining past. We have also had a magnitude 5.2 earthquake whilst I was working behind the bar which was pretty cool and last week we had a King Brown snake slither into the dining room! Thankfully it was spotted as there was just me in there eating breakfast. If a King Brown bit you, you would die before getting to hospital so sadly the snake had to be killed with the help of a couple of spades.

I have not internet or phone signal in Ravenswood but I managed to grab a lift to Townsville with the beer run so I can pick up some bits and pieces today. It's getting into Autumn and it's cooler so I'm wishing I hadn't sent home my warmer clothes. I hope to stay working at the pub for at least another month (flights to London are crazy expensive here) and then I think I'll head to Townsville and back into the land of communication to try and see if I can get a geology job with the local mines as my degree is actually worth something here due to a shortage of geologists. For now though I'll continue serving the beer.

Still in Ayr

After 16 days in Ayr and not a single bit of work I'm officially bored. 10,000+ photos sorted, 20 films watched and 6 books read and i',m ready to leave. We are in now into the harvest season which lasts until November and fruit and veg are ready to be picked but the farmers apparently arn't ready and the fields are too damp. I can't understand it as surely the food is going to rot! I had a spot of luck this week as a lady from a hotel in nearby Ravenswood called the hostel and was looking for someone to work for her. I've happily said yes and i'm hopefully getting picked up tomorrow. Even if I only stay a month it beats sitting around here so hopefully it will all work out. We are currently on Tsunami alert after a earthquake in Indonesia. Quite exciting since we are only a few kilometers from the coast!

Ayr

I spent just 1 night in Airlie. It's basically just a little town full of bars and not much else which serves as the leaving point for overnight sailing trips to the Whitsunday islands. As I wasn't going sailing I had a nice afternoon lounging around the artificial lagoon on the sea front. You can't swim in the sea here because of lots of jelly fish. From Airlie I got a bus to the little inland farming town of Ayr which proudly declares that it gets 300 sunny days a year.. This town has more fruit and veg picking work than workers in the peak season so I was hoping to pick up some work here. I been here 7 days now and there's still no work due to a very rainy couple of weeks. I think i'm going to sit out the boring and costly wait though as I will get the hours when the work comes which should be within the next week. Theres not a huge amount in Ayr. A couple of pubs and supermarkets, a McDonalds (besides the library, the only place to get internet) but no actual shops to buy clothes and things which is good. The town is also stuck in a time warp. Instead of the usual DVD hire shop there is one filled with videos so the hostel is full of people lounging around watching very old videos and reading books. The places is also full of geckos and tree frogs wandering the walls in the evening which is pretty cool.

Bundaberg

Bundaberg is a typical working class Aussie town with some cool architectural building typical of the tropical north- large through windows and balconies. The town is also home to the Bundaberg rum distillery which is advertised by a polar bear so there is a bit of a theme to town. I headed to Bundaberg in the hope of finding farm work but what I got was lots of rain, a horrible hostel, crazy humidity and a town that shuts entirely at the weekend. Bundaberg was hit badly by the Christmas floods so there is very little farm work which has been divided up between the 100's of backpackers here. I've asked around and most are getting just a couple of hours a day which pays the rent and thats about it. I've decided to push on north towards Cairns but after a day of sleeping with nothing to do in town, the only bus I can get is late this evening and I've had to check out of hostel so I'm left which nothing to do for the day but sit in the library whilst it's pouring down outside. My legs did get picked up my a PR for a camera company which was a little bizarre! I'm getting on a night bus to Airlie Beach which will take 12 hours this evening.

Fraser Island

I booked on a 4wd tour of Fraser Island which left from Hervey Bay. The idea of these tours is that you are put into small groups, given a 4wd land cruiser and then drive around Fraser island for 3 days, 2 nights following a lead car so that you don't get lost or caught out by the tides.

Fraser Island is a 30 minute ferry ride from shore and is the largest sand island in the world and what makes it cool is that it's covered with rainforest and it's inaccessible without a 4wd. The aboriginals call it K'gari which means Paradise.

We spent our first day swimming in Lake Mackenzie which was amazing. The lake was huge and the waters crystal clear. We also swam in Eli Creek and drove down long empty beaches. The sea looked really nice but you can't swim in it as it's shark infested and full of nasty jelly fish. Our camp was already set up for us- very basic tent, toilets and showers with some very scary spiders that I'm slowly getting used to. Dingos also roamed through camp which was really cool. The wild dogs however can attack if they feel threated and we were told just to stand still if they approached us. This training came in good use when a toilet trip saw a few of us between a dingo and a rubbish bin food source!

More swimming on the second day and we were having the best weather I've seen in Australia. We swam in the Champagne pools which are large rocks pools that the waves fill making the water bubbly. We walked to the top of Indian Head which is an aboriginal massacre sights which gave us amazing coastal view and we also swam in Lake Wabby which is at the foot of a huge sand dune.

As we were due to catch a lunch time ferry back to the mainland we had limited time on the third day but we still managed to fit in a swim in Lake Birebeen and a trip to see the Maheno ship wreck which lies on the beach shore. The rusty wreck was once a passenger liner which sank in a cyclone whilst being towed to a Japanese scrap yard. It was pretty cool to see the waves crashing through the empty shell. We also saw a much hated Cane toad in camp that morning. It was absolutely massive!

Fraser Island has been a brilliant trip and it's amazing how much fun you can have when you give people a bit of sand, plenty of swimming opportunities and a campsite. Although there were 30 people in all the cars you only really mix with the people you share a car with as you spend 24/7 with them. Thankfully I had a great group- a mix of English, Swiss and Brazilian and we had a fab time and it was sad to leave them as I headed next to Bundaberg.

Rainbow Beach

From Noosa I headed to Rainbow Beach which is just around the headland but seemed to take hours to get to. Rainbow Beach is minimal with just a few shops lining the main street. The beach is huge and the main attraction is a visit to the the coloured cliffs which are only accessible at very low tide. I didn't get to them as I couldn't work out when the lowest tide was but I did take a walk to a massive sand blow out and wrote off a pair of brand new flip flops in 18 hours by walking there!

Noosa

Noosa was a lovely seaside town which also has a river running through it. I originally planned on staying just 2 days but ended up staying 5 as the hostel was nice (free breakfast of bacon butties) and there was quite a bit to do.

Noosa is near to Australia Zoo which is the zoo that Steve Irwin's family set up. My bus pass gave me a free entry ticket so it would be rude not to have used it so I headed there for the day. I had a great day out but I'm glad that didn't pay for the $60 entry as the zoo isn't worth it. There aren't that many animals around and the majority are crocodiles or kangaroos. I did however get the must have Aussie souvenir of a photo of me cuddling a koala, which was surprisingly heavy. I also enjoyed feeding the kangaroos and holding a baby alligator. I also spent some time on the beach, walking in the national park and also kayaking on the river. Noosa is a pretty rich area and it was great to have a nose into people's houses from the river. Richard Branson actually owns one of the river islands but sadly it was a little to hard to paddle to.

Brisbane

A short bus trip from Byron and I landed myself in Brisbane, capital of Queensland and I gained an hour to my day due to the crazy time zones here.

I don't really know what I was expecting from the city but there's not much here and it's not particularly pretty. I've spent 1 day in the city and I've walked around the shops,the museum and a couple of art galleries which were pretty good especially the modern art one which was really interactive. The south bank of the river is supposed to be filled with parkland, swimming lagoons and artificial beaches but sadly due to the recently flooding the whole of the south bank has been ruined and needs lots of repair work so there's nothing to do there now.

I'm headed in a couple of hours up the coast to Noosa today where I'm hoping for a few days of beach and sun

Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay

I arrived in a very wet and rainy Coffs Harbour after about 10 hours on a bus from Sydney. Lots of people I'd met had told me to stop here as it's nice but sadly I couldn't really make use of what the town had to offer. Had some very wet and windy walks around the gardens, beach and also to Mutton Bird island which is actually attached to the harbour!

After 3 nights in Coffs and no jobs around I headed to northern New South Wales and to Byron Bay where the sun was shining. Byron's a very small town but is packed with current backpackers and the backpackers who came 20 years ago but never left. Lots of hippies, people busking and walking around with no shoes. I had a good hour on the beach before I was rained off which was nice. I also walked up to Cape Byron which is the most easterly point of Australia and then up a pretty steep hill to the lighthouse. I was very dissapointed about the lack of a multiple city sign post with distances!

I only stayed 1 night in Byron but if good weather was guaranteed I could easily have stayed longer.

Back to Oz

I had a painless flight from Auckland to Sydney with check in, customs and immigrations easy and extremely quick. I arrived at my Sydney hostel just 40 minutes after stepping off the plane!

I've spent a week in Sydney now applying for jobs but there isn't much around and it's expensive to stay and keep looking. Thankfully my Greyhound bus pass has enough prepaid kilometers left on it to enable me to get to Cairns without having to pay for any more transport which is great. Tomorrow i'm headed to Coffs Harbour which I hear is quite nice if the weathers good. I plan to just head up the coast and see if theres any immediate work or work for accommodation whilst I look for a job.

Weather's not been great in Sydney the last few days so I've caught up with a couple of people I met in New Zealand and today I went and had a look around the HMAS Onslow which is a submarine and the gun ship HMAS Vampire which was pretty cool.