Ok so I've been useless at posting updates. I have lots of stories to tell but I just havent had the time and not always internet access to do it so for now im gonna just try and get some good pics up here so you can follow where we have been and I'll update the text side as soon as I can.

Ok so in the last post we had just had our 1st evening on the Ise pearl in the Whitsunday Islands. We were there until the 21st February 2009 and o to continue from below here are some more pics of our time there. I think I can say with a degree of certainty that this is the best thing that we have done so far on this trip.

As im sure you can see from below it really was Paradise!!!

The 1st 3 pics are from the stunning Whitehaven beach. and the next 2 pics are of one of the many other deserted islands among the Whisundays.

You may recognise the stinger suit in the next pic and no I didn't keep the one from the barrier reef!!! However it was still stinger season so we had to wear it while in the water. Which brings me to the Green Turtle in the next pic. We actually got to swim with this guy and it was incredible!

Finally the last 2 pics are from our last evening in the islands. In the 2nd from bottom pic you can see from left myself, then the captain Sparrow, then German couple Judith and Thorsten, followed by Andrea and finally Sandra from Sweden. The sunset was spectacular and it brought an end to an unbelivable 3 days and nights.

SUNSHINE WHOOOOO HOOOO!!!!    (PICS TO BE UPLOADED!!!)

The 1st day of beautiful sunshine for ages and the perfect start for our trip, we just couldn´t believe our luck! We made out way down to Abel Point Marina both happy as Larry and ready to meet our hosts from the Ise Pearl.

There we met Captain Sparrow (yep no joke!) and his partner Machi. Both seemed dead nice and were just so excited to have people on their boat as it had been 6 weeks of stormy weather previously and so they were unable to take anybody out.

We were taken by dinghy to our trusty vessel for the tour, The Ise Pearl. An old Japanese pearl lugger that Captain Sparrow had rebuilt by himself. It looked fantastic as I´m sure you will agree from the picture below and after a short safety breifing we set off on our journey at around 1pm.





















We spent the 1st day sailing towards Whitehaven Beach. This is billed as the highlight of the Whitsundays and about 4hrs later we weighed anchor just off the beach and decided to wait till the morning before heading ashore.

On board the boat there was the 2 crew, Captain Sparrow and Macchi, 3 other adventurers, Sandra from Sweden along with Judith and Thorsten from Germany and Andrea and myself. So just 7 people in total aboard this beautiful 60ft boat ready to lap up the sun, sea and sand for the next 4 days.





















Later on in the evening Macchi served up a delicious meal and we all sat around getting to know each other before heading off to bed. I said that the sun had been kind enough to come out for us during the day and I can´t even describe how perfect the conditions were. There were no clouds and hardly even any wind at all so the sea was pretty much flat calm and this continued into the night. So much so that Captain Sparrow let all of us sleep up on deck and the experience is something we will both never forget. I swear I have never seen so many stars in my life, galaxies even! Even on a clear night at home you I thought you couldn´t see much better but how wrong was I??? . I even caught a glimpse of a shooting star. It was simply breathtaking and we couldn´t have wished for a better start to our trip.

Airlie Beach is one of the main ports for trips to the Whitsunday Islands. Located just off the Queensland coast they consist of 74 islands some of which known as the most beautiful beaches in the world. I think its something to do with the crystal clear turqoise waters and long white sandy beaches that surround them! Hope I´m not making anybody too jealous back home!

Obviously we couldn´t wait but we weren´t actually going until the 18th so we had a little time to kill. We decided to take a day trip to Mackay which was around 140km away and yep you guessed it another boring drive on Queenslands poker straight roads! A good bit of rain did keep me on my toes mind you.

At this point I would just like to point out that Andrea pretty much refuses to drive because she a big chicken and so if I sound a bit unimpressed by the whole driving experience in Queensland it´s because I´ve been doing all of it!

Anyway Mackay was pretty forgetable, just another town really but we stayed the night there in some quiet little car park and headed back to Airlie the next day with only one more sleep to go before our big trip. We were just hoping that the weather would get a bit better as it was still raining a lot and the forecast didn´t look to promosing either!

Ok well I know we had kinda been on a bit of a road trip already around Cairns but this was the start of the real road trip back to Brisbane. The plan was to head pretty much down the Queensland Coast with our top priorities being the Whitsunday Islands and Fraser Island. We hoped to stop along the way as much as possible as long as there was something interesting worth stopping for.

The 1st leg of our trip was Cairns to Townsville. It doesn't look that much on the map but you forget just how massive Australia is sometimes and it was actually around 400km away. To be honest this part of the trip was pretty forgetful. The road was dead straight most of the way like most of the main roads in OZ and it made for a pretty boring drive.

We made it to Townsville without any sign of any flooding on the road and decided to stay there for the night. As it was my birthday we broke the budget and went out for a meal, again something pretty forgetable it has to be said and pretty much just hit the hay after that.

The following day we were a bit more excited as we were making tracks for Airlie Beach, the gateway for The Whitsundays. On the road  down we took a wee detour and stopped off in Bowen. This was Andrea's idea as it was used for a big part of the filming of the film Australia. I found this pretty boring to be honest as most of the place was closed for some reason and I also didn't really enjoy the film that much anyway. We arrived at Airlie Beach around 5pm got ourselves booked in to a campsite and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Day 4 and we were up and down at the ferry terminal for 7.30am. We hadn’t booked anything yet so it was best to get there early so we didn’t miss out. Thankfully that paid off and we got on the tour that we wanted to. I think it came to about $120 each which was pretty good considering it was a full day out on the reef with meals etc all included.

I just realised haven’t mentioned the weather! Well before we left things were certainly looking up as the sun was fighting to break through the clouds and by the time we got out to the reef (about 1 ½ hrs) the sky was completely clear and the sun was beating down on us.

Once it was time to get out onto the reef I couldn’t wait as I’d been snorkelling in the Red Sea before and absolutely loved it. The water temperature out there was around 29 degrees too! We did however have to wear these very fetching stinger suits as it was the marine stinger season until march.

Back to the actual reef and its was pretty incredible. Just imagine swimming in an aquarium and you’ll have an idea. I even got to see some Nemo’s!! The coral wasn’t the most colourful mind you but the guides said to wait until we move to the next part of the reef as it would be much better and he was right. After a quick lunch I went straight back in the water. This time  I was greeted by a huge fish that the instructors know as  “Wally”. He is a Napoleon Maori Wrasse, if that means anything to anybody and absolutely loves attention. Especially a little scratch under the chin!! That’s me in my incredibly flattering stinger suit posing with him.

Poor Andrea though has a little bit of a phobia for water out at sea. To be fair the boat anchors a good swim away from the reef itself and you have to swim over some pretty deep water wondering what is lurking below you before you get to it. She did really well at the 1st reef stop but on  this occasion I had gone in the water a wee while before her and so when she very bravely got in herself she did just about have a heart attack when good old friendly Wally came to her to say hello!

After nearly 5 hrs on the reef we headed back to shore. It was an awesome day out and we did have some underwater cameras with us too. I’m just hoping the pics turned out ok so I can post a few of them up here.

The following day was my birthday and time to leave Cairns. The roads down to Townsville had now been opened so we had to make a mad dash for it before they closed again. Cairns was cool. The only real downer was the weather but a good couple of days at waterfalls and the Great Barrier Reef definitely made up for it.

On day 3 of our time in Cairns yep you guessed it, rain!! We are from the North West Highlands though so we weren’t about to let that spoil our day. Andrea has an old school pal living in the Atherton Tablelands which are a little bit further inland from Cairns so we decided to head there in the hope that we might be able to catch up with her. Also the tablelands have lots of waterfalls and as you can imagine they were all bursting at the seems from all the rain, so for once we were thankful for the wet as it made for some pretty cool photos.

We managed to get a hold of Andrea’s pal Kirsty and spent a couple of hours there getting some banter before setting off on our journey back towards Cairns. She did advise us of a nice little waterfall circuit that was on the way so we took a little detour and man was it worth it.

I love getting in the water at any opportunity and one of the waterfalls on the circuit was absolutely perfect for it. Its almost like something you would see in the movies!!

We arrived back in Cairns a little later and this time stayed in a campsite. Now you might be wondering why we hadn’t done the Great Barrier Reef yet as cairns is the main port for it but the reason was pretty simple, the weather was shite!! However we knew that we couldn’t sit around and wait for it to get any better as time was going fast so we made a decision that regardless of the weather we would go to the ferry terminal at the crack of dawn the next day and book ourselves onto a reef trip.

We arrived at Cairns airport around 10pm on the 9th Feb and were greeted immediately by that wonderful Queensland humidity. This time it really felt a lot worse than we had been used to further down the coast in Brisbane. I think it was something like 86% which is pretty much unbearable indoors unless you have air con.

Thankfully our hostel for the night did have air con but although we had plenty cool air flowing we still had an awful nights sleep thanks to some rowdy guests having a full on pool party when they came in from a night out from midnight till about 5am! Needless to say we weren’t in the best condition in the morning but I was still looking forward to picking up our van and starting our exploration of North Queensland.

Sadly we were in for a bit of bad news. I’m not sure if it is being as widely reported as the Bush Fires are back in the UK but almost 65% of North Queensland had been flooded over the previous week and we were being advised by the van rental personnel that we may not be able to get south of Cairns at all over the next 3 weeks!!

Obviously there were people a lot worse off than us currently fighting to save their homes and things but it was still a bit of a bombshell for us especially as we were meant to be road tripping it back to Brisbane. We decided just to hire the van provisionally for a week anyway  in the hope that the roads may open in that time and we could perhaps head down the road a bit. Not to mention the fact we had a 3 day tour booked of the Whitsunday Islands on the 18th. We had decided to go for a Jucy Van. That probably wont mean anything unless youve actually been to Australia. The reason being that they are fairly popular among backpackers and they are also a pretty distinctive colour as you can see below!! It was ideal for us though. It wasnt too big, so it was easy to drive, there was plenty room for us too sleep and we had a gas stove, fridge and even a dvd player!! So all in all we were pretty happy with the actual van. Just as well as we had already booked the same van for our time in New Zealand!

Back to that Humidity I was talking about. Man did it make our 1st night in the van a nightmare. I said it would be unbearable indoors without air con and that is exactly what the back of our van was like. We did leave the door open as much as we could but it was raining fairly often and even with it open it wasn’t that much cooler and that was only the beginning of our nightmare. The next morning we woke up with  millions of Mozzie bites and spent the whole day scratching all over!!

We tried our best not to let that get to us too much and decided to head a bit further north towards the area called the Daintree. The weather was actually not too bad and we had already been advised that the road up was open so we hit the road around 9am.

On the way towards Daintree we stopped at a place called Mossman Gorge and I had a wee swim. The current was pretty strong and you had to keep your wits about you or risk being washed away down the river which just added to the fun!

Fun had we carried on up to Daintree and booked ourselves on a tour of the Daintree river where we would hopefully catch a glimpse of some crocodiles in the wild.

Typically the heavens opened on queue just as we got in the boat and it was not your average rain shower but some kind of tropical monsoon! Thankfully though we did see 1 croc about 12ft long which was pretty cool. 

That was it after that. We jumped back in the van looking like a couple of drowned rats and headed back to Cairns. We decided, or should I say Andrea decided, that as we hadn’t had a decent nights sleep for 2 days now we would check in to a motel for the night. Truth be told I was very much liking this idea too and we found  a decent place for  $60 and hit the hay pretty early.

Sydney was brilliant! We arrived about 6.30pm and checked in to the Great Southern Hotel on George St (pic below). This turned out to be a great find from Andrea on one of those last minute deal websites. We got our 1^st 2 nights for $64 for the room per night, miles cheaper than a hostel! It was because of that we stayed a 3^rd night albeit a little more expensive at $109 but it all evens out in the end. We had an en-suite, fridge and a flat screen T.V. and all for cheaper than a hostel. Of course it wasn’t this price all the time so we then relegated ourselves back to a hostel which was $85 per night each for our room! Ridiculous! Just because its Sydney they think they can hike up the prices.

Anyway back to Sydney. Definitely my favourite out of the 3 main cities in OZ. It’s much larger or at least it certainly feels like it and there is just so much more to do in the actual city itself when compared with Melbourne or Brisbane.

At night we headed down to the Harbour, which as you can imagine was pretty spectacular. Seeing the bridge and opera house lit up was pretty cool and we managed to get some pretty decent pics too.

The following day we visited the harbour again and this time I got the pipes out for a quick tune in front of the landmarks. You should be able to see these in the photo gallery. During the evening as it was coming up for my birthday Andrea surprised me with tickets to see Top Gear Live. Fantastic and a double coup for Andrea as it was being staged in the Sydney Olympic Park area. What an awesome place and no wonder it was one of the greatest ever Olympics.

On our second last day we took a trip out to see the blue mountains, just a 2hr train ride away. I’ll be honest it was ok but when you come from the Highlands of Scotland it takes something a bit special to even compare and this just didn’t even come close.

Our last day was meant to be spent at palm beach, where they film Home and Away. Thank goodness the rains came and unfortunately for Andrea (but great news for me) we couldn’t go. Instead we pottered about town before heading to catch our flight up to a rain soaked Cairns.

Our flight was pretty early by our standards, 5.30am to be exact but as it only came to something like $75 for the both of us it was definitely worth it. The reason we were going to Canberra was to visit the parents of one of my friends from work back home. Graeme and Margaret put us up for 3 nights in total and looked after us exceptionally well. We were also surprised that my friend Cathy was actually visiting at the same time so it was an added bonus to catch up with her too.

Canberra is the Capital of Australia although a lot of people actually think that it is Sydney (not to mention any names ……Andrea). It was actually purposely built as it couldn’t be decided whether Melbourne or Sydney should be the capital and so to stop all the squabling an entirely new city was built. This means that the capital of Australia is not even 100 yrs old!

The whole city is built around a large lake and what is know as the parliamentary triangle. This specific area is one of the main attractions of Canberra and it is pretty stunning to look at. So needless to say I had to get the pipes out for a quick snap! Which of course you can see in the photo gallery.

As you might be able to tell from the pics we were very lucky with the weather. It was between 30 ad 35 degrees every day we were there without a cloud in the sky. This suited me down to the ground as the tan was starting to fade a bit after some heavy rains in Brissie.

The other main attraction is the National War Memorial, part of the parliamentary triangle and directly opposite the houses of parliament building.

The memorial is simply amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it in the UK. You could actually spend days there looking at all the exhibits. My favourites were the collections of medals. They actually have the largest collection of Victoria Crosses on public display in the world and in fact there is only one collection that is bigger which is owned by a private collector.

This wasn’t the highlight for me though, that goes to our trip to the Australian Institute of Sport. Once and possible maybe still the pinnacle of elite sports development. Although parts are getting a bit dated, it was built in the early 80’s, it is still an amazing facility! Everything an athlete needs right on their doorstep. We took a guided tour round the grounds which was interesting andI even caught a glimpse of Jana Pitman or Rawlinson as she’s married now, doing some training.

These are pretty much the main attractions of Canberra. I’ll be honest there isn’t a whole lot more to see, at least in the city itself. We had great time staying with Cathy and her folks but we were ready to move on and our next place was going to be the big smoke of Australia...............We jumped on a greyhound on the 4^th of February and started our 3hr journey towards Sydney.

Leaving our house in Brisbane was very sad. It had been our home for 3 months and provided us with an excellent base where we could feel relaxed and chilled out. Our housemates were awesome too, which also made life a whole lot easier. The house itself was amazing too. We were only paying $230 a week between us, which when you compare that to staying in a hostel for $55 per night is a lot cheaper. I've put some pics of our humble abode below.

Staying in Brissie is all good and well but you can’t see much of Australia just sitting about in the same place. So Andrea and I planned a little tour to do on our last month from the 1^st of February till the 26^th February before we fly out to New Zealand on the 28^th.

Starting in Canberra we are then catching a bus up to Sydney and then flying to Cairns where we will finally picking up a van for a 3 week road trip back down to Brisbane along the Queensland coast. We have already booked some trips for along the way. A 3 days 3 nights tour of the WhitSunday Islands and a self drive camping tour of Fraser Island for 2 nights.

So although we are sad to be leaving what I have come to feel as my new home, at the same time we have loads to look forward to and cant wait to hit the road!!

I had my first Surfing lesson at Coolongatta beach on the Gold Coast. It was a belter of a day and the waves weren’t too big, in other words perfect conditions for learning to surf. Only $40 for a 2hr lesson is a bargain in my book and afterwards you can hire a board for the rest of the day for just another $20.

Now though lets get to the actual surfing and anybody that knows me well will know that I love any sport and like to try and do my best at them so I was hoping that I could pick it up as quickly as possible.

As you have probably guessed I was utterly useless and spent most of my time being flung face first from my board into the water and the sand underneath. I ended up getting extremely frustrated (not like me at all) and decided not to bother hiring the board for the rest of the day. Looking back though I’m definitely gonna get back in and try again. Just maybe with a little bit less expectations this time

Australia Zoo is just about 1hrs drive north of Brisbane. This is, incase you didn’t know, the home of the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin. It really is a fabulous place with tonnes to see and do but the highlights rather obviously being the crocs.

They have a massive ampitheatre where they hold shows and where they bring out the bigger crocs for everyone to see. This particular guy is called Graham. I think they said he is about 3 ½ metres long!

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Even all the other animals looked really healthy which is a bit of a change from what you can sometimes see at the Zoo

The only thing is the absence of Steve Irwin. The whole time we were there you couldn’t help but wish he was still around to put on a show for everyone and wrestle a crocodile or something. On our way round the Zoo we came to his “shrine” if you like. A place where all of the letters giving condolences and messages to his family have been put on display along with other tributes like Khaki shirts with messages on them.

We had a brilliant day there and If you ever are in Australia I’d say a definite must see!!

Christmas in Brisbane was very strange. Seeing Christmas decorations and trees in the blinding sun just seemed a bit wrong! That coupled with us being so far away from friends and family made our Christmas pretty uneventful.

We did however, have a fantastic feast courtesy of our Finnish housemate Emma and her mother. That was definitely the highlight. Sadly though there was no turkey as Emma is a Vegan but there was still more than enough delicious food to choose from.

With Christmas gone then came the New Year and again pretty uneventful. We did head down to Southbank to see the fireworks though which were not bad. Although I am one who believes once you’ve seen some fireworks you’ve seen them all. The Aussie’s love their fireworks though, as I’m sure you will have seen from Sydney.

That was pretty much our Christmas and New Year. Nothing great to report. We decided to hire a car from the 2^nd of Jan to the 5^th and our first stop was Australia Zoo!

Byron Bay is about a 3hr drive south of Brisbane and when our housemate Derek offered us the chance to head down for the weekend, we jumped at it!

On the way down Derek, who is a Local to the Brisbane area, decided to take us a through the scenic route through some of Queensland’s Hinterland. We stopped in one of the national park areas for a quick cool off in one of the pools as his car had no air con and it was about close to 37 degrees. Unfortunately the water was absolutely freezing and we both chickened out.

Back on the road and our next stop was a little bit more interesting. Derek spotted a snake at the side of the road and as we hadn’t seen one yet (well in the wild at least) he decided we should stop so we could have a little look. Fortunately it was just a “little” carpet python so it wasn’t venomous but could give you a nasty bite.

Once we made it to Byron we were greeted by Derek’s friend Zerena who was putting us up for the weekend (thanks Zerena). That’s her below learning the pipes!(pic coming soon)

Byron itself was brilliant. It’s fairly small but has a real distinct atmosphere. Just really laid back, relaxed and where the pace of life is just a bit slower. The beach seems endless beaches and there are great surfing conditions too. At night there was bands playing and I’m told there is usually something on every weekend.

Byron Bay is also where the most easterly point of mainland Australia is. I was actually here as a wee toddler and I have a picture back home of me beside the same sign that you can see now. Pretty cool to compare things almost 24 years on!(Pic coming soon)

Unfortunately we only had 2 days in Byron. I really wish we could have stayed longer. I would even say I might have preferred to base ourselves there instead of Brisbane. We visited the Markets on Sunday which are legendary and afterwards made much swifter return home, this time up the Highway.

Just to let you know, we've since been back to Surfers and I have been in the water. It was awesome! They were just starting to get some king tides so the waves were a bit bigger than normal and a hell of a lot more powerful. Check them out in the pics! I've been swimming at the beach loads of times on holiday in Spain and other places but it was nothing like that. The power in the waves is immense. Even just standing knee deep it is almost pushing you over. I was watching some of the locals swimming with the waves so I thought I'd give it a go. Definitely not a good idea if your not a strong swimmer though, luckily I'm just about ok! It was so much fun though.  Such a rush when you feel the force of the wave hit you and then you sort of glide along with it, great banter!

The whole culture is definitely something I could get used to. Its pretty common for people to go for a swim or surf before heading to or after work. I know people do that at home but that's in the gym and stuff, its nothing like having the sun shining and getting in the sea.

That day I think I spent about 4hrs in the water being thrashed about by the waves it was great crack! Unfortunately my skin started to get a bit prune-like so I had to call it day.

On the 15th December we decided to take the train down to the Gold Coast. It's only about 1hr and a half on the train and a wee bit shorter if you have a car.

It was a grand day, I think just under 30 degrees, perfect for the beach! Sorry if I'm making any of you guys back home jealous, especially as your not particularly having the best weather but I didn't really get the chance to enjoy the summer at home this year because I was working like a dog, so I'm making up for it now!

Anyway, the Gold Coast has many beaches to choose from but as it was our first outing down that way we decided to hit Surfers Paradise. It's basically the kind of capital of the Gold Coast. There are loads of plush hotels, designer shops and luxury beach apartments as you can see from the pics below.




















It was a fairly uneventful day. Just chilled out on the beach topping up the tans, watching the surfers. The water was still a bit too cold for me at this point so I decided not to venture in. Once the sun set we headed back for the train home to Brisbane.

I did say before that we arrived Brisbane mid November 2008 but it was about a month before we got properly settled and had a look at what we could do that was fairly close by.

Our first wee excursion was on the 13th December 2008 involving a trip to the worlds oldest and largest koala sanctuary. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is one of Brisbane's most popular attractions and I guess I can see why with it being only a short bus ride from the city centre and also fairly cheap at $25 per person. There are over 130 koala's for you to see, along with kangaroo's and other Australian wildlife.





Got to say that both Andrea and I loved it. The Koala's were dead cute, if I can get away with saying that. They also look as if they have got it made, just hanging about on some branches sleeping all day maybe waking up to have a wee nibble. Some of the positions they were in were hilarious. Hopefully you can see from some of the pics.











The best bit for me though were the kangaroo's. You can buy some food for them at the wee shop and basically just wander up to them, stick out your hand with some food and they'll come and eat right out of your hand, awesome!!










The last things worth a mention are the Larakeets. Small budgie-like birds I guess but they go crazy when it's time to feed them. There are millions of them all buzzing around you, landing on your head, your arms, anything they can get a grip of. I particularly like this pic of Andrea with them. Check the facial expressions as the birds come on down for some tasty grub!

All in all a pretty enjoyable day out with some of Australias iconic wildlife.

We flew into Brisbane on the 17th November 2008. Got to say that it wasn’t exactly sunny when we landed but it was certainly a lot hotter than Melbourne. It’s actually only 768km below the tropic of Capricorn so its is also pretty humid as well.

We checked into our hostel, which was aptly named “Somewhere to stay” and 1st impressions of it were certainly pretty good. I should say that we hadn’t actually booked anywhere to stay in Brisbane before we left Melbourne thinking that we would get somewhere without any problems. That wasn’t entirely the case and after trying most of the hostels that Brisbane had to offer “Somewhere to Stay” was the only one with any room for us. Anyway it was a blessing in disguise as it was right in the heart of the popular west end and within walking distance to the city centre.

Our first few days were spent trying to decide whether or not we were going to make Brisbane our base for the next few months. We still hadn’t totally decided even after nearly a week (well I had decided that I liked it but Andrea as usual couldn’t make up her mind) when I remembered that the rugby league world cup final was being played in Brisbane that very night. I thought it would be the perfect chance to maybe make a bob or two busking, so we went down to catch the end of the match and I got the pipes out for the fans coming out. Well lets just say that it went so well that  Andrea’s finally  made up her mind and so we stayed Brisbane. You can see some pics from it in the photo gallery!

Since then we have been living in a pretty big house with about 10 other housemates. Some are at university here in Brisbane, some are fellow travellers and there are even a couple of locals too. It’s a pretty good mix and its has been good to hear some of the other travellers stories and also pick up some local tips on where and where not to go.

Brisbane itself is a very smart city. Its just big enough so that you can walk most places and its built around a tropical forest. Its very strange to be in a city and see so much green around it. The temperature has probably been on average about 30 degrees, which has taken a bit of getting used to but I must say it beats the cold wet winter back home!


One of the highlights of Brisbane are its Southbank Parklands. Basically a large park area built right next to the Brisbane river. There is always something on and there are great restaurants, pubs and entertainment venues there as well. Not to mention the busking is pretty good there too! The best bit about Southbank though, is its man made beach. There are 2 big lagoons to swim in which are great especially when it is so hot here and its right in the centre of town! We were very  pleasantly surprised when we stumbled upon it in our 1st week here and spend a great deal of our time just chilling out there.

The cities west end is very much like the west end of Glasgow. Lots of trendy bars and places to eat but at really affordable prices. There’s everything from Lebanese to Dominoes! Which by the way is ridiculously cheap too. $10AUD for a large pizza is an awesome deal! The west end also where our house is which is extremely handy.

Although we have been in Brisbane for 2 months now, we haven’t really done a great deal. We’ve been a few places which I will update here separately but generally we’ve just been relaxing (after 1 and a half years of hard work at home I think we have earned it!). At the moment, Andrea has a wee part time Job in a wee Greek restaurant round the corner from the house and I have been busking a few days a week to keep the travel funds topped up.

One of the other reasons we have been fairly quiet is that at the end of January we will be leaving Brisbane and heading down to Canberra, Sydney and then up to cairns where we will be picking up a campervan and starting a months road trip down the Queensland coast. It’s gonna be awesome but heavy of the savings hence the somewhat relaxed time in Brisbane just now!!!

That about wraps it up for now. However I still have lots to tell about our time here in Brisbane. So please keep your eyes out for posts about Byron Bay, Koala and Kangaroo sanctuaries, Christmas In Brisbane, Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo the Gold Coast and surfing!

Bye for now

Ali B

A comparitively short 7 hr flight this time compared to our last one of 12.5hrs and a much more comfortable one too. Flying Quantas this time and man what a difference! Tonnes more leg-room and all round better service.

We touched down in Melbourne at 0600am on the 4th November 2008 and I stupidly didn't sleep at all on the flight as I was too engrossed in "The Dark Knight". Needless to say I was absolutely knaccered when we got off the plane.

We were able to get a bus straight to our Hostel, Freeman Lodge. A really nice hostel, with the owner Bob who was a fantastic host. It was the day of the Melbourne Cup and I had every intention of getting the Kilt on and heading to the races for a spot of busking but unfortunately my stupidity of not sleeping on the plane hit me right in the face and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light for hours and missed the Melbourne Cup!!

We only spent 2 nights in the hostel as I had booked an appartment in St Kilda right next to the beach for 5 nights, and it was superb. Literally a stones throw from the beach. Although we were still waiting on getting some decent sunshine to take advantage of it! When it did finally come we were a bit over eager and again due to our own stupidity got just a little bit burnt. I'd love to show you some pics but Andrea would throttle me if I did so if you give me your email addresses I'll do it that way!

We had originally planned just a week in Melbourne but it is such a big place and with the Great Ocean Rd right on the doorstep we decided to stay another week and hire a car.

This meant finding a hostel for a couple of days and much to Andrea's delight we found one above a pub that holds a "Neighbours Night" every monday. Basically a big piss up but with some of the stars of the show and Dr Karl's band performing. I must admit, it was actually a good night. Much better than the Neighbours tour that Andrea subjected me to. I was even more surprised by Dr Karl's band who were absolutely brilliant!

So we got ourselves a wee car and off we went on our wee road trip. The Great Ocean Road is meant to be one of the worlds most spectacular scenic drives and it certainly didn't disappoint us. The main attraction is the huge monoliths The 12 Apostles, which you can see in the photo gallery on this website. The only thing was the crazy flies!!! There are loads of them buzzing around your ears constantly which is a bit of a pain especially when you are trying to get a tune on the pipes!!

Along the road there are lots of little sidetracks that you can take to get to different places. One of which was Wreck Beach. A fairly short walk down a cliffe on some very steep steps, you eventually get to the bottom and walk along the shore watching the huge white waves thundering towards the beach. Further along there are 2 massive anchors from past shipwrecks that have become embedded in the sand. Just one example of the many shipwrecks that have occurred on the coast here. As you look at a map you can see hundreds of them marked out.

With the end of our tour on The Great Ocean Road came the end of our stay in Melbourne. Overall, we both liked Melbourne. It felt safe and had a sort of party atmosphere while we were there. The trams that are still running around the city were pretty cool, however the constant changes in the weather were just a little bit too much like home. One day it was 30 degrees and the next it is down to 16 degrees. We then left Melbourne on the 17th November 2008 for the warmer climate of Brisbane, hoping to get a few warmer days in what is known as the sunshine state after all!

My apologies for not updating this blog until now. It has been extremely difficult without a computer. However I now have that problem solved so I can update everyone on whats happened on our round the world trip so far!

Well, we left windswept Britain on the 29th October 2008 and arrived in Singapore about 12.5 hrs later. The flight wasn't the best, note to anybody considering a long haul flight, do not go with British Airways, or at least economy with them anyway, utterly useless!!

First thoughts of Singapore were immediately about the HEAT!! Well maybe not the actual temperature itself but more the humidity. 35 degrees during the day and then only cooling down to 30 at night was a struggle. Once you get passed that though its such a beautiful city. The people are unbelievably helpful and friendly and everywhere is so clean!!! Not to mention the transport systems which are ridiculously efficient!

We stayed in a backpackers hostel called "The Hive". Really nice place, and the main thing was the air conditioned room, without it we wouldn't have got a nights sleep. They are on the web if anybody is interested in going there.

Singapore is a city after all so there isn't a huge deal of things to do besides shopping in the many malls, but we did stumble upon Sentosa Island on our first day which was brilliant. We took a cable car over the city to get to it which was amazing and it offered up some amazing views of the city. The Zoo was also fairly close to the city centre so we made a short visit there too. The White Tigers were our favourites.

My Girlfriend Andrea and I are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime!!!!

On the 29th October we will be jetting off to Singapore for the first part of our round the world trip

We will be travelling for about 1 year and of course I have "packed my pipes" so if you are in any of the below countries that we are visiting and you need a piper, there's only one place to come...........packedmypipes.com!!

As you can hopefully see on the map above, after Singapore we plan to visit  Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Peru, North America ( California, Arizona, Texas) and finally Canada

Keep informed of our wee adveture on this blog and check out the picture gallery for updates on the interesting places i've been able to play a tune on my pipes

Cheers

Alistair