Harvey bay is a tourist town in which you can take a ferry to Frasier island - the largest sand island in the world. I took off to the island with 8 people i've just met in a massive pink land cruiser! (you read right - pink)
We were 5 amazingly nice Koreans, 2 Danish, 1 English and myself. On the following 3 days we traveled through hard, muddy rainforest road and along the east coast of the island - practically on the beach.
At day time we visited cool lakes and other attractions like the ship wrack (a one which got drifted to shore), Indian head lookout and the champagne pools (nature-made pools filled with ocean water).
At night time we camped in tents and unfortunately forced to go to sleep early since it started raining at 19:30 sharp every day! so after dinner and two beers we hit the sack.


OK so i drove a pink car! but hey, it's still a Land Cruiser... : )


the long beach


My Frasier island buddies


the champagne pools

When I was done hanging in Harvey bay, I took a bus back north to a place I had to skip since all the hostels were booked on Ester. The place is called "the town of 1770". You won't be really wrong if you call it "heaven" instead!
This small totally relaxed town doesn't even have a "main" street. Since this town is still not swarmed by tourists, it's not too commercialized like the rest of the east coast and prices are very reasonable.
I stayed in a hostel named "cool bananas", which is the best hostel I stayed at in Australia! large specious lounge with big screen TV (mostly playing episodes of Family guy or movies), comfortable rooms, excellent kitchen, outdoors dining tables, calm music in the background and amazing atmosphere! at first I booked only one night, when i got there i booked two more and eventually I ended up staying 7 nights! it was really that good! : )
The awesome bonus to all that was the amazing statistic of around 18 guys and 50 girls staying in the hostel. This figures were almost constant the whole time! : ) now that's what i call heaven : )


the outdoor dining tables

But the hostel is just the beginning. There are many cool things you can do there in fairly reasonable prices! I took a surfing lesson which was guided by a strange old dude. but by the end of the lesson I managed to stand on the board without crushing down shamefully : ) Surfing is AWESOME! I can't believe that's the first time i'm going it! the beach at the town of 1770 offered short waves - perfect for beginners. if any of you comes to Australia and plan to surf - there's no place better then this town!


my first surfing day (can you believe how long my right arm is?!)


my 3rd surfing day

The next "end of all roads" attraction was the "Scooterua" trip! for 39 AUD i got a small Harley Davidson like motor bike and rode in a guided group all around town. I'm telling you, going over 90km/h on this thing is such a thrill! : )
We got to see wild kangaroos, the wonderful view of the hills and the coast around and just before sunset we stoped for a cold beer. It's only in australia where you go on a motorbike trip and they take you for an alcohol stop on the way! :) after the sun set, and we ran out of beer, we headed back home (to the hostel that is...).


mom i'm getting a motor bike (- no you're not!) :)




the sunset - alcohol fuel break

The next day i went on the "walk on the wild side". A guided bush and coastal walk surrounding the town. While in the bush we saw wild iguanas, all kind of huge spiders and other only-seen-on-national-geographic-channel creatures. The coast looked really untouched and since it's not easily accessible, totally empty with people.




Now as I told you, since there were about 3 girls for every guy, it was pretty hard work for me to satisfy everyone. When things got out of hand I tried to run away and struggle. But they were too many! ; )


The white stuff is a skin mud (if you're a girl you probably know what it's for... sorry guys, covering myself with mud makes no sense to me)


That's Gust, the hostels dog. The origin of the name is the word disgusting! : )
This dog loves to have his butt scratched - and he's pretty clever. Every time you start petting his head he walks forward slowly and elegantly and the next thing you know your hand is on his buttocks! : ) I thought this dog can't walk more than 10 steps without a break, and was very impressed to see he joined us on this walk.

I spent the rest of the time at the town of 1770 hanging with the amazing people from my hostel on the beach, watching movies or surfing. This is definitely my favorite place in Australia.

My next stop down the coast was Noosa. A very pretty town with huge houses located by artificial lakes which is connected to the ocean and allow them to have private small boats right outside the house. What i'm trying to say is that if you have a lot of money - that's where you wanna' live...
Besides a gorgeous long golden beach they have a small wild national park where you can have relaxed recreational walks.
It would all be perfect if not for the bad hostel I stayed at. The kitchen was horrible and they had deposit on everything - even for bed sheets!! makes you feel like they don't trust you!
Anyway, I went on one of the national park walks. It was a beautiful coast rout which lasted 4 hours. Well, there was one freaky part though... one of the beaches along the track was full of naked old guys!!! They were walking all around, swimming and sun bathing - o my god!! don't expect photos of that! : )







On the next day I went to Australia zoo. That's the Steve Erwin (the famous guy who worked with crocodiles his whole like until he got killed by one) zoo, therefore specialized in crocodiles. This place features a kangaroo heaven - a big territory where kangaroos walk freely and you can pet and feed them, koala walk (the same idea) and lots of awesome animals like Tasmanian devil, Emus, lizards and more!
They have great shows with the crocodiles, elephants, tigers, chitas - stuff that I have never seen yet!


the kangaroo heaven


koalas are just adorable animals! they look exactly like a cute fur ball and don't do anything besides sitting and eating : )


the zoo is also packed with cool lizards which walk around freely


After Noosa I traveled to Brisbane. People say that although it's a big city, Brisbane is not too busy and offer peacful gardens besides "big city life". Therefor many of them say it's the best city to live in.
I had only 2 nights there and wanted to grab as much as I could on the 1 whole day. But unfortunately it was ANZAC day (a memorial for the world wars) and everything was closed. However, it was a quite a special day. They blocked some main streets and had an amazing parade including orchestras and people who took place in the wars.


the parade


girls i don't really know... : )

On the following day I went sight seeing and visited the QTC - Queensland university of technology. The city has very impressive old buildings but since i'm going to start studing soon, the university was more interesting for me... Right next to the botanical gardens they have these elegant and tidy small buildings which are divided faculties. The students walk around all relaxed and happy as if nothing bothers them and just sit in groups on the botanical garden grass or in one of the welcoming cafeterias... will I have such study conditions back home???
Sorry for sharing my frustrations like that : )


Brisbane treasury building

Next stop - Surfers Paradise. No, it's not just a nick name I gave this town - it's and official name in Australia! I stayed there for only 1 night and it was cloudy the whole time but while strolling this town I realized the beach justifies the name (beautiful with great waves) and the shopping center which made me feel sorry that i'm a backpacker on tight budget : )


The gate to heaven...

And now i'm in Byron bay. A touristic town famous for its alternative life stile and hippies. You can have all the touristic things you want: restaurants, bars, internet cafes etc. But the main attraction is the beach. With wonderful view and clear water it's a good place to be.
I'm staying in a great hostel and sharing a two bedroom "unit" with two guys and three crazy german girls : )
We went to see the light house hill, which is the most eastern point of Australia and offers spectacular panoramic view. Apart from that, since there are no waves at the moment, chilling on the beach is the only thing to do (that's why i'm here writing this too long post : ) )
The night life is great. There's this dance bar called Chunky Monkey where they play good music for people who dance mostly on the tables - great atmosphere : )


Byron bay


the light house


the light house walk


Byron bay beach

I'll be leaving to Sydney today - my last stop on this long and wonderful trip. Although I had tons of fun here, in Byron bay, i'm looking forward to go to a new place, especially one that gets me closer to being back to my sweet home : )

ahhhhh so much to tell...
so where was i?
o right - Melbourne. I rented a camper-van with Will and Ceren - very cool and funny dutch people. The van's name was "Blow me" (as you can see on the following photo) and we rode it through the great ocean road and the Grampions NP. These are the main attractions on the southern coast of Australia. The "great ocean road" coast line is full of spectacular beaches and phenomenas. We took our time visiting every site possible along the road and at the nights slept at the van. It has an integral bed which was very very cosy for 3 people... especially because i slept in the middle. The bed can turn into a dining table or flat surface for luggage and at the back we had a practical kitchen. On the outside, the van was full of hilarious sketches! :)

the WICKED van









*many more great photos of the great ocean road - at my flickr photo album!

The Grampions NP is a large forest reserve full of kangaroos, koalas, wallabies and amazing birds. Since Australia is at it's worst drought ever, we only got to see one waterfall....


a kangaroo - if you'll look closely you can see why i believe he's the king of the jungle! *hint - it's hanging right next to his left leg


Mc Kenzie falls


Mt. William view point


Ceren and Will chilling next to "Blow me". you can see the kitchen on the back.

Before heading into Adelaide, we did a 2 days road trip around the city at "Adelaide hills". That's where i ate my first kengaroo stake! my favorite meat! how come no one told me kangaroo's are soo tasty?!? i'm seriously thinking of importing some kangaroos to israel for collinear purposes :)
Adelaide is the most southern city of Australia, located in the middle of the southern coast. Although it doesn't offer a backpacker like myself a lot of budget attractions, i found it very appealing with it's old structures, food market and parks.
I stayed there for 2 nights and then started heading north - to the OUTBACK!


King street


aboriginal street show

I assume most of you don't know, but although australia is a big continent - much larger then the Europe for example, it's a home to only 20 million people. Over 95% of the population is concentrated as far as 500km from the coast because the rest is an endless wild desert.
From Adelaide i took a 7 days 3000 km tour to the heart of the desert - a town called Alice Springs. We were 17 people and 2 too laid back guides.
Between the good meals and long hours of driving we got to see the special terrain of the desert, colorful sand, dry salt lakes, strange springs, ruined towns, wild animals and impossible amounts of flies - my god the flies! i swear I almost lost my mind over there!
The primery sites of the tour were:
Coober Pedy - a town of Opal (a gem stone) miners. all the people in town leave underground to avoid the heat of the desert. even their church is underground!!
the Uluru (Ayers rock) - the famous red rock in the center of Australia. not as impressive as they make you think.
the Olgas - amazing group of 36 great red rocks right next to Uluru
Kings kenyon - the best part of the tour. huge red kenyon build up in layers of rocks. hard to explain but very special!


the desert - housends of miles of roads like that





one of the campsites.
at the nights we usually slept in camping sites in a thing called SWEG. it's a combination of a sleeping bag and a metrace. since it was filthy and stinky, i wasn't so surprised to know i was attacked by BED BUGS!! it's a bug which walks all ever your body while you're asleep and leaves you with hundreds of extremely itchy stings!!!!


a typical Coober Pady house...


Uluru - look how bad the weather was. we had rain on 5 of 7 days of the tour! a desert - yeah right!


Kings canyon


a desert frog in Kings canyon


Kings canyon

We arrived Alice Springs on the 22/3. i didn't expect to see a normal green town in the middle of the desert... It's very relaxed - exactly what I needed after this week of beraly sleeping. I went to see the the flying doctors, Anzak hill and the lizard center - which was awesome!


the lizard center


Anzak hill - town view

3 days later I took a flight to Cairns - my favorite city on this whole trip!
After all the yellow and red i've seen in the desert, Cairns area looked extremely green! It's located on the north side of the eastern coast and surrounded by a rain forest. The nature all around the city actually reminded me of Laos - savage green hills. On the flight i met Alina. A 24 years old german girl whom travels on her own. We were traveling together and having great time since then!
Cairns itself is very touristic. It's full of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, internet cafes, travel agencies etc. My favorite part of the city is the "lagoon". Since the ocean here is full of crocodiles, you can't really go to the beach. The lagoon is meant to replace it. With golden sand, clean water and attractive topless girls - it's everything you're looking for in a beach! :)


arriving cairns


the lagoon


well, a frog in the lagoon

I took this amazing diving course in cairns. It was 5 days: 2 in a class and a pool and 3 on a boat. The guides were very professional and we used top of the line equipment. I must say that past diving experiences caused me to doubt my ability to enjoy diving cause I used to have troubles "equalizing" my ears therefore have sharp ears pain. But this course gave me all the "tools" i needed to cope this problem.
Our boat was very comfortable, clean and roomy. even more importantly, the food was the best I had since I left home!!!! I celebrated every meal (or tea time) and regretted it later when I needed to fit into my wet suit :)
About 100 km east to Australia there's the Great Barrier Reef - by far the largest and most diverst reef in the world. We sailed to a distant reserve on the reef and did our practices. I saw sooo much stuff!! never though i'll ever see a shark and actually swim towards it instead of running away! (or at least swimming really hard to the other direction :) ) besides sharks I saw lots of sweet turtles, "Nemos", huge crabs, gorgeous corals and shells, stingrays and much more! I was soo thrilled when I got my qualification! unfortunately, the underwater disposable camera I bought was crap so I don't really have decent underwater photos...


all geared up and ready next to the pool


the great barrier reef


ocean sunset




my diving class - awesome people!

When i got back from the diving course, Alena and i took a tour up to cape tribulation - the wilderness of rain forest and solitude beaches. Alena don't have much more time so we took just a day tour. In this forest there are lots of swamps, great rivers which are full of alligators, waterfalls and it spreads all the way to the beach!


alligators searching in Daintree river - no luck...


Justina, Alena and me at Cape Tribulation beach (if it's not clear enough - Alena is in the middle... yeah she's very tall :) )


port Douglas resort

From Cairns we started heading south. After a night stop in Townsville (yes! that's where the power puff girls live!!!) and total of 11 hours of buss ride, we got to Airlie beach. The demographic statistics of this town is: 90% of the people are 18-25 years old, 80% tourists, 60% girls, 80% of the girls are simply gorgeous! well, at least that's my statistics :)
We took a 2 days cruise to the Whitsundays - bunch of breath taking islands close by.
It was a sport sail boat for 20 people. We did some snorkeling, sun bathing, island strolling and high speed sailing while the boat is shifted to impossible angles!
On the second day we arrived to a beach called White Heaven - it truly deserves the name...


Airlie beach lagoon - it's such a good concept!


Airlie beach harbor. our boat is the red one.








While Heaven beach


While Heaven beach

Yesterday I split from Alina. Just when I though i'll be alone I ran into Ceren (the Dutch girl I rented the van with) and Victor (a guy from the outback tour) - It's just not possible to be alone over here :)
Today i'm heading further south to Harvey Bay and on monday i'm going on a 3 days 4WD jeep trip in Frasier island - must be great!

I never realized how much I wanted to be in Australia. Being here was like a dream I didn't know about. At the 6th grade the theme of our english lessons were all about Australia and now I get to see all the special things in person - i love it!