More Photos

Australia, it's the other side of the world...a land of Koalas, Kangaroos and 'Neighbours'. Well, I didn't bump into Harold or Kylie but made the most of what I saw during my short visit. I started in Sydney and found Darling Harbour with its great restaurants, bars, shops and harbour. As you can see from the photos, I managed to see Sydney Harbour Bridge and the iconic Opera House on my travels around the city. The monorail was great to see the city as you travel around stopping wherever you felt like seeing something new. Paddys market and Chinatown were interesting stops together with Sydney tower which provides a great place to work out the must see places in Sydney. There is a great food choice for everyone from Creole to Chinese, Indian to Japanese and Australian to European. Fish was everywhere, fresh and very tasty!

After a few days in Sydney I flew up to Brisbane, jumped in my hire car and headed North up the coast on 'Bruce Highway' until I reached Hervey Bay. My hotel looked out over to Fraser Island, but the sea was too rough to get across the water.

On my way back South, I passed the beautiful Glass House Mountains, then stopped to spend a day at Australia Zoo. Steve Irwin (another Australian icon) was tragically killed working with nature, but his story is told at the zoo and everyone seemed to spend ages looking at the hundreds of photos of him working with all kinds of Australian wildlife. I stroked the Kangaroos, met the Koalas, but kept well away from the crocodiles.

I was lucky enough to stay with David and Desley from Coolengatta who I met in Hong Kong a couple of weeks before. David got me up at 3am to go fishing in his little boat. Wow...it was pitch black, we pounded through the breakers grabbing the rails trying to stay onboard. Once we got past the breaking waves the little dingy rolled around for about 4 hours as I caught loads of unusual fish. Some were dangerous, some were colourful and the one in the photo was a delicacy. Served on the barbi that evening with a bottle of Tooheys New it was a great way to discover Australia. Thank you David and Desley.

Then it was a short drive north to Surfers Paradise. Miles of golden beaches, together with turquoise sea pounding the beaches. Swimming was great and I even had a go on the boards. I kept falling off but the experience was great fun and I decided it was best to sit with a few beers (Tooheys Old) on the beach watching the professionals. They make it look so easy!

I visited as part of my journey around the world in the Spring of 2007. I hope you like the photos that I have chosen. They are just a small selection. Please feel free to call me if you would like to know more about Australia.

Thank you for reading my personal journal.