The whole Australian east coast in one big long post

Thus far, as you are no doubt aware reader, my trip has been a little easy. Each country I have visited has been English-speaking, Western in culture, and a former colony of the British Empire. From tonight things get a bit more challenging as I finally make my way to Asia. So before that happens, let me tell you about my trip along the East Coast of Australia.

After a short ride on the Oz Experience bus from Rainbow Beach, I was dropped off at Hervey Bay, where I was to depart for my trip to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is one of the two major activities that most East Coast travellers take part in. You will never ever ever find a backpacker on this route who doesn't intend to go there, or who hasn't already. It is the world's largest sand island and a national park, with very little man-made development. Generally you'll spend a night or two there, and there are two ways of seeing it: a guided tour, done by professionals; or 'self-drive', where you're put with a group and you all rent a 4x4 and dart it around yourselves. I chose the latter because I thought it sounded fun.

Luckily for me, I was put with a group of very, very nice people. But I have to be honest, most people in the group were pre-acquainted university friends on a short holiday, and socially I didn't quite feel on an equal pegging. Out of 17 of us (taking up two 4x4s), only three us were outside of the social group, and I was the only one travelling alone. We all mingled fine, and I certainly felt very welcome, but as a lone backpacker, the situation wasn't ideal.

With that rant out of the way, I can now tell you what I enjoyed about Fraser Island: a couple of the lakes; driving on the beach for a bit.

So, after Fraser I returned to Hervery Bay to spend another night before getting back on the bus. Here I'd become friends with a German girl called Alice who shared an apartment with me, and in order to save money we bought some food and made dinner together, which was lovely, despite the hostel's rubbish facilities. The next day we travelled to a town called 1770, so called in order to attract tourists who might be interested that Captain Cook discovered the area in that year. Not that they'd be attracting them to much, apart from maybe the excellent hostel we stayed at called Cool Bananas. Myself, Alice and Andrea, a Hungarian via London, swam in the sea for a bit, one of the last areas going north that is safe from stingers and with any amount of surf. In the evening it rained and Alice made me watch the Big Lebowski. Not at gun-point or anything, she was very nice about it. Anyway, it's a very funny film and my life feels richer for it.

From 1770 to Kroombit, a cattle ranch in the outback. On arrival we were given the option of going for a horse ride or a quad bike ride. I'd ridden a horse before, so I opted for the quad bikes, as did Alice and Andrea. The driver of the OzExperience bus rode with us on a regular two-wheeled bike, and in an hilarious action, used one of those wheels to spray me with mud as we drove through puddles caused by the rain the night before (the first they'd had there since April). Once the ride was over we observed the horse riders returning from their experience. They looked rubbish as they plodded along, and we looked brilliant because we were dirty and had clearly had more fun. They weren't even allowed to break in to a trot or a canter. Ha!

After this we were all led up to the ranch proper, where we were encouraged to take part in herding up some goats. After some practice with a lasoo, we were split in to teams and given the task of capturing a specific goat, lying it on its side and 'branding' it (placing a not-hot iron rod on its rear). Our team won thanks to a speedy lasoo artist, although apparently I hurt the goat when I picked it up and laid it down, and later they had to take it out to be shot. This is a lie, but it did have a bit of a limp. We all drunk in the evening.

A long drive to Airlie Beach the next day, stopping off half way through for the exciting and very Australian practice of playing lawn bowls. I was rubbish at that. The climate was becoming markedly hotter. The air conditioning on the bus was having trouble doing its job sufficiently. It was about 39c outside. Fortunately, when we arrived in Airlie, OzExperience had arranged a table for us with some free beer and some free nibbles, and this helped relieve some of the stress of the day. Especially after the lawn bowls, I couldn't believe how bad I was at that. It was also in this evening that I met a new group of brilliant people. More about them later.

Most people stop at Airlie Beach so they can hop on a boat and go sailing around the Whitsunday Islands for a couple of days, and everyone knows how good it is to conform,especially me. The Whistsundays, so called because Captain Cook discovered them on Whit Sunday. Apart from he didn't take in to consideration the time zones, and it was actually Whit Monday. For the islands, again, there are choices. You can have a boat that specialises in partying, or one that's just for chilling out, but I chose one that specialised in getting in the water and doing activities, in particular scuba diving and snorkelling along the Great Barrier Reef. This proved to be something of a crap idea, as it turns out I hate scuba diving. Out of the all the things I've done on this journey that I've never tried before - the rafting, the sky diving, the surfing - scuba diving is the only one that I truly did not enjoy and felt very uncomfortable with. I'm not sure quite what it was. Perhaps that it felt so claustrophobic, or that I lacked control, being not-so-strong a swimmer. I didn't complete the full lesson, and I felt guilty that I'd let myself down. I've tried so hard on this journey to try new things, or push myself in to things that scare me, and I bailed so easily on this one. I decided that the time just wasn't right and I'd give it another go in the future.

Still, the trip had much more to offer. The snorkelling I did enjoy, and I did see the Great Barrier Reef, and it was beautiful. We also stopped off at Whitehaven Beach for a few hours, possibly the world's second best beach after Camber Sands. The sand is very white, very, very fine and gets in to everything, like cameras and ears. It's a gorgeous place indeed. Back on the boat, it was fantastic just to chill out and soak up the sun on deck. I made some good friends, and the chilled out atmosphere on board the vessel suited me to a tee. Again, on return to Airlie, a table with free beer and nibbles was booked for us, this time just because it was a nice idea.

Onward then, to Magnetic Island, apparently named after Captain Cook's compass went a bit wobbly when he sailed by it. I stayed at a Base Hostel, which are usually a bit grim, but this one was lovely - right next to the beach, with relaxed live music every evening, setting a very 'pacific' mood. The brilliant people I mentioned that I met in Airlie? Well they were in Magnetic Island, too, and we became very good friends while we were there. A total of eight of us - myself, Pete, Helen, Dee, Lou, Millie, Liv and Lindsay - all decided to hire out two small cars and to explore the island ourselves. Small is the right word. Really tiny, topless, Daihatsus that are great for zipping around with in the heat. We stopped for the odd hike to see wild koalas and rock wallabies, and while the others soaked up the sun on the beach, myself Pete and Dee took it in turns to have a drive round the island. It was a good day.

Where to next? Well stupidly, the lady who booked my trip had me down to stop in Tully, which has nothing but a river for amusement, and it was too late for me to change it. Fortunately I was able to stay with the bus for one stop further up at Mission Beach, where there is at least a nice hostel, but the rest of the crew would be going to Cairns. Most people stop at Mission to do a sky dive or white water rafting. Having done these things in New Zealand, I was more in to saving my money, so wasted a couple of days by the pool and watching DVDs before heading to Cairns myself.

Cairns is the last stop on the east coast trip, and is a large town that acts as a gateway to many other activities and further parts of Australia. Alice was up there looking for work, so I met up with her again, and I'd booked in to the same hostel as the Magnetic Island crew, so we all went for a big drunken night out. The next day I helped Alice write her resume, which isn't a good cure for a hangover. The day after I took a day trip to Cape Tribulation, so called because it was that time of the month for Captain Cook. A small group of us were driven up to the Daintree River, where we took a cruise and saw a wild crocodile! Exciting! We took a hike through the rainforest, where the guide relayed his endless array of knowledge. We fed some kangaroos and a BBQ was made for us with some delicious steak. After, we took a swim in a creek and sampled some tropical fruits, some of which you've probably never heard of. It was a day well spent. That night was to be my last night before flying back down to Sydney, and to my delight I bumped in to a couple of the people whom I started my trip with - they'd finally caught up with me. It was a great way to wrap things up.

So I flew back down to Sydney, armed only with a gin and tonic (although the flying is getting easier) and prepared to head to Thailand. The weather in Sydney was cold, the sky was grey, and there was a slight drizzle in the air. It was time to go and experience something a lot less like home.