Sydney Adieu, Mexico

After doing my last blog entry in one huge chunk I haven't learned my lesson at all. I stayed one more week in Sydney and apart from surfing, the Tea gardens and the Cock and Bull not much else happened. The Paddys day parade was good craic and especially post parade in Hyde Park. Having said that I'm not sure whether there were many Paddys in the organising committee as the bar was diabolical. Paddys day wasn't great I have to say. The surf that day was highly enjoyable though. I stayed in Caroline's friend's, Breda Murnanes place. She gets an honourable mention if she's reading this.

After a week in Sydney I was off to Mexico for it's culture but I was to be cultured out by all the information. It was a very good tour none the less. We started off in Mexico city. I arrived the night before my Mam and spent the first night in a hostel/ hotel. It was good value at $20 for a double room and your own shower. This was the roughing part of it as I would be staying in hotels for the rest of the trip. We stayed in the hilton for the 3 nights we were in Mexico city. We saw lots although at times my mother was climbing the himalayas going in and out of metro stations. Taxis and walking on level ground was soon decided to be the mode of transport. There´s loads to see in Mexico city including Palacio Bellas Des Artes (Museum of modern art), Catedral Metropolitana, Plaza de Republica and Plaza Major (Major Aztec Site). The people of the city were very friendly I thought although the major hotels, the Sheraton in particular do their best to rip you off.

The second day on the tour we headed to Teotihuacan outside Mexico city. This is a former Toltec site. This would be my highlight of the archaelogical sites but maybe this is partially because this was at the start of the tour before I got Archaelogicaled out. We did the tour with caravan tours and although the guide was very knowledgeable sometimes a break from talking for a kip would have done me the world of good. The tour was made up of 44 people with the bulk of these being Americans although some had Mexican and Columbian backgrounds. If I had been told this before the tour I probably would have had a hernia but they surprised me with how sound they were and knowledgeable. By the way I'm not licking arse here as it'll be a miracle if any of them find this blog but I'm just saying it broke the stereotype I had of them. Back to Teotihuacan I climbed the Pyramide de Sol and de Luna here. These were nice climbs and weren't too difficult.

The next day we had a long day of driving to Veracruz. Veracruz hadn't much of note but it was a real party town with lots going on down on the beach and there was plenty of activity on the main square. We only spent a night here but it would have been great to have spent longer here.

The following day we were off to Palenque. By the way I'm struggling with names here so I have the Lonely Planet out constantly trying to find the names of the different places I was. We stopped in a lovely town Pueblo on the way. This is a UNESCO site but it is getting rundown due to lack of funding. They don't charge to get here like other UNESCO sites which I think is a pity. The government of Mexico is totally corrupt and the wealth of the country is controlled by 13 families. Also Mexico has natural resources of oil but the wealth from this doesn't filter down to the lower classes. Mexico signed the NAFTA treat with the US and Canada but it gets no benefit from this as the American multinationals come in as well as the cheap agricultural produce which kills the Mexican farmer. The Mexican government doesn't seem to show any leadership at all. We also visited Olmec heads in Villahermosa en route.

Palenque was lovely but it was also very similar to Teotihuacan. These sites start to get tedious after seeing a couple of them but well worth a look all the same. We had that afternoon off to laze in the pool or whatever and this was heaven after all the early starts and all the driving.

Two nights in Palenque and it was onwards to Merida via the ruins in Uxmal. Maybe with the passing of time I'll appreciate all I saw but not after only finishing the tour today. Merida was another nice colonial town and we visited Chichen Itza from here. The tallest pyramid here was really impressive as the photos hopefully will testify.

Today we came to Cancun on the shores of the Caribbean. The colour of the sea here is amazing, a nice turquoise colour. There's 24 km of hotels to ruin that though. I worry about people from the US that come down here as it's just another version of America. I'm here for 2 days until Monday so hopefully I'll get some snorkelling in. Then I'm heading for Lima and I'll head north of here to Huanchaco for a week of surfing before Caroline arrives back on the 14th of April.

Pictures from Mexico as well as footage of the supersaint here:

Mostly Mexico

Alice Springs to Adelaide to Tasmania

The photos of Tasmania and Adelaide are here:

Adelaide, Tasmania

Now after ignoring the blog I have to do itall in one big chunk. I've done a heap since I last updated it. Anyway we had arrived into Alice Springs last time I updated this. Alice is smallish but as we were to find out before we left the place was very unsafe. There are were lots of Aboriginals roaming about the place much like you see some young lads roaming around O Connell street. They're doing nothing wrong but you're very wary of them as they just seem dodgy. I think people that have been trodden on for over 100 years with no education and no opportunities would be no different but at the same time they don't do themselves any favours. For instance you can't go out in Alice Springs on your own at night. You have to get a taxi home. Also that night we stayed in Alice 2 of the hostels were broken into and it was said that it was aboriginals and in one of the places one of the girls actually saw aboriginals taking her rucksack. They were only given the vote in 1967 and Uluru was only handed back to them in 1985 with one of the conditions being that they allow people to climb it. The Aborigines ask people not to climb it but hundreds still do. As a mark of respect I think they shouldn't allow people to climb it. Our guide likened climbing it, to skygliding off the vatican. I think it's closer to pissing on an altar. Also compared to New Zealand where they're educated on Maori customs, there's no education in Australia on Aboriginal customs. Rant finished.

We lefty Alice at 5 in the morning to do over 500 k to our first stop Kings Canyon. Here our walking was going to begin. It wasn't too bad but it was a good taster of what the following 6 days would hold. The photos will give you a better idea of what it was like than any description I can give you. It was good but it paled in comparison to Kata Tjuta which comes later. We saw the sunset over Uluru and Kata Tjuta that night from our campsite which was nice. On the way to the camp site we passed a mountain really similar in shape to Uluru called Mount Connor and it was gas seeing everyone taking photos of it in excitement only to be told later it wasn't the main man.

We saw Uluru for sunrise the next morning but I wasn't that impressed with it. There's a taller monolith than it in WA called Mount Augusta but I suppose it's not as pretty. I main thing I thought that would recommend Uluru to people is the Aboriginal stories/history here.Our guide Adam from adventure travel was really informative and it was good to see an Australian person actually cared about the plight of the Aboriginal people. The Aboriginals are starting to get into Aboriginal based tourism and I think this could be very useful for educating people about their customs. We saw Kata Tjuta that evening which I thought was the most impressive out of this 6 day trip. You'll see the pictures but it really reminded me of scenes from the Lion King.

Our next stop was Coobers Pedy in another 7 or 800 k. I was looking forward to coming here. This is an underground city but I didn't rate it in the end. I don't know I just thought of it as all being underground with tunnels between shops and houses but it wasn't like that at all. Most places just had a cellar in their house. The underground bar here was actually overground. I didn't rate it at all but I suppose fair play for making something of nothing here, something Australian tourism is brilliant at. Irish tourism could well take a leaf out of their book.

The next day we saw Lake Torrens and stayed close to Wilpena Pound which is part of the Flinders ranges. Lake Torrens is a big salt lake. I thought this was very impressive. We climbed Wilpena Pound the following day. This is a decent climb but it was well worth doing. We stayed in Parachilna that night for our bush/roadkill bbq. We had Kangaroo, Camel and Emu. I thought it was very tasty but the views of the girls on the trip differed wildly. It wasn't all bad, more for me. We had a couple in the pub here that night. It was a real bush pub with no bars for over 400 km.

The last day we headed for Adelaidevia a wine tasting in Clare valley. It was nice to be back in civilization but it was scary as well. It was really strange to see all these people after being in the wilderness for 6 days. Overall the tour was very good. Uluru and Coober Pedy were a bit of a dissappointment but the other parts more than made up for it. Adelaide was nice. We didn't get up to a whole lot here but it was grand just to stroll around the streets. The market and Glenelg beach were very nice.

We were only 2 nights in Adelaide and then we hit for Tasmania. To be honest I think we were shattered after all the 6 o clock starts on the 6 day tour and we did alot of sleeping the first couple of days. We arrived into Hobart airport and only spent a night here which was more than enough. We hit the harbour, Salamance place and north Hobart. North Hobart was the most happening of the whole lot. It was very quiet and we were happy enough to hit the road the following day.

Our next stop was Port Arthur, a former convict settlement. We did a ghost tour here that night which was brilliant. Caroline was holding my hand alot tighter in here for some reason. This was the highlight and was much better than the tour the following day in daylight. The brutality here was shocking and judging by our guide, he seemed to think it'd be a great idea if this system was re-introduced. Solitary confinement was a feature here and the opening of a lunatic asylum here didn't seem to alert the English authorities that something wasn't going quite to plan here. Good to see but there isn't a town nearby to here. Tasmania isn't setup very well for tourism at all here. Especially in the south you're very lucky to find backpacker or budget accomodation in the towns. You have to check this out before you go near a town.

We headed for Ross that night for the famous bridge. They have a crossroads here that goes in either of 4 directions temptation (pub), salvation(church), recreation (town hall) or damnation (old jail). A happening spot as you can believe.

We headed for Freycinet National Park the following day to see Wineglass bay. The photos of this are fairly impressive.

The Bay of Fires up the north is also worth a visit. This is a real beach area although you have to be careful with the rips here. We stayed in Longford that night above a pub and we headed down at 9.30 for a drink only to find the pub was actually closed.

Next stop was Cradle mountain. This is the start of the overland track. After 1 day of walking I was glad I wasn't doing 7 more days of it. I think all the walking between Alice and Adelaide had us all walked out.

Then back to Lanceston. Not much to report here either. Cataract gorge is the highlight here. Tasmania is very nice but you'd have to be fairly fond of the walking. Nightlife here was pretty non-existent. The entries you might have noticed are getting shorter and shorter now. It's not entirely due to Tasmania but more due to me getting bored writing.

Myself and Caroline arrived back in Sydney the day before yesterday and she went home yesterday. I'm in Sydney till the 19th after which I'm heading for Mexico for 10 days to meet my mam. Then I'll be meeting Caroline back in Lima in mid April to be home for late June. You can surely drop me a line after that big long essay. Slan.

Very brief update

So much to say and I mightn't get to say it all now as it's been over 2 weeks since I did any updates. I'm currently on the last day of the Tasmania phase and we did the 6 day Alice Springs to Adelaide trip. Here are the last set of photos:

Last night in Cairns, Alice Springs to Adelaide Trip

I didn't get far did I. I'll give more updates next week.

Cairns

The only update I give to you is that we arrived in Cairns and are due to leave it for Alice Springs in the morning. We're doing a 6 day tour down to Adelaide from here but the bad news is that we're being collected at 5.10. Ouch. Back to Cairns. It's a big enough place and the pubs are very good craic here. Maybe a little too much. We arrived in here late and the next morning we hit off for the Cape Tribulation tour which we were doing over 2 days and 1 night. The driver Troy with Jungle Tours was really good. We hit Port Douglas on the way up which is a yuppie tourist town. It has a local population of 9000 yet it doesn't have a hospital or a school while a smaller town of 4000 up the road has both. We also did a river cruise where we saw crocodiles and flying foxes. We stayed in the Beach House in Cape Tribulation which was fairly dull but on the plus side it did allow us to see the beach and the lookout the following day. The tour had 2 Mayo girls, Ann and Majella who we ended up going out with when we arrived back to Cairns. Nursing a hangover today we manged to do the Kuranda skyway and the train return. Lovely scenery and the Barron falls were amazing. It's the most spectacular waterfall I've seen on the trip yet. The photos will do more justice than my description. It's probably more amazing at the moment as there's a huge amount of rain.

I also added more photos into that same folder as below.

Tully, Mission Beach

It must have been all the rain in Aerlie Beach that had me in bad form. Queenslanders aren't a bad aul sort although the majority of hostel owners are thieving gypsies. The hostel banana barracks in Tully is a dive and they do have the fruitpickers there over a barrel as it's the only backpackers in the town. The backpackers who want to stay on do this as if you work for a 3 month stint on a farm you get another year on your visa. Having said that we were delighted to have it to go for a drink as the other bar in the town in the Hotel Tully was closing as 7.22 PM. The next day we were doing the white water rafting with Raging Thunder. This was excellent. Any of the lads reading this will be pleased to know that I managed to stay in the boat but just about. I half fell out but managed to hold onto the ropes. John Tobin has my other fallout on general release as I assume most of you have seen. They've stopped doing DVDs so you'll have to depend on my own version of events. We went back to Mission Beach after this and we're still there but are due to leave for Cairns this evening.

I couldn't see anything about the croc in Mission beach but I came across this. Gives a new meaning to Water hazards:
"A CROCODILE that has taken a preferred lie in a water hazard on The Willows Golf Club course at Townsville in north Queensland golf course is to be allowed to stay. The metre-long freshwater crocodile was found following recent floods in a lake on the 14th hole at the Willows Golf Club at Kirwan, near Townsville. As he poses no threat, Queensland Parks and Wildlife decided he could stay until he chooses to move."

Here's a story about the yacht that was wrecked on Aerlie beach:
Romance

We had trouble getting up from Aerlie to Tully and there were no buses operating due to the floods one of the days. When we did get up we couldn't see what the fuss was all about. An area Mackay further south was declared a natural disaster zone though. See:
Mackay

Here's some pictures anyway:

Whitsundays, Tully, Mission Beach

I'll have to get some cheerier news for next time. It's starting to sound liker naturaldisasters.com.

Koala's, Westpac

This is only of interest for anyone travelling Australia. I'd avoid the Koala's like the plague. The hostels in Noosa and Hervey Bay were terrible. The kitchens were tiny and it was like fight club trying to get yourself dinner. In Noosa the only knife was stuck in between a cooker and the microwave so to cut anything you were constantly on the move. In these places it's like they're trying to make conditions so bad that you have to buy dinner in the bar. Also their trip to Fraser Island is terrible with both the vehicles and the equipment substandard. They don't seem to service the vehicles at all. Our clutch was wrecked by the second day and when you pressed it down you had to have a piece of string to pull it back up. Also when we rang from the port to get their assistance with the car which was basically unroadworthy we were told they couldn't collect it. We also heard that another Koalas vehicle had the same problem while we were there. As part of the equipment we were given a rusty shovel that cracked the first time we used it. They also had the cheek to charge the group beside us for a knife that fell apart when they were cutting vegetables for dinner. The lads that run this are most arrogant group of people. They have a $60 bond from each person so that you can't complain about the abuse/insults you get or they keep part of your bond. They asked the girls in our group to demonstrate French kissing. I'm emailing this to lonely planet so that hopefully they can take out any reference to these in the next issue. I think the place in Aerlie Beach is already taken out of it.

While I'm at it avoid Westpac. They try to charge you for any international transactions and they tried to charge me twice for the same transaction.

Noosa, Frasier Island, Whitsundays

Noosa was a great spot. Lovely place to have a look around. Really enjoyed the surf here.

Our next stop was Hervey Bay. There's not much happening here bar people either going to Fraser Island or coming back. The Aboriginal name of this island K'gari means paradise which I think it should really be known as. The name Fraser comes from the widow of Captain Fraser who is meant to have told exaggerated tales of how her husband was killed/died. The island itself is amazing. It's the largest sand island in the world. Lake MacKenzie and Lake Wabby are 2 freshwater lakes which are amazing. The view from Indian Head is fantastic. Champagne Pools is a rock pool that gets filled by the breaking surf of the sea outside. We spent 3 days and 2 nights here with 7 other people who were really sound. Was great to see again. I've been to all the places north of here on the east coast but if they're anything like Fraser it'll be great to see them again.

We arrived in Aerlie beach on Tuesday after a 15 hour journey which should have been 12. The floods here are fairly bad. We just about got through. At some places we had just under the 0.3 metres of water. If it's above this it's not allowed to drive. There are boats washed up on the beach here and one boat Romance was actually wrecked the day before we were due to go out but the weather had calmed considerably by the next morning. It has been rumoured that the crew of this boat were actually drinking so that could have had an effect. We got poxy lucky with the weather and had great weather for 2 of the 3 days. Also the crowd we went with were sound out with 2 from Glasgow, 2 from Nottingham, A Melbourne lad and a Danish girl and 1 German. We got 3 snorkels in over the 3 days and also saw Whitehaven beach in the sunshine which helped. The fish were amazing here but I think there was better on the Ningaloo reef in WA. Is that a bit too much namedropping? The food on board was really good as well. Last night just as we headed for bed it started lashing and it's only really stopped recently. In Mackay which is about 50 km from us they've had 348 mm in the last 24 hours. Also Queensland has had double their usual February rainfall in 15 days. This is worse than normal but having said that we were told on the boat that this is normal for monsoon season which is November till March and they couldn't believe that the tourist operators would hide this from us. We're used to this by now as Eastern Australians either have their heads up their own arses or are just out and out liars. For instance when we visited the shark show in Hervey Bay the guy running this was basically saying that alot of the shark attacks here are covered up by the government unless there's an actual eye witness. There was one in Mission Beach a couple of days ago and it was never reported in the media.

Because of the weather we're going to skip Magnetic Island and head straight for Tully tomorrow assuming the bus is going north. At the moment it's very touch and go.

More photos here:

Auckland, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Noosa, Fraser Island