It is a fact that when you travel to some countries that some of your experiences might let you down.
For instance, if you were to travel to France and did not see anyone wearing a beret, you might be let down. If you were to travel to India and you didn’t have anyone ask for a bribe, you might be let down. And if you were to travel to America and no one asked you if you wanted fries with that, you might be let down.
This is an unfortunate phenomenon that is undoubtedly a result of how popular media portrays different cultures, which may hamper one’s travel experience when it’s revealed to you that not everything that happens in the movies and TV is anywhere near being close to reality (perhaps the only exception to the rule for me was when I was in Munich and I spotted an old man sitting in a beer garden sporting full-on lederhosen, a bushy moustache, and a feather in his cap).
And that, my friends, is why Australia is such a great country and a fantastic place to visit: it simply does not disappoint. Not only will you be guaranteed to spot a kangaroo or two, be woken up at dawn by the otherworldly laugh of the kookaburra, eat steak and shrimp fresh off the barby, but people there actually do say “G’day” and “mate” without restraint, and oftentimes in the same sentence!
Yes, Australia! A country full of big, open spaces! A country with an abundance of national parks and wildlife! A country where people spend their leisure time in the great outdoors and go camping, surfing, kayaking, and hiking! A country where the distances between cities and towns is measured in days, not hours! As I’m sure you can gather, things sure are strange and unfamiliar down under.
Our story begins in Brisbane, where we were required to sort out our immediate needs, such as learning how to drive on the wrong side of the road, getting a haircut, and locating some quality Australian beer. Once on our way, we were sailing northbound along the highways of coastal Queensland and basking in the freedom of open spaces. Gone were the congested and polluted cities of Asia where we’d spent the last year travelling. In their place were vast plains of orange and brown, the horizon, being something one could actually see, dotted with rocky escarpments and swathes of trees and bush.
As we arrived in Rainbow Beach, a small town a few hours north of Brisbane, I came to realize that perhaps the greatest relief that this new continent offered us, apart from the ingenious coffee cup lids that are shaped like a toddler’s sippy cup (hence eliminating the unfortunate mess which always seems to occur when trying to sip from a Tim Horton’s coffee whilst driving), was a breeze. It didn’t matter so much that the breeze was accompanied by immense, ominous clouds that forged above our heads like an armada from the sea, that the breeze as mentioned above was more like a strong gale, was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat and soul-crushing humidity of Singapore. The ability to avoid becoming bathed in a lake of your own sweat by any other means than hanging out in a mall was worth the cost of airfare alone.
From Rainbow Beach we continued north to the small town of Agnes Water and its even smaller neighbour, the Town of 1770. We had read that some fantastic snorkeling could be had off the shores of 1770 along the Fitzroy Reef, a section of the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. Since the area wasn’t as heavily touristed as some of the areas further north (most notably Cairns, which can only be pronounced correctly with an Australian accent), we were looking forward to seeing some well-preserved coral and the varieties of sea life that call the reef home.
Our immediate hopes were dashed, however, as the only tour company that led excursions to the reef from 1770 were booked from the following day (prompting us to spend the day taking advantage of the excellent surf along the shores of Agnes Water), but the day we were to sail, the trip was cancelled due to the strong winds and rough seas.
I was beginning to get the sense that the trip was in danger of becoming a bust. I was beginning to feel that despite the fact that we’d already spent three days in the country, that we hadn’t actually done anything apart from filling up the gas tank on a daily basis and waking up in the morning with a stiff back from sleeping on the floor of a tent. I was frustrated over the fact that many of the places we’d read about thus far were only accessible by 4WD, which made it impossible to access parts of the country that to me sounded the most interesting. If the trip was to fall apart, going to Australia was an expensive destination for such an unfortunate sequence of events to occur.
It became clear that there was only one way of purging my mind of the frustration and anxiety that were vexing me: go on walkabout.
Next: Laura falls off the edge of a 600m escarpment.
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