In January 2020, I decided to bite the bullet and make the long and arduous journey all the way to Australia. Australia had been on my bucket list for while, and while both time and money were a bit limited (thanks job, and thanks job), I had an amazing time! *Disclaimer: this trip was done pre-covid, so some/many activities may have changed. Australia is a beautiful country, and Australians tend to be pretty laid back and friendly. There isn't so much of a crazy party culture (of the likes of Berlin), from my experience people preferred to kick back with beer and friends. The country is massive, and I wish I had more time (like many months more) to rent a van and drive through the Outbacks, but oh well... I was very interested in hearing about their relationship with the indigenous aboriginals (which sounded very similar to the stories of Native Indians in the US), but I won't get into that. Australia is very safe and tourist friendly, and did I mention...MASSIVE. I didn't have to rent a car except for longer trips from Melbourne (Great Ocean Road, and Penguins!), and the whole time in Cairns (Great Barrier Reef and Daintree National park are some of the highlights here). Car rental was quick and efficient, but remember, cars drive on the left side of the road (which I got used to pretty quickly). I flew into Australia from the United States with a multi-city flight booking. My plan was the following: wherever - Sydney - Cairns (reef + forest) - Melbourne - wherever. I spent about 4-5 days in each city (which in my opinion was plenty to do everything I wanted to, but I like to pack my days! ;) Sydney: I flew into Sydney late on day 1, and just chilled indoors the next day. Sydney had a 'big city' financial capital vibe, whereas we found Melbourne to be a bit more alternative and young. Everything in the city is easily accessible by public transportation, getting a day ticket is a good idea. The next day was spent at Bondi beach (where I caught some great waves) - Having watched a few episodes of Bondi rescue, I was excited to catch some familiar lifeguard faces, but this was not to happen (probably for the best :P ). There's a lovely coastal walk from Bondi beach to Congee beach (~4 miles) that makes for a fun half day. Keep an eye on the tides! There's plenty of cute (vegan) cafes right by the beach. If you're feeling like a relaxing day, head to the sauna and infinity pool at Bondi Iceberg (that pretty sits ON the water). The next couple of days we hung out around Sydney. I made my way to the to the Sydney Harbour Bridge (views from both sides are fun, so don't skip views from the part by Luna park - which in itself seems fun in a creepy-clown kind of way with free entry. You can also do the very popular activity of climb the harbour bridge if you want to check that off your list and drop ~$170 (Australian dollars) per adult. The climb is pretty safe, and you're essentially climbing up steps. As young people on a budget looking for a bit more of an adrenaline-rush than a stair climb workout, we didn't find the cost worth it. I was not about the miss the the iconic Sydney Opera House - book tickets in advance, we didn't. We started with a leisurely walk around Circular Quay and the Rocks, and after a couple of hours of leisurely strolling and several walking into cute-looking stores, ended up at the Opera House - gorgeous architecture and quick photo stop! After that we wandered aimlessly through the MASSIVE (and free) Royal Botanical Gardens before getting dinner by the water. While in Sydney, a great day-trip is the Blue Mountain National Park which is supposed to be beautiful with a lot of lovely hikes. You would need to rent a car for this one. I don't have too much first hand information, since unfortunately this part was mostly engulfed in fires when we were there. Other things to do in Sydney: visit the town of Manly, Taranga zoo, Australian museum, and Garigal park where you'll find lots of aboriginal carvings. Cairns: The gateway to THE GREAT BARRIER REEF #divegoals A three hour flight from Sydney landed me in the most anticipated part of the trip. I rented a car at the airport and kept it for the duration of my stay in Cairns, which I highly recommend. The town of Cairns in itself was ho hum, but it's a convenient location to stock up on supplies and petrol and rest for a day before heading into the wild. Cairns was stunning. I spent two days in Daintree Rainforest which is the oldest rainforest in the world...can you guess how old? 180 million years! Insane. That's goes way back to the time of dinosaurs. I drove all the way up to Cape Tribulation in the north - 'where forest meets coasts'. It took two days with PLENTY of stops at beaches and forest trails, and while the entire drive was stunning, I don't see any particular advantage of going all the way to Cape Tribulation if you're short on time (they views everywhere else were pretty similar). There is a tiny ferry on the way, which was super easy and fun and took about 10 minutes. I stopped for a Crocodile tour and Daintree River Tours which I booked on the spot (and highly recommend). They put us on boats and off we went along the water through the mangroves looking for crocs. We saw a massive one from about ten feet away, and went up pretty close (while still in boat) to a baby croc (5 feet long and ~2 months old) basking in the sun. It's perfectly safe and they seemed to be quite good about natural preservation. Other things to do in Daintree - lots and lots of hikes. After this, I took a day trip to the reef with Compass Cruises who were great and were relatively inexpensive. The trip there and back took about 3 hours each way, and I found my anti-nausea pills quite useful. It was my understanding that most cruises went to similar locations (which were all pretty good), and so dropping more $ on an expensive cruise wasn't really worth it. I have to say, the ocean floor I saw was spectacular! They make two snorkelling stops and I signed up to convert one of them into a diving trip (which I HIGHLY recommend if you have a PADI licence - you can also do a 5 minute trial dive if you don't have a license which is better than nothing). The ocean floor was literally one of the highlights of my life. I swam past several school of fish that swam literally all around me, several jellyfish (watch out for their stingers), a small reef shark, a big green turtle, a little nemo peeking out from the anemones...every color you can think of, it's there. It's hard to describe in words the sense of calm that washed over you in the underwater world! <3 * Disclaimer: The reef ARE getting bleached and my dive buddy told me that he was able to see visible changes in his dive sites in the span of a few years, so PLEASE get your shit together humans and do better for the environment. Also, don't wear lotion/sunscreen that kill marine life. The next day I spent going to the tablelands and Barron gorge national park. I stayed in an airbnb right by the beach, which was perfect. Other things to do: If you have more time, there's plenty of other stuff to do. I only spent a day at the reefs, but you could spend infinite amount of time there (at a cost). There exist half day trips to green island, but I heard the corals there were more bleached. I also heard Fitzroy island and Lady Elliot islands offered stunning diving and snorkeling opportunities, but they are a bit far for someone that gets sea sick. You can also visit Kuranda island which has a lot of theme-park like activities which may be fun for little kids (including koala holding), but was a little less wild than we were interested in. I would've loved to go to the aboriginal park too if I had more time. But we'll save that for another trip. Onto Melbourne. Melbourne: Melbourne was all you'd expect from a town with a high density of students. Cafes, art, live events... all that jazz. The birthplace of flat white, it's worth exploring all the quaint cafes and sampling coffee. Make sure to sample the MAGICK - a local Melbourne invention. I spent a large part of a day strolling through small streets lined with graffiti. But the best part of Melbourne were two incredible day trips: 1. The Great Ocean road: The stunning coastal drive, often compared the the drive on the Pacific Coast Highway in the US. The entire drive is stunning, although we set up very early in the morning and returned around 9pm. I'd recommend splitting it up into 2 days if you can. There's many little towns right on the highway for food/rest and views. The views throughout are beautiful, drives along cliffs with turquoisey blue -green water, what's not to like? The very top picks for stops are Loch Ard Gorge, Hopetoun falls, and the Twelve apostles. It's very worth making it all the way to the twelve apostles, they are truly stunning! 2. Phillip Island - Penguin Parade: This day was all about the animals of Australia, I was keen to see kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, tasmanian devil, and Australian penguins! About a ~1 hour drive led us to Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservatory. Visiting a wildlife sanctuary while you're in Australia is a must, they have a bunch of local wildlife that you will not find anywhere else, and they're much more animal-friendly than zoos in my opinion. We saw a bunch of koalas, lots of kangaroos wandering freely in an open space. You can buy food for the kangaroos and wallabies at the entrance and they'll come right up to you. I found myself unexpectedly facing a mama kangaroo with a baby joey in its pouch, eyeing me cautiously from a distance, before slowly hopping over to me and nibbling food from my hands. You can 'hold' the Koalas for a quick picture, I'm not sure how fun this is for the koalas, but I was content to watch them cutely scamper around (and mostly sleep). The sanctuary also had a lot of other local animals, wambats, wallabies, dingos, some pretty birds... After this stop was time for the part I was most excited for: the penguin parade! Woohoo! Phillip Island is home to an estimated 32,000 little penguins (the little penguins species is the smallest penguin in the world). The parade occurs every day at sunset at Phillip Island Natural Reserve (book in advance). basically mama and papa penguins go out into the water about once in three days to find food for their babies. They travel over 20km in search of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans. Once they're done, waddle back on 'rafts' to shore in groups at sunset. Then they follow specific paths back to the little penguin colony (each penguin family has it's own little burrow hole and address) where they feed their kids. Sometimes, penguins get killed in the water, and then the kids just wander about looking for them, which is pretty sad to watch. Unfortunately, I was told many of these orphaned penguins don't make it... such is nature. You can walk right beside these penguins on pre-marked walkboards once they get across the beach and back to their colony. Some of the babies come out for food and you can catch a little peak of the young ones. They were little cuties! Photography is not allowed once the penguins come out of the water for the protection of penguins against flash (we took this photo of a baby penguin before sunset). You can get the upgraded seats to be closer to the penguins to the penguins when they waddle on the beach, but this made a not-large difference to the viewing. The money from the tickets goes towards conservation of the penguins. Little penguins are only found in the southern part of Australia, and they are such adorable little things! I am so glad I got to catch them, even if that meant a long drive back to Melbourne at 9pm. Other things to do around Melbourne: day trip to Dandenong Ranges National Park, Queen Victoria market, Library, hang at the art galleries, try some world-cuisine, and do some shopping. At last my two weeks in Australia were at a close. I was tired, but also very happy to have finally made the trip out. I spend the last day packing up, backing up my photos, and getting ready for what would be another very long flight back home. Hope you enjoyed this read :) My approximate budget in Australia (in AUD):
An average breakfast: $10 An average lunch/dinner: $10-25 (depending on type of place) An average nights stay (airbnb / hostels with private room): $70 Car rental (for 5 days): $70/day with insurance (some personal insurances don't cover Australia, but yours might) I spent ~$20/day for discretionary activities like coffee/museum Internal flight Sydney - Cairns: $150 Internal flight Cairns - Melbourne: $250 Other activities: Compass Cruise on the great barrier reef: $130 Extra dive: $45 Crocodile spotting Daintree river cruise: $20 Penguin parade: $18 Moonlit Sanctuary (an average sanctuary is about this much): $25 Show at Sydney Opera House: $50
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Sanjukta Krishnagopal
This is where I put random musings created on cold rainy nights whilst typing away furiously on my laptop. I have been published in the 'creative writing' category' at the Unknown Pen, Youth Ki Awaaz, Terribly Tiny Tales, and Berlin Unspoken. I was also Chief Writer of the Department of Journalism and Media at BITS Goa. I also treat this space as a personal travel blog with practical information. If you are interested in talking about writing, I'd love to hear from you! Archives
September 2022
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