Hump day of the trip!

Sunday evening we got into Broome and headed out for a farewell dinner at the local brewery as part of our group ended their journey here. The whole Perth to Darwin tour is split at Broome with 9 of us continuing but 6 members are unfortunately going their separate ways. 
We stuck around at the bar for a while for a few drinks and a few farewells and then headed off for a beautiful nights sleep with no alarm set!! Unfortunately as we’d all got used to waking up so early I don’t think anyone managed to stay asleep past 8am but at least it gave me a few hours in the morning to catch on some emails and work before heading out to explore the centre.

Broome doesn’t have all that much to offer so today we had a pretty relaxed day, spending a couple hours in a laneway cafe and then headed off for a (very thorough) full body massage and a very rushed pedicure!  

  We stopped off at a truck version of take away wood fired pizza – it was amazing!! It was literally just a truck with three wood fire ovens on it and he made up huge pizzas for you with so much meat. I was in absolute heaven!!! 

 On our final day in Broome we decided to cool down with a day at cable beach – it’s a beautiful beach with beautiful clear skies and clear seas today, we were very lucky!! But unfortunately the afternoon went by far too quickly!  

    
 For sunset we enjoyed a camel ride along the beach and boy was that an adventure!! Our group of 4 girls were first on the camels out of a whole group of about 20 people and just after the 4 of us got on some dogs started chasing a wallaby through the bushes which majorly spooked the camels who all immediately rose and starting jumping around. Hayley was terrified we were going to die – I was just worried what we were meant to do with about 12 camels if they all rode off into the distance with us still on top!! 

    
 Luckily the workers managed to calm the camels and we set off on our walk – although the fun didn’t stop there! Not long after a silly child with extremely bad parents kicked a ball into the camels which again spooked them. And just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse we came across a deaf dog (you couldn’t make this stuff up!) who insisted on chasing the camels and I kid you not one of the camels jumped so high it looked like it could fly!! Thankfully it wasn’t our camel though! We managed to eventually make it back to the finishing point with everyone in one piece – although the workers definitely looked like they’d developed a few new grey hairs! 

    
 We headed straight over to the oldest outdoor cinema in Australia for a yummy treat of Magic Mike 2 (for the second time – you can never have enough naked men! Haha!). Unfortunately the midges came out in full force and feasted on Sydney and I all evening – the things a girl will do for Channing Tatum!  

 Back to the hostel for a final catch up on work before we leave civilisation behind again for another 9 days!

Another day, another beach

Yesterday I had another lovely relaxing walk along the beach, this time it was Maroochydore Beach on the Sunshine Coast. I really could win prizes for my efforts in procrastination as I hit the shops and cinema for a chilled afternoon instead of getting to work on the ever looming assignment.  

    

  

   

Mooloolaba is a lovely town, although small it still has the Australian charm to it (of European culture though of course). I’ve found that there are a lot of people at my hostel who are staying there whilst doing their farm work for the 2nd year visa… I could definitely see myself staying here if I come back and need farm work!

Anyway today I am setting off to explore Noosa for a couple of days before heading down to Brisbane and then unfortunately back to uni and work life! I think today will be another cafe hopping wifi search but it will need to be a lot more productive than last time!!

There’s a new convict in Port Arthur today

Back to Hobart last night where we had another quiet night at the cinema before our final day on the trip visiting Port Arthur.

Port Arthur is on the Tasman peninsula (accessible by road) to the east of Hobart where some of the first English convicts were brought when they settled in Australia. At Port Arthur they were attempting to teach the convicts skills to get them back into society once they had served their sentence. The museum is done in a fantastic way in that you are given a playing card with a number and this relates to a particular convict who you then follow through the museum to see what his journey would have looked like. Some of the crimes were as little as stealing a loaf of bread which is crazy to think of in these days as the deserving punishment being exiled from England to the other side of the world!!

There’s also some great props to play around with across the facilities 

 

During our tour around the premises we were lucky enough to get a fantastic tour guide who told us the stories from back in the day. I was horrified to hear that there were some prisoners who were banished to single cells for 23 hours a day, this meant they were not allowed to talk to anyone or their face be seen by anyone and they were striped of their names as identification. 30 days after the introduction of the pitch black rooms, they then padded these cells and added a mental asylum… It is assumed that this was needed due to prisoners being banished in the dark and alone for so long that they began to go crazy. This divided opinions in our group as yes these people had committed crimes and therefore deserved to be punished but when you associate these punishments with the minuscule crimes we heard about earlier through the museum it is very difficult to see a deserving match.

Even the church was so secluded that you weren’t allowed to make eye contact with other convicts.  

   

Being here today has reminded me of my passion to fight for human rights, it’s been almost 8 months since I’ve been involved in any volunteering projects and I’m glad to see that my passion of mine hasn’t gone away… I might have to start looking into what masters degrees are out there in this field… 

There were some beautiful gardens amongst the grounds but unfortunately these were only for a select few to enjoy back in the day, which was mostly linked to the upper class who were working at Port Arthur. 

 

On the way back from Port Arthur we stopped off at Eaglehawk Neck which connects the Tasman Pennisular to the mainland for some beautiful seaviews 

   

We had a chilled evening back in our double beds at the hotel before flying and treated ourselves to some dominoes and an early night. 

Hannah managed to wake herself up from snoring so loudly that she thought someone else was in the room… I must say I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much at someone!!!

I am excited to be getting back to Melbourne tomorrow and having my own bed, clean clothes, a wardrobe and all the other little things you begin to miss whilst travelling for over 3 months. It has been a phenomenal experience and one I will carry with me for the rest of my life. It’s safe to say the travel bug has bitten me hard and I’m already looking at booking my next holiday!! 

   

The fly runner

Australia may not be blessed with the highest mountains like some European countries however it does have some of the oldest (which can probably explain why they’re not the highest due to the erosion over the years). Today we are visiting Cradle Mountain, most definitely the highest mountain in Tasmania – just not quite in the world.

We did a circuit walk around the lake which was approximately 5km (a lot easier without the outback heat and flies!!). We were lucky with the weather and enjoyed stunning views the whole way around the lake.

At the end of the walk we climbed up a small rock to sit and enjoy the view of the whole lake for a little while, on the way back down we seemed to have timed it with an infestation of flies.. Which of course Hannah wasn’t too happy about! I’ve never seen her squeal and squirm so much!!

On the way to Launceston we stopped off in Sheffield (no – I haven’t suddenly flown to England), a town known for it’s cherries and berries and the group had a mini competition to see who could spit the pip the furthest (delightful I know). Barbara did England proud but unfortunately it was the tour guide who won in the end… Maybe there was a reason he suggested that game!

Despite launceston being a slightly bigger town there is still little to do here in the evenings (from what we’ve found anyway) so we enjoyed a quite evening at the cinema watching Unbroken. A film about a US veteran who spent a lot of time in POW camps, it was a spectacular film but very sad (yes I did shed a few tears!) – I would recommend everyone to watch it though. Hannah and I sat opposite each other as we were almost the only people in the whole cinema!
Australian cinemas also have this groundbreaking feature that makes me mad at all English cinemas for not having!… You can lift the arm rests and stretch your legs out on the seats whenever you like!!

Rival cities

Through out my time here in Australia I have been told many times about the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne for the top city spot, also how Australians often prefer one or the other but don’t usually like both. I’ve always wondered why many Australians (and I’m not saying all here) see it as an either or… Thinking that maybe once I get to Sydney I would understand a bit more (having loved every little thing about my quirky little Melbourne so far) but unfortunately I am still non the wiser!!

I can see the huge contrasts between Melbourne and Sydney but that doesn’t mean I love either of them any less! Both remind me of Manchester in their own ways and again both are completely different in their own ways.

Today has been totally relaxed with some time at the cinema and just wondering around, sitting down whenever I feel like it to admire the city – which I must say has been a luxury after another Topdeck trip that was always on a tight schedule. I’m also very impressed with how functional the city still is on New Year’s Day (I swear England just shuts down for it?!)

I sat for a while at darling harbour and gazed into the distance (excuse the dodgy panoramic shot)

And am now sat on Pitt street listening to a very talented saxophonist…

Tomorrow I’m leaving for the next adventure… New Zealand! But thankfully it won’t be too long until I’m back in Sydney