hi Peter,

I was interested in your comments about lady elliot and frasier, as I'm
planning a trip to that area (but no further north). Did you camp on lady
elliot? We are not diving but want to snorkel. Given we will have a max of 5
days in the area north of brisbane, would you miss frasier and go for a trip
to another island (or maybe I'll just hire a 4-wheel drive



"Peter Webb" wrote in message
u...

"Jason" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 10:43:15 +1000, Peter Webb wrote:

architecture - the so called "Paris end of Collins Street" - but a few
blocks of nice buildings that could be in Europe is not enough tp drag
me 1,000 kms south from Sydney. To suggest that a Norwegian tourist in

Maybe it's just me, but I don't tend to spend that long in the cities
anyway. On my last trip I spent a night in Sydney before heading off
into
the Blue Mountains.

That was a pity. Really.


There are plenty of things to go south for, like the Great Ocean
Road, Ballarat gold fields, Barossa valley, Coober Pedy, to name but a
few. And if you're backpacking, you quickly start to think very little
about hopping on a bus for the night. I spent a very enjoyable 14 days
just driving from Sydney to Melbourne via places like the Snowy
Mountains
and the Grampians. Apart from anything else, it was nice to get off the
backpacker circuit.

Yeah, these are all quite good. Haven't seen most of these since I was a
kid. Living here, you tend to fly between places and miss the bits in
between - all the places you mentioned are "in between places" - not
somewhere you would specially go to, but certainly places worth seeing if
you are driving through.

I am impressed that you have been to these places - I gather you are a
pom -
there wouldn't be that many Australians who have done all of them. But
then
again, you have to question the mindset of somebody who talks down Sydney
and talks up Ballarat. (As in "Don't bother visiting London. For a really
good time, go straight to Sheffield").


Cairns is one of the few tropical Western cities in the world. It is
also the only place in the world where two world heritage sites adjoin
(the rainforest and the reef). It is unique. Similarly, there is no
city
like

Cairns is alright IMO. The reef isn't very good there. There are plenty
of
places to dive or snorkel where it's better. The viz isn't that good and
I
noticed a lot of dead staghorn coral last time I was there, probably due
to run off.

The reef is great there. If the viz was poor, that was just the weather;
it
can range from 10 feet to 150 feet depending on where and when. Dead
staghorn coral on fringing reefs may be due to run-off; if it was on the
outer reef it was almost certainly localised storm damage. I agree that
there is 2,000 kms of reef, and it doesn't much matter where you go on
it -
but Cairns does have really well developed infrastructure, and has
attractions beyond the reef itself (eg rainforest, hippie communities,
access to Cape York, cane toad races, etc).


It is a good place to go out for a few drinks, but there are loads of
places like that on the east coast. You can end up going out every night
and spending a fortune, and many backpackers seem to do just that.

Sydney in the world. Finally, they lie at opposite ends of a 3,000 kms
stretch of the QLD and NSW coast that includes the Great Barrier Reef,
hundreds of islands and attols, interesting tropical hinterland,

Nitpicking, but I think the only atolls are a couple of hundred miles
way
out in the Coral Sea. I agree with Byron though wouldn't go there are
New
Year again. It gets far too busy. And there's Fraser Island of course.

I have actually stayed on two of the atolls on the reef (the only two with
permanent facilities, although there are many unihabitated atolls) - Lady
Elliot Island (at the very south, and very cheap), and Lizard island (at
the
very north, and very expensive). Both feature unbelievable diving.

Fraser I detest. My parents live about 30 minutes drive away. For me, its
a
sand superhighway with idiots in 4 wheel drives screaming past at 130 kms
an
hour while you try and enjoy the beach. In December/January the sun is
directly overhead, you are surrounded entirely by white sand, and the
glare/sunburn factor is astronomical. If you want to lie on a pretty white
beach, there's another 1,000 kms of them between Noosa and Sydney, and
they
don't have idiots in 4WDs trying to run you over.

I would imagine that if you are a backpacking Norwegian tourist, you would
want to be somewhere busy on New Years eve. I guess that is a question for
the OP.


Jason

--
http://www.scuba-addict.co.uk/ for Aussie diving reports including
Cape Tribulation, Cairns, Airlie Beach, Exmouth and the HMAS Swan


Mmmm ... Airlie Beach.

Peter Webb