After Adelaide it was a flight to
Brisbane on Virgin
Blue. At Brisbane I was collecting a small campervan
which would be my home for the following few weeks as I worked
my way down the east coast of Australia, back towards Sydney.
Virgin Blue is the easyJet of
Australia. Although the in-flight service on Qantas is
excellent, their internal flights are quite expensive. Virgin
Blue flights are quite cheap in comparison to Qantas, although
they don't go to as many places. Since I left Australia though,
Virgin Blue have announced that they will shortly start flying
from Sydney to Alice Springs - which will make it quite a bit cheaper.
Once I collected the campervan I headed north. Originally
I had intended travelling as far north as Rockhampton in order
to see the Great Barrier Reef - but I needed to be back in Brisbane
on the following Monday (it was now Friday afternoon) in order
to visit the British
Consulate. I had manage to lose my passport back in Alice
Springs and Brisbane was the first place I had been to since which
had a British Consulate. So instead of driving all the way
to Rockhampton, I headed towards Bundaberg.
On the way I passed the famous Big
Pineapple and Steve Irwin's Australia
Zoo. Bundaberg itself wasn't a particularly attractive
place (although it did have a striking Post Office) so I continued
north toward Bargara.
At Bargara I parked up opposite the beach for a couple of days'
- it was a nice calm, relaxed sort of place. From here it
was possible to take a boat trip to the southern end of the Barrier
Reef - but due to a bit of a tropical storm off the coast overnight,
the boat trip wasn't running as the sea was a bit rough further
out.
So I'll have to go all the way back to Australia one day, in order
to see the Reef!
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