Yank needs travel advice

[aussie girl]

Just about the whole coast of Australia has nothing but beautiful beaches. If you go to the famous ones, like Bondi, you will barely find room to put your towel down, especially in summer. As you travel along the coast, you will find many beaches, where you will have heaps of room to roam. We DO have some nasties in our oceans and in amongst rock pools, so never pick up anything and place it on your hand. A harmless looking shell, could have a stinging creature in it, and we have a very small brightly coloured octopus, the blue ringed octopus that is deadly, one sting and you have a 99% chance of dying. We used to find them as kids along the rocks near Port Lincoln's Curtin Point caravan park. That was before the newspapers reported on a man that died after he put one on his hand to look at it and got bitten. Hopefully you will be too busy taking in the wonderful scenery to be too engrossed in the smaller life forms that live on the beaches.

As for our sun, as many have already warned, it is deadly here. 15 minutes in the sun and you WILL be burnt, even if the weather is cloudy. It is absolutely essential that you equip yourself with a decent hat, sunglasses and good quality suncream, SPF of 30+ or more, and a decent shirt. You can find some lightweight longsleeved cotton fishing shirts fairly cheap that will keep you cool but stop you getting fried.
You can find cheap accomodation in many of the smaller places along the way, but if it is a touristy place expect to pay a decent rate, anywhere from $90 - $130 per couple per night. Caravan parks are about the same for a self contained cabin, a caravan may be a bit cheaper but you may have to pay for linen if you dont have your own, which you probably wont. If you drive inland to a small town just off the coast you may be able to get a room at one of the pubs for a reasonable price, but it may have a shared bathroom rather than an ensuite. We have payed between $50 and $70 per night per couple at some country pubs and the beauty of this is that many of them serve meals for a decent price and you can have a drink or two and then wander upstairs to sleep, you wont have to drive home, and some of these old pubs are unique. They may be a bit dated, but they have character and some of the staircases inside are beautiful.
I am sure, with the help of the people on this forum, you will be able to have a decent and reasonably cheap holiday and you will get to see things that the other tourists do not get to see, with less people there to block the view. You dont think that we want tourists to see ALL the good stuff do you??

[mudman]

worst times for roos are early morning and late afternoon. these are the times they are feeding and watering.
you will always get the ones that don't conform to this paradigm so you need to be alert.
that said i have only made contact with one roo. and that was out the back of Canberra here (worth a look on your drive back to Sydney). not bad for 52 years of driving.

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Those kangaroos sound like a real problem. All we have on the road here are moose. If you steer the car quick enough you can dodge between their legs. Granted the small ones bellies will dent the roof once in a while but that usually won't even pop the air bags. A bigger problem for us is raising the garage door when you come home and finding a bear in the garbage. I guess that's the bin to you? We keep it in the garage to keep the bears from spreading it around but sometimes if you've had fish for dinner they get bold and come on in when you're not home.

We'll give it a bit more thought and then I'll ask more specific questions. First order of business it so ditch the travel books and pull up Google Earth on the computer and look for beaches

if your moose are as big as you say ( i think There may be a bit of exaggeration there), i would hate to see the size of your cats

[NikonNellie]

If we know when you are arriving in Sydney we may be able to organize a Meet - maybe a sunrise at one of the northern beaches or a night time shoot in the city.

[Kym]

Hmmmm do we tell him about the Drop Bears?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gXbQBUBdX6...op-bear_01.jpg

[I @ M]

Hmmmm do we tell him about the Drop Bears?

Sssssh, keep it a secret I reckon and lure him to drop bear danger zone.kmz


Check out the claws on this one ready to pounce.

[wedgtail]

And in true Ozzie spirit yust watch the water running backwards down the sink for 5 minutes

[bricat]

Melbourne is the culture centre of good old aussie and also the food capital oh and more important the SPORTING capital. Pity you missed the aussie rules football season too. If you like animals the Melbourne zoo particulary with the butterfly enclosure is great with them landing on you. And the Great Ocean Road you will see little signs to waterfalls heading inland that make a great walk with varying times to travel in/out. Gives you a chance to stretch the legs as you appear to be doing a lot of driving. As stated this is a big country. Don't worry about the redback spider or funnel web spider as I have lived to 63 and not been bitten.(YET) The mozzies do bite as do sandflies. Some of these mozzies are reported to be as big as a jumbo jet. hahahahaha cheers Brian Did I say I'm biased and live in Melbourne

[horizon]

Hope you have a great holiday mate, watch out for the grasshoppers, and dont try to pat them, even if they appear tame, they do have quite a kick and many a tourist has found out the hard way.

Regards,
Craig

[Lance B]

As a Sydney-sider, I am more than happy to show you round some of the areas of Sydney once you get here, I have done this quite a number of times for other overseas photography guests and it gives me an excuse to get out and photograph as well as show you the sites. There are many beautiful spots that I can take you to that you might not otherwise see and you can get to see some of the local wildlife as well as some lovely scenery. I really enjoy showing people around and it is not an issue whatsoever, so, if you would like to take up the offer, just let me know.