Goodbye Australia, Hello Bali… Again!

Earlier this week my time in Australia came to an end. Again! I had spent most of 2017 travelling and road tripping around Western Australia, before leaving to travel more of the rest of the world…

I thought it would be wildly inappropriate to spend so long in the country and only see the western side, especially as that’s the side with basically zero people, so last month, I actually returned to Australia AGAIN after a 4 month hiatus.

This time, my challenge was to road trip the eastern shore, all the way from Sydney to Cairns, and it was epic. I saw so much unique wildlife and scenery over thousands of kilometres and last week I finished the journey in Cairns with trips to waterfalls, creeks and a bit of the Barrier Reef.

But do I feel like I have really seen Australia now?

No.

Even after covering the west coast and the east coast, I don’t feel as if I’ve truly seen Australia. Sure, I can certainly claim to have visited this vast, vast country, but what about Darwin? Adelaide? The huge red centre of Australia? I haven’t even been to Uluru! Then there’s epic journeys across the barren Nullarbor Plains to make in the south, I got as far north as Cairns on the east but still, there was a lot left at the real top end of Queensland that I couldn’t even consider without a four by four.

So needless to say, I have a funny feeling that I will be returning one day.

Until then, here’s your latest instalment of Photos From The Road, from the surroundings of Cairns to the rice fields of Indonesia, where I’ve ended up yet AGAIN in Bali…

On The Road Again!

The Road Trip Ends In Cairns

The last few day in Cairns saw the heavy rains from the previous week end. Almost.

I wanted to get out onto the Great Barrier Reef, to the far outer reaches where the best coral and most diverse marine life is. The way the ocean’s are going these days, you never know how much longer beautiful sights like this will be around in their present shape for, and I wanted to use this opportunity to do a bit of snorkelling out on the reef.

Unfortunately another cyclone- or maybe it was just heavy rain, winds, some sort of tropical storm- hit Cairns again… I lost track of the terrible weather systems pounding the coast of Far North Queensland… and the boat out was cancelled.

I did make it to a place called Fitzroy Island, an island just a half hour boat ride away from the city that’s surrounded by coral and home to a turtle rehabilitation centre.

In the water I got a close up with this awesome Green Turtle, before on land I visited the rehabilitation centre to learn a bit more about the work these guys are doing on the island and along the length of the Great Barrier Reef. They care for the injured turtles brought in from across Far North Queensland- Qantas, the Australian airline, even fly the injured turtles in from remote places! – before releasing them back into ocean again once they have recovered.

This experience got me thinking about the turtle nesting grounds in Oman I visited way back in October last year, and prompted me to write an article about this experience for you guys- better late than never! If you are interested in turtles and how we can care for these gentle creatures, then take a read HERE!

The Babinda Boulders and Josephine Falls

Cairns isn’t just about the Great Barrier Reef though. No, there’s much more to Far North Queensland than the country’s most famous- and one of the most visited- natural attractions, and being all about off the beaten track travel, I was always going to find something else to visit besides this!

Just outside of Cairns I found the insane Babinda Boulders. This creek bed is the site of huge, polished boulders and a refreshing swimming hole, and despite seeing so much natural beauty across Australia, I was still completely in awe of this place!

I wrote a full article about the Babinda Boulders, already, so be sure to read that to learn more. You can find that HERE.

In the rainforest near the boulders are the multi tiered Josephine Falls too, so I took a quick hike into the jungle to see this spectacular waterfall.

After powerful rain and plenty of flash flooding, the water was raging everywhere and there were signs up encouraging people not to swim. Considering I’d read that a tourist was swept away here and killed just a month or so previously, I listened to this advice and instead of cooling off in the refreshing water had to just sweat away from the lookout point.

The waterfall is at the start of the huge mountain range that rises away from the Queensland coast, and there are long, multi day hikes across these tall mountains that look incredible.

Unfortunately though, I didn’t have time- although that’s yet another reason to return… – because I was off to Bali…

Cairns To Bali

So now I’m in Bali. AGAIN.

Seriously, this has to be the tenth time I’ve visited this island. I was here in February even, exploring a few abandoned hotels and catching flights to East Timor.

This week won’t be particularly exciting, at least not for anything really adventurous travel wise- there’s no crazy trips planned to unknown countries, at least not this month…

This week I’ll be working hard in the classic Digital Nomad location of Canggu, as I help to really launch a Nomad trip I’m running in Coron, the Philippines this May with my friend and YouTuber the Life of Jord.

You can find out more about this at the Travel Continuously website, where we just announced the awesome guest speakers we’ll be taking with us to the Philippines to help to teach a group of talented, aspiring bloggers how to succeed!