Backpackers worldwide voice tales from backpackers

Topsham Pier [Flickr]

Footprints Travel — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:27:32 -0500

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Dartmouth Ferry [Flickr]

Footprints Travel — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:23:24 -0500

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Loughshinny [Flickr]

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Salcombe farm [Flickr]

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Salcombe Field [Flickr]

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Travelling Scotland

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:15:10 +0000

Scotland

Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city is becoming increasingly popular with its new lease of life. What was once a heavily industrialised waterfront along the Clyde is now being transformed into promenades with beautiful hotels, an energetic nightlife in its cluster of pubs and a great place to shop.

Being an area densely populated by Uni-students the pints are reasonable, the dress code is non existent and the sessions are amazing!
The best way to see Glasgow is to put comfortable boots and socks on and ‘have a wander’ as the locals would say. If you r not that way inclined, the open top busses are an excellent birds eye view. You can hop on and off as you please with a day ticket.

A lot of history and culture is very evident in the whole of Scotland. Be sure to visit galleries and museums to discover what a true Celt lived, fought and died for.
Flying into Prestwick Airport is easy, with its car parking facilities offering long and short term options to suit your needs.

A 24 hour shuttle bus is also available for your comfort and convenience.
Finally, being a cold climate make sure you pack your woollies as it is always cold and windy in Scotland. Don’t count on the sun shining.

Travelling Germany

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:12:07 +0000

GERMANY

Germany is a fantastic holiday whether it be a weekend trip or a months experience. Frankfurt is an increasingly popular holiday destination. Its 2000 year old city offers everything from good European shopping to a thriving nightlife (which is quite an eye opener). Be sure to visit Frankfurts Zoo, opera house and theatre.

If you are travelling from within Ireland, the U.K or Europe you can be lucky and avail of cheap flights offered by airlines such as Ryanair and City Jet. Time it the right way and you may even get it for as little as a cent, paying only airport taxes and charges. Watch out online for offers such as these.

In winter months it’s advisable to fly into Frankfurt international airport as opposed to Frankfurt Hahn as it’s on higher ground and less risk of cancellation of flights etc. In saying that flying to Frankfurt international tends to be full price tickets only.

Train and tram are both excellent ways to travel in and around Frankfurt. These services are efficient, frequent and cost effective. However if you are on a very tight budget, bus is a better mode of transport.
As with all European countries, the locals are generally fluent in English and have no problems in communicating with you in English, which is quite unlike the French I must say.

Overall, Frankfurt is an excellent choice for holiday, breakaway or even as a stopover in between flights. Be sure to sample the local ale!

Travelling France

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:10:05 +0000

FRANCE

A trip to France is something you will never forget. You will hold those romantic and idyllic images with you forever.
The French like to enjoy life whether it be shopping, eating a meal for over four hours or sipping a beautiful French wine for the afternoon with friends. The ladies are glamorous and elegant; the men’s arrogant attitude will have you weak at the knees!

The one thing I would advise is that you try to earn a few French phrases. The locals will not expect you to hold a full conversation in fluent French, however, they will only meet you half way. As long as you make the effort in speaking ‘en Francais’ they are happy to oblige.

Shopping can be quite pricy, although for those of you who are on a budget, flea markets are an excellent place to practice your numbers in French by haggling. Food shopping in France is exquisite. The vast array of breads and cakes alone are mouth watering.

There are so many ‘must sees’ in Paris alone par example La Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur et L’Arc de Triomph. Not forgetting Disneyland Paris of course!

Getting around is not a problem. Le metro is an excellent mode of transport or for those of you who like to travel entirely above ground, the bus service in Paris is equally as efficient.

Le Euro Tunnel is a mere two and a half hours travel time from London to Paris and I personally upgrading to first class if possible. It doesn’t too much extral and you are treated like royalty while you enjoy a champagne breakfast or lunch.

Even as a family holiday or break away with friends, the romantic atmosphere of Paris will touch your heart. A trip to France is a trip in a life time.

Easy rider: Broometime

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:59:07 +0000

There are two things in my opinion which make or break a tour. The people you are travelling with and your tour guide. As I boarded my bus in Perth, to travel up the West Coast to Broome, I was understandibly a little nervous about what to expect.

Kylie, the tour guide was awesome. She is a conservationist and was able to tell us all about the plants we were seeing and the animals too. Kylie has wanted to travel the west coast for the last 15 years, so she was just as excited about seeing everything as we were. Kylie also drives for the Nullarbor traveller, if you are planning on doing an easy rider tour or the nullarbor traveller, ask if Kylie is driving as you will learn more than you expect on your tour with her. Kylie’s knowledge is only the tip of the ice berg, she would pull over for anything, a good photo, a toilet stop, she’d listen to pop music even though she’s a metal head and she always made sure we were happy and having a good time.

I had my trip all planned out, I was going to use the jump on jump off (JOJO) option offered by Easy rider, however, after our fist day, which ended at Kalbarri, I was beginning to re think my plans, I had met some nice people on the bus, and Kylie was making everything interesting and exciting. Onthe first day we went to see the pinnacles desert, which blew me away. I have only ever seen photos but there are hundreds of them, and they are amazing to walk through.

We left Kalbarri the following morning, and went to the national park. We walked through a gorge, and the braver (i.e not me) members of the group did some absailing, before we walked down to the gorge base and relaxed for a while.

As we were leaving the national park, we experienced a funny smell coming from under the bus, so we drove back to Kalbarri rather than into the outback.

THE DIFF HAD BLOWN! I still don’t know what a diff is, but ours was busted, which meant an extra day in Kalbarri, and 2 extra nights. Annoyingly Easy rider have a fantastic legal team and so don’t take responcibility for break downs beyond their control! Kylie was great, she apologised, and tried her best to keep our spirits up.

While we were in Kalbarri I looked at the itinereary for the week, and decided that I would stay on the bus as everything I wanted to do was included on the tour.

The rest of the week passed in a blur, mostly because we did so much. There were 4 of us who got stuck in Kalbarri with Kylie and we made the best of a bad situation.

We all had a week of firsts; the biggest highlights for me (apart from meeting amazing people), were feeding a dolphin at Monkey Mia, swimming with a reef shark at Turqiouse bay, and yet again facing my fear of heights (more than once).

As I said at the beginning of this blog there are 2 things that make or break a tour, I would like to thank Kylie for making the west coast so exciting, and enjoying exploring it as much as us. It was a week of firsts for all of us, we all learnt loads, including cooking, staying on a campsite, seeing road trains and generally making the most of a bad situation in Kalbarri.

More than recommending Easy rider, I would recommend Kylie, if you are thinking of doing a tour with either Easy rider or the Nullabor traveller make sure she’s driving…. I can guarentee you’ll have a mind blowing time.

Free tours in Perth

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:32:34 +0000

Ok, well anyone who has read any of my blogs will know that I like free stuff, mostly eadible things and nice things. But I am also very good at getting lost in new locations. (I have written this before but got timed out…. must learn not to gossip while blogging!) So when I arrived back in Perth after Mount Magnet, I headed straight for the i-city kiosk.

The i-city kiosk is run entirely by volunteers, who are in the middle of the murray street Mall, opposite the Carillion city shopping centre! They offer a range of tours of Perth, including an orientation tour.

The orientation tour leaves the kiosk at 11a.m (Mon- Sat) your tour guide will walk you all around Perth, and teach you all sorts of useful things.

The tour passes the train station, and your tour guide will happily show you how to use the ticket machines. You the pass the culture centre, and catch a cat bus. The tour goes through most of Perth and is full of little bits of information and helpful advise to help you make the most of Perth. The tour finishes at the Swan bells, and they can be heard ringing while your tour guide tells you more about the bells and the jetty there.

When you arrive for the tour the nice people at the i-city kiosk will also give you a bag containing leaflets about the sights in Perth and other walking tours you can do in Perth.

In the afternoon the i-city kiosk offers different tours (please check with them which touir leaves on what day, their brochure says this about the tours:

Art city: The city of Perth has an abundance of public artworks, as well as a thriving theatre and gallery scene. Challenge your perceptions and enrich your understanding of life in Perth on this exploration of the city’s cultural heritage.

Icons of influence: When John Septimus Roe first laid out the city of Perth in 1829, he envisioned a powerful city at the centre of a strong, progressive economy. Investigate the history of the city through its iconic places of influence.

Convicts & Colonials: In 1850, the sleepy Swan River Colony recieved its first shipload of convicts. Learn how these men changed the face of Perth forever.

Boom or Bust: GOLD! In 1892 the world’s most precious commodity was discovered east of Perth. Find out how the ‘boom’ created by gold mining resulted in the growth in prosperity and importance of the city of Perth.

I have only done the orientation wlaking tour, and my tour guide was fantastic. She took the time to point out places of interest that weren’t part of the tour, and also took us into Kakulus Bros…. Which is simply a must! What made the tour even better was that she allowed the three of us on the tour to share some of the things we had done and places we had been or seen with each other.

Perth to Ningaloo

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 04:01:08 +0000

After acclimating in Sydney, we flew to Perth to begin our trek along the coast. Two days were spent in Perth to see a few of the sites. Probably the best times were had by the students who took an optional trip to Rottnest Island, where they snorkeled with eagle rays and hand fed the quokkas (small marsupials)

We then collected two 12 seater vans, loaded our luggage into the trailers, and headed north. There was significant competition to see who got to ride with me (practiced as a driver with the steering wheel on the right side, and driving on the left side of the road), and who got to ride with TA Matt Scripter (a Down Under driving novice). Our first stop up the road was the town of Cervantes, where we spent some time working on the sandy shore, beginning a project on spatial distributions of cuttlefish (from their floating cuttlefish bones) and other organisms.

The next day took us to the Kalbarri National Forest, where we spent 3 days exploring the seashore and terrestrial ecosystems. Our first afternoon provided us with a great exposure to the rocky intertidal, including octopi (thanks to Matt, who gashed his hand capturing a beast), gastropods, decapod crabs, algae, etc. We then hiked the Loop Trailin the Kalbarri Plateau. This 7 mile hike took us first through a belt of my favorite Australian plants - Banksias - then down through a gorge following the Murcheson River. The geology of the region was easily seen from the sandstone strata cut by the River - lots of crinoid fossils and even some eurypterid tracks. Kangaroos and wallabies were seen in the distance. As we hiked down through the gorge everbody became familiar with the dominant Acacia vegetation of the region, and each of us obtained our own personal fly that has stayed with us for the rest of the trip.

A few hours further up the road took us to Shark Bay. Our first stop was a site that all biologists have to visit - the Stromatolites of Hamelin Pool. These archaic forms of life are not very impressive to look at, but they’re wonderful to contemplate. We finished up the day at the Monkey Mia Resort. During our 3 days at MM, we got to interact with the wild dolphins, snorkel and sail over the tremendous seagrass flats, see wild dugongs, search for nocturnal marsupials and participate in some awful karaoke. We’re much better biologists than singers. The highlight of the stay was a lecture by Quincy Gordon, a Ph.D. student from Georgetown University, on her research on the social behavior of the bottlenose dolphin population of Shark Bay. Her work is only one component of the huge monkey Mia dolphin research project - I’m now working on a way to get an annual internship set up for a Florida Tech student to participate each year.

OK - more time in the vans. 7 hours up to Exmouth. Now this is coral reef environments at their finest. We started off with 2 days diving on the Sea Breeze. Howling Sea Breeze is more like it, since the wind blew and shifted around so we got pounded. A good number of us got kinda seasick, but when we dropped anchor and dove the sickness abated. Amazing corals, reef fish and astonishing other animals (as well as a dense patch
of small siphonophores and other “stingers”). The following dives were
made within the protected lee of Ningaloo Reef. I’ve been diving for 30 years, and have never seen anything approaching the abundance and diversity of corals and fishes at these sites. It was overwhelming to me, and even more challenging for the students. Still, after evening poring over field guides, we feel we’re making progress in identifying at least the major players in the reef.

The highlight the next day was whale shark viewing. We headed out on the whale shark dive boat as a spotter plane took off. Directions to a shark were quickly radioed to us, then the dive master dove in and swam toward the shark. When she found it, she signalled to us on the boat, and 10 of us jumped in and snorkeled over to the beast. Over 2 days, we snorkelled with sharks ranging from 4.5 to 8 m in lenght, and several manta rays.
Truely awesome.

Some students then went on optional night dives and day dives to the Muiron Islands. All of us have spent the last 3 days working on student projects while snorkelling in the amazing Turquoise Bay in the Ningaloo Reef. Students are working on sharks and rays, coral diversity, angelfish and butterfly fish behavior, and many other components of the reef.

A couple more days here in Ningaloo, then off on the next drive - a 2 day trip to Broome. We’ll spend 5 days in Broome, visiting pearl, fish and crocodile aquaculture centers, mangrove forests, and other sites. We’re all looking forward to the camel rides on Cable Beach at sunset. then, off on a 12 day tour across the Top End of Australia to Darwin. More stories to come!

Planet Perth: South West Adventure.

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:43:38 +0000

I left Perth on Saturday morning, after getting up incredibly early, forced down some toast, put my bag into a locker and went and sat outside to wait for the tour bus to arrive.

I boarded the bus and then we left, heading down south to Albany. As we were leaving Perth’s city limits we felt the tempurature drop and everyone began putting on their coats!

We began at a sandlewood factory, at which we had a tour. Finding out how they use sandlewood to make things was very interesting, as the tour went on however it became more like a sales pitch than an informative tour. Our tour guide worked in the factory and was telling us all about how hard everyone works and how much effort is put into the making of their products, I started falling asleep!!!!!!

After the Sandlewood factory we headed into Albany, to find our accomodation and check in for the night, then we headed out so we could be shown one of the old whaling ships. Albany was one of the biggest whaling ports in Australia, and until 1976 they were catching and gutting whales.

Then we went back to the hostl where we had dinner, and then collapsed into bed!

Saturday was another long day, we left Albany at 7am and headed of to do the tree top walk. We walked amongst the tops of the timgle trees, sadly being afraid of hights I didn’t get many photos, but I was very proud of myself for doing it!

After the tingle trees we headed off to Elephant pass, which is where there are natural rock formations in the shapes of Elephants. They were pretty cool. After that it was off to the gap and the natural bridge. (By the gap, I don’t mean the clothing store), the views were amazing, again they were very high up. I’m beginning to think that Aussies don’t suffer from vertigo.

The tour went on, some people climbed a huge tree, and then we went and had a bbq dinner at our over night accomodation, which was about 15kms outside Pemberton.

On the Sunday, we went to a chocolate factory, a cheese factory and then bussleton jetty. After that we drove back to Perth and arrived back at our hostels.

All in all it was a pretty awesome trip, I may hav gotten things in the wrong order, but that’s because I am very confused…..

I’m off up the West coast now, so I’ll keep you updated on how that goes!

Rottnest Island - The Mystery unravelled.

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 03:43:34 +0000

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe not, but before I went to Rottnest Island the only thing I could really find in the tourist information office was the ferry times. Which are great but really don’t tell you what you need to know to plan a day trip over there. So while I was there I picked up loads of information, so no one else gets stuck like me! or unstuck!

To begin with on the Island there is the Rottnest Voluntary Guides, who offer a range of tours around Rottnest. The only tours they offer daily are the ‘History of the settlement’ (daily at 2pm), and the ‘Quokka Tours’ (Daily at 1pm) the other tours they offer depart on different days for further information their website is: www.rvga.asn.au

There is also a guns and tunnels tour on the Island, at Oliver Hill Lookout. There are a range of ways of getting there, walking, cycling, or taking the train. Be Warned: The train to Oliver hill lookout, only rund before the tours, which depart at 11am, 12am, 1pm and 2pm.

There are 2 differernt ways of travelling around Rottnest by bus, you can wither do a 2.5 hour tour of Rottnest, or you can take the Bayseeker bus, which costs $7.50 and allows you to hop on and off all day long. The Bayseeker bus runs every hour, half past the hour from 8a.m, the last bus is at 3.30. It takes 45 minutes to travel the coast of Rottnest, although it doesn’t go to the West End of the Island.

There are alot of interesting things to do on the Island, all of which can be found on: www.rottnestisland.com

It’s a shame that they (being the powers that be) don’t store this information at the tourist information centre in Perth, most people will start out there and will then plan what they are going to do in places.

If I had had this information to hand I would have caught the 7:30 a.m ferry to Rottnest and caught the 4 p.m ferry back. Sadly the information isn’t readily available on the mainland, making a day trip much harder to plan.

Fremantle Prison: Tunnels tour

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Mon, 28 May 2007 09:15:13 +0000

OH MY GOD!

I had to start big so you would all know how utterly exciting my day has been. I went to Fremantle prison and did the tunnels tour. It cost me $45 with my VIP Backpacker card, without it’s $55.

The tunnels tour involves putting on a very sexy (I think not) white all in one suit, so your clothes don’t get dirty and a pair of gum boots (Wellies to the English).

Once you are ready, you go and put on a climbing harness, safety helmet with lamp and life jacket and then watch two videos. 1 video tells you all about the tunnels, and th second is a safety video. Having watched the video, your group leader will then scare the beejeevies out of you by showing you a shaft that is no longer in use and explains that you are going to climbdown something this long. I almost lost my stomach at this point, something I know my Dad will appreciate. It was a very very long way down.

The ladder is 20 metres long and is in 3 sections, there is a plateu between each section, which doesn’t mean much as it’s better to just keep going.

Once at the bottom of the ladder my first thought was “Damnit I have to climb up those things later” (I forgot about that when I booked the tour). When the whole group was safely on the tunnels level, we turned on our head lamps, and began to walk around the tunnel. Peter our guide was both funny and informative, which made the tour all the more entertaining. Peter told us about the tunnels and what they had found in them.

We were told that excavation of the tunnels began in 1995, when the tunnels became disused, they simply poured heaps and heaps of rubble in them. This must have been a huge job…. something I don’t envy. Peter told us that the water in the tunnels had originally been discovered and used to give water both to the prison and to the town of Fremantle, but once the tunnels had been dug the water wasn’t so pure and so they found other water sources, thus closing down the tunnels.

After we had walked around the tunnels and Peter had pointed out things of interest to us, we walked back to the entrance and climbed into boats. Anyone who knows me really really well knows I dislike climbing into boats as I live in fear of capsizing. I didn’t, and eventhough I was alone in my boat, and everynoe else had a partner, I not only managed to keep up with the group but also managed to paddle in a fairly straight line. I was so glad that Dad had taught me to row a boat, and Samantha and David had taken me Canoing. Those principles came in so handy.

Anyhow we rowed around for a bit, at one point we were able to turn our head lamps off and experience the tunnels as the convicts would have seen them. It was horrible, you could hardly see anything, and the convicts were expected to chip away at the walls digging out the tunnels, picking up the limestone rock while stood in water up to their necks (during winter) working in the dark. They would work for anything between 8 to 12 hours per day, it seems so cruel and inhumae in this day and age that that could happen, I guess it just goes to show how much prison punishment has changed.

Anyhow after the boat paddle, we disembarked or got out…. and climbed the 20 metres of ladders to the surface.

I am so proud of myself for doing this tour, yes, it was hard work. And yes it was physically demanding, and on a more personal level emotionally demanding, but like other things in life, if you never challenge yourself, you’ll never know what you could have achieved.

The big question I know you all want me to answer is “Was it worth $45?” For me totally, I proved to myself that I can be challenged and can do things I never though I would be able to. Is it worth it for everyone? I can’t answer that, I can only tell you that I had a toally memorable 2 and half hours and would really recommend doing at least one tour of the Fremantle prison to anyone.

Their website is:www.fremantleprison.com.au

Mount Magnet

footprintsdownunder@gmail.com (footprints backpackers) — Sat, 26 May 2007 09:23:17 +0000

Ok, I’m back… Well Phil and Emma will be happy that I haven’t fallen off the planet anyhow! I haven’t been ignoring my backpacker duty to Footprintsdownunder, just been in the back end of beyond.

If you look on any map of Australia, you will find Mount Magnet. Go up the West coast to Geraldton, and hook a right, about an inch in on the map and there I was. I joined an agency in Perth, who specialise in sending people to rural bars and roadhouses. Which is how I found myself working at the Swagman’s roadhouse in Mount Magnet.

When they told me where I was going, my imagination went very basic…. All I saw was a roadhouse (service station to anyone whose ever driven the M6 in the UK), and the Great Northern Highway. I steelesd myself to this idea and packed my belongings and off I went.

I got far more than I expected, there are some people who do rural bar work and it really is a pub in the middle of the bush. I was pleasantly surprised, There was a library (internet), an IGA (food etc), a tourist information centre, an open air cinema, a driving tourist trail, a heritage walk through town and not 1 BUT 3 pubs! (which sadly I never saw the inside of!

Now coming from a city such as London, I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope with the lack of things there, and apart from a 24 hour break and shopping spree (I only brought jeans and new Pyjamas), in Geraldton, I thoughroughly enjoyed myself. Yes there were times when I was bored, but on the whole I had a really good time.

The people of Mount Magnet are generally a friendly crowd, and are happy to try and help you out. I’m glad I had the experience as I really couldn’t have done it anywhere else in the world. Would I spend another 11 weeks out in the bush…. Yes, but I’d like the primeminister to kill all the flies before I get there!!!!!!

If you get the opportunity to spend some time working at a rural bar or road house do it, it’s a great way to save money and get to meet some real locals.