notallwhowanderarelost2018

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Back Again

We are officially back in Toronto. After five months and eight days, we have completed our trip around the globe. These are memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I thank everyone that followed along in our travels and I hope I have inspired some of you to plan a trip somewhere you’ve never been.

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Las Vegas was our final stop. It ended up being significantly cheaper to take a bus to Vegas and fly from there than fly direct from Los Angeles. We stayed at the Four Queens downtown and it was incredibly noisy at all hours of the day.

We spent a couple days exploring the strip and seeing mini versions of some of the sights we had seen around the world. It was a great end to a great trip.

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We are officially back in North America. The trip is quickly coming to an end but since we had to fly into LA, why not stay for a few days and check it out?

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We got to Melbourne and quickly found that the Queen Victoria Market became our favourite place. We bought fresh meat and veggies for dinners and did some souvenir shopping as well. They had some great street performers and pop up restaurants in the area too.

We also saw a famous graffiti street and spent an afternoon at the beach in town. Melbourne was definitely our favourite city in Australia.

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Our next detour was Raymond Island. It has become known as a koala sanctuary and after a 5 minute ferry ride, we got to do a trail that took us past a ton of eucalyptus trees with koalas in them. The afternoon became a game of hide and seek trying to find as many as we could. Definitely a must see if you’re in the area.

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After Sydney, we stopped at a little town called Bermagui and enjoyed their beach for a day before continuing on to Melbourne.

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This ferry is the Mary Gibb. It is formerly known as Ferry McFerryface. This is what happens when you let the public name your boat.

The other two pictures I took around 4pm. Those specks in the sky are actually flying foxes. There were hundreds of them flying above the city. I even saw one of them try to knock a seagull out of the sky! I’ve never seen anything like it.

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On our second day in Sydney, we walked through Hyde Park and kept to the shade because it turned out to be a really hot day. Australia was experiencing the hottest summer in 80 years.

We walked down to an area called The Docks where the original prisoners were dropped off and started to build a new home. There, we found the oldest building in Sydney. The former home of the dock supervisor. He was originally a criminal that worked his way up to a position of authority and earned a retirement payout of $256!

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We spent a few days in the Sydney area. Our campsite had a ton of wildlife like kookaburras and bush turkeys and a million spiders.

When we got downtown, we were able to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. We took a walk around the botanical park and got an even better view of both from there. We walked a little further and came across Mrs. MacQuarie’s chair. It was built by the first citizens for the wife of the first governor so she could sit by the water and watch the boats come in and out of the bay.

The Sydney aquarium was pretty high on my list because it has so many cool examples of pacific sea life. We got to see some cute penguins that are native to the southern Australian coast.

The center of downtown is the Queen Victoria Building. The architecture of the building was very unique in the downtown core and was full of good shops and restaurants.

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We stopped to have lunch in the Port Stevens area and really enjoyed the atmosphere of Salamander Bay. Such a nice little town. We wish we had more time to enjoy the beach.

Toronto and Sydney are closer than you think!

Our adventures brought us to Waves Campground about 4 hours outside Sydney. Like the name suggests, it’s right on the water so we spent a few hours at the beach nearby. We found a massive jellyfish and after a quick google search, discovered that this type can grow to be over 10 metres wide! This was just a little guy!

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The Byron Bay lighthouse had an amazing view of the ocean and the surrounding area. It was a big travel day so we couldn’t spend a lot of time in the area but you could definitely sit and watch the water all day here.

The M1 is the major coastal highway that we are taking from Brisbane to Melbourne and the speed limit is mostly 110 km/h. Believe it or not, the highway has a bike lane. So far we’ve only seen one biker brave enough to ride next to cars that fast though.

They also have little walkways setup above the highway for local animals to cross without getting hit. We have yet to see anything use one of these but they must work for there to be so many.

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We stopped in at Currumbin beach south of Gold Coast for some sun. There’s a wall of rocks that help separate the bay from the ocean so the water is really calm. Some storm clouds rolled in and cut our visit short though.

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On the road leading to The Spit was a resort called Palazzo Versace. Yes, everything is Versace. It is the fanciest of fancy.

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Our second beach day was south of Brisbane and just north of Gold Coast. It’s a popular dog beach called The Spit. We could see Gold Coast off in the distance. The waves here were really strong and there was only a small section you could safely swim in.

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We stopped in at the Wildlife Hospital to see what goes on. They take in up to 100 animals a day mostly from being hit by cars. They currently have over 80 koalas being treated for chlamydia and a rat being treated for pneumonia.

On our first night, the night sky was this clear. It was so beautiful but of course we couldn’t get anything but black with our phone cameras. We found this picture in a gallery of photos by Robert Irwin and I decided to take a picture of his picture.

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We got to see a crocodile feeding at the crocoseum and lots of other fun creatures up close.

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The Australia Zoo! The best zoo I’ve ever been to. They let you get up close with a lot of the animals. There’s also a lot of keeper sessions so you can see just what goes into caring for the animals. They have a large open area where you can pet and feed wallabies and kangaroos.