Singapore Sling

We spent the day exploring Singapore on foot. Our hotel is right at the end of Orchard Road which is the main shopping street and goes right through the centre of the city. One of our main objectives (as with most British tourists) is to visit Raffles and a have Singapore Sling - it looked like this was just at the other end of Orchard Road, so we set off down Orchard Road.

It was very sunny, hot and very humid when we set off. All the Xmas decorations are up everywhere and the shops are all open and very crowded even on a Sunday. The road is very wide and lined with tall trees some of the way and arcades of shops most of the rest, so there is some shelter from the sun.

The 2.5 miles to Raffles felt like a lot further! We stopped for a couple of Singapore Slings, a beer and some lunch. The cocktails tasted great in the heat and the beer went down a treat. S$143 later (£50!) later we had a look around the hotel which is pretty impressive and still feels like part of a bygone age.

After Raffles we decided to find the Esplanade and see what the seafront looked like. We wandered through mall after mall, never seeming to get any closer - but in the end we made it and joined the hundreds of others, nearly all of them taking photos, on the Esplanade. Thunder clouds were gathering and the lightening started as we popped into a Starbucks for some refreshment. We were expecting to see a downpour but we were just treated to a very spectacular thunderstorm with no rain.

We made our own way back as the queues for taxis were huge, I worked out later that we had walked nearly 10 miles in the day. When we got back to the hotel we showered and just fell into bed exhausted - at 8pm!

Back in the northern hemisphere - just!

The time has come to leave Australia. Our flight wasn't leaving until 8pm though, and we didn't have to check out from our apartment until midday, so we had a fairly leisurely breakfast and re-packed all our bags.

The drive down to Brisbane at the usual snail's pace seemed as long as ever. Because we had all day, we had decided to go shopping in the city centre (well, to be more accurate, Sally had). We left the car at the airport and took the train to Brisbane Central from where we found the Queen's Street shopping Centre.

Shopping in Brisbane is the same miserable experience as shopping anywhere else just before Xmas - except it's warm and everybody's wearing summer clothes. Sally did manage to find lots more fragile and bulky things to buy and I did manage to get a cold beer (so it wasn't all bad).

We returned to the airport, repacked Sally's bags in a vain attempt to accommodate her new acquisitions, and checked in (hoping they wouldn't spot the huge extra bag we were taking on as hand baggage).

The Emirates Lounge had all the same fantastic food and drink as at Heathrow, so I consumed as much as I physically could before we again bypassed all the queues and took up our amazing hi-tech seats on the plane (the only problem being that there's so much entertainment I don't want to sleep). It was a 7 1/2 hour flight to Singapore, we arrived at 1:30am local time (temperature 26C) and were greeted by our driver who took us directly to the Traders Hotel at a refreshingly sensible speed.

It's now 9:30am and we're about to go and explore.

Mooloolaba

Today was our last full day in Australia - tomorrow evening we fly to Singapore.

We decided to explore further up the Sunshine Coast starting with Mooloolaba which is the next significant coastal town north from Coloundra. We had a coffee at Mooloolaba Wharf, visited the aquarium and had lunch on the beach.

As we've now come to expect the weather was beautiful, as was the town and the beach.

We then drove up the coast to Noosa Heads, stopping off occasionally on the way. We saw mile after mile of absolutely perfect white sandy beaches and clear blue seas - mostly completely empty of people.

We drove inland and returned to Caloundra avoiding the motorway where we could - going through some very pretty old towns and actually finding some roads with corners to make the drive more fun.

We picked up a bottle of Jacob's Creek Chardonnay at the local bottleshop to round off another almost perfect day.

Steve Irwin Day

Today was Steve Irwin Day. To see what all the fuss was about we decided to bite the bullet and visit Australia Zoo as it was so close to Coloundra.

Steve Irwin is a god-like figure around here and any stingray-related jokes would probably get you the death penalty. It seems that most of the money coming into Queensland is as a direct result of his work. Crikey!

We arrived 15 minutes after the zoo opened and the car parks were already rapidly filling up. We took our seats at the 'Crocoseum' and waited to see what would happen. An hour in the hot sun later we heard a tribute from John Howard (PM) and were treated to the first airing of Bindi Irwin's new single. We did get a snake and bird display and then a few songs from Olivia Newton-John (a good friend of the family) - and then Ms NJ gave a shameless plug for Terri Irwin's new book - 'My Steve'. That was enough for us - we left and went to find some animals.

We found some koalas, kangarooes, wallabies, wombats, snakes and aboriginees etc. Sally patted a koala and I fed a kangaroo.

We went back to Caloundra and each had a doughnut - which was nice.

Glasshouse Mountains

I'm afraid it's probably going to be a bit boring now - we're still in Caloundra, it's still sunny and warm and we're still exploring. What can I say - we're on holiday.

Anyway, we had any early start this morning and walked into the centre of Caloundra along the coastal path. Fantastic views etc. - we stopped off for a coffee and watched the surfers.

After lunch we decided to take the Glasshouse Mountains Tourist Drive. This took us past the entrance of Australia Zoo and around all the volcanic peaks of the Glasshouse Mountains. We took a detour and visited the Glasshouse Mountains scenic lookout - I'm running out of superlatives to describe the views around here, but it's really like a green, tropical version of Monument Valley in Arizona.

We rounded off the day with a meal in the excellent on-site Thai restaurant at our resort. Lovely food - but I made my usual mistake of asking for my Beef Green Curry very hot!

So who's in control?

Last night I spoke to Paul, who I used to work with in the UK, and who now lives in Brisbane and works as an Air Traffic Controller at Brisbane airport. We arranged to meet up this afternoon for a drink as he was going to a leaving do in a pub in the city.

So this morning we had a very relaxed walk along the Esplanade from our apartment along the coastal walk, past Pelican Waters as right to the end of the path. The weather and the views were great.

This afternoon I drove Sally back down the M1 towards Brisbane and met Paul at his house in Boondal, we then picked up his mate Dave and he navigated us through the back roads to Brunswick, close to the city centre.

The plan was for Sally to go shopping while we went to the Elephant And Wheelbarrow for a drink or two. Loads of Paul's workmates, all Air Traffic Controllers, turned up and the drink or two turned into a few more. I had a picture in my head of a big sign at the airport saying 'Out for a beer - please land later' but apparently about 400 people work at ATC in Brisbane and there would be somebody in control.

Sally joined us a bit later (apparently Brunswick isn't really the place to go shopping in Brisbane) and after another Old Speckled Hen I was feeling slightly under par - so we decided to skip the curry and head back to Caloundra. It felt like a very long drive back.

Steve Irwin country

Today we explored the hinterland of Caloundra, or as it will probably shortly be renamed 'Steve Irwin Land'.

Sally drove us along the Steve Irwin Highway (really) and we passed numerous posters of a very shocked looking Steve Irwin clutching a pretty bemused crocodile (not a stingray in sight). This because we're very close to 'Australia Zoo' - we've not plans to visit (yet).

Instead we headed for the Glasshouse Mountains, which is a group of extinct volcanoes which have become eroded to leave just the lava plugs. They do look pretty amazing and form the basis of an aboriginal legend where each peak is a member of a very dysfunctional family. We then picked up the Blackall Range scenic tourist route.

First stop was the Mary Cairncross Park where we went on an hour long walk through the rainforest. The sounds of the rainforest were incredible and we saw many colourful birds and a bush wallaby - all the better because we were on our own.

The countryside on the drive was some of the most beautiful I've ever seen anywhere. This is definitely one of the prettiest parts of Australia I've seen up to now. We also stopped at a few other places of interest, a lake, some waterfalls and loads of lookout points. Altogether a brilliant day.