Tuesday February 14, 2012
From Byron Bay in the north to Eden in the south, the New South Wales coast is some 1300 kilometres by road. Byron Bay and Eden are visitor coastal destinations or stopover places, as well as any number of cities and other towns along the NSW coast.
As areas of coast and sea, the NSW coastal destinations are replete with beaches, fishing waters, and various activities both on sea and on land.
I have listed 10 of these more popular coastal cities or towns, all of which I have visited or passed through.
Photo: Camel Rock, Bermagui © Sally Mayman / Destination NSW
Friday February 10, 2012
Visitors to Australia's national parks often go there for a picnic and for any number of activities and pastimes. Most have walking tracks of varying degrees of difficulty and bushwalking is enjoyed by many.
You'd think that national parks would be out in the bush. Yet quite a number of them — for instance, in Sydney — are actually within the metropolitan area or just a daytrip away.
Sydney Harbour National Park, for one, is just around the harbour foreshores and the popular Royal National Park is at the southern edge of the Sydney metropolis. And there are a number of other national parks within easy travel from Sydney city centre, such as Blue Mountains National Park which is a few kilometres from the edge of Sydney's outer west suburbs.
So if you feel like getting away from the hustle and bustle of city life, head for one of the nearer national parks, have a picnic, go bushwalking, have fun.
Photo: Bushwalking in the Blue Mountains National Park © Destination NSW
Tuesday February 7, 2012
You can take the Skyrail, or the Scenic Railway, or you can drive or join a bus tour.
Anyhow, if you're in Cairns, the village of Kuranda is a sidetrip to consider.
If you go by Skyrail or Scenic Railway, the journey is an adventure in itself. And there's more to see and do when you get to Kuranda.
Don't get butterflies in your stomach. See them instead at the Butterfly Sanctuary. Go on a guided Aboriginal tour, or head for the boardwalks. Or duck into an Army Duck and go on land and water tours of the rainforest around Kuranda.
Photo: Going by Skyrail © Tourism Queensland
Thursday February 2, 2012
No, no, no, no. There are no trees called dain trees in Queensland, and certainly there's no forest of dain trees.
The Daintree Rainforest, part of Australia's World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics of Queensland, is named after pioneering geologist and photographer Richard Daintree (1832-1878) who did a geological survey of north Queensland as part of his work as geologist in charge of the region.
The Daintree, as this rainforest region is known, can be reached from the town of Mossman some 80 kilometres from Cairns. Travel another 64 kilometres in a northeasterly direction to reach the Cape Tribulation section of Daintree National Park.
The Daintree features rugged mountain peaks, river gorges, waterfalls and rainforests that stretch eastward to the sandy beaches of the far north Queensland coast.
Photo: Under a canopy of trees at Daintree National Park © Tourism Queensland
