Travelling the East Coast of Australia...tips?

[flames_fan_down_under]

Hey Everyone!

In about 3 weeks ill be embarking on my long awaited trip from Sydney to Cairns. Im doing the whole trip through a company called "OzExperience" which is basically a bus company for travellers going up the East Coast. It covers all the major stops like Byron Bay, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Airlie Beach, and Cairns with a number of little stops in between. Already on my plan is the usual stuff like:

4x4ing Fraser Island
Sailing Whitsundays
Partying in Byron Bay
Skydiving and Bungee Jumping in Cairns
Scuba Diving the Reef

I was wondering if anyone on here has travelled the east coast of Australia before and could give me some suggestions on what else i could do, or what you did when you travelled and what you liked/disliked, any suggestions would be great because i have a total of 45 days of travelling and i want to get in as much as possible! Also if anyone has ever done their travelling through "OzExperience" let me know if it was good/bad!

THANKS and Go Socceroos

[Sylvanfan]

Yeah, I did the East coast of Australia back in 2000. It was a lot of fun and a lot of late nights. Unfortunately I was a quasi working schmuck so I was on a tight schedule and I found that Oz Experience didn't move fast enough for what I needed. But it was basically me trying to do too much in too little of time.

All the activites you list there are pretty much the staples. I loved Byron Bay, and would go back anytime cool little town that had a nice vibe to it. I didn't care for surfers paradise so I wouldn't get hung up there. I didn't get to do Fraser Island, but I never met anyone who didn't love that. The sailing in the Whitsundays is a must. I don't know if you have your PADI certification but most people do the 5 day dive course in Cairns to get it and than you can go diving when you sail in the Whitsundays too and the reef is every bit as good there as it is in Cairns. Does Oz still go to the cattle station at Dingo? That was actually a stop that a lot of people enjoyed, and I enjoyed my night there quite a bit too. Also when you get to Cairns try to do a run up to Cape Trib as well as it's a pretty cool thing to see too. I had a good time with Oz experience and actually kept in touch with a couple of the people who were guides for a couple years afterwards.

Hope you've allowed yourself a fair bit of time as thats a lot longer trip than I thought it would be. Oz doesn't go too far in any one given day but if you have the time I think it would be a lot of fun. A lot of memories and characters I met that I'll never forget. Just thinking of it makes me laugh again.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Cheers Sylvanfan! Thanks for the advice on cape tribulation. IM putting in about 4-5 weeks to get as much of it as possible done. I also think the cattle station is still a stop on the trip.

Im going on my own so i figured because Oz Experience is geared around backpackers/travellers then id have a better chance of meeting people then say using the greyhound.

I actually got my PADI in Thailand before i got here which i cant wait to get some use out of in the reef!

Anyways thanks man

[automaton 3]

The wife and I made this trip a couple of years ago...sounds like you've got everything pretty much covered.

The diving on the reef is absolutely fantastic and was probably the highlight of the trip for us - try to get a few dives in if you can.

As Sylvanfan pointed out, the distance involved in this trip is actually pretty huge, hopefully you have enough time to get everything in. As I recall their speeding enforcement was much more strict than we're used to as well.

We often stopped at some out of the way pubs for lunch/dinner and met some really interesting people that way. Not sure if you like beets or not but they tend to put "beet-root" on everying - especially hamburgers...yuck

I remember the sand flys futher north were really annoying - bug spray helps but a light coating of oil also does the trick.

Make sure to enjoy the XXXX beer and the Bundy rum!