suminoryh

Thanks Pat this is the kind of site I have been trying to find. Wow so much to do I may cancel the Great Ocean Road and add some more days in this area. Just what liz has been recommending It will take me a while to check it all out.

2dogs

assuming your flying Qantas late flight out of LAX, something to remember, what ever time you leave LAX, as soon as you set foot on the Qantas jet, your under Assie east coast time....being from Dallas, Tx, central time as you, it was surprising to be served a huge supper at 2 am central time....it is 5 pm or supper time in Oz....we had caught the late flight out of LAX and arrived Sydney at 7am....it is loud on the jet....we had Bose noise canceling headphones....they sure helped immensely....even blocked out the babies crying...it helped to get some sleep..I would recommend staying up as long as you can and then nod off....we seemed to acclimate rather quick to Assie time but struggled with jet lag upon our return home to central time ...your schedule to rest after landing in Oz seems right...take it easy and have a wonderful time...

suminoryh

Thinking about doing a safari in the red center. Could someone discribe a swag to me. I understand that they are like a sleeping bag, but is there anything between you and the dirt beside fabric? The tours I like the best use swags, not sure my back would tolerate sleeping on the ground. Thanks for your help

prue

Swags are sleeping bags - made from heavy strong material - waterproofed to a degree. A thin mattress and bedding is contained in the Swag which is opened up for sleeping and then rolled up for transport each day. They are quite warm and cosy but you are sleeping on the ground and it will be hard!

suminoryh

Thank you. We decided to take the Wayward Bus tour "Just the Centre" it has 1 night of sleeping in a swag. I am thinking of taking an air mattress to put in the swag do you think that will work?

We have 5 days in Sydeny we want to see the Blue Mountains? Would we see more on a tour or driving ourselves. Would you recommend 1 day or 2 to enjoy the mountains.

I will continue to browse the other postings they are helpful, and hopefully I won't ask to many repeat questions.

Orlando_Vic

Regarding the Blue Mountains, there is another option in addition to taking a tour or driving yourself - taking the City Rail train.

You can do this yourself and save about 50% over a guided tour by going down to the City Rail window at Circular Quay and buying The CityRail Blue Mountains ExplorerLink ticket. It provides return train fare from Central Station to Katoomba and an all day 'get-on-get-off’Explorer Bus tour to 30 locations through the mountains. Stops include the Three Sisters at Echo Point, Leura village and the Scenic Railway.

You will gain flexibility and travel more relaxed because you are not driving yourself but are taking public transportation instead. Trust me, it is very easy to do!

suminoryh

Thanks to everyone who offered suggetions for our trip. I enjoyed Sydney much more than I expected. We stayed at the Sydney Harbor B&B, Location was terrific and the breakfasts wonderful.

I understand why you might think the GOR is overrated but we enjoyed it and don't regret spending time there. We took several side trips, saw Koalas and Kangaroos. The water falls were mere trickles but that is to be expected with the drought. Hope you start getting some rain.

We took the wayward bus to Kings Canyon, Uluru and the Olgas. The area was well worth the trip, we enjoyed the hikes. I would warn people to avoid this company however as the dishes were only rinsed with tap water after breakfast and with unheated water after the evening meal. after some complaints we were also given time to wash the dishes at noon. Hopefully we didn't contact Hepatitis on this tour. Regarding sleeping in swags- I am glad I tried it and never plan to do it again.

While in Caines we stayed at Lilybanks B&B. I loved the experience. We were in Caines during the rainy season, I expected rain although was surprised by the frequency. that is not a complaint just a great experience to better understand a tropical rain forrest enviroment. We went to the GBR one day, I think I must have seen every type of corral out there. The water was not real clear which cut down on the coloring of the corral. Once again we knew when we went that it was the rainy season and visibility would be less than ideal (it was the only time we can get away from our farm)I still enjoyed the experience but if your only reason to go to Australia is for the reef then don't go during the rainy season. We had a wonderful trip, I would recommend it to anyone at anytime of the year.

AUSTRALIAONE

Lovely to see you enjoyed your trip suminoryh and thanks for the report. However I was just lurking about and suggest that you cut and paste your report under a heading as such to that people will know to read it and more importantly it will come up in a search for new people.