Solo Travel Adventures: Safe Travel for Women, Preparing for a Trip, Overcoming Fear, Travel Tips

Discover Queensland: A Solo Traveler's Ultimate Guide to Adventure and Relaxation with Julie Fenn

• Cheryl Esch-Solo Travel Advocate/Travel Coach/Freedom Traveler • Season 2 • Episode 94

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Ever wondered what makes Queensland, Australia such a compelling destination? Join us as we welcome back the adventurous Julie Fenn, who shares her incredible journey across this stunning state. From exploring vibrant rainforests and hinterlands to relaxing on serene beaches along the Great Barrier Reef, Julie paints a vivid picture of Queensland's unique charm. Discover the region's laid-back culture and the growing trend of solo travelers flocking to its diverse landscapes. Julie also discusses practical tips for navigating Queensland, including the perks of renting camper vans via Camplify and affordable car rentals through Turo.

But that's not all—Julie takes us on an unforgettable tour of Cairns, delving into her experiences hiking through lush rainforests and enjoying the historic Karenga scenic railway. Hear about her meaningful connections made through the hostess sister program, which provided opportunities to meet locals and immerse herself in the community. Whether you're planning your next adventure or just love hearing travel tales, this episode offers a comprehensive guide to making the most of your Queensland getaway. Tune in for tips, stories, and inspiration to fuel your wanderlust!

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Speaker 1:

Hello Sister Travelers. Well, today I have a returning guest on the show. Back in March, on episode 78, I had a Julie Fenn on the show who shares her story of how she retired early and is traveling the world, which she is currently still doing. But I was able to catch up with her again during her travels recently, as she was sort of finishing up her time in Australia. And the reason I wanted to catch up with her not only to find out you know what she's been up to these last few months since I've interviewed her in March, but to highlight an area that back in January episode 66, I talk about 12 popular places that people are traveling to in 2024 that are also safe for solo travelers, and one of those places is Queensland, the state of Queensland in Australia. Now, if you're not familiar with the land down under, as we Americans call it, and everyone else probably is, australia is rather large and it's comprised of states similar to USA. We have states, but these states are larger areas, but there's six states and two territories and one of them is Queensland, which is in the northeast corner. Kind of along that coastline are some of those popular cities that we'll be talking about. In the capital there is Brisbane, and so I got a chance to catch up with Julie and to hear all about some great recommendations about Queensland. So I hope you enjoy today's episode and if you want to hear again about Julie's travels and hear her story, go back to episode 78 and you can hear all about that. And even if you want to catch up with her, you can watch her on Instagram and I'll give you that information at the end. All right, so enjoy today's episode as we highlight an area of Queensland.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures for women 50 and older. I'm Cheryl Esch, your host, solo travel advocate, freedom traveler and coach. This is your passport to adventure, julie, it is so fun to have you back again. So I had Julie on an episode 78 and she shared her whole story of how she retired early and has been traveling ever since, basically. But I brought her back on because we are looking to highlight some of those places that I mentioned in the beginning of the year that are really good places, popular places for solo travelers to travel in 2024. And Queensland, australia, is one of them, which Julie has been to a few times in the past year. So, julie, welcome back. I'm so happy to have you.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, cheryl. It's really great to be back and I've been really enjoying the podcast since our last talk. I'm catching up with all the past episodes and, yes, I am back in Australia. I spent I arrived here back in December and traveled basically south to the north, from Melbourne to Cairns and in that covering Queensland, and that was in the summer months. Now, of course, this is the southern hemisphere, so that, um, it's something. I'm not, I wasn't quite used to the heat, and now that I'm here in their autumn it's more the fall, like it's a cooler, cooler temperature.

Speaker 2:

So, um, I had to kind of get ready for outfitting my wardrobe for that right right presently I'm in New South Wales and I finish up in Australia in two weeks, so okay, um. I did spend um, I would say in total probably four months in Queensland. It was by far my favorite state. It was quite diverse in landscape and activities and culture and people and I really really enjoyed Queensland.

Speaker 1:

So my big question is you know, when people think of Australia, they think of Sydney. They might even think of Brisbane. Mostly, sydney, of course, is the big hub, right, lots of people, when they get there, that have never been, that's where they want to go. But why do you think the shift is happening where people are not going to Sydney so much anymore and they're wanting to explore, like you said, queensland, where you've spent four months? What's the difference between the two? You've been to both, so why do you think there's?

Speaker 2:

a shift.

Speaker 2:

I think for me, you know, new South Wales is quite beautiful. Sydney, of course, you know, I didn't know a lot about, you know, getting into the nitty gritties in these um place, these states. I just wanted to go Sydney, melbourne, brisbane, cairns, I mean, that's basically, and I did go to Perth as well. So you kind of do the main cities. But of course Sydney was very nice and I'm not knocking it at all. It's a big city, as Brisbane is, I think it's uh two and a half million in Brisbane. It's an international airport. It's smaller than um Sydney but it has great access to the hinterland, which is like the interior, with the mountains. They're not like huge, huge rocky mountains, but they're. They're nice hiking and waterfalls. You have the rainforest in Queensland, so you have that diversity of the landscape and of course the beaches. You know the Great Barrier Reef starts in Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef itself, I think, is like 1,500 miles long. So we think of the Great Barrier Reef, we think of the of the north, like I didn't really know it was stretched that that far. So the beaches are much different in queensland than they are in uh new south wales. There's uh also different creatures in the water as well. Um as the? Um, the sharks are mostly in the south. In the north there's the jellyfish, crocodiles, but the beautiful coral along the reef. So I did some diving up in Cairns and that was one of my bucket list things. So there was the diversity of activities to do in Queensland was seemed to be more or more attractive to me and the people were like a little bit more laid back, not that they were stuck up in new south wales, but it was, um, just a different culture. More mining, uh, fifo workers that fly in, fly out, so a lot of them go into the interior do their mining and then they come out to the coast and live because they, you know it's getting more expensive to buy properties. Brisbane, um, I think the properties real estate is up 16 percent, which is a big boom.

Speaker 2:

Gold coast is a metropolis of. It reminds me of, like, miami, with all the high rises, hotels and resorts. The beach is 70 miles long. It's beautiful beach. It wasn't really my vibe. I did go visit Surfers Paradise. I could have spent more time there, but this time of year it wasn't really beachy to go and I can't. And there's a lot of attractions in Gold Coast, like, like, not like Disneyney themed. I think there's a universal, universal there sea world and those kind of, so it's really family orientated. If you're looking for that as well, which I wasn't, yeah, um so not as a solo traveler, right?

Speaker 2:

no, yeah, I I like to find. I found a lot of little beach towns on my north migration from Brisbane to Cairns. I just got the Greyhound bus pass because transportation in Queensland, as well as New South Wales, Australia as a whole, is very, very good and pretty affordable, even if you're flying. But I wanted to get into the little towns beach towns and I took the bus. The bus takes you pretty much everywhere I wanted to go and pretty affordable too.

Speaker 1:

No, I'm glad you talked a little bit about transportation because you know, when you go to a new country that's kind of a concern, especially as a solo traveler but just really any traveler you know being able to get around, maybe without having to rent a car, you know, and so that's nice to hear. That Queensland had a great infrastructure with public transportation.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like so yeah, yeah, and there was um a big culture here is renting camper vans, which um for me as a solo traveler, I wasn't going to rent a camper van for my whole time in Australia. I would have loved to, but it would have been very expensive. So I did look at renting a camper van in Queensland in my first time back in January through an app called Camplify, where you actually rent somebody else's camper van. Yeah, and they have that RV Easy, I think, in North America. Yeah, I've seen. So it's similar to that.

Speaker 2:

But what happened? About three days before I was getting the camper van for the week? The camper van went in for maintenance so they canceled and I wasn't able to find a more affordable camper van after that. So I quickly changed my plan, because some of the areas you do need a vehicle to get to, the bus transit didn't really get me into the hinterland. When I say hinterland, that's like you're about an hour inland from the beach and that's where there's beautiful lookouts and mountains and heights and waterfalls and you do need a vehicle for that. So I rented a car in Brisbane and I would just stay at Airbnbs and I just did a total blast of all these lookouts really nice, beautiful, curvy, great motorcycle roads, beautiful scenery and you're only about an hour from the coast so you could some of these lookouts. You can see the ocean from the lookouts a little cooler because you're higher elevation, great height and waterfall, so I did do that to you know to change it up a bit okay and um so and.

Speaker 2:

but the other option with the camper vans if you they have here is you can relocate a camper van and so these companies, because a lot of people just take these vans one way and you can pick up the camper van and drive it back from the main city centers, like from Cairns to Brisbane, say, and they give you so many days to do it, like seven days or six days and it costs you peanuts like, I think, a dollar a day or something like that. I wasn't able to find one of those that was fitting my schedule, but that's a really great way to have a vehicle and camp because there's lots of great camping, free camping or cheap camping. You have to do your research on that. So that was another way you know know, I would look at to to get around and and having a camper van, there's your accommodation and there's your Right, you could say I mean your transportation.

Speaker 1:

like you said, your sleeping arrangements and your transportation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

And do you remember what was the name of that again?

Speaker 2:

The one for the camper van. It was called Co-Seats CO then seats so I can send you these links, because it was and I did have one actually for Airlie Beach to Brisbane, but I actually, when I went to pay for it, because I think you have to do I had to do $100 deposit to reach but I end up clicking because there's quite quite a few that will go from these city centers and I end up clicking on the wrong city and I was going to Adelaide, which is too far away from where I wanted to be, so I ended up missing out on that.

Speaker 2:

so, okay there, you have to be able to drive. Um, some of them are manual transmissions, so uh, but, but I think most of them are are automatic, so and you are, of course, driving on the left-hand side of the road, on the right-hand side of the vehicle, so you have to be comfortable with that which is good to ask you that.

Speaker 1:

I think that was what it was. Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, it's a mental challenge for me.

Speaker 2:

You know you. Just I like to get in the vehicle and you know you don't want to pick it up at. I didn't want to pick my rental car up at Brisbane airport because that, to me, was quite going to be intimidating.

Speaker 1:

So I actually rented.

Speaker 2:

I rented just a little three cylinder Suzuki Swift from an app called Turo, which they do have that in North America. Yeah, same thing, people rent out their cars, yeah. So that was what I used and I got the car half price and I rented it. It wasn't good enough for me, so that was a um, another way to get another way to get around.

Speaker 1:

To get around, yeah, yeah, I like that idea because renting cars is really expensive. It's, yeah, yeah, it's a big chunk if you decide to go that way, but it sounds like, if you want to get outside the city, that you it, and, seeing all the stuff that you mentioned and we'll probably get into some more like you do need a vehicle to get out to those places and yeah, along the beaches.

Speaker 2:

It's fine that there's trains and there's buses the greyhound buses actually there's a couple bus lines like greyhound um and that will get. They make several stops along the coastline. But if you want to go more interior, see more of the outbacks I didn't get in to see the outback, um, but just to get into the mountaineer yes, you do need your own vehicle or another transportation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so outside of you, said you, you did a scuba dive right While you were summer. Yeah, what other activities did you do that make that happen in Queensland area that you did?

Speaker 2:

Well, the other activity that I did, one of my favorite spots, was Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays. It's a beautiful area. I booked a boat trip, a day boat trip. They took you out snorkeling and that's part of the Great Barrier Reef and then we climbed up to Whitehaven Beach, which is, if you see a lot of pictures of Australia, you'll see that beach. It's this white silica and it is pristine and just beautiful. So that is one of my favorite spots. Airlie Beach is where it's based out of and you go into the Whitsundays and you can. There's sailing trips. You can do like a two day sail.

Speaker 2:

I just did a one day because I'm a budget traveler. I knew I was spending more money on the liveaboard up in Cairns and scuba diving, so I was cutting out some of the other activities that were going to cost because it's Western prices for these excursions. But you know I and I would go by the weather if the weather wasn't great. On the Fraser Island, which is called Cag it Cagare it's, it's the, it's white, it's a sand island and that was another popular spot that people were going to to go see and you can do a river tubing and you can camp out there and that's where the dingoes are. I didn't. I chose not to do that one because I was spending, because I also have a budget and I'm trying to. You know I want to spend more money on.

Speaker 2:

Great Barrier Reef was more important to me to spend my my extra excursion money on than to go to a sand island with Sundays was, no question is definitely something to see. And, of course, great Barrier Reef and you don't have to scuba dive to go see it you can go out on a day and spend, like I think my trip was $1,100. But I lived on a boat out on the Great Barrier Reef and that was because that was what I wanted to do. But you could do a day trip for a third the cost, basically. And if you just want to see the reef, if you don't dive, no problem, you can snorkel. There's even glass bottom boats up there. So, and there's lots of different spots along the coast of Queensland you can go out to see the reef.

Speaker 2:

I chose Cairns because I had researched this liveaboard, but and that's it's the closest I think it's the closest city city center to the reef itself. The reef is out quite a ways from mainland so I didn't want to spend three hours on a boat to get to the reef yeah, you mentioned um that queensland has some, uh, jungle areas or rainforest areas.

Speaker 1:

I think is what you said. Did you do some hiking in some of the areas?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, up in Cairns north of Cairns towards Port Douglas, there was lots of national parks in the rainforest, Pretty much covered about 500 miles of the rainforest and I didn't have a vehicle to get to these national parks, so that kind of limited me but up in Cairns because it's such a touristy area.

Speaker 2:

I hopped on the bus and it took me to I think it's called Karenga. There's a sky train like a gondola sky lift that takes you to this little rainforest town and I did some hiking up in in it's right kind of in the rainforest, did some hiking around that town, um, but a lot of times I couldn't get into the rainforest because they were in national parks and, um, I didn't have a vehicle to get to it. So, okay, um, I seen the rainforest through this, this excursion, I kind of did, and then I took the, the scenic railway train, back through the rainforest back to Cairns, which was quite nice, oh, that's a great idea?

Speaker 2:

yeah, it was. I think it's called the Karanga scenic railway. It's an old, old railway from, but updated, um, from the early 1900s and it's quite. It's a tourist thing to do but it's a nice way to kind of see go through the rainforest. It goes forever, so you stop at certain spots and see the big waterfalls, the massive waterfalls from the, from the rivers, and yeah, so that was, that was. I didn't really do some extreme hiking but I did those kinds of exploring things okay. But yeah, um, that was, and I went to Port Douglas as well. I I'm on a hostess. One of the greatest things that I did when I was here in Australia was I used hostess sister and I got connected with so many ladies here who are uh, I'm a hostess sister over 50 there. There was so many ladies, so many great friendships that I made and we stayed in contact as I kept traveling. I had spent three months. Then I went to Indonesia for two months and then I returned to.

Speaker 1:

Canada.

Speaker 2:

Now I'm doing Cairns back down north to south and I reconnected with some of these ladies so they actually would pick me up and take me around there.

Speaker 1:

That's so nice.

Speaker 2:

We'd go for lunch. Sometimes we'd go swimming in the ocean and they would. They're curious, you know they want to know about, and it's not just about travels we talk about, it's just you know life in general. Some of these ladies are solo travelers as well and you know, then you really get to know them on a personal basis when you spend a little bit more time. So that was great and they would tell me about. There was some. There was some cyclones that hit Australia. Queensland does get for the weather. They do get cyclone season, rainy season, which is it was when I was here in December. They got hit in cams and they some of the roads were really, uh, destroyed. It was fixed by the time I got up there in february, but uh, you have to watch the weather up in in the rain, in the rain forest, it's rainy and it's beautiful the waterfalls, but that's where there could be their storms.

Speaker 2:

So this a friend of mine from Cairns she drove me through told me what had happened here with the storms and washed out the roads and how it's changed the beaches, how the storms changed the beaches as well.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I like that yes.

Speaker 2:

It's washed out and then it's rocks, it's not as pristine or it's not as clear water. You know, I wouldn't have known any of that, I just thought this was normal. But it's, it's not at certain times of the year, so you have to. You know, to me it's still beautiful. I didn't know what it would look like before, so that was uh.

Speaker 1:

It was nice to have that local knowledge absolutely yes, yeah, ladies, yeah, I think that's great and you know that's great and you know that's a great resource. You said host a sister. There's host a sister 50 up all over, like you said, in different regions. So, yeah, sometimes you make longtime friends doing that, like you did um connection. So it kind of reminds me when I went to belize, like our airbnb host actually, you know, showed us around, you know, so it's a nice way to also get to know a little deeper knowledge of where you're at. So I love that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah um, a little bit of effort to make these connections. Yeah, you know, keeping track of where everybody is. When I first posted on a hostess sister, it was inundated with tons of people across Australia opening up even their homes. Sometimes you can stay with. I just was looking for meetups and uh, and I made a strong effort to reach out to these ladies and stay in touch with them because I think networking, as I solo travel in this lifestyle, is very important. You know, sometimes you can't sleep at night. I think, oh, who's awake? Australia's awake. You know that kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

Right, and we talked last time, I think, a little, we touched a little bit, I think, our last conversation about just you know that loneliness. So it's a nice way to you know, feel connected and not like you're all alone out there yeah, yeah yeah, awesome. Um. So, outside of some of those touristy places and you know the hot spots that you've mentioned that you could go see in queensland, where was did you go somewhere that might be a little hidden gem that you want to share? Um?

Speaker 2:

um, I was, you know, not so much a hidden gem. Airlie Beach was definitely my favorite place. Um, noosa Head, noosa area, which is just a bit north of Brisbane, it would be. You know, airlie is very touristy because of the wet Sundays and people go there to do that. Noosa is kind of rugged, rugged coast but great for surfing. So I would just that was a place that I actually did stay for three days and I did do some hiking through the Noosa National Park so, and that was along the beach line Just, and I would just sit on rock and just watch the surfers because they were just the way that the waves came in, that you were actually quite close to them on the, the way the currents went. So, um, noosa was actually one of my it's. You know, it's not hidden because a lot of people know, know about noosa, but I didn't know about noosa before I came to australia, so it was just like what's this nooes?

Speaker 2:

and and really I didn't know. Um, as I was traveling my Greyhound bus pass going north, I really didn't know where I was going to be stopping, like, of course, byron Bay. I you know Byron Bay was a spot that you know, made, made famous because of, uh, the, the famous, the surf, and then all the famous people that live there, like celebrities, live there. So there's a big draw to that, which I did go there. It's very overpriced and great music buskering on the streets in Byron Bay, but other than that it wasn't really appealing to me. But Noosa had this it was kind of cut up into like there was these different areas in Noosa, in between there was this kind of mountain area, so the city didn't kind of cut up into. Like there was these different areas in Noosa, in between there was this kind of mountain area, so the city didn't kind of go over the mountain.

Speaker 2:

You had to do a little effort to go to these different parts of Noosa Noosa Head, noosa Junction, noosa Rivers. I just I had an Airbnb close to the national park. I could walk to the beach. It was probably about a 25 minute walk to the beach. So that's okay, that's where I kind of get my hiking exercise in and the bus would take me to these other areas in Noosa. Noosa is kind of the general area and then I rented an e-bike and the e-bike company gives you these little trails because there's great bike paths that you can take and I actually rode it up to a mountain to a lookout. It was great, I had an e-bike to the mountain and uh, and that was a nice little activity that I did outside of Noosa. So there was paddle boarding you can do and there was lots of activities to do in Noosa.

Speaker 2:

um, and I really enjoy, I really enjoyed Noosa and I don't know if it's really a hidden gem, because people in australia do go there, but, um, that would be any anything in that area. Um, I think that's just north of the sunshine coast, or maybe they consider that sunshine coast, um, so that was probably one of my favorite spots. I, I went there um on up. Actually, one of the hostess sisters took me there. I didn't stay there because it is pricey to stay in Noosa itself. On my way back down I wanted to stay in Noosa and so I rented Airbnb and just took the bus up, took the train, took the bus and then from there I could just walk around.

Speaker 2:

And I met up with that that lady again and we became really good friends. She took me to her, her family ranch. Oh, wow yeah, she picked me up. We went out for lunch or went out for dinner a couple of times and then she took me to her family ranch, which was kind of a nice treat too, on a very famous river Mary river in Queensland. Treat too, yeah, on a on a very famous river mary river in queensland. So they told me about history and her husband's a farmer there, or rancher, I guess it would be because they just have cattle. Um told me about the because I hadn't seen any spiders or snakes up to that that point and everybody was saying, oh, this, the dangerous animals that'll kill you. But I come from canada, where there's cougars and bears so I he.

Speaker 2:

He told me he had told me about, you know, the different plants that the, the aboriginals, use. It was actually once an aboriginal site. Now it's a farm and the aboriginals still will come there. So he told me about what he learned from them, about the plants you know and why things were positioned certain ways along the farm, along the river, the dangerous snakes I should look out for that. You know the spiders, you know the different animals, or you know reptiles?

Speaker 2:

I guess that yeah, reptiles yeah because I'm like, uh, you know I haven't seen a snake yet and you know I've seen. I have seen maybe one of those big ugly spiders. But it was pointed it out to me in a jungle walk I did, but it wasn't like I woke up with a spider on my head. There hasn't been anything like that here, like some of the stories that people talk about in Australia. I think that might happen more in different regions than where I was staying.

Speaker 1:

Probably more in the outback, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Probably more in the outback, for sure. Probably more yeah back here. Yeah, um, I hadn't seen any dangerous, anything dangerous really at all jellyfish like. The other thing to to think about is jellyfish season here runs from, I think, october to june or may june and that's a long time.

Speaker 2:

It is quite a long time. So we had to wear stinger stinger suits. When I went into the to go snorkeling and, um, as well as diving, the water was very warm even when I was diving just had to wear a thin stinger suit, and you wear that for the protection of the tank as well, but I I think the water they said to me was uh, 31 degrees that is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's celsius, I know, but that's really warm celsius, yeah, that's like maybe 80s, I don't know. Yeah, trying to like equate.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 80s probably, that it was. It was very nice to to be in that kind of water, um, you know playing and I did jump in the water at other beaches, but you know the waves sometimes are pretty extreme. So I a lot of, a lot of these areas because of the, the jellyfish, like airly beach and a lot of the other towns have like rock pools or man-made lagoons, cans as well. So they have these huge areas, beautiful man-made lagoons, cairns as well. So they have these huge areas, beautiful man-made lagoons or rock pools that you can go there and go swimming.

Speaker 2:

And I mean up in the north of Queensland, north of well Cairns and north, there's crocodiles. Crocodiles kind of come down. There's saltwater crocodiles and the freshwater ones are in the river. So you don't really want to be in. You don't see a lot of people swimming in the at the beaches in airly beach and north. Okay, because the jellyfish and possible crocodiles. So they have these really nice swimming areas where you can do laps. Australians are great, great swimmers. Everywhere you look in schools they go to swimming schools, um, so so they have all these lagoons you can swim in to cool down. Uh, there's play areas for the young kids and there's lap pools and they're really beautifully uh landscape, and then they also have stinger nets in a lot of their. On their beaches they'll have these stinger, but that's where you can go in safely. Um, and I seen I went in the water quite a few times with these stinger nets so that was yeah, I didn't.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I kind of knew about jellyfish but didn't really think about that's a long season for their jellyfish there well, I think it's because it's so warm, the water is so warm and you'll see a lot of times along the beaches they'll have these stands with jugs of vinegar, because vinegar takes out um, you pour that on for the jellyfish. So that was something interesting to see. It would just be like these stands with the sign, sign warning you have jellyfish. I mean you shouldn't be in the water knowing that. Anyway, most people have pools, I think. But uh, if you did get in, I mean what's the chances? The chances might be really low, but at but if you did get in, I mean, what's the chances? The chances might be really low, but at that one chance you could get that box jellyfish.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say there's some dangerous ones that are actually life-threatening. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that was kind of interesting to see all the vinegar safety stations set up in many of these areas. And the locals know about it. Sometimes the tourists don't, they just go in the water right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they think oh, it's a beach, let's go in the water, yeah, yeah. So I don't know about you, but I mean not that I want to see spiders or snakes. So much. But I just always think of Australia. Of course I guess I'm'm thinking the outback. You just think you know a lot of wild animals, just different. You know wildlife there. Were you disappointed that you didn't see any?

Speaker 2:

no not at all the only two um animals that I was really wanting to see, of course, with koalas and kangaroos, and I got to see them. I went to um north of brisbane is the steve irwin steve irwin's, so the family's brought on steve or I think it's called the australian zoo, but the son is now kind of taking it over and he's taking steve's spot and doing the shows. They have a crocodile shows, which I really don't care about, the crocodiles. I didn't stick around for that, but I wanted to see the kangaroos and the koalas, the two animals that I relate to Australia. So I did go to see them and a lot of other different animals as well, uh, creatures, they had the spiders, they had the snakes and in those little boxes I didn't care less.

Speaker 2:

I didn't really want to. You know I'd see I did go to like the Queensland museum in Brisbane. Whenever I go to these city centers these places are usually free to go through if you want to take a break from the heat. In Sydney I also did the museums and they have. In the Queensland museum they had all the the species of snakes and birds and spiders kind of on display like dead, but you know they have. This is what you can find, this is what you can find in. These are our state, this is local, kind of native, native animals. So that was kind of neat to see. I didn't want to see them in real life, but that the kangaroos and the koalas I was. I seen them in the zoo and then I which I'm not keen on seeing animals in zoos, but if I was to see a koala I that's where I had to go, but I was actually really fortunate to see a koala in the wild.

Speaker 2:

I was on Magnetic Island actually would be another gem. It's's off the. You take a ferry from townsville, which is kind of a big, big city not big like brisbane, but another big city and uh, you take a ferry over to magnetic island and it's actually, um, they have some nice hiking trails that I did. They have a bus that goes around the island, takes you from one point to the other, and that would be probably a spot that I might suggest to people to go visit. Um, because you have to take a ferry.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of off yes, yeah, I like that those are.

Speaker 2:

That was one that I could get to by public transportation and uh, and I knew they had public transportation on the island so I did a hike. There was actually a World War II army barracks from which I didn't really know about the World War II. The Japanese had actually attacked Australia quite a bit and in that war when all of the men were off fighting in Europe, it was the women and the older people that were kind of protecting the land. It was kind of interesting and there was a an old kind of ammunition spot. It was because it was up on this higher mountain and they would, they would look for the japanese warships and uh, they were actually.

Speaker 2:

So I didn't really know that history, yeah, of japanese attacking australia like right, because you know they were all their army was gone away and and they were kind of, um, vulnerable. So that was kind of it could tour, you could walk around the ruins of that and see some of the lookouts that they would spot in the history of the women actually were the spotters, a lot of them were the spotters and uh, so it was kind of so. So that was Magnetic Island and on my hike there was a koala up in a tree and people on the other hike the other hike. They're really hard to find because they sleep a lot.

Speaker 2:

And it's true, they're not that big, you know, they're the size of a you know a cat and they're curled up, always sleeping. So somebody on the hiking trail had told me there's a koala up in the tree, look for. Somebody had drawn an arrow in the sand on the walking path to look for that arrow and look up. And so, yes, I did see a koala in the wild. That's so cool, that was really cool. You know, it was up maybe about 10 feet or maybe 20 feet, could okay of course, not supposed to touch them anyway.

Speaker 2:

And then, as for the kangaroos, um, I hadn't seen any all the way through new south wales and I went to go see them at the zoo. I had done a house sit in bribey island, which is just north of brisbane. Okay, in january, and on this island and kind of where I was house sitting, there was kangaroos everywhere on the front yard and families of kangaroos just hanging out at the park and the little joeys in the pocket and it was, it was the funnest thing. They obviously knew I was a tourist because I had my phone out all the time. They, um, you know, they were quite calm and like uh, okay, you know, squirrels are to us in north america or deer deer on the west coast. They're just kind of on the lawns and they eat the lawns, right.

Speaker 2:

So I mean a bit of a nuisance I hear about. It's like, oh, there's a kangaroo, and I hear about the nuisance from the locals saying, oh, they poop and they eat my plants and you know that, you know. But to me it's like well, that's cool, you got kangaroos in your front yard.

Speaker 1:

You know, like you said it's kind of like deer in north america you know, yeah, I grew up with deer in our yard all the time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah so it's a novelty awesome.

Speaker 1:

Well, it is for us right because it's not it's not an animal that we see, so it's, it's just it's. I would love love to see them too. So that would be my. You know, if I go to Australia that's like I'm going to look for opportunities to possibly see them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. Ah well, you've mentioned so many good places, um recommendations, um, as far as staying places, I know you do house sits a lot. You mentioned the whole camper van kind of renting thing is big there, and then you did some Airbnbs. Are there any other I'll say, budget ways to stay in Australia, because we know, like you said, it is a little more expensive to stay than, say I know you went to Indonesia, right that would be, you know, like night and day, as far as what you're paying for accommodations, right? So it was.

Speaker 2:

Indonesia was about a third of the price. This is a Western country, so accommodation for and because I'm doing a long travel, a slow travel, long travel. My goal was to spend. I was spending 90 days here. I wanted half of that time to be house sitting and I was able to. My first three months I was able to get 30 days house sitting, so that helped my cost, and then the other places I stayed was hostels and okay yeah, yeah, hostels.

Speaker 2:

I was in new south wales and then when I went up to queensland, um, I, I use bookingscom and host hostel, uh, hostel, hostel world, I guess, yeah, um, but mostly I use bookings because they're they're on both platforms and I get genius points, so and I like to keep my bookings in one spot, spot, yeah, so, um, but the um, the hostels here, you know, I would definitely say Asia has nicer hostels. Then, really, uh, here and just the way I say that is the hostels, you're in a dorm, you're in a bunk bed. A lot of times there's no curtains on the. I would make the curtain because I got clips and I put my sarong up. I like to have a little bit of privacy. You could this.

Speaker 2:

It was actually like a bunk bed, like, for you know, rickety kind of, you know the metal bunk for the most part, and hostels weren't cheap like I. Like the hostels for several different reasons for my budget, um, because I am, you know, trying to stay in australia, for, you know, pay for a month and a half accommodations if I'm spending $200 a night in an Airbnb or hostel, which is kind of, or a hotel, that's kind of an average rate or more for a hotel. Paying $50 to $60 a night was kind of more in my budget, so that's about what I was spending.

Speaker 2:

That's an Australian price, which is similar to a Canadian price would be probably about maybe 35 US, maybe um. So I I looked for them because they had the kitchens. I could save money, get groceries and just there's usually a pool. I would look for a place with the pool. In the summertime, when I was here, it was nice to dip, you know, jump into the pool, um, and air con in the rooms oh yes, especially in the summer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it did get pretty, it did get kind of hot and I had no problems. I would stay at a hostel for like five days. You kind of get to know the area pretty good um, sometimes a week, and if I didn't like there was one up in harvey bay, I was really. I wasn't really liking the hostel, so the chit. So I just booked a hotel and got a decent sleep in the hotel.

Speaker 2:

So that's always my option. My backfall on that, yeah, and then I spent you know 150 in that hotel, but I had a decent night's sleep and had some privacy and you know I was reset sometimes that's yeah, you need that every once in a while, right?

Speaker 1:

Just like you said, kind of like reset.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and the way I see it is, I'd rather spend my my budget in my daytime activities than how at least I sleep. You know I usually sleep with listening to music or falling asleep to podcasts or something. I do have a sleep mask if I needed, but most of the time I'm pretty tired by the time I get in there and I look for female rooms like four bedrooms, its own en suite and and those there's. There's lots of hostels around and and they're, you know, they're pretty easily to get to from the bus routes like the bus. A lot of people on these Greyhound. I took the Greyhound bus pass, which I bought, an unlimited 30-day bus pass so I could hop on, hop off, kind of on this bus and so I could get off as many times as I want over 30 days and that saved me quite a bit. I think that bus pass cost $400 Australian and I got three nights accommodations in Cair free at a hostel at kind of a party hostel.

Speaker 1:

But you know, because of the pass that you bought, that came. Yeah, it was oh it was a special.

Speaker 2:

They ran when I bought the bus and um, and so that kind of allowed me to take 30 days to take my time to go through Queensland time and stop at these. Uh, you know, I went to Townsville and I went to Magnetic Island and I went to Harvey Bay and I went to Airlie and Mission Beach that was another spot that I'd seen on the list um, it was really, really raining when I was there, so I really didn't do much. Some of the people and I hear a lot of the activities with the other kids. You know, because I'm on the host, the people and I hear a lot of the activities with the other kids. You know, because I'm on the hostels and the buses with a lot of younger people.

Speaker 2:

I was gonna say call them kids, yeah yeah, they're my kids age, but I mean they really did connect with me and you know they were kind of interested my story right, which is kind of they want to tell their, their parents, about me maybe for them to like why can't they have a cool parent like you, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they would be doing skydiving and they're doing all of the excursions that I am not doing because of my budget, so I'm not sure what their budget is, but they're probably not traveling for you know six months in.

Speaker 2:

Australia as well and they're not house sitting. Um, those the house sitting, really worked out well. I came back to Australia my second time. I was supposed to be sailing in uh out of Airlie Beach. That kind of fell through, so I had quick. I had already booked my flight back to Canada, so I was staying in Australia till the end of June. So I had to quickly kind of pivot and change my hands and I was able to land a house sit in Brisbane for a month. So I just I just came off of uh, my month house set in Brisbane with a puppy, a beautiful home close to the bus.

Speaker 2:

I met tons of ladies, got into the music scene and uh started pickleball and joined a dance, uh exercise class and and I walked all these uh different areas to see these old historic hotels or taverns from from the history and I really kind of gravitate to what, what was happening, what built up australia? Well, the mining is huge here. The mining always, always has been, and that's how they brought a lot of their money to the country. So there's a lot of history in that and they've really maintained that history in Queensland and all through Australia. But you go into these old hotels that are now taverns, bars, and they like their pokies and they have the um, you know, the bar of the food, and there's these different areas. There's a big culture for sports here, for the rugby, rugby, um, and so it really you could do anything you want if you're into arts and there's uh, brisbane especially has like an art scene, arts area, there's entertainment area, there's a sports area, there's this downtown CBD, cbd, central Business District. You'll hear that.

Speaker 2:

They shorten all the words here. I was going to say CBD, not the CBD that we know in North America. It's so they have. They shorten all of the words. I'm learning the lingo now. Even on the news they shorten all of the words. I'm learning the lingo now. Even on the news. They shorten the words so it's like it's the national language when they shorten some of these words and uh it's kind of fun to I.

Speaker 2:

You know I spent time here but I'm not talking like them yet, but but it sounds like you've really you've gotten yourself really ingrained, though you said you're involved with some of those local activities like dancing football those ladies that you've met up with the music scene.

Speaker 1:

I mean that's part of the beauty of what you're doing is kind of slow travel and really getting to see a whole area for what it's worth and not just the highlights, you know, or what we see on instagram, right, right and we think, um, you know australia being a western country and you know I'm from canada, you're from the states we're, we're all the.

Speaker 2:

You know we're, we're western countries, but it's much, for it's still western country. Yes, they all speak english with their own dialect, but it's, it's still a bit different. It's a no tipping uh society. Here too, which is you know where we come from, tipping is expected, even when you just order a coffee.

Speaker 2:

Anymore I know and so that that is, um, you know, I noticed that the cost savings on that too. If you go to a restaurant and it's, you know, $10 for a dish or a burger, say, you're only paying $10 for that burger. No added. In Canada we're heavily taxed on everything, so that burger would have cost me probably $14 in Canada, but here it's $10, $10, no, no tax, no tipping you.

Speaker 2:

You pay you order at the, at the bar, the counter, your meal, your drink, and you sit down and they bring it to you, or you use the QR codes at the table. So it's actually really convenient. As a solo traveler, I don't have to, you know, flag somebody down. I can just sit down and do everything from the table. So I really like that feature. Table, um, so I I really like that that feature. Though, on the other aspect of that, when you uh, if I would go into a bar or a restaurant in my other travels in the uk even I would eat my meal at the bar top, at least I could talk to the bartender. Yeah, the conversation, this you're kind of sitting at a table. You're obviously not going to join a table of six people. You're sitting at a table by yourself and it. It can be a bit isolating and you're looking around at other people.

Speaker 2:

So it's hard to break the ice on that. So I did have to make an effort with the um meetup groups to and then it just kind of flowed right. They're like anything you need and and staying in contact, using your networks and keep you know, wish them, you know, happy birthday, merry christmas. It's nothing with our you know to do that. Keep those connections going and you know some of them want to meet me out traveling. They're like well, because they're travelers themselves.

Speaker 2:

So you know they've shown me their, their country or their state or their, their region and uh yeah, and you know, they've shown me their, their country or their state or their, their region and yeah, and you know they want to like if they come to Canada. I may or may not be there, but I can tell them about places. So it's a good and I and so definitely I'm going to come back to. I've been. You know, some of my house sits they want to have me back to sit for them again.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, or just come become my friend. So I definitely want to come back to Queensland Because I just love the diversity of you know, go to the beach, or you can go to the beach or you can go into the countryside where they have, like, the farm stands and the you, the, the barbies and the waterfalls. It's all really close within each other. Like I would stay away from next time. I would stay away from summertime because I was here in the summer right in the middle of summer so it's hot hot and rainy cyclone season.

Speaker 2:

I didn't get caught up in any cyclones, but there was two big ones that happened in Queensland when I was here. One was quite damaging to north of Cairns. So I would you know, probably, I'm here in autumn. I really like this season, though a little bit warmer. Queensland, you know, because I'm in New South Wales now. I like to have you know about 20, 25 degrees Celsius and up, and that's you know and right now north of North Queensland it is still that temperature but again a lot of people travel there.

Speaker 2:

Australians will travel there for their winter so it can be busier. I was there actually in the off season Summer is off season because they don't, because it's so hot, so hot, hot, yeah, exactly, yeah, well, where are you off to next?

Speaker 1:

miss julie, I think you're kind of finishing up right I'm heading back to canada, uh, the end of june.

Speaker 2:

on my way back, I'm stopping in hawaii for a week. It was a logical layover that they were going to do a 16 hour layover, something crazy. So I'm like I'll stay for the week and then I'll spend, you know, my summers in Canada and I'm doing my, my dad's there, my kids are there visiting, reconnecting with them. I'm going to do some traveling around Canada, do some music festivals I volunteered at, which is, you know, kind of fun in. British Columbia to see them right yeah, you get in free to the music festival if you volunteer, yeah, you can't camp.

Speaker 2:

So that's what I'm looking, and I have some house sits lined up as well. Um, some of my repeat clients from last year who travel every year at the same time, and it's one of my favorite do that, and then I think, next is latin america, which?

Speaker 2:

is a big task to take on. So I'm gonna get be, you know, do some preparing for that, do some research. Takes a long time to you know, to get to have a stress free. Stress free, of course, that won't be house sitting, that will be, um, you know, hostels or homestays and um, uh, to see, see where I wander off to down there you're gonna start like in central america and work your way down to south america.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, actually I'm looking another way to kind of explore. There's car delivery services that a lot of Canadians winter down in California, arizona or even into Mexico. So some of these car delivery services, the people don't want to do the drive. I'm looking at taking one of the cars down for them so I'll do the drives through the States, which is beautiful to go explore that side of america as well.

Speaker 1:

I'm laughing because my parents did that. Um, my dad did that because they go to florida every year, but they're really too old to be driving from pennsylvania to florida and um, so they this is the first year that they did they hired a car service, um, two previous years they used the train and had the train bring their car down, um, and I was kind of upset. I was like why didn't you ask your daughter, like, like I would have driven it? I don't know, but anyway, so I'm I'm familiar with that service. So, yeah, it's a great way to to get um from one place to the other, and then it sounds like from there, once you get yourself, I guess mexico, wherever maybe you'll go into mexico.

Speaker 2:

There's a couple of other areas that I would like to go visit in mexico. Um, I also want to keep an eye on the weather. I don't want to be in south america when it's rainy season so that's you know, state.

Speaker 2:

That's one thing I have been learning about. Hovering around the equator, which is kind of what I do it's like you don't want to be on one side, you know can ruin. When I went into indonesia this time it was, uh, march and april and that was pretty much full-on rainy season, um, so I had a lot. I mean it was very warm rain it was, but it kind of hit on some of your activities you want to do. I scooter around quite a bit, so I was in a poncho, living in a poncho, pretty much. Um. So I mean it didn't ruin my time in indonesia. I did beautiful exploring I did go to islands again.

Speaker 2:

I went diving and I I drove a scooter around floris island, which is a you know that that is definitely a hidden gem for indonesia, but, um, you know, I've kind of done. I found another uh favorite spot back in bali, away from major touristy areas that I'd like to go back to, and, as I'm mad and kind of, I like to be with expats, I like to be with the locals and have some expats there. Yeah, and that's what learning about. What I'm looking for is my community is have a little bit of both, but, um, close to the water, but also close to the mountains, where you can get a break from any heat or, you know, if there's storms, kind of get hidden, yeah, away. I mean, these areas do get a lot of storms compared to what I have in Canada.

Speaker 1:

Yes, right, well, I'll be anxious to hear about your. You know your plans for Latin America and timing and all that stuff, and you know let's keep connected, of course, but you also have I noticed you've been posting a lot more about your journey and so I just want you to mention, you know, is it okay people follow you I think it's Instagram, right that you're posting a lot of the year, this journey that you're on right now? Just remind them where they can find you.

Speaker 2:

On Instagram it's juliesjourney70. And I try to keep posting. I'm doing some TikToks as well, but mostly I focus on Instagram. It has a few more tools that I can use to make it fun and quick and get information out. I just post my regular kind of daily life I I think sometimes it's kind of boring, but yesterday I took the dog to the beach, you know, and here I am having to learn a new dog I have.

Speaker 2:

I have a new dog that you know he's an older dog, you know how is he managing with other dogs. So I have to learn. It's all kind of a learning Every day. If you don't learn, then you're not progressing Absolutely. So that's on Instagram and on Facebook as well. Julie's Journey Okay, that was one of my two platforms that I kind of focus on.

Speaker 2:

It does take a lot of work to keep up social daily posts and keep it fun. I like to you know I'm learning. I learned a lot about Instagram in the last two years because I do have a lot of younger people following on Instagram and people more my age are more on Facebook but they're kind of moving over to the other side you know, and Tik TOK is kind of not as not as big as as platform, has been a lot of controversy over Tik TOK, but so Instagram is mostly where I post.

Speaker 2:

though Facebook I can do more paragraphs and word and type things Right, Right so but both, both formations on both of those pages.

Speaker 1:

So okay, yes, I'll make sure I include that in the notes. So if anybody wants to follow you and let's definitely plan to reconnect in I don't know several months again, maybe the end of the year, so when you have maybe started your uh, latin american journey, I'll be curious to know. Yeah, I love it, jilly it's so fun to connect and you know I really I want us to someday meet in person.

Speaker 2:

So oh yeah, well, maybe, maybe I'll be driving a car through houston, let me know.

Speaker 1:

Yes, if you, when you're coming through, uh, the states, let me know, I'd be willing to drive and meet you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that sounds good sounds like always, like open, I've learned to be less scheduled. Yeah, I used to be a very scheduled person. Now I just kind of let the way I can pivot very easily. Now it's a lot easier for me to make those pivots when, when I feel it's necessary or my gut instinct telling me so, and I'm always up for meeting people who I've met this way and meet a real person in real life. So it's always makes it more.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely I'm I'm excited for that potential meeting for sure. So, yes, well, thank you again, Julie, for your time. I loved it and you had such great recommendations and I'm gonna try to take some notes on that too, so that if people are looking for you know kind of you know different things to do in the Queensland state. So thank you again so much for all that valuable information, that firsthand information, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'll send you the apps that I was using and put them on the page, because they were quite helpful. Perfect, yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Thank you again helpful, perfect, yes, absolutely, thank you again. All right, thanks, cheryl, all right, hey, sister Travelers, did this podcast inspire and encourage you or move you to get out there and travel? Wonderful, there are three ways you can thank me. First, one is leave a written review for the show on Apple podcast. Two, share the show with your sister travelers, your friends, your family. And three, subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. And thank you again for listening to the show. Sisters, be fearless, take the leap and get out there and have an adventure.

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Cheryl Esch

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