Getting up in the very early hours of the morning is often difficult, especially when your kids have woken you up four times in the middle of the night. You want to hit snooze on your alarm clock, and you want to hit snooze on life. The best experiences make you bounce out of bed no matter what time it is, because you know it’s going to be special. Such was the case at 5am one morning in Mackay, and despite her late night antics, I was relieved to see my daughter share my enthusiasm. We hopped in the car and drive 40 minutes north on a winding pastoral road to Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park for one of the most special sunrises in the country.
It all started over a decade ago, when kangaroos and wallabies showed up on a particularly beautiful beach just prior to the egg-yolk sun breaking on the horizon. The park’s owners started feeding the roos, and about a dozen guests came to share the fun each morning in the glow of a quintessential Australian coastal sunrise. Then word got out. Qantas featured the experience in an in-flight safety video, travel writers like myself showed up, and next thing you know, hundreds of people are gathering on the beach each morning. All well and good, but not everyone has the good sense to let a roo do its thing. As with all wildlife, it’s important to keep a safe distance, and refrain from feeding sugary crap to animals that can become increasingly aggressive because of human interaction. Roos have been known to attack overzealous and idiotic tourists, as well as they should. Shortly after our sunrise in Cape Hillsborough, authorities and the park owners have decided it best to regulate the experience, charging a fee for live commentary from a guide about the region’s history and wildlife conservation.
This morning however, my daughter and I walk along the gorgeous coastline towards a crowd of people gathered up ahead. The animals are already on the beach, and the sun is just about to make its splash. International tourists are obviously more taken with the sight of kangaroos and wallabies, but regardless of your experience with the marsupial, it makes for a very special wildlife encounter, in a very special place, and at a very special time of day. Memory cards are put to work as cameras big and small do their best to capture it. Clear orange light during sunrise makes for epic shots. It’s the so-called golden hour for photography that we rarely take advantage because it’s too damn early. My daughter is captivated, if a little chilly from the ocean breeze. It’s all over in about five to ten minutes, the animals scatter into the bush and the people towards their cars or more conveniently breakfast in their cabin, hut or motorhome inside the Nature Park. Nobody can deny that despite the time of the day, it’s a sunrise well worth getting up for.
Not long ago, the only animal most people could name with a “q” was the quail. Social media has since disrupted the animal alphabet, thanks to a small, friendly marsupial with a penchant for goofy faces, and an enthusiasm for selfies. Quokkas are hot, and #quokkaselfie is officially a thing, which is good news for the place you’re most likely to encounter them. Rottnest Island is a half hour fast ferry crossing off the coast of Fremantle WA, and even if the quokkas weren’t so dependently adorable, it’s a destination that surely belongs on the Australian Bucket List.
Rottnest is not a resort island in the traditional sense. No mega hotel chains, no glitz or bean-shaped swimming pools. While buses and tours circle the 11-km long island, all visitors arrive on foot, and the primary means of transport is a bicycle. When Dutch sailors first explored the island in the early 1600’s, they named it Rotte nest, confusing the abundant quokkas for rats. Not much happened until European settlers arrived centuries later, failed in their attempts to plant crops, and subsequently turned Rottnest into a penal colony. Today, these same buildings house visitors in self-catered rustic accommodation, and I see families and couples relaxing on their patios, watching cyclists ride down the dusty streets of the main settlement, Thompson Bay.
There are a handful of restaurants, and the local supermarket is well stocked with everything from fresh fruit and veggies to snorkelling gear. I park my bike at the Settlement Railway Station and hop on board a train to the Oliver Hill Heritage Site. During World War II, the Allies installed two massive 9.2 inch artillery guns on Rottnest that could fire a huge 178kg shell. History and war buffs will love the tunnels and gun tour, but Rottnest is really one for nature lovers. It boasts 63 beaches and nearly two-dozen bays, many secluded and quiet enough to own for the day. To get there you’ll have to pedal out, or use the hop-on hop-off bus that circles the island. Parker Point and Salmon Bay, protected by the adjacent marine reserve, have white-sandy beaches. Sand dunes provide a windbreak in stunning Parakeet Bay. Armstrong Bay has outstanding snorkelling, Fish Hook Bay its limestone cliffs. Strickland Bay offers wild waves for surfers, while Henrietta Rocks has a wreck to snorkel. There’s a beach and a bay for everyone, which is why you need a few days to find the one you love most. As for the quokkas, they love all.
There are some ten thousand quokkas on the island, and they don’t have to worry about becoming road kill. Visitors twist and contort themselves to get the perfect selfie, perhaps one with a quokka raising an eyebrow, or flashing a toothy grin. Roger Federer visited the island and his quokka selfie quickly generated over 500 million views. My wife took a photo of my attempted selfie, a meta-selfie as it were, as I tried to keep my kids from touching their new favourite living stuffy. Authorities strongly advise visitors not to pet, feed or make fun of the quokka, which is detrimental to conservation, and probably hurts its feelings. As always, the quokkas themselves are more than accommodating. I’m convinced these guys are one Pixar movie short from becoming global superstars. Q, from now on, is definitely reserved for Quokka.
After so many miles, misadventures and meat pies, I’m delighted to be launching The Great Australian Bucket List at last. If you’re reading this blog post, you might be wondering what on Earth this is all about, so I thought it best to use this opportunity to explain:
it is a beautiful and inspiring book (yes, an actual book printed on actual paper) about my personal journey to discover and tick off the most unique experiences Down Under.
it is a website to support that book with the kind of information books used to be good for but that websites do so much better, such as updated practical information, videos, interactive features and galleries.
it is not a travel agency.
it is not a dating site.
it is not trying to sell you anything, other than a more enjoyable existence, and perhaps, a laugh or two.
It all began way back in 2005, when I set off around the world on a backpacking adventure funded by a $20,000 insurance settlement, the result of a broken kneecap and the decision of an unlicensed driver to not pay attention to big red signs that say STOP. I learned many amazing things on this journey, and you can watch me talk about some of them here:
You see, you can’t do that in print. But you know what you can do in a book?
Tell stories. Inspire. Capture imaginations. And that’s what I started to do, writing long-form essays about my crazy trip to five continents. These were condensed into shorter essays for a local newspaper in Vancouver (where I live) and apparently, lots of people liked it. This led to stories being published in newspapers all over the world, and assignments to keep travelling. I never set out to become a travel writer, but I was rather pleased that I did.
The biggest misconception is that travel writing is a living, when in fact, it is a lifestyle. Low pay, long hours, crazy deadlines, crazier editors feeling the squeeze, constant change, relationship difficulties, sleep deprivation…all worth it, of course, but not quite the dream job everyone thinks it is. They were making TV shows about weird professions, and I thought travel writing is one of them, so I pitched an idea, and 7 months later found myself in front of the camera filming a 40 part series in 36 countries that was broadcast by National Geographic and Travel Channel in over 100 countries and 21 languages.
Using the wonders of digital technology, you can see what Word Travels was all about here. And yes, I am about to violate a cow.
This is when I first started thinking about bucket lists, because mine was flowing over. Tick one item off, another six more popped up. When the show wrapped, I decided to focus on my adopted home of Canada, and spent 3 years travelling everywhere to discover The Great Canadian Bucket List. The resulting book smashed it like an avocado in a hipster cafe. So I wrote another, The Great Global Bucket List, which didn’t do too badly either. And then I was approached to bring my fevered curiosity to Australia (along with my young kids, just plain fevered). And here we are.
I first visited Australia on my first big journey in 2005. I spent a month visiting relatives in Sydney, chasing romance in Western Australia, drinking with friends in Melbourne, and dodging roadkill along the east coast of Tasmania. There was so much to see and do, and too little time and money to see or do it. I have revisited the country several times since, to dive the Barrier Reef, to tick off my first 10K at the Melbourne Marathon. Even if you live in a country, very few people get the opportunity to fully explore it, to take on the Big Lap. Australia has a bounty of nature and history, culture and adventure, sport and food. I focused on the experiences you simply cannot do anywhere else in the world, the unique, the one-of-a-kind, and while I’m proud of how much we managed to do, I’m fully aware there’s still so much I didn’t get to. That’s OK. Travel is a intensely personal, life is not a race, and nobody should be judging your interests and accomplishments. There’s still time. Until one day, there isn’t. In the meantime, I hope readers and visitors recognize the purpose of The Great Australian Bucket List: it’s simply a platform to inspire, inform and entertain travellers about Australia, and a celebration of the very best experiences Down Under.
On that note, take a look around. Every month I’ll be updating the Bucket List with new stories, and if you have some of your own and don’t mind sharing them, send them along so I can post them here too. This is, after all, a national bucket list, one that is eager to enlighten everyone from kids to grey nomads. Thanks for joining me on yet another ride-of-a-lifetime.
