Trips To Australia

Dingoes & Possums Oz Experience Trip 2010

June 30th-July 16th, 2010

Wow what a trip! 41 of us on the move, our first stop Singapore!

The group met for the first time at Heathrow Airport at an early start on June 30th, 2010. With a quick check-in everyone was ready to make that all important step through security!! What a journey ahead.

There is nothing like being one amongst the passengers onboard the new Singapore Airlines A380 Airbus- what an experience!!! Singapore is now just around the corner….by a few thousand miles!!!!!!

Our first night in Singapore was a fantastic experience, half the group wanted to eat Singapore style food… the food was marvellous!! The group ate food they had never tried before, duck, squid and that dreaded CRAB!

Beautiful Singapore provided lots of entertainment…Raffles, the famous Singapore sling, the duck tour and even having your feet nibbled by fish. But all too soon we were back on the plane… Australia here we come.

After an 8 hour flight and a 3 hour bus journey we ended up in a fridge, welcome to a freezing cold Canberra. We decided to get the trip truly started by a famous “Ozzie Barbie”. The following day most of the group visited the zoo where we got our first glimpses of Australian wildlife.

We managed to find what appeared to be the only pub open in Canberra on the Sunday night and after a few alcoholic beverages we enjoyed a long walk back to the hostel.

After a small group from our teams visited the Canberra Hospital Children’s Ward our adventure continued…off we went to Birrigai and Tidbinbilla, where our conservation work started. There had been many rumours about our accommodation, mainly that we would have no hot water and electric so there was a big relief throughout the team when there were both of these things. On the second day at Birrigai we got to join in with the aboriginal festival where we enjoyed the aboriginal dancing and singing, the best part was having our faces painted as either Dingoes or Possums and also learning the legendary Wombat Wobble song!

There wasn’t much space at Birrigai to organise group activities but game master Lawrence was always on hand to start the games going and what fun we had. We also walked to the top of Gibraltar rocks and the sights up the mountain were breathtaking.

Back to work, mulching, weeding, planting trees and finding big spiders which made everybody scream. Words cannot describe the feeling of Birrigai and Tidbinbilla, but living in a place where Kangaroos are hopping about is extraordinary. Taz, Lani and Evelyn could not do enough for us; they made our week very special.

Onwards to Sydney. Our first night in the revolving tower restaurant lived up to expectations, this was only the start of our time in Sydney and already everybody was having a fantastic time. On the Sunday everybody had time to explore Sydney. Many of the group visited the zoo, the aquarium, the wildlife centre and lots of shopping was done, returning best foot forward with Ugg boots.

The next day we visited Bondi beach, many had a dip regardless of the weather, in amazement to some of the locals. In the afternoon the majority of the group experienced the ride of their life on the OZ jet, speeding around the harbour doing 360 degree turns.

Our time Down Under just kept getting better, everybody had experiences that will live with them forever. Chloe, Katie and Gareth experienced their first scuba dive in Australia’s waters. They had first sights of sharks!!!

One of the biggest highlights of the trip for a lot of the team was the Sydney Harbour bridge climb; these views will last with us forever. On our final day in Sydney we spent the morning at the Jewish Museum, where we met Eddy, a 90 year old Holocaust survivor. Eddy had such a fantastic outlook on life and we could have stayed listening to his stories all day. Our final night we all enjoyed a meal onboard a cruise around the harbour, this was a fantastic way to end our adventures down under.

Back on the big bird, for more Singapore slings. Some of the team wanted to visit the amazing boat platform on top of the casino but we were disappointed because it closed at 10 and we arrived at five past.

Home to a sad parting, but knowing full well we have all made friends for life!

Lots of Love

Gareth, Claire, Lucy and Mark

xx xx xx