Travelling to Australia - running suggestions, flies, and cell phones

I was in Sydney for the first time in October. Stayed in Parramatta, worked at the Olympic Park everyday. The training track was always open when I was there and lots of room on the roads. Parramatta River has a paved greenway/ path along both sides. Decent light rail to get where you want to be.

My cell provider has an international plan and I just went online and activated that. Received calls and texts no problem. You will need a power convertor and not just an adapter.

Its not the flies- beware of the magpies!

Depends where you are in Sydney.

Stick to driving around the red centre. If you must run, just do a simple out and back on the same piece of road/track. Don't run off the track cos lots of people die each year out bush going off track, sometimes within spitting distance of help, but they're just too buggered to realise it. You'll need to run real early cos it's friggin hot out there in February. Gotta a mate in the tourism industry who does outback tours but doesn't do them in Jan/Feb, he say's only idiots would voluntary go out there then, you're looking at in excess of 40 centigrade in the sun and enough flies on you to carry you away. Good luck.

https://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/australian-outback-survival.html

Could easily be too hot to run on those dates, especially up North and in the Centre.

+1 on not leaving the track/road in remote areas if you don't know the area (which you won't). Tourists die doing that here every year. In many places there are no discernable land marks, no water for hundreds of kilometers, no phone or internet reception, and it's 45 degrees Celsius in the shade. Experienced trekkers have died within hours not days.

On sleeping without a tent... You can, but there are a lot of things that could bite you. So at least a tent even without the fly is best. Sometimes thou can get away with just a tarpaulin in a good spot.

Be safe,

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did said: Travelling to Australia - running suggestions...

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Centennial Park is a 3.7km loop close to the city. It’s terrific. If you are in the inner west do the Bay Run. Go early to either, you’ll have lots of company.

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Magpie Attack wrote:

You will need a power convertor and not just an adapter.

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Not sure if sleeping without a tent is a good idea. Australia has a nice collection of the poisonous snakes in the world. But it probably will be the ants and flies who will eat you alive before the snakes will find you. Besides that I can't imagine it is a good idea to camp in the middle of the summer there.

As others said I would be careful with running in the outback. Getting lost and die of dehydration has happened before there.

Let this serve as an official unveiling of a previous unpublished LetsRun.com policy. From now on, all posts that tell people to google something when they ask a question will be deleted. The point of having a messageboard is to have a community. People ask each other for advice as they want to get help from human experts - not a computer. They also want to save time by having others who know the answer share it instead of trying to figure out which online source is legitimate, correct, etc.

Thanks very much for all the info.

running.
Sydney - thanks for the ideas.
Cairns - still looking for anyone's thoughts
Red Centre - I was not inclined to run, and after the comments above will not be running

camping
Sounds like I need to get a tent.

If I were to go fly fishing in Australia, I would bring some large clouser minnows (as I would for any saltwater fly fishing). Giant Trevally are brutal, so you will want a 9-10WT rod, and maybe a 8 wt for going after Barramundi in the fresh water. Be careful of crocs and pretty much everything else, as Australia is full of all sorts of critters that can kill you.

“Swags” are one-person bedroll/coverings that are sold at camping suppliers. It’s perfectly normal in the Outback to sleep on the ground near the road.

Who in their right mind would go to Australia?

I visited Sydney and Cairns (as well as Melbourne) on a 2017 vacation.

In addition to running in both cities, I highly recommend you do some water excursions. In Sydney, this should be a ferry ride to, say, the zoo or, better, Manly (or both in one day, which is what we did). We did the zoo in the morning and Manly in the afternoon and timed our return ride from Manly back to Circular Quay to catch the setting sun. This was one of the best boat rides I've ever had the pleasure of taking. And in Cairns, you could do a scuba day-trip or even a multi-day live-aboard (we did the latter) if you're a diver. If you're not I'm sure there are snorkeling day-trip operators. Another thing to do from Cairns is a Daintree Rainforest tour, which included a riverboat ride. Cairns is like backpacker central and there is no shortage of tour agencies offering any type of excursion. (Sorry, you didn't ask about excursions but I couldn't help myself -- it's fun to reminisce.)

As for running, in Sydney you absolutely have to go run along the Harbour, specifically east from downtown toward Mrs. Macquarie's chair and beyond. Run around the Opera House and up its steps, through the Botanical Gardens (lots of paths, though you'll likely exhaust them), wherever your curiosity takes you. If you're up for it, run all the way to, say, Bondi along New South Head Rd, spend the day in and around Bondi, and catch a bus or Uber back to downtown. Or while in Bondi you could walk or run the coastal trail down to Coogee to take advantage of having gotten out there. We walked the trail -- scenic and highly recommended. End your run with a beer at either the Clovelly or Coogee Beach Hotels.

I didn't run in Cairns so can't offer advice. If you're going there soon, it will be quite warm and very humid. Cairns much more downtrodden than Sydney, especially so as soon as you leave its downtown, so I'd exercise caution if you run while there.

if going to land down under, bring what's down under

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LetsRun.com wrote:

Let this serve as an official unveiling of a previous unpublished LetsRun.com policy. From now on, all posts that tell people to google something when they ask a question will be deleted. The point of having a messageboard is to have a community. People ask each other for advice as they want to get help from human experts - not a computer. They also want to save time by having others who know the answer share it instead of trying to figure out which online source is legitimate, correct, etc.

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did wrote:

Thanks very much for all the info.

running.
Sydney - thanks for the ideas.
Cairns - still looking for anyone's thoughts
Red Centre - I was not inclined to run, and after the comments above will not be running

camping
Sounds like I need to get a tent.

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Also... we drove all the way from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs, sleeping in tents at night. There were like forts so to speak as it gets quite busy out there in the dark. I wouldn't sleep in the open for sure and most certainly i wouldnt run at all while you are on the outback. Just enjoy that bit of your trip