SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
This city of sunshine, good times and friendly locals is fast becoming THE place to go for working holidays. Full of affordable youth hostels, great nightclubs and informal working environments, you’re sure to find a place to fit right in. There are numerous youth travel organisations in the UK that offer Aussie Gap Year packages, complete with orientations and pre-organised job interviews. If you’re a first time traveller, we highly recommend this gap year option.

WHISTLER, CANADA
Ah, the white slopes of the Great North, fresh air, warm fires and lots and lots of skiing. A popular choice for many students, working at Canadian ski resorts is a great way to make money, and it comes with plenty of downtime too – which you can spend on the slopes or even in the bustling city of Toronto. With a great music, art and cuisine scene, this destination is not to be missed by big city loving student travellers.

GIANT PANDA CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS, BEJING, CHINA
Spend part of your gap year making a difference in China through this one of a kind programme. You’ll be working closely with these endangered pandas and panda keepers and will even have the opportunity to teach English at a nearby primary school. Your weekends will be entirely free, so you’ll be able to visit some incredible cultural sites, including the Terracotta army museum. Immerse yourself in the local culture through various festivals and try your hand at a little karaoke at one of the city’s many karaoke bars. This kind of volunteer programme looks great on your CV too.

Remember: Any gappie adventurer needs to be prepared for anything, so it’s a good idea to purchase gap year travel insurance. That way you’re covered for any journey mishaps that may occur along the way.

Related articles

• Over-55s take more gap years than students (telegraph.co.uk)
• Gap year holidays: live Q&A (telegraph.co.uk)

Laggers point provides a dramatic setting for Trial Bay Gaol (Jail). It is the only example of a station prison specifically constructed to carry out a public work. Built from exceptionally hard local granite from the nearby hill, it created many construction problems. The construction of the seawall by prison labor, and object of the public work, was never completed.

Many of the original buildings at the prison no longer exist. Prior to 1900 three timber huts were used to accommodate some of the more trustworthy prisoners. You can still see the ruins of the hospital block and silent cells which troublesome prisoners were isolated. There are also remains of a building which housed light electric machinery, shoe smith, bathrooms and the bakehouse and kitchen. Washrooms, a watershed, six water tanks, a store, and a former underground water storage tank no longer exist. The water storage tank used to be 35 feet long, 25 feet wide and 18 feet deep, which held 37,700 gallons of water.

Both the Public works era and enemy alien era cells have been restored, and also the North Western Guard’s watch tower which gives you amazing views over the bay.

A plan was devised in 1861 to build a breakwater off Laggers Point to create a harbor for ships which were too big to cross the Macleay River mouths. It was planned to use prison inmates for the construction of the breakwater, hence Trial Bay Jail was established specifically for the purpose of housing the workers, and became a Public Works Prison.

Work on the prison started in 1877, and 64 cells were completed in 1886 when the first prisoners occupied.

The breakwater the prisoners were to build was supposed to go out 1,500 metres out into the bay. Over the years of construction strong winds frequently damaged the breakwater. Between the years of 1898-1899 a second wing (South) and a junction between the second wing and the older section of the prison was added to Trial Bay Jail, which suggested the breakwater work was going to continue. Alterations in 1900 were completed creating a kitchen, bakehouse and scullery.

Apparently the prison was costly to run and also at this time the government was rethinking their penology ideas and didn’t believe this type of work was an appropriate treatment regime, decided to abandon the project in 1903.

Only around 300 meters of Laggers point breakwater was built, which shoaled up the bay and made it very shallow for ships. A wharf was then built in 1898 within the breakwater to be used by passenger ships which couldn’t cross the Macleay River’s mouth.

Nowadays none of the wharf is visible, and only a very small section of the breakwater exists, around a 50m length.

The last use of the prison was between 1915-1918 when it was used as an enemy alien internment camp. Most of the detainees at this time were officers from the German Army Reserve. In 1917 It was rumoured that the Germans planned to rescue these men. When in 1918 an armed merchant raider the German Hilfskreuzer SMS Wolf was seen all the men from the prison were relocated to a larger prison on the outskirts of Sydney.

It was dormant for several years and was completely stripped of fixtures in 1922.

This was the last use made of the prison and it was stripped and fixtures sold off in 1922. Today it’s open to the public, operated as a heritage site by the National Parks and Wildlife Service

Today Trial Bay prison is open to the public 7 days a week from 0900-1630 and operated within Arakoon State Conservation Area, a heritage site by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It also provides thousands of visitors yearly with facilities for camping, swimming, boating, fishing and scenic walks.

On the 7th of September 2007 at 5,892 meters, I summeted Mount Kilimanjaro with a small group of friends. Raising just over £12,000 for the Amani Children’s Home in Moshi, Tanzania. It was an amazing experience especially spending some time in the home.

From January to July 2007 I trained to cycle the South Downs Randonnée. The South Downs Randonnée is a long distance bike ride, 100 miles, and is a significant test of endurance as over the drooling 100 miles you also have over 10,000 feet of climbing! I would not recommend this unless you are an experienced off-road biker, but if you are you will absolutely love this challenge.
The Randonnée route travels the full distance of the South Downs Way. It starts at Winchester, Hampshire and finishes in Eastbourne, Sussex. I raised just over £2000 for the Foundation of Infant Death.

I’m still deciding on what adventure I should take next? For the last while I’ve been thinking about climbing Mount Cho Oyo, but this is just too expensive for me at the moment.

Secondly walking the Bering Straight, after reading of several people having issues with entering Russia without going through border patrol such as Karl Bushby who was arrested.

Canoeing the Amazon would be great, but I don’t think I could afford to take enough time off to canoe 4,345 miles. So I would have to downscale it and canoe the Huallaga River which is a more modest 680 miles.

These all sound great, but I’m not living in Australia which make them considerably more expensive to do. So I’m now thinking of something easier to plan and undertake, something like the Kokoda track would be great. But is too short for a real adventure, as it could be hiked in 3 days, it’s 60 miles long.

I’m still thinking the Kokoda Track/Trail would be great to do. It’s a single-file foot way which runs 60 miles through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea.

The Kokoda track starts at Owers Corner and then crosses rugged and isolated terrain, rising to a height of 2,190 metres and only passable on foot, and then along to the small village of Kokoda.

If anyone out there is reading this who has walked this I would love to hear from you.

We visited the Garden in true Ming Dynasty style and hired Chinese costume. I was dressed as a warrior and Dorota as a Queen. It’s remarkable that such an amazing place is less than a ten minute walk away and we haven’t been there within the 7 months we have lived next to it.

The Gardens are full of large birds, koi carp and large lizards, it was a great day out and no doubt we will be back!

More info on the Chinese Garden of Friendship:

The Chinese Garden of Friendship’s design was inspired by a traditional Chinese art form dating back to the fifth century. It is the only authentic southern-style Chinese garden of its size outside of mainland China.

The Garden of Friendship is a Chinese garden proposed by the Chinese community in Sydney to celebrate the Bicentenary of Australia.

The New South Wales Government accepted this proposal and funded its construction. The Guangdong Provincial Government of the People’s Republic of China, holding in high esteem the friendship between Australia and China strongly endorsed the project and actively participated in it.

The Guangzhou Bureau of Parks and Gardens designed and supervised the project and worked in co-operation with the New South Wales Darling Harbour Authority to bring the Garden into being.

The Garden is situated in Darling Harbour. Set alongside the reflection of sails and gull-crested waves of water rippling out into the distance, the Garden captures the mood of a forest refuge in the bustling city.

The techniques employed are intricately manifested over the whole area of the Garden, revealing numerous variations within its confined space.

The Twin Pavilion with its linked roof symbolises the friendship between Australia and China, the Tall Triple-eaved Pavilion reaching up towards the clouds provides an excellent site for listening to the sound of moving water while resting against the railing.
The Double-Sided and Through-carved Dragon Wall depicts two dragons frolicking in the water, racing to fetch the pearl.

Rocks nestled amid bamboos and huts among the hills await the music of lutes to invite in the phoenix. The poetry couplets executed in fine calligraphy are infused with brilliance; their superb composition enhances the vibrant colours of the Garden.

The rivulets and the lights; the trees, rocks, birds and flowers, the setting for viewing platforms by ponds, the shelter of covered walkways and pavilions are all the creations of craftsmen who have extracted the essence of their inherent beauty.

On a fine day when the sun is shining, on a walk through the Garden enjoying the visual delights will leave one amazed at the boundless panoramas. A fondness for it lingers and thought of leaving are forgotten. Here in this Garden generates the warmth of a friendship which will endure for a thousand springtimes.

January 1988

It’s great to watch the film and find buildings we’re passing every day!
So here at Walsh Bay, just outside the excellent “in the mood for Thai” restaurant, Trinity makes a call and escapes from the Agents before the phone booth is destroyed by a truck.

The name of these mountains comes from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. The tinge is caused by electromagnetic radiation which occurs when incoming ultraviolet radiation is scattered by particles within the atmosphere creating a blue-greyish colour to any distant objects. It is widely, but incorrectly, believed that this is created by light reflecting off vapours from eucalyptus leaves.

I found some amusing information:

European settlers initially considered that fertile lands lay beyond the mountains, as was China in the belief of many convicts, but that this didn’t matter much, since the mountains were impassable.

A former convict, John Wilson, may have been the first European to cross the Blue Mountains. [...]Wilson was killed by Aborigines after abducting one of their women for his personal use. [...]

We visited the Blue Mountains months ago, during local late autumn. If you have strong legs, and shoes different than flip flops (yes, there were many tourists walking on these massive rocks with flip flops or thongs as the Aussies call them), there are great walking tracks down a cliff, there are amazing waterfalls and good photo opportunities, such as the view of the Three Sisters. There are also typical tourist attractions, such as the Katoomba Scenic Railway. Well, I guess the choice is yours.

The bridge is also the only surviving suspension bridge from the colonial period of NSW and was an outstanding engineering achievement for its time.

Hampden Bridge replaced a 2-span timber trust bridge which was built in 1879 and was offically opened on 19th May 1898 by Hon J.H Young, Minister for Works and was named after Lord Hampden, Governor of New South Wales 1895-1899.

The bridge is a sandstone and steel structure suspended on each side by fourteen steel cables 37mm in diameter, with a tensile strength of 79.6 tonnes. The clear span is 77 metres, width 5.5 metres and deck 16.8 metres above the river bed. The medieval style towers are 16.8 metres higher than the decking.

The bridge was designed by Engineers De Burgh & Allen of the NSW Department Public Works and was built at a cost of $16,764AU by contractors Loveridge & Hudson of Bowarl.

We hired two Kayaks, well in the northern hemisphere they are called Canoes, don’t ask me why but in Australia Kayaks. In fact they have both Canoes and Kayaks the wrong way round. So we hired two Kayaks from Kangaroo Valley Escapes for our very own self guided trip down the river.

We started from Hampden Bridge and finished about 5km downstream at Bendeela, it took a little over 2 hours. I would have liked to have kept on going but the cold and wetness of my hands was getting to me. Next time don’t let anyone talk you out of taking your waterproof jacket!

The kayak down the river was amazing, having some interesting conversation over how far Bull Sharks can swim up rivers and how far south crocodiles can go. Probably not the typical conversation whilst in a small plastic vessel.

We didn’t get to see much wildlife, most likely, as a group of cub scouts an hour previously kayaked the same area and scared it all off. But we did get to see quite a few Australian Water Dragons which looked amazing perched on the rocks.

I also was very lucky to have a Lyrebird copying me whistling, it’s amazing how they can imitate other noises. It’s not uncommon for them to make chainsaw noises. There is a great video on Youtube thanks to the BBC.

There are some amazing photos over at the Sydney Morning Herald site of the bridge.

I will post some photos later and talk a little bit more about our trip to Fish Rock Cave at South West Rocks. But in the meantime check out the video above which I filmed.