Recent Asia Photos

Bangkok
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/BangkokThailand?authkey=Gv1sRgCJS9ouC_tOKDDg

Batu Caves, Malaysia
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/BatuCavesMalaysia?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7V7d66uf7KYg

Pictures from The Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

Sorry I haven't had time to write about it, but Pat and I just got back to Kuala Lumpur after spending 5 days in the Perhentian Islands off the east coast of Malaysia. We stayed on the small island and it was the most beautiful place ever! Very hot and humid, but the water was perfectly clear and very warm. We spent most of our time on the beach and in the water, and one day out on a snorkeling trip where we saw a ton of beautiful fish and some nice coral.
 Tonight we fly to Bangkok and tomorrow Caitlin flies in to meet us. From there we will head to some more islands in the south off the east coast of Thailand.
 The pics should give you an idea of how great this island was!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/ThePerhentianIslandsMalaysia?authkey=Gv1sRgCMv44OH20Y2xowE

On to Southeast Asia!!

July 13, 2011

We're outta here!!

         Today we left for Malaysia after spending a night in the Gold Coast. We had planned on arriving in the Gold Coast in the morning and then going out for the day and coming back to spend the night in the airport. We walked to the nearby beach with our big backpacks and spent a couple of hours laying around. It was sunny but windy so we ended up getting pretty cold. We got pizza for dinner and then went back to the airport. We noticed that all flights out stopped at 9:30pm and when I asked an employee we found out that the stupid airport closed from 10:30-4am! Lame. There go our free nights sleep plan. We ended up having to walk to a nearby hostel which was probably a good thing because we were super tired after not sleeping much the night before. We took a nap and then had peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. We then went back to sleep which was a bit hard because the hostel was freezing cold and since we're headed to Asia we only packed for warm weather. Seriously not a pleasant accommodation and we left too early in the morning to even get the free breakfast. Perhaps you can detect a bit of resentment at the situation. I've really enjoyed most of my time in Australia but this country is just so damn expensive and we're tired of having to pay so much for everything. So it's a really great feeling knowing that we're headed to a much cheaper land!

         After getting some sleep, which really was a good thing, we got up early this morning and walked back to the airport. After carrying my backpack for the first time yesterday I woke up with sore shoulder, hips, and back. Man, I sound like an old woman. I'm sure my body will get to used to it, but my main thought here is how thankful I am that there will cheap massages in Asia because I think I am going to need them frequently! Ouch.

         We're on a 9 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and we're really excited! Unfortunately, this airplane is also freezing cold and because it's a budget airline there are no blankets and we don't have any cash left to buy a blanket. Dern. So hopefully we both make it to Malaysia without getting sick from all our time spent being cold in the last day.

         I won't be writing as often as I did on the road trip because I think we will generally be busier this time. I will post updates occasionally though filling you in on our Asian adventures. The general plan is to spend a week in Malaysia in KL and the Perhentian Islands and then fly up to Bangkok. My besty friend Caitlin is flying into Bangkok the day after us to travel with us for two weeks. It should be great to have her along and it will be so good to see a familiar face from home (in the very unfamiliar country of Thailand! :) After she leaves we are planning to head to Northern Thailand to stay with one of my mom's friends for a couple of days before heading east into Laos. From Laos we'll go into northern Vietnam, travel down south through the country and then west into Cambodia. Fairly loose plans because we don't know when or from where we will be flying home. We think we'll be in SE Asia for about 2 ½ months. So there you have it! Hmm, I can't wait for Asian street food....

Life in a share house

Mid June- Mid July

Life in a share house

         Our share house is a two story house that is broken down into three separate apartments. Each apartment has either 5 or 6 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. We all share a big backyard that has a hammock, hot tub and BBQ grill. The only commitment required to live there is that you will stay for at least 4 weeks, so there are people moving in and out regularly. When we moved in everyone else in our apartment was British and when we moved there were was an Australian, two Americans and two Argentinians. It was a fairly diverse group of people in the house, but most were young travelers stopping for a while in Cairns either to work or study English. We really liked most of our room mates and overall it was a fun place to live. Cairns as a town however is rather boring.

         Thank goodness three of the girls I met on the sailing trip were also in Cairns for the month that Pat and I were there. I spent a lot of days with the girls laying in the sun down at the lagoon. In general we lacked creativity so when it rained (which happened for about 1 week straight) we were cooped up in the house. We looked for jobs for the first week but then we decided that we would prefer not to work and just try really hard not to spend money so that we could leave for Asia as soon as the month was up. We probably would have been ready to leave after 2 weeks but we had already paid for 4 so we decided to stick it out. I had to keep reminding myself that being bored is actually a luxury because many people have to work so much that they rarely get bored.

         In the house we had frequent backyard BBQs with different people and spent a lot of evenings in the hot tub, before it broke a week before we left :( Pat read in the hammock often, which was ridiculously picturesque because it was hung in the middle of a bunch of palm trees so when you looked up you were covered in palms. When Diego and Karen from Argentina moved in to the room next to us we spent a lot of time talking with them and explaining funny English words and expressions with them. They were a really nice couple and one night they made everyone in the apartment 4 different types of handmade empanadas. In return I made an apple pie for dessert one night and cupcakes for Karen's birthday. They had never had cupcakes before so that was fun. Simon, a British guy who was there the whole time we were there made us all a beef and ale stew on our last night there. It was fun to share our “comfort foods” with people from different countries.

On our last day in Cairns Karen, Diego, Simon, Pat and I rented a car and drove up so an area nearby called Crystal Cascades. Instead of it being just one big waterfall, it was a really big, long stream that flowed down a hill and had many small waterfalls and swimming holes in it. We hiked down to a swimming area at the foot on the biggest falls and the guys swam in the cold water. It was very pretty and it was fun to get out of the house and so something different, and it was nice to have some new friends to do it with.

           Cairns wasn't a bad place but we are definitely feeling ready to move on. On the one hand I feel like it would be nice to go home and have a break from traveling for a little while. Yet on the other hand and I super excited for SE Asia. I can't wait to see the islands, eat the street food, buy cheap clothing and see a very different culture than I am used to. It certainly will be an adventure and I am just a little bit nervous about the unknowns, but I know it will be so good. So ends our nearly 8 months in Australia and a large part of our year out traveling the world. It's a pretty good life :)

July 2, Cairns

July 2, 2011

Where: Cairns, week 3

        It's been a while and once we arrived in Cairns I journal writing habits bit the dust. I will tell you about our final day with the van after we stayed our last night parked at a hostel in Cairns. It took us well over an hour to pack up all our clothes into our back packs, organize all the random objects we had in the van, and then clear it all out. It really was a mess and there was about two cups of salt underneath everything that we spilled a week ago. Kindof gross. Another couple was clearing out their van next to us at the hostel and they had had their van for just a month. It's always funny to see people's reactions when we tell them we traveled in a van for 7 weeks. It seems that most people can't even imagine doing that and I guess when I arrived in Australia I probably couldn't have imagined it either. Even with all the money we spent on the trip (I'll elaborate a bit more on that later), I certainly wouldn't have changed anything. People ask if we would do it again and I know would, probably on the west coast. Someday when I have earned a lot more money that I can afford to blow!

        So were scheduled to check into our share house at 2, which was the same time we were suppose to return the van. Luckily, when we stopped the by share house office at 11 they had our apartment ready. We had around 10 bags of stuff with us that we really didn't want to have to carry around town. We dropped everything off quickly at the house and met one of the room mates and then we realized we needed to get lunch before vacuuming out the van. We went into town for a quick Vietnamese lunch (yum!) and with only an hour left we went to fill up the van with gas. This would not have been a problem except that we also needed to vacuum out the van and we were told that there was a vacuum at the gas station which ended up being wrong. So we spent out last hour with the van rushing around trying to find a car wash and in the end we just swept out the van with a little broom. We pulled up to return it a few minutes late but we were stoked because we had gone the whole 7 weeks without leaving so much as a mark on the van! Besides a million dead bugs on the front of it. We were careful but we were also lucky. Hooray! After one last photo with the van we said goodbye to our temporary home and walked back to the share house. It was a bit sad to end the trip because it really was a wonderful, incredibly freeing way to travel, but we're also happy to have our own room now with a bathroom and living room and kitchen.

Recent Cairns Photos

https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/RecentCairnsPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCLHqm_rDp7PgJQ

Final Road Trip Pictures

Townsville
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/Townsville?authkey=Gv1sRgCJS8ud_E9pGcYg

The Tablelands
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/TheTablelands?authkey=Gv1sRgCJny36iH87mS3gE

Cape Tribulation
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/CapeTribulation?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLglZPk0tb3FA

Night time rainforest walk
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/NightRainforestWalk?authkey=Gv1sRgCMiU99_OrqzlLw

Port Douglas
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/PortDouglas?authkey=Gv1sRgCPfr3da8psjIDQ

Kuranda
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/Kuranda?authkey=Gv1sRgCNDe-cPqjYbSfg

Goodbye Van
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/GoodbyeJucyVan?authkey=Gv1sRgCNuwj5eOqIv9sQE

Baby Wallaby
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/BabyWallaby?authkey=Gv1sRgCKz7_7_Fu8jAigE

Cairns
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/Cairns?authkey=Gv1sRgCNqDrobNuPmEVA

More Pictures!

Town of 1770:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/TownOf1770?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPw6pa_luPkpwE

Angeline's Underwater Whitsunday Photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/MyFriendAngelineSUnderwaterShotsFromTheWhitsundaySailingTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWZ5PK0lc2VxwE

Andjin's Underwater Photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/BoatBuddyAndjinSUnderwaterPhotosABitClearerThanTheOthers?authkey=Gv1sRgCOL4nu2iwYHcygE

My Whitsunday Island Pics:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jdfigley/WhitsundayIslands?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiUntel16DV1wE

Day 46- (First) Descent Into Cairns

June 12, 2011- Day 46

Where: Kuranda to Cairns

Dinner: Noodles and toast

        We spent this morning in the small town of Kuranda up in the mountains a bit north of Cairns. It is covered in dense rainforest and is known for the markets that go on there every day of the week. It started with a small rainforest market and has expanded into three different permanent markets. They sell all sorts of things, some really neat locally made stuff like jewelry and clothing and some not so locally made items like tacky Australian souvenirs (made in China). Since we stayed the night there we got into town before the buses, trains, and gondolas started bringing people in. We made oatmeal and coffee at the little park and then walked around before many of the shops had even opened. The town started out nearly empty and by 11 it was full of tourists. In Lonely Planet it says that the town clears out again and precisely 3:30pm because that's when the last main transportation leaves. Kindof funny/weird to see a town empty and fill like that.

We enjoyed the markets and one of the most interesting shops was a candy making shop. We watched as they rolled, stretched and then cut rainbow hard candy. So cool!! For lunch we stopped at a German restaurant and had sausages with onions and sauerkraut. Reminded me of my days at Dolce Vita. Because we got there so early, we had seen everything by around 1. We decided to drive down into Cairns and find the hostel that offers one free night to Jucy vans.

        So today we made our (first) final descent into Cairns! It was odd driving into a town knowing that we are going to stay there. Instead of not caring what the town has to offer, I found myself really hoping that I liked what I saw. And I will say, my first impressions aren't bad. It's bigger than I expected, but still mostly walkable. We drove all around it today. There are lots of restaurants and bars and tourists everywhere. It was sunny so there were a lot of people down at the man made lagoon along the edge of town. There aren't actually beaches in Cairns, so they made the lagoon instead. The beaches are all a little ways north. It's supposedly the “party capital of Northern Queensland,” which sounds like it will be a fun enough place to live for a few months.

        We hung out at the hostel for an hour waiting for the office to reopen and once they did we found out they were full for the night. We booked a spot for tomorrow and then we drove back to the beach parking we stayed at two nights ago. We made some dinner and while we did 5 other camper vans pulled in. There is a “no camping” sign but now that there are 7 vans here I wonder if anything will happen. Very likely nothing at all will happen. So we're spending one more night sleeping in the van down along the beach and we have one night at the hostel tomorrow and then we turn it back in. So sad! I can't imagine not having it anymore. While I haven't loved every single thing about living in a van, I really am going to miss it once it's gone. Overall I'm feeling just a little sad that the trip is coming to an end. But it's not over yet!! (so stay tuned for more of my sad and reflective thoughts on leaving our Jucy friend)

Day 45- Port Douglas Day 2

June 11, 2011- Day 45

Where: Port Douglas to Kuranda

Dinner: Pasta with tomatoes, red bell peppers (capsicums), olive oil and parmesan

         Today was rather uneventful, but it was relaxing so that was nice. We left our spot at the beach along the highway (after making breakfast which was weird with so many people driving by) and drove back up to Port Douglas. We're basically just killing time and Port Douglas is a pretty area to be. We parked at a park along the water and spend a couple of hours reading and typing and just laying around in the van. The walked around the town again but it was still overcast so we didn't go to the beach. There was a wedding going on in the park so I went and watched that for a few minutes (come on if it's in public they can't be too surprised if strangers stop to watch). That really was about the extent of what we did.

        Later in the afternoon we drove a half hour up the mountain to the town of Kuranda where we will be spending tomorrow. We made dinner in a parking lot and while pasta with bell peppers and parmasean cheese may not sound that special to you, bell peppers have been ridiculously expensive for most of the time we've been here so we never ever buy them. We bought these from a roadside produce stand, which are one of my favorite parts about Northern Queensland. So many farms and so many cheap roadside stands! I'll miss not having a car to access them. Also, Parmesan was a splurge for us so the whole meal was rather satisfying to eat (in the dark in a parking lot).

          After dinner we went to one of two bars in Kuranda. Honestly, we mainly just went because the only public bathroom was already locked and I really wanted to use a toilet. We got there at 7:30 and then realized that they were closing at 8...on a Saturday night. Besides us there were only two other people in the place so I guess I can't blame them. But that gives you an idea of how happening the town of Kuranda is. To their credit, it is a beautiful little rainforest town with very cute buildings, and it's only 20 minutes from Cairns so they can get some city life when they want it. We just thought it was funny to hear them slam the door behind us as soon as we walked out at 8:05. We went and parked near the entrance to a public rainforest walk on a side road, closed up all the curtains and went to bed!

Day 44- On to Port Douglas

June 10, 2011- Day 44

Where: Cape Tribulation to Port Douglas

Dinner: Massive lunch overlooking the water, chicken noodles for dinner

           Woke up to pouring rain. Fitting as we are in the rainforest, but not ideal for exploring. We went into the hostel, which is actually outdoors but under big tents. It was still fairly warm but obviously very wet. We had some breakfast then hung around and read and typed for a while. We overhead some American guys talking and I found that I'm no longer that interested in talking to Americans. At first I liked it because it was fun to compare where we're from and whatever else, but now I kindof want to keep my distance because it just reminds me that all of this traveling will come to an end. Of course there will be some great parts of going back to the States like seeing my family and friends, but it's always a bit of a letdown to end your travels. The first week or so of being back is nice, but then I find that I miss the adventure of walking up every morning knowing that I today will see something brand new today. Traveling for long periods wears me out though too, so I guess it's just a balance. Anyways, hearing the guys today just reminded me to enjoy all the time I have left here. I suppose I just relate better to people who have been in Australia traveling and working for a while than those who are just here for a couple of weeks.

         Once the rain let up a bit we left the hostel and drove up north about 30 minutes to Cape Tribulation. It's not much of a town, but it's as far north as the paved road goes and there is a lookout there. You could see out to the mountains and also down along the beach. Today there were clouds covering the tops of the mountains and everything looked misty, which I thought was really cool. We did get pretty wet walking up to it but from there all we had to do was drive for another 45 minutes back down to the barge at the river. I'm so happy that we decided to visit this area at the last minute. The rainforest is such in incredibly place and I really enjoyed learning more about the plants and animals that live in it.

          This afternoon we arrived at Port Douglas which is about 45 minutes north of Cairns. It's a lovely little vacation town and a particularly popular destination for Australians on holidays. The town mainly just has a lot of cute little shops and cafes. It would be a wonderful place to come and indulge if you had a lot of money. It's not quite as fun if you're trying not to spend money, but it's still pretty. We had lunch at the sailing club and sat out on the deck overlooking the water and mountains. It was a gorgeous view, and the food was too bad either. Pat had the largest burger I've ever seen. He wasn't hungry again for the rest of the day. We walked around town and quickly visited their “Four Mile Beach.” It was overcast though, so not a good beach time. We drove up to a lookout over the beach and ended up hanging out in the van there for a while talking to Pat's mom.  

         Because Port Douglas is a touristy area it's harder to find somewhere to park for the night. We ended up driving south about 20 minutes before stopping at a beach parking lot. I hate driving around at night trying to find somewhere that looks good to sleep. Maybe it was just that I also wanted to be staying in one of the fancy hotels instead. Oh well, we found somewhere and it was fine. I think Pat and I are both getting a bit worn out with the road trip, especially since we have three more days and we're basically out of things to do up here. We were supposed to check into the hostel on Monday, but they emails us today saying they made an error and we can't check in until Tuesday. Lame. That won't give us much time to clean out the van before returning it, but it will work out. It will be relieving to move our stuff into a temporary home and be able to settle down for a while.

Day 43- Cape Tribulation Rainforest!

June 10, 2011- Day 43

Where: Cape Tribulation

Dinner: Leftover noodles with egg and spring onions

         Another last minute plan turns out to be incredible! After reading Lonely Planet extensively about the area we are in, we decided to take a barge and come up north of Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation. We read that it has nice rainforests and areas where the rainforest meets the sea, so we figured we should go up and have a look. We didn't really know what else there was to do up here, but they said it's a really popular day trip from Cairns. Alrighty, sounds good to us. We drove a ways up to catch the barge and along the river we were crossing we saw our first “Danger Crocodiles” sign. Creepy. We know to stay away from rivers and lakes in this area though so it should be fine.

         As soon as we drove off the barge after the 5 minute trip across the river we could tell this place was going to be amazing. You drive us a windy road heading up into the rainforest. The road was very narrow and we were completely surrounded by ferns, rock walls, and huge, incredibly green trees. The rainforest at its finest. We pulled over at the first lookout point and were able to look out over a big river and large expanses of rainforest bellow us. As we were looking out a couple of bright blue butterflies fly by. I heard a French couple talking about them and I could understand them so I even knew what to look for. Ha, that was my proud comprehension moment.

          We continued to drive up the mountain and then we stopped to do a short walk. When we got to the walk we were the only ones on the pathway so it was particularly nice. The rainforest is so beautiful and we always fine something new and different. Cassowaries, which are large flightless birds similar to emus, are common in this forest. They are the most amazing looking birds that are black with red and blue features on their head and a strange pointy looking thing that almost looks like a crown. We didn't see one because they are shy, but we did see one at the Australia Zoo. They have been around since the dinosaurs and they still go up into the hills to sleep safely at night because the dinosaurs would have slept on the forest floor. Pretty interesting creatures.

Since I decided to come to Australia Sara has been telling me that I have to come to Crocydilus Village, a rainforest hostel she and Allie stayed at when they were here around 12 years ago. Today we found Crocodylus Village and because the cheap campground we wanted to stay at was full we decided to stay in the van at the Village. We'll sleep in the parking lot but can use their amenities which will be excellent because we haven't showered in three days and it's getting rather humid. Hehe, we're getting used to this not showering for a few days way of life. The hostel really is cool though. It's all outdoors with huge tents above and the rooms are all big tent like cabins. It was only afternoon though so we kept driving up north a little ways. We stopped at the beach and the rainforest really does come right down to the sand. It was a bit different to see ferns and big palms right down along the sand.

          As we were driving we pulled over to get tropical fruit ice cream. This place only served one combination of ice cream a day, with four flavors in a bowl. The flavors of the day were blueberry, pineapple, wattle seed (tastes like mocha), and sapote (tastes like custard). The ice cream was amazing and it was fun to try some new flavors. There were huge orchards on the property so I assume they grow all the fruit they use. Yummy! I don't think you can ever go wrong with tropical fruit ice cream.

        Further north we pulled over to do another walk, this time in a mangrove area. Mangroves are marsh like areas that exist where water meets land. That's my best attempt at describing them. The trees that grow there (called mangroves, I believe) have adapted to this incredibly wet environment by having many large roots at the base of the tree instead of one solid trunk. They look like they have spider legs crawling all over the place. This mangrove was particularly muddy, I think the water was lower than usual. It was so weird to see roots spread our everywhere, half covered by mud. They really looked like hairy spiders in the mud. Some parts were almost too gross for me to look at :S Overall though it's a very interesting environment and I'm glad we got to walk through such a dense one.

         It was getting later at this point so we drove back down to the hostel. We made some dinner and then we went on a night time rainforest walk with a local guide names Possum. Apparently he's been doing this tour for around 15 years, so he's probably the same guise my sister had when she was here. There were 4 of us on the walk and it was a a pleasant temperature. They gave us super bright lights to hold so that we could try and spot animals and bugs. We went over all the different mammals and spiders and bugs that we might see and then we set out. Possum knows basically everything there is to know about this forest I think, and taught us a ton about the different trees and plants we were seeing. Unfortunately, it was a pretty quiet evening out in the forest and we didn't see much :( We did see a little bandacoot, which is a bit like an anteater. We also saw some little frogs, spiders, and large beetles. What was a bit ironic was that we were looking for possums. So the things that I have been running away from all trip were now the things that I was searching up in trees for. Ha! I'm glad we went with this guide though because I would never walk out into the rainforest alone at night, but with him things didn't seem very scary. It was a fun thing to do, even if we didn't see any particularly amazing animals.

PS- If you are following the posts you should hit the "follower" button on the side so I know who I'm writing to :)

Day 42- More from the Tablelands

June 8, 2011- Day 42

Where: Yungaburra to Atherton- Tablelands

Dinner: Thai noodles with chilli sauce and spring onion

        Woke up to a very light rain which seemed appropriate since we were parked directly next to a section of rainforest. After eating cereal and tea the rain and had stopped and we went for a short walk. There are supposedly a lot of tree kangaroos in the area (they look like a cross between kangaroos and possums) but unfortunately the only one we saw was on the road and was no longer alive :( On that note, we have seen so many dead animals on the road in the past couple weeks. Tons of roos and wallabies and recently more birds. No more wombats though! So maybe I should change my blog name to “Why Do Any Animals Cross the Road?!). Poor animals, we're all up in their territory.

         We still don't have any firm plans for the next few days, so for now we're wandering our way through all the little towns in “the tablelands” area west of Cairns. Today we drove through Yungaburra which was probably the best town of the day. A little historic town with a few really cute little cafes. There was also an enormous, little seriously huge, strangler fig tree. A strangler tree happens when a seed lands on branch of another tree and then germinates. Its roots grow down the tree it landed up and eventually grow into the ground. As it gains nourishment it continues to grow and eventually it grows all around the tree it originally landed on and the first tree dies. This fig tree must be thousands of years old (I never found a number) because it has grown so big that it has strangled two other trees. You can't even imagine a tree like this one. It looks like it has really, really long hair because it has so many roots growing down from it. If you have a minute I would recommend you google image search “curtain fig tree” because it's really pretty amazing. We resisted the urge to eat at one of the cute and instead pulled over to make some fried egg sandwiches for lunch.

From Yungaburra we drove to Atherton, which is one of the bigger towns in area but really didn't appear to have much going on. There was once a Chinese settlement in the area and you can still go see the temple they built using corrugated metal. We stopped to look around the area and read about it's history. It's very strange to see a temple made out of metal. Pat was bummed that they didn't sell pork buns at this “Chinatown”. After looking at the temple we continued on to Mareeba.

        Mareeba had a bit more going on. We visited a coffee museum but were too cheap to do the tour. At this point we've passed up so many museum tours I'm not sure we'll ever actually do one. Instead we looked at the really cool gift shop and ordered a coffee. We're getting towards the end of the road trip and I think we're starting to get a bit run down. We've been slow and tired the past couple of days, needing mid day caffeine pick ups. After our coffee we went to a tropical fruit winery. We've never seen a fruit winery before so this was pretty cool. We tasted around 15 different wines made from different fruits, some we'd never even heard of. Mango, passion fruit, custard apple, lychee, and mulberry to name a few. We ended up buying a bottle of lime wine. How cool is that!? I think our plan is to drink it with some thai food.

We visited one other fruit winery in town, but this one specialized in mango wines. They had a few different citrus “cellos” like limoncello and limecello and they also had some delicious mango wine and sparkling wine. It's actually a mango farm that just does wine as a side job. Unfortunately we missed mango season. Hopefully we'll hit it while we're up in SE Asia. Apparently eating a mango right from the tree will change your life. At least that's what the lady told us :)

        This evening I washed my hair using a water bottle at a park. Pat was hilarious negative about having to help with such a ridiculous activity, but I feel much better now! I offered to help him but he passed. Silly. We're spending the night in a park parking lot, but the park is more like a big dead field with a play toy in the middle. As I type this there are like five mozzie flying around me. Pat's laughing at me as I keep trying to reach out and grab them. This morning I woke up with 4 bites on my feet. This happens to me like every night and this morning Pat had one on his foot. He was so excited about his one bite, like it was a quaint little thing to have. Meanwhile I'm scratching my feet until they bleed. Awesome. I must just have yummy feet. It's ok, I just took a break to spray bug spray all over the inside light. Take that mozzies! The downside to tropical locations.

Day 41- The Tablelands

June 7, 2011- Day 41

Where: Millaa Millaa- Tablelands

Dinner: Chinese food made by Patrick! Ginger eggplant with soy dressing and sesame seeds and beef with bell pepper, ginger and spring onion.

        We started into the Tablelands area today. We drove a bit west away from the coast and today we drove through beautiful mountain and fields. The roads were narrow which made for slightly stressful driving, but it was great to get away from the crowded beaches and cities we've been in recently. I love a change in scenery. We left from Innisfail and went through a section of rainforest. We pulled over at one point to take a short walk down to a waterfall. Because of a huge cyclone they had a few years ago the trail didn't lead all the way to the bottom of the falls, but we did get a pretty good view of it. It was amazing, but it was only the first of many that we saw during the day. From there we turned off onto a different trail which lead to another waterfall that was much wider. It had an awesome viewing spot and we hung out there for a while. Waterfalls are mesmerizing, and this was one of the biggest ones I've seen.

        We drove out of rainforest area for a while into the hills and fields that I mentioned. They were covered in a wheat or hay looking plant with purple tips, so when the light was right some of the fields looked purplish. Really lovely to drive through. We stopped up on a hill at a little creamery. It produced milk and yogurts and there was a small house cafe. We stopped and had some Devinshire tea which is so fun! We each got a warm scone with tropical fruit jam and thick cream to put on it. We ate that along with the local tea that they served us. We had stopped at a roadside stand to buy tea earlier in the day, and it was this same tea that the cafe had. Good thing it turned out to be tasty. We sat out on the porch overlooking the fields and had our tea. You can imagine we were feeling pretty good about our lives at this point. Oh yes, and Pat was using his British accent that he always uses when we have afternoon tea, so I was laughing as well :D The mountainside detour comes through for us once again!!

        From the mountain we drove back into rainforest area and took a road along a “waterfall drive”. Along this road there were three very impressive waterfalls to stop at. One was the longest dropping waterfall in Australia, and one had a big pool you could swim in at the bottom. We got there too late in the afternoon, however, and the pool was in the shade. There was a tour bus of people swimming in the water, and by the looks of them the water was very cold. Hopefully we'll swim in some falls at some point.

Tonight we're parked right next to a rainforest park that also has a small falls in it. We can hear the waterfall from our van. Pat cooked a wonderful dinner of Chinese food tonight. I'm always impressed with what he can produce with only our one little burner. Tonight we was over at a pick nick table chopping up eggplant, ginger, garlic, onions and meat while he had me toasting sesame seeds in the van. The final result was two incredibly restaurant quality dishes. Whenever I tell him it tastes like a restaurant he tells me that he's been to a restaurant once or twice. Haha Mr. Smarty. ♥

Day 40- More rest stop adventures

June 6, 2011- Day 40

Where: Townsville

Dinner: Minestrone soup with grilled cheese sandwiches

          Today started out on the wrong foot with Pat and I having a conversation that ended with us being annoyed with each other. It's not surprising that after being together for every second of the last 6 weeks that our patience with each other is sometimes lacking, but it's still not a fun way to start the day. We made eggs on toast and then set out walking into town. Townsville isn't too big, but they do have a long sidewalk along the beach called “The Strand.” Sound familiar?! It wasn't as nice as the LA Strand, but it was very tropical looking. We're officially in “tropical north Queensland” now. In fact, we're only 3 hours from Cairns so we had to come up with a plan today of how we're going to spend our final week with the van. We've decided to go west a bit and drive through some of the rainforests up here. We're going to go up past Cairns and then come back down along the coast into Cairns on the 13^th when we check into our extended stay share house. At that point we're going to need to get pick up some casual work to make enough money for our SE Asia travels. But that's not the point of today's entry!

         Today we spent a couple of hours walking down along the water and it was the first day that we've really experiences humidity. It gets crazy hot and humid up here in the summer, but because it's winter it shouldn't be too bad. It sure didn't feel like my idea of winter! It was probably 80 degrees today. Lovely. We tried to find some Vietnamese food for lunch, but it turns out there isn't any in Townsville. Bummer. We decided on cereal instead, hehe.

        We left town and drove a little ways up north where we stopped at a rest stop for the night. We made some grilled cheese and canned soup. I went to go to the bathroom and I was checking out the ceilings because that's what I do now in rest stops. I've seen so many creepy spiders and lizards in them that I get paranoid now. I was noticing how much cleaner this bathroom seemed than some others and then I noticed something rather large up along one of the ceiling beams. It was too big to be a spider and it was round. I realized that it was a frog, like a bright green tropical frog!! I looked around and found that there were 5 other smaller frogs around too. I just had to laugh. This country never ceases to surprise me. At lease tonight's surprise is a cute brightly colored one, and not a horribly scary one that wants to kill me. Or perhaps these frogs are deadly and I just haven't gotten to the page about them in the Lonely Planet yet. Oh my. The joke is that everything in Australia wants to kill you, and after reading all the different signs at the beaches I believe it! At all the beaches they have signs about jelly fish and they even put out vinegar for you to douse your sting with if you get stung. Scary. It's not the dangerous time of year for them, but apparently there could still be some out there. What did I ever do to a jelly fish to deserve this threat?! I don't know about all of this! Did I mention we're also up into crocodile area now? Luckily I went to the Steve Irwin Zoo so I know how to avoid them! Hopefully my knowledge serves me well (fingers crossed!).

        Oh yes, and I also got to talk to my mommy tonight so that made me happy :) Don't worry mom, I'll stay away from crocs and if I see a jelly fish I'll kick it in the face. Unfortunately you can't see all of them, but not to worry, I'll figure something out! I'll make an offering to the jelly fish god or something... I'm open to suggestions.

Day 39- Townsville

June 5, 2011- Day 39

Where: Airlie Beach to Townsville

Dinner: Pasta with brown butter sauce, corn, pumpkin, and fresh scallops.

         It was sad this morning to leave Airlie Beach since it's the first place we've really made friends. I wish we could have taken some of them along to travel with. We have each others contact info now though so hopefully we'll meet up with some of them in Cairns. This morning it was overcast and by the time we checked out of the camping area and parking down by the lagoon it had started misting. We checked out the little swimming lagoon but didn't swim because of the rain. We walked through town once more time before getting some Dominos pizza for lunch. We even passed one of the girls from the boat and we were walking back to the van.

         There isn't really a whole lot left between Airlie Beach and Cairns and we still have 8 days left with the van. We're having a bit of a hard time planning where to go. I think we're going to go north passed Cairns and see what's up there before going back to Cairns to return the van and check into our hostel. So today we drove two hours up to Townsville, the last city before Cairns. It rained on and off throughout the day, and Pat and I were both pretty tired from the past few days. It was another one of those days where we wished we had a big couch to lay on all day. It's a bit surprising how much I find that I miss having access to a couch. We had a rather uneventful day driving and we got to Townsville just as it got dark.

        We're parked at another hostel that has super cheap parking rates for Jucy vans. The benefit is that we get to use all of their amenities. We bought some fresh scallops in the shells at a little roadside seafood store. In the kitchen at the hostel we made a brown butter sauce with fresh corn in it and then a really nice older guy offered us half of a pumpkin that someone had just given him. We added that to the pasta and then shucked the scallops and cooked them. It was a very tasty meal! I love scallops. Tonight marks the first night that we've slept in the van inside of a parking structure. It's actually a bit weird to be surrounded by concrete, but there are some open areas so it's not stuffy. Tomorrow we're planning on spending the day looking around Townsville.

Days 36-38: Whitsunday Islands!

June 2-4, Day 36-38

Where: Whitsunday Islands

This is another long post, but it's been one of the best parts of the trip so I want to remember all the details.

        Oh man, it's hard to even know where to begin. I've just gotten back from the islands and have taken a much needed shower and now I'm tired! I have to get going on this however, or I may not get back to it. So I'll start with the first morning when we had to meet the boat down at the marina. We checked in at the hostel booking agent and then told us to be at the marina at 9:15 and they gave us a little map of how to get there. We had plenty of time and were packing and left with 15 min to get there. The town in tiny so we thought we'd be fine. However, the map was basically worthless and we couldn't remember the directions exactly, so we ended up rushing all over the town trying to find the marina. I stopped and asked for directions but they were tourists and didn't know. Figures. I called the booking office in a panic trying to ask for directions but I couldn't tell them where I was. I finally ran into a hotel and asked the front desk. We got to the marina at 9:20 and I was literally running in one directions looking for the meeting place while Pat paid for parking. I had to stop and ask for directions from a really nice shopkeeper who talked very slowly. Her husband was in the shop too and together they were trying to figure out what meeting place I was meant to be at. They were talking very slowly (and not even by my rushed standards) and I finally just had to say, “I'm running really late and am getting stressed out. Thanks for the directions,” and then I ran back out to the van. I grabbed my bags and ran ahead while Pat followed. Once we got to the meeting place at 9:25 everyone was just sitting around waiting for the captain anyways. It ended up being such a stressful morning when it shouldn't have been at all! But we made it onto the boat with the only real problem being the blisters my flip flops had given me.

        We were on the “Samurai” boat which is a racing yacht that was built in 1979. It was raced for a while and then sold and turned into a touring sail boat. The deck and the outside of the yacht have been kept up very nicely. The living quarters beneath deck weren't bad, but you could tell it was a bit old. It smelled of musty sea air, but from what we saw in brochures many of the boats seemed to be old and similar to ours. Our bed was up at the front of the boat so our feet were stuck down at a point. Beneath the boat didn't matter much however, because we spent all our time above deck!

        The first day was sunny(!!) and we spend about an hour going out to Hook Island. Our first snorkeling spot was also the sight of our free introductory scuba dive. We split up into groups of four and the captain (a sort of bro-ish dude in his mid 30s) took us out in our groups. Most of us were quite nervous and I certainly was. They are quite strict restrictions on scuba diving in Australia and because Pat has asthma we don't know if he'll pass a dive medical and get cleared to dive. Intro dives are shallow though and his asthma isn't too bad these days so he was able to do the intro dive. We still don't know if he'll get cleared to do deep dives. Anyways, I was a bit nervous for him to dive, but he was totally fine, and we went together in the first dive group.

          The instructor showed us a few basic skills in shallow water before we went down. I was feeling good about breathing in the regulator in shallow water but when they put the weighted belt on me and I sunk down under I started to get nervous. I had a brief moment of wanted to back out of it, but I knew I would completely regret it if I did. The instructor was really good about moving slowly and checking on us regularly, which made me feel safe. If felt a lot like snorkeling only with a big heavy thing on your back. We didn't go too far out and we were only under for about 15 minutes, but we did get to see some nice coral. It's cool just to be down there completely surrounded by water. While we were scuba diving I found that I couldn't enjoy everything we were looking at quite as much as when snorkeling because I was also focused on breathing and not drowning and such. But while snorkeling I was able to enjoy every detail of what I was looking at.

I can't even begin to explain how amazing the reef is here. We weren't in the best of the best of the Great Barrier Reef, but the Whitsundays do have some really good stuff. It is absolutely another world down there. It is so quiet that you can hear “snap, crackle, pop” noises that come from the little organisms that make the coral. You can also hear when nearby fish go up to the coral to feed off of it. They make little crunching noises. It may sound a bit cheesy, but I honestly felt grateful towards the sea life for letting me come and observe their world. It's a whole new landscape with completely different colors and sounds than the rest of earth. Where else in nature do you see florescent colored creatures that almost appear to glow? While all of us were out there snorkeling the first day we just kept coming up and talking to each other about how incredible it all was. It was low tide where we were so the coral was in shallow water, in some places only inches underneath of us. I could go on forever about how beautiful it was. A few of the people on the boat had underwater cameras and I got some of their pictures after wards so I'll put those up. It was so exciting to finally get to see the Great Barrier Reef!

         The other neat thing about where we dove the fist day was the beach. Not all of the beaches on the islands are open to the public, but this one was. The beach was completely covered in small pieces of dead coral that had washed up. I've never seen a beach completely covered in coral. It's actually a bit sad that so much coral has died and washed up from people walking on it, but I'm sure that happens naturally as well.

The evening of the first night we anchored in a nearby bay called Butterfly Bay I think. We had a steak dinner and then we all sat around on the deck drinking and listening to music. We had a really great group of people on the boat and it was fun to get to know them all. There were 13 of us total which was lucky because there can be as many as 20 people on a trip, which would make for a very crowded boat. There were people from Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Hong Kong, Canada and England and everyone spoke English pretty well. Pat and I got really tired early the first night so we were the first to bed. It was also really cold upstairs the first night. I didn't love where our bed was because it made me feel a little bit claustrophobic, but there was a door nearby that led up to the deck so having that open all night helped.

         The next morning we were the first of the passengers up and it was nice to be the only ones sitting up on the deck as the sun was rising. We had wonderful weather the first two days with calm water and perfectly clear skies. Without wind weren't able to put the sails up, but having calm water to snorkel in was perfect. We arrived at Manta Ray Bay early, earlier than most people wanted to get in the water in fact. Pat was awesome though because he always wanted to get in the water and was always one of the first people to get put his wetsuit and gear on. We couldn't go on the beach at this site so we all jumped off the boat and swam in towards shore. This time the tide was in so there was more water over the reef and the water wasn't quite as clear, but the coral was still beautiful. We were hoping to see turtles at this site, but unfortunately we didn't. Apparently Manta Ray Bay is one of the best snorkeling spots in the Whitsundays and in fact, we had to convince another yacht to let us have their mooring because the only other spot where we could anchor was taken. It was here that we saw our first really big fish. There was a big green and blue one and another big gray one. We would try and follow the pretty ones but then I would usually get distracted by another really pretty fish. I can't believe how many kinds of fish there are! And types of coral and plants as well. Like I said, there is just a whole other world under water.

        After sausages for lunch we laid out on the deck as we motored along for an hour or so to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven Beach is the most famous beach in the Whitsundays, and one of the best beaches in all of Australia. In fact, it is sometimes listed as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Somehow I had missed all of the hype about this beach and I had no idea what it looked like. We anchored offshore on the opposite side of the island. They took us to show in a little boat and then we had to do a 15 minute walk through the woods to get to the beach. However, we first hiked up to a lookout on the hill. As we came our of the woods onto the look out everyone gasped. We had never, ever seen a sight like this one. There's no way to describe it except that the sand and the water looked like a tie dye of white and multiple shades of teal and blue. The sand in similar to the sand at Lake MacKenzie on Fraser Island where it is perfectly white and incredibly fine. There is a huge beach and it shallow a long ways out into the water. After taking a million pictures from angle of the lookout, we all walked down to the beach.

         As we started walking across the beach we noticed a few small crabs in front of us. They scurried along and then popped down into little holes in the sand. We noticed some small groups of them but then always ran away from us before we could get too close. I looked up and saw some darker patches of sand in front of me and then I realized that it was darker because the sand was completely covered by little crabs running along. I looked around and that we were completely surrounded by swarms of these crabs, all running away from us. I suddenly felt like I was in a Tomb Rader film or something and I imagined them all rushing at me trying to eat me. Luckily, these guys were running as fast as they could away from my and then always got out of my before I reached them. It was truly insane how many crabs there were, and even weirder to think of how many more there were buried in the sand.

         It was almost a 10 minute walk across the beach to the water, and once Pat and I got to the water we walked another 10 minutes out before the water got any deeper than our knees. We could see small rays out in the perfectly clear water but we never got too close to one. Once we got to the actual ocean area we realized that there was a fairly strong current and it wasn't that great for swimming. We also saw that the rest of the group had moved further down the beach so we walked back to join everyone.

        We only had a couple of hours at the beach and we spent it looking for rays, throwing a ball around, and generally frolicking in the insanely blue water. Us girls had a fun photo shoot together and when the guys' turn came around they about killed us with laughter by doing a somewhat R rated photo shoot of their own. Our time at the beach was capped off with a couple of Swiss guys running ahead of us all so that they could strip down and along the beach with no clothes on. Thankfully they were a long way from us, haha. While we were there the tide had gone out too much for the boat to pick us up where it left us. It came around to the beach where we were and they came in with the little boat to pick us up. It was sad to leave Whitehaven because I don't know if I'll ever see a beach as gorgeous as this one again. There really can't be too many other prettier ones on Earth!

        The second night we had roast beef for dinner and then spent another evening up on deck drinking and listening to music. The night was warmer than before and we didn't get tired nearly as early. We stayed out until almost 1am with everyone. It was so fun having being with a group of people our age after traveling together with just the two of us for so many weeks. I got to be friends with a couple of British girls in particular and a German girl, Laura. Laura had a leather band wrapped around her wrist a few times and I mentioned that I liked it. It was kangaroo leather and she had some extra in her bag that she gave me when we got back to Airlie. Now I have a kangaroo band too!

         The next morning we were up early again and we motored along for about an hour before arriving at a fairly small sand spit island that is a particularly good spot for seeing turtles. It was overcast that morning and we were all a bit cold, but we took the little boat in to the beach and snorkeled around. It didn't take us long to find our first turtle. We swam along with it and many of us dove down to touch its back. Sea turtles are so cute and chill. They just swim along slowly, looking like they have no where in particular to go. We ended up seeing probably 8 turtles at that spot, some of them were just laying down in the coral. It was exciting each time we found a new one. It was so much fun to swim with them! I got cold after a while and a group of us girls swam back out to the boat to get warm. Pat was the last one left in the water, getting back on the boat only when they told us it was time to go. That guy could snorkel all day long! It was our last snorkeling spot though, and it was a really pretty site.

        At this point we had a ham and salad lunch and then started heading back towards Airlie Beach. It was overcast and windy which was perfect because it meant that we got to put the big sails and up and sail! I've only ever seen small sail boats that just sail along peacefully, but because this was built to be a racing yacht it didn't just sail along calmly. Once the sails were up the boat tipped far to one side and we call had to sit up on the other side of the boat holding onto the handrails. The wind wasn't super strong but I'm glad because I think it would be almost scary if that boat tipped anymore. Luckily no one got seasick. He said once when it was rainy and windy the boat was tipped so much someone almost fell over the side. Greaaaaat. It was awesome to see such a boat sail though and we all had a great final hour on the boat.

         It was such a perfect trip weather wise, we couldn't have asked for anything better at this time of the year. We were bummed for the trip to end, but we were all looking forward to some good hot showers to get the salt off. I certainly wasn't going to miss the boat bathrooms :P We all planned to meet up at a bar that night where they gave free pizza out to people who had just returned from sailing trips. It turned out 5 other people were staying at the hostel where we parked, so we kept running into people during the afternoon. I met up with a couple of people to exchange photos. That evening at the bar we all had a really fun night together complete with many cheap drinks and neon paint wars (because there was a black light party going on).

Pat and I capped of the night with a stop at a pie shop because meat pies are the best midnight snack ever. Then we couldn't figure out how to get back into our hostel because the main door and the side gate were locked, so we ended up climbing over the gate. As soon as we were over we realized that there was a security guard sitting about 15 feet away with his back to us. He clearly wasn't too observant because he didn't notice us and we laughed about it all the way back to the van. We were exhausted from the trip and from the night out and it took us about 1 minute to fall asleep once we got back. Such a good ending to our wonderful Whitsunday trip!

Day 36- Airlie Beach

June 1, 2011- Day 36

Where: Emu Beach to Airlie Beach

Dinner: Thai food, with chocolate cereal before bed (is that like dessert then?)

         Today was rather uneventful, which I suppose is a good thing when you spend the day driving. We left Emu Park early, after having our cereal and coffee. I drove for the first three hours and all we ate until afternoon was ice cream bars and a bag of chips. That's some serious driving food right there! We finally stopped to buy supplies to make a real lunch and then Pat took over driving. We stopped to buy some beers to take on the boat with us tomorrow. Later as I we were driving I read over the trip info and realized that we can't take glass bottles with us on the boat. Everything we bought was in glass bottles! So once we got into Airlie Beach we had to stop to get canned drinks.

        Airlie Beach is the jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands. It's not big, but it's a fairly happening place. There are a lot of bars, restaurants and sailing booking shops. We didn't spend much time in town this evening. We wandered around and found a Thai place to get dinner. We came back and packed up for tomorrow. We leave at 9:30am. We'll be back in Airlie Beach overnight when we get back in three days. There is a cool swimming lagoon here which would be fun to hang out at if it's hot. At this point I just can't wait to see the Whitsundays on a yacht!

Day 35- My Aussie surf attempt

May 31, 2011- Day 35

Where: Town of 1770 to Emu Beach

Dinner: Turkey sandwich on the way out of town

         First of all, happy birthday to my wonderful sister! I love you and miss you and hope you had a really great birthday weekend with the fam ♥ (sorry this is late now...)

         We've heard great things about The town of 1770 so today I was interested to see what it's about. Where we woke up was along the water and it was nice. There are some random sand spits out in the water here which make it look like it would be hard to navigate a boat around. Yet, there were still quite a few boats anchored out in the water. The beach on Agnes Beach, the little sister town to 1770 is the northern most beach at which you can surf. From here on up the waves die out because of all the reefs in the water. So at our final surfable beach we finally rented a surf board for me to try.

        There was only one surf shop in town and the boards they rented out weren't especially good, but we didn't have any other options. I got a big, tall and thick foam board. It seemed like a good beginner board to me but once we got in the water Pat said it wasn't as buoyant as you would hope for. Oh well, this was my last chance! I could have taken some surf school lessons, but Pat already knows how to surf so I got my own one on one lesson. Unfortunately, there were hardly any waves at all today. After a few quick pointers I got out in the “waves.” I mainly just ended up riding the little waves in on my stomach for a while. I also practiced popping up while Pat held the board steady for me. I ended up feeling a bit frustrated and cold so I went in for a break on the beach. The greatest part about today is that it was the first truly warm, non windy day we've had so far. We were able to lay on the beach and not get cold! We had the board for 4 hours, so I ended up laying in the sun for an hour and a half before I got back in the water.

        Actually, I almost didn't get back in the water. I was so happy on the beach that I didn't want to get back in. I figured I had given it a try, but Pat said he felt like a failed teacher if I didn't even stand up and ride something. After a mental battle with myself (which involved me spouting out some frustrated words) I finally marched myself back into the water. After a bit of a spiel about how I'm not cut out for ocean sports, Pat pushed me into a little wave and while I was riding the white water towards the beach I popped myself up and I didn't even fall off! Ok people, so at this point I take all my previous negative comments back because I am clearly a natural. Baha! Not so much. I was able to stand up on a few more similar “waves”, but that is where my talent ran out for the day. I basically just got worse after that. With sore arms and legs, and a bit of a scraped knee, I decided to call it a day. I felt good that I hadn't given up and that I had managed to stand up a few times, and Pat could feel like he hadn't failed as a teacher. I didn't ride a real wave, but I like to think I got the hardest part out of the way. Is the first day truly the hardest part? Or is like snowboarding where you get up on the mountain and you snowplow for a while, feeling pretty good about yourself, and then someone shows you how your supposed to carve and you realize that you haven't even begun the real challenge? Let's hope not. I'm sure I'll try it again sometime.

        After returning the board we drove up towards the point where Captain Cook first set foot on land. Oh yes, and I learned that the history I described yesterday was wrong. This town isn't the first place where Captain Cook discovered Australia. That was Sydney Harbor. This is where he landed the second time he came to Australia, officially discovering what is now the state of Queensland. Now we can all feel better about our more accurate knowledge of Australian history. We walked out to a pretty overlook that had a nice view of the beach.

        From there we went back into town to a the same travel booking company where we booked our Fraser Island tour. We're getting close to the Whitsunday Islands up north, which are an unbelievably gorgeous series of tropical islands with coral reefs all around. The popular thing to do it take multiple day sailing trips through the many islands, stopping to snorkel or dive along the way. There are a million different boating trips and we needed some advice about what to do. We met a really helpful guy who ended up getting us a good deal and booking us onto a 3 day, 2 night yacht tour. Oh my goodness, I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about the trip. It's on a nice racing yacht too, so we should be able to cover some serious distance. The boat only holds 20 people, and we get one free introductory scuba dive. We still don't know for sure whether Pat will get cleared to do serious scuba diving, but we will probably both be able to at least do the intro dive. We leave in two days which means that most of tomorrow will be spent driving. That's ok because the area we're in right now doesn't have many nice towns along it. The Whitsundays really are the next big thing. We drove two hours out of 1770 this evening and are staying in the small town of Emu Park. Tomorrow we'll drive for 6 hours and arrive at Airlie Beach in the evening in order to leave on the yacht the next morning!!

Day 34- Snorkeling attempt #1

May 30, 2011- Day 34

Where: Town of 1770

Dinner: Gourmet “chorizo helper”

First attempt at snorkeling

        This morning I took my second warm shower in 15 hours. Very nice. We left the caravan park and went to a sporting goods store to get some snorkeling gear. We got kits with goggles, fins, and a snorkel. They aren't super high quality, but they should do. From there we went to the Bundaberg ginger beer brewing factory. The shop was inside a building that looked like a giant barrel turned on its side. We didn't take the tour, but we bought a 10 pack of ginger beer and a 6 pack of assorted sodas they make. Ginger beer is really popular here. It's not alcoholic, it's just a soda that tastes like real ginger. More so than ginger ale. Pat and I both really like ginger so we've been into trying different brands of ginger beer. Bundaberg makes a pretty tasty product. From there we went to the Bundaberg Rum distillery. It's one of the popular brands of rum in Australia and you can take tours of the factory. We got there and found out that is was $25 to take the tour, which we thought was a bit steep just for a factory tour. Instead of doing the tour we decided to go test out our new snorkeling equipment.

        A man at the info center (I love info centers!) told us about an area where you can swim right off the rocks and see coral. It was a ways out of town and it took a bit to find, but we finally made it. There were only a few other people there, which was good except that we didn't really know what we were doing so it probably would have been helpful to watch how other people did it. To start with, we chose the wrong are of the beach to get in the water. The whole beach was covered in rocks, both big and small. It was a sandy beach at all, which is why there was coral I suppose. So we walked for 10 minutes across all these rocks with little tiny pointy shells stuck to them. Once we finally got to the water we realized that the water was too shallow and that we would have to walk a long ways out to even have enough room to kick our feet. It really wasn't going to work. We noticed some people getting in the water from a different section of the rocks, so we ended up hiking back across all the rocks and up a grassy hill, which thankfully didn't have any snakes in it! We were wearing our rash guards so we were pretty warm after all this hiking around.

        After walking over some more rocks we got to an area that was deep enough that we could stand and put our fins on and then swim out. There were full waves at the beach, but the water was a big choppy. I have only snorkeled one other time many years ago in calm water, so at this point I got a bit nervous. I don't ever love swimming in choppy water, and this was basically my first time swimming in fins. Oh I forgot to mention, when we were sizing our goggles at the car I managed to break the piece that holds the snorkel to the goggles. Obviously not such a high quality product, but there may have been some user error involved there as well. Anyways, I knew I would be able to exchange it but I told Pat I probably wouldn't be able to snorkel for the day. Pat wasn't about to let me out of our first snorkel experience so he took my snorkel and I used his. What a nice guy :)

         Ok, so back to the water. I was nervous so Pat went in first, broken snorkel and all, in order to scope it out. Once he finally got his snorkel to work and he got out there, he yelled to me that he thought I would be fine. I just decided not to over think the situation and I got into the water. The little waves were pushing me around but I managed to get all my gear on and get out to Pat. He was so good to me, holding my hand and helping me to adjust my mask. He's the best person to be in the water with since the ocean is basically second nature to him. At first I was trying to paddle too much which was making me breath hard which is problematic when you're breathing through a small tube. I finally realized I just needed to lay with my head in the water and not exert much energy trying to swim hard.

         The water was a bit murky, but we did see some coral formations. We swam over one really big bed of pinkish coral that had some patches of white growing on it. Pat dove down a bit and apparently the water was clear further down, but I didn't feel like attempting to dive down on my first swim. I was having enough trouble keeping water out of my snorkel as it was! Unfortunately the water got choppier and after about 10 or 15 min I was getting pushed around by the water enough that is was starting to stress me out a bit. Pat decided to come in too since the water was cloudy. We managed to beach ourselves on the rocks with only minor injuries (a little cut to Pat on the ankle). We had to climb back over all the dumb spiky rocks, but we finally made it back to the car and the showers! It may not have been the most epic snorkeling experience ever, but I was so proud of myself for even getting out there! I think Pat was pretty surprised as well. Heck, I paid $60 for the gear, I have to get some use out of it. I think for my next swim I may try to find some calmer water to practice in before we get to the better reef areas.

        From Bundaberg we drove an hour and a half up to The Town of 1770. Yes, that's the name of the town. It's where Captain Cook first came on land when he discovered Australia in 1770. I hope that's right at least, or I may have just embarrassed myself with my lack of Aussie history. Anywhoo, it's a really small town about 45 minutes off the main road. All of the info center people have told us we have to come here because it's so beautiful, and we don't take much convincing to do anything so here we are. We arrived after dark though so we haven't really gotten to see all of its alleged beauty. We parked in a park parking lot (wow, can you believe how many times I used the work park in this sentence?!) and made up a chorizo dinner. I wanted pasta and Pat wanted to eat chorizo sausage because that's basically all he ever wants to eats, so we came to a compromise. We cooked the chorizo and then added corn and a bunch of spices. Then we cooked the noodles and combined it altogether. Pat thought it looked like hamburger helper so I named in gourmet chorizo helper. It's much classier that way. Then I did the dishes with our new eco friendly dish soap that will easily biodegrade once it gets flushed out the bottom of the van. I don't want to kill any little possums with soap, even though they are scary and have loud fights with each other in trees. They aren't as bad at the birds that make horrible screaming noises, however. Or as bad as stone fish which apparently live in the water at this beach. I guess they are bad since there is a warning sign about them. I may have to find out more. How come everything in Australia wants to hurt us?! I need to interview some Australians up north here to find out how they have all lived so long. Thankfully it isn't jellyfish season, but I guess they never all go away. Sheesh. Staying alive is going to become my new full time occupation.

Day 33- Bunda-what?

  May 29, 2011- Day 33

Where: Rainbow Beach to Bundaberg

Dinner: Roast meal from the “sports club”

        It didn't rain all night long, but this morning there were still big puddles all along the roads in the campground. I was a bit stressed about how we were going to get out, and I Pat and I ended up walking along all of the roads trying to figure out the best path out. It was funny to hear what advice people had to offer us along the way. Everyone said we'd be fine and to just gun it through the puddles. They also would offer to push us out if we got stuck. What a helpful camping community. We had some toast for breakfast and then made our grand departure. It actually ended up being quite easy to avoid the big puddles and we didn't have any problems at all. Phew! It was a relief to get out of there. We drove an hour to the town of Hervey Bay. It's a super popular place to go our and watch humpback whales, but unfortunately it's not the right season for that. We only stayed long enough to walk down the esplanade and get some fish and chips. There wasn't much else to do so we continued another hour and half to Bundaberg. There is a caravan park here that we can stay in for $5 which is a good deal, since we need to take showers and do laundry. We got here in the afternoon, too late to swim, so we're going to get snorkels tomorrow and hopefully do some snorkeling.

        A lady at the caravan park told us about a sports club down the road that has a roast dinner for $3.95 on Sundays. That's cheaper than McDonalds here, so we figured we'd go check it out. A sports club here is a place where older people hang out, with some restaurants in it, a casino area, and a bar. They usually have lawn bowling as well. Old people here love lawn bowling. Apparently roast dinner is a very popular night at the sports club and there was already a line when we arrived 20 minutes before it opened. I'll tell you what, this place was a display of the local color. We were probably the only people between the ages of 12-35 I the place. The food wasn't bad though and you can't beat the price. It as held in a huge auditorium like room with a bunch of long tables set up. It felt a bit like a church potluck. It felt so weird to even be there, but the people watching was pretty good. Downstairs on the way out there was a live singer guitar player and there was a dance floor where some people we dancing. I'm glad that the older folks are getting out and enjoying themselves, but I just found the place to be depressing. I'm not sure what the appeal is to the tacky Las Vegas décor is, but these people seemed to be digging it.

        After wards we went to the movie theater down the road to see the Hangover 2. The theater was packed but unfortunately I didn't think it was as good as the first movie. Oh well, it was still fun. Doing some laundry now before going to bed.

Day 32- Fraser Island!

May 28- Day 32

Where: Fraser Island

Dinner: Steak and sauteed mushrooms

Fraser Island in amazing!

        This morning we got picked up by a big 40 passenger 4WD bus. Fraser Island is an island completely made of sand, the only one in the world just a 5 minute barge ride from Instep Point, where we're camping. Because it's all sand you have to have a 4WD car to drive anywhere on it because there are no proper paved roads. There were only 9 other people on the bus, along with our great tour guide. It was overcast and rainy which was a bummer. Once we got onto the island we drove straight up the beach for 35 kilometers. It was so cool to drive on the beach. Mostly it was smooth, but some places the sand was really soft or we had to drive through littld creeks running down to the ocean. The waters around Fraser Island are full of sharks so you can't swim anywhere in the ocean. While we were driving we saw the big fin of a whale. It was playing in the water and we just seeing it's side flipper.

        We stopped for morning coffee and muffins before driving up to the remains of a ship that wrecked on the beach sometime in the 30's I think. During WW2 it was used for bombing practice by the military, so there isn't a ton left of what was a big boat. However, it was still the best shipwreck I've ever seen.

Only 2 other people followed us, but we had such a fun time that we all did it twice. I think the rain only added to the rainforest feel. My favorite part was laying on my back with the rain falling on my face as I floated backwards. It has so far been one of best Australian moments. The stream was the same temperature as the rain so it hardly felt cold. Afterward I got my camera and ran back in the pouring rain to take some pictures. It's fun to run around in the rain in your suit if it isn't cold outside.

         Our final sight before lunch was another colored sand formation. It was pretty impressive again, and the sun came out just as we parked. Perfect timing sun. After a quick viewing we went to have an all you can eat lunch at a small local resort, one of two on the island. There are a few small little towns on the island that were built back around the 50's. A while back, however, the island became a National Heritage Sight and a National Park so no new land can be sold or developed on. So there are some people who live there and there are also quite a few holiday rentals. At lunch we met a few Germans a Dutch couple. It's always fun to talk with fellow travelers and compare notes.

        After lunch we drove inland via come incredibly bumpy roads. Imagine a bad washboard road and then multiply that by 20 and that gives you an idea of some areas of the road. Holes, bumps, fallen trees and branches, everything you wouldn't want to see on the road. 4WD truly is mandatory and even still you could get into some trouble. We could have gone to the island with a group where you have 10 people and you take turns driving a 4WD car, but I'm glad we went with the tour. It was more expensive but it saved a lot of stress, I'm sure. Our driver had 20 years experience on Fraser Island. It felt like we were on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

        The center of the island is rainforest. We went to Lake McKenzie which is an incredibly beautiful blue lake. It's a shelf lake which means that it was formed in a low sand dune and is not connected to any other water source. The only water that goes in is rain and the only water that leaves is through condensation. It took hundreds of years to form, but it is really big now. Also, the sand surrounding the lake is completely striped of nutrients so it's the whitest, finest sand you'll ever see. It's great for exfoliating your skin, so we rubbed it all over ourselves. We were also told that you can ever brush your teeth with it, so obviously we all had to give it a go. Actually, Pat tried it first and then everyone else followed. I was proud of the guy :) I was too cold to swim but Pat went in quickly. The last was gorgeous and just so amazing in how it was formed. It was a wonderful thing to see.

        Our last stop of the day was at an old logging station that was set up in the rainforest. Areas of the island were logged in the early 1900s ( I think?) and later the island was used to do a great deal of sand mining. There isn't much left of the buildings that were there, but our guide did take us on a walk down in the rainforest. We walked on a boardwalk that is built along a perfectly clear, silent running stream. The stream is silent because it runs over sand instead of rock like most streams. There aren't even any fish in the stream because there isn't enough nutrients in the water to support them. You can drink the water from all the streams on the island because it's all drawn up from a water table under the sand. The way the whole island is just so interesting.

        After wards we drove back down along the beach for a while and then had to use a mining road to get the rest of the way back to the barge because the tide came in. Despite the rain, our time on the island was wonderful. Such a unique place and we were able to learn a lot about it from our guide. I would love to go back sometime in the sun!

        When we got back to the campsite it was pouring rain. We ended up spending the evening inside of the van, except when Pat got our to cook up some dinner while standing under the back hatch door. Despite the condition, he still managed to cook up some tasty steak and mushrooms. True talent! There are big puddles forming on the sand roads here in the campsite so I'm a bit concerned about driving out in the morning.

Day 31- Stuck in sandy Rainbow Beach

May 27, 2011- Day 31

Where: Rainbow Beach

Dinner: Cereal and hot dogs (not together)

Campfire friends

        Arrived at Rainbow Beach this morning after about an hours drive fro the highway. It's called Rainbow Beach because it has 72 different colors of sand on the beaches and up on the sandy hills. We got our campsite passes for the next two nights then we went to a travel agent to book our Fraser Island trip for tomorrow. The agent specializes in young travels and she was really helpful. We booked a good trip for a cheaper price than normal price. She also gave us lots of info about scuba diving further up north and told us about caravan parks that Jucy van renters can stay in for $5 each. No one ever told us about these!! Will come in handy later.

After our cheeseburger lunch we walked out along the beach to where you can see all the colored sand up the steep banks. It really was incredible, I've never seen sand like this. It was the perfect example of sedimentary rocks are formed because with so many colors of sand you can see each layer. The different colors are all mixed together in layers and in many areas the sand is quite solid. Like it almost looks like rock until you scratch it and you can scratch away the sand. You can ever break chunks off, which is how you see all the many layers. We walked quite a ways down the beach and each bank we came to was so different in colors and formation. We climbed up some of the banks and then kindof glided back down them.

You can drive on most of the beaches here if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. It's so new for us to see cars on the beach! It was even more strange to see a speed limit sign on the beach. As we were walking back the tide was coming in so sometimes we had to stop and wait for the ocean to recede in order to get around rocks. A wave got me unexpectedly and my jeans got soaked. Dern. It was a great walk though.

        Just before sunset we drove up to a National Park and did a quick walk up to a huge sand blow. It was incredible. I didn't realize what it was going to be so to walk through the trees into a huge expanse of sand was really amazing. A sand blow is an area where sand blows through sort of a ravine or low spot on a hill. Over time the sand builds up and overtakes any plant life that was there. I don't really know how to explain it because I don't completely understand it, but this basically looked like a a huge sand dune. It dipped down a ways and then there was a big sand hill. To our left down a ways was the ocean and to our right there was a valley down below and beyond that there was water and the setting sun. We got there in time to see the last 5 minutes of the sun before it dipped down below the horizon. We watched the sunset for a while and walked around the dunes. We got back to the van just as it got dark.

         We drove out to our campsite on Inskip Point, a narrow little peninsula about 15 minutes out of town. We were told that 2WD would be fine for the campsite, but that w should probably try to stay in the middle. When we got there it was dark and the campground was quite full so we had to drive around for a while. We found a circle area that looked like it might have a spot so Pat asked if he should pull into it. At first I said no, but then I said, “ya sure.” He pulled in and realized there was no one where to park so he out it into reverse. It was at this point that we realized the sand we had driven into was deep and that we were stuck. Our van certainly isn't the type of vehicle necessary for navigating these sorts of terrain. Pat got out to try and driect me on attempting to back out. There were a lot of people camped close by so I knew it would only take a minute for someone to come over and see if we needed help. Sure eough, about 30 seconds later a guy asked if we were stuck and then he came over with another 4 guys. Wow, helpful folks. It only too a few minutes for them to push us back enough that we could get traction and reverse out. They asked us where we were from and then showed us a free spot nearby. We were nervous about the sand so we just parked for the night

Today Pat found out that he might not be able to scuba dive because of his ashtma so h was bummed out. He was being funny and dramatic about it, even though he really is sad. So he was laying in the van wit his hood over his head “sulking” and I was washing my face in the sink when one of the guys walked over to takl to us. He was really funny and asked if we were despairing over getting stuck. He joked around for a while and told us that he and his wide had traveled through England in a van when they were young and they loved when people were friendly and helpful to them. He invited us over to their campsite to cook food on their stoves or just hang out at the camp fire with them. I figured we should at least go over to say hi and be nice, but it turned out they were an awesome, hilarious groups of guys. There were middle aged and were having a mans fishing weekend away from their fams. They were all from the Noosa are and where fairly wealthy from what we could gather. They loves that we were Americans and they were just so entertaining to talk with. One of the guy's dads was tehre and he was a 66 years old British guy who had lived in Oz for many years. He looked like Ian McKellen and had a great British sense of humor. They gave us beers, rain water from their tanks at home (supposedly the best water we'll taste in OZ) and even some fresh squeezed OJ. They also made us hotdogs. We hung our until around 11 when they all went to bed.

        Best people we've encountered so far. We really had a fun evening. And if we get stuck on the way out they all have 4WD vehicles at the ready.