Why Did the Wombat Cross the Road?!?: June 2011

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Final Road Trip Pictures

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

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

Sunday, 12 June 2011

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!

Friday, 10 June 2011

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. ♥

Monday, 6 June 2011

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!

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

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!!