October
12th
With
only four full days in Cairns, we had a lot
to cram in. The best trip was to the Great
Barrier Reef where we took a catamaran to
Moore Reef. Thankfully the company had it's
own pontoon as it is a notoriously windy time
of the year. This became obvious, when a number
of people chundered on our way out. We experienced
the reef in a No. of different ways, including
a semi-submersible boat, a glass-bottomed
boat, an underwater viewing area, a touch
and feel tank and by far the most worthwhile,
snorkeling. There was a whole new fascinating
world under the water, full of a living, breathing,
colourful and textured fragile eco-system
as far as the eye could see. With every breath
there was something new to see but our favourite
discoveries were a giant clam, some huge parrot
fish, mounds of soft brain-like coral and
a gigantic, ugly grey fish with bulging eyes
and a big forehead.
|
|
A
Great (1 metre) Clam
|
Keira's
favourite fish at the reef |
On another day we went to cape tribulation,
named after the trials and tribulations Captain
Cook had when he ran ashore. This is where
the rain forest meets the reef and is not
far from the World Heritage Site, Daintree
rain forest one of the oldest in the world.
Whilst at the forest in true tree hugging
style we offset some of our emissions by donating
money to preserve and protect some of the
depleted forest, full of bush tucker (by the
way, if you're wondering what the climate
Care logo is on the homepage of our website,
it's a link to the website we've been offsetting
our emissions through. It's really easy and
surprisingly cheap). After feeding some river
fish at lunch, emulating the late Steve Irwin,
we went crocodile hunting on the Daintree
River. We saw two wild crocs and a 3metre
long Amethystine python chilling out on an
overhanging branch. We weren't too unnerved
until our hippy guide radioed the base to
tell them we'd be late as we were stuck in
some shallow water. CRIKEY!!!
Before returning to the hostel, we went for
a stroll by Mossman Gorge where we saw an
odd looking tree whose trunk had an arrow
shaped kink in it. We discovered the aboriginal
tribes had bent trees deliberately to act
as markers to guide them through the forest.
Clever sods! On our last day in Cairns we
adventurously went white-water rafting down
the Russel River. Somehow we had mis-read
the leaflet and were expecting to be navigating
the rapids in a sturdy ten-man raft. In reality,
we had an hour and a half's trek through the
jungle and found ourselves tackling the grade
four river in two-man inflatable kayaks. Due
to mis-communication and bad leadership, Keira
managed to get left behind at the start of
the trek and was left to play catch up. After
20 minutes of lone clambering, out of breath
and unbalanced by a 6kg shoulder bag and an
oar, Keira began to have flash-backs of the
Blair Witch Project, made worse by the thought
of all the deadly plants and creatures we
had been educated on whilst in Oz. When she
finally caught up with the group, she was
ready to hand the divorce papers over. All
was forgiven however ,when Graham revealed
his instructions to stay at the front and
his unawareness of Keira's ordeal. One the
air was cleared and the rafts inflated, we
made a good team and rose to the challenges
that rafting presented, including 2-metre
drops and other obstacle son the 3-hour course.
It was exhilarating and we wished we had been
able to take photos.
|
|
Cape
Tribulation
|
Wild
croc on the Daintree river |
Tired and aching, we got an early flight to
Brisbane, kindly being picked up from the
airport by our friend and host John, who we
met in New York with his partner Aek-Yung.
There we caught up with emails, made another
naff Yorkshire Pudding, and John showed us
the local haunts by night, including Kangaroo
Point where we saw not Kangas jumping but
humans climbing the man-made rock face. We
picked up our Wicked campervan and headed
north to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's brainchild).
We saw some more native Australian animals
that we had not yet seen including cassowaries,
wombats, dingoes, and Tasmanian devils. We
saw the famous croc show at the crocoseum
and got to stroke koalas, kangaroos, and a
lizard, as well as feeding elephants and seeing
many other fascinating animals and reptiles.
We also donated some money to Steve Irwin's
legacy, the wildlife warrior fund ( www.wildlifewarriors.org.au).
Crikey!
He's gone...
We can't believe it's true
Crocodile Hunter's left us
The Irwin Australia Zoo
A place of wonder
A place to learn
With so much wildlife
On every turn
A legacy to continue
His family do concur
A tribute to the man
The ultimate wildlife warrior
|
Before
we left the zoo we contemplated how we would
get our new (stolen) baby koala home... We
spent our first night in beach side Caloundra
before we drove north again to our new base,
Hervey Bay. From here we embraced the Aussie
lifestyle with barbecues (one of the few times
Graham has volunteered to cook in the last
6 months!) and booked 2 trips. The first was
a half day whale-watching tour during which
we saw approximately 20 migrating whales,
most of which were fairly subdued until the
last minute when we were treated to a burst
of activity from the humpbacks including some
mother-calf play. The day after we had a long
day exploring the world's largest sand island,
Fraser Island, which is also a world heritage
site. We expected desert-like sand dunes and
were surprised to find not only much vegetation
but also complete rain forest. The island
can only be traversed by four-wheel-drive
vehicles as the single lane roads are basically
primitive sand trenches, and the brain-shaking
journey felt like a rid in the Hagglund (see
end of August update). During the day we swam
in one of the island's yellow (from tea tree
not kids pee) freshwater lakes, paddled in
the fresh water Eli Creek, admired the coloured
sand formations, watched stupid foreigners
climb into a rusty ship-wreck from 1935, and
collected more mossie bites in the Yidney
Scrub rain forest. As we were leaving the
island a wild dingo came to wave us off.
|
|
Us
and our crocodile hunter
|
'This
way' say the aboriginals! |
We
had another night at John's in Brisbane en
route south to Murwillumbah, where we met
up with another ex-colleague and Aussie resident,
Leigh, and her partner Mark. We were their
first guests at their farm in Mooball (cool
name!) and they pulled out all the stops to
make us welcome. Mark showed us the local
attractions which included the beaches, the
town, and Leigh's Mum, who supplied us with
home-made cakes for the duration of our stay.
Leigh treated us to dinner at Brunswick Heads
as we caught up over a few bevvies. We left
the idyllic country farm for the day and headed
to ex-hippy haunt, Byron Bay, where we spent
the afternoon chilling, and visited the light
house which is the most easterly point on
the Australian mainland. Back on the farm
we were treated to more warm hospitality including
a hot curry. In fact we think they should
open up their own B&B. After emptying
their fridge the next day we set off for Coffs
Harbour.
|
|
Us
and John our Brisbane buddy
|
Brisbane
by night |
We
passed the famous big banana before arriving
at Brett, Nat and Summer's place (son, daughter-in-law
and granddaughter of Sue & Ron) where
we spent an couple of days in a life of rare
luxury, enjoying more excellent Aussie hospitality...so
we felt pretty bad handing out some Aussie
bashing when we beat them at Lawn Bowls and
Pictionary (but not that bad!). Whilst there
we took a stroll down to the harbour via the
beach and just absorbed the atmosphere. We
tucked into hearty breakfast and left Brett
stuck in front of the wide screen TV watching
the Bathurst racing marathon, heading down
to Anna Bay where we spent 2 nights, had a
'wicked' time in our campervan and some romantic
walks on One Mile Beach. We left Anna Bay
and had a hairy moment on the way to Narrabeen
where we were a few drops away from running
out of petrol and resorted to gatecrashing
a memorial cemetery to ask where the nearest
fuel stop was. We eventually managed to navigate
our way around and around central Sydney (with
a bonus crossing of the famous harbour bridge)
and dropped our Wicked van off just in time.
Our last few days in Oz were spent saying
our final farewells to Sue, Ron & family
and our witnesses Jim & Sabrina. We've
had a bonza time in Australia, fair dinkum
mate! We could now do with a holiday, so we're
off to Bali for three weeks (yep, we're bastards!)...
|
|
Tasmanian
devil
|
G
and Kangaroo at Australia Zoo |
|
|
Breaching
Humpback Whale
|
Whale
watching... |
|
|
Shipwreck
SS Maheno on Fraser Island
|
Lake
Garawongera on Fraser Island |
|
|
Wicked
van!
|
Nice
jug... and us with Leigh & Mark
in Mooball |
|
|
Bull
in a mOOball cafe
|
Guess
where we are? |
|
|
Coffs
Harbour
|
Us
with Brett and Nat |
|
|
One
Mile Beach at Anna Bay
|
Relton
on the rocks |
|
Ferral
Taylors and Reltons
|
