Hi all,
Greetings from sunny Queensland in Australia. I think it's been about three weeks since my last post, but then, I can barely tell you what day of the week it is, so I'm not a very reliable source about dates ...
This is the last time I'll tell you that this is a doozie - seems as though all of these emails are.
I was in Cairns in northern Queensland at my last email, and the next day, I boarded a liveaboard dive boat called the Kangaroo Explorer on the Great Barrier Reef. As a new diver (remember that I did my PADI open water certification in Thailand in August), I was anxious to get into the water. I booked an overnight trip, with 6 dives in 24 hours. When I got out to the reef (a small boat ferries people back and forth to the big boat that stays out on the reef full-time, I was qute impressed - it's a massive operation out there. A three-story boat with a big dive deck off the back. They get in up to five dives a day, and the schedule is impressive. After we got out quick run-through of the boat, the new arrivals (3 of us) did an orientation dive with one of the dive masters. While I always had a dive master in the water with me in Thailand, dives here are only guided if you pay for them.
Fortunately, a great guy named Paddy from Exeter was diving with me. He has an advanced open water certification with about 70 dives under his belt, and we paired together - it was like having my own dive master! After the orientation dive, we set up for another late afternoon dive. The reef there is better in some places, worse in others. There's certainly dead coral around. It's not surprising, given the traffic. It's also natural regeneration, or so I'm told. There's also a lot of human interference on the reef here - the dive master on my orientation dive was touching coral and handling marine life a lot, which bothered me.
I ran into a problem during the second time with my left ear. I had ear woes as a kid, and it came back to get me. Looking back now, it seems that I partially ruptured my eardrum on the second dive. Sadly, I missed the night dive, which was one of the main reasons I did the liveabord. Oh well. In the morning, I was able to do the three dives (though I shouldn't have - my ear was either full of fluid or perforated). It was worth it, because I saw my first shark! A 5-foot white-tip reef shark. It was so beautiful that I forgot to be afraid. :) The diving trip all around was great, aside from the ear infection that I got from it (and the eardrum issue ...).
After diving, I met up with Kirsty and Shel again in Cairns, two girls I'd met in Kyoto. We planned our trip down the east coast. I did a day trip to the Atherton Tablelands and Rainforest the next day, which was great. I didn't have time to get up to Daintree, but these rainforests were great as well, and I got to visit Millaa Millaa Falls, the famous waterfall with the Herbal Essence commercial (the girl flipping her hair in front of the waterfall - remember?). I had that photo taken of me flipping as well, for posterity ...
The next morning, we left for Mission Beach, a few hours by bus (I'm travelling on a greyhound bus pass that will get me to Brisbane/Byron Bay). It's a nice quiet place, and we had a good beach day. The next day, we went on to Townsville, to catch a ferry to Magnetic Island. While in Townsville, we sorted out a backpacker's package deal for the Whitsundays and Frazer Island, then caught the ferry to Magnetic Island. It's a really lovely place, and we stayed at a hostel with an onsite koala sanctuary. We were there for 2 nights, and visited the koala sanctuary one morning where I was able to hold a crocodile, a blue-tongued lizard, a koala, a cockateel, and a carpet python (not at the same time). SUCH fun.
The next day, we hiked over a small mountain to a really beautiful, secluded beach, and had a really lovely day of sunbathing (and had the opportunity to get rid of a few tanlines, if you get my drift ...). That night, we did a pub quiz at the hostel and won a free jug of beer (random knowledge is occasionally useful). Then we caught the ferry back to Townsville and hopped on another Greyhound bus to Airlie Beach, the stopoff point for the Whitsundays.
After a rough night in Airlie Beach (some hostels are great, some are pretty dodgy), we got on a 45-foot catamaran for two nights of sailing in the Whitsunday Islands. Some of the scenery there is just stunning, especially Hill Inlet on Whitehaven Beach. Look it up - I don't have words for it. And yes, it's as beautiful as the photots you'll find. Sadly, there wasn't much wind, so we motored more than sailed during the two days. We did a bit of snorkeling as well. The boat we were on, the Tongarra, was a self-professed party boat. Um, what do I say here? I witnessed some things on that boat that decorum prevents me from sharing here. Suffice to say that there was some naughty behavior ... but that aside, we met some really cool people, and were lucky to have great weather.
After we came off the boat, we went to a post-boat party before catching an overnight (ugh) bus down to Agnes Water and the town of 1770. This is one of the real treats of Australia for me. I hadn't planned to go there, but heard from several backpackers about how great it was. So we stopped for 2 nights. It's such a great, chilled out place - surfing, yoga, meditation were the main things on offer. We stayed at this really cool hostel, Southern Cross, with a pool, nice open lounge, resident dogs, and a meditation room. A great place to slow down - I wish I could have stopped for more than the 2 nights we stayed, but we had a schedule to keep.
While there, we did a tour of the town (which took about 10 minutes - there IS no town), had a surf lesson (which I suck at, but really enjoyed), and did a 3-hour scooter/chopper ride through the area (saw lots of kangaroos and met a baby kangaroo and wallaby). We went to the pub the second night. To give you an idea of how quite 1770, I mean THE pub. The ONLY pub. And we had to get dinner orders in by 8pm, before the kitchen closed. It was a quite night, so they kicked us out and drove us back to the hostel at 9:30. Amusingly, I still managed a late night, even with nothing open.
The next morning was an early (6:30) bus to Rainbow Beach, to get ready to go to Frazer Island. There's even less in Rainbow Beach than 1770, and it's an ugly town. What most backpackers do on Frazer Island is a self-drive 4X4 2-day camping trip. We were put into groups of 10 - me, Kirsty, Shel, a solo Irish traveller named Daniel, and a group of 6 Irish travelling together. The next morning, we got our Landcruiser packed up and hit the road. I took the first turn driving, without any previous experience with 4WD. On powdery soft sand. It wasn't pretty. :) But then, I had to drive, because the Irish lads were drinking in the back. At 11:00am.
Frazer Island - wow. God, what a beautiful place - this is why I came to Australia. Our first stop was Lake McKenzie, a stunning freshwater lake with white sugar sand. After a swim and lunch, we made our way to the campsite, and set up camp. This was the first time really camping for me, and I LOVED it. I ended up being the camp cook, which was fun. After a late night of drunken hilarity, we fell off to bed. Sleeping on sand should be soft, right? WRONG. Hard as a damn rock. Oh well.
The next day, we made our way up to the north of the island via Eli Creek, a freshwater creek that you can float down to the sea. It's amazing how much freshwater there is on an island in the sea! We also stopped at a shipwreck, the SS Mahena, for a good look around. Then we got to Indian Head, the northernmost stop for us. At Indian Head, there are humpbacks breaching, dolphins frolicking, manta rays, and, on a really clear day you can see tiger sharks (it wasn't clear enough that day). I could have sat up there all day watching the whales come out of the water - one of the most beautiful, breathtaking things I've ever seen. I still get tingles now thinking about it. This was followed by a walk to the Champagne Pools, including a lift from some locals to avoid having to walk the beach. After that, we made our way back down to the campsite, to find that our camp had been vandalized (a few tents were trashed) - so annoying. That night was a quieter night, and we were in bed a bit earlier. On our last day, we went to Lake Wabby, another freshwater lake. Again, just stunning - high, steep dunes running down into a beautiful green lake.
As you can tell, I loved Frazer Island. It's my favorite place in Australia so far, in addition to that amazing reef dive with the shark. I'd go back again and stay for a week - there's so much more to see and do.
One of the fun side-effects of Frazer Island is the number of people I've met. There were 4 trucks going from our hostel at the same time (40 people), and we all camped together. Then we all spent a night at the hostel in Rainbow Beach together after Frazer. Then lots of us caught the same bus to Noosa (where I am now - be relieved, this email is almost over) together. We had a bbq together and went out last night. And cooked together again tonight. It's a fun communal environment - too fun, almost. We all scattered today - I spent the day at the beach on my own. I think we were all on backpacker overload. :)
Noosa is cool - it's nice just to be back in a town with more than one shop in it! I had planned to stay only one night and go down to Byron Bay before heading back to Brisbane, but I changed my mind. I'll stay here three nights, then go to Brisbane for a night before I flight off to Alice Springs. I'll have to do Byron Bay some other time - with only 5 weeks in Australia, I have to make hard choices.
The weather continues to be really lovely - I've been so lucky. Keep your fingers crossed for good sun in the Outback, which I'm really looking forward to. I'll be two days in Alice, then two days camping in Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock. Then back to Sydney for a few days before I'm off to NZ.
I'll stop here - reading this is probably as exhausting for you as writing it is for me.
I hope you're well, and miss you all lots.
Best,
Dina
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef Dive Trip
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23621&l=9232b&id=620235943
Atherton Tablelands and Rainforest, Queensland
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23622&l=3229c&id=620235943
Magnetic Island, Queensland
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23627&l=c068b&id=620235943
Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23700&l=d7008&id=620235943
Agnes Water and 1770
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24395&l=d3698&id=620235943
Frazer Island, Australia
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24392&l=1bd16&id=620235943
Australia - Noosa
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25461&l=e0511&id=620235943
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