October 11, 2008 – Brissie by foot

We had a whole day to explore Brisbane. After curing hangovers with orange juice, Advil and a nice brekkie we decided to take the bus into town. Buses pretty much work like those in the UK. You stick your thumb out and it stops, you pay the driver and take a seat and when you want to hop off, you press the button and the bus stops at the next stop.

 

We got off somewhere around King George Square and started following a walk per my Lonely Planet. Those walks by the way are a pretty awesome way to see a city and they usually include all the sights in walkable distance. Besides the City Hall this included the Shrine of Remembrance and the historical General Post Office. I believe the person who writes these walks must be a former mailman because every walk I have done so far from this book had a post office included. To be fair through, the GPO of Brissie was a pretty neat looking building. We also went into St Stephen’s Cathedral and Chapel which is the oldest church in town built in 1850. From there our path took us through the pedestrian area with all the neat Aussie shops. As we wanted to catch a sightseeing tour on the Brisbane River, we walked across to South Bank around lunch time. They had a Green Festival going on informing the world about energy saving, organic foods and all that was accompanied by some local bands. We had an organic sausage on a stick and some veggie kofta while listening to some student band before boarding the boat. On the boat it quickly became freezing cold on top and we retreated to the lower deck to watch Brissie go by. There are some neat buildings, especially the older colonial style looking ones, and some nice brand spanking new apartments right along the river around Kangaroo Point. Overall Brisbane seems to be a rather arty city which makes for great people watching.

 

After the boat tour we strolled along South Bank in the rain, saw City Beach and also went shopping on the local arts and crafts market. They had some neat things there and we really had to contain ourselves not to spend too much money on things you really don’t need. Via the Goodwill Bridge and the botanical gardens, where I couldn’t take a picture in the massive fig trees because some students were making a movie and shooed us away, we got back to the City Hall. We actually wanted to get up to the bell tower but when we were there earlier today it was too early to go as the hall opened at 10am. By 4pm, the time we got back to City Hall, the hall was open but… the bell tower had already closed again. Aussies really love their 7 hour work days.

 

Dinner consisted of pasta, pesto and leftover salami and we went light on the alcohol as we wanted to leave early tomorrow to make it to Byron Bay by lunchtime.

October 10, 2008 Crocs Rule!

Our path took us further down Bruce Highway today toward Brisbane (or Brissie) One thing to notice as we got further South was that the roads appeared to get bigger. After a while we actually hit a real motorway – with a dividing strip in the middle. Unfortunately, bigger streets also came with more traffic.

 

The weather was pretty shitty, at times it was pouring buckets, so we cut out all the beaches from our drive today. Instead we made our way to Beerwah. Beerwah is not as the name may indicate the capital of beer. No, it’s the capital of something almost as exciting though – the Crocodile Hunter. Once we had found the Steve Irwin Way, we also had found his great gift to the world, Australia Zoo. The entry was a whopping $52 per person but it was well worth it. The zoo pretty much housed only Australian animals with the exception of a few elephants and tigers. Each animal had a massive space to itself and they seemed pretty happy. Of course it was still raining but we didn’t care too much about that. We watched the wombats for a while, played with the roos, saw some interesting birds and of course there were crocs. Plenty of them, and big ones. Even though it was raining, the people in the zoo put on a croc show and got out Graham, some 7 foot saltie. Crikey! What a beauty! The handlers certainly had respect for the croc and the croc obviously didn’t care too much for them.

 

While in the zoo we also signed the petition to save Steve’s Place. In Queensland there is a 135,000 hectares wildlife reserve called the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve which is threatened by strip mining. Knowing that much of Australia’s flora and fauna is disappearing due to mining, hopefully the petition will help to save a little piece of planet and habitat for Australia’s native animals. http://www.savestevesplace.com/  It is a real shame that the croc hunter died the way he did as early as he did though he died doing what he loved. It’s definitely a good way to go and he is remembered by so many people and has definitely helped increased awareness in us to care more about the planet we live on. I am sure Terri, Bindi and Robert do their part to carry on his legacy.

 

After our excursion to Australia Zoo we went straight to Brissie though we were of course stuck in traffic for a bit. Our camp ground that we had picked out, Newmarket Garden, closed at 5pm and we were there 15 minutes before closing.

 

As it was pretty early and we didn’t feel tired Sylli and I made some more roo burgers which was the envy of the couple of people sitting around us while we were grilling them. Our friends from the UK had baked beans and toast and were loudly complaining about the huge bats that had pooped all over their tent. The way to go for 2 people is probably to rent one of the wicket campers or hippie campers or all the crazy cool looking little camper vans cruising around this country.

 

With our burgers, we had a couple of beers and moved on rather quickly to the single malt. I got to a point were I thought I could handle finishing the bottle. Well, we got close. Before we could finish the bottle though, I somehow ended up sleeping under our table in the van. We must have been rather loud too because the people next to us decided to put their music louder and louder to cover our laughter and noise.

October 9, 2008 – 54 and stuck in the sand

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to youuuuu! Happy birthday, dear mummy, happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu! That’s how the wake up song went this morning.  To celebrate the birthday we had booked a one day tour on Fraser Island for today. First we thought our bus drove past us as the Fraser Island Company bus passed us standing at the bus stop. A quick call to the tour provider dissolved our worries though as there were three buses out and about. 5 minutes later we were on a bus to the harbour, hopped onto the ferry and enjoyed the 55 minute ride across to Fraser Island. The weather unfortunately didn’t want to play along. It had poured down the night before that the grey gloomy skies did not look promising.

 

On the island our tour guide and bus driver Peter loaded us all into a 4 wheel drive bus with 16 forward and 2 reverse gears. I am pretty sure he used all of them at some point during the day. Off we went on the biggest sand island in the world. Fraser Island was named after Captain Fraser who was eaten by aborigines on the island if you believe his wife. You need a special permit for driving and camping on the island and only 4WDs are allowed (and should be as I would not know how a normal car would cope)

 

Our tour started at Moon Point and took us through the Yidney Rainforest where we got off the bus for a little walk. The trees were awesome. Some were more than 70 meters high. Next stop was the Wilderness resort for lunch and then we drove along the 75 mile beach passing Eli Creek, the Maheno shipwreck to the Coloured Sands. There we stopped for pictures and made our way back stopping at the Maheno. The ship stranded sometime during the 30s once the Aussies had sold the ship to the Japanese and since then it had deteriorated rather quickly from the salt water and the Aussie army and navy using it for target shooting practice. We also stopped at Eli Creek where we took a little walk in the fresh water creek before making our way to the last stop, Lake Garawongera, a sweet water lake that is only fed by rain. Sylke and I wanted to go for a swim in the “pristine water” but decided otherwise after seeing the foamy shores and the rather brownish looking water. The water was coloured this way by the bark from the paper trees but it still looked rather mingin’. Instead we stole some silicone sand and cleaned our jewellery. We didn’t think the island would mind too much since it grows about 1 meter every year anyway.

 

After tea and muffins we got back on the bus to head back to the ferry. The ride was rather bumpy and mum closed her eyes for probably half the journey. Then  suddenly the ride was over. We were stuck, in the sand. None of the 16 gears worked to get us out and the bus slowly dug its way deeper into the sand. Lucky enough there was another bus coming up behind us and with the help of that bus and a big rope we got pulled from our misery. The last couple of kilometres were very very shake and apparently (per mum) we got rather close to dropping off into some ditches. Nevertheless our bus driver got us back safely and in once piece. The ferry ride back was uneventful. At a cloudless day this would be a great way to see the sunset, not so today. At least it did not rain on us all day. Unfortunately we also did not see much wild life. We had hoped to see some dingos but had to be satisfied with only seeing the tracks.

 

Back at the camp side mum started dinner while Sylke and I went to find the closest internet café and also buy some birthday cake. Dinner consisted of steak and jacket potatoes and afterwards we surprised mum with a “real” Bavarian Chocolate Cake (from Sara Lee), candles and sparklers. A real camper’s birthday!

October 8, 2008 – Chasing flying foxes

As this was the first time we were right next to the beach, we thought we’d be really really eager and get up at 5am to see the sunrise and go for a swim. As our alarm clock rang so did the birds. They were making all sorts of noises which would have saved us setting the alarm clock in any case because it sounded as if they were communicating with all sorts of mixtures of whistling, tweeting and grunting. Laughing we got up, threw on the swim suits and walked the 10 meters to the beach. There were already quite a few people with dogs out and about. Mum and Sylke went hunting for shells and I waded my way into the water which looked like a mirror except for the occasional ripples where there were some fish playing around and potential sharks. Mum was of course all worried, so I didn’t go in too far (knowing very well that there were most likely no dangerous man-eaters within a good distance of me)

After the beach and a good brekkie, we packed our things and got on our way. We passed the Kooruna crocodile farm which we wanted to visit but as it wasn’t open and we were pretty sure we’d see more crocs on the way somewhere else (Australia Zoo for example) We also did not stop at the Dreamtime Aborigine Center as this was too still closed and sounded just a little too commercial. Instead we drove further south. As soon as we got out of Rockhampton it started pouring down rain. Sylke was of course fast asleep on the back row and noticed nothing from the downpour. In Calliope we wanted to see the newly restored historical town center – however, we couldn’t find anything that looked remotely historical. The whole city pretty much looked 20 years old at the most. Lots of nice houses though.

On we went from Calliope along A1 and then toward Bundaberg. I am pretty sure every Aussie has heard of Bundaberg, even if some may not know that it’s in fact a city and not just a drink. Bundaberg is rather well known for its rum distillery – and that was of course our next stop. We arrived just in time for a guided tour and had to put all our belongings in lockers, especially those with batteries such as cell phones, cameras, hearing devices, heart pace makers and watches – just in case there is a spark from those and the whole distillery blows up. Not that that hasn’t happened before. There were at least 2 times when the whole place pretty much burned to the grown. The guided tour was really interesting, we tried the molasses, one of the main ingredients of rum (the other are water and yeast) and at the end we were also allowed to try the final product. As I sipped on Distillers No. 3, which you can drink straight and is made for those that also enjoy single malts (aka me) mum and Sylke tried the Bundaberg Liquor. That also tasted very good, rather sweet, but good and apparently has all 5 main food groups in it – chocolate, vanilla, caramel, coffee and of course, rum.  Also very good with cream (Dirty Harry). Of course, we made a stop in the Bundaberg Rum Store and bought 2 bottles of the liquor and diverse nick knacks such as magnets and shirts.

After the distillery we had very little time left to make our way down to Hervey Bay, our final destination where we had booked a campsite for the next two nights. We just about made it half an hour before they closed and after setting up, started dinner as we had not had anything to eat all day (sniff!). We had bought some ground kangaroo meat and a bunch of other things to throw on a bbq and therefore today, we decided on roo burgers. Sylke chopped up all the ingredients; chili, garlic, onion; and we mixed it all together and threw it on the barbie. The burgers were rather yummy. The lamb sausages were a waste of money. They were very greasy and tasted of too much rosemary but you live and learn. We washed the whole food down with some beer and cider. While sitting at dinner under the stars next to the beach we heard all sorts of funny noises coming from the trees. It actually sounded as if a whole bunch of gremlins had escaped and housed themselves in a tree close by. Of course Sylke and I had to investigate and found out that these noises did not come from gremlins at all but from flying foxes. There were heaps of them in the trees and they were just happily climbing around, flying around and just playing. We went on a photo hunt before retiring to the camper van and some good single malt.

October 7, 2008 – Heaps of Cane

Our path took us down Bruce Highway today through Mackay, Marlborough and Rockhampton. We did about 400 kilometers and all of them were lined with sugar cane fields. Sugar is one of the main exports of Australia (besides Australians which seem to be leaving the country in flocks) We thought it would be highly interesting to visit a producing sugar cane farm on the way, so we made our way to the Polstone Sugar Cane Farm. Our information failed to mention that tours were only offered at 1:30pm. Well, we showed up at around 11am and found the farm deserted – so much for working farm. It actually looked more like a junk yard than anything else. After evidencing the whole thing with a few pictures we drove back the 30 kilometers to the main road and made our way down south – beforehand however, we stole a few sugar cane pieces from one of the trains as punishment for making us come all the way out here for nothing. As no one was looking (working farm my ass) no one complained and we chewed on the sweet woody bits for a while.

In Rockhampton we stopped at the tourist info just to find out every touristy place in and around the city closed pretty much at 3:30pm. The lady behind the information desk was rather chatty and loaded us up with brochures and leaflets. As it was 3pm, we decided to go grocery shopping instead of visiting a tourist attraction for half an hour. A Woolworth was close by as usual and since mum didn’t want to park the campervan parallel across 4 parking spaces she stuck it under the covered parking and took up… 4 spaces. The thing fit as we drove in. Getting it out was a completely different matter. Apparently one side of the covered parking was lower than the other and we found out the hard way by hearing some teeth wrenching noise from the top of our camper. But no worries, mate, we just reversed the thing back out. A little shaken we drove toward Yeppoon to find a camp site close to the beach. We got lucky at first try and parked our mobile home at the Beachside Caravan Park. Now as the name indicates, that Park was right next to the beach – Farmborough beach that is. After we inspected the damage on our house on wheels and found it was less than the noise indicated earlier on we took a little walk on the beach to help wake us up again and back at the camp site we started preparing dinner – pretty much the same thing as two nights ago. Garlic shrimp and scallops with some aioli, salad and bread… oh and beer of course. We wanted to sit outside but were attacked by the largest mosquitoes I have ever seen (if you think everything is bigger in Texas you are wrong). With a few beers and some good music we concluded the day.

October 6, 2008 – Enjoying paradise

Want to guess how the night was? Besides a little kid that came by on a scooter twice and several unidentifiable sounds that sometimes resembled someone being killed (not that I would know out of first hand how that sounds but I have watched enough horror movies in my life) we slept pretty well and it was not too hot.

8:15am we were ready for our tour to the Whitsundays. The Whitsundays are an island group just off Arlie Beach. I’ve seen postcards and wanted to find out if the postcards were real. Well, they were. It was an awesome trip. We went on a boat with about 40 other people (there are smaller boats available but this one seemed to have the most bang for your buck) and as we were quick enough we got the prime spots on the sundeck.

Past Daydream Island, South Molle Island, Long Island and Hamilton Island our first stop was at the Hill Inlet outlook on Whitsunday Island, the biggest of all the islands in the group. On the way we saw a few turtles and heaps of sun. The sky was blue and we slowly turned red. No worries though, we are tough chicks. At the outlook our crew consisting of Turtle, the skipper, Cam, the deckhand and a third guy whose name I don’t remember – let’s call him Smokey because I think he smoked too much, brought us to the shore with a dingy. We walked the 600 meters to the outlook and were amazed. It looked just like the postcards – the view was awesome! The water was turquoise blue and the sand the whitest you could think of. You could see fish and rays in the shallow water and islands in the background. We were quite eager to set foot on the nice beach, so our next stop was Whitehaven Beach. I have never seen a beach like that before. The sand was like powered sugar and got everywhere. We had about two hours for swimming, sun bathing and beach walking. Included was also a beach bbq that Cam and Smokey prepared for us. We had burgers, sausages and steaks. It was all yummy and we were eagerly watched by a goanna and several ravens. The goanna was quite cheeky and we had to chase it away several times.

After the beach trip and lunch out last stop was Mantaray Bay at Hook Island for a little bit of snorkeling. There were plenty of fish around and Turtle decided to feed the fish while we were snorkeling which resulted in a feeding frenzy – no sharks about though, so no worries. We did saw some Maori Wrasse. With that and some more sun on the way back out day trip came to an end. Back at the resort we checked out our wonderful burn marks. There were plenty and I resembled a rather large lobster.

To finish a great day we had picked out a Mexican restaurant in town. I should have known better having lived in Texas for so long that nothing quite resembles TexMex in Texas. The food was pretty bad. The fajitas which my mum and sister ordered were made with bbq sauce and tasted nothing like real fajitas. The chimichanga I had was also pretty bad and decided to go round and round in my stomach afterwards. Margaritas were surprisingly very good. If there is one thing Aussies can do it’s drinking – this just proves it again. Also the chocolate nachos for desert were very yummy and made up for all the crappy food beforehand. After desert we decided to walk back to the resort – about a 20 minute walk from town. As it was dark there were quite a few things we did not see but that surely saw us. One thing my sister did see was a tarantula. She started “running like a little lamb” (as she put it, I don’t quite know why, I thought it looked much more like a full grown sheep). We got to the resort safely without any further incidents and in one piece each.

After I got rid of the Mexican food in me, I calmed my stomach with some good Scottish single malt. Then it was already bedtime again as for tomorrow we had planned quite a drive.

October 5, 2008 – From the rainforest into the savanna

After another night with little sleep as it was too humid and too hot ( I believe I was up at 2;30am walking around in the campervan trying to find cold water) Sylke and I made our way to the beach to see where we theoretically would have ended up the night before. We were happy we didn’t venture further the night before when we saw the beach. The flood was out and the sand was very rough and you could easily sink in several places. After about 20 minutes we gave up, didn’t see anything we liked and came back to the campervan just in time for breakfast. After that and a quick shower we were on our way. Over Innisfail and Townsville we drove some 400 kilometers to Airlie Beach. On the way we made some random stops. There were several tempting signs inviting us to buy fresh seafood and fruit. We were easily convinced and bought 2 kilograms of prawns (aka shrimp) and 2 of scallops in shell, as well as some garlic and fruit.

As it was my time to drive today I tested the campervan to its fullest. I found out it does go above the speed limit (surprise surprise) and it is rather bouncy over railroad tracks and bridges, much to the joy of my sister who took the back row seat – the bounciest in the whole place. She was having a blast. Other than that it of course rained again on us but as we were heading south the weather became nicer and nicer, the rivers and creeks became drier and drier and the vegetation resembled an African Savanna, except that instead of lions, giraffes and elephants we saw a bunch of dead kangaroos on the side of the road.

Besides filling up the tank we also stopped at the Billabong Sanctuary. I really wanted to hold a wombat but unfortunately there were only specific “hold a wombat” times and we had missed them. Instead we walked around the rather unorganized grounds of the sanctuary and watched a Steve Irwin wannabe feed the crocs. We did learn that to be an interesting animal in Australia you have to be able to kill.

In the morning I had called ahead to book a campsite in Airlie Beach and so we had a place to stay and found it without much trouble. Airlie Beach, just from driving through, looked like an awesome place. After we finally had parked the campervan in a good spot, had all cables and hoses connected, Sylke and I started preparing dinner. She was peeling prawns and I was cutting garlic to make some aioli. Once that was done I took my beer to the bbq and started grilling the scallops. As it wasn’t raining we could also finally sit outside for dinner. Our neighbours were rather jealous of our luscious meal but we didn’t feel like sharing today. We did ask for a tap adapter as our water hose did not want to fit onto the water tap to fill up our tank that miraculously emptied itself. (There are two theories of thought on this phenomenon – either mum just used it all up and doesn’t want to admit it or I shook the water tank empty while driving over the railroad tracks)

At the campsite, which by the way is called Island Getaway, we also booked a day tour to the Whitsundays for tomorrow. In the evening we just sat outside, listened to the weird noises all around us of anumals that we did not see (they sounded massive) and a few drinks.

October 4, 2008 – The beauty about having your home on wheels – no need to stick to plans

The night was rather humid and Sylke and I were woken around 4am by some koala or other member of the bear family that had apparently decided to crawl into our mum’s bed – constant snoring. Giggling helped to drive the unwanted visitor out. Besides that we only listened to the rain and woke soaked in sweat around 7am. After a hearty breakfast we got on our way as we wanted to make it all the way to Townsville today – some 370 kilometers away from Cairns.

Instead of going on the main road through, we decided to take a little detour via Yunguburra which added about 100 km to the trip. At Gordonvale we got onto the Gillies Highway. Little did we know that soon we were to drive what resembled the Alpine serpentines rather closely. The cars behind our 6.80 meter campervan were happy about that too. Mum was a nice enough driver to let them pass – every once in a while. On the way to Yunguburra, we stopped at a platypus viewing area – where we saw … well … no platypus ( platypuses, platypusi, platypussies?) Oh well, next stop was the curtain fig tree, an approximately 500 year old fig tree that had grown into something that could have well served as a feature in one of the Lord of the Rings movies. It looked magnificent and unfortunately, it was fenced off. I had the hold off the urge to climb that thing or at least swing on one of its air roots.

On the way from Yungu to Innisfail the path was lined with waterfalls. The first majestic waterfalls were the Malanda Falls. Thinking of Dallas it looked like the outflow from White Rock Lake … and there was a manmade swimming pool at the bottom of the 3 meter drop. Disappointed we climbed back into the campervan and lowered our water fall expectations. There was really no need for that once we arrived at the Millaa Millaa Falls. They were awesome and made for some nice pictures. Since there were two car parks (one for cars and one for buses) we had also parked at the bus park because we thought our home on wheels surely would pass. A bus driver that shortly arrived after us thought the opposite and complained rather loudly that we had parked our home where he wanted to park his minibus. We informed him that our car was bigger (which it was!) and took our sweet time to move out of the way. The other two falls – Zillie and Ellinjaa – were also very nice though the rain rudely interrupted our enjoyment. Last stop on our detour was the Mungalli Creek Dairy where we had lunch in form of a massive cheese plate. This also resulted in us buying some cheese that we thought would go rather well with our chocolate port wine (a leftover from my Margaret River trip with the girls)

Finally back on the main road we looked at the lock and, oh my, it was already 4pm and we still had some 300 kilometers to Townsville and wanted to stop at Mission Beach. As we had nothing booked we changed our plans except that we did go to Mission Beach. That’s the beauty about having a motor home. Who cares if you arrive today. At Mission Beach we took a little walk along the beach which was covered in little sand balls – I mean covered!!! Everywhere! Looking closer we also saw the beach moving. There were hundreds of tiny little crabs that had dug there holes in the sand and covered the beach with the sand out of said holes in form of round sand balls. First we wanted to go swimming at Mission but there were enough signs about deadly stingers that we changed our plans (yet again) Instead we went shopping in one of the surf stores and mum bought some thongs (that’s flip flops in Aussie) while I bought myself a new bikini … and a billabong head for my sister. She now owes me an eternity of sisterly love.

After Mission Beach and fueling up the van, we made our way to Ingham and then went on a smaller road to one of the beaches where lucky enough there was a camping space available for us. Shame about the mosquitoes that surrounded us as soon as we got out of the van. We were prepared though – Autan (German bug spray) and tea tree oil are magical remedies.

One plan we did not change today was the dinner plan. We finally wanted a barbie and had taken our kangaroo steaks out of the freezer. There were bbqs available and Sylke and I did our best to cook the steaks and sweet corn on the grill. Everything tasted great, also the tomato and feta salad through the feta cheese was more a filler as it tasted of absolutely nothing.

After dinner and a mosquito hunt we wanted to take a little walk to the beach with a bottle of wine. First we completely missed the beach road and walked the wrong way. With limited light we finally found the beach but as it was way too dark and we had been telling each other horror stories about salties, snakes and all the other things that can kill you in Australia, we decided shortly after arriving to turn back. We did not want to end up in the newspaper as yet-another-stupid-tourist-story. Instead we had the wine in the security of our home.

Oct 3 – Rainforest Experience with heaps of … rain

(click for pics - i have decided to only include one per entry now because of limited internet availability)

Per mum’s request, today was rainforest day. We got picked up from the resort around

8:30am and were dropped off at the Cairns railway station to catch the Kurunda train. That rainforest also meant a day of rain wasn’t in my plan but I had to just accept the fact that today I was going to get soaked to the skin. The train ride to Kurunda was rather boring as far as I was concerned and slept pretty much all the way. Kurunda is a complete tourist trap. We walked around the tourist stores without buying much and went to the venom zoo – yet another tourist trap. I thought I’d get to hold a tarantula but no, the only interesting thing was a wall dedicated to the king of killer animal tamers, Steve Irwin, who ironically got killed in 2006 by a sting ray. I loved Steve but spending $15 to see a wall dedication and get a tarantula sticker was just a bit off the track. To make up for it we spent another $15 each for the Koala gardens. Fair enough, we saw more animals and my sister, for an additional … you may guess it …. $15 was allowed to hold one. We stood by and watched before taking a family picture with the fluffy bear Hogan. After petting the kangaroos, we walked some more, saw a few aborigine stores but I couldn’t find a painting I liked well enough to spend a couple hundred dollars on.  Instead I bought some opals, only triplets but they certainly looked nice.

8:30am and were dropped off at the Cairns railway station to catch the Kurunda train. That rainforest also meant a day of rain wasn’t in my plan but I had to just accept the fact that today I was going to get soaked to the skin. The train ride to Kurunda was rather boring as far as I was concerned and slept pretty much all the way. Kurunda is a complete tourist trap. We walked around the tourist stores without buying much and went to the venom zoo – yet another tourist trap. I thought I’d get to hold a tarantula but no, the only interesting thing was a wall dedicated to the king of killer animal tamers, Steve Irwin, who ironically got killed in 2006 by a sting ray. I loved Steve but spending $15 to see a wall dedication and get a tarantula sticker was just a bit off the track. To make up for it we spent another $15 each for the Koala gardens. Fair enough, we saw more animals and my sister, for an additional … you may guess it …. $15 was allowed to hold one. We stood by and watched before taking a family picture with the fluffy bear Hogan. After petting the kangaroos, we walked some more, saw a few aborigine stores but I couldn’t find a painting I liked well enough to spend a couple hundred dollars on.  Instead I bought some opals, only triplets but they certainly looked nice.

 

 

 

Instead of taking the dead boring train back, we took the skyrail. That was awesome. As there was quite a lot of wind blowing, our skyrail carriage was swinging in the wind above the massive trees of the rain forest. The rain forest looked awesome and I would have loved to just be dropped off somewhere in the middle of it and fight my way through. It just looked so beautiful. We had done a walk through the forest earlier but on solid wooden panels.

 

Back at the camper van we had a quiet night with spaghetti, heaps of red wine and chocolate port and mapping out our drive for tomorrow.

 

My dive stuff, which I had brought with me was still not dry much to the demise of my mum who was by then tired of the smelly stuff in our little bathroom. In hindsight I have to admit that bringing my own gear, through awesome to use, is a little over the top for the little diving I actually did. So next time … I’ll just dive more!!!

Oct 2 – Diving the Great Barrier Reef

(more pictures, click here)

After not such a good night sleep because it was mainly sticky and I was apparently hugging my sister too much in her sleep, we got up at

5am to get ready for a day of diving. Smart me had thought of everything and so I also packed the sea sickness tablets and off we were to Port Douglas about 60km north of Cairns. The drive up the coast was really nice and besides some mighty road trains slowing us down, not much happened and we got to the dive store at the Marina Mirage around 7am. The Haba Dive people seemed pretty cool and around 9am we finally set sail in their fancy catamaran. There were probably another 80 people on board.  Most did not dive. Smart me did not think we needed the sea sickness tables (and that after my last experience in Rotto) and so of course, just as the dive briefing was supposed to begin, the whole bunch of the Hoehnel girls were standing outside with paper bags. So were at least 10 other people. As nothing can shock us we still went diving. The Haba Crew decided on Opal Reef on the Outher Great Barrier Reef. Mum and Silly tried and intro dive and Silly loved it while mum decided diving was just not her thing. So she went snorkeling instead. The reef was alright, pretty shallow but the fish were nice and there were some good photo opportunities. I did 3 dives, Silly did 2 and mum was jumping around in the waves. My dive master Mia was also quite nice, unfortunately, I did not see any sharks nor turtles.

5am to get ready for a day of diving. Smart me had thought of everything and so I also packed the sea sickness tablets and off we were to Port Douglas about 60km north of Cairns. The drive up the coast was really nice and besides some mighty road trains slowing us down, not much happened and we got to the dive store at the Marina Mirage around 7am. The Haba Dive people seemed pretty cool and around 9am we finally set sail in their fancy catamaran. There were probably another 80 people on board.  Most did not dive. Smart me did not think we needed the sea sickness tables (and that after my last experience in Rotto) and so of course, just as the dive briefing was supposed to begin, the whole bunch of the Hoehnel girls were standing outside with paper bags. So were at least 10 other people. As nothing can shock us we still went diving. The Haba Crew decided on Opal Reef on the Outher Great Barrier Reef. Mum and Silly tried and intro dive and Silly loved it while mum decided diving was just not her thing. So she went snorkeling instead. The reef was alright, pretty shallow but the fish were nice and there were some good photo opportunities. I did 3 dives, Silly did 2 and mum was jumping around in the waves. My dive master Mia was also quite nice, unfortunately, I did not see any sharks nor turtles.

 

 

 

After the dives they brought as safely back to land and before heading to the resort, we did a major shop at Woolworth to make use of the small rental car. After a little break we headed back to the airport to drop of the rental and went to the Esplanade for dinner. The other two had already picked out a restaurant the day before, so we dined at the Raw Prawn and I finally got a beer which I had been craving all day. While eating we watched the lobster and crabs in their tanks and saw one lobster blow its last bubbles. As we were intently discussing the dead lobster at our table, the waiters decided to remove said object from the tank.

 

After paying for the rather luscious meal, we paid a little visit to the night markets in Cairns – without spending any money – and then caught a cab back to the camper van.