I just wanted to let everyone know I'm home again! It took about 30 hours, my flight in Brisbane got delayed twice, but I landed in Atlanta at 7:00 PM on Saturday night. It was an awesome trip - thanks so much for everyone I got to see while I was there and everyone who commented here - it was really fun to have you guys along with me. :)
Originally, I thought I wouldn't plan to do anything today. I had a few hours of nothing yesterday and the day before and that was more than enough, so my better judgment prevailed and I decided to make plans. I ended up deciding to go to Green Island.
Green Island is a small sand island about 45 minutes (by boat) from Cairns. There's nothing too remarkable about it I guess, but I picked up a book by Nevil Shute called A Town Like Alice in Alice Springs and some of the characters go to Green Island and it sounded pretty idyllic. When I discovered there were day trips from Cairns, I decided to check it out.
The day started out rainy and cloudy, and once again seasickness bags were handed out on the way there. Once we got there however, it cleared up pretty nicely. There was a nice little sandy beach where I rented an umbrella and spent a while reading. There was also some decent snorkeling in the area - I saw a lot of little fish in the reef areas just off shore. Here's a picture of the beach area from the pier:
Partway through the day I took a ride on a semisubmersible boat. It's kind of like a glass bottom boat to the extreme - the sitting area is completely underwater. We saw all kinds of fish, but it was hard to get a good picture. Here's one I got of a big group of fish that swam by. If the water had been clearer I'm sure we'd have seen more, but it was still pretty cool.
And another of a ramora (I think). They have suckers on the top of their heads and on the way back, one of these latched onto the window!
Then it was time to come back. Here's one last picture of me on the pier at Green Island. I look a little goofy because the sun was in my eyes, but oh well.
Tomorrow I head home. A bus will pick me up at 4:00 AM to take me to the airport, I'm on a flight to Brisbane, then another to Los Angeles, then a final one to Atlanta. I worked it out and starting from my 6:30 AM departure in Cairns, I'll be on planes or in airports for the next 26.5 hours. I think it will be a long time before I want to see an airplane again!
Thanks for following along and leaving comments - it's been really fun keeping this blog while I was gone! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now - check back in a week or so and I'll have added a bunch more pictures. After that...who knows. :)
Kuranda is a small mountain town near Cairns - its main attraction is that you can get there via a scenic railway trip or by a 7.5 km long cable car ride. When I booked my tour, I learned that the railway wasn't working because of a landslide, so I opted to take the cable car instead.
Here's the view from the car going up:
It stopped twice - once you had to get off and switch to a new car and the other was so you could walk through the rainforest if you wanted to. It was a really neat way to travel - so quiet you could hear the birds and so high you were looking down on the trees.
Kuranda has several things to do - I visited a "Venom Zoo" that had some of the most poisonous snakes and spiders in the world, traveled around through the shops, and stopped at the Butterfly Sanctuary. The had a large greenhouse filled with plants and butterflies, and it was pretty cool. I've never really been a huge fan of butterflies, but our guide was and she told us all about them.
I wandered around a bit more and then took the cable car back down. By now, the weather had turned to rain and it was extremely cloudy and foggy. This time it was a little freaky riding the car down!
Still really cool though!
I headed back into town and then spent the evening tracking down dinner and repacking my stuff. I also found something to do for today, which I'll explain in my next post.
Wednesday was my day to visit the Great Barrier Reef. The bus picked me up bright and early, and after making sure everyone still wanted to go (high winds, choppy, etc etc), we were on our way. We arrived in Port Douglas, about an hour north of Cairns, and boarded our boat, the Silversonic. It took us out to the Agincourt Reefs. Everyone kept telling me the outer reef was much better, and this was about as far out as you could get!
The ride out was very choppy. I felt my stomach drop over and over again and I was a little worried I might get seasick for a few minutes. But then we were there! I really wanted to get certified to scuba dive before coming here, but I didn't have the time, so instead I signed up for an introductory dive. I debated about whether or not I should even write about this, but I've been pretty candid about everything else so I wanted to be about this too.
I got all dressed up in the scuba gear and got in the water, but I didn't go on the dive. The feeling of only being able to breathe through my mouth made me feel claustrophobic, and when we got in the water it was so rough I felt like I couldn't breathe. The last thing I wanted to do was freak out on the bottom of the ocean, so I returned to the boat, feeling more than a little embarrassed. This is one of the only things I can remember trying to do and not going through with for a long time. Anyway, I have promised myself that I will take a class so I can get used to the feeling of all the gear in the safe environment of a pool and return to dive the reef sometime in the future. I felt a little better when one of the other introductory divers also canceled out of his dive - a little less like it was all in my head.
Anyway, I spent the day snorkeling instead, and it was excellent! There were a lot of different types of fish swimming about - some were quite large - and many different kinds of coral. I was so close to most of it that I could have kicked it with my flippers if I wasn't careful! I didn't buy an underwater camera because I wanted to just enjoy it and not worry about taking pictures, so sorry for no pictures! After the first stop, we went to a second place called Turtle Bay. I made it my mission to see a turtle while we were there, and I did! I followed him around for a little while, but he could work his flippers better than I could work mine! I also saw a four foot long reef shark in the area! That was pretty cool too.
On the third site, the wind had picked up and the current was so strong it was virtually impossible to swim anywhere, so I didn't get to see much there. I did get to hold a coral that one of the dive instructors brought to the surface, and that was pretty cool too.
We returned to the boat and back to the hostel, where I had a bit of dinner and promptly fell asleep!
They're closing down the computer area I'm in, so I'll have to post about yesterday and today sometime tomorrow! Until then!
I arrived in Cairns Tuesday morning and after a bit of trouble finding my hostel (it doesn't actually have a storefront on the street where its address is!), I settled in. Almost every hostel has a tour desk where they help you book your activities, so I went straight there. I planned Cairns as my last stop because I thought it would be a good place to relax - kind of like a beach vacation within my overall vacation.
Cairns was not in the mood to cooperate however. It has been "unseasonably" rainy, windy, and overcast since I've been here. It's set to be this way until at least Saturday, so I won't have the chance to wait it out. However, I decided not to let it deter me - if the boats were going to the reef, then so was I!
In the end, I booked a trip to the reef for Wednesday, a trip into the mountains to see a town called Kuranda for today, and left tomorrow open, potentially for another trip to the reef. That left the rest of the day Tuesday, so I decided to go to an Aborigine cultural center to learn more about them.
It was very similar to the Maori cultural center. It started with a bit of a show inside. Several Aborigines taught a crowd of tourists the beginning of a fire ceremony and then they actually lit a fire in the traditional way - similar to how the Native Americans do it with rubbing sticks together.
Then we went in to the buffet. While we were there, they did another show on a little stage. One man played the didgeridoo while the others did a few traditional dances and a little skit. It was really interesting and also quite entertaining. The Aborigines have the oldest continuous culture on the planet, which I think is pretty fascinating.
Anyway, here's a picture of me with one of the main performers after the show (in what else - the gift shop)!
This morning, I took a train out to:
Like the sign says, this is Steve Irwin's zoo. His presence was everywhere - if his spirit is still around, it's got to be haunting the Australia Zoo. His sayings and his picture are on all of the little plaques describing the animals, and you get the feeling that he's still there. It must be strange for his family to be there. In fact, the only indication you get anywhere in the park that he's not still around is a touching display of some of the many things that people from all over the world sent in after his death. I don't think I've ever actually seen an episode of The Crocodile Hunter, but I'm a bit more interested now that I've seen what else he and his family have accomplished.
The zoo was very nicely done. There were a lot of animals in nice little habitats and there were public feedings throughout the day. You could feed elephants, kangaroos, and farm animals or pose with dingos, (small) crocodiles, or snakes. I had my picture taken with a giant Burmese Python, but my camera batteries died so I only have the printout they sold me and no digital copies. It was one huge snake though! I did manage to take a few pictures before my batteries went - here's one of me with a giant croc they have on display. This isn't an actual crocodile, only an indication of how big one could grow if left on his own in the wild with no interference whatsoever. Most only grow to much less than this.
The highlight of the day was the live animal show in the "Crocoseum". This is a 5000 seat stadium that was built specially for the crocodile show. Here's a picture of what it's like.
Animal handlers came out and showed everyone snakes, falcons, cockatoos, and other colorful birds. They put on a very nice show. Then it was time for the crocodiles! We got a bit of luck - Terri Irwin (Steve's widow) was there to do the show herself! Here she is:
Steve's "best mate" also came out to do the show. They talked about the dangers crocs face in the wild and also told us a bit about the nature of crocodiles. Then they fed him several pieces of meat, while jumping out of the way of his jaws themselves! Here are a few action shots I got before my camera died.
This one was to show how high a croc can jump out of the water - about half it's body length!
And that was about it for the day! I walked around a little more and then caught the train back into the city. Tomorrow I head out to my last destination - Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. My plan is to go to the rainforest one day and visit the reef on the others. I'm there until Saturday, when I begin my epic journey home. Hopefully, I'll be able to update a few more times before then!
To my dismay, because today is both Sunday and Easter, the trains didn't start running in time for me this morning. I bought a ticket on the Skybus to take me back to the airport, but the pick-up was a little over 1 kilometer away. Did I do the smart thing and call a cab? No, of course not. I strapped on my backpack, told myself it wasn't that far, and huffed and puffed my way down the street. Well let me tell you, when you have 21 kg (46 lbs!) on your back and 7 kg (15 lbs) on your front, it is one helluva long way. I finally made it (and learned a lesson too) and was on my way to the airport.
The first plane we were on had a malfunctioning fuel panel, but they quickly got us on a new plane and we were off. I arrived in Brisbane at 11 AM, checked into my hostel (this one has individual bathrooms for each room - hallelujah!) and headed out again. My plan for the day was to go see some of these guys at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary was excellent. They had all kinds of native life in easy to access enclosures. I saw cassowaries and wombats, in addition to many of the other animals I've seen in other places, plus lots of new bird species. I took a picture of this dingo because the Humane Society told my parents their dog is part dingo, but I don't really see the resemblance, except that he also looks kind of dopey.
One of the big dras to this place is that you can hold a koala! I found out they are not very heavy (although they are the heaviest tree based mammal without a tail, in case you were wondering) and they are very soft. I asked the handler if they were smart, and she told me no.
The other really neat thing about the Sanctuary was the kangaroo enclosure. You could buy food and feed them, and they were really tame. Much more timid than those goats back in Queenstown!
The last thing of the day there was a sheepdog show, which was really cool. It made me want to watch Babe again. Here are the dogs chasing the sheep around.
Later, one of the dogs corralled the sheep into a pen and then sat on them. It was kind of odd.
And that was pretty much it for today! Tomorrow I'm going out to Steve Irwin's zoo, the Australia Zoo. I'll let you know how it goes! Oh, and for one last picture, in case you were wondering how far the Lone Pine Sanctuary (and Brisbane) is from a variety of places all over the world, I thought this little display was interesting.
For Saturday activities, Kerry offered to show me around the city. I met her at the Melbourne Museum, which had some very nice exhibits, and then we went to lunch. After lunch, we walked down to the National Gallery. There was this really neat wall that was kind of a sheet of water, and we discovered that the buildings behind it were actually made of legos! There were kids there making new buildings when we walked through.
After looking through the museum a little bit, we went back to Federation Square in search of drinks. This is a very striking area - neat architecture and a large outdoor sitting area. The International Comedy Festival is in Melbourne right now, so we sat and watched a little outdoor show before continuing on our way. Apparently, the design of Federation Square was quite controversial when it was built, but I quite liked it.
We went to the ANZAC Memorial and walked through the beautiful Botanic Gardens before catching a tram out to St Kilda, which was absolutely lovely.
There weren't a whole lot of people about, but the area was kind of like Little Five in Atlanta - lots of neat little stores and interesting restaurants. We had dinner at one and then browsed through a bookshop before having some excellent dessert at a nearby bakery. One the way back to the tram, we stopped at Luna Park for what Kerry said was a classic St Kilda picture!
I might have nightmares about that giant illuminated head!
We went back to my hostel and then Kerry went on her way, but not before getting the guy at the desk to take a quick picture!
After that, I went straight to bed - I had an early flight to Brisbane to catch this morning!
I arrived in Melbourne around 9 on Thursday night. Kerry (Kerewyn) came down to meet me at my hostel and we went out dinner. They city was buzzing with people - Good Friday is a national holiday here, so it was like a Friday night. We went to a little cafe that Kerry found earlier and had a delicious dinner.
For Friday, I had booked a day tour to a wildlife reserve and to see penguins on Phillip Island. Unfortunately, I was the only one interested in the wildlife part, so my full day tour got cut to a half day. I wandered around Melbourne until 3, and then my group left for Phillip Island. We stopped once to take some pictures, and it was quite a lovely shoreline with waves crashing all over the place!
Phillip Island is a natural habitat for penguins, and in recent years the government has been buying back land to make it more hospitable for them. It's also a big tourist attraction. Every night at dusk, the penguins gather off shore and then come up on to the beach in groups of about 20 or 30. They then waddle off to their burrows. They do it in the same place every night, so there are grandstands built on the beach so people can watch. With my tour, I got the "Penguins Plus" package, which got me in the part of the stands where almost all of the penguins stop to rest, so I got to be about 10 feet away from them for the whole "Penguin Parade". It was great! The penguins were Little Penguins, the smallest breed, and they were less than a foot tall. They would come waddling up, making all kinds of noise, and then pause to shake themselves off just a few feet away from where we were. It was really cool, and quite amazing that they keep coming to the same places and don't see us as a threat. You couldn't take any pictures of the penguins, so I don't have any, but I did get one of this awesome sign on the way out of the parking lot.
Then it was back to Melbourne for the night.
