Reefs and Rainforests- Northern Queensland

5 hours further on and our first Greyhound trip is over, we have arrived in Townsville. The town is very quiet, many shops still closed after the owners locked up and fled in fear of the Cyclone. We take a short ferry to Magnetic Island and then a bus journey through to our hostel. It is on this Bus trip where we see most of the damage caused by Yasi, trees lay right across the road or piled high up on the side where volunteers have been working tirelessly to tidy up. Fences have been ripped up and dropped in next doors gardens and driving alongside the sea there is as much sand on the road as there is on the beach. The hostel, like the rest of Magnetic island was very quiet with many choosing to stay away from the area. The swimming pool was out of order, due to Cyclone damage, and the sea full of stingers... so no where to cool down from the super hot sun! Bikes seemed like a good mode of transport to take in the sights of the 10km island... this was a bad idea! 38 degrees heat, no shade and some monstrous hills, oh, and rubbish bikes (1 with jammed breaks, the other with high gears only!) Despite the searing heat and the pain we managed to cool off in an enclosed cove and then got to see the local wildlife, a family of five rock Wallabies who wanted to say hello, very cute! Next day we bused it all the way round the island! We went the the Koala village which had reopened for the first day after Yasi. This place was great, we got to hold lizards, kiss tropical birds, entangle ourselves with snakes but best of all wrestle a croc! It may have only been young but it was a croc all the same, one of natures greatest killing machines! Magnetic Island was clearly a beautiful place with much wildlife but it will take a while to restore itself after the damage of Yasi.

Next stop Mission beach... oh no this place was completely destroyed by the Cyclone! A great shame, and at the time we passed we were unable to stay even as a helping volunteer as it was still too dangerous. So we had to head all the way to Cairns, passing many destroyed banana plantations, which will be the reason for a price hike on bananas! Cairns is truly tropical, very hot, humid with the heavy rain! A city with a very holiday feel, just a shame that once again the beaches are out of action due to stinger season and the rogue salt water crocs! They do have a beautiful lagoon overlooking the sea which is great for a cool down though! First trip here had to be the Great Barrier Reef and what better day to do it on than Charlies Birthday! On this trip we would take our first ever Scuba dive and do some snorkelling on the worlds most famous reef. On the way out we received all our Scuba instructions and before we knew it we were kitted out with what felt like lead weights on our backs and plunging down to the depths below. To be honest, this was pretty scary and not all that enjoyable, breathing underwater is bizarre and the pain your ears go through is at times just silly! But we were both glad we did it and the experience will certainly stay with us unfortunately we didn't see anything we hadn't seen before. After some lunch we went to our second point and decided that we would just snorkel here. This was more like the the Barrier reef we had been expecting, crystal clear water, colourful coral and millions of fish, like being in a giant fish bowl. On top of all the brightly coloured tropical fish we managed to glimpse a couple of Stingrays (this spot was not more than 100m from where Steve Irwin had died), many giant clams and a Shovel nose shark, memories to last a life time.

All aboard the Wallaby, as we went up to the tablelands rain forest with Cousin Rowhan. Cus was an exceptional tour guide giving us plenty of information about the rain forest in particular, never wipe your bum with a stinging plant.... it will kill you! We took in some awesome sites, in particular the Millaa Millaa falls (so good they names it twice) and if you've never heard of them check out the Mysterious Girl video by the Aussie legend Peter Andre. We took in quite a few different waterholes which were super chilled which is always appreciated after a sweaty bush trek. We also managed to see the most dangerous bird in the world, the Cassowary, an amazing site especially as these giant birds are close to extinction.

Cape Tribulation was our next adventure, a rain forest that spans out onto the northern beaches. We took a cruise down the Daintree river in search of Crocs, we managed to spot two but both were only young uns probably 1yr old. We managed to spot a couple of snakes and a dragon lizard later on when we were further into the rain forest. We also took a dip in a creek that was probably 200m from a supposed croc nest, but still no wild crocodiles. A truly beautiful part of the world and people shouldn't believe everything they hear, the wildlife is only dangerous if you don't respect it!

Next stop for us is back to the Tablelands, but this time we are in search of the country working life!

On the road again - Central and North East Australia

Palya! (Said: 'Pal-e-a' - means hello in the Aboriginal language!)

Day 221: Work is finished; all packed up ready for room inspection and said goodbyes to some forever friends. To avoid things all weather hazardous, we decided to go to the middle of Australia – guaranteed sunshine! We booked to go with The Rock Tour company, 5 days on total. On the 1st Feb, we flew directly into Ayers Rock to miss out a 6 hour drive from Alice Springs. We chose correctly, the flight in and over Ayers Rock was amazing, like a private tour. Ayers Rock has a purpose built resort in the middle of the desert. It has 4 hotels, a few shops and one supermarket. A wierd place.

It was in the high 30 degrees to start and continued at around 40 degrees for the most of the trip. On walks, the shade brought a cooler relief at around 32. It was perfect weather to camp and that’s what we did! Our tour guide is a rustic fella and made us, every night, camp under the stars in swags huddled together. No complaint, it was a great experience.

The 1^st day we head out to Kata Kjuta. A gorge walk through a sacred part of the national park. Here we saw zebra finches, a good sign (to the Aboriginal people) that there is water nearby. We know a few tips how to survive in the Northern Territory desert including bush tucker. I wouldn’t count my chickens though. The air gets trapped in the gorge making the temperature nearly 50 degrees (no lie!) in the sun. It was the hottest we have been in our life, ever!! Slow movements made the sweat pour out – a lovely image. The tour guide made sure we carried 3 liters of water on walks. We then head to the magnificent Uluru (Ayers Rock) for the sunset and dinner.

Next morning we were awoken at 5am. Quick toilet break, brush teeth and head to Uluru for sunrise - yawn! The sunrise was much more spectacular making green, yellow and orange colours. We had a camp breakfast then off to explore Uluru. It was a 7km walk around the base, very flat and so quite easy. Half of the rock is scared so no pics. There is an Aboriginal tribe that still uses Uluru for ceremonies and meetings. There are cave paintings which the adults use to teach the young about the religion and stories. In the evening we had a camp fire (made of the wood we had to scavenge in the desert earlier), had bush bread, played games and gazed at the Southern Hemisphere constellations.

Day 3 we started early to take on the Kings Canyon. I understand now why it is named King, it was huge! We both agreed it was the most spectacular experience. I nearly fainted on the way up the mammoth canyon but Jon (with his dedicated sport mentality) just kept saying "positive mental attitude" and it got me up! We walked around the edge and made our way to the Garden of Eden. Wow. It was strange to see the oasis in the desert. An experience we will treasure forever.

We had to take a quick overnight pit stop in Sydney before making our way up the North East Coast.

On the 6th Feb we flew to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. This was just like flying over Fiji again. Crystal clear blue waters, dotted islands and sands banks. Beautiful. Upon arriving into Hamilton we had the most bizarre greeting. Hamilton is a luxury island, everyone drives golf buggies. A lady with microphone welcomed us and directed the small crowd to the luggage area and ferry terminal. A service we are not used to! The ferry trip to the mainland (Airlie Beach) took an hour. We settled into our hostels for a few days. In the North East waters there are box jellyfish, deadly creatures! So there is a purpose built lagoon next to the beach. No one goes on the beach or in the sea.
We were excited for our 2 night Whitsunday boat trip. We had pre-booked this 3 week trip through my work in Sydney so everything had been relaxing so far. Until the Whitsunday boat company called and cancelled our trip because cyclone Yasi had happened the week before and most roads were closed = no backpackers. There was no enough people on the boat to run the trip. So we called work and got a refund. Luckily (when in a internet cafe close to our hostel) the lady behind the counter shouted that she had a great deal. It turned out to be really great. Cheap and a bigger boat. We had to pack up and check-in within the hour!
It was called the SV Whithaven.
We helped with the masts and relaxed a lot. Snorkelling, eating and drinking was the itinerary, bliss. We visited many islands over the 2 days and visited the famous Whithaven Beach. White pure sands, bush walk and stingrays. It hurt our eyes because the sun reflected off the white sand. Saw a couple of huge spiders too. The crew were great and made our trip loads of fun. 2 days after the boat trip we still had land sickness with the feeling we were still at sea.

Out of Airlie Beach we caught the Greyhound Bus, this was our first experience. It was actually not bad. I wasn't expecting very much but the seats were comfy and a movie was played for us too! We headed to Townsville to visit Magnetic Island.

More on Magnetic Island and the rest of our 3 week holiday coming up soon! .....


xx