The Final Days

20/02/2012

Our East Coast tour was coming to an end. With only 2 days left we started to reminisce about all the things we had done, the places we had seen and the people we had met. Time had flown by, but the feeling behind it was bittersweet. As much fun as we had on our travels, the need for some stability was ready lingering in the back our minds. A room to call your own for more than a night, time to actually cook a proper meal rather than grabbing a packet of crisps at a gas station, and a place to air/dry your clothes before packing them away…

Like always, we got up nice and early in preparation for our morning pick up. All we were expecting [and told we would get] was a little white mini bus that would take us for the 2.5 hour trip from Cairns to Cape Tribulation; however what we was wasn’t expecting was the mini bus to actually be part of a tour. The bad side of this was that it in fact took us 5 hours to get to Cape Trib [due to various stop offs to see some scenery etc] , but on the brighter side, we got a free lunch and free entry to a wildlife sanctuary! 

Finally I got to see some of the Aussie wildlife the country is so famous for. First we got to see some of the native birds including the elusive Cassowary, which is a pre-historic looking bird which only lives in the rainforests in this area. Most people believe it only to be a myth as it is so rare to see one in the wild. But, they are real as we saw one.

Our favourite section was the ‘drylands’ as it housed all the hopping mammals we all automatically associate this fine country with! What made it even better was that there was no one else around so Scott and I had our choice of wallabies and kangaroos to pet and feed. 

The plan was to start with the cuter, smaller ones and work our way up, but halfway through as we were feeding some dessert wallabies this massive beast rocked up next to us, looking for his food. I won’t lie; kangaroos are actually pretty intimidating. They are about as tall as us and have these massive balls swinging about all over the place as the hop [that’s not necessarily why they are intimidating… it’s just a bit weird to look at]. Once we mustered the courage to extend a palm of food towards him though, it was fine, slobbery, but fine.

When we reached our hostel [located deep in the mountainous rainforest] I went for a swim in a nearby freshwater lagoon while Scott chilled out in the room with the massive spiders that guarded the front door. As the sun disappeared behind the mountain tops and darkness stole it’s place, we got into a minibus and took a 5 minute trip into the jungle for a night walk. I would be lying if I said we got to see loads of nocturnal wildlife that night, but it was more the experience of wondering through the rainforest in total darkness that made it interesting. We did however get to see a few nocturnal iguanas and plenty of massive spiders lurking around us to satisfy any creature cravings we were having.

Surprisingly, even after seeing all these creepy-crawlies we both managed to get a pretty good nights sleep! The best part was we then also got a lay in the next morning! Unheard of.

9:30am and it was time for the very last activity we would be doing on our East Coast tour [yes, tears were shed]. Again we got a minibus to where we started the night-walk and geared up for the ‘treetop tour of the jungle’.

Basically this just involved us zip-wiring from trees of differing heights, working our way from the top of the mountain to the bottom. The guides told us about rainforest and the trees we were passing etc along the way, and were really upbeat and kept it interesting for us.

Within an hour it was all over, as was the trip. Scott and I travelled back to Cairns for the night before booking our flights back to Sydney the following morning. And now here we are, back where we started, only with a lot less money.

Feels nice to be back. We can start looking for work and get back into some kind of routine again which means eventually we can get out of these hostels and rent an actual apartment in the city. Oh to have my own room, complete with a wardrobe, it actually sounds like heaven!

The journey has been amazing! We’ve both come away with some great memories and stories to tell hopefully once we get settled there will be time again to get some more, whether that be in Australia or somewhere else. Who knows.

We’ll still update the blog whenever something happens, but I regret to inform you [tissues at the ready] that it won’t be as often as it currently has been. I don’t want it to turn into ‘we went to work today, it rained at lunch’. 

Try not to despair folks, like I said, if something happens you’ll see the news here first! So check back every-so often!

An amazing few  weeks, which have challenged ourselves and given us some priceless, good times!

See you around.

Barrier Reef or a mass of Asian Throw-up?

18/02/2012

We travelled from one beach house to another, Scotty’s Beach House in Mission Beach to Cairns Beach House in, well Cairns. Free wireless internet, we’re in heaven! Short-lived unfortunately as the next morning we got up early and headed towards the docks to start a diving trip around the Barrier Reef. 

I won’t lie, it was a strange trip. We started off on a boat of around 70 passengers and 16 crew members. As soon as we entered the ship everything felt a bit chaotic and regimented, a slight oxymoron but it’s the only way I can describe it. Half the boat was full of Japanese trying to understand what to do until one of the Japanese staff members could translate and the other half was given a quick command of ‘your gear is here, grab and sit upstairs’. We then had to endure almost two hours of half the passengers on the ship barfing up their breakfasts until we reached the reef. Asians can’t handle the sea it seems. 

I really wanted to do a few more dives, and I know Scott did too, but unfortunately we are both completely broke at the moment so we had to settle for snorkelling. We went to two locations [not too far from one another], the first was a bit deeper and we saw larger fish and swam with another turtle and second was a lot shallower so all the fish/coral seemed a lot more colourful and you could touch it which was cool. And just for a cheap laugh, this is what sexiness looks like wearing stinger suits…

To be honest, as we had only done the Whitsundays a few days before, the fascination of the reef was slightly muted for us. We also slightly disagreed with each other on which was better; I think the reef here was a lot more vibrant here and I found the snorkelling slightly more interesting, however Scott has the opposing opinion. So unfortunately, I can’t tell you which was best. I guess it’s retrospective. 

 

After that our snorkelling sessions we boarded a second boat along with around 30 people from the original 70. The second boat was a bit bigger, and housed the cabins which we would use to sleep in that night. Immediately the hectic atmosphere dissipated and a more chilled out and relaxed vibe took its place. The crew were much calmer and gave us a quick guideline of what the rest of the day’s activities would be, and the also what we were doing for the following morning. For us snorkelers it was a case of ‘jump in and out whenever we’ve stopped moving’ and we could just go wherever we liked [within reason], whereas we had to stay with a guide on the other ship.

As there were less people on this ship, we had a better opportunity to interact with the other guests, especially during the ‘downtime’ between dives and the catered meals. This made the trip much more enjoyable.

That afternoon on our last snorkel / dive location I finally got to do something that I really wanted to try… swim with sharks. I was just minding my own business snorkelling by myself by the reef edge when I felt something swim by my side. I knew I was alone as Scott had gone back to the ship a few minutes earlier, but I initially assumed it was a diver coming up to give a scare. It quickly came into vision however to shatter those thoughts. I let out a surprised, underwater scream until I saw another swim by on my other side, followed by another. I thought it would be really cool to swim with sharks, and I knew they weren’t exactly going to try and kill me, attack rate is minimal, but even-so I headed right back for the boat. It may have freaked me out a little. Gutted.

Gotta love a night’s sleep on a boat, feels like you’re been rocked like a baby. Waking up refreshed we spent the morning eating, chatting and having a last swim in the ocean before heading back to shore.

We had a good time, it was just a shame we did it so close to our previous boat / reef trip, felt a bit ‘been there, done that’. But we did meet some nice people and enjoy our boat/hotel experience. Made us want to go on a cruise.

Let’s go EXTREME!

16/02/2012

The end of our east coast travels is drawing nearer but we still have a few more adventures to look forward too! Today we took a trip from Mission Beach to Tully for a day trip White Water Rafting, which we’ve both been really excited about.

Ever since Brisbane we have prayed for nothing but sunshine and we’ve been lucky enough to be granted our wish, however as everyone knows water sports are always so much better after a good spell of rain so instead we prayed for the sunshine to take a vacation. I don’t know who’s looking down on us, but a big thank you to whomever it is as the night before a storm set off, dousing the area and continued throughout the follow day.

The minibus that collected us from Mission Beach also collected 3 others from the area and we all got chatting on the hour-long ride to Tully, which proved useful as when we got to our destination we were asked to put ourselves into groups of 6/7. So we teamed up with the German and the couple from Brazil from our bus and then a set of twins from Sweden. There was something like 60 people heading down the rapids that day, but as we had booked the ‘extreme’ opposed to the ‘standard’ tour we only went down with 3 boats of 7, making for a much more fun experience. 

(Ignore how ugly I am in the above photo)

What separated the two tours [apart from the smaller group numbers] was that the ‘extreme’ tour wanted its participants to get as wet as possible. We got to flip our boat at every opportunity, jump out into the rapids and let the water fling us downstream, jump off high rocks, body surf, slide down waterfalls, swim in the calm stretches [of potentially crocodile infested waters] and drink from the fresh springs. 

The rafting itself was fun, our mentor would scream commands at us and we’d all jump around the craft to steer ourselves over rocks and rough waters etc, but doing that all day I would have found tedious. We were so glad we did the extreme version as it was the out-of-raft experiences that really made the trip [we’d recommend it to anyone]. For example there was one waterfall we got to slide down, which was only small, but once you hit the water below the current swept you along its bed and wouldn’t let you leave for 5/6 seconds which is a lot longer than it sounds!

The whole day was so much fun. We had a great group in our raft and our mentor was really cool and loved how up for anything we were. By the time we got back to the bus we both felt absolutely battered, but my god it was worth it! We want to do it again…

That night our sore bodies went back to Scotty’s Beach Housel, where we had also spent the previous night. It’s a super chilled out hostel where the safe were always friendly and eager to chat to its tenants. Like the night before, we sat at a long table located by the pool, whacked out the Goon box and played a few card / drinking games with everyone staying there. It can be nice just spending hours chatting to people you would never normally meet, from all over the world, knowing you’re not likely to see them again. It’s freeing, you don’t have to pretend to be anybody and you learn a lot.

Whitsunday Islands

12/02/2012

A sore head and an early start. A bad combination, but the night before was worth the sore head and the day’s upcoming activity was worth the early start so there were no grounds to complain. Once again we packed our rucksacks with enough clothing and toiletries to last us a few days [we are pros at this now] and walked to the docks. For the next 3 days / 2 nights we were to be travelling around the Whitsunday Islands via boat; stopping off at various points to explore some of the islands and also exploring the depths below, containing the outer Great Barrier Reef. We’ve both been quite excited about doing for some time now as everyone we’ve met said that they had the best time and I’ve always wanted to try diving [even though I'm shit-scared of open water] so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

But there was one thing worrying us… We have met tons of people who had either already done this, or were booked to, but none of them were doing it through the same company as us. Everyone was saying they were going on the ‘Clipper’ or ‘New Horizons’ which are both slightly larger boats with a more party atmosphere than ‘Wings 3’, which we were booked onto. It soon started to dawn on us that we might have done the wrong thing booking onto a boat described as ‘calm and chilled out’ in case the description only attracted the elderly couple seeking a romantic weekend break. It didn’t ease our concerns when we got to the dock and the only other people there were three members of a Chinese family [mother, father and 18-or-so year old son].

Luckily others started to slowly rock up the meeting point and were more of a similar age to us so the worries subsided and once everyone was accounted for, we got onto the boat and set sail.

We were put in a tiny cabin with three friends from Sweden; Fredrik, Josephine and Olle who, luckily, were all friendly as we all had to become fairly intimate rapidly. Everyone was pretty nice actually, I mean, we had a few couples who kept themselves to themselves which was fine but in general we had a good chat with everyone. The crew were also all really cool. Dylan was the skipper, he always had a white face due to his sun-ink [as he called it] and he was really easy to talk to and very laid back. He also did an awesome job taking us around the islands, avoiding all the storms that apparently kicking off around us [we didn’t see anything but blue skies] and taking us to the best snorkel / dive sites! Ian was I guess the ‘first hand’ but mainly his role was dive instructor. He was just really laid back also and really eased us into the diving so we didn’t panic underwater. Finally there was Rachel. She pretty much did everything else; Cooking, cleaning, photo taking, making sure everyone was having fun etc. Awesome girl!

We spent the morning exposing our skin to the sun’s rays while we travelled to our first drop off site. Once there everyone put on their wetsuits [which had to be worn whenever entering the water as it’s stinger season and the waters cater for the top 2 most deadly jellyfish] and the snorkelers dove into the water for their first glimpse of the underwater world. I on the other hand, had to stay behind and have a safety lesson and a quick ‘how to dive’ lesson before I got to jump in after everyone else.

The dive was amazing. I can’t lie, there were a couple of moments when I would look up and not see the surface and my body would kick into panic mode for a few seconds until I calmed myself down, but in general I really enjoyed it. We got to explore a few underwater coves and see bigger fish that lived in the deeper waters. There’s this one fish that is probably the size of myself [nicknamed Pricilla by the locals] that swam with us for a while and had the opportunity to stroke her etc for a bit too, which was cool. I think Scott saw her too while he was snorkelling, the socialite of the Barrier Reef obviously!

One of the best things about the whole trip was that once we got back on the boat, there was always a meal waiting for us. After a few excursions camping and spending all over occasions in hostels, fighting for kitchen space, it felt like luxury! We didn’t even have to do any washing up!

That night we all filled our glasses with Goon and spread ourselves out across the deck so we could lie down and look up into the sky. It’s a total cliché to say ‘I’ve never seen so many stars’ but there’s is nothing else I can say, because I really haven’t seen that many stars before. The sky was completely clear except for the millions and millions of white specs shining down on us. Suddenly a shooting star would shoot past your line of vision or a satellite would make its way slowly through the night but apart from that everything and everyone was still; just taking in the moment. Without wanting to sound too mushy, it was truly a beautiful sight.

We were reluctantly woken up at 6:30am the next morning so we could grab some breakfast [still eating like kings…] before we hit Whitehaven Beach. The skipper [Dylan] wanted to make sure we got there early for low tide, as this was meant to be the best time to capture the scenery.  He was a firm believer that this was the second most beautiful beach in the world, only overtaken by one in Thailand because you didn’t need to wear a wetsuit to bathe in that one. Obviously a photo doesn’t really capture the true beauty of the scene, but I’ll let you judge whether Dylan was right.

 I’m glad we got there for low tide as we could really see the swirling, shallow pools the area is so well known for. There area is also a top breeding ground for stingrays and reef sharks. The sand on the beach felt like you were walking on flour, it was so fine and pure white. Apparently NASA wanted some for some reason [how informative am i?] and were willing to pay millions for it, but the National Park refused to sell!

Rachel came with us and took photos throughout the day like us attempting to do a pyramid. It was so funny watching the Chinese family trying to be part of it. The dad got on one of the upper levels even though he was quiet a heavy bloke and the mum would just stand at the back and lean over, instead of hoping on. Needless to say, I don’t think we managed to do a full pyramid in the end, by the time the mum moved on everyone was too weak to carry on. Hilarious to watch though.

When the tide started to come back in, we moved on to a couple more locations so we could do some more snorkelling and get a varied look at the reef and the fish it homed. My favourite place we visited that afternoon was called ‘Manta Ray Bay’ because the water was just so clear you could see everything and really get a good visual of the vibrancy of the coral. The area also boasted the biggest fish as an added bonus. It’s weird thinking about it as I can remember snorkelling on holidays with my sister, and anytime even the tiniest of fish came into view, we would be rushing out the water screaming. And now here I was, literally jumping into open ocean with fish the size of my arm circling us. Some were so friendly you could outstretch your arm and they would graze past and let you pet them. A really cool feeling.

I honestly have so many photos from this place, I want to post them all – but I’ll try and reframe from doing that. They’ll be on Facebook when we’ve finished our east-coast travels!

That night was Josephine’s 21^st birthday [which apparently isn’t a big deal in Sweden] and you know us Brits, any excuse to throw a party; so we all got together and spent the night playing drinking games and having a little boogie until the early hours. I’m pretty sure it was her best birthday ever haha!

Another sore head, another early start. It was Valentine’s Day and Dylan wanted to give us one other opportunity to have a date with the fishes before we set sail for home. I’ve got to admit, the last thing I felt like doing that morning was to go for a swim, but we put on our wetsuits and dived in to be greeted by lots of turtles! A truly amazing way to start any day! They are so graceful and uncaring that you’re swimming with them [which we later found out was because they get stoned after eating the jellyfish]. They were by far, my favourite Valentine’s Day date.

 

Another amazing couple of days. Having some new experiences and meeting to fab new people! I feel I need to give a quick shout-out to Miles from Cornwall, Mama Africa and Lauren from Jersey [not the American state] who provided much laughs along the way – wouldn’t have been the same without you!