Sailing...

Leaving Cairns, we continued our journey south. Our first stop of any interest was Magnetic Island, a 20 minute ferry ride from Townsville. From there, we booked a hostel for a few nights, found a home for Wally, then boarded the ferry across incredibly choppy waters, which made for a wet and interesting ride over. On the island, there were many beaches that seemed to have great coral and snorkelling, so we loaded up our gear and went walkabout. Much to our dismay, it was still quite windy out and after 15kms of walking through bush trails, we found not a single beach where it was calm enough to snorkel. Thankfully, it was a nice day and we at least were rewarded with some beautiful views. That night, we went for another walk up through old forts and gun placements from the Second World War. This walk is known for it's great koala spotting, and we were lucky enough to spot two on our travels. One way far up in a tree, and another was more mobile than either of us had ever seen - sliding down one tree, climbing out a branch, then hopping into another tree to eat. We even managed to get within 10 feet of this one.
A few nights later, we landed in Airlie Beach, a very popular backpackers town. We had booked a sailing trip for Jodi's birthday, and loaded onto our boat, Freight Train, on Friday morning to head into the Whitsundays. On Jodi's birthday the next day, she was lucky enough to visit Whitehaven Beach with incredibly white silica sand as far as they eye could see, drive the sailboat, do a scuba dive into a small coral reef, snorkel with a turtle and giant napoleon wrasse, and watch the sunset across the waters. She figures this was a birthday that will not be forgotten and probably never repeated again. We even managed to snorkel again the next day and find a huge potato cod along with scores of other tropical fish. All was good until the boat engine quit, and with no winds to sail by, we waited on the boat for three hours to have a repair crew come out and get us on our way back to shore.
We headed south some more along the coast, eventually reaching Rockhampton, the self proclaimed Beef Capital of Austraila. Went out for a terrific steak dinner for Jodi's Birthday in a 130 year old pub, and found their free zoo and botanic gardens.
From there, on to the sister towns of Agnes Waters and the Town of 1770, named after the historic landing of Captain James Cook. We did a day trip out to Lady Musgrave Island, at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, and it was fantastic. Toured the island where Jodi managed to get herself pooped on by a Noddy Bird, and was assured it meant good luck. Snorkelled again, feeling so glad to have bought our own gear in Cairns, and found three green turtles at a "cleaning station" where fish come and clean their shells for them. Also saw more unicorn fish, clown fish, sea stars and cucumbers, and thousands of others all showing off their bright colours. Later, did a glass bottom boat tour, where we found a black tipped reef shark and a hawksbill turtle, which is apparently quite elusive.
Next up was a stop in Bundaberg, home of the Aussie famous Bundaberg Rum. We took a tour of the distillery, and learned how they turn molasses from the abundant local sugar cane into delicious rum. A few samples later and we were feeling just great. We even got in a game of mini golf and 10 pin bowling that night.
Currently in Hervey Bay, working out details for a 4 wheel drive tour to Fraser Island. Spent the afternoon in a pub celebrating the Melbourne Cup, known as the race that stops the nation. Entered a sweeps, and Jodi got the 2nd place horse, winning herself $14. Fancy hats and all, it was a fun day out.

Diving in the Great Barrier Reef

The PADI Open water dive course started with two full days of pool and classroom training. There we got to learn and practice the skills needed to become certified divers, as well as getting to know our classmates from all over the world. While visiting the dive shop to select our rental equipment, we convinced ourselves to invest in our own masks, snorkels and fins. After having tried the rental equipment in the pool, we decided to explore the reef in comfort.
We then boarded our boat at 7:00 am Thanksgiving morning for three days out on the Great Barrier Reef. After three hours of sailing, we reached our first dive site where we suited up and hopped in for our first of four training dives. Although these training dives required us to practice the skills we had learned in the pool, we were still surrounded by thousands of tropical fish, sea creatures and coral. Highlights included seeing reef sharks, sea turtles, cuttlefish, parrotfish, and of course, the clownfish. After a couple dives searching, we were able to find Nemo. After completing the fourth training dive we became certified divers, and were free to spend our next five dives on our own.
Over the course of three days, we dove in three different reefs at a total of five dive sites. Everywhere we went, the coral landscape stretched on forever, and was full of purples, pinks, greens, yellows, all sparkling in the sunlight from above. It was great fun to go off for our fifth dive, as we could do as we pleased and follow our own trail. There was some concern over getting lost, but a quick pop to the surface would reassure us that we really weren't that far from the boat. On these dives, we were also able to linger around spots that really interested us, play with coral that would retreat into itself if you got too close, and spend time watching fish as we pleased. We also got to go for a night dive - after they fed the sharks off the back of the boat, no less. Using flashlights, we discovered a different world, with sleeping fish under coral, little crabs skittering about, and Jodi even saw a turtle that was bigger than a kitchen table sleeping under a rock.
All in all, it was a phenomenal, if exhausting, experience. We saw a world so completely different from anything we'd seen before, and we can't wait to get back down there again.

Tropical North Queensland

From Mt. Isa, we traveled for several more days through flat, pretty much barren land with a few interesting stops. We drove north to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria and encountered some of the most colourful and iridescent insects either of us had ever seen, later to be discovered as Harlequin bugs. From there it was east to Cairns. A beautiful city on the water awaited us, and we happily checked into our hostel. Got our dive course and Barrier Reef trip booked for the earliest date possible, 5 days away. Spent a few days shopping and touring around Cairns, and enjoyed the lagoon built on the esplanade in 32C heat with a UV index of 12. Neither of us knew it existed, but we quickly learned just how hot it meant.

With a few days to spare before our course, we decided to drive north to the Daintree Rainforest. It's the oldest rainforest on earth, and the only place where the forest meets the reef. Along the way, we stopped at several beaches and realized that just about the entire North Queensland coast is white sandy beaches with palm trees and turquoise waters. Every beach is more stunning than the last.
After crossing the Daintree River on their very old ferry, we entered the unique environment and encountered many trees and plants that are millions of years old, and grow only in this area. We climbed walkways through the forest canopy and kept a constant watch out for cassowaries, a very large and endangered flightless bird. It was there that Jodi began her love affair with fan palms, a variety of the tree whose palm leaves are up to 2m diameter circles of accordion waxy leaf material. We also saw plenty of tree vines that were strong enough to swing from, and crisscrossed their way through branches and around trees to the top of the canopy.
Our campground was at Noah Beach, just south of Cape Tribulation, and we were only 20m from the beach, so a good bit of time was spent there reading with a beer, and watching the sun rise. We also tried jungle surfing, basically being strapped into a harness and flying down zip lines between ancient trees in the rainforest. It was a lot of fun, and great to see the forest from a different viewpoint. After three days in this fascinating world heritage area, it was time to head back down to Cairns and get ready to dive in another.