G'day (and a belated happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there) --
This will probably be the last postcard we send from abroad unless we find compatible technology in Thailand. On Sunday we will sadly leave Australia and head to Bangkok. I will send a final postcard when we are heading to or have reached home. Here's what has happened since last time:
We are starting the last part of our Australian travels, down the eastern coast from Cairns (Queensland) to Sydney (New South Wales). First stop is Townsville, 300 kilometers south of Cairns and gateway to Magnetic Island. This small island was named by Captain Cook who claimed that his compass went all wacky as he approached the island.....not very scientific, since no one has been able to reproduce his results. We made the afternoon car barge (ferry) for the short trip across to this small island and stayed two nights in a chalet at the Magnetic Island Tropical Resort...not really as exotic as it sounds. The chalet was a very small A-frame with even tinier shower/toilet. When we got into bed the first night, we realized that we were expected to sleep on box springs and no mattress (that's what we get for booking these budget accommodations). Since we were not packing enough pain pills to ward off the anticipated backaches, we rigged up the bed with wings. This is what happens when you put two twin mattresses side by side on a double sized box springs and prop up the overlapping sides with chairs. It kind of looked like a big rectangular nest and threatened to collapse at any time, but we survived and slept well. We also had use of the communal kitchen, complete with resident gecko (small lizard) and an opossum that hung out on the frame ceiling and watched us cook (Possums here have faces like kangaroos and thinner bodies than those at home....almost cute when they aren't obnoxious). The island itself is half national park accessible by 4WD (which we didn't have). The rest is a series of bays where you can swim in certain areas protected from venomous jellyfish (called stingers...some of these are very toxic and prolific around the eastern coast from November through April), walk the beaches, take hikes, etc. Unfortunately, it rained on/off most of our stay so we skipped the watersports. But we did take a hike to a W.W.II fort (remember, Australia was bombed by the Japanese during the war) and saw several koalas moving in trees. These are our first real moving koalas which are nocturnal by nature and very mellow all the time...up to this point they have all been sleeping (or even stuffed and put in trees for tourists..who knows?)...so we took lots of photos. Despite the weather, our stay was very relaxing...there is a restful and isolated feeling about small islands that is hard to duplicate.
Back to Townsville, buying locally grown pineapple and papaya at the weekly market in the mall. We made a visit to Reefland, a huge aquarium with the largest artificially maintained coral reef in the world and a walk through aquarium with sharks, sea turtles, etc. We saw a lot of fish/marine life that we had viewed in reef snorkels and dives, a very educational presentation. Then we drove down to Airlie Beach; this town has one major strip of restaurants, motels/hostels, stores, and booking agencies for boat/dive/fishing/snorkel trips. Airlie is one of the access points to the Whitsunday Islands, a group of islands and sheltered coves...considered a boater's paradise. However, the hostel had such a good deal on a day long trip by boat to Hardy reef (one of the outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reefs) to snorkel that we booked that trip instead of a boat ride or sail around the Whitsundays.
On even the smoothest of seas, Di is a poor sailor. But this was hardly the smoothest of seas. I knew I was in trouble when the captain announced that "it may be wavy now, but we haven't left the safety of the inner islands yet." So I battened down my hatches, turned green (despite Dramamine and herbal ginger pills), and prayed for a short voyage. We arrived at a stationary platform built for this touring company. It contained an underwater observatory, easy access to Hardy Reef for snorkeling and diving, and mooring for a semi-submersible watercraft. We took a guided snorkel trip where the naturalist brought up sea cucumbers (like big fat worms) and some coral for us to touch. Then we headed out snorkeling on our own in fairly rough waves but (thanks to our wave-proof snorkels) saw some interesting sea life and corals. The trip back was even rougher and Di turned greener. Finally back on terra firma, Di went straight to bed (and was still woozy the next day) and Tim went to McDonalds for dinner.
While planning this trip, our guidebook stated that on off-season it may be possible to phone the island resorts along the Barrier Reef and get standby rates. The resorts range from very exclusive (where even standby rates make the VISA card shiver with panic) to somewhat more reasonable (heck, we're on holiday). So we crossed our fingers and called a couple of resorts. We were able to arrange three nights on Lady Elliot Island and round trip via plane to the island (no boat trips....Di sighed with relief). The next day was straight driving towards Bundaberg, home of rum, sugar cane, ginger beer, and access to Lady Elliot Island.
Lady Elliot Island (named after somebody's daughter) is a very small island just long enough for a landing strip for planes (barely long enough) and taking 45 minutes to circumnavigate by foot. LEI is actually a coral cay, that is an island formed by thousands of years of coral buildup...the coral is slowly pulverized by weathering and (joined with bird guano) forms a thin soil layer supporting a surprising number of trees, flowers, and birds. This is really a no-frills resort. Visitors are limited to 120 people (there were only 30 when we were there) and accommodations range from a lodge (really metal duplex and triplex units with baths and small porches) to tents (where we stayed). For those of you who were in scouting as kids....remember the semi-permanent green tents on cement or wooden bases you camped in? Well, we tried it again....and it was great! The tent contained only beds, a mirror, and screens for windows, but had no bugs and very clean wooden floors. The resort had solar heated showers, a small dining room with great buffet breakfasts and dinners, a five tank mini coral reef aquarium, 9-hole mini golf, reef education center/video room/library and some of the friendliest staff we've met. The guide/naturalist, Linda, would give short talks throughout the day on reef life (including venomous creatures to avoid), turtles, nature walks/fish feeding, etc. You could join in, or sleep, swim, snorkel, dive, read, or sit on the beach as you pleased. No television here, but we watched the creatures in the aquariums (sea cucumbers, starfish, hermit crabs, mantis shrimp, fish, anemones) interact with each other and walked around the place observing tidal pools. Despite intermittent rain (again) and incredible rain/windstorms at night, we snorkeled each day (during the sunny times) on coral reefs all around the island and saw two huge sea turtles swimming nearby, a blue spotted sting ray, lots of beautiful fish, and several of the poisonous creatures we were warned about.
An unexpected highlight was when two guests found several small green turtles wandering around at night, results of a very late hatch. Linda told us that green sea turtles lay eggs and bury them in a deep hole in the ground near the ocean shore. In April, the baby turtles dig their way out and make a beeline (turtleline?) for the water...the males never come back to land and the females return to reproduce only after 30-50 years. Due to predators, etc., only 1 of every 1,000 babies survives to reproduce. After hatching, baby turtles are attracted to lights so sometimes they head for the resort instead of the water (looking for the bar, no doubt, after all that thirsty digging). To help preserve this endangered species, Linda and guests gathered up any baby turtles we could find and (after sunset) took them in a pail to the shore. We let them loose and used flashlights to guide them into the water.....how comical they were, scurrying down the sand (sometimes distracted by an errant flashlight), so small they would get washed up by the waves, but they didn't stop....and we didn't leave until all were safely swimming away. Later Tim found a lone turtle by the aquariums so the next night Linda dug up the nest and actually found over 20 more baby turtles that probably wouldn't have survived. We repeated the nighttime turtle race. Were we lucky to be able to take part in this experience!
After Lady Elliot Island, it has been a much faster pace as we try to put down those kilometers to Sydney. We stayed overnight in Bundaberg (Mother's Day) and toured the Bundaberg (Bundy) rum distillery, complete with rum drink. Is that why this part of Australian grows so much sugar cane? The tour was interesting. In the aging room, you couldn't take pictures because an accidental spark could ignite the rum fumes....so we just stood there and breathed deeply.
Then on to Hervey Bay and the Sunshine Coast through the rain. On our way the next day to Maroochydore and neighboring Mooloolaba (don't you love these names?), just before Brisbane, we put on our tourist hats and visited the Ginger Factory (only ginger processing plant in Oz---great smells), the Macadamia Nut Factory (did you know that macadamias are native only to Australia?...so Hawaii's crop is really from imported trees), and (last but not least), the BIG PINEAPPLE (a huge walk-through pineapple on a tropical fruit plantation...we only took a photo and headed out since it was raining again). That day we broke the 20,000 kilometer mark for distance driven in rental cars on this trip!
The next day we took a detour though the strangely shaped Glasshouse Mountains and another detour to Tambourine Mountain, home of the Thundereggs. These are round rocks that, when cut in half, may contain crystals or even amethysts. Tim really wanted to stop so we paid our $5 for fossicking (mining) permits, picked up our picks and shovels and dug through the stream bed washouts while standing in silty mud. An hour and a half later, we came down from the mountain with 15 possible thunderegg candidates. We had three cut on the spot and found great crystal formations (nothing valuable). Tim confessed that finding these "geodes" was a lifelong dream....inherited from his grandfather, I think, who was a rock hound from way back. Then we stopped to walk a rainforest trail to a waterfall, seeing wild scrub turkeys on the way. Lunch was probably the best burger we've had all trip (8 layers -- burger, BBQ sauce, fried egg, bacon, pineapple, beets, tomato, and cheese -- no kidding, it was excellent). We stayed that night in an old converted guest house along the river in Murwillumbah, a small town in Australia's Gold Coast.
Again, up in the morning and heading south with detours through Byron Bay (where old hippies go to retire..lots of cappuccino houses, aromatherapists, and long grey hair) and Surfer's Paradise (mostly high rises and expensive tourist traps, like Miami) and the BIG BANANA (another photo opportunity -- Di's suggestion but not a lifelong dream) to Coffs Harbour. We stayed two nights in this unpretentious little town, walking to the wharf and around the connected Muttonbird Island, then home through a mangrove boardwalk. From here we mailed out our last parcel containing used film, souvenirs, clothes we didn't want to carry any more, and unknown kilograms of thundereggs (all 15). We've sent many a package back to the US via the very efficient Aussie Post...I don't think they'll need a raise in the stamp price this year!
Our last stop before Sydney was Forster, city of dolphins and porpoises and entrance to the Australian Great Lakes (well, they are beautiful....but ours are greater). We got in early and walked along the river to the ocean (watching a few dolphins play), then we took an after-dark hike along an empty beach, and cooked a celebratory dinner of locally caught shrimp. At last we drove into Sydney, returned the rental car and completed a few errands, preparing for tomorrow's flight. We did a last walk around downtown and talked about the next two weeks of travel. We are both somewhat melancholy at the thought of leaving here. For us the time has flown and, although we have not been homesick, the real world calls. There are no doubts in our minds that we will return to New Zealand and Australia someday...a warm, welcoming, and adventure-filled part of the world.
See ya later (as they say in Oz) and sawat-dii (greetings in Thai).
-- Di and Tim
| Page Top |
Map |
Itinerary |
Last |
Next |
| Tim and Diane's email address is ttdk@aol.com | ||||