Reef Expedition

On June 15th I began my winter travels in North-Eastern Australia.
I set out with Garrison, an American exchange student up to Port Douglas, which is North of Cairns. We met up with Eric, a Canadian in my programme and Jillian, his girlfriend visiting from Canada. We rented a lovely (and by lovely I mean we all fit in it and it was cheap) campervan or campette (and by campette I mean what the company who rents them out calls it). Our group of travelers lovingly nicknamed her Buttercup after an annoying song made even more annoying by the fact that it got stuck in my head and I felt the need to attempt (and by attempt I mean belt out the first line and then expect the rest of the crew to fill me in on the lines) to sing it during any quiet moment of the trip.

On our second night us Canadians taught Gary how to play Euchre or as he liked to call it Eu-bu-chre, which he claimed was a terribly Canadian game as the only people he knew who played it were Canadian…that being us three who taught him the game. This began the Canadianization of Gary who used aboot and eh as randomly as possible for the rest of the journey.

We drove up to Cape Tribulation (and by Tribulation I mean the trials and tribulations this piece of land caused Captain Cook) to check out the Great Barrier Reef (and by Great Barrier Reef I mean the largest living thing). We headed out on a boat of aboot 20 tourists to the McKai reef to snorkel and dive. This particular piece of the reef has a piece of sandy land poking up which was home to some large water birds and totally off limits to us tourists. The three braver members of the Buttercup contingent chose to dive under to take a closer look. I decided to stay up top and snorkel. I tried on a wet suit for the first time and decided if at all possible it would be my last time. The water as 24 C which was cold for the locals but I was cooking in the wet suit.

While snorkeling I saw many fish including a speedy octopus who was swimming between large pieces of coral and coiling it’s long tentacles in and around the spiky staghorn coral looking for breakfast. Lots of parrot fish, nemos, dorys, seastars, giant clams with bright purple lips, tiny little silver fish swimming in huge schools and large multicoloured fish almost as big as me. And a large batfish that swam right up to me and freaked me out. (and by freaked me out I mean was too curious and swam up to me and almost touched me as I was trying to get in the boat)

We drove south stopping in Cairns and then down to Etty Bay. We had hoped to get further south but got hampered (and by hampered I mean we knew it would suck to set up the tent and cook dinner in the rain so thought we should stop before dark) by the rain.
Etty Bay was a beautiful little beach absolutely drenched in rain. On the windy road to get there we could see where cyclone Larry had wiped out small buildings and taken down large trees. We parked Buttercup and while Jillian prepared the camper Garrison and I hung out in the pouring rain (and by pouring rain I mean cats and dogs!) and put up the tent. We cut up the clothesline in order to string up a tarp, which worked pretty well. While we were using the paring knife to cut rope Eric was wearing a poncho and cooking pasta by torchlight. It was so ridiculous it was funny.
After surviving another few rounds of Euchre we emerged the next morning to soft sunlight and a fresh new day. Upon returning from the washroom I was slightly annoyed to see the camper closed up and none of my fellow travelers in sight. As I was aboot to open the back of the camper a cassowary (and by cassowary I mean a large emu like bird that is as tall as me with a long blue neck, sharp claws and a piece of prehistoric bone sticking out the top of it’s head) came around the side of the camper and about 10 inches from my face. At this point I heard the ‘get in the van’ call from my newly discovered camping friends who had taken their own advice and ‘gotten in the van’. I backed around to the other side of the van and waited to see what would happen. After a few attempts to scare the large bird away Jillian’s solution of chasing it while swinging a pillow was the most effective method. Later that day while reading through a tourist brochure we learned that cassowaries have been known to kill people by slicing them open with their large clawed feet. Glad I learned that after the Attackowary incident.

That same evening in Townsville I did a phenomenal job of looking like I had skill at playing miniature golf by coming in dead last. Hey…wasn’t I supposed to do the dishes for the rest of the trip?

We awoke the next day in Townsville to a drizzly overcast day and after amusing ourselves by climbing on the giant rope pyramid and adult (and by adult I mean it was really for teens but we still had fun getting dizzy and swinging in circles) playground myself, Jillian and Eric decided to head to the aquarium to check out the local fishes. Garrison decided to risk it and hopped on the ferry to Magnetic Island where he rented a bike and somewhat avoided the rain.

Continuing South we stopped at Airlie beach in preparation for our Whitsunday tour. We had martinis and played Euchre.

The next day we took a one-day boat tour hitting three islands. Long Island, Hamilton Island and Daydream Island. The last island was by far our favourite, partly because it was so beautiful and partly because it’s where Garrison found the hot tub we spent a good hour relaxing in.

In MacKay we found a beautiful hot sunny beach and moved in. We stayed the whole day even opting to use the park barbeque for dinner and risk putting up our tent in a no tent area. We lay on the sand looking for constellations (and by constellations I mean the Southern Cross as it is the only one we know), shooting stars and satellites.

Next on the agenda we headed to Rockhampton where we visited the local zoo (or as Gary would say $%^&* animals) and the botanic gardens, which were beautiful. That night we stayed at a lovely (and by lovely I mean shabby not dodgy as I originally thought the write-up said) hostel.

In Bundaberg we hit the Bundaberg Rum Distillery. We learned about some rum distilling things that I seem to have forgotten, I wonder how that happened.

The next morning Garrison and I hopped on the 5am train from Bundaberg to Brisbane with half of Bundaberg’s children and took a lovely (and by lovely I mean noisy, hectic and annoying) train ride into the city.
We met our friend Byron who is a Canadian exchange student at the train station and headed out into Brisbane. We had lunch and then wandered through the botanic gardens checking out the bamboo and the mangroves. Next we crossed the river to the museum and art gallery. We wandered along the river checking out the nice yet odd man made lake (and by lake I mean pond size, sand surrounded highly man made lake).
The next morning Garrison flew back to Melbourne and I spent a few days touring Brisbane and visiting with family friends.