Here comes the sun again

The Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef - February 15th-19th, 2009

Sleeping on deck really has it's advantages. After our second night we were awoken by another beautiful sunrise which helped to nurse a slight hangover.

The day started out with another, "(Fleetwood) Mac Morning" as they were eventually dubbed and we enjoyed yet another sunny beginning. We started sailing for Whitehaven beach, the most photographed beach in the world where we trekked up a hiking trail to the lookout point. The lookout point provided an amazing view of Whitehavenbeach, unfortunately the tide was high so it was almost entirely covered, regardless it was great.

The moment took a hilarious turn when Lisa, our new Canadian friend made her way to the top of the lookout point looking for Shaun, a crew member from the boat. The following conversation followed loud enough for the 70 or so people at the lookout point to enjoy:

Lisa: Shaun I have a problem

Shaun: What's wrong?!

Lisa: I have to go number two

Shaun: Uhhh...go back to the boat then

Lisa: I can't, it's coming now

Shaun: I'm not sure what you want me to do
Lisa: I don't know in Canada we have out houses and shit...

Lisa made friends with the forest.

We got to spend a couple hours on Betty's Beach which was adjacent to Whitehaven. Thankfully we dodged the rain once again as the skies opened up just minutes before we left the beach.

After returning to the boat we sailed around to another island, the site of our second dive. The second dive was just as amazing as the first. We spent 50 minutes diving at depth's around 15 metres and saw a ton of fish and other aquatic life. Shaun took us through another cavern but this time it was about half the size, needless to say claustrophobia set in and I held my regulator in my mouth to ensure that it didn't snag and get ripped out.

We finished our dive and headed back to the boat for lunch. Due to the lack of wind on the trip the amount of actual sailing was limited so our skipper Gary thought he would make it up to us by taking us to a resort for the afternoon. We spent the afternoon/early evening relaxing poolside and enjoying the swim up bar. It was an awesome afternoon and by the time everyone was back on the boat more than a few people were in the bag. The night consisted of more drinking, a great dinner and another fellow Canadian managing to fall into the giant cooler, nearly fall off the ship and finally dropping her iPod into the ocean. Needless to say an incredible evening for her...

Almost everyone slept on the deck on our final night which was great as there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I once again got up at the crack of dawn and enjoyed a beautiful morning.

We spent the morning and early afternoon sailing around the islands before finally heading back to Airlie Beach. The group was heading out for drinks later in the day but unfortunately school was calling us back in Sydney. We said goodbye to Spank Me!, the crew and our new friends and headed to Hervey Bay, the halfway point in our trek back to Brisbane. The weather was great, the people were great and the experience was amazing. If you are planning on heading to Australia do not leave the Whitsunday's off your list of things to do!

Here comes the sun

After spending another night in Hervey Bay we packed up and headed for Airlie Beach. In the name of good travels we decided to break up the 8 hour drive with a stop in Rockhampton, for really no other reason than the fact that it had a YHA hostel. This usually provides a cool opportunity to check out some little town's that you may not have had the chance to see otherwise, that being said this was NOT the case. I'm not one to rag on places that I know little to nothing about, because after all it is "home" to someone. I am however willing to make an exception for Rockhampton, quite simply...DO NOT GO HERE. I have never been to small town Kentucky but I would imagine it would be something like that.

Now for the fun stuff...

The Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef - February 15th-19th, 2009

Airlie Beach might just be the closest I ever get to Hawaii and to be completely honest I'm not even sure if I would ever know the difference. We boarded our sailing vessel, "Spank Me!" on Monday afternoon from the beautiful coastal town with our fingers crossed hoping for the best from the skies. We slightly overlooked the fact that we had booked a sailing trip in the middle of the rainy season in the tropics until we were bombarded with people telling us how awful the weather was going to be leading up to the trip. Thankfully they were very wrong.

After boarding the boat and meeting the crew (who were fantastic by the way) we set out to sail the islands. Our first stop was about 2 hours off the coast where we stopped and had snacks on a sand spit literally in the middle of nowhere. We watched the sun set and were wowed by a spectacular lightning show that seemed to be a complete 360 degrees around us. The nature induced variety show was just getting started however as we were entertained for literally hours by a pod of dolphins that were jumping and feeding right beside our ship. We had dinner, had some beers and once again enjoyed great company. The sleeping quarters on the ship were tight and very hot which is why I elected to sleep on the deck of the ship. The deck wasn't the comfiest sleep I've ever had but I probably will never fall asleep to the sounds of dolphin's jumping around in the water either. A fair trade I'd say.

Tuesday morning came early as the crew started sailing just after 4:00 a.m. en route to the Great Barrier Reef. We were awoken by Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way blasting on the stereo and I kind of half expected Nicole Henderson to be dancing on the bow, but no such luck. The certified divers were the first to get a crack at the Great Barrier Reef as Shaun the on board diving instructor took Kim, Kristine, Daniel, Paul and myself out for our first dive at 8:30 a.m. There is no describing the experience of diving in the Great Barrier Reef. It is simply one of the most fascinating and best things you could ever do and I feel so lucky to have had the chance. The reef is packed with thousands of colourful fish, coral and other marine life which was just incredible. Our 40 minute dive took us 25 metres under the surface where Shaun lead us through some tight caverns and we saw a few sea turtles and a 2 metre long Wabbegong (surface shark). The realization I quickly came to was that every postcard or picture you see of the GBR was exactly correct, just on a much grandeur scale. For all you Winnipegger's just imagine swimming through Club Regent's aquarium multiplied by about a million.

After the dive we relaxed on the ship in the soaking hot sun for the entire day. I got a start on my third (yes, THIRD) book of the trip, Dreams from my Father, a book written by Barack Obama while he was in law school at Harvard. I finished it two days later and I highly recommend the read. I know it seems a tad cliche, but I have to tell you it reads like a fiction novel and it's really no a surprise that the man is president considering the fascinating life he has lived.

Becky cooked us an amazing Green Curry meal for supper which rivaled Salad King before we hit the bottle one more time. We spent the majority of the night hanging out with Sam and Sam, two friends from New Zealand and our newly acquired Canadian friend Lisa from Vancouver. A big shout out to Lisa who is up there with the funniest and most entertaining people I have ever met.

The sun set on our second night of the trip and I was once again on top of the world. Quite simply, amazing.

More to come,

kc

Let it rain

I am back in Sydney after spending an amazing 9 days up in Queensland. Before heading up North the plan was to stay in Brisbane for a couple of days before heading further north to Fraser Island and finally the Whitsunday Islands. Unfortunately on the way up we took a look at the calendar and realized that we didn't have as much time as we thought and when we got to Brisbane we pretty much had to pack up and leave not too long after arriving.

The trip up to Brisbane was interesting to say the least. As it turns out Australia's most distinguished apparently opt to fly vs. take the train which left us with a bunch of real winners on the train ride up. 30-something year old drunk, blue collar Aussie's forced us to sleep with one eye open the entire ride to ensure that we arrived with all of our luggage. Once we finally did get to Brisbane (14 hour train ride) we rented a car and headed to Hervey Bay, the mainland point en route to Fraser Island.


Fraser Island - February 12th - 13th, 2009

My expectations heading into our two days on Fraser Island were pretty much non-existent as I really didn't have any idea what the island was all about, aside from a few people who had travelled there telling me how cool it was. I honestly think this is a great way to do things while travelling. If you go in with nothing more than a recommendation, it's really tough to be disappointed and in this case I was pleasantly surprised and borderline overwhelmed.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world which makes it's contents that much more fascinating. We were picked up by our tour guide Fritz, an older Austrian-Australian who was a cross between Glen Huffman and my Uncle Lawrence; funny, friendly and entertaining. There were 22 other people on our tour ranging from young backpackers like us, to a Canadian retired couple who formerly lived in Winnipeg and were frequent patrons at The Dak.

We arrived on Fraser Island via ferry and set out to explore the island in what was pretty much a tour bus on steroids. The steroids were necessary though as the islands roadways are made up entirely of sand and would be pretty tricky to maneuver through if you didn't have the proper vehicle. The ride down the bumpy and narrow roadways was entertaining as Fritz filled our heads with facts about the island. Our first stop was the Yidney Scrub Rain forest. We got out and were able to walk through the thick forests which was incredible. We had lunch at one of the Island's only restaurants and then hit the highway for the rest of the afternoon. The "highway" is actually nothing more than an open beach but it was awesome to speed down it with the open ocean always in view. We stopped at Eli Creek which is Fraser Island's largest freshwater creek and headed and then made our way to the SS Maheno shipwreck which was just a ways down the beach. Our final stop before heading to camp and having dinner was at Indian Head, FI's only major rock formations. As you can see from the picture it was a considerably big hike to the top but sitting up there made you feel like you were on top of the world.

We finally headed to our camp at Cathedral Beach where Fritz cooked us a great steak dinner complete with Kangaroo for an appetizer. We enjoyed some beers and the great company before we called it a night.

Our second day on Fraser Island started very early but was well worth it. We drove down the beach to a walking path were we hiked through a forest, then through about a kilometre of sand dune deserts to reach Lake Wabby, a freshwater lake in the middle of the desert. We had a swim and hiked back. Fraser Island is famous for it's large number of Dingo's that inhabit the island. Up until this point we had just seen one briefly while driving down the beach but this time we had one waiting at our bus when we got back. The rules were simple "don't run, and it won't attack you." I was able to snap a few good pictures but in hindsight probably shouldn't have got so close.

We ate lunch and then headed for another walk through a second piece of rain forest. It had just finished raining so this time everything looked a lot brighter. Our final stop of the trip was Lake Birrabeen, a freshwater lake with an abnormally low (but safe) pH level which is supposed to "make you look younger." Minutes after we arrived we were doused with sheets of rain. Nearly everyone adopted a "if you can't beat em' join em' mentality" and spent the final portion of the trip in the rain and in the lake.

After getting back to Hervey Bay, everything that I owned was completely drenched but I of course could care less. Fraser Island was an amazing introduction to Queensland and really a must do for anyone travelling to Australia. I had a hard time believing anything was going to top Fraser Island until we hit Airlie Beach and met Spank Me!...

Well it's 1, 2, 3, 4 take the elevator...

January 19th 2009 - Port Fairy to Port Campbell

Before leaving Port Fairy we decided that we should probably do something that we hadn't done much of since arriving in Australia...spend some time on the beach. The beach in Port Fairy was beautiful and full of family vacationers. It was nice to soak up the sun for a few hours and the fact that we were constantly dodging Cricket balls that were flying our way only made it more exciting. I was able to get a good start on a book called In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson, an American travel writer whose accounts of travel through Australia manage not only to be saturated with a plethora of information but quite sarcastic and hilarious at the same time (I have just finished reading it, thanks Dan and Robyn!).

We left Port Fairy and had lunch in Warnambool not to far from our starting point. I had never been so excited to finish eating lunch as I knew what laid before us. It was the beginning (or the end I suppose which was you are travelling) of the Great Ocean Road. What I didn't realize going into the drive was how the GOR was split up. There is essentially two sections of the drive; the first being near the ocean but not directly beside it and including tons of rest stops and view points to take it in and the second where you are driving literally along a mountain side where a sudden jerk of the steering wheel could send you plunging into the ocean below. Today we were doing the first.

As you can see, the Great Ocean Road is absolutely breathtaking, although I still feel obliged to reiterate that the pictures don't quite do it justice. Now I am not a fan of the many "Things to see before you die" lists that have made there way into alot of nature based publications, but that being said this would undeniably make that list. I actually think it should be mandatory for everyone to drive the GOR at some point in their life. It is a wondrous sight and one of the most beautiful things my eyes will likely ever see.

After arriving in Port Campbell we set up shop at the town's only caravan park. It was situated metres away from a great beach tucked into a small little bay. Great day, goodnight.

A few hundred metres from our digs in Port Campbell

Please sign here...

Hello there. I have come to the conclusion that after writing 19 posts or so that I really have no idea who is reading this blog, hence the creation of this post. I have enabled the comment section so you are no longer required to have an ID in order to post a comment. Instead you can just click on comment, write a comment, type in the verification word and under where it says Choose an Identity just click Name/URL. Type in your name and submit. This will now allow anyone and everyone to submit comments.

I was hoping that you can now comment on this post and it will act as a sort of "Guest Book" for my blog. I am excited to see who is out there reading!

Thanks,

kc

Aquaman

I can honestly say that I have never really had a particular interest in scuba diving. It's something that I've noticed but never thought I would actually partake in...until this week. On Monday I started a four day full-time scuba course and today I am officially a licensed PADI Open Water Diver. What does this mean? Well it means that I can dive in waters up to 60 feet deep without instruction. The following is an account of how this all happened.

Despite my bank account looking more like a glass of water with a medium size whole in it (draining rapidly fast) I decided to take scuba lessons in order to get my license with Kim and Kristine. We are heading up to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef next week and I really wanted to be able to get the full experience. We registered for our course which we took out of the Bondi Dive Centre just outside Bondi Beach. We picked up our textbooks and some additional info from the centre on Saturday and we were instructed to read chapters 1-3. Of course I left this to almost the last minute assuming it was going to be about 50 pages of reading and it turned out to be 177. I powered through the readings and started class on Monday.

Monday was a full day in the classroom where we did a few quizzes and watched heaps of instructional videos. Our instructor was a lady named Noriko who was half Japanese and half Peruvian. She was a very interesting women and very much a free spirit. She has lived all over the world and when she gets bored she moves, the beauty of being a diving instructor I suppose.

Tuesday was alot more fun. We spent the day at the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre trying out some skills in the water and got to give the full wetsuit a try. I felt a bit like Michael Phelps minus the muscles, gold medals and of course his latest accessory, the bong. Breathing underwater for the first time was really cool. It took a little while to get comfortable with it as your natural tendency is to believe that it's impossible but eventually you become relaxed and you get used to it.

Wednesday we did a bit more theory and then headed to Bare Island about 30 minutes from Bondi to do our first two open water ocean dives. After putting on all the equipment including tank, weight belts, fins, snorkel and mask you can't help but feel a tad ridiculous and with all this added weight it was kind of hard to believe that all of the equipment was actually going to help me in the water. Our first dive was a bit disappointing, I managed to stay in control for most of the dive but the visibility under the water was not great so we couldn't see much except for what was right in front of us (in most cases our instructor). The second dive actually ended up being worse than the first as I had troubles controlling my buoyancy and was all over the place. I ended up finally getting balanced but the visibility still wasn't great. We ran into a few fish but nothing really to get excited about. We packed up our stuff and headed back to Bondi. I considered the day a success in the sense that 1) I survived and 2) I was fairly confident in my skills after two dives. I went home looking forward to Thursday.

We started the day Thursday with our PADI Open Water Diver exam. I am happy to report that I scored a respectable 88%...too bad this doesn't count towards my GPA. After the exam we headed to Bare Island once again for our final two dives. During our dives we were required to complete a series of skills in order to earn our certification. Ascending from the water at a controlled speed without our regulator (piece of equipment that allows you to breathe underwater), removing and replacing our goggles and deflooding them and underwater navigation using our compass were a few of the exercises we completed on the final day. Today's dives were significantly better than the first two. The visibility still wasn't great but it was alot better than the day before and we were able to see schools of fish swimming by the hundreds, stingrays, jelly fish and shark eggs. Our instructor stopped at one point and picked up this unknown object off the ocean floor and wrote on her board "Shark Egg" then she proceeded to write "Is the mother near?". Not exactly what you want to nearly 30 feet underwater but I suppose it's a reality of diving. After completing the two dives we were officially licensed divers.

The experience as a whole was amazing. I got to step out of my box in a huge way and do something that I never really thought I would do. It is a different world under the sea and I am looking forward to seeing more of it next week. I don't know how much diving I will do while I am down here as it's an expensive sport but I do hope to get out a few times to keep it fresh and hopefully partake in some diving if I make it to Indonesia and Thailand.

Enjoy the photos below. Cheers!

kc

Anders, Kristine, Kim and I after our first dive on Thursday

Bare Island

Success!

Back to the rythym and back to the beat of the radio

Good evening from Sydney! I figured I would post some more details that followed "Hell Day" so you guys can get a bit more of positive spin on what happened leading up to Melbourne. First of all I would like to send out a public service announcement. I am sorry for my lack of personal communication to alot of you. I really appreciate all the e-mails and Facebook messages that you've sent and if I haven't responded to you yet, I HAVEN'T forgot about you! I will try to respond in the next few days as I have a couple of days of down time ahead of me. Keep them coming though, I love hearing from everyone.

Also a special shout out to Debbie Huffman! Kayla tells me you are an avid reader which is great to hear.

January 17th - Port MacDonnell and Mount Gambier

When I last left you we had just got to Port MacDonnell and things were a little...well let's just say things had been better, and better they got.

We stayed two nights in Port MacDonnell courtesy of Jenny's gracious parents Ron and Joyce who lent us their beach home. It was literally right on the ocean (check out the view from the living room!) and the town was very quaint and enjoyable, it also provided us with two less nights of sleeping in the van which we had yet to do at this point. The day following our strict peanut butter sandwich diet we enjoyed lunch at a place called Periwinkles in town where I had a huge plate of prawns, fish, calamari and salad (all fresh from the ocean of course). I really wish I had taken a picture of the plate as it cost me about $12 Canadian and was truly a meal fit for a king. We spent the day 20 minutes up the highway at a place called Mount Gambier. The big selling point of this medium sized town is Blue Lake. The picture below doesn't quite do it justice but it is this absolutely amazing blue lake (surprise!). No one really knows why it's so blue but it was formed from an old volcanoe and turns the brightest blue you have ever seen every summer. After touring around some of the other sinkholes and craters that were around the town we headed for dinner at Ron and Joyce's. They prepared a massive barbeque for us which was great. Their other daughter from Darwin was visiting with her three girls and they took us to see the possums that come out at night at one of the sinkholes before we finally headed back to the beach house for the night.

January 18th - Port MacDonnell to Port Fairy

We left the beach house enroute to a place called Port Fairy. On the way we decided to stop at this place we saw on the map called Discovery Bay. After driving down a dirt road, which actually wasn't much of a road for half an hour we gave up and turned around and instead discovered nothing. The drive turned out to be pretty rewarding however after we stumbled upon a place called The Crags.
Basically The Crags turned out to be a bunch of really cool rock formations that provided for some great pictures. We climbed over the "Do Not Cross This Rope" rope and headed down to the beach. We spent quite a bit of time there before we headed to Port Fairy.

After arriving in Port Fairy we got ourselves a campsite and proceeded to have our first night in the van. Life was squished.