Cairns, day trip to Kuranda village

Our new baby koala

Poppy the wombat

Blue Tongue Lizard

Kuranda railway

The view from the skyrail back to Cairns!

Barron River in full flood

Meal Deal at the Wool Shed

Magnetic Island from Townsville

We travelled on the Greyhound Bus to Townsville from Airlie Beach and when we got there walked straight on to the ferry to Magnetic Island.

Unfortunately, we were experiencing the beginnings of cyclone Olga and so the island was initially extremely windy making the sea ferry very bumpy to the point we both jumped out of our chairs.

We got the local bus to our hostel - which was very low budget and we spent two nights in a dorm room for 8 people in bunk beds. 

Luxury Accommodation for 8

We woke up early after a poor night of sleep due to a full on party that had progressed until 3am. It was raining cats and dogs so we decided to hire a car with a roof from a company called "Topless". 

Heading inland on the only road we went to the other side of the island and saw the most beautiful town of Horseshoe Bay, with the best beach you have ever seen. We sheltered from a massive rain storm and walked along the promenade of two shops and five restaurants before heading off on the Forts Walk.

We were very lucky and stumbled upon a baby koala and its mum right next to the footpath.

Koala mum with Baby just off the path

Unbelievably cute

native flower (?)

Paul also found some interesting plants, on the way back. We headed back to our hostel late in the evening after visiting the supermarket for tea - by this time the wind was howling and the rain was coming down sideways.

We set about trying to cook in a very crowded kitchen - I think there were nearly thirty people trying to use 12 electric hobs - none of which were labelled or working properly. In the corner there was a guy using a knife to fish a piece of bread out of the toaster and the rain was pouring in the roof - it was all very traumatic.

Eventually, after dodging the girl walking around with a cauldron of boiling water who had lost her pasta and finally tracking down the plates we had washed and put on the side dinner was ready. We wolfed it down, headed for the bar - drank as quickly as we could before we got washed away by the rain and headed for our rooms to find a note which said

"if anything should happen this evening - please do not panic;

1) head for the brick built toilet building

2) take food and water with you

3) enjoy the storm and come to the bar"

Take from that what you want - but I was glad to leave the romantic island of magnets!

Whitsunday Sailing on Ise Pearl

Our tour of the Whitsunday Islands was to be a 3 day, 3 night adventure on board the Ise Pearl, a Japanese former Pearling ship that had been lovingly restored by its current owner and his wife. 

The Ise Pearl took us around the Whitsundays

On deck

The couple, Sparrow and Mudgee live on the ship full time and invite guests to stay in their home, where they are treated like family and sail around the islands at their leisure. 

Mudgee & Sparrow - our hosts

We were completely relaxed the minute we met Mudgee and Sparrow - a very down to earth couple, they greeted us and we met the German couple who were also sailing with us. We then paid Mrs Snorkel and were fitted for our stinger suits ( very sexy), upon which we walked out into the marina and boarded a dingy - which took us out into the choppy open sea and to the beautiful Ise Pearl who was waiting patiently in the emerald green sea.

We shared the experience with Elgin and Bjorn from Germany

Once aboard we put our shoes in a basket, loaded our gear below deck and made ourselves comfortable for a slow sail to one of the islands where we moored for the night, undertook a spot of night fishing and had a bbq steak dinner - delicious.

Fishing + beer

Plagued by march flies ( which bite like most things in Australia) we settled for the evening initially planning to sleep on deck, however the weather was not playing ball and we moved inside to avoid getting soaked or blown away in the night.

We woke up early as it was very hot and set sail to get away form the march flies, heading for a snorkelling spot that Sparrow said was the best for learning on - he was right of course. the sea was calm, there were no sharks and there was a large wrasse fish named Willie playing amongst the corals.

Suzy's fishing attempt - nothing even bothered to bite!

The bow (?)

After snorkelling - which is the most amazing thing I have ever done, we set sail for Whitehaven beach which was glorious. Sparrow managed to get us there despite the approaching bad weather caused by cyclone Neville. We sat down for lunch before Sparrow took us ashore in the dingy armed with our stinger suits and cameras. We spotted a turtle whilst eating lunch so all of us swam out deep to find her. We couldn't so went for a long walk along the shore, took some time to dry off and returned about an hour later - we spotted the turtle again and swam out nearly as far as the Ise Pearl - we grabbed the snorkelling gear and followed the turtle - Paul managed to film her and swam along with her for about 15 minutes - I've never seen him look so chuffed.

Paul and Bjorn turtle watching

Paul swimming with a large Sea Turtle off Whitehaven beach (& also filmed this...)

Moored off Whitehaven beach

 Whitehaven Beach

Suzy chilling with a beer

Paul on deck looking cool

Sunset on night two

"All good!"

Coral trout

Suzy not smiling but still happy!

On the second night the boys had a fishing competition - it took a while but the boys established the fish preferred chicken rather than salami and they managed to catch about ten fish between them -sadly Paul didn't win but he caught the best looking fish for his first sea fishing trip I think he did very well.

The winner!

The turtle again

The sexy couple!

Sparrow and his on deck bbq

Cleaner wrasse doing the business

Giant Clam - it was literally 'this' big (at base of pic)

Anyone seen the film - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou ?

A giant clam - 1 metre across

The final night was spent moored in a protective cove trying to shelter from the South easterly wind. We were very close to the shore, so close in fact that the lorikeets found us for breakfast and stole Paul's peanut butter on toast after out-manoeuvring him!

Breakfast thieves

Airlie Beach sunset

Airlie Beach

We arrived at Airlie Beach after a night spent on the Greyhound bus - which to say the least - I will never do again! We got off the bus at 6.30am and got to the reception of the backpackers at 7am to dump our bags and get some breakfast. We slept/ eat at the cafe next door to our hostel and had to wait until 2pm for a room. It was a double room with a rooflight but no window and air con shared with three other rooms through the rooflight into the corridor. It didn't matter - we just slept and headed out in the evening to catch some entertainment with our dinner.

Watching a local band 

Fraser Island Day Two

15^th January

Sunrise from Fraser Island beach

Sunrise

Messing about at Lake McKenzie

Lake McKenzie

Hundreds of 4x4's roam Fraser Island

An early start with breakfast served at 6.30am and we got on the coach a little bleary eyed and went straight to Lake Mackenzie. It was stunning. The sun was blazing hot and the waters were luke warm – we spent two hours lounging around and drove back across the island for an early lunch. We spent the afternoon then trekking to Lake Wabbi – which was teaming with very large fish and surrounded by a large sand dune – it was magical. Sadly, we had to return to our backpackers accommodation that evening so we hopped back on the slow ferry to Hervey Bay.

Fraser Island day one

Fraser Island explorer tour

A coach picked us up at 7am and dropped us at River Heads ferry port ( a small jetty). After 30 minutes the barge arrived on west side of Fraser island amongst the mangroves and mud flats.

We boarded our coach ( 4 WD bus) with a hilarious tour guide called Wazzer who talked us through our island trip saying he would work around the weather as it was forecast to rain. He drove us along the sand roads and took us to the rainforest first at Central Station – it was chucking it down.

We went on a thirty minute trek through the forest and I was completely bewildered by the scale of the trees and palms. The rainforest was absolutely amazing – completely green and lush, but still very warm. Our small group of about 25 were all totally soaked by the time we climbed back aboard the coach. The large bus careered across the island from West to East and we stopped for a delicious buffet lunch at the Eurong Beach Resort.

After that the vehicle took to the beach – crossing the electrified cattle grid designed to keep the dingoes out of the town. We saw loads of four wheel drives cruising up and down Seventy Five Mile beach at exorbitant speeds. Suddenly, we stopped – we all piled off the bus – our driver had spotted a dingo on the beach and it was fantastic to see. A large pup – about 6 months old came to inspect. Fortunately, we had no children in our group so there were no tasty morsels for the dogs to pounce upon!

Dingo on Fraser

the moment just after a really satisfying scratch

We drove on to see the shipwreck of Mohino – a rather forlorn looking vessel that had beached herself conveniently on the sandy highway for all to see. Surrounded by jellyfish, we disembarked our vehicle to take some pictures just as the sun was starting to break through the clouds.

Our 4x4 tour bus, the Mohino wreck and an aerial tour fly-by

Back on route along the sandy beach we headed for the furthest point we could drive to where our tour guide managed to drive into the biggest dune ever and got stuck – he reversed and attempted the road four times and slowly we inched forwards.

Champagne pools (not actual champagne)

Walking down Indian Head

He drove us to our surprise to visit to the champagne pools – absolutely beautiful and well worth a visit  ( although on our tour we weren’t supposed to go there). After walking down, Paul getting soaked by a freak wave and then heading to the marine view a short while later but a steep walk up we saw small sharks and a few turtles making their way out to sea. We had afternoon tea (an orange drink and tracker bar) whilst watching a large sting ray and we stopped off for the last trek of the day to  wander up the cold waters of Eli Creek. The creek was so unbelievable clear you could walk up it bare foot and see your feet below the water line.

Suzy's new waterproof camera

That evening we checked into our very spacious accommodation and rushed to take our buffet evening meal which comprised a selection of chilli con carne, tacos, burritos, salads and desert – unfortunately we ate too much and left no room for pudding. Evening entertainment in the bar was a trivia quiz – we joined forces with a Canadian couple and two Brits and sadly came second, missing out by one point on a simple question about the name of the shipwreck – unforgivably none of us could remember where we had been during the day! Something to do with Happy Hour I’m sure.

Paul and I made our excuses after such embarrassment and headed for the beach to take night pictures of the stars – making a lot of noise to ensure we were not eaten by dingoes!

(Australia *)

(wish u were here)