Hey everyone, so my life has been on the go for the past two weeks, I can't believe how much of Australia I've seen and that ALL of it is gorgeous. I've been having a really great time but not much of it has been free so it's really hard to sit down and keep you all up to date.My travels down the East coast started in Cairns, cool town with HOT weather and a wicked lagoon. It was there I boarded a day cruise and learned to scuba dive. I was scared shitless but it was so cool to breathe under water, I'd do it again in a second. It was an awesome day, the Great Barrier Reef is stunning, an absolute wonder.
I visited Port Douglas as well and its a cool little town, a paradise. I pretty much spent all my time on 4 mile beach, sigh. Lots of crocs there and I fed kangaroos!
I stopped off at Magnetic Island for 3 days, just off the city of Townsville. I met some great girls there, Lisa, Emily, Catherine, Leena (pictured)and others. Met up with a fellow Canadian from Calgary, Jessie was her name and we all hung out at the Full Moon Party on Magnetic Island.
Emily and Catherine and I ended up on the same bus to Airlie Beach, where I am currently but Catherine boarded a sailboat trip the same day we got here. Emily and I boarded our boats the next day but she was on "Spank Me" and I was on "Wings."
Wings is a gorgeous boat, 24 passengers and 7 were Canadian! Of course we bonded and spent most of the time together, we were of all ages and sooo much fun! Wings is a catamaran sail and I got to drive it. Of course I sucked but it was wicked fun. I did feel naseous whenever we were on top speed (11 knots) but I managed not to feed the fishes (Jackie wasn't so lucky...). We went snorkelling several times and I saw a sea turtle! I was so excited and I followed him around for quite a while. I watched him eat, swim and come up for air. He wa
s massive and very beautiful. He was a brown and gold turtle, not green. I named him Crush. Anyway, there were heaps of fish and I was literally swimming in schools of hundreds of fish. The little zebra fish were brave and curious and actually tapped on my mask, it was cute. A hilarious sight though was my friend Anna, she has dreads and the fish were actually trying to eat the ends of her dreads, tugging on them thinking they were worms! ha ha ha ha
s massive and very beautiful. He was a brown and gold turtle, not green. I named him Crush. Anyway, there were heaps of fish and I was literally swimming in schools of hundreds of fish. The little zebra fish were brave and curious and actually tapped on my mask, it was cute. A hilarious sight though was my friend Anna, she has dreads and the fish were actually trying to eat the ends of her dreads, tugging on them thinking they were worms! ha ha ha haThey fed us really well on the boat, the best I've eaten yet on my travels and we totally pigged out. The evenings involved us all sitting out back drinking and listening to our skipper Harry play the guitar while Ezzah (dive instructor) sang songs. We also enjoyed watching the fish come up to the light and then the MASSIVE fish from deep up and eat the little fish. They would chase each other around and it was quite entertaining. We visited Whitehaven Beach on my birthday, where we saw many stingrays and then I saw my first reef shark, very cool. The sand on this beach is so fine that when you run on it, it squeaks. Everyone was cleaning their jewelery with it. There are tectonic plates between the islands and they reckon this is what grinds the sand so fine. For my birthday they surprised me with cake and candle and they sang me Happy Birthday. It was real sweet of them. Then as a gift Ezzah and Harry turned every light on the boat off, got in the dingy and stirred up the plankton, the water lit up, amazing and very rare.
Whitehaven Beach
Ezzah and Trish were our dive instructors (I didn't dive this time) and Ezzah has to be the coolest Australian I've met yet. He was a total hippy and friendly and outgoing and energetic, I loved him. His girlfriend is a marine biologist so he taught us a lot about the Great Barrier Reef.
Everyone got along really well and we had a great time. I walked away from wings with hugs from the crew and my friends, great pics and memories plus a giant bruise from the dingy. We were boarding it one day from one of the islands where we saw Aboriginal cave drawings and I slipped on the rocks and fell into the prop, ouch. I literally have this massive welt of black, blue and red on my thigh. Oh well, better then bed bugs. My Irish dorm mates just got off their ship today and they are covered in bed bug bites, so disgusting. Thank God I got a nice boat!
Wings
Tomorrow Em and I board the 6:45am bus and head to the Outback! Wahoo, I can't wait. I'll do my best to upload more pics later and to keep you guys updated.
