Travel

The European Adventure: Prologue

17 July 2011

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So here I sit, desperately trying to think of anything I might have missed packing. I rather annoyingly lost a few pieces of kit and had to replace them last minute with a trip to the dreaded Walmart last night. The bag is tighter and lighter this time, lessons learned from the last trip and all that jazz.

Roughly 18 hours from now I’ll be in London. It’s a city I’ve always wanted to visit, but until now I’ve been limited to a couple hour stay in Heathrow as my only real experience. As much as I adored the antipodean adventure… THIS trip is the one that’s been on the radar for over a decade, cancelled at the last minute a few years ago and just generally subject to as much bad luck as you could possibly imagine. Well this time my mother hasn’t broken her leg, there appear to be no imminent volcano eruptions or anything else that should stop us today.

Once we’re all there the parents and I will be doing 3 weeks in various parts of England before I move on to the continent (with a possible Scots interlude in between.) Posts will be up here in much the style of the Aussie portion of the earlier trip, likely every two days or so depending on the amount of rain I’m hiding from or how much I drink down the pub (mmmm cider.)

The Next Adventure

17 June 2011

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Categories: Things Toast cares about..., Travel

With the Antipodean Adventure complete I settled back into Winnipeg fairly happily. Arriving back just before the May long weekend in Canada meant relaxed times all around. After a really (really) lazy week I attended the fantastic U2 360 show here.

All of this was of course a lead up to the real reason I came home when I did, my University convocation. Though I hadn’t really been looking forward to the occasion I did definitely want to attend just to have it really sink in that I was finished. This is of course in addition to the fact that (though she denies it’s true) my mother would have been heartbroken if I hadn’t gone.

It was definitely nice to catch up with a few of my Comp Sci classmates, people I hadn’t seen since the big final co-op party just before Christmas. Most of the people I was closest too were of course asking how the big trip had gone and given that it was somehow bordering on sub zero temps with a howling wind I said quite truthfully that I wished I’d never left.

That evening my parents surprised me with a party that turned out to not be a small family only gathering but a large get together with unexpected friends and family, great food and drinks and a large amount of teasing about the length of time I spent in school. As part of the pile of gifts and whatnot that I received my alcohol store was replenished to the point where I’m set for wine and beer (great beer too) until I hit the road again.

Since then I’ve been working on a short-term contract for a friend’s game company while trying to settle back into staying in one place for more than three days at a time. It’s honestly more difficult than I expected, I find myself itching to hit the road to europe already even though I haven’t made much more than a stab at planning. Of course the first part of the trip will be a more sedate jaunt through parts of England with my parents anyway.

With that in mind though, do any of my friends and readers have any suggestions for Europe? Thus far my tentative starting plan is to cross the channel, rent a car in Calais or Arras and do a trip out to Vimy Ridge, then maybe another random day along the north coast of france before heading back to turn the car in and hop a train to Bruges or Brussels before heading on to Amsterdam. I figure a few days in Holland then probably on to Germany, possibly to poland but definitely the Czech Republic. I suspect this will be the farthest east I get since part of me would definitely like to revisit Spain and the south of france. The last portion of the trip will be Italy as I leave from Rome, but I haven’t decided what else to make the effort to see there (other than restaurants to feed my love of pasta.)

Other thoughts:
-My parents loved Luxembourg when they travelled there way back when, still nice these days anyone?
-Strongly considering an Irish side trip, but it will likely depend on flight costs while I’m there.
-I’ll probably make a trip to Scotland before crossing the channel, this may be more contingent on where I end up towards the end of my time with my parents though.
-Sadly I think Scandinavia is too large of a cash/time investment for this trip.
-Thoughts on overall route construction? I’m planning to buy a rail flexible pass.
-Cash is of course an issue, thankfully I’ve refilled my coffers a bit from the side job so hopefully I can live somewhere above absolute squalor most places.

I’m also really looking for any interesting places that are still fairly easy to get to with public transport, but might be off the usual routes or tourist destinations. For my euro friends that I met in Aus/NZ please remember to think on a “colonial” time scale, a 3 hour drive is nothing to me.

Antipodean Adventure: Back Home!

31 May 2011

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So it’s over, what a blast. As you can guess by how long it’s been since I’ve posted I’ve been in full rest mode for almost two weeks. The trip itself is still being digested but overall it was absolutely the best experience of my life. That said I’m getting very tired of people saying “wow, you look different!” I expect I’ll post a little more of a wrapup at some point once I really have settled back in.

The next leg of my trip round the world isn’t for a little over a month when I leave for England with my parents then continue on without them for a month or so. I still haven’t really spent any time planning specifics, but can’t wait to make some decisions.

AA: home…

19 May 2011

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My second last day in Australia was dedicated to a trip up into the blue mountains west of Sydney. Unfortunately given that it was low tourist season for most of NSW, the tour I wanted was only leaving once a week and not before I left so I was forced to look for an alternative. Whereas the one I’d originally chosen had been very nature focused and had included a number of 15-45 minute hikes in the itinerary, I was eventually forced to go on one that was pretty much bus only. I was picked up at 7:30am and taken over to the Casino where we all redistributed into our various buses for the destinations. One was a city sights tour, another was heading up into the hunter valley and mine headed up into the blue mountains. Unfortunately, most of my bus was of the older tourist or non-english speaking asian family tourist variety and I ended up sitting by myself and didn’t really speak to anyone for the entire drive.

The driver himself was a fine driver and nice enough, but an absolutely terrible commentator. He knew his stuff, but he also pointed out the most mundane crap. For example: on the way out of town he pointed out a bus depot and told us that there were many more like it and that at any one time Sydney could have 2500 buses on the road. Which is fine, not really what I came on the tour for, but whatever. It got weird for the second and third times we passed a bus depot when again he pointed them out excitedly and in both cases gave us a preview: “Soon we’ll be coming up to another of the Sydney bus depots, I’ll be sure to point it out as we pass.” Not sure exactly why he thought we’d be quite that interested. His repetition was also endless, each time he’d bring up a topic he’d re-explain the entire thing so you’d get comments like “back in 2000, for the Sydney 2000 Olympics” about 50 times whereas anyone else would just say “the Olympics” after the first time. He also had incredibly annoying habit of using the words of “of course” constantly. “We’ll be heading up to Echo Point, which of course overlooks the three sisters, though of course the valley floor is far below. Of course you’ll be able to head down there after lunch of course.” ARGH! Add to this the fact that he had a cold and was constantly stopping to cough or sneeze and I was getting very tempted to put my noise cancelling headphones on. He was a nice guy when talking to him, just needed to work on the guide portion of his job.

Once we got up into the blue mountains I really wished I’d been able to do the other tour. The area was beautiful. Big sudden valleys seemed to spread in every direction from every viewpoint. Cliff faces in the distance faded into the hazy blue that gave the area its name. I did cheap out when we went to the “scenic world” though, an inclined railway trip down into the valley to the “rainforest” floor was a fair bit of money and smelled of tourist ripoff. Instead I enjoyed the lookout, ate my lunch then did an hours walk along the cliff rim and some of the houses nearby. I’m sure it was just as nice since I’d done many rainforest walks up north in the real rainforest. We did a couple of other stops before starting back to the city.

On the way back into the city we actually did a wildlife portion of the tour where my limited Kangaroo exposure was suddenly rectified in a big way at the Featherdale wildlife refuge. We were greeted getting off the bus by one of the staff carrying a rescued baby wallaby in a blanket. Her name was Honey and she so adorable and soft. It was just a hint of what was to come inside. They have just about every type of roo and wallaby, all of which are very friendly. I believe they’re all rescued animals and most will come over and sniff your hand and let you touch them. Each area does have a fenced off area where only the animals can go if they’re sick of you as well. I wandered through the park, taking about 50 more pictures than I should have and leaving myself with limited time to see the rest of the park. My next stop was to watch the penguins being fed. They were Australian fairy penguins, teeny little guys and girls who are apparently part of a very successful breeding program. As she was leaving the keeper told me she’d be feeding the Tassie devil next if I wanted to follow so of course I did. They try to keep their diet similar to carrion they might find in the wild, so it was a lovely pair of chicken legs still covered in feathers. Their two devils are both male so they’re kept separate but they’ll likely be part of Australia wide effort to create a safe breeding program to hopefully keep the species going after they go extinct in the wild from the bizarre face cancer wiping them out. They’re oddly adorable despite looking rather vicious and ugly.

Moving on to other animals, sadly the Echnida were hiding but I got to meet some dingoes that were very similar to the fraser island look so they’re probably from that stock. They’re such beautiful animals, very dog looking but with an unmistakable wildness about them that’s punctuated by the mournful howls they let loose from time to time. The bird collection was quite impressive as well, in addition to the previously mentioned Cassowary (every bit as intimidating as their stuffed versions) they had a number of native owl species including one called the barking owl that I’d actually thought was dingoes in the distance at first before I remembered that they don’t bark. I managed to snap a quick video of him before the battery in my vid camera went dead, so hopefully I can post that later. Sadly after a tour of the reptile house it was time to go get on the bus, I wish we’d spent more time at this place and less at scenic world. I left them an extra donation on the way out and hopped back on board.

The tour concluded with a quick spin around the Sydney Olympic Park (The guide was quick to point out at least 5 times that this was in 2000 and how many buses were needed) where most of the bigger venues were concentrated. At that point we had the choice of the bus into town again, or taking a chartered cruise down the river for an additional 7 bucks. Since I was staying all of a 5 minute walk from the circular quay jetty where it would stop I opted for the boat. Despite the fact that it was dark (and boy is it nice to be back into later sunshine again) it was a nice tour. A commentary track gave history and current background for many of the places we passed and we probably only arrived about 20 minutes later than the bus would have been. I’d noticed a tour brochure on the bus towards the end and when I read it noticed that my backpacker tour had been merged onto one of the parent company’s buses (which explained the crowd.) I have to say I thought $90 was a little much honestly for what was actually included in the trip, but the minimum cost to most of the other people on the bus was $168, more like $200 if they’d opted for one of the lunch packages.

On the way back up through the rocks I stopped at the pub with the $10 steak salad and chips and sat on their rooftop patio, looking at the Opera house and bridge and watching the harbour traffic flow. The meal itself was fantastic, especially for $10 and I knew I’d be thinking about coming back the next night as the deal was tough to beat down in the rocks.

The next morning I said goodbye to the guys staying in my room as they were all heading out, two of them heading home, one heading on to Thailand to study Muay-Thai before moving on to china for Kung Fu (aspiring UFC guy.) While the wildlife park had been nice, I’d been told repeatedly that Taronga zoo across the harbour was very good and it seemed like a good relaxing activity for my last day since I wanted to be in bed reasonably early. Handily enough there’s a ferry that crosses directly from Circular to the zoo and you can then hop on a cable car to get a birds eye view of many of the animals as you cross to the front gate.

I started off with the wild Australia area, figuring that given recent excursions I’d likely cruise through it. On the contrary it was quite well done and I found myself really enjoying the open flight bird enclosures. Their roo area wasn’t quite as populated as the Featherdale one (and they were being lazy since it was the warmest it had been in Sydney in a while) but had the humorous juxtaposition of an emu and roo hanging out together and looking as if they were taking a break from posing for the Australian coat of arms. More excitingly, multiple echidnas were out and about. Such a bizarre animal even without knowing the odd details of their internal works. They’re (along with the platypus) one of the only egg laying mammals and look like a bizarre hybrid of a porcupine and a kiwibird. Speaking of the platypus, the zoo had a number of them, one of which was incredibly active in a well designed habitat that let us all have a good luck at him. Around the same area were a number of great flying squirrel exhibits and I actually got to see some of them gliding about. The croc exhibit was quite good as well with the female loomining menacingly close to the window with just her snout above water and a big 5m bull towards the back but with his mouth wide open.

Once I’d wrapped up the aussie section I moved on to see their elephants and managed to arrive just as they got their treat for the day. The staff brought each of the ladies a jerry can full of peanuts (the bull has a separate enclosure with occasional visits to simulate wild behaviour.) Each of them would grab the can with their trunk, flip it upside down to shake out some peanuts and even wedge the can in so she could place her trunk directly on the opening and grab a nut or three. Once she’d cleaned up everything that had fallen out she’d do it again. Those with calves would let them share as well as the cans were a little too big for the little ones to handle well. I also really enjoyed the Gorilla exhibit, especially the massive male they had. While I’ve always known intellectually how big they can get it was the first time I’d seen one in person. Another animal I was really surprised by the size of was the Tapir, something I’d always assumed weren’t cow sized. Perhaps caused by the terrain the path system was somewhat confusing and (in my opinion) badly designed but I’m fairly sure I covered pretty much everything in the zoo.

As I hoped it was a good relaxing day to finish off my trip and as I journeyed back across the harbour on the ferry I was treated to a sunset behind the bridge. I decided not to go back for another steak and instead had a thin crust pizza to finish off the trip. Sadly I was in bed and asleep by about 9 as I needed to be up and packed by 7 to catch my train to the airport.

My bag was heavy, borderline too heavy for the flight but I had it just low enough to pass. Unfortunately it was heavy enough to topple me when my ankle rolled walking down one of the ancient stairs in the rocks on the way to the station. Once I was planted in the train station I had the unpleasant task of rubbing sanitizer on the scratches and cuts, practically screamed. The train to the airport was painless at least. Thankfully my airplane luck continued on the flight from Sydney to Auckland as I got another free space next to me. Not so lucky on the long haul this time though but at least my seat mates were pleasant and didn’t grumble when I needed to pee. God that’s a long flight though. I didn’t sleep much, which in the end will make the readjustment easier, but made for a pretty long day.

Once back in Canada it wasn’t long after landing before I’d picked up an apple fritter at Tim’s and was sitting watching a bit of the hockey game. Quite the change from only being able to occasionally get a highlight package when the internet connection was up to it. Of course, back to Canada meant back to Air Canada, which meant a nice hour long delay in leaving the gate followed by a taxi so long it felt like we should have gotten to Medicine Hat by road. Still, eventually I arrived back home had a nice reunion with the parents and the dogs and finally managed to fall asleep around four.

AA: Back Sydneyside…

15 May 2011

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I spent my extra day in Cairns heading up to Kuranda on the cheapo bus, one of the few towns I’d missed on my Atherton Tablelands loop. I had a few specific reasons for wanting to head up there, but it turned out to be rather disappointing. Basically a small touristy town with nothing but giftshops and eateries. The vaunted “markets” turned out to be 60% generic flea market/crafting stuff that you can see anywhere in Canada too and 40% “Australian souvenirs” probably churned out by the same Indonesian sweatshops as the souvenirs seen in the asian-y markets in Cairns or Sydney or wherever. The aboriginal art in the gallery type places was definitely much better, though most was well beyond my price range. I bought myself a small painting as a souvenir of the trip though, so it wasn’t all wasted. One of the parts that did live up to the billing was a meat pie I had from Annabel’s as recommended by a guy at the hostel. Absolutely delicious Steak, Egg, Bacon and Cheese pie inside melt in your mouth pastry, talk about a fantastic lunch for $4.50. Overall though it didn’t really feel worth my time to head up there and I actually only stayed a few hours, not waiting for the later bus like I’d originally planned. I can’t help but feel that if I was a bit disappointed after paying $10 round trip for my bus ride, the people who’d spent the $65 or more on the scenic railway probably felt worse. The scenery from the bus had been pretty, but not as good as my tour with the rental car previously. Once back in Cairns I used the net for a bit while people in Canada were still awake, then walked down to the esplanade and had a swim in the lagoon as the sun set. I had actually planned to go to see a movie at the mall near the hostel on the way back, but I’d completely forgotten it was Friday night. The teenaged hordes had descended so I headed to coles instead, grabbed the fixings for some pasta and headed back to the hostel with a bottle of wine.

The next morning it was time to repack everything nice and tightly for my first plane journey in a while, I haven’t bought much but as with any trip things seem to slowly start to take up more and more space. I think the effect is worse when you’re backpacking. I had purposely left a bit of souvenir space in my original packing though so eventually I got everything bundled up and ready to go. My flight wasn’t until 6 though so I still had some time to kill. I was so incredibly tempted to do another day’s diving trip actually but I figured it would be tempting fate to assume I’d be back exactly on schedule on a dive tour, since it would only leave me about 1:10 to get to the airport. Instead I just did a long walk around town, had an ice cream and lunch down on the esplanade, then came back to the hostel and sat in a lounge chair by the pool reading a book until my airport shuttle came. I managed to just sneak under the lower bag weight limit for Virgin Australia and boarding my plane around 6. I found it very interesting that (for this route at least) VA boards its planes from the front and rear. For a 737-700 they boarded the first 10 rows from the front door via a jetway, everyone in the back rows had to cross the tarmac and go up the stairs. Adding to the weirdness was the fact that at no point in the check in or boarding process was I required to show ID, something that seems to happen back home endlessly even for domestic flights.

Sydney was actually chilly. Even to my Winnipeg blood it felt a little cold after being in the tropics for weeks. Of course the Sydneysiders have been gradually dropping in temp so they have no excuse, yet I saw tons of people who were obviously locals wearing wool hats and wintery looking coats despite it still being +10 and just a bit breezy. I laughed more than a few times as I hopped the train into the city. While out the day before I’d used my bond rebate from the rental car and pre-booked the YHA harbour in Sydney for 4 nights after hearing how great it was. As those that have travelled with me know I memorize the basic layout of a city pretty quickly and it takes a long time for me to forget so I got to the hostel via train without consulting a map at all. I was definitely a little weary after lugging my bag up the stairs in The Rocks though. The hostel itself was very bizarre. You walk into a small ground floor alcove surrounded by glass. Through the glass is old stone and what looks like foundations, I’d been forewarned so I knew it was actually an archaeological dig site that the hostel sits over. The rooms on the ground floor are actually accessed via the first floor for both security and to keep the dig site fully accessible. It does make the hostel a bit cold at times though as the two wings are built around courtyards that are open to the dig site at the bottom. Most of the dig site is only fenced so the wind rushes in and upward, something that I imagine is great in the summer but causes a few goosebumps for people headed to breakfast now. Only the central area with kitchen, reception and internet kiosks is actually a contained building.

Once in the lobby I checked in, only half paying attention to what the girl was saying as I realized the guy next to me was being checked in to the same dorm. Being the sneaky bastard that I am I rushed her through the rest of her spiel and managed to get away from the desk first and sure enough, there was only one person in the room so there was a bottom bunk still in play. I snagged it about a minute before the other guy arrived none the wiser. Since I’ll be here a few days I actually unpacked a bit then went upstairs for the real reason I wanted to try this place out. It was about to close for the night out of respect for the neighbours, but I headed out onto the rooftop terrace for a quick sec regardless. Laid out before me was the Opera House, softly lit in white with the Harbour Bridge sparkling on my left. Can’t really beat that view for $40 a night.

The next morning I figured I’d do a proper beach tour since even though it was a bit chilly it was much sunnier than my last visit out to the beaches. I hopped the bus over to North Bondi and walked all the way south on the coast to Coogee. Along the way I sat and watched the waves for a bit at a few spots and even spent some time playing around with the tiny crabs crawling on the rocks south of Bronte. As before I’m jealous of these gorgeous beaches so close to the city center. With a bus (or ferry) ride equivalent to taking a ride from downtown to the U of M you have gorgeous wide open beaches with nice sand and decent to great surfing. As a result they’re mega packed during the summer of course, but even today the water was decent (though I didn’t do more than paddle my feet as swimming flags weren’t up at most beaches.)

It was Sunday afternoon here so there were still a fair number of people at the parks along the coast as well, including a number of kids sports leagues. I sat and watched a rugby game involving 12-ish year old players. That age makes for some interesting rugby as you see some kid break and absolutely acrobatic and amazing move to dodge three opposing players, get completely free to go for the try, then give in to pubescent awkwardness and trip over a blade of grass. Even at that age though it’s a rough game and I was surprised to see only 2 or 3 kids whose parents had made them wear the special school helmet things. I remain fairly mystified by Aussie Rules Football though as the one game I saw in progress ended 5 minutes after I got there. Once down in Coogee I treated myself to a nice Thai lunch then walked back along the same route, finally catching a bus back from Bondi and arriving back at Circular Quay as the sun was setting. After a quick shower and a not so quick nap, I didn’t feel like much for dinner and hadn’t been to the grocery store yet so I skipped on the quite pricey restaurants down in the rocks and just got a semi-healthy chicken wrap at Maccas. I’m told the pub next door to the hostel is nice though and has $10 steak Monday night so I might treat myself after my blue mountains tour tomorrow.

It’s obvious from my updates but the trip is definitely winding down. It’s been a fantastic trip that I’ll never forget and I’ll certainly be back to both Australia and New Zealand. Regardless I’m a little burnt out and looking forward to my own bed, seeing friends and giving my dogs a big hug as I recharge for the next trip. As I write this I’m sitting up on the rooftop terrace watching the ferries pull in and out next to the opera house. It’s still a bit on the cool side so I’m alone except for the occasional smoker. I think it’s time to head into the TV room or see if anyone’s playing a game of uno or something though as they’ll be locking the terrace soon and I don’t want them to not see me and leave me out here all night.

AA: Don’t go chasing waterfalls.

13 May 2011

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Categories: Travel

Coming down off Cape Tribulation I was finally set up with money again and was able to do the croc cruise on the Daintree river. I’d lingered a bit over my free breakfast in the bistro and that combined with a very slow cement mixer coming down the winding roads meant I wasn’t on the cable ferry across until 9:30 when the tour started. I decided I still wanted to do it as it had been recommended and was a good deal so I went to register for the 11:00 even though it would minimize the time I had to spend on the tablelands later in the day. Thankfully when I said it was just me she told me I could make it but I’d have to run then called the boat to get them to wait a couple minutes.

I’m glad I made the effort. The river itself was gorgeous, dark and mysterious looking even in bright sunlight. It a very African Queen vibe to it despite the sun and when we passed through a narrow passage between the riverbank and a large island it was easy to imagine spears suddenly flying from unfriendly natives in the jungle. The banks themselves were mostly mangroves of the saltwater variety since even that far up the river there was a 2 meter tide from the ocean. As a result the whole area is happy times for crocodiles.

Our first encounter was with a small (by the guide’s standards anyway) female that he estimated was about 30 years old. She’s apparently very reliably sunning herself in one of two nearby places so they always start the trip with her. She was quite clearly visible, laying there and slowly opening and closing her mouth to control temperature. Just as we were about to head out she flopped closer to the water in preparation to go for a swim and gave us a few nice photos. The guide himself was the owner of the business, a fantastically knowledgeable guy who’s been working the river for 30 something years. Every time we’d hear a birdcall or see a new type of bird or plant he’d give us the name and some pertinent details. He also had a fantastic eye for spotting the camouflaged napping crocs, usually having to point out repeatedly to the rest of us where they were in the distance. After the female we stumbled across a smaller juvenile just scampering out of the water after a swim. We got a chance to see how they moved as the croc went to hide at the high tide mark, still a bit small to survive a serious challenge from a real bull. Our next step down the croc size ladder was a true youngster. Slim and about 2 feet long, the roughly 16month old specimen looked like something one might see in a tropical aquarium but was in fact a croc keeping a wary eye on us. They’re very vulnerable until they get bigger, often eaten by other young crocs, the big ones and the occasional bull shark that hunts in the river as well. The last and best sight for us was Nelson the one armed (of course) bull croc at about 4 meters in length. He was truly massive, laying across the bank and clearly watching every one of us as the boat edged in. I was already pretty convinced that meeting one of these while swimming or walking near water was a bad thing, seeing one from 10 meters away was just a little extra reinforcement of how primeval looking and scary they are. Fascinating, but scary.

I’d named my car Gertie because at first I was told it was a Hyundai Getz and for some reason Gertie the Getz popped into my head. Turns out it’s the new version called the i30, but Gertie stuck. She’s tiny, white and has about as much power as a modern lawn tractor but she’s given me a bit of independence in discovering some of the other neat things around Cairns. Next up was the Atherton Tablelands, a massive plateau just in from the coast. It’s basically a series of small towns, waterfalls and great views of a more rugged Australia in one direction and rolling hills out to the sea in the other. Gertie struggled to get up the winding switchback road, but once up there we cruised together and saw the sights. After a quick stop at a tourist office I set myself up with an itinerary of hikes and waterfalls and the like that would hopefully get me down off the mount shortly before dark and back in Cairns in time to get a bed and do some planning for the last few days of the trip. My first stop was Mount Hypipamee National Park to see a large volcanic gas vent crater and Dinner Falls nearby. I had been told it was a nice hike, which it was but it was only about 15 minutes total to visit both sites. Likewise with the curtain fig, a giant strangler fig that has created a curtain after its host tree fell partially down before the process was complete. I also did a short road circuit called the waterfall trail that stopped at three different sets of falls. In the end I didn’t do any longer hikes, but the sheer volume of shorter ones had my legs (still stiff from using diving muscles) whining a bit.

The road down from the tableland was a lot more fun than the road up since Gertie could handle it a lot better. I really really wish I had my Mazda over here though, it would be a blast on that road. The route down had a much longer section of heavy winding so it was getting quite dark before I pulled back in at my old Cairns hostel. Thankfully they had room so I booked in, grabbed a quickie kebab for dinner then settled in to plan.

Sadly Uluru would likely cost me 1200AUD for a short three day trip. Much as I want to see it, I think that’s money that’s better spent in Europe this summer. Melbourne sadly suffered the same fate which is rather crushing to me, I’d really wanted to check it out as I’ve heard it’s a fantastic city. I think the problem is the current roller coaster in gas prices ending the really good seat sales over here for a bit. I’ve instead decided that next time I visit Australia I will just start my journey in Melbourne and head west and up to Uluru first before spending any time on the east coast. It’s sad, but I don’t want to be sitting in Prague in August wishing I’d saved that money. Instead I’m going to head back to Sydney and do a couple of the day trips I missed last time.

AA: Great Barrier Reef and Cape Tribulation

12 May 2011

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Categories: Travel

Leaving Airlie Beach was another early morning. At the bus stop by 7:00AM, with my usual paranoia getting me there more like 6:25. Because I’m starting to run short on time I skipped Townsville and went straight to Cairns, the end of the backpacker highway as it’s often known. It was a not so lovely 10.5 hour Greyhound ride but thankfully also probably my last coach ride of the trip. The scenery was definitely an improvement for this leg though, lots of gorgeous mountains, Kangaroos and (I think) a freshwater croc spotted from the bus. For an ultra-nerdy reference, I saw a green snake on a sugar cane plant at one of the meal stops. Upon arriving in Cairns I was picked up by a shuttle, checked in and ran over to a supermarket to get some lunch fixings for the next day (and a Kebab for supper.) I’d managed to get a cheap single for the first night then moved to a 3 bed dorm for the next 2. They were even cool with moving my bag over while I was gone the next day which was really appreciated, I heartily recommend the Traveller’s Oasis for anyone who wants to stay a little bit out of the CBD to be able to get a solid night’s sleep.

The next morning was the beginning of my dive course. After a minibus pickup to take me to a place that was only about a five minute walk away, we settled in to the classroom for the first part of the course. My class instructor was a guy named Jack, a Brit who keeps reminding me of John Oliver’s younger more attractive brother. Very similar mannerisms and voice, not helped by the fact that I rewatched a Prof. Duncan heavy episode of Community the night before. I was quite nervous as the day wore on. At first this was mostly because of the medical I’d have to pass. Once upon a time Doctors forbade anyone with Asthma from scuba diving but they’ve done more research in the past few years and as long as you aren’t having attacks or low lung volume you’re fine. Unfortunately I’d heard that Queensland is very strict about these things (and indeed safety for diving in general) so I figured there was a reasonable chance I’d get downchecked and would have wasted a day. Just as we did lunch the med team arrived, two of what I’m guessing were specialists or physicians assistants who took our BP, pulse and lung spirometry for the Doctor that followed. Happily enough I passed, though I’ve lost so much weight on this trip that my balance is terrible at the moment from the changed centre of gravity. It was a big relief, but my true nervousness was to start once we got in the pool.

The smaller half of our classroom group included me and an Italian, a Finn and three French folks so we were assigned to a French pool instructor named Pierre. This was definitely a good move because two of the French people were not the greatest with English so it greatly sped things up for him to be able to repeat once in French for the more complex stuff rather than 4x in English. The first step was just swimming a number of laps in fins, then treading water for ten minutes. Easy. Once we were fully geared up and kneeling underwater in the shallow end my problems began. I was constantly struggling to stay kneeling under the water to see what was going on, my regulator felt foreign in my mouth and rough on my lungs. Each exercise felt worse than the last and I was seriously considering dropping out of the course and taking them up on the end of day 1 refund option. Thankfully right at the end the instructor added a weight to my buoyancy vest’s pockets and I was staying put in the deep part of the pool. That gave me the confidence to stay in the course. By the time the day was over we’d been in the pool a few hours and were all absolutely wrecked. I don’t think I moved from my bed more than twice that night once I settled in, I just watched a movie and fell asleep pretty much right after.

Day two started with pool activities and instantly I felt more at home with the new weight belt. Unfortunately I had new problems with a less well fitting BCD vest, but it wasn’t as much of an issue. It was another strenuous morning though with many of the tasks being to learn emergency skills. Lunchtime was a delicious burger shop then a trip to the dive shop for those of us who wanted to buy masks and fins etc at a reasonable discount. Though obviously they want to make money off us, they also strongly pointed out that having your own gear encourages you continue doing the diving which makes sense. Classroom time followed and we ended the day with the final exam. Proud to say that I finished the exam super quickly and got the first 100% that instructor has seen in all his time teaching the course (a couple years I think,) oddly enough a Dutch girl named Inge got 100% a few minutes later as well. There was a small scale German language course going on simultaneously in the other classroom and I overheard their instructor say to ours that the 3 students had managed 25 mistakes between them. Given there were 50 questions and a 75% was a pass, at least one of them must have cut it very close. Unfortunately at this point we lost our Finnish girl, she never looked comfortable in the water and I think she went back to the doctor to get a second opinion. That night a few of us dragged ourselves over to a place called reef teach, essentially a two hour session with a marine biologist teaching us to properly identify fish and coral types. Very interesting and definitely helped in the water, but dear god I felt like a zombie walking back to the hostel.

The excellent part about this company (besides their tremendous reputation) is that the course includes a three day, two night liveaboard dive trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. Getting up for the boat at 5:30AM was another unpleasant start, but a few of us managed to get a brief nap on the way out to the reef when there wasn’t much to see. Gear setup was the other task, I had to prep my mask then discovered that they hadn’t brought a wetsuit in my size despite me mentioning it at least 4 times. Most of me could fit in the smaller suit, but my shoulders are too broad and keep the top of the chest piece so tight around my lungs that I can’t take a full breath (obviously bad.) Unfortunately this meant that my first dive was going to be in just a stinger protection suit while he tried to get another boat to bring one over, thankfully I found that I was fine in just the stinger suit. Maybe 27c water makes some of these people shiver after a while but when’s the last time Lake Winnipeg hit that temp before you went swimming? Still, I have to admit I was incredibly nervous as we lined up to drop into that green-blue water.

Turns out I had no reason to be, the ocean was 10x more natural feeling than the pool for me. I could move freely, my ears were equalizing properly and I could control my buoyancy much more accurately. We slowly moved down the mooring rope the crushed coral sea bed near a few reef outcroppings. Once on the bottom we ran through a few basic skills before Pierre proved to be an excellent instructor by leaving the other tests for after and taking us for a spin around some of the mounts to see the fish. We saw a number of different damselfish, some Anenomefish (Nemo!), big coral trout, parrot and surgeon fish along with a couple medium sized wrass. The coral itself was beautiful as well, Staghorn, Finger, Plates… all amazingly, though we’ve been told the colours get better as we move on to other dive sites. The absolute highlight of the dive was a stingray though. Just a tiny one, they’re absolutely harmless anyway unless you step on one, or you’re a Steve Irwin level moron and you wrestle them. Before I knew it 30 minutes had passed and we were moving up to the surface to run through some other skills. Pierre was awesome though, I found out later we’d spent 5 more minutes and gone 3-4 metres deeper than the other group. We all particularly enjoyed him picking up a sea cucumber and wearing it as a hat and pretending to play it like an accordion.

Unfortunately my buddy wasn’t feeling great after the dive so I was worried I might need to readjust for dive two, thankfully there was a decent gap before the next drop and he recovered sufficiently. In between dives we got a fantastic lunch (they’ve warned we’ll gain a kilo on this boat from the food) and a debrief on dive 1. Dive 2 was a little less fun since we needed to churn through a couple of the tougher skills including ascending on buddy air supply (simulating ours running out) then going back down and simulating the “oh shit i’m out of air and no one can help me get to the surface now” manoeuvre. We did another quick spin around the coral first, everything was very pretty but the fish situation was nothing new and not as good as the first dive. After we were back on board the boat moved a bit and then the certified divers also on the trip dropped in for another dive on a new reef. For those of us trying to be certified we were done diving for the day, but a few of us went out for a snorkel on this new reef and were blown away. I took along the video camera and got what I hope are some great shots of coral and a vast array of fish. I was kind of wiped so I turned back, but the other people snorkelling got a brief glimpse of a reef shark. We finished the night off after dinner watching the certified folks do a night dive like the one we were looking forward to the next day. It’s very odd as they all carry flashlights and glowsticks tied to their regulator connection. As they drop into the water they glow a little, but soon they’re down amongst the coral and you can see eerie glows from above water or the occasional bright flash as someone points directly back at the boat. I can’t wait for our chance, especially since they say the second night dive spot is better and the sharks have been getting braver and coming to have a look. The rest of the night was pretty low key, even among those of us who only did two dives. Mostly chatting and sharing a few drinks. I spent quite a bit of time talking to a girl who was basically the more attractive Aussie clone of one of my ex-girlfriends (down to personality… haircut… wardrobe… everything) which was more than a little weird.

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Day two on the boat dawned quite early as the Irish dive supervisor went around yelling out a reveille. I was actually already awake, but it was still an unpleasant wakeup. The plan for the day called for a pre-breakfast dive at 7:30, followed by our last certification dive at 11:00. Dive 3 was the last dive that was really heavy on skills since in addition to the regular stuff we finished off the optional. It was fantastic getting a look at the area I’d snorkelled the night before though from a max depth of 18m. Pierre is definitely a bit more active with his students as we consistently go a couple meters deeper and longer than the other crew of cert course people (though Jack has more of them to wrangle which makes a difference.) We had another great sighting on this dive as well despite being busy testing skills. This one was a lionfish, spines fully extended at the sight of us, absolutely beautiful backlit against the blue green depths. Visibility was in fact excellent everywhere, extending to 20m most of the time. Dive 4 didn’t have anything rare, but it was another deeper dive and our longest yet as we were under for 40 minutes. The added excitement of course is that with dive 4 successfully completed we’re all now PADI certified open water divers and can now dive without the instructor (as we’ll do for the first time roughly 2 hours from when I’m writing this.) Definitely a bit nervewracking, but I personally haven’t really had an “oh god where is the instructor” moment since early in the first dive, and that was only because I got turned around trying to avoid being kicked in the face. Definitely won’t be as deep of a dive either so an emergency ascent becomes much less of an issue. Later on when we go on the night dive we’ll be with an instructor again for the obvious reason, but most of the people in my class are most worried about that one.

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Finally the time arrived, our first dive as certified divers. Andrea and I suited up and spent a little extra time on our buddy checks of each other’s equipment. Soon enough though we were doing our entries off the back platform and slowly sinking down to the reef. There’s a nervousness at that first moment for most people. You sink slowly into the gloom, eyes adjusting to the water filtered sunlight and brain overcoming the hardwired impulses to kick up to the surface so you can breathe. After a few moments your body accepts that there IS air coming in through that regulator and yes let’s flip over and start kicking downwards. I have to admit, this time those feelings were far more intense as up until now we’d had Pierre to focus on, making sure we were all ok then leading us onward. Not only Pierre in fact, but 3 other students as well, this time it was just us buddies if something went wrong. For this dive we had a guide line down to the seabed but after the first few meters Andrea and I kicked off to avoid the congestion of the more timid types and started heading towards the reef.

Visibility on all our dives was pretty great so it didn’t take long for the eyes to get used to the colour and light and begin to pick out fish flitting about (other than the big bunch always up near the boat looking for handouts.) This site turned out to be gorgeous as well and large schools of damselfish and wrass scooted up close to us before veering away as they realized how big we were. This particular site was the edge of a bigger reef with a large number of boumis (free standing clumps of coral, often massive) just off the edge. Fantastically enough, as we swam between several of them I heard a crunching sound faintly and, looking down, spotted a sea turtle chomping away. He was a green turtle, roughly 1m across with his fins fully extended. After a minute I managed to get Andrea’s attention and show it to him, but it took me a few sign language sessions as it was reasonably well camoed against the bottom. It was my first really good close up encounter with one of my favourite animals and I was absolutely dying for a camera. He was completely unphased by our presence and I actually got to within about 6inches of his shell. I honestly could have spend the whole dive watching him ignore me and eat, but I figured Andrea would want to move on. We left it to its dinner and swam on into an area filled with softer corals. The damselfish were particularly great that dive as we saw, blue, lemon, chocolate dip, black and white and many others. Several bumphead parrotfish stalked us at one point before veering off when they saw something tasty to grab, we also saw several boxfish, a big barracuda and a triggerfish. Andrea kept trying to veer off into boumis out in the deep water though, and as a result the extra air we expended kept us from getting to get to some of the other neat sounding areas. We also felt a little lost on the way back to the boat, but had we kept going another minute or so we would have seen the mooring blocks. Not bad for our first dive certified though.

It might have been silly, but I was so hooked on diving already that I couldn’t resist. I signed up for the adventure diver add on course which slightly changed a few of my remaining dives. My night dive was now a certification dive as a night diver, which basically meant that I had to prove I could find a compass bearing underwater. Either way I was going with an instructor, this just meant I got to go with Pierre again and got a temporary new buddy named Jacqueline. Prep for the night dive was rather spirited… Jack sat us all down around the table and described what we would see. He also reiterated that night diving was the best chance to see sharks, but that sometimes they did get big ones. In that case he wanted us to do something called the ring of steel and all lock arms with our tanks facing outward. At that point if a shark fixated on someone like Astrid (one of the divers from his dive group) it would likely circle repeatedly and nudge her with every pass looking for a reaction. Now at some point Astrid might panic, so there was a simple procedure to follow. Jack has actually done shark research so we listened carefully: “The people on either side of Astrid need to look at each other, unhook from her… the one on the left can inflate her BCD to send her floating upwards then they link arms again after giving her a shove. Once she distracts it we can swim on.” It took a few of the group a few more seconds to catch on before Astrid gave him a big punch in the arm. That wasn’t Jack’s only bastard moment either. Night divers wear a glow stick identifying their group attached to their regulator first stage. Jack handed these out and told us they were special pressure resistant ones with a tempered glass insert so not to crack them. They were activated by heat and liquid so he had us quickly rub them between our hands then suck on them as he proceeded to demonstrate quickly bringing up a blue glow. He then sat and watched as all 12 of us tried to make this happen. Keep in mind we’d already done three dives that day, so forgive us for taking a few minutes to realize that he’d just cracked them with his teeth and they were standard glowsticks. Funny guy! :p

A few minutes later we went to suit up, well aware of just how black the sky was everywhere around us. The only lights visible were stars and the occasional large vessel kilometres distant. Putting on the wet stinger suit is never a pleasant proposition but with the night-time breezes it was downright horrifying. Still, it wasn’t long before we were in the water and shining our torches around the water. Red bass were swirling all around the lights looking for some extra light for hunting. The pros call them red bastards because they’ll charge and eat anything tiny you highlight in your flashlight. Thankfully apparently they’re so thick that if you move your light to a rock wall instead at the last minute they’ll veer into the coral and knock themselves senseless for a moment. Unfortunately as we descended my new buddy had a bit of a freakout, she wasn’t a fan of just sitting still in the water. Luckily Pierre was able to calm her down after we surfaced briefly and we continued on, quickly running our compass drills. Night diving was amazing for different fish though as well as weird worms and other invertebrates and bioluminescent things visible here and there. One of the highlights was a massive school of barracuda passing within range of our lights. All about five feet long, there must have been over 100 of them swimming in a massive line. Of course the absolute highlight was when green appeared in the gloom as we were returning to the boat. Pierre and I turned our torches in that direction and illuminated two black tip reef sharks circling the edge of the boat’s light pool, hoping to get some food attracted by the glow. Seeing them was amazing, your blood runs absolutely cold a moment as that streamlined predatory body is revealed. Your mind knows that they won’t attack in this level of visibility unless you make them defend themselves, but it takes a moment for that signal to get through to the rest of your body. We watched them circle for a few minutes until they spiralled back outwards. Most of the group exited the water at that point, I sat back near Pierre floating just under the water with my reg out and snorkel in, watching the fish circling. Just as I was about to swim to the boarding steps a quite large white tip reef shark swam directly into the boat lighting, not even needing my flashlight to see more than a silhouette. It didn’t stay long, but I it was an amazing sight as it cut powerfully through the green glow before diving back down into the blue.

It took us all a while to calm down after that, one of the ex-instructors back on board for a visit got us all playing group games in the ship’s saloon. One weird one where you had to perform a complicated series of manoeuvres without letting go of a broom, the other a team game where a person wearing a blackened dive mask with a snorkel between their legs had to be spun around then called across the room by their partner holding a roll of toilet paper between their legs. Very bizarre… Despite the early start that morning most of the boat stayed up reasonably late, it was actually only the looming dawn dive the next morning that sent most of us off to our berths. I couldn’t resist going up to the top deck to have another look at the stars and actually got my first view of the Big Dipper on this side of the world. Hovering just above the horizon (Dubhe actually disappeared behind a wave once in a while) it was completely upside down and wrong looking. I pointed it out to the other Canadians and we all had a “WEIRD” moment before heading to bed.

5:30 came all too soon, as did the realization that the ship was rocking fairly violently. We’d been told we’d be going to a rare dive site for the dawn dive since the seas were so glassy, but sure enough the wind had come up around 4am and scrubbed that idea. Still, part two of the adventure diver add-on was altering my morning dive anyway. Instead of a second independent dive, I’d be doing a deep dive with an instructor, learning about the environment and giving me the ability to go that deep in future. Because most wrecks are deeper than I’d been so far this was the big selling point of the course for me. At 30m things get very different. Nitrogen narcosis becomes a very real possibility (hence going with an instructor the first time), pressure increases dramatically and as a result air use goes through the roof. You’ve also got a lot less time down there before the nitrogen in your bloodstream and tissues reaches the point where you need to do serious decompression stops on the way up. Decomp diving is something you do NOT do as a recreational diver so at those depths it becomes really important to constantly check your air gauge and dive computer. Pierre took along a few toys to show us the pressure effects as well. First he pulled out a colour slate to show us how red essentially disappears at that depth, appearing as black since those wavelengths have been filtered out. Next he pulled out a coke can, also black looking and shook it vigorously. Of course due to the pressure, when he opened it nothing came out. Last was a standard soda bottle filled with air that had compressed almost flat since at 30 meters air takes up ¼ the space it does on the surface. Turning over we looked up and were blown away… our bubbles travelled up and up and up… the surface completely out of sight. It’s really a mindblowing thing that you don’t even think about before you go down, you’ve never really been out of site of sun or artificial lights twinkling through the surface of water. With show and tell over we headed off towards the boumis, slowly climbing up from 30 to 25ish meters and watching our no decompression time jump quickly upwards. It was pretty wild seeing the other folks from the boat swimming 30 feet above us and pointing downwards. We’d controlled our air use well enough that we actually got our regular dive too (though we came back a bit into our safety for the first time, though only just.) I’d thought my first turtle encounter was amazing… this dive I got three different turtles, two green turtles and one hawk’s bill turtle. Pierre even tried to feed one of them but the big guy was enjoying the coral he was already chowing down on. Lots of barracuda, a variety of surgeonfish (think Dori from finding nemo) along with some nemos and parrotfish. Just as we got back to the ship Justin the giant Humphead Maori Wrass came alongside. He’s probably the size of a dining room table and very curious and friendly, pics to follow.

Because we dove so deep we had to skip the second dive that morning for nitrogen build-up reasons. It doesn’t sound as if we missed much though as the current had picked up a bit and most people didn’t see a ton before air supplies ran low. We had the option to snorkel but the sea was so choppy due to the wind that no one felt like wasting the energy. Actually it was neat being on the boat because the dive supervisor/spotter saw a turtle passing by, mentioned it to the ex-instructor guy who realized it was sick. They took out the tender and brought it back to the ship in a dive bin. The poor guy was covered in algae growth which is a sign he’s been on the surface too much and likely unable to dive deep. Since that probably means he has breathing problems it’s likely he mistook a plastic bag for a jellyfish and has his lungs blocked partially. We helped carry him on deck, then up into the shade of the wheelhouse so Warren the skipper could keep an eye on him. Wazza radioed to shore and marine rescue would be sending a pickup to take him to a marine vet a.s.a.p. when we reached shore. Poor guy and yet another reminder to keep plastic out of the oceans.

My last dive was going to be a digital underwater photographer certification (basically proving I understand how light changes underwater) so I rented a properly set up underwater camera from the staff. Expensive, but the nice thing is that they give you the photos on the memory card so unlike the other options for underwater without buying a full rig it’s not a questionable brand film camera that you have to have developed later. I got what I consider to be some amazing shots, sadly no turtles that dive but some beautiful coral shots and Anemones with clown anenomefish including probably the best photo I’ve ever taken. It’s very difficult work though. The best shots come from being slightly under your target and from as close as possible so it requires balancing your breathing to float absolutely still (full lungs = float up) without using your fins so you don’t hit coral, long slow breaths so you’re as quiet as possible and really steady hands. It’s complex enough that your breathing pattern doesn’t stay really regular and we found ourselves returning to the boat a little faster than usual from the extra air use. Still absolutely amazing and a good sendoff for myself from the Great Barrier Reef. I may wait to post those photos until I get home so I can do some more accurate cropping etc with my big computer.

Back on the boat the crew was in full cleanup mode so after stripping and cleaning my gear I headed to pack up everything. The wind had only picked up since breakfast so we knew we’d be in for a terrible ride, I don’t think anyone knew quite how bad though. As previously discussed I love that sort of thing, but we got to the point where we were getting some serious weightless feeling periods as the ship rolled in swells that were awfully big for a bright sunny day. You know things are wild when crew members throw up. Once we were back alee of the point south of Cairns people perked up a bit and a bunch of us exchanged emails and photos. We were all meeting for dinner and drinks later but we didn’t want to leave that sort of thing until alcohol time.

TD has been royally ticking me off for a long time, but getting off the boat was the point where I will finally stop being lazy and get rid of them for good. I had some things to pay for after the trip, the extra course etc and my visa didn’t work. I’ve kept my TD visa as a backup since my aeroplan visa is so new the credit limit is very low (applying when you’re a student doesn’t set you up for a high starter.) I haven’t had a safe opportunity to make a payment on it in a bit, so I had tried to use the TD one before the boat left for something. I figured they’d been stupid and not made note of my call about going to Australia, but instead they told me I hadn’t made a payment in a while. I must have misread my statement as I thought it was at zero, but there was next to nothing on there anyway. I called them the night before the boat left (early Saturday morning in Canada) and he said he would fix it but it would be the next business day, since the boat didn’t return until early Tuesday morning Canada time I figured that would be fine. Judging by the experience at ProDive, they didn’t. Frustratingly the first ATM I tried would not dispense enough so I had to run another block to a bank. Coming back I noticed the first one was near some Pokies (VLTs) so that’s probably why. Eventually got everything worked out and went back to the hostel. The fun would continue later… Dinner and drinks were fun, but in the end I had to bow out around midnight when the first bar closed. I have no idea how people were still going, but between the early wakeups and the fact that my rental car pickup the next morning would require me to be up at 7 I said my goodnights and went back to my nice quiet hostel.

The next morning when I tried to pay for the rest of my rental car, figuring the thing would have gone through by now it didn’t work again. Seething, I called TD again. After quite the rigmarole I was told that the problem was the card was giving an expiry date from this fall, which is when it expires. I said yes… that’s the card I’m trying to use. He then tries to tell me that the TD/GM partnership has dissolved or some such BS and I should have a new card. I hadn’t received one before I left, and a check with home later on revealed no such card either. Forgive me for thinking my card that doesn’t expire for 6 months would still be good… I asked the Indian dude on the other end of the line what the hell I was supposed to do. I wanted to get the extra insurance paying with a credit card would give me, but no… there’s nothing they can do apparently. To push the frustration level to an absolute max, I needed to then leave a cash bond. But to do that I needed to pay extra since you needed to leave the insurance deductible as a deposit. It was either $20 extra a day to give it a $400 deductible, or $1600 deductible. When I went to take out cash, I swear to god the first ATM was broken. A bit of a hike later, I couldn’t actually take out enough to get the entire amount, apparently I was over my max withdrawals for the day since it was the same 24hr period in Canada. I just about screamed… eventually through trial and error I managed to find what I could take out and it was enough to leave me with $40 until the rollover… fun.

Finally… FINALLY… I got out on the road. It definitely wasn’t the ideal time to start driving on the other side of the road. Pissed and frustrated, tired and not having driven in a couple months. Add to that the fact that I was hungry and couldn’t really use my remaining cash for food. Still I made out ok and soon enough I was driving north along the coast heading north to Daintree and Cape Tribulation. I made a few stops along the way based on recommendations I’d gotten from people on the dive trip and at the hostel. It’s a beautiful rugged coastline and quickly my nerves calmed. I stopped in Port Douglas for a look around, definitely a pretty little town and probably where I’ll dive out of next time I come here. A little bit further north I got into Daintree National Park at Mossman Gorge where I did a nice little hike and went for a wade in the stream since most of the water I’ll come to later will be in croc danger land. I’d wanted to do a recommended river tour in Daintree village proper, but sadly that would have left me with $3 or so until I saw an ATM or my parents made my other payment for me. Instead I headed across the Daintree River on a cable ferry that took half of my cash and looked as if it should have been retired years previously. Everywhere you looked along the riverbank there were croc warning signs and crossing it I couldn’t help but think that it was a very stereotypically Aussie looking river, very much where you imagine crocodiles living.

The other side of the river marked Cape Tribulation, a remote rainforest preserve with a road that winds up and down the hills to the sea. It’s a gorgeous area full of noisy birds, cassowaries, crocs and other lizards, scary big spiders and snakes. I did a few long and short hikes. Having managed to catch my foot in a hatch on the dive ship I had a fresh wound that made walking not fun but the scenery was so beautiful that I couldn’t resist. On one of the botanical walks I actually saw a goanna, a long dragony looking lizard. He was keeping a wary eye on me as I wandered along the boardwalk but not running to hide. That walk definitely made me feel thankful for a boardwalk though as the entire place screamed crocs and snakes. Walking back I ran into a tour group coming the other way to hear their guide mentioning to keep an eye out for snakes that might be up sunning themselves. Just need to remember not to blindly step over any logs or rocks. After a few hikes I found a tiny gas store with an ATM and tried again since it was now midnight eastern back in Canada, sure enough I could take out a few hundred bucks. Eventually I reached the tip of the cape and my hostel for the night, the road does go further north to Cooktown and the big cape beyond, but the next 100km are all dirt and 4WD only. In fact the roads are frequently impassable as the bridges only clear the streams and rivers by about half a meter at times. I can’t actually remember but there may even be full stream crossings on that road if you head further north. This place is a gorgeous spot with a number of cabins/hostel dorms, a beachfront bistro and heavy rainforest canopy all around. It’s cheap and comes with a free hot breakfast so I happily settled in. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting much from the bistro, maybe a nice burger or sandwich and some chips. Instead I got a spicy pan-seared Spanish mackerel with herbed cous cous and a red pepper coulis. It was absolutely delicious, probably the best meal I’ve had in weeks and made up for a whole day surviving on 2 melting chocolate cookies. It wasn’t cheap (in fact not much less than my room for the night) but the alternative was a decent drive and not much cheaper so I just enjoyed it. Returning to my room after a quick trip to the beach (again needing to stay away from the water due to croc possibilities) meant a nice long shower and time to sit down and write all this stuff down. It’s been a few nights since I caught up on the blog. I won’t be posting it until at least tomorrow night however since there’s no internet here. It’s a great place to curl up on my porch and write as I listen to a vast array of birdcalls echoing through the rainforest.

AA: interlude

6 May 2011

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Categories: Meanwhile... at stately Wayne Manor., Travel

Hey folks, likely no posts from me until I finish off the dive course. Will be busy basically all day tomorrow (and in no mood to write after) then out on the boat for 3 days / 2 nights.

Back to regularly scheduled tales of me embarassing myself soon (which shouldn’t be hard to get from this course) for the last days of the trip.

Antipodean Adventure: Dugong Good Time!

4 May 2011

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Categories: Travel

The Whitsundays are a small group of islands just off the coast of Australia (within the Great Barrier Reef) in Queensland.
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After getting another great sleep in my spacious digs I packed up a small bag for two nights out on the ship. All food etc was provided, all they asked was no giant bags and bring your own booze in cans (or full sized wine and spirit bottles) since bottled beer takes up too much garbage space. A little before three I started walking over to the marina with my daypack and a selection of Australian cider and felt about 300% better than the previous morning. It’s amazing what a bit of sleep can do for you. The marina itself was one bay over from the beach area and to get there I had to walk along a really nicely laid out boardwalk around the lip of the bay and past one of the more fancy resorts in town. Once I got to the marina though, I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go. Annoyingly, the travel agent who’d printed my boarding pass for me (not the woman at the hotel) had given me one that said meeting point at BoatX’s meeting point… which isn’t marked anywhere. You think they could have written “Meeting Point North” since that was clearly indicated on the marina map and on the covered gangway where I eventually found out I was supposed to be.

Confusion aside, a little before four a very tanned younger guy came up and asked if I was Tristan, he then rounded up two young Danish girls as well before introducing himself as Jesse. He said he was skipper of the catamaran On Ice and gave us the amazing news that due to a booking snafu, we were the only 3 on what is normally a 10 passenger cruise. Suddenly that discount became the deal of a lifetime. We headed down into the packed Marina and met the deckhand/cook Craig who took our shoes (apparently the “shackles of civilization.”) The girls got an ensuite cabin (which I suspect they didn’t pay for as they’re travelling much like me) while I got my own cabin with a big queen bed and a mini bunk above with what was basically my own head right next door. The crew took the starboard cabins (often they just sleep on deck or on one of the mini bunks) so they were enjoying the sparseness of pax just as much as us. After a quick safety briefing we were underway.

The catamaran was gorgeous, gleaming white and functional yet with an air of unmistakable class. I wasn’t surprised to find out it had started life as a charter boat out of the millionaire’s resort on one of the islands. Apparently it’s had a few celebrity visitors in its time. All I really cared about was our steady progress out into the emerald green waters of the bay. For a while we put up the sails and went along on wind power, but the wind was so intermittent and erratic that eventually the skipper gave up. The engines weren’t loud though so it was still very peaceful. Even sailing out around Airlie Beach the water was very clear and you could often see a fish swimming up into the shallows. As with everywhere on the east coast now that it’s wintertime here the sun set quickly (but beautifully) and we were soon motoring out into the dark. We eventually moored near the lights of several other boats including the sister vessel of “on ice” the rather shockingly named Iceberg (i suppose that less of a bad luck thing in the southern hemisphere?.)

It turns out that Craig had trained as a chef once upon a time so dinner was tons better than I expected. BBQ grilled chicken with Tzaziki, a fresh salad and pesto noodles were the first night’s meal, absolutely delicious and massive portions. Not surprising I suppose as he’s used to cooking for 10+2 crew, but he said they always served a ton of food. The Danes (Signe and Stine) called it a night not long after dinner, knowing it would be a big day tomorrow, but I headed up to the front decking instead and had a gorgeous view of the stars, miles from the nearest streetlight. Beautiful view of the southern cross and many other constellations that are pretty unfamiliar. I’d just gone back to crack open another Cider and talk with the boys when we saw a zodiac tender coming over and Iceberg’s crew hopped on board for a drink (probably figuring by the lack of people on deck that the whole boat was asleep.) Turns out the guy skipping the Iceberg was named Tristram, one of the two brothers that own the company. Everyone was good fun and we all had a long chat before I finally gave in to the rocking of the boat and headed to bed.

I woke up a little after six with the crew, hoping to make the most of the daylight and the current tide conditions. Snagged a glass of orange juice as we waited rather impatiently for the girls. Given that they’d gone to bed at 9 at the latest they took their time getting up. Jesse had actually given up and was bringing the tender in to take me over to the hike start beach when they finally showed up on deck. All of them missed one of the most amazing sights of the entire trip though as looking over Jesse’s shoulder I saw a Dugong (the aussie sea cow I saw in the Sydney Aquarium) surface briefly, then throw his flippers up and dive when he saw all the boats around. Amazing, and a seriously rare treat according to Craig, even for those who frequently sail here. I don’t mean to sound like I’m annoyed with them, they were very nice and hey I like sleep too, I just didn’t go on the boat to sleep. I had a massive smile on my face as we hopped into the launch and headed to shore, passing a small sea turtle poking his head above water. By the time we got to the beach though the girls had delayed us enough that we were climbing the path to the lookout behind the entire party crew of a 32-person tall mast ship which was rather unfortunate, especially as they seemed to the world’s slowest walkers. We put on our shackles of civilization and headed uphill.

When we reached the Hill Inlet lookout it was worth it though. You get a gorgeous view down into a shallow inlet that just swirls with sand. It wasn’t the ideal combo of tide and sun to get the greatest of the patterns (do a quick GIS for Whitsunday Island and you’ll see what I mean) but it was still gorgeous. Adding to the wonder were the large number of clearly visible stingrays gliding around in the water hunting for the ghost of Steve Irwin. We were up reasonably high and we could clearly see their stings whipping around in the water… definitely don’t want to be on the business end of one. Stupidly enough we managed to time our exit from the lookout to end up right behind the slowpokes again, though this time in between two groups of them. I got to listen to the thrillingly inane conversation stylings of two Brit girls with that really annoying British valley girl thing going on. Instead of ending every sentence as a question (though they do that a lot too) they sort of sort of a singsong-dipthong thing with the middle of the last word of sentence while at the same time extending the middle syllable or vowel sound of the word to four or five times its appropriate length. As in: “Oh, I love that sh-ohhhhhOWWWWWW. So incredibly grating when she did it every sentence and didn’t stop chattering once for 15 minutes. After heading down to boat we cruised around the point and into the beach visible in the distance from the lookout where we tried out stand up paddle boarding (basically a big surfboard with a long canoelike paddle) which I was ok at, and Windsurfing which I continue to be absolute rubbish at.

After an excellent lunch we continued to cruise north up to the other big island in the chain known as Hook Island. Finally it was time for some snorkelling and we came around the corner into a nice sheltered cove called Manta Ray Bay. We all threw on our (soggy from earlier) wetsuits, it’s unfortunately still the tail end of stinger season and the last thing they want is for one of us to be hurt or killed by the nasty poisonous jellyfish. They’re also protection from some of the sharp bits of coral , though hopefully no one touched any. We were in the water almost immediately and surrounded by parrotfish from the instant we dropped below the dark green surface. Visibility was decent though apparently not as good it can be as they’ve had tons of rain lately. I’m not sure how long we swam around that bay, at least 90 minutes I’m guessing. Tons of parrot fish, angelfish, sandfish and many others I can’t remember of smaller varieties… we also saw several quite large grouper type fish, a small sea turtle and just before getting out a massive tuna. The girls went back to the boat before me, but eventually I hopped back on board and we went two bays down to Maureen’s Cove for another round. Both spots had the same types of fish in different concentrations all swimming over a gloriously colourful landscape of coral reef, sponges, clams and sea cucumbers. I’ll be posting some of the video taken with the underwater camera once I’m home and have some editing tools. After a while we were tired and I think Jesse guessed because he came back over on the inflatable raft, pulling himself along using an underwater scooter. We hopped on top and hung over the sides with our masks on. Laziest snorkelling ever, it was especially nice because we were able to get up speed and glide which let us sneak up on a few of the shyer fish.

Once we were back on the boat again we were all exhausted… paddle boarding, windsurfing two long snorkels and a lot of sun meant we were ready for a rest and some food. Unfortunately dinner wasn’t until we reached our mooring for the night which was still quite a ways away so all three of us curled up on the netting and relaxed in the sun with the sea streaming underneath us. I was unfortunately hobbling everywhere. I must have smacked the boarding ladder jumping off the boat because I felt some pain, but was too excited to really notice. It wasn’t until I got back on the boat the first time and it warmed up a bit that I realized I was in a fair amount of pain. My ankle was pretty quickly swollen with a tennis ball sized lump forming above it. I wasn’t going to let it keep me out of the water though so after some ice and elevation I was back in the water. Things weren’t helped by the fact that I sunburned the top of my feet from having them just above the water surface as I held them clear of the coral. Thankfully things were feeling much better by bed and by morning though it’s stiff I was able to walk semi normally, I won’t be hiking for a few days though. The guys were fairly concerned but I’m sure it’s ok, I do think I likely would have broken something had I not had the wetsuit on though.

That Night we moored at a snorkelling spot on the edge of Hayman Island, once a mega resort in the top 10 in the world. It’s still up there but not quite that high, but actually closed for the moment due to cyclone damage. It was getting close to sunset by the time we dropped anchor surround by a few private yachts and a bunch of other charter boats, these ones of the 28-35 person variety I had no interest in taking. They were every bit as loud and wild sounding as I expected. Our closest neighbour actually ended up being what looked like a pair of older couples blasting some Elvis as the sun set to the west. We ate a few nibblies with another gorgeous sunset as a backdrop. It wasn’t until it was dark that we heard some splashing between us and the elvis boat. Eventually we caught the occasional flick of a dorsal fin across the shimmer of their deck lights in the water. Craig figured the dolphin(s) were coming up to see the light. He went and grabbed a powerful torch and we began to shine it into the water. It took a while but eventually a small bottlenose dolphin that looked like a juvenile began to come almost but not quite into the beam then surface. He was a little nervous of the side of our hull, but got his nerve up eventually and came close enough for us to get a fantastic look at him both above and below the water. Eventually he got confident enough that he’d briefly surface in the light and look at us before flipping over and circling again. A magical way to end what was already one of the top five days of my life.

The next morning I was the first one up and I climbed up on deck to just enjoy the silence. No one else was stirring on any boat close to us and all I could hear was the slap of waves and the occasional creak of a bit of rigging in the wind. Eventually Jesse showed up and told me if I got into my wetsuit he’d give me the scooter and I could head over to the reef before any of the bigger boats got there. Sadly the damn thing’s battery must not have charged because it quit halfway in. He had to take me in on the launch instead, he knew I didn’t want to wait for the girls that morning. In the end I spent about 45 minutes on the reef before a group of girls came over from one of the biggies, all with floaties and half of them screaming when fish got close to them. Thankfully before they showed up and scared everything bigger off I saw a parrotfish that probably weighed as much as I do as well as 3 different Moray Eels looking absolutely evil but fascinating. I caught a short glimpse of a really big turtle in the distance but couldn’t catch up to him. Later, our second stop meant one last snorkel over a more open water reef. The girls didn’t want to go back in the water so they took the transparent lexan kayak out instead, but I wasn’t passing up the chance. Lots of colourful fish, tidal conditions weren’t as good though. I did get my other really rare spot though, a very furtive looking octopus (thankfully not the mega venomous blue ring one) briefly disturbed by a reef trout brushing by it scooted across and other a different rock. Sadly hopping back on the boat meant it was time to head back, but I must say it was nice to get out of the wetsuit for a while. I’ll be back in one for pool training starting Friday.

I can’t recommend the guys at Real Sail enough. Even had On Ice been full it would have been spacious and luxurious, we just got the bonus. All of the staff I dealt with were courteous and loads of fun, yet they all have a lot of respect for the island conservation area and everything that lives in it. I heartily recommend you head out with them if you’re in this neck of the woods, either on my two night trip or the one nighter on Iceberg if you have less time.

AA: Stranded in Rockhampton and Aftermath

1 May 2011

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Categories: Space, Travel

Ugh…

Big planning mistake yesterday has left me in a bit of a mess here in Rockhampton. Upon returning from Fraser Island last night the Friendly Hostel guy had asked me to let him know what time my bus out was the next day, since the office closed in 30 odd minutes I had to rush it a bit as I hadn’t booked it yet. I made the mistake of accepting my guidebook’s assertion that there were 6-7 Greyhounds leaving Rockhampton daily northbound without double checking and booked my way here expecting to stay one night then move on to Airlie Beach instead of doing a 12-15 hour bus ride. Unfortunately, that info wasn’t correct and there are only three per day… the one I came in on that arrives at 8pm and hit Airlie at 2am, and two others that leave in the middle of the night (12:30ish and 2ish I believe) that arrive in Airlie early in the morning. Combined with the fact that something must be happening in Rocky tonight since finding a hostel took me many attempts (and this place is a hole) meant that I barely made my deadline as is. Arriving in Rockhampton I had the delightful task of hoofing it to the hostel as well, I’ve been spoiled with the shuttles lately, I don’t think I’ve had to walk from the Bus Station since Newcastle. Having already booked into tonight’s hostel I was more or less stuck here, but I should really have stayed on tonight’s bus and then stayed up til morning I suppose. If I hadn’t been told how really wonderful sailing the Whitsundays is by at least 5 people I would honestly just skip it and go on to Townsville.

As I write this it’s about 10 on Friday night, lots of yobbos are revving their engines and yelling on the street outside. I had to laugh actually as not long ago when I was using the internet kiosk in the tiny tv lounge (no wi-fi) there were about 8 early to mid twenties guys watching the Royal Wedding with rapt attention. Not really the type I would expect to be doing so, but I guess they’re all/mostly Brits. As for me I’m now ensconced in my dingy room, still debating what to do come morning. I’m thinking I may bite the bullet and head over to Europcar or another rental place and see what a one way rental to Mackay or Airlie would cost me. Otherwise I’ll have wasted a full day, possibly even two as I won’t be able to check what’s available for sailing trips until the next day. Not to mention if I want to get in somewhere after 2:25AM to sleep I’ll be paying a premium for only a few short hours in the room. My only concern is of course that I haven’t driven in Australia yet, but between bus rides, walking and riding around with David for a week I think I’m about as prepped as I’ll get.

I won’t be posting this tonight since of course there’s no wifi, but I’m hoping tomorrow turns out to be a better day as my spirits are a bit low at the moment.

Yeah… that didn’t turn out so well… After a $15 cab ride to the airport I discovered that the rental car’s company had been lying and they had nothing left that wasn’t reserved (they could get it for me in 6 hours, by which time I might as well wait for the bus.) Deciding to suck it up, I sat at the airport and sponged off Qantas’ free lounge internet and did some searching. I eventually decided to try to sleep a bit on the bus and not waste an Airlie sized hostel fee on what remained of the night since I’d be arriving around 3 and by the time I dealt with the extra hassle of a late check-in I’d likely not be sleeping until 4. This meant that 3-7AM or so found me sitting on a park bench in Airlie’s downtown talking randomly to extremely drunk passersby, including some old dude that asked me five different times if I had any alcohol for him, and each time I said no telling me: “Good.. Iz a gateway drug.” Hilarious the first time, somewhat grating after the 3^rd… After an hour or two I began to see a bunch of girls (and a few guys) doing somewhat perfect examples of the old “walk of shame” as they made their way home furtively in cocktail dresses and ridiculous heels. Airlie Beach is another one of the party towns on the backpacker circuit here, though the culture does seem a little more varied than Byron. It turns out my chosen bench was actually not far from the Taxi pick up point and I was a little amazed to see a constant cab presence and a security guard there to direct people into cabs until about 5am.

I ended up reading an entire book under the street light as the night slowly passed, but at about 6am I headed across the street to McDonalds for some breakfast. Ended up skipping the OJ and having a coke to keep me awake for another couple hours as I waited for the hostel reception areas to open. Unfortunately for me, upon checking using Maccas free wifi I found that the hostel I’d planned to get a beachfront single at (so I could sleep during the day without interruption) it had filled up since last time I’d checked. After checking around I found what looked like a good option without going to the $200 a night places but unfortunately it had no reception hours. Breakfast finished, I walked down and waited outside for another hour or so before the woman showed up just before eight.

She was a lifesaver, no other word for it. Upon hearing my story she set me up with a room ready to check in and told me to go get some sleep. While I was there I noticed a set of brochures for the various sailing trips that head out into the Whitsundays from Airlie. I’d actually done a fair bit of boat research sitting in the Rockhampton airport the previous day and based upon that and some recommendations from friends I’d decided to do a catamaran trip amongst the islands. They give a smaller crowd and some more personal attention. Part of me wanted to go on one of the gorgeous old rigged ships, but many of them run with packed digs and because they’re slower you get less time on the islands themselves. I’d narrowed it down to a few boats, but had decided to wait and try to get a last minute deal since I’d timed my arrival in Airlie to sail Monday or Tuesday. Sitting there as she worked on my registration I noticed that one of the ones I’d scouted did in fact have a last minute deal on the sailing tomorrow, roughly $125 off. When I asked her about it she confirmed that they were a really good outfit to sail with so I asked her to book it. Amazingly enough she told me to go sleep and she’d look after it. When I checked back with her after my sleep she’d not only arranged it, she’d walked down to the office in person to make sure everything was confirmed for my place.

Upon heading into my room I found out that I’d actually gotten a self contained apartment with 2 queens and 1 single bed as well as a mini-kitchenette. A quick shower and a check of my email on the (free!!!) Wi-fi and I was out like a light at roughly 8AM. It was 1:30 before I woke… still tired but feeling a little more sane. After a quick trip to check if my trip was booked (she was on lunch break) I went and got some supplies for dinner and went to have a swim in the lagoon. Now that I’m in the tropics I actually have to worry about some of the other things in water (namely jellyfish here, though thankfully mostly out of season) so they have a massive beachfront swimming lagoon with some sand beaches. Once I was worn out I curled up in bed, caught up with a few of you back home and booked my other things through til Sunday so I won’t be having any more strandings for the next while.

I’m really looking forward to the sailing trip, the islands look absolutely gorgeous and it should be relaxing after the past few days. Assuming I go ahead with my plans for the dive course I want to do, I’ll spend over a week sailing around the coast between the two trips. I’ve always been a big age of sail buff and Captain Cook in particular has been an interest of mine forever. Sailing around some of the areas where he sailed in HM Bark Endeavour almost 250 years ago will be a dream come true. Oddly enough it comes just as Endeavour’s namesake and another fascination of mine, the Orbiter (Space Shuttle) Endeavour is about to leave on its last flight (though I noticed it was delayed.) Endeavour has always been my favourite of the space shuttles because of the Cook connection, but also because it replaced Challenger and as such meant the re-emergence of the space program.

In any case I’m going to throw the rest of my remaining photos up onto Facebook tonight since I’m sure I’ll have a massive chunk to upload once back from the boat. Thanks for all the comments on the blog updates, as much fun as I’ve been having I’m looking forward to seeing everyone soon and having a break for a few weeks once I’m home.

The European Adventure: Prologue

The Next Adventure

Antipodean Adventure: Back Home!

AA: home…

AA: Back Sydneyside…

AA: Don’t go chasing waterfalls.

AA: Great Barrier Reef and Cape Tribulation

AA: interlude

Antipodean Adventure: Dugong Good Time!

AA: Stranded in Rockhampton and Aftermath

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