I just got back from my day boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns and it was AMAZING!!!! Before I go on about that though, I'll backtrack to yesterday's interesting travels aboard the Tilt Train.
At 7:10 yesterday morning a shuttle bus picked me up in Airlie beach just down the road from the hostel I was staying at and took me out to the Proserpine train station for my trip up to Cairns. The day before I was scrambling to figure out a way to Proserpine since it's a 30 min drive from Airlie and ended up submitting a request for a shuttle with the details of my train departure the following day at 8:30. They replied back confirming my bus and telling me a pickup time of 7:10 which made me wonder how many stops we were doing on the way since that's kind of early for an 8:30 train. So how many stops did we make you ask..... Zero!!! My driver seemed to be on a mission as he sped the whole way and got me to the station at around 7:35. I wasn't exactly pleased when I found out that the Proserpine terminal is simply a small office with a concrete platform and small overhanging roof. Anyways, I waited, and waited, and waited and was wondering if the train was even going to show, until it showed up at 10:00 with a simple apology for "delays on the tracks". Well it turns out that delays are common on our route as we stopped 3 more times in random locations for about 30 minutes at a time and in turn didn't get to Cairns until very late last night. The scenery was neat at times but for the most part we just passed through farming fields or forests.
This morning was another early one as I had to be on our boat for 7:30 and had booked my hostel online not realizing its a good 20 minute walk from the harbour here in town. Our boat, the "Ocean Free," was a 3 level motor boat that took us straight out into the ocean and got us to our first snorkeling point in a random mooring site. The coral was unbelievable and the fish much bigger than those in the Whitsundays which made this trip a more visual pleasing underwater experience. We next hopped onto a neighbouring boat moored in the middle of nowhere which I found kind of funny, and went on a short ride in what turned out to be a glass-bottom boat. It was very similar to scuba diving, only we saw a lot more things in a shorter amount of time. My favourite on the boat tour was this massive clam that had to have been at least 3 feet wide, it almost looked fake when we first went overtop of it.
Next we hopped back onto the Ocean Free and went out to a caye, once again in the middle of nowhere and lounged around/snorkeled for another couple hours. The caye was really neat, basically a 50 ft x 50 ft white sand beach about 20 km away from shore which only appears when the tide is low in the afternoon. I got some cool pics but will have to find a computer where I can upload them, I have trouble finding computers that read memory cards here. I did my final snorkel of my trip and ended up finding a sea turtle sitting in a bed of coral, which it turns out noone else was able to find. The turtle was pretty deep and dove a few times to get pictures but the combo of strong current and deep, darker water made it hard to get good ones. After jumping back on the boat we went straight back to the harbour and reached the docks around 4:30. This gave me enough time to walk around Cairns, which is not as big a town as I thought it was but is picturesquely placed between a set of huge mountains and borders a river that runs inland. When I first realized that I had only planned a single full day here I was a little disappointed but now realize it worked out well since I've seen everything I wanted to and am ready to move on to other sights.
Tomorrow morning I have a very early flight to Ayers Rock and need to catch a 4:50 shuttle to the airport. This will be my 3rd early morning and I'm slowly starting to see my body catching up to the lack of sleep since it's hard to get yourself to bed early when you're in a country with so many things to see. Either way I'm excited for the next 2 days at Ayers rock since all the tour books I read made the point of claiming it to be a must-see on the list of places to visit in Australia. After my 2 days at the rock I head down to Melbourne for my longest stay in a single city and then I rent a car to drive the Great Ocean Road (the thing I've most been looking forward too). I've been keeping tabs on driving here since I'm going to be behind a wheel in a week and will need to adjust to the fact that they drive on the left side of the road. Should be interesting!!!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
No Pictures.....
I've had 2 computers crash on me in the last 15 minutes and this 3rd one keeps locking up whenever I put in my memory cards. Sorry, no pics today, I'll try again maybe when I get to Cairns tomorrow.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Whitsundays
Funny moment of the day: I just walked into this internet cafe right now and asked the lady working here where the closest washroom is, all I got was a confused look and "a what????" I apparently still have to figure out some lingo down here, they call it the "toilet" which I guess is the proper term....
The past two days have been amazing so say the least. On Saturday I woke up very upset because it was pouring out and I was supposed to be boarding our boat in the afternoon for the next 3 days. Apparently the weather out here mimicks that of Halifax in that it changes quicker than you can keep up with. By the time I had finished showering from my run, the sky was completely cleared and I'm sure the temp had reached 30.
I checked out of my hostel for the night and put my large backpack into storage since you're only allowed a small bag on the boat and wandered over to the neighbouring harbour where we were set to leave at 12:30. Since the time I arrived at Airlie Beach on Friday and the day we left on Saturday another 10 people signed up, bringing our total number to 25 people. A total of 4 crew were onboard with us and we set sail in a boat that I'm still trying to figure out what to call. It was a cross between a huge catamaran and a powerboat but most of the people referred to it as a sailboat.
Our first stop was near one of the Whitsunday Island lagoons where I had my first go at Scuba Diving!! They broke us up into groups and of course I was the only one in my group who had never dived before and every practice procedure we did in waist-deep water took me twice as long as everyone else. Once we finally got into deep water it really was an amazing experience, the combination of being completely weightless and surrounded by coral and fish was like nothing I've ever done. Dad had loaned me his new underwater camera (thanks dad!!) but I was reluctant to take it along since we went down to about 12 metres and it was only certified safe to 10 metres. Kind of a bummer, I was hoping to get some cool pics of the deep ocean.
That evening we sailed to another Island (I can't keep track of all their names) and anchored for the night after cooking up a huge BBQ dinner onboard which I never thought was possible with being limited to a boat. The food during the entire trip was amazing and they had a full kitchen where 1 of the crew spent the whole time cooking for us. After dinner they played a slideshow of all the day's pictures on a projector and afterwards showed us the movie Sharkwater to "calm us down" in case we encountered a shark in the upcoming days. It ended up being a completely clear evening and we got a neat view of the moon and stars, which were completely different to those we see in the Northern hemisphere.
The next day we sailed to Whitehaven Beach which has the finest sand in the world, 97% silica, and feels so different from any other beaches I've been to. The crew told us that due its pure properties, NASA would take the sand to help build its spacecrafts but after much debate the beach became a protected park preventing them from using the sand for any more projects. We arrived in the morning which is high tide and therefore most of the sand was submerged, but when we left 2 hours later, a section of the beach was above water for a good 500 metres. The coolest part was when we walked into the waters of the beach manta rays would swim around and didn't seem to mind us there.
In the afternoon we went to another lagoon for more diving and snorkeling and ended up seeing a turtle hanging out in the shallow waters. We could swim right up to it and come within inches but were obviously told not to touch it. I got a few neat pictures with my camera but realize now I'm on a computer that doesn't read memory cards, I'll upload some pics later today if I get a chance on another computer. The evening we spent watching another slideshow of the days pictures and everyone passed out pretty quickly from the heat and all the stuff we did that day.
Today we got up before the sun came up (which you can imagine not alot of people were happy about) and had our last snorkel which wasn't great because the water was really silty. After a quick breakfast, we set sail for the harbour and had complete sunshine the entire way back which was amazing as we all sprawled out on the main deck. I just checked into a different hostel for the night and am meeting up with everyone after since there is a traditional boating afterparty here in town.
I expected the majority of the boats passengers to be American but was amazed to find myslef the only North American!! One other guy claimed to Canadian but he has lived in South Africa his entire life and just recently moved to Vancouver in the past year. Everyone else were European and a few local Australians tagged along. Before boarding the boat on Saturday I felt a little out of place going on a 2 night cruise on my own but discovered that pretty much half the people were in the same boat (ha, get it!!) and were travelling around on their own too so I learned a few tips on where to go in Melbourne and Sydney.
I found it interesting on the boat that morning and afternoon tea were a regular meals and I was the only one that wasn't a regular tea drinker. I was also introduced to Vegimite, a spread you put on toast that's made from yeast. I was expecting something sweet but found it to be VERY salty and don't have clue why anyone would want to eat it.
Tomorrow I catch a bus early to the local train station and take a full day ride up to Cairns where I'll do a day trip to the outer reef for more snorkelling. I'm really hoping the weather holds up, but am not going to expect it too since it apparently has been raining non-stop there for the past 2 weeks......
I'll try to get on a different computer later on but if not then I'll upload some pics tomorrow.
All for now, Cheers (a new expression I've picked up that means everything from "hello" to "thanks" to "goodbye")
The past two days have been amazing so say the least. On Saturday I woke up very upset because it was pouring out and I was supposed to be boarding our boat in the afternoon for the next 3 days. Apparently the weather out here mimicks that of Halifax in that it changes quicker than you can keep up with. By the time I had finished showering from my run, the sky was completely cleared and I'm sure the temp had reached 30.
I checked out of my hostel for the night and put my large backpack into storage since you're only allowed a small bag on the boat and wandered over to the neighbouring harbour where we were set to leave at 12:30. Since the time I arrived at Airlie Beach on Friday and the day we left on Saturday another 10 people signed up, bringing our total number to 25 people. A total of 4 crew were onboard with us and we set sail in a boat that I'm still trying to figure out what to call. It was a cross between a huge catamaran and a powerboat but most of the people referred to it as a sailboat.
Our first stop was near one of the Whitsunday Island lagoons where I had my first go at Scuba Diving!! They broke us up into groups and of course I was the only one in my group who had never dived before and every practice procedure we did in waist-deep water took me twice as long as everyone else. Once we finally got into deep water it really was an amazing experience, the combination of being completely weightless and surrounded by coral and fish was like nothing I've ever done. Dad had loaned me his new underwater camera (thanks dad!!) but I was reluctant to take it along since we went down to about 12 metres and it was only certified safe to 10 metres. Kind of a bummer, I was hoping to get some cool pics of the deep ocean.
That evening we sailed to another Island (I can't keep track of all their names) and anchored for the night after cooking up a huge BBQ dinner onboard which I never thought was possible with being limited to a boat. The food during the entire trip was amazing and they had a full kitchen where 1 of the crew spent the whole time cooking for us. After dinner they played a slideshow of all the day's pictures on a projector and afterwards showed us the movie Sharkwater to "calm us down" in case we encountered a shark in the upcoming days. It ended up being a completely clear evening and we got a neat view of the moon and stars, which were completely different to those we see in the Northern hemisphere.
The next day we sailed to Whitehaven Beach which has the finest sand in the world, 97% silica, and feels so different from any other beaches I've been to. The crew told us that due its pure properties, NASA would take the sand to help build its spacecrafts but after much debate the beach became a protected park preventing them from using the sand for any more projects. We arrived in the morning which is high tide and therefore most of the sand was submerged, but when we left 2 hours later, a section of the beach was above water for a good 500 metres. The coolest part was when we walked into the waters of the beach manta rays would swim around and didn't seem to mind us there.
In the afternoon we went to another lagoon for more diving and snorkeling and ended up seeing a turtle hanging out in the shallow waters. We could swim right up to it and come within inches but were obviously told not to touch it. I got a few neat pictures with my camera but realize now I'm on a computer that doesn't read memory cards, I'll upload some pics later today if I get a chance on another computer. The evening we spent watching another slideshow of the days pictures and everyone passed out pretty quickly from the heat and all the stuff we did that day.
Today we got up before the sun came up (which you can imagine not alot of people were happy about) and had our last snorkel which wasn't great because the water was really silty. After a quick breakfast, we set sail for the harbour and had complete sunshine the entire way back which was amazing as we all sprawled out on the main deck. I just checked into a different hostel for the night and am meeting up with everyone after since there is a traditional boating afterparty here in town.
I expected the majority of the boats passengers to be American but was amazed to find myslef the only North American!! One other guy claimed to Canadian but he has lived in South Africa his entire life and just recently moved to Vancouver in the past year. Everyone else were European and a few local Australians tagged along. Before boarding the boat on Saturday I felt a little out of place going on a 2 night cruise on my own but discovered that pretty much half the people were in the same boat (ha, get it!!) and were travelling around on their own too so I learned a few tips on where to go in Melbourne and Sydney.
I found it interesting on the boat that morning and afternoon tea were a regular meals and I was the only one that wasn't a regular tea drinker. I was also introduced to Vegimite, a spread you put on toast that's made from yeast. I was expecting something sweet but found it to be VERY salty and don't have clue why anyone would want to eat it.
Tomorrow I catch a bus early to the local train station and take a full day ride up to Cairns where I'll do a day trip to the outer reef for more snorkelling. I'm really hoping the weather holds up, but am not going to expect it too since it apparently has been raining non-stop there for the past 2 weeks......
I'll try to get on a different computer later on but if not then I'll upload some pics tomorrow.
All for now, Cheers (a new expression I've picked up that means everything from "hello" to "thanks" to "goodbye")
Friday, April 23, 2010
Airlie Beach
This morning I caught the shuttle bus again back to the airport for my flight to Hamilton Island, one of the 70ish islands that make up the Whitsunday Islands. Almost all of the islands used to be volcanoes at some point and have now grown into lush tropical islands that were amazing from the air and equally as impressive when we finally landed.
Getting off the plane (the only pic that turned out this morning...)
The Hamilton Island airport was extremely small and only services a handful of flights each day, and when looking for accomodations right on the island I was shocked at how expensive each place was. Large hotel companies have bought up shares of land and built either grand hotels or very ritzy cabins which I found started around 350 per night. On to plan B..... A ferry operates from the airport terminal and took us into a town called Airlie beach that has become very commercialized due to its proximity to the islands. The town is pretty much a main street with shops offering boat tours to the reef and islands, along with some surfwear stores with ridiculously priced clothing.
I checked into a place called Magnums backpackers and is pretty neat being situated a short walk away from the busy road in a rainforest style setting. The rest of the afternoon I spent on the small beach in town trying to get back into reading mode since its been a few years since I conquered a novel. The temperature was perfect-around 26-but the overcast skies didn't exactly make it beach weather which meant I was one of the few actually at the beach. I grabbed a dinner at a local bakery and am going to call it quits now at 7:00 pm (technically 5 am hometime). I thought I'd be able to make to at least 10 tonight but have no real desire to stay up since the town is sparse when it comes to sightseeing.
Tomorrow I'm booked on a 2 night island tour which begins in the afternoon and takes us to Whithaven beach on Whitsunday Island. When I was booking the tour, the lady at the desk told me that National Geographic ranked Whithaven as the best beack in the world so I'm expecting great things. The weather sounds like it might be cloudy again tomorrow so it kind of takes away from the beach effect but nonetheless there's snorkelling and island walks happening the following day. The two nights are spend on a boat that sleeps 25 and has everything from showers to a full kitchen, sounds interesting but I've heard some of the boats are far from clean, as long as the beds are ok, I'm fine.
After getting back from the tour on Monday, I get ready to catch an early morning train to Cairns on Tuesday and have only 1 day in the city before heading to the outback for 2 days at Ayers Rock. When I was booking the boat tour the same lady also told me the train I'm on doesn't run on the coast like I thought it did so I should be prepared for a long day of trees, trees and more trees. I wanted to at some point take a train through part of Australia and this seemed like the shortest and most reasonable option but hopefully I won't be regretting it.
My first post I was at a computer that didn't read memory cards so I couldn't upload any pics. I tried to upload multiple ones but it's taking too long so here's my cheesy pic of the day: me covering up half the Opera House with my head (didn't realize this until now).
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Flights Flights And More Flights!!!!
So it's official I have now been to a completely different continent and love it. I landed this morning at 8:15 in Sydney and have had a few hours to tour around and see the basics of the city. It may sound all fine and dandy, but getting here was quite the process and it started 2 days ago.
I began my travels on Tuesday afternoon where I spent the morning at home doing last minute bookings and making sure I had everything I'd need for the 3.5 weeks ahead of me. I got on a flight to Ottawa originally and had to take this route to Vancouver because of people rerouting their flights in an attempt to avoid the volcanic ash situation in Iceland. I made it to Ottawa and had some doubts about the 2nd flight to Vancouver since there was an increasing standby list with myself on it and limited open seats. Turns out I got the 2nd last seat on the plane and was sure that from there on in, things were a go!!
Arriving in Vancouver I had 4 hours to kill and didn't exactly want to spend it sitting in a terminal since I had sat for the last 5 hours I hopped on the skytrain and went to downtown Van. It actually hadn't really hit me until I was sitting on the train that the Olympics had just finished 2 months prior so it turned out to be the perfect opportunity to see any changes to the city since visiting last summer. I made my way to the Olympic Cauldron and was shocked to find noone in sight, a very eerie feeling. Two months ago, the city had to put up security fences to keep the mobs of people from getting too close and now not a soul was around to enjoy its amazing craftsmanship. I snapped a few photo's of the Cauldron and walked around a bit more ending up at an amazing crepe place which would give the Halifax market a run for its money. I returned to the airport a little while later and got ready for the last leg of my travels.
The Vancouver airport after about 11:00 turns into a ghosttown since no domestic flights are able to take off or land after that time. Walking through a poorly lit terminal (saving on their electricity bill I suppose) and not seeing a single person until you get to your gate is a very strange feeling. I felt like I was doing something wrong or in a forbidden place but of course it was just due to the lack of flight traffic at that late an hour. I boarded the plane and was able to get myself the centre 3 seats on the plane all to myself (an indescribably blessing!!!) The flight was weird because we took off on the evening of the 20th and flew the whole time in complete darkness only to arrive as the sun was coming up on the 22nd. I lay down the best I could over the 3 seats and surprisingly got almost a full nights sleep waking up only a few times to a limb that had gone numb from the awkward position or the positioning of the spare seatbelts. Both dinner and breakfast were served, and Dad I now understand why you bring your own meals to work now. Blechh!!! It's been awhile since I was on an international flight that served meals and they were nothing to boast about.
After landing and getting the plane fumigated for any foreign diseases (with the passengers onboard nonetheless....) we went through a very relaxed security checkpoint with more dogs on site I think than people. They had dogs climbing all over the carousels sniffing bags and walking amongst the crowds of people and I could tell a few passengers were a little uneasy. The best way to get downtown I found is taking a shuttle bus which is surprisingly cheaper than the public train and quicker too. I checked into my small hotel which is probably the plainest room I've ever been in and have spent the past couple hours walking around the city. My plans are to stay in hostels the majority of the time here but knowing that my internal clock would be quirky the first day here I found a very cheap hotel which now allows me to go back for a nap with no disturbance.
Tomorrow I fly out to an island airport by the Barrier Reef and am spending 3 days doing some snorkeling tours and island excursions. I've read that it's best to book both last minute as the prices drop and am hoping this is true and not that I end up missing all the booked boat tours. Not too sure if there is going to be internet where I'm staying as it is very much a beach town with a couple hostels and a grocery tour. If I don't have access there, then definitely in Cairns where I'm taking a train on the 27th that will take the entire day but is apparently quite an amazing ride.
Anyways, time for bed this jetlag is just killing me!!!
I began my travels on Tuesday afternoon where I spent the morning at home doing last minute bookings and making sure I had everything I'd need for the 3.5 weeks ahead of me. I got on a flight to Ottawa originally and had to take this route to Vancouver because of people rerouting their flights in an attempt to avoid the volcanic ash situation in Iceland. I made it to Ottawa and had some doubts about the 2nd flight to Vancouver since there was an increasing standby list with myself on it and limited open seats. Turns out I got the 2nd last seat on the plane and was sure that from there on in, things were a go!!
Arriving in Vancouver I had 4 hours to kill and didn't exactly want to spend it sitting in a terminal since I had sat for the last 5 hours I hopped on the skytrain and went to downtown Van. It actually hadn't really hit me until I was sitting on the train that the Olympics had just finished 2 months prior so it turned out to be the perfect opportunity to see any changes to the city since visiting last summer. I made my way to the Olympic Cauldron and was shocked to find noone in sight, a very eerie feeling. Two months ago, the city had to put up security fences to keep the mobs of people from getting too close and now not a soul was around to enjoy its amazing craftsmanship. I snapped a few photo's of the Cauldron and walked around a bit more ending up at an amazing crepe place which would give the Halifax market a run for its money. I returned to the airport a little while later and got ready for the last leg of my travels.
The Vancouver airport after about 11:00 turns into a ghosttown since no domestic flights are able to take off or land after that time. Walking through a poorly lit terminal (saving on their electricity bill I suppose) and not seeing a single person until you get to your gate is a very strange feeling. I felt like I was doing something wrong or in a forbidden place but of course it was just due to the lack of flight traffic at that late an hour. I boarded the plane and was able to get myself the centre 3 seats on the plane all to myself (an indescribably blessing!!!) The flight was weird because we took off on the evening of the 20th and flew the whole time in complete darkness only to arrive as the sun was coming up on the 22nd. I lay down the best I could over the 3 seats and surprisingly got almost a full nights sleep waking up only a few times to a limb that had gone numb from the awkward position or the positioning of the spare seatbelts. Both dinner and breakfast were served, and Dad I now understand why you bring your own meals to work now. Blechh!!! It's been awhile since I was on an international flight that served meals and they were nothing to boast about.
After landing and getting the plane fumigated for any foreign diseases (with the passengers onboard nonetheless....) we went through a very relaxed security checkpoint with more dogs on site I think than people. They had dogs climbing all over the carousels sniffing bags and walking amongst the crowds of people and I could tell a few passengers were a little uneasy. The best way to get downtown I found is taking a shuttle bus which is surprisingly cheaper than the public train and quicker too. I checked into my small hotel which is probably the plainest room I've ever been in and have spent the past couple hours walking around the city. My plans are to stay in hostels the majority of the time here but knowing that my internal clock would be quirky the first day here I found a very cheap hotel which now allows me to go back for a nap with no disturbance.
Tomorrow I fly out to an island airport by the Barrier Reef and am spending 3 days doing some snorkeling tours and island excursions. I've read that it's best to book both last minute as the prices drop and am hoping this is true and not that I end up missing all the booked boat tours. Not too sure if there is going to be internet where I'm staying as it is very much a beach town with a couple hostels and a grocery tour. If I don't have access there, then definitely in Cairns where I'm taking a train on the 27th that will take the entire day but is apparently quite an amazing ride.
Anyways, time for bed this jetlag is just killing me!!!
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