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From
Australia Zoo we flew up to Brampton Island, a tropical paradise just
south of the Whitsundays. We spent four nights here and neither of us
could have imaged that we would enjoy a beach resort like we did. We have
never felt so worn out trying to relax! Then again it might have had
something to do with the numerous hours of snorkeling, sailing Catamarans,
trying diving for the first time, playing golf and walking around the
island to find isolated beaches that were just heaven on earth! The food
was incredible, the views were stunning and the marine life we saw was
amazing.
Other
than snorkeling around Coral Gardens, Bombies and natural Island channels
and all the spectacular fish we saw, we also came across Flying Foxes
(Bats) in the forest around the chalets that flew around the island at
sunset. Kangaroos joined us on the golf course each evening after the sun
had gone down and whilst we were diving we came across a huge Maori Wrasse
and a Potato Cod that was in excess of four feet in length and two feet
high! Spiders galore in the forests and Curlews that had the greatest
sense of humour and curiosity!
We also
managed to get a helicopter ride back to Australia at the end of our four
days, rather than take the boat again!
After
Brampton Island we headed up to Cairns. We were advised not to go to The
Reef from Cairns, as more than fifty boats a day go out of Cairns and can
hold up to three hundred people on each! So we booked a day out to a
place called Kuranda before heading up to Cape Tribulation and Port
Douglas, in Far north Queensland.
Before
we took a Skyrail over the rainforest to Kuranda, we visited the
Aboriginal Cultural Centre of Tjapukai. Here we saw some traditional
dancing and music, including playing the didgeridoo, learnt about real
"bush tucker" and had a go at throwing spears and boomerangs! Angela was
far more successful at spear throwing than I was, but even the Aborigines
were impressed by my boomerang throwing, after sailing out over about
sixty metres it returned right to me! When asked what tribe I was from, I
casually replied, "Zulu!"
Kuranda
is a rainforest village and to get there we took the Skyrail, a five mile
long cable-car over the rainforest canopy. There are only thirty-two
towers with the highest being forty metres above the ground, so imagine
the gap between some of the towers, however the views are spectacular!
The
village itself has loads of different attractions, but what appealed to us
the most was the Australia Venom Zoo, which houses many of Australia's
most venomous spiders, scorpions and centipedes, with snakes due to arrive
shortly! Many of the creatures we were shown have no anti-venom yet, so
you have to ride out the extremely painful effects of the bite, which
apparently can last anything up to twelve days!
We
returned from Kuranda by the scenic railway, which is also a journey worth
taking through the rainforest and past a beautiful waterfall at Barron
Falls.
The
following day we headed off to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree
Rainforest, stopping at Mossman Gorge on the way. Mossman Gorge was a
beautiful place, with hundreds of boulders exposed due to the low water,
but still enough to swim in if you wanted and plenty of fish and turtles
swimming around you. It was great to find a secluded spot where we just
sat and ate lunch watching the fish, turtles and iguanas.
Daintree Forest is one of the oldest rainforests in the world, some people
believing that it is over one hundred million years old, much older then
The Amazon! It is a World Heritage Site and is unique in the fact that it
is located right next to another World Heritage Site, The Great Barrier
Reef.
Our
room at Cape Tribulation was in the rainforest, but we walked less than a
hundred metres from our cabin and we were on the beach, looking out onto
the reef. What was even funnier was, although slow, the bar on the
beach/in the rainforest had an internet cafe! The Daintree Rainforest was
beautiful and we really didn't have enough time to do it justice, but we
did find the Daintree Fern, which is endemic to this rainforest. It was
very different to any of the other ferns we had seen, both here and in The
Amazon.
Onto
The Great Barrier Reef, we were lucky enough to go out to the reef from
both Cape Tribulation on a boat called The Rum Runner and from Port
Douglas with a company called Calypso. Both days were awesome and there
was way too much to mention but I will try and describe how we felt about
one of the natural wonders of the world:
Imagine
the most intricate, detailed and spectacular graffiti artist design
incorporating the most brilliant colours you have ever seen, then make it
3D, you can now start to imagine what the Great Barrier Reef looks like.
Then
take the darkest night you have ever seen, when there is no moonlight.
The stars seem so close that you think can touch them and they sparkle as
bright as you have ever seen. Turn them into a mixture of little and big
stars, add vivid fluorescent colours and make them swim around your head.
That is what the fish are like.
I
finally fulfilled a life-long dream to dive at The Great Barrier Reef.
For those of you who have never dived, it is like being weightless,
suspended in the water, if you don't kick your legs you just float there,
just like a fish and if you don't move the fish ignore you and literally
swim all around you! It was one of the most awesome experiences of my
trip so far.
After
one more night in Cairns, we flew to Uluru, otherwise known as Ayers
Rock. Uluru has a circumference of 9.4 kilometres and is 348 metres
high! Opposite Uluru you have Kata Tjuta, otherwise known as The Olgas
(Or Homer Simpson lying down!) which has 36 peaks and is 546 metres high.
Both of these places are sacred to the Anangu people. It is true what
people say, Uluru does change colour throughout the day, according to the
cloud cover and sunlight as we had an awesome view of her from our room
and saw her in many different lights.
Our
first morning we got up at 4:14am to go and watch the sunrise at Uluru
after which we walked around about a third of it before giving up! We did
have a valid excuse! Angela got a kidney infection in Cairns and was on
anti-biotics for ten days so couldn't walk far due to the side effects.
We also respected the wishes of the Anangu people who do not want you to
climb Uluru.
Our
last evening was spent at a "Sounds Of Silence" dinner under the stars.
Firstly you watch the sunset over Kata Tjuta and then have all the Aussie
food, beer and wine you can consume! Did I mention Angela was on
anti-biotics? Hohoho! When everyone has finished eating the lights are
extinguished and you are taken on a journey through the stars, which
capped a perfect evening.
After
lying in bed and watching the sunrise over Uluru we caught a plane to
Alice springs. Did someone say Alice? Alice? Who the ....?
The
13th December was mummy Barratt's birthday and we spent it at Bojangles
Saloon. They have a live radio and internet broadcast from here, complete
with goodness knows how many webcams! You can also allegedly buy your
friends a drink over the internet, but their system crashed, although we
did get a couple of messages from some of our mates! The DJ also put me
live on the radio, so he could call my dad a tight git for only sending
AUS $10! Still, at least my dad tried to buy us a beer! Thanks to the
other six guys who also tried, Steve W, Steve A-L, Jez, Gary, Andrew and
Dean. So, after a couple of locals decided to have a fight right in front
of us and we laughed at some extremely young backpackers trying to seduce
the opposite sex with some "dancing" we fell out of the pub to go home.
Well, truth be told, we were the only ones left and they were trying to
close!
The following morning we
walked round the town and after that five minute tour we went to watch
King Kong! Three hours later we emerged from the cinema and headed off to
the airport to catch our next plane to Adelaide! |