End of the Road

From Fraser, Jordan and I headed south to Noosa, where we had two nights and one day of nice weather on the beach. I had to say farewell to Jordan in Noosa, but was glad we had the chance to travel the east coast together. It was a blast. Jordan and Matt are two great Canadians and 2 of the best mates I made in Australia. Godspeed in Thailand gentlemen, until Vegas.
Yesterday I arrived back in Sydney, where the adventure first began exactly 5 months ago today. It's a bit cooler since the last time I was here. They call it winter, but the jeans and sweater weather remind me of October in New York. Other than the weather, the city is the same, familiar place that I left a couple of months ago. Today I took my last stroll around the city and had my last $5 dollar steak at Scruffy Murphy's. Tonight I'll have the last pint at O'Malley's and be entertained by the legend that is Bo Bice for the final time. And, this will be the last entry to this blog. Tommorrow morning I head to the airport and catch a flight out of Australia.
Australia is an awesome country. The experiences gained from the sights, places, travels, and most of all, the people I have met, will be unforgettable. That being said, in the five months I have been here I feel that I have seen and done just about all that one can in OZ. I have travelled just about the entire country. In my travels I have met loads of backpackers who claim that they want to stay in Australia forever, and never go home. On the contrary, I'm ready to leave. I guess I can consider myself fortunate to have an appreciation for where I am from, and actually be happy to return there, because not everyone in this world can say the same. Australia has been a hell of a good time and adventure, but all good things must come to an end. I'm coming home.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island, just off the coast of southern Queensland, is the one of the largest sand islands in the world. It is home to many freshwater lakes, shipwrecks, huge sand dunes, whales, tropical rainforests, and dingoes. Jordan and I were put into a group along with seven other strangers, given our four-wheel drive, and we headed for the ferries. We camped out for two nights and spent about three days 4-wheeling around the island in our beat up old landcruiser, seeing the sights. The weather was great on our first day, ok on the second, and then didn't stop raining on our third, which was unfortunate. We camped with another "truckload" of backpackers and at night, the lot of about 20 of us had some pretty competitive flip cup games. Our weekend was made by two Korean guys in our group, whose names I won't even attempt to spell. They were super nice guys, very easy going, spoke little english, but were a blast to hang with. They're two main passions in life were to take pictures, and jump, often combining the two. We became pretty close with them over the past three days and on our last night in Hervey Bay, they, along with the two girls they were travelling with, cooked us a Korean dinner. We recipricated the favor with some jugs of beer at the bar. We arrived in Noosa today, which is a small beach community a couple hours north of Brisbane, and will be staying here for two nights.

Whit Sails the Sundays

On Friday afternoon we set out aboard the racing yacht, the 'Samuri,' to sail around the Whitsunday Islands. There are nearly a hundred of these islands, some small, some large, with blue-green waterways to navigate in between them. Our ship had four crew members; captain Ash, dive instuctor and 1st mate Benny, cook Wazza, and dishwasher Clement. Along with Jordan and I, there were 18 other passangers. After leaving the docks we sailed for about two hours north to Hayman island where we anchored off in one of the calmer bays. I slept outside on the deck the first night until about 5 am when I was awoken by the rain. That morning we spent swimming and snorkling around the island. The afternoon we sailed for about three hours to another island where we anchored off for the night once again. The booze began to flow at sundown and everyone had a pretty rowdy night aboard the Samuri. 'One Eye's' originally a BC tailgating event, played a large role in the night's activities. The next morning we all jumped overboard, in an attempt to relieve our hangovers, and spent the morning swimming, relaxing, and eating. We eventually got to sailing and made are way back to the docks in Airle at about 2 pm. Overall, we had a blast. The boat itself was a bit beat up, but we had a fun bunch of people, which always seems to be the most important part.

Magnetic Island

Jordan and I left Cairns on a greyhound bus and our first stop was Mission Beach. The town of Mission Beach was very small, and as we learned the hard way, doesn't sell any type of food after nine pm. We stayed for two nights, but the weather was crap the entire time so we were happy to move on. Our second stop was Townsville, where we took a ferry over to Magnetic Island. For the first time in a while, we had great weather on the island. Magnetic Island is home to many secluded bays and beaches, and we visited nearly all of them. We spent the two days hiking the island, and also did some snorkling at one of the bays. The place is pretty quiet at night, except for the Wednesday night Toad Races. Locals, backbackers, grandparents and children were all in attendance for the weekly event at Magnums on Wednesday night. Bascially, this old aussie bloke auctions off about 8-9 toads, each going anywhere from 25 - 60 bucks per toad. Once all the toads are bought, and the pot is set, they're put in the middle of a chalk-line cirlce and to the roar of the crowd, they race to be the first toad out side the circle. Owner of the winning toad takes the pot. Good Times.
We arrived in Airle Beach last night, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and met up with Danny,(England) and Chris, (Switzerland), two friends I've been running into the last few weeks. In three hours we'll board a sailing ship, along with 20 other backpackers and four crew members and spend the next three days/two nights on the 'Samuri', sailing the islands.

Cairns, Cape Trib, and the Great Barrier Reef

Allthough it's currently the dry season, the weather in Cairns hasn't been the greatest. I spent one day snorkling the Great Barrier Reef which has been the best snorkling I have done while in Australia. I spent two days/one night up in Cape Tribulation which is about two hours north of Cairns. The Cape is basically one big rainforrest surrounded by beaches and water. However, it rained most of the time I was up there so it wasn't exactly as pretty as the postcards make it out to be. Cairns is currently packed to the brim with all sorts of travellers and backpackers. There's more travel agents and tour bookings here than I have seen in the entire state of Western Australia. It's a bit overwhelming really. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Mike Dean (brother of Doug) and his good mate, and long-time DFC veteran, Dave. We caught up over some Pizza and Goon (cheap, boxed wine). They took off the following morning for Brisbane. At night our group would usually scramble around town seeking out the free meals, and most of the time wound up at the backpacker bar, the Woolshed. The Woolshed hosts goldfish races a couple of nights a week, in which there about 8-9 fish, all of different "nationallities", in which pub goers can bet on thier favorite fish. I found myself knowing the names of all the goldfish, thier descriptions, and racing records, before they were even announced. That's about when I realized that it was time to leave Cairns.
Tonight my Canadian friend Jordan arrives and in the next day or two we'll be heading south down the coast.

From Alice to Cairns

The trip from Alice springs, through the outback to Cairns took us three days, two nights. One night we stayed at a working cattle station. The most important thing to remember at the cattle station was to close the gate behind you so that the baby kangaroos that freely hopped around wouldn't get out and get eaten by dingos. The second night we stayed in a small outback town. The one pub in town was crowded that night due to an intense rugby match between Queensland and New South Wales. Queensland won in the last ten minutes of the game so the pub goers were happy. We spent alot of time on the bus, but we had a pretty good group and we stayed entertained. We gradually left the dessert-like plains and as we reached the great dividing range, the scenery began to change to mountainous rain forrest. The coast of Northern Queensland is where the rainforrest meets the beach, and is also the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Cyclone Larry hit here about three months ago but many of the farm houses and landscape still remain damaged. Cairns is the largest town/city I have been to in a while. It's full of the typical east coast backpackers, hostels, etc. I met up with both Jenny and Mike once again, among others. Last night we went out for Mike's 21st birthday. I feel old.

The Red Center

After a wild weekend in Darwin, I left and headed south for the outback on Tuesday, June 26th. I have learned that the hardest part of travelling is leaving behind friends that you have made. In Darwin I had to say goodbye to some great people that I had met all the way down the west coast over a month ago and have traveled thousands of kilometers with since. Jenny, Mike, Yanika, Phil, the Irish lads, and others. In Australia however, there's always the chance of meeting again. Our trip from Darwin to Alice springs was about 1800 kms, mostly of driving because there isn't too much to see along the way. We made a stop at Daly Waters Pub, the oldest in the Northern Territory, as well as Devil's Marbles. The trip took two nights, three days. Our nights consisted of big group dinners, a beer or two, and a night in a tent or under the stars in a swag, which is bascially the Aussie version of a sleepingbag, but better. We eventually made it to Alice Springs, which is more or less in the middle of Australia, and no where. The next day it was off to the red center for 3.5 days to see Kings Canyon, Ayers Rock, and the Olgas. Yulara is the name of the town which all of these attractions are sort of situated around and is the 4th biggest town/city in the Northern Territory, with a population of 3500 people. Islip's population is about 21,000. The following three days we really roughed it. Our group was about 12-13 people, with our tour guide, Spinner. We were up before Sunrise each morning and slept outside in our swags each night while the fire burned down. We cooked all our meals, and did a decent amount of hiking at all our destinations. And, I learned, that the Dessert gets cold at night. At night and in the early mornings it dropped down to tempatures of around 30 degrees. The whole expereience was pretty exhausting, but rewarding nonetheless. I haven't seen the east coast since Sydney but tommorrow morning I set out for Cairns.