Cruisin' the Stormy Seas in the Whitsundays

Last Tuesday our bus arrived at Airlie Beach, Australia. The town is quite accurately named - it consists of a handful of hostels, restaurants, travel agencies, and about 500 meters of beach. Besides that, there's nothing. The town doesn't offer too much beyond a good night life (all the backpackers coming in make for a very good bar scene). However, Airlie Beach's real claim to fame is as a stepping point to the Whitsunday Islands. Countless boats offer 1, 2, and 3 day tours of the islands.

Since I will be doing a 3 day, 2 night live-aboard scuba trip on the Great Barrier Reef, I opted to do a simple daytrip. And so, on Wednesday morning I boarded the Camira, an 85-foot purple Catamaran, for a day of snorkeling, feasting, and lounging around in the sun. Well, at least that's what I would have done had the weather cooperated. I still managed to do the snorkeling and feasting, at least. As it was, it was either cloudy or rainy for most of the day. At least it cleared up enough that we were able to go snorkeling.

After admiring a friend's waterproof camera during round I of my trip last year, I bought my own waterproof camera to bring on this trip. This was the first time I put it to the test, and it performed extremely well. Because we had fewer than 40 people on our boat we were able to go to a smaller bay with really good coral / sea life. It was amazing. I got some great photos of parrotfish, coral, and a bunch of giant clams, including one over a meter in length!

After snorkeling we went to the famous Whitehaven beach, where it promptly began to rain. We didn't let that stop us, though, and played volleyball and cricket on the beach. The rain eventually let up and I wandered the beach for a bit. After the beach we retired to the boat for a giant BBQ. Determined to get my money's worth despite the bad weather, I went to town on the buffet. Waaaaay better than the food I'd been cooking in the hostels.

It began raining again, so we headed into the cabin and spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding the rain and weathering the tough seas. Strangely enough, I discovered that rough seas make me sleepy, so I ended up taking a nap.

In the evening I got dropped off with a friend at one of the Whitsunday islands (Long Island) to spend the night in a resort/hostel there. The resort was gorgeous - tons of palm trees, gorgeous beach, free kayaks, mini golf course, etc. Unfortunately, the weather continued to be uncooperative, so we weren't able to take advantage of the facilities, although I did manage to get in a trail run around the island the following morning before it started to rain again.

It would have been great if the weather had been a bit nicer, but still it was a fantastic trip. And the snorkeling was amazing! But don't take my word for it - check out the photos for yourself:

Our boat. Note the cloudy skies. Unfortunately, that's how it looked all day (when it wasn't actively raining on us)

the weather may have been crappy, but the food was great! Here Kate (a fellow OzExperience traveler) and I are enjoying the pre-lunch shrimp cocktail

because it is "stinger season" (stingers are nasty jellyfish that can make you very sick and possibly kill you), we had to wear full body singer-suite when in the water. And these guys on the beach decided to rock it out on and too. Definitely the height of fashion - I imagine these will be popping up on the runway around the world soon.

I seem to be making a theme of getting pictures while jumping off of stuff

snorkel photos - cool anemones and a clam

neat coral outcropping

look a the size of this clam! I was really curious to see what it would if I poked it, but decided not to test it - it would be rather embarrassing if it clamped on my arm and I ended up drowning. Can't get much worse than being killed by a clam. . .

check out the parrotfish!

neat oceanscape pic - managed to get a lot of fish in this pic

Shipwreck! Scuba Diving the SS Yongala

Until today, I'd been in Australia for 3 weeks, and still hadn't done any scuba diving. This was strange, because scub diving was one of the things which drew me to Australia in the first place! As I imagine you've already guessed (you're so smart!), my no-scuba streak changed today when I did a dive of the SS Yongala, a famous shipwreck from 1911 which is considered to be one of the top dives in the world.

My adventure began the day before, when I got the OzExperience bus driver to drop me off at the pool in Ayr, Australia. There I met up with an instructor from Yongala Dive, and hopped into a pool to do a quick scuba refresher. It had been a year since my last dive (when I got Open Water certified in Honduras), so I wanted to make sure I remembered everything, rather than discover that I'd forgotten how to retrieve my regulator when I was 25 meters under water. The course went well - turns out I hadn't really forgotten anything, but still nice to know before doing the real thing. I went back to the Yongala Dive Shop, went for a quick run on the beach (where I had flashbacks from Central America when I was chased by several dogs), then chilled out for the evening.

The next morning was the big day - time for the dive! I got up bright and early, and was down in the dive shop at 7am. After a safety briefing where I signed a release which basically said I wouldn't sue the dive shop even if they took out a gun and shot me (hey lawyer friends, are documents like that really legit?), we headed out onto the water. Unfortunately, as I already discovered during my Whitsunday Islands sailing trip (blog post on that to come), the weather gods have not been looking kindly on me recently, and the seas were rather choppy. After 45 minutes on the ocean roller coaster, I was a nice shade of green, but ready for the dive!

And wow, what a dive. As our instructor explained, the SS Yongala sank in the sand (not the reef), so it is basically an oasis in the desert, and marine life just flocks to it. The sheer volume of fish was amazing! Over the course of my 2 dives I saw 3 moray eels, 2 turtles, and an eagle ray! I also saw an entire school of barracudas, and countless other fish. There were actually so many fish in and around the wreck that it was hard to look in and see some of the features within the boat. I had never done a wreck dive before, but loved it. Hopefully I'll be able to do several more on my trip. And if I'm lucky, maybe I'll even be able to swim into some of the wrecks (it's illegal to swim into the Yongala).

Anyways, I definitely had a blast on the trip. In about a week I'll be starting a 3-day live-aboard scuba dive boat trip on the great barrier reef where I'll get my PADI Advanced certification. This dive certainly got me looking forward to that!

Well, I didn't bring a camera, but I wouldn't let some minor detail like that stop me from getting some pictures from my blog. Here are some images courtesy of Google. Enjoy!

postcard of the Yongala (before it sank, clearly)

A map of the Yongala wreck

this is exactly what I experienced in my dive. Fish everywhere!!

another good example of the views I had

a good view of the wreck from a distance

in case the pictures don't make it clear enough, there were fish EVERYWHERE!

Yee-haw! Experiencing the cowboy life at Kroombit Cattle Station

After spending the last few weeks exploring Australia's beach towns on the east coast, it was a welcome change of scenery when we went on a bit of a detour, and drove 200km inland to the Kroombit Cattle Station. There we got to experience what life on the outback was like 100 years ago on a cattle farm, (well except that we had flush toilets and electric lights).

After a quick hike up to the local view point (it was very cool to look over the outback - very different than the east coast), the real fun started when we had a mini-rodeo. The first event was the skeet shoot, where I discovered that I'm actually a decent shot, by which I mean I didn't miss all 5 targets, I ended up hitting 2. (Fun fact: I have to shoot lefty because I can't wink my left eye shut - I can only wink my right eye shut.)

Next it was time for the goat rodeo, where team "Goat To Hell" finished a respectable second place. (Note to my mother and sister: our team included a veterinary nurse, and we handled our goat extremely carefully/humanely - no need to alert the SPCA). The next "event" was straight out of Jackass - the guy in charge brought a cattle prod and zapped the hell out of a few foolish volunteers. And yes, of course I was one of those volunteers. Not content just to get a zap on the arm, I ended up standing in front of a crowd with my shirt up, and got a big shock right on my chest. I really wish it had been caught on video, as my reaction to the shock was certainly not the most graceful thing in the world.

After dinner, we had a chance to learn how to crack a whip, which I discovered I am absolutely terrible at, although I was quite good at accidentally whipping my own arm instead. The final event of the night was the mechanical bull. Absolute hilarity ensued. I managed to shoot one video of a friend which could be the next viral sensation on youtube, once I figure out how to work with the obnoxious video format my camera uses. Keep your eyes peeled for it!

And now, time for pictures. Enjoy!

we get our intro talk cowboy-style. During the talk the horse hacked up a piece of partially-digested grass and almost hit someone's lunch. Awesome.

group photo at the top of the lookout

me preparing to shoot some skeet. Them's good eating!

Team "Goat to Hell" poses for the requisite pre-rodeo publicity shot

Team "Goat to Hell" in action, en route to our second place finish. (once again, no need to notify the SPCA, the "brand" we are applying isn't real, although Kate did help us out by supplying a realistic "hisss" sound when applying the fake-brand).

me riding the mechanical bull - I actually did pretty well, holding on for about 18 bucks on my second try. Not pictured: the massive bruise I had the next day on my left inner thigh from the rope I was grabbing on to. Fun times.

Adventuring on Fraser Island

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island, and has been classified as a world heritage site. It has some beautiful freshwater lakes, many stunning vistas, and is home to one of the purest strains of Dingoes. It is also a blast to party / hike / off-road on. Although there are a variety of ways to explore the island (hike, guided tour, etc), the best way (ie, most awesome) for backpackers is a self-guided 4WD tour. Based on some enthusiastic recommendations from some friends who had already toured Australia, I signed up right away.

And that's how last Wednesday I came to find myself loading up a 4WD jeep with tents, mosquito repellent, tents, camp food, and more wine/beer than you could shake a stick at. We were divided into 6 cars of 8, given the aforementioned supplies, a map along with a suggested itinerary, and set free on the island.

Fraser island is barely developed - the inland tracks are few and far between, and calling them "roads" is being a bit generous. "Roller Coaster tracks" would be more accurate. The best "road" on the island is actually the beach. So, we would wait until the tide had gone out, and zip around on the wet sand.

We would spent the day exploring the island, and then in the evening we'd set up camp, cook up dinner, and then break out the wine/beer and spend the evening socializing around the campfire. And by campfire I mean "the place where the campfire would be if they were allowed on the island." We all had a blast, although by the time the trip was over we were all extremely ready for real toilets, beds, and pillows.

As usual, I can't do the adventure justice, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

packing up for the trip - don't forget the goon!

our convoy en route to the ferry to Fraser

dinner's done and the tents are set up - time to party!

Silke and Lucy cook us up an absolutely amazing breakfast

I'm guessing that a version of this picture is going to be sent by every guy on our trip to all their friends to make them jealous. I especially like the shadows of all the guys snapping the picture

catching some air off one of the dunes in Fraser island

our group (Group B!) at the Maheno Shipwreck

settling down for another amazing meal

Dingo!! Dingoes on Fraser Island are purported to be one of the purest strain of dingoes (having not had the opportunity to breed with domestic dogs). They're also a bit on the scary side, since they are descendants from wolves. Definitely made the late-night bathroom breaks a bit more nerve-wracking

Sporting History is made: The Inaugural Noosa Kayak Olympics

About a week ago several members of my bus decided to go for a quick kayak trip. It was hot, so we stopped for a swim. It was just business as usual until Ben suggested we do a kayak relay race. A few minutes later history was made, and the Inaugural Noosa Kayak Olympics was underway! We devised a series of athletic challenges which entertained us all greatly, and probably confused the hell out of the other kayakers / fishermen on the boat. Rather than describe the events, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

this wasn't an actual event, but I felt like surfing on my kayak. Is there a problem with that?

The first event was a relay: the first two people had to kayak out to the middle of the river, then they had to stand up and walk the length of the kayak before kayaking back to the sand where their partner would then do the same. Here team America/Germany celebrates their victory over team England in the kayak relay event. (Note that team England isn't even close to finishing and weve already finished and taken victory photos)

the seated gladiator kayak battle begins

aaaand, about ten seconds later, it's over. I believe this ended in a tie, since we pretty much swamped at the same time.

here is the standing-kayak-relay, which was the toughest event of the day. There were teams of two: one person would stand on the kayak while the other person pushed them across the river. Once they made it across, the people would switch, and head back. This one really confused the local fishermen as we pushed a kayak with a standing person towards them with great urgency, then tore off on the beach to tag a pole, then switched places and hurried back. Guess that's not a normal occurence for them

me about an eighth of a second before I lost the standing gladiator kayak fight. . .

the members of the Inaugural Noosa Kayak Olympics take a brief break from the games for a group photo

Crikey! A Day at Steve Irwin's Zoo

On Sunday I made a pilgrimage with several other OzExperience travelers to the late, great, crocodile hunter Steve Irwin's zoo, the Australia zoo. We got picked up by a bus which showed clips from Steve Irwin's show while we made the hour long journey to the zoo. The zoo itself was very cool. It was specifically devised to be much more interactive than the average zoo. Staff members wander around with various animals which you are invited to view and pet. I got to pet a Koala, and feed a kangaroo, an elephant, and a crocodile (haha, just kidding about the crocodile mom - just checking to see if you were paying attention).

Enough talk, on to the pictures!

Me helping Steve Irwin wrangle a croc

Bindi Irwin (Steve's daugher) follows in his footsteps, and fees a croc. Note that the main handler, Wes, has a very firm grip on her in case he needs to yank her to safety.

kangaroo feeding! I wanted to try and hop into a Kangaroo's pocket llike on the Simpsons, but zoo rules limited the contact to feeding them. Bummer

these tigers knew some impressive tricks. I would have been happy simply with "don't eat me."

feeding the elephants!

Adventuring in Australia

Now I know all of you have been very concerned because it's been a whole week since I posted a blog entry, but don't worry, I haven't been mauled by a Koala, trampled by a Kangaroo, or devoured by a Crocodile. I've just been busy having adventures worth blogging about, so really I've been doing all this for you!!

So, I spent my first few days in Australia wandering Sydney (when I wasn't crying about how I missed New Zealand), and was even able to meet up with some old friends from Camp Echo (Nicqui and Amanda) who I hadn't seen in 6 years! After exploring the city for a while, I left to start my bus tour. Our first stop was Spot-x, a top-secret surf camp where I discovered that I am just as good at falling off a surfboard as I was after 2 weeks of surf school in Central America last year.

Next we made it to Byron Bay, a fun beach town. Aaaand, I'm actually still at Byron Bay now. That's one big difference between the Australia bus tour and the New Zealand bus tour. Since New Zealand was so small, we could hop on the bus in the morning, arrive in our location in the afternoon, explore it for the afternoon and evening, then leave in the morning for our next stop. Australia is big enough that we often travel all day to get to the next place, and then spend a few days in each location. Kind of nice, actually - gives you a chance to get to know your fellow travelers better, and really explore each town. I'll be moving on tomorrow (to Noosa, home of Steve Irwin's Zoo), and from then on it'll only be a few days in each place, so I'll probably have more to write about, and thus write more regularly.

Rather than write even more about exactly what I've been doing, I'll show you:

One of the ten million phtos I have of the Sydney Opera House (and Harbor Bridge)

Bats! Tons of 'em! Just chilling in the Sydney botanical gardens. In night they all start flyin around - very freaky. . .

Camp Echo mini-reunion! Had a blast catching up with Nicqui - hard to believe it had been 6 years! (man I feel old)

time for our surf lesson at the top secret surf camp, Spot-x. Coming soon, pics of the actual surfing. . .

The OzExperience bus at one of our scenic stops / smoking-breaks-for-the-driver

Looks like both Australia and New Zealand enjoy making giant versions of small fruits / animals. . .

Typical night at our Hostel in Byron Bay. That is, before everyone heads out to Cheeky Monkeys for table dancing and general debauchery.

Sunrise with the Byron Bay lighthouse in the foeground. This is the easternmost point of continental Australia, so since I was the tallest person there, I was probably the first person in Australia to see the sun!

me about to go kayaking with the dolphins. Actually saw a group of 6 very close to our boat, although I couldn't get the camera out in time. My kayak partner took this picture, and that's just about the only useful thing he did all day. About 4 minutes into the kayak he announced that he had a bad back, and basically let me ferry him around for the rest of the afternoon. Weak!

Kangaroos! Cooool!

Hanging with some OzExperience buddies in a crazy hippie bus in the crazy hippie town of Nimbin