Hello, back again in Cairns, on my way to Daintree National Park. After a nice and relaxing Saturday with my friends, visiting the local fruit market in Cairns, trying to stay dry as the rains of the tropical wet season were pouring down on us, enjoying some time with the kids, playing ping pong, reading bocks, playing Mau Mau ( a German card game) and wathing them at night, as there parents went to a charity ball, i headed off this morning on a 2 day tour north to Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation. On our way to the NP, [View Full Entry]

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Today was the day, one of my lifelong dreams, ever since i first heard about the Great Barrier Reef, saw my first National Geographic Documentary on it, came true, and I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef! It was fantastic! . If i did not have that big mask on, and the regulator in my mouth to give me some O2 under water, you would be able to tell that i am grinning from ear to ear. I went out on the reef with a company called Down Under Dive, and so after almost 2 hours on the water in [View Full Entry]

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After another 9 hours on the bus yesterday, i am slowly but surely making my way up to North Queensland and the first stop along the way to Cairns is Mission Beach. Mission Beach is known for its Cassowary Birds (they look a bit like an Emu, get to be about 4 feet tall, cannot fly, are super fast, and are native to the rainforest around Mission Beach). The landscape around Mission Beach and the surrounding area is dominated by banana orchards , sugar cane fields, the ocean on the right side, and the rainforest on the left as we are [View Full Entry]

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Hello again, well, since we are in the tropics, and it therefore gets dark around 6:30p.m, and the sun rises at 5:30 am, we were all up and about on the boat when the call for breakfast came at 7 am. After breakfast, we headed to the most beautiful beach i have ever seen. The Whiteheaven Beach on the Whitsunday Island! Shane took us in small groups to the beach in the dingy, and after getting outfitted with our stingersuits, we were well equipped to not just look at the beautiful water, but also jump into it. However, before we got [View Full Entry]

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Habibi is the name of the sailboat that I am going to spend my next two days on! Yeah, rough, i know... The is beating down on us as we are meeting at the marina at 1:30 pm to meet the other 24 passengers and the three men crew of the Habibi. Since the travel world around here is so small, i once again actually run into a couple from England, Luke and Leann, who also were on Kiwi , and so together we embark on our journey. Our fellow "sailors' are from England, Germany, Israel, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada. [View Full Entry]

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So, after 13 hours on the bus, i have arrived in the beautyful, sunny and touristy town of Airlie Beach. Airlie is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, and my taking off place for a sailing cruise for the next two days. The weather is getting hotter by the mile north and we are cerainly approaching tropical climates. Actually Airlie reminds me a bit of the Florida Keys, similar beach-sun and fun atmosphere. The bus ride was uneventful, and thanks to much practice of sleeping on buses, i was able to sleep and feel quite rested. So now that i have [View Full Entry]

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Today was our last day on Fraser, and since we really needed to start taking it easy- i mean who can handle all those beautiful lakes and beaches?- we drove to a very secluded lake in the morning, where our group of 12 were the only ones at the Lake, and we pretty much just played in the water and hung out on the beach. Yeah I know rough.... sorry that these blogs are so short, but laying out, swimming and once in a while a bush walk is really all you do when visiting Fraser..... so i continue to work [View Full Entry]

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We were up and about early this morning for our 7:45 departure and 1 hr drive across the island to get to the Eastern Beaches and the Fraser Island Highway (75 miles of beach) . After driving on the 90 mile beach in New Zealand, this was really not that spectacular anymore..., yeah right... no as a matter of fact, it is mind boggling and beautiful every time and truly amazing to see such natural beauty. We hiked up the Indian Head saw the rusted wreck of the SS Mahoney, a Japanese luxury cruiseship that ran aground on the sandbanks some [View Full Entry]

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On day one of our tour, I walked down to the jetty (wharf in australian) and met up with the rest of the group who was coming over on the morning ferry from Hervey Bay. Can i just say that there are so many Germans in Australia... i felt like i was on a tour in Berlin, Munich, etc... All really nice people so far though, and oh yes, a lot of suiss travellers as well. So once we were all accounted for, our ranger Greg took us to our monster 4WD bus, and we started to head out of the [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone, back to civilization and internet access. So here and on the following pages and account of the last couple of days. After a nice evening in Brisbane and a bit of a walk around in downtwon in the morning to get some supplies i boarded the suncoast companie bus transport for the 4.5 hrs drive up the coast to Hervey Bay. By now, bus travel has become second nature, and i can sleep pretty much in any position anywhere, no matter what kind of noise is going on around me, and so inbetween reading, listening to the i-pod, looking [View Full Entry]

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