Uncle Ralphie and Auntie Becky

Spent the day driving from Tweed Head in the Gold Coast to Port Macquarie. Stopped briefly in Ulmarra which and a wonderful old pub/hotel. Monday we spent the day in Port Macquarie. Had a wonderful start to the day... found brewed coffee and in a place that we thought we'd never find a great cup of java, Starbucks! We know that when we leave North Amercan soil that the brewed coffee that we've become accustom to may not be available. But latte, cappuccino, espresso, and therefore, tall blacks are widely available. This could be seen as an example of quality over quantity. N.A. culture tends towards quantity. One of the first things that we noticed when we arrived in Cairns was how few obese people there are. Over time we noticed that Aussies just don't ... read more

Caught tour over to Fraser Island. One of only two ways of getting there. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Fast facts: Has over 44 freash water lakes. These lakes are blue, blue, blue with beautiful white silica sand. Yes it has all of the usual snakes and spiders. The beach on the eastern side is 90 km long and is and is the National highway, and local airstrip. Some individuals on our tour took a brief flight over Fraser Island from this Beach/Highway. Freash water table is 90 M above sea level and it is estimated that the water basin holds about 44 million MEGA Liters (a mega liter is a million liters!) Fraser Island was also used as Australia's special forces jungle warfare training ground. It was here that ... read more

We took a tour out to the Whitsunday Islands. The area named by Captain Cook after sailing through the region a fortnight after Easter Sunday. But Capt. Cook was off a day, it was actually Monday, he had neglected the international date line; hence it was Monday two weeks past Easter Sunday. The Tour boat took us to 3 destinations. The first was Whitsunday Island where we took a 20 min. climb to a look-out platform. The lookout was a view of the 4th most photographed beach in Australia, a beautiful white silica sand beach; 2nd being Uluru (Ayer's Rock); 3rd the 12 Aposles of the southren coast of Australia, but there are only 7 left; and the 1st most photographed Australian sight is....? Email me and I'll tell you mmmmmaaaaawwwaaaaaa. Next we went to ... read more

Onto Townsville, arrived just before noon. Townsville has a very nice feel to it, I would have liked to have spent more time there. We took in Reef HQ aquarium; arrived just in time for the small fish feeding (not the sharks.) The fish-feeder (big title) definately had the pavlovian effect on the fish. When they saw him they grouped and swam in a bit of a frenzy yntil they were fed. The most alarming fish to see fed was the Barramundi; a large fish about 1 meter long. The fish-feeder prepared a 1/2 mackeral and waved it over top the water. The barramundimade quite a ruckus when he came to the surface and "sucked" in his morsel of dinner! I didn't take many pictures because I don't think they turn out too well. We ... read more

We took a trip to Atherton via Lake Barrine about an hour drive SW of Cairns. First we stopped at the Curtain Fig Tree. This is the largest fig tree in Austrailia at 44 meters in circumference and 48 meters tall. Its age is guessed at 500 years old. It is absolutely massive. We had the best brewed coffee (something rarley found in this area) and scones (freshly baked) at the Lake Barrine Tea House and enjoyed the wonderful deck over looking the lake before embarking on a 5 km hike around the lake. The trail is a well maintained boardwalk that is an easy 1 1/2 hour walk. On the route you will see many brush turkeys that like to jump out and startle you; and large green eels if you are lucky. We ... read more