Blogs from Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 20

Well, it has been a while since I last updated this website so there is quite a few stories to tell you all. I also have a few photo's for you to see at last! I'll have to condense this somewhat... I left Brisbane on the 16th January to start my road trip up north along the Queensland coast. I stopped off at Caloundra (Sunshine Coast) to visit Steve and Sue Beck. Then onto Hervey Bay (Fraser Island) where I stayed for 2 weeks with the Kluckow brothers and worked as a plumbers assistant for a few days. Went across to Fraser Island and hired a 4x4. Really an amazing place! Huge forests and crystal clear lakes (see photo's). Apparently a good place to catch shad! Also went hand-line fishing with some locals which was great. ... read more

We left before the hurricane; in fact it happened during our international flight home. Remember that day we lost on the way? Got it back now and we got 2 Sundays this week. How often does that happen? We landed in Cairns (another time zone) and was told there had been a meter of rain and the roads to Cape Tribulation which we were scheduled to go to by bus had been flooded. As we arrived so did groups who had been stuck there for 4 days, those who chose to wait it out instead of catching a helicopter out. So to err on the side of caution we changed our tour to a 1 night tour instead. We drove up to Cape Tribulation through a road cut out of the rainforest with only a ... read more

You can play dot-to-dot with my mozzy bites and the actual inside of my ears are peeling, which is a unique and lovely experience. My fault for not applying enough insect repellent and sunscreen, respectively, but it has in no way detracted from the amazing last couple of days I had in Northern Queensland. First, diving on the Great Barrier Reef. An undescribably surreal experience, so I am not even going to try, except to say that I saw giant clams, starfish, all sorts of sea cucumbers (remember those little bad boys, Gill, Wenders and Orla??!), hundreds of multicoloured fish including clownfish and one large black scary looking one that isn't at all scary - a Great Crevally. I stroked a sea turtle too. But the most exhilariting moment was coming within 5 metres of a ... read more

Headed out at 7 am up to Cape Tribulation, about 2.5 hours north of Cairns.... Stopped along the way to admire the coast and see the ultra exclusive island Bill Gates stays at right off the mainland. Also listened in fascination and horror to stories/facts about the box jellyfish and the other extremely poisonous type found in Queensland of which I forget the name. These things are of course completely transparent and can be as small as a thumbnail but if you are stung you will probably die within 15 minutes unless you can get to a hospital in under that amount of time and even then, you'll probably be paralyzed...one guy's friend got stung last year and was extremely lucky in that he survived, but spent seven months in the hospital. Needless to say, you ... read more

Well.....a whole week of not packing and unpacking packs...of being able to buy food and eat what you want and generally just chill - heaven! It was so nice and relaxing we're not going to write too much...too much effort for this chilled out place. Its lovely and sunny (80 degrees even at night) and for the first time it feels like we are on holiday! :-) Alex finally turned her man radar on after a little push from Thierry and I. I suggested that we all went out for dinner but funnily enough I was ill and couldn't go....Thierry you owe me! ;-) I did what I had been thinking about doing for ages and tried scuba diving - Tim, Sarah and Jen you are right its amazing. I loved every minute of it. I ... read more