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Published: February 21st 2011
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Hello again - sorry it's been so long since my last update. I'll tell you a bit about the tour in general and my fellow travellers before telling the stories about my trip. It's fair to say that coach tours appeal to the older generation! As I entered the room for the welcome meeting a quick scan round the room highlighted a significant number of hearing aids and grey hairdos. I had a feeling that I was the youngest by at least 20 years but Grant was there and he helped me bring the average age down too. That said - I have met some wonderful people on this trip. With a couple of exceptions (Chris, Deb, Emma & Ollie - turns out there was a Ron on the trip!!!!!) it was a great bunch of people. On the first night there was a welcome drinks reception which meant me walking into a room of complete strangers, going up to someone to say "Hello I'm Emma, what's your name?" and start a conversation - as many of you will know - my worst nightmare. So with a glass of wine in my hand and a deep breath a went up to
say hello to some people and a beautiful friendship was born. Although they probably won't read this I want to say thanks to my new friends Vee, Maggie, Marissa, Grant and Peter for making the trip so enjoyable - especially the evenings. There's not much I can say about the tour director on my blog - I'll tell you in person when I get home but let's just say I think she missed her vocation in life as a school teacher. The only other thing to say is coach touring is hard work. Up at 6am to have your bags outside the hotel door by 6.30am for a 7.30am depart. Sometimes we were lucky enough to have a 6.30am start! Once again however you get a great perspective on how big Australia is - we spent a lot of time driving - some days we only got off the coach for comfort breaks because of the miles we had to cover. So while I might not do it again (apart from the coach tour I'm doing in a week's time!) I've seen some great things.............
The first big adventure was to the Great Barrier Reef which as you already
Butterfly Sanctuary
This was the only way to get a decent photo of the butterflies know I loved! It really is an amazing experience to be swimming so close to all the fish and to see the corals close up. One thing I forgot to mention is that I wore a stinger suit when I was snorkelling. This is an attractive lycra all-in-one suit (with a hood and mittens for your hands) designed to protect you from the harmful jellyfish. It also doubles as a sun protection suit which when you are as fair skinned as me isn't a bad idea. Unfortunately there are no photos of me in my suit, life jacket and snorkel gear - I'm not stupid! The only other thing to say is that these suits are not flattering for the larger gentlemen on this planet - whatever the male equivalent of camel hoof is - I saw plenty of it on the reef!!!!! The only thing that would have made this day perfect was sunshine. I knew I was going to be here in the wet season and expected some rain but as you are probably aware they are having an unusually high amount of rainfall this year which, according to the tour director, means we have seen the land
at it's best - nice and green how it should be, not brown and dusty. When it rains it comes from nowhere, belts down for about 5 minutes then just stops. So I haven't seen as much sun as I would have liked but it has certainly been hot even without it. The following day we could choose what we wanted to do and I opted for a train journey up into a rainforest village and travelling back down in a cable car. It was a cloudy day again but we still saw some stunning views as the train wound it's way up and through the mountains. The commentary told us about a waterfall and I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when I saw it on my right hand side - barely a trickle across the gorge! Then I noticed the chinese people in my carriage getting excited about something on the left hand side and saw a huge waterfall - trust me to be looking in the wrong direction! This waterfall was just a dribble though when compared to Barron's Fall - this is the biggest waterfall I've ever seen - quite spectacular and hard
to imagine that had this been a normal wet season it would have only been a trickle. When we got to the top I spent a couple of hours in Kuranda village and went to a butterfly sanctuary. The butterflies I saw here were beautiful - stunning blues and emerald greens but the buggers wouldn't stay still long enough to take photos and when they land they close their wings! Don't they realise I've come all the way from England to see them? Anyway went down the mountain in the cable car that had a couple of stops. The first was on the other side of Baron's Fall which was even more breathtaking as we were closer than we had been on the train - I hope the photos do it justice when I get home. We also stopped off in the rainforest and I saw my first big spider - well I saw 2 of them. I saw the webs first glistening with moisture and then I saw the spiders in the middle. Quite pretty colours but horrible things - small bodies, long legs. Unfortunately I told some of my group that I didn't like spiders and they took
great delight in winding me up when we walked through any forest by tickling the back of my neck - not even conkers can deter that kind of tomfoolery!
The next day was a long one on the coach and not much to tell apart from my first sighting of a snake in the wild - a Scrub python on the edge of a lake - luckily I was on a boat separated by water and our tour director was a qualified snake handler if it decided to take a swim and join us on our cruise! This afternoon we drove through the area and towns that were affected most by the cyclone. Hard to imagine that I missed it by 48 hours but a few days later and the damage is easy to see. Banana plantations destroyed - the plants cut in half as if someone whent through them with a giant scythe and lobbed the tops off. Tree debris everywhere - big bits and small bits. But one of the most eerie sights is when the trees suffered from wind burn. If they are still standing after the cyclone a couple of days later they shed all
Possum
I know it's not great but in this photo there is a possum - quite lucky to see one during the day as they are nocturnal their leaves so we saw hundreds of bare trees - a strange sight. We drove through the town that was hit by the centre of the cyclone and it was sobering. Homes and businesses strewn all across the ground and the tidal surge pushed the beach 20 / 30 metres further inland than it should be. The amount of clean up work that had already been done is amazing but there is still a lot to do.
Anyway - I must sign off now. I'm using a hotel computer and I've been on it for quite a while so should probably let someone else have a go. Coming up in part 2, breakfast at an animal sanctuary, cuddling a koala, Daydream Island, another day in a stinger suit (this time with photos!), a cattle station, a 4 wheel drive bus, surfers paradise, poo by the pool and a very long drive to Sydney. Bye for now.....
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