Advertisement
Published: March 3rd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Brisbane
A fun, vibrant city Brisbane was next- what a fantastic city! We arrived early evening and so didn't have a long enough time to explore.
The following morning we took a cruise down the river to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. The cruise itself was a real eye-opener, passing a multitude of riverbank homes - each with a private jetty - that looked just wonderful. Gotta start saving those dollars!!
We also passed Queensland University. Brisbane city itself is full of young people and the university probably accounts for this. It certainly looks like a great place to spend a few student years!
Lone Pine was similar to the Featherdale Wildlife Park we visited near Sydney. Plenty of koalas (of course) and lots of other indigenous Australian animals (mostly of the marsupial kind).
In the evening we had a wonderful meal on the South Bank of the river and watched hoards of giant bats fly around from tree to tree - another unforgettable sight.
A flight from Brisbane to Cairns brought us to Port Douglas, wherein we stayed at the most amazing resort called the Thala Beach Lodge. Naturally, upon check-in we were informed that we had been upgraded to a Sea
Dingo
They really look nice. And it was never conclusively proven that they eat babies!! View cabin(!). I have to say now - and bear in mind we have stayed in some impressive places over the years - the Thala Beach Lodge is the epitome of what 5-star accommodation should be:
1)The cabins themselves were truly luxurious. Each one individually built on stilts in the middle of a real rainforest, the facilities and comfort were second-to-none. To complement this, the view over the rainforest to the Great Barrier Reef was extraordinary... to the extent that we slept with the curtains open so that the view would be the first thing we saw when we opened our eyes in the morning.
2)The staff were the most attentive and efficient we have ever come across. Within the first day, everyone addressed us by name and bent over backwards to ensure that we were having the best time ever. Even the groundskeepers took the time to show us around and actually found a Golden Orb spider for me to film!
3)The food was unbelievable. The Head Chef, Herbert, was a master of his art and not only prepared each dish as the tastiest, but used the freshest ingredients and presented the dishes in a way that can only
Lorrakeets (sp?)
These beautiful (wild) birds joined us for breakfast each morning at the Thala Beach be described as 'artistic'!
4)The environment was spectacular. We met the owner who was obviously very passionate about the rainforests and conservation generally. As a result it is completely unspoilt and natural.
While in the area we visited Port Douglas (ok) and a place called Kuranda. Kuranda Village itself is a bit of a tourist trap, but the experience and views of travelling up in a cable car and down via a century-old scenic railway made it worth the trip - particularly the spectacular Barron Falls in full torrent!
On my birthday, we visited Hartley's Crocodile Farm and saw some extremely large crocs. In the evening we finished the day in true style with a spectacular creation by Herbert. He had brought in some fresh mud crab and rock lobster and made an unforgettable birthday dinner.
We departed the following day. The Thala Beach Lodge had now set the bar for the standard... and we think it's going to be very difficult to beat!
The 3-night cruise around the Whitsunday Islands was next. We boarded a beautiful tall-ship schooner called Whitsunday Magic and - guess what? - we were upgraded to the only available SUITE on
Barron Falls
Taken from the Kuranda Scenic Railway. Due to the rains, the falls were a torrent!! board!!!! The cabin was a spacious en-suite with a large kingsize bed and plenty of space. Nice!
The capacity of the boat is 32, but our cruise only had 18 this trip, so there was plenty of space and we got to make friends with most of them.
On the first morning, we sailed to Whitehaven beach - known for its white powder sands. Although a little windy and overcast we still managed to have a bit of a dip.
Note: At this time of year, Queensland is generally well-known for the proliferation of poisonous -lethal - jellyfish, known collectively as 'Stingers'. The main culprits are Box Jellyfish and Irukandji. In fact, the threat is so real that no-one ventures out swimming without a 'stinger suit' of some sort. Steph and I looked wonderful in ours, as you can see!!
The water around the Whitsundays was quite choppy and the boat was pitching all over the place. Thankfully, Steph not only managed to get through it unaffected, but she even slept through it!
The next day we went snorkelling in the morning off the beach in Hook Island. I managed to take a few snaps but they don't really
do justice to the array of colourful fish and coral we actually saw. However, my big achievement was to go scuba diving! Although unqualified, after taking a short safety lesson the instructor, Thierry, took me out with the qualified divers where we dived off Hayman Island up to 10.5 metres to witness the REAL Barrier Reef: giant fish, beautiful coral and much amazing undersea plant-life. Not only was it a wonderful personal experience, but I can now claim to have 'dived' the Great Barrier Reef!!
The only regret is that I was unable to take my camera as it operates just to 5m. Well, I guess it just gives me an excuse to buy a better camera next time!!
ADDITION TO ABOVE- 'Birthday Blog'! With trying to remember all the different places we visited, I completely forgot to mention what happened on the actual morning of my birthday. Duh!
I woke up and was showered with about 20 cards which we had brought over with us. There were also a few little packages from our great Vacation Buddies, the Dewars and Boltons. I opened these first and was delighted with a t-shirt - on the front of
My birthday din-dins!
Fresh mud crab... and that was just the starter!! which was a collective photo of our whole 3 families, and the back was signed and messaged by each of them - what a great start to the day!
I opened each subsequent card with growing poignancy, as it made me realise how truly far away we were from everyone. Up until that point, it hadn't really registered but reading each message from loved ones made us both agree how very difficult it would be to actually live so far away.
It was delightful having all those cards to read on the day, and lovely that everyone had made the effort to think ahead so that I would have something from them (with one notable exception).
I also managed to get a brief connection to the Internet that day and there was a host of greetings from friends on Facebook which was entirely unexpected, but very very welcome.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0287s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Sandy
non-member comment
Whinging Poms
Gary mate, you're not supposed to tell everyone how good it is out here in Oz. You're supposed to whinge about how bad it is in order to deter everyone else coming out and spoiling our fun! Keep on having a great time. Sandy and Ruth xxx