Advertisement
Published: April 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Fantastic 4
Looking good in our fetching stinger suits after scuba diving Having left Cairns after only a few days Babs and I went down to Townsville about six hours south of Cairns, the reason for this was to get in a really great dive at the SS Yongala, one of the best dives not only in the great barrier reef but also in the world. The Yongala is a 100m long cargo/passenger ship which was sunk in 1911 in a cyclone off the coast of queensland tragically everyone onboard loast their lives and the majority of bodies are still inside the wreck, one of the many reasons why we couldn't penetrate the wreck only swim around the outside. (Theres loads of info online if you google Yongala) Unfortunately for us as the Yongala is out in open water its very very weather dependant which meant when we arrived on Sunday night in townsville we were pretty disappointed to learn we couldnt dive until Wednesday at the earliest and so had a few days to kill in townsville while we waiting for the winds to calm down. Sunday we went and found a few bars and had a walk around this very nice coastal town which is much more industrial and Australian
Standard photo
Yes its touristy but you have to get a photo like this in Australia than the tourist centred towns along the east coast, after a few beers I looked forward to a good nights sleep and lie in as we were no longer getting up early to dive...or so we thought!
The following morning I was awoken by two very agitated English girls staying in our dorm saying have you heard the news a Tsunami is going to hit right now and we have to get to high ground! They then grabbed all their bags and shot off in their car to find safety inland, meanwhile I noticed no one running around madly outside so decided to go investigate. (Bab's meanwhile packed EVERYTHING and arrived outside fully loaded and also ready to go inland, this was very funny once I saw it wasn't an emergency). Outside it became obvious it was a total overreaction by the Aussie news services who had constant news reports from Bondi beach and other parts of Australia only for a 15cm wave to hit in Sydney, although in Townsville it was recorded as a 1m wave no damage was done and those who panicked and most the Australian authorities who were completely unprepared for anything like this look
Horseshoe bay, Magnetic Island
One of many beautiful Australian Beaches we have been too, the weather and scenery around Australia really is fantastic very silly indeed. As you will have probably seen in the news an underwater earthquake caused some deaths and destruction in pacific islands but nothing carried through to Australis. The rest of the day was filled walking around town and into the aquarium where we saw plenty more fish/sharks/turtles although its not as exciting when your not swimming with them! Although listening to the talks did feel like being at school all over again.
Tuesday we decided to head over to Magnetic island about 20 mins from Townsville, this pretty island is the largest natural Koola habit in Australia and so we did the tourist thing orf having photos with various koolas and animals (including snakes) on a tour of a wildlife sanctuary and learnt a bit more about the widelife inland Australia rather than just the barrier reef.
Bring on Wednesday and the dive which went ahead finally after days and anxiety, the dive was only confirmed at 6am on Wednesday as the seas were still rough and not ideal for the 3hr trip to the wreck itself. 75% of the people on the boat were sick over the side, many of whom paid to dive and
the "Maxiragamuffin"
The racing boat we took around the Whitsunday Islands couldnt as they were so ill! Luckily we survived and headed down to one of my favourite dives so far. There is so much life and coral heres lits unbelievable, you would think it was just a reef unless you knew what to look for as the boat as been taken over by sealife. The fish were huge and there were also plenty off large turtles sea snakes and rays down there too. Unfortunaltely a knockon affect off the "Tsuanmi" was the a load of debris had been brought up and so visability wasn't great but the dive was certainly worth the wait!
After meeting back up with Laura and Dave it was onto Airlie beach, the launch point of the Witsunday islands. We had planned on staying overnight on a boat and doing a couple of days cruising around these beautiful islands which many travellers had described as one of the best places in Australia, unfortunately our timing wasn't great arriving at Easter weekend with everything overngiht fully book until the end of Easter as most Australians are on holiday and taking advantage of the scenery themselves. We were fortunate to find a cheap one day trip that also combined with a frazer island trip and so set off Easter saturday sailing on a large racing boat around the a few of the islands and also included another scuba dive. The islands were very beautiful and the boat a lot of fun and getting up to a lot of speed, and at least it gives me and excuse to come back to this side of the world to do it properly! When not on the boat around the islands we really enjoyed a few days on Airlie beach which is a very backpacker orientated town with a good night life (except on Good Friday with its strange drinking laws, you have to buy a meal to have a drink as its a public/religious holiday - so most bars had bbqs on to get around this, selling lots of meat to be respectful to Good Friday!) and absolutely full of brits who are travelling Australia or just on holiday. Its nice to be around people from England again after they were few and far between on the Indo-China loop although its not what I came travelling for it is fun. I'm really looking forward to moving onto Frazer Island next, we are doing a self drive safari (I get to drive a large jeep!) and camping on the island too which should be cool then onto our last week in Australia hopefully getting in Bryon Bay and Sydney (although our eyes are starting to turn to Central America now, only a few weeks away!).
BTW I have added a few photos from Perth/Cairns to my last blog for those who only look at the pictures ("as some words are long and hard to understand"). I wanted to add a picture of Laura from a night out in Cairns which is possibly to funniest picture I have ever seen however she has since banned me from posting it or publicly discussing its existance!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.179s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 14; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0928s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
Chris Johnston
non-member comment
Alright mate
Hey mate, I'll be arriving in cairns on 12th. Looks like you're a good way ahead of me at the moment. How far are you travelling down the east coast? You got any plans to get that crowd safety in OZ night out off the ground? I haven't heard from Katie in a while, leading me to think that they might have died in a nasty kangaroo accident.