April 5th: I had heard many great things about Cape Tribulation since arriving in Cairns and so I decided to go on a day trip to explore its great beauty alone, as Kevin decided to pass. Cape Tribulation is a headland located within Daintree National Park and contains some of the vast Daintree Rainforest. Cape Tribulation was named by James Cook in 1770. It was named as such after Captain Cook’s ship ran aground on the reef just off the cape, with Cook writing in his journal “because here began all our troubles”. The Daintree Rainforest runs over 1200 square kilometers and is the largest continuous area of rainforest on the Australian mainland. It is over 135 million years old, the oldest rainforest in the world. It contains a huge variety of wildlife, plants and insects, ... read more

The ride to Mission Beach was actually pretty short compared to what we’d been getting used to. A 4 hour greyhound ride isn’t much, especially when movies are playing in the background. Lol When we arrived in Mission Beach, we grabbed the YHA shuttle and headed out to the hostel. This one wasn’t of the norm because it was about 20 minutes out of town, very unusual compared to their typically great locations. But it did allow for a nice, quiet and isolated setting. It felt like a bit log cabin, minus the logs and wintery feel. Lol The next morning we wanted to take a little nature walk. So we left in the morning and headed down the road. And even further down the road. Eventually we found a convenience store and stopped for a ... read more

Tuesday was the start of our 3 day, 2 night Whitsunday Cruise. This is what makes Airlie Beach so popular; it’s proximity to the tropical paradise! As mentioned in our previous entry, there are tons of options to choose from. Hillary and I were hoping to stay on a sail boat for the cruise, but bookings get taken up quick, so instead of waiting another week, we chose the motorized catamaran with some of the better diving options. Anyways, that morning we packed up and walked down to the harbour. While waiting to board, we met our fellow travelers who’d be sharing the boat with us, and the representation of countries was quite on par with what we’d been seeing during our trip. Canadians, Germans, Brits, Americans… lol We also met our crew: Pete was the ... read more

Monday we headed to Rockhampton. We took some time in the morning to check out the town of Hervey Bay before heading out, and afterwards we waited at the bus stop for the Greyhound. This trip was about 6 hours, and got us into town after dark. With autumn in full swing by March 1st, it was starting to get darker earlier and earlier. Luckily when we arrived in town, the hostel was kind enough to pick us all up. Keith had taken the same bus as we did to arrive in Rockhampton and since all the supermarkets had already closed up for the night, we (Mike from Ottawa as well) all headed out for some KFC. Nothing like bonding over dinner. The next day it was suggested that while in Rockhampton, we should check out ... read more

Thursday March 12 2009, Hillary and I checked out of the Noosa Heads YHA, and looked around the town a bit. We had some time to kill before making our way to the Greyhound bus, so we took a little walk. A couple hours gone, we were all set up and ready for the bus ride to Hervey Bay! It was a pretty lengthy ride, but after about 5 some odd hours, we made it to Hervey Bay. The town actually doesn’t have one main centre, but is dispersed into several little town centres. It keeps it from building up, but makes it difficult for one-stop shopping and sight seeing. We checked into the YHA, and made our way to the local Woolworths for some groceries. Australia seems to have two major food chains, Woolworths and ... read more