juneandmichael

Blog Eight - Daintree Rainforest & Dive the Great Barrier Reef The final chapter ---- Our last phase took us up to the World Heritage Site of the Daintree Rainforest. We spent one night in Kuranda, visiting Margie's brother and sister-in-law, on their tropical property. Late into the evening we went wallabie spotting, and caught a glimpse two Bandicoots. Travelling up to the very north of Queensland we spent our last couple of nights camping at Cape Tribulation, deep within the Daintree Rainforest, where the rainforest meets the reef. Most of the time we hiked through "the oldest primary rainforest on earth". The hikes rambled through the rainforest and out onto the foreshore. Absolute beauty in gorgeous weather!!! Our one "tourist" thing we did was to take a river cruise, searching for crocodiles. ... read more

Blog Six - New South Wales Exiting the Tasmania ferry, at 6:30 am., we found ourselves once again driving through Melbourne, only this time we didn't get lost!!! We were unaware of what awaited us South of Sydney and were more than pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the Sapphire Coast. Once again we came upon one secluded white sand beach abutted with dense forest after another. We were able to take time out to stop, walk, and enjoy this coastline. After four days of secluded campsites, we arrived in Sydney where we decided to urban camp on the outskirsts of the city and use the trains, buses, ferries, and our feet to get around. We were surprised at how easy it was once we learned how. Sydney boasts being the most beautiful city in the ... read more

Blog Four: South Australia (the state) For a day and a half we drove through the vast countryside and long lonely roads from Melbourne in Victoria to North of Adelaide in South Australia. We were heading for the Barossa Valley Wine Region, a colorful patchwork of picturebook villages, historic churches, stone buildings, and cottages beckoning us to explore when we happened upon Suffield's Winery in the Eden Valley. Long story short....our arrival corresponded with harverst time. We found ourselves out in the vineyards, witnessing and being a part of the eleventh-hour harvest. It was so interesting to see, up close, how the harvester shook the vines to extract the grapes. Later into the evening, we helped (mainly by drinking their "reserve" Shiraz) with the crushing process. A young Swede actually did the shovelling of the grapes ... read more

Blog Two...Diving The FeBrina Fantabulous!!! Where to begin - above or below water? We've done 26 dives and as the days progressed we asked ourselves..."how can this get any better?" And it kept surpassing the previous day's wonderment. First of all, The FeBrina is the only boat out in the PNG waters here. The serenity and solitude contributes to this magical experience. Rimmed in the distance is a trio of volcanoes that enhances the sunrises. In the evenings the lightning brightens the horizon. Mesmerized by the sunlight on the water, the deep blue abuts the turquoise-green pateches of coral reef. On the boat, we are two of only twelve divers - a group of six from Sacramento, a professional underwater photographer from the Cannary islands (some of the attached pictures are his-bet you can tell which ... read more

Hi all. The last blog we published didn't seem to make it to many of you, so we're trying again after fixing the subscriber list. If you didn't get our last one, you can click "previous entry" to view our first post with our itinerary and other trip details. We leave Friday night and are finishing up the last of the packing. We're very excited, but will miss you all! See you in July. June and Michael ... read more