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Published: September 15th 2009
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Hello everyone! I apologize for the length between updates. I have been on the road and without much time to jump on the internet to keep you lovely people all updated on my adventures.
I will not go into excessive detail as there is two weeks to catch up on and much to talk about so if you are truly interested there will be some magic and some adventures I can go into greater detail so we can actually have some exciting things to talk about whe we recount my adventures.
Dave and I drove north to Cape Tribulation where it is the only place on the planet where reef actually touches Rainforest and it was an absolutely amazing day of about 30 degrees and water warm enough to jmp in, though you have to be careful where because of the croc threat.... We made a day trip out of the adventure and prepared for our exciting trip to the Great Barrier Reef!
We did our four day dive course at the Cairns Diving Company, spent two days in the class and in the pool then two days on the boat. Dave has a campervan and we just
found soe nice quiet side streets where we could sleep for free in his van as both of our funds are running rather low and cooked dinner on the ocean front view of the esplanade. We jumped on our boat and zoomed out to the Great Barier Reef. We met so many wonderful people out there and it was tempting to blow off the rest of my trip so I could work for the dive company but I decided I'd best see the world while I can. Diving was one of the most surreal yet amazin experiences I have been privileged to do. I saw far too many amazing creatures an colors that you think only exist in photoshoped images. The giant clam was among the most spectacularily colored of them all! I didn't see any sharks sadly but one was apparantly not more than 100m from me on two different dives! BLAST! I did ten dives in total and am certified to dive up to 30 meters depth, go on night dives and a supplementary navigation course. Dave and I got two free dives in on our own which was too awesome for words. We got caught up in
the excitment of diving and turned our 5 dive intro course into the adventure diving course giving us 3 more dives and the chance for several dives on our own. Since we were only allowed 4 dives a day, we sulkily went snorkelling 3 times throughout the course of the days on the boat and saw more fish simply doing that than with diving. At least with diving you get to see more spectacular sights, but less creatures.
We came back to Cairns, had a party with our dive course classmates and instructor and made a good night of partyingin Cairns at the Woolshed. The next day we did a day trip to some Volcanic Waterfalls where the water spills over the edge of columnar basalt flows. The next day we left Cairns and drove south in the sweltering heat on our way to see our friends parents that we stayed with early in our trip. We spent the night at a truckstop on the roadside. I got eaten by sandflies which leave itchy itchy rashes that can last up to three weeks and I'll say not very pleasant. That's all gone and dne with now so yay! We
encountered some giant concrete creations such as a giant snake and so we took various adventure poses with it from everything from slaying it to riding it.
We arrived at our friends parents rearly the next morning and just spent the day chatting, relaxing and going on a sunset motorbike ride. It was amazing chasing a wallaroo again (a roo with giant muscle builder arms) and driving back on the red dirt roads with the southern cross shining above our heads and headlights. It was interesting to see the place outside the wet season and how the colors have faded and everything becomes dusty.
We left the next day and slowly worked our way down the coast enjoying random beach stops to hunt for surf until we got to Brisbane. We stopped in at the Steve Irwin zoo, petted some cros, koalas, fed elephants and watched amazing tiger shows where they leapt through the air and landed in a swimming pool. There was a spectacular fireworks display with F11 fighter jets doing fuel burns (dumping fuel and lighting it on fire) over the city. We drove out to Mt. Warning after to watch the sunset on top of
a mountain wich required a 2 hours niht hike up a mountain and some minor rock climbing. It was breathe taking to stand on the mountain and see the sun rise. It was different than anything I have ever seen. Any sunrise I haveever seen. To see the sun rise from such a high altitude over the ocean and see it as a perfect orb and not just a bright light was amazing. You could actually looki at it becuase the light wasn't very intense for several minutes. One of the most aw inspiring moments of my life.
We powered down to Wollongong and here I am surrounded by friends in my Australian home. I hung out with many people last night, going to a BBQ tonight and surfed earlier today. I am just relaxig and spending time with people who have meant a lot to me these last few days.
I had written more but the computer glitched and as I am already strapped for time can't give the update I had before so you'll have to accept the scraps I have thrown you for now. At least I can easily talk to you about any one
of these things I have seen from this blog for an hour and I will. I just ask that you go out and do something exciting and have an adventure to share with me that you can talk about for almost as long.
Off to Singapore on Friday, then to Edmonton for 2 days, the wedding in Vancouver and then flying to Bangkok on sept 29th. So excited for my Asia trip to start and to see all my friends from back home!
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