Great Barrier Reef

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You’ll have to forgive me if I’ve missed a few days in my re-telling. There’s seriously no way to tell when everything happens. Not one person this morning knew what day it was when we were waiting for breakfast. It took 19 of us 10 minutes to work out how close Christmas is while we were sailing (i.e. mostly sober). It makes everything easier to do when you can’t be bothered trying to figure out what you’re doing next, and while I found this a bit distressing at first (I know, I’m a bit OCD), but then I stopped caring and my trip got a lot better.
Moving on to what you really want to hear about:
Can’t remember if I discussed Cape Tribulation and because I’m writing this on the bus I can’t get online and check, so I’ll just go for it anyways. Cape Trib: a very cool place. The town itself is a bar/hostel, a grocery store and a resort. It’s illegal to build anything in the rainforest (the oldest in the world, btw) so nothing new has gone up in over 20 years. The Aborigines have some houses hidden back in the area, but even they come down to the only bar for a good time. The night we went down there was a really, really fun night. First of all, there are no lights up in Cape Trib. Everything is run on generators, so after the sun sets its dark dark and you can see all the stars. After dancing a bit (to the only live band in town) with the locals (Who are crazy! They actually warned us about them before we crossed the river into “The Dark Side”), we got invited down to the beach for a bonfire by some locals we had met swimming in a river earlier that day. I thought the stars outside are cabin were beautiful, but it was nothing compared to the stars on the beach. It was really cool to hang out with the locals and the other internationals that were staying that the hostel. After we found our way back to the resort (a 15 minute walk through the rainforest, in the dark, slightly tipsy) we sat around start gazing all night. Very cool.
After that was back to Cairns where we met up with the rest of our tour (14 grew to 50) and headed out to the Great Barrier Reef. I know I won’t be able to do justice to the reef buy writing about it, and I haven’t developed my pictures yet, but I know they won’t compare. It is insane. I have never seen anything so cool. There are big covered platforms out on the reef itself, each owned by a different company. They put you on a boat and ferry you over, where you can dive and snorkel off the platform. They also have glass-bottom and semi-submerged boats so you can look without getting wet. I went on an “advanced snorkel safari” where they took us out quite a distance from the platform and we swam back. I saw a few sharks and tons of jelly fish.
The next day we drove for a good 8 hours down to Arlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. Some of us jumped onto two boats and went sailing for 3 days, and it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done. We actually did proper sailing and had to raise the sails and all. I can see why people sped their whole lives on the ocean. It was amazing to sail right past bigger ships that were using their motors and have the breeze hardening the salt in your hair. This all sounds very…fake, but it really was like that. The skipper would stop the boat so we could dive off and splash around in the ocean, and he found us all the best bits of reef to snorkel in. Some of the spots were better than the place they took us to on the reef proper. I would do it again in a heartbeat, even though I killed my back by sleeping on the deck both nights. It was worth it though, to see what seemed like all the stars. Orion is upside down here, but it’s nice to be able to see him and not feel as far away.
Those of us who didn’t sail spent three days on Daydream Island, which is hands down the coolest resort I’ve seen. The whole island is privately owned, and there’s so much to do with a rainforest and a living reef built into the island. They have it all around the rooms, and it’s full of sharks and coral and stingrays. I was only there for half a day, but I did get to experience the most amazing (and most expensive) facial of my life. Everyone is so pleasant there and the staff love when Contiki rolls through because it means 3 pool parties a week! Last night was defiantly a very good time. I highly recommend a trip to Daydream Island. You can hit up the Reef and the Whitsundays, all while staying in one of the coolest places ever.
Tonight we’re staying on a cattle farm, where we get to ride tractors. Yay. I’m sure it will be fun though, because we’ve been promised Karaoke.


Ok, so when I wrote this entry, it really had only been a few days since my last update, not the almost month it has taken me to publish it. There was no WiFi and very few internet booths where I could update my blog for pretty much the entire tour, but that just means that since I have all the entrie done, I have no excuse to not post one daily!
Also: pictures are being edited and will be posted ASAP

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