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Published: April 9th 2009
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Hello everyone, this is the last article of our trip which has now ended since mid-March. Every good thing comes to an end...
Airlie Beach, Whitsundays islands, Queensland
Marco came back from Thailand to meet us and of course we celebrated his return by having a traditional apero. But not too late, as we needed to wake up early the next morning to go on a boat cruise for 2 days. Ethan was our skipper and 5 other persons were on our 10m long boat. We could enjoy a little bit of sunshine and a great snorkelling. It really felt we were swimming in an aquarium spotting a fish called "Elvis" by locals, giant turtles... However, we had to wear wetsuits to protect ourselves from deadly jelly fishes. The boat owner was Italian, meaning we could have a great pesto on the boat, not to say about the delicious bruschettas and of course the Aussie TAM-TAM with cream and coffee. You can imagine that all of us put on some weight thanks to this tasty but no fat-free food. Everything was included except for the drinks. This part, we could handle...
We spent the 1st day on
the boat cruising from an island to another to snorkel around. The second day, we went to a view point and admired the famous Whitehaven white sand beach and eventually landed there to practice our Marseille's football skills (cf. pictures).
The departure was memorable. A helicopter was waiting for us to fly back to Airlie Beach. It lasted exactly 18min, but the view from the sky was amazing. Whitsundays islands are in fact an archipelago of 74 islands right on the Great Barrier Reef.
Mission Beach, Queensland
We then left for Mission Beach a quiet town on the Queensland coast and relaxed in a very cosy hostel where we had delicious brunches and dinners especially made for and by us! Although there was a swimming pool in the hostel, we went to the beach to have fun and football. At night time, we played cards (tarot for the ones who know) and drinks to heat up the competition between us. We will not publish the results as some of us will be ashamed...
Port Douglas-Cape Tribulation-Cairns, Queensland
On the day we left, heavy rains started to pour. Not surprising during the wet season. But it was
something special: a typhoon coming right onto Cairns where we initially wanted to stay. So we had to change our plans and we went a little bit up north to Port Douglas where it rained less. It was the right choice as we received a warm welcoming from the hostel staff. We also played poker but lost. Being 5 people out of 10 around the table did not help us too much! We were much better at partying and coming back around 3am convincing the girls working at the hostel to reopen the bar for us only. As the owner was not supposed to know (we painfully learnt that rules ARE rules here), we had to be quiet and cautious of the noise. Not that easy after few drinks...
The next day we drove around the region of Cape Tribulation enjoying its rainforest, mangroves and beaches. We did not see any crocodiles but heard a 5-year old kid got eaten a few days earlier while walking on the bank.
Then we headed to Cairns on a panoramic road and stayed one night there to enjoy our last dinner with Seb. Goodbyes always implies sadness so we went out, one more
time, to avoid it. The night ended up with small troubles. We were quietly chatting on the street and a random guy started to insult us for no reason. Security guys came and asked us to leave. We could not understand why as we were not the ones to have started the argument. But we left to avoid any trouble. This was not a good memory of Australia as the security guys insulted us too just because we were foreigners. It might not be the right reason but that's what we felt.
Melbourne, Victoria
We flew to Melbourne where Carine, aka Karinache, Marco's wife (oops... girlfriend!), welcomed us with a lot of care: barbecue, pastis and fruit salad were all well prepared and tasty. Dolu and Agathe, aka "Ajate the power", arrived the day before to celebrate our ending trip (and maybe also for taking some awarded vacations in Australia...). As they came in, Max's time was over and he flew back to France to take care of his girlfriend he had left for "only" 4 months!
Carine's hospitality went till taking a sick leave so she could take us on a tour: St Kilda, botanic gardens (of
course better than the ones in Sydney!) and city center where we got lucky: a giant rainbow was covering the skyline!
Great Ocean Road, Victoria
Dolu, Ajate, Jems and Tim went for 2 days on the Great Ocean road where impressive cliffs fall straight into the sea. Tim and Jems were broke but not the 2 others who could afford a helicopter ride above this region where the famous 12 Apostles are located. We also spotted some nice koalas and kangaroos along the way. We then came back to Melbourne to spend the weekend with the working people (Marco and Karinache).
Tim then left for Indonesia to spend 3 extra weeks there while Jems started to look for a job in Australia. Still an ongoing process...
We would like to thank you all for your comments and support throughout this trip. More than 6500 pages have been viewed although you were only 180 people to have subscribed to our blog. For us it will be unforgettable. We hope you enjoyed reading our stories. If you did, one more favour please: do not forget to lift up your feet under or over your desk after reading this
last article. No matter where you are!
As usual, you can find all the articles we have published since the beginning of the trip at the below link:
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Aurel
non-member comment
Mais quel geste technique Roger!!! Le retourné jambe tendue dans la vague! Faut l'encadrer!!! Merci les mecs pour ces belles aventures! Je me suis régalé! Vraiment! Votre blog va me manquer! Bon courage pour le retour Time et James (si retour il ya)! On vous attend un peu partout! Hasta luego amigos de mi alma!!!!