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Published: December 1st 2008
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Due to the amount of time we were on the road we decided to do this blog in one and not bore you with all the details of every stop we made because sometimes it was just literally an overnight stay so here are some of the highlights.
We went to Sydney and both thought it was a really nice, vibrant city. We went to the opera house and got a boat around the harbour underneath the harbour bridge and had a wander around it's parks.
We went down the east coast to a place called Eden to go and see the Humpback whales. It was a 2hr boat ride until we finally found a mother and it's calf. They were really friendly playing in the sea jumping out of the water and splashing around, it was an amazing experience to see them up close as you can't judge how big they actually are from watching tv.
Our next destination was Phillip island which 90km south of Melbourne. The reason we went here is we heard you can see blue penguins which are the smallest penguins out of 17 different species. The place was called penguin parade, there
was a stand you could sit in for around for about 1500 people which overlooks the main beach which 100s of penguins cross each night when coming ashore to feed thre young. We deciced to take a more personal tour where a maximum of 10 people walked to a completely seperate beach with a tour guide called Sam which Lisa fancied the pants off. We sat on the beach in a row all in our gear including night vision goggles and waited for the sun to set and await there arrival. The penguind all float and huddle up out at sea in what we were told are called rafts and wait until the dark before coming ashore. When they arrived it was truly amazing, the cutiest littliest things you've ever seen waddling all around you. We watched them cross the beach through our goggles and listened to there chicks crying out for there mums and dads. to top it all off it was a perfect night sky with millions of stars above. After an hour or so, we started to walk back to the centre in the pitch black where we saw loads more penguins. They close the part of
the island where the penguins nests are off at dusk so it is just you, 10 other people and hundreds of penguins walking around. The noise was really loud with the chicks crying out, mating calls and male penguins challenging each other. It was amazing. Unfortunately you couldn't take a camera down to the beach as the flashes would disturb the penguins so we didn't get any pics , but have put some we found of the same penguin parade from the internet to show you. Also on Phillip Island we visited animal sanctuary where we got to see and feed some of the wildlife and saw some truly Aussie animals.
On our drive to Port Lincoln, we drove along the great ocean road. This was 200km of winding road alongside the coast and was a beautiful drive. We stopped at the 12 apostles and the Blue Lakes which is an old volcano crator.
The reason for the long trek upto Port Lincoln(14days!) was because this is where i (Matt) got to fulfill my lifelong ambition, cage diving with great white sharks. When we went down to the port to book it we saw the boat with the
cage on the back which had teeth marks on all over the floats on the cage. I did think twice but we'd come this far so i booked for the next day. It took a couple of hours on the boat to get to where they were. There was 20 people in all and we all went in the cage in groups of four. I decided to see a gruop go in first so i could see what i was getting myself into. Once the water was chumed (Fish guts, blood, you name it) They turned up straight away. I watched from the deck as the first group got in and you could see the monsters swimming all around the cage. Once a group was in they would tie a tuna head to a hook a throw it in the sea a wait until it caught one of the sharks attention, when it had they pulled the bait towards the cage so that you could see the shark with it's jaw wide open sometimes smashing directly into the cage. Once it was my turn i have no problem in saying i was a tad scared but also really excited. It
took me a couple of minutes to get used to the breathing apparatus but when i did and was under the water with them it was unbeleivable. There were 4 sharks around me in all and they were huge, the staff told me they were 4 and a half to 5 meters long (they can grow to six). It wasn't just the length that got me it was the width of these things , it felt like they could swallow you whole. I took a underwater camera with me and got some not so bad shots but there was a picture on board of the biggest one i'd seen(they called her Scratchy because of the scratch next to her mouth) which was the one which smashed into the cage when i was under so i took a pic off it to show you. After 45 mins under my turn was up and as soon as i was out i wanted to go back under, this was by far the best thing i have ever done and i can't wait to do it again.
3 days driving through the outback (we drove to Port Lincoln along the coast all the
way but decided to drive back cross country) we arrived North of Sydney on the East Coast. Driving up to Cairns from here we stopped at a couple of places that we loved. Byron Bay and Airlie Beach. Both were surfer/ backpacker type towns and had a really laidback/ chilled out vibe to them. The weather was good as well so after 2 weeks freezing on the south coast we made the most of it. In Airlie Beach you couldn't swim in the sea as it is jellyfish season (deadly jellyfiish such as Box Jellyfish and Portugese man-o-war) but it had this massive lagoon on the coast that everybody used. Also from Airlie Beach we booked a trip to snorkle in the great barrier reef. We got on a boat and sailed for 2 hours picking people up from a couple of the Whitsunday Islands on thw way. We reached Knuckle Reef where there was a massive Pontoon that we would be spending the day on. From the pontoon you could get into the ocean and snorkle anytime you wanted. There was also a glass bottom boat and semi-submarine that you could sail around the reef on to get a
good look at it all. It was a really good day. Also on the way up to Cairns we stopped at Australia Zoo (Steve Irwins place). We saw loads of scary crocodiles and got to watch them in action in the crocoseum. It was pouring down so we got to wear these great Australia Zoo ponchos that looked like Subway Sandwich bags!
Finally we arrived in Cairns where we dropped off the campervan and booked into a hostel called Shenanigans (with a bed and air con!!). We liked it so much in Cairns we changed our flights so we could stay there for a few days longer. It had the same feel as Airlie Beach and also had the big lagoon that you could sunbathe next to. Spent most of our nights eating and drinking and days sat round the lagoon. It was so hot there!
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