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Published: March 12th 2010
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We are on our last few days in Australia, so I'm trying to get all our Australian entries posted before we
leave. Our last 3 weeks here have been spent in condos one week in each different place.
The first one was in Bargara, a small village just outside Bundaberg, on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. We had a lovely room, with a balcony looking right out over the ocean. The first couple of days, we just “vegged out”. We had been traveling for 6 weeks non- stop, driven over 7000kms.and I finally managed to get Mark to slow down. We lazed around in the mornings, and just took walks along the beach and the boardwalk close by.
The big day trip from here was snorkelling on the great barrier reef. WE took a tour bus up to the town of 1770- (funny name, but there it is!) where we boarded the boat that took us 30 miles out to Lady Musgrave Island. The boat anchors in an enclosed coral lagoon, where the waters are calm for snorkelling. The snorkelling was amazing. We saw HUGE clam shells, gigantic sea turtles and many colours of coral and fish. Unfortunately,
we did not have an underwater camera so we have no pics to show you!
The following evening, we went to Mon repo Turtle Rookery. The beach here is a nesting ground for logger head turtles. Each year, they come back to this beach to bury their eggs. In season, you can watch this event happen, and a few months later, you can watch the hatchlings emerge from the nest. WE were fortunate to be there for the hatchlings. Each turtle lays approximately 110 eggs, and the babies have to dig their way out of the nest to the beach, and then walk to the waters edge. It was pretty amazing to watch these little things climb over each other to be the first one to the waters edge! Picture taking was limited in order to not traumatize them, but we were able to include the pic of the small babies! Cute eh?
Our next week long stay was in Caloundra, which is about 20 minutes away from where Kendra is living. Our first day, we visited an outdoor market- in the rain. Next, we tried to go sailing- BUT- there was a Tsunami warning stemming from the earthquake
in Chili. No sailing that day! The joke for the Aussies was that they ignored the warnings for this tsunami. But they all say they did not ignore it, they all went down to the beach to watch!!!! Go figure! Of course- so did we??? Are we nuts? Needless to say, it was rather like watching paint dry. The waves did not look any different, and it turned out that nothing happened after all. Whew!
The rest of the week- it rained, and rained and rained.......you get the picture! We had to brave the weather and visit Steve Irwin's Australian zoo anyway! I've include the pics of the animals- I'll let them speak for themselves! It was a good day- even if my feet are still drying out....
Next stop was a week in Cabarita Beach, about 3 hours south of Kendra. The rain did not stop much, but between showers, we continued to explore the interior countryside or hinterland as it is called.
WE hiked thru rainforests, to waterfalls and on suspension bridges. One of our favourite trips was up to O'Reilly's tree top walk- the road going up has 420 turns in a 25 km run! Many
of the turns were one lane only. I hope you can see what it was like from the pics! A very exciting ride!
Brisbane looked great in the rain, even the Southbank area with its wonderful man made beach.
Australia has had record rainfall here- more rain in two weeks than they have had in 120 years??? There have been big floods, and Melbourne even had a huge hail storm! The streets of the city there were knee deep in water!
And we got to see it- oh goodie! My arms are getting muscular from holding my umbrella! It didn't stop us too much, and it certainly never stops the surfers! They are out in any weather- everywhere!
From here, we are on a quick drive south back to Sydney, where we catch the Pacific Princess ship. We will be departing from Sydney on Sunday night and on board for our 32 day trip thru the South Pacific. I'm not sure what kind of internet access we will have, so it may be awhile before I can update the blog with pictures of the trip. In the meantime, I have included some other entries for you! Enjoy!
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Susan
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Good pics - looks like you had a great time - in spite of all the rain! Hope you have a wonderful cruise.