So I'm getting down to the wire here. I've less than 48 hours left in Australia, and I've obviously been keeping quite busy as I've been away from the computer. The last couple weeks have consisted of the tropics: Cairns, Whitsundays, and Fraser Island.
I flew into Cairns on March 19, departing Melbourne around 6 am. Exhausted, I collapsed on my hostel bed and caught up on sleep for about two hours before heading out to explore the city. Cairns really doesn't have much to offer other than a major Casino. However, what makes this such a touristy town is that it is a central location to departures for the Great Barrier Reef, Mission Beach for skydiving (really, that's all Mission Beach is known for), Daintree River to check out Crocs and see the transistion of mangroves to rainforest, Cape Tribulation for a nice rainforest experience (but stay out of the ocean if you wanna steer clear of Estuarine Crocs), and the Tully River for some good rafting. I wandered the streets of Cairns for a few hours on the 19th, in and out of tourist shops that were exact clones of each other, save the occasional fifty cent difference in price, and suddenly encountered a flood of protesters of some sort all dressed in yellow, all of them marching down the main drag. Not so much out of curiosity, but simply because I was turning the corner, I discovered they were protesting the importation of bananas from the Phillipines. Good on 'em for wanting to keep jobs of Aussies, but at the same time I couldn't help but notice that many of these protesters were definitely not Aussie born, and were probably much like the many Canadians I've met along the way who worked packaging bananas and other fruits. Perhaps I'm just a bitter American who couldn't get a working visa. At the same time, I notice Australia facing a lot of what America has already encountered, and hope that they choose to be a little more self-loyal rather than trying to save a buck and not getting the quality that you could if you just kept it domestic.
I rose early the next morning for my trip to GBR, and headed down to the fleet only to discover after about a thirty minute wait that my boat was not going out today. I asked if other boats were, and the reply was "yes" as I was pointed in the direction of a walk-on family owned boat, the Reef Experience. After a big brekkie on the boat and a handful of motion sickness tablets, we were off. The water was quite choppy, but I'm not gonna give up my trip for a bit of chop. After an entertaining orientation, I jumped in for the first of two snorkel session. Sans a buddy, I became a bit more adventurous and ventured away from the boat a bit more than I should, particularly as I was chasing a little white tip reef shark around in an attempt to capture its image....we shall have to wait and see. After getting my hand slapped for wandering too far, I went ahead and decided to SCUBA for the first time, unsure what my eustracian tubes would think of this decision. I quickly discovered that I was a nose breather as my mask leaked everytime I exhaled. Going into deeper waters with Justin the Dive Instructor and three other Aussies, we came across a variety of sea life, including some enourmous clams that Justin was trying to get me to help him pry open, and we also found Nemo! When the day was done, I had made some Aussie friends from NSW, three older guys from a variety of professions. Meeting up later on that night for a real seafood experience at a more-than-backpacker-price-range restaurant, they were kind enough to treat me to a meal....Brian will be pleased to know that I indulged in some fresh prawns (in other words, I haven't been eating Kosher (-;). Returning to my room, I encountered Yvonne, a spunky, good natured Brit with a slight Brummy accent. We were bedmates for the next couple of nights before she was off to Hong Kong. The following three days consisted of one day rafting the Tully River in mainly grade 4 and one 5 rapids, during which I really felt the resulting sunburn on my back and bum from snorkelling the day prior, doing walks through the Daintree forest and Cape Tribulation. While in Cape Trib, I notice a small scratch on my foot developing a bit of a red line along the vein. Aware of what this was, I went to the pharmicist only to discover he was on vacation and the doctor was an hour drive away. Hmmm. Resorting to the second best option, I went to the grocer, got some garlic to slap on the wound, and watched the line lessen during the following days until I came to a doctor in Townsville. See, Mom and Dad, there was a good reason I got blood poisoning ten years ago; otherwise I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it and ended up with gangrene and perhaps be less one foot by this point. Getting back on track, Cape Trib was a wonderful place, and with the rainforest right on the beach, it truly felt like a scene right out of LOST. I encountered some interesting critters along some walks, including some non-indiginous wild boars and some stoned Canadians (who, by the way, were useless when they offered to drive me to where I needed to go and I ended up a good 3K from where I wanted to be; this is why you don't smoke).
Upon my return to Cairns, I took the 12:30am bus to Townsville (where I pretty much did nothing but eat ice cream, which ultimately got me sick, and went to the doctors) where I stayed for a day rather than going to Magnetic Island as planned. The next morning I was off to Airlie Beach for my sailing adventure. We (a group of about twenty of us) departed on the Habibi the next morning, and this is when I began to learn that it's not always good to book things in advance. The sailing was fantastic, but the place was covered in bedbugs. It was during this trip that I began to grow weary of my flashpacker backpacker journey. I slept (for an hour) up above before the critters were discovered due to being sick from the smell of the engine room, but the next night, the others on board were so rude in trying to sleep where I specifically asked if I could sleep in an attempt to escape the bugs....I guess I was a bit spoiled early on in the trip being able to travel along and choose with whom to meet along the way. But it wasn't all that bad. We got a bit of snorkelling in, and enjoyed the beautiful sands of world-famous Whitehaven Beach. Of course, though, the first thing I did upon returning the the Marina was take a shower at the public showers, and wash everything I had taken on that boat. It was here in the Marina that I met Dale, an Aussie who was recently in Ft. Lauderdale to pick up his new yacht. It's meeting locals like him that makes me want to return to Australia and experience the country less like a tourist, and more like an Aussie as I've been given some great tips on the right boats to take, nice beaches to visit that aren't on the traveller's map, and where to stay.
From Airlie, I took the coach on down to Hervey Bay where I met the group with whom I'd spend three days on Fraser Island. After a bit of grocery shopping (my budgeting skills from shopping for work came in quite handy as we all got money back from what we contributed) and headed out to the Island on the ferry the next morning. Again, I was somewhat miffed about the whole backpacker package thing as I was told the car was automatic (lies, lies!), but I sucked it up and learned to drive (fine, I'd tried once before, but that was about six years ago)--get this--four-wheel drive manual on the sand using my left hand to shift. I'll be soooo confused if I try to drive a manual back home! Granted the German guys weren't keen on my driving, but I wasn't the one doing 100k/h on the beach in a 70 zone. :-P We stayed at a camp owned by Aboriginals, and originally, Nick, the guy who ran the place, wasn't too keen on us. However, he quickly took a liking to our group when he asked what my ethnic make-up was and it came out that I was very very little Cherokee....apparently, since it's believed that Aboriginals are the oldest race, they believe that natives to a land are a closer sub-race to them. After a bit, while the others were consumed by drinking games, he took me to his little house and showed me some spectacular Aboriginal dot art he'd been doing. The next morning, some of us rose quite early to watch the sun rise while others slept in, suffering quitely from their hangovers. Driving along the beach is quite tricky, and on multiple occasions, the paltry itinerary we were given nearly got us washed out to sea. But we had a phenomenal time, nonetheless. Lake Mackenzie, a pristine freshwater lake from which you can drink, was by far the highlight of Fraser. The island being a 126 km stretch of sand (and it also houses a rainforest), the lake had the appearance of the water you would find in the Bahamas, clear and green on the edges, and dropping off into a deep blue as the depth increased. Before departing, Nick said he had something for me to take back. One item was a piece of dot art he'd painted for me on a section of redwood, and the other....let's just say I'm keeping my fingers crossed and saying a prayer when I walk through customs. On the bright side, it shouldn't be cursed as I didn't take it, but rather was given it.
I got into Byron Bay yesterday, where I met up with Hannah, the self proclaimed New Age hippy I'd met on the surf trip in NZ. She took me to an art gallery out in the country before we headed to her boyfriend's to stay the night where, after a fantastic authentic Indian curry meal (he grew up in a monk monastary in Tibet, which let me tell you, made for quite the interesting stay), the two pulled out some canvas and paint to get to work on their current projects. Hannah said she needed to use me as a model, and I told her that I was willing so long as I could keep my clothes on as I knew she was very much into nudes....thankfully she just needed a face. I'm also thankful she's into abstracts as the thing looks nothing like me. I was ultimately coerced into painting after Jahna handed me a feather paintbrush he'd made....peer pressure. They were also very much into poetry, and after I commented that his poem was good and I liked it (I'd only read page one of six), I turned the page and discovered that I may have been a bit more comfortable on the set of The Girls Next Door than sitting there reading that poem and I quickly skipped to the last page to save myself from anymore suffering. After a lovely homemade brekky of free range eggs, avocados, pesto on toast, and homemade almond milk, and before Hannah and I departed for a bit of a surf in Byron this morning, he handed me a small sachet with a crystal shaped by Tibetin monks inside of it. A nice gesture, I'm still not sure I'll keep it as I'm a little weirded out by its presence. If my brother met this couple, he'd never even joke that I was a "hippy"again. So Hannah and I were off for a quick surf before she had to work, and I am pleased to say that in that big pool of mush, I somehow managed to stand for the first time on a board much shorter (6'8") than I'm accustomed to (8'4"). Sqeee! While I was going to do a bit of a walk until Hannah returned with my bags this afternoon, I decided to catch up on here instead. It's a sad thing, departing in only two days; the time has surely flown. Before I go, though, I am scheduled to arrive for my last full day in Sydney at 6am on Sunday, go on a day trip to the Blue Mountains to see the Three Sisters at 7am, and will likely spend my evening packing and doing wash like all the good little backpackers do before leaving. And I'll hope that I get to my plane just fine without having to remove that little keepsake from around my neck that hangs from a piece of wire.
