The Whitsunday Islands are 74 islands off the coast from Airlie Beach. This is a prime sailing area. Charter boats leave everyday for 3-day trips out there. The islands are magnificent with reefs for diving and pristine beaches.

Back from the Whitsundays

I got back from the Whitsunday Islands this afternoon. It was amazing. There are about 74 islands off the coast of Airlie Beach. There are a lot of boats going out for 3days/2night trips everyday, some of them America's
Cup challengers converted to charter boats. I took a 74-foot schooner out with about 32 people. We mostly motor-sailed; the seas were choppy and the winds about 15-20 knots. They fed us like kings, and I got to dive three more times, including a night dive which was kind of like walking through the woods at night with a few of your friends when you were about five years old; it was pretty spooky. I slept on the deck both nights because it was stuffy in the berths below decks. The stars were amazing, and the breeze was good. I didn't have a blanket or anything, just my shirt and swimming trunks.
I think I'll be headed for Mackay tomorrow.

Sunrising over the boat in the Whitsundays. I actually didn't much sleep that night because it was suffocatingly hot in the berth (without a/c). The sun rose at 5:00 am.

We motored around the Hook Passage as the sun was setting. We did our night dive from this place. The current was strong. It was freaky but awesome.

Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach

I'm in Airlie Beach. I got here after an eleven-hour bus ride from Cairns yesterday; it was raining up there. Today, the weather is fabulous. It is hot and the sun is shining. There is a good breeze. I'll be on New Horizon, a schooner, for the next three days for sunning, snorkelling, and scuba diving. I was lazying around the pool this morning. Absolutely incredible views here. I will try email some when I get back. Wish you guys were here.

Back in Cairns

The overnight bus to Airlie Beach is full so I'll be staying in Cairns for a night and taking the morning bus. It's an eleven hour ride. woo hoo! The rainforest was pretty incredible. Australia appears to be very environmentally friendly because they have realized through errors that their ecosystem is delicate. In years past the introduction of other species have had devastating impacts on their ecosystem. I like the one about the cane toad which has no predators and whose skin secretes a poison that kills crocadiles and whose eggs are poisonous. This toad was brought over from South America by sugar cane farmers to get rid of a beetle that was ravaging their crop. Apparently it never took care of the beetles either. The toads have spread across Australia in about 30 years.
Interestingly, people lick the toads and smoke their skins to get a hallucinogenic effect. The rainforests were cleared because it was believed that their soil was rich, but actually, it's just sand without the rainforest.
Anyways, I'm not turning into a GreenPeacenik, but it's fascinating to hear about the end of the world especially while I haven't invested in one yet. Did I mention that they sell dog food in the refrigerated sections of the supermarket next to the meat aisle? Either that or it's dog meat. I am told they sell kangaroo meat too. It's supposed to be lean like deer meat, and I'm told that it keeps in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. And there is a section in the supermarket for people who homebrew their beer. This is simply amazing. There is a beer called XXXX. Actually I saw this up in front of a bar and I thought it was an especially dirty nudie bar. Well, as it turns out, it's the name of the beer that tastes like s**t, but since they can't write that everywhere, they just name it "****" or "four-x". The Burger Kings are called Hungry Jack's. I'm not sure why. I keep getting confused with the side of the road to walk on and the way I should be looking for cars at crosslights. It is especially frightening to be sitting in the front while a car is making a left turn at an intersection. It seems to violate my sense of safety. It's a good thing I'm not going to be driving anything around here. There was intermittent rain today while I was in the rainforest. Listening to the rain fall, the insects buzz, and the waves crash at Cape Tribulation was pretty neat. Cape Trib is very quiet and peaceful, and there are few visitors.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the coast. I bought a Greyhound bus pass that will take me down to Melbourne over the next 30 days.

At Cape Tribulation, the Daintree National Park comes right to the beach. There is no one on the beach because of the dreaded "boxed jellyfish".

This is the type of cabin our dorms were in at Cape Tribulation. It's pretty dark in the rainforest.

There is a bottle of blue vinegar for jellyfish stings at the beach. The vinegar is blue so people don't use this stuff on their fish & chips leaving none for the actual injuries. I am not making this up.

Inside view of the lattice work. The tree inside here died and decomposed.

This is a strangler fig tree as Dan the jungle guide explained. A bird eats a fig fruit and fins a hole in a tree and poops the seed into the hole. The seed drops into the center of the tree and grows around the tree, ending up killing it. It creates a latticework around the tree.

View of the coast from the rainforest.

Aquaman in the Great Barrier Reef!

The Great Barrier Reef is pretty awesome. I was able to dive to about 16m (52ft) for about 30 minutes until I had to go back up. I think I could stay down for about an hour as I never had less than half a tank left. The colors are more muted than I had expected, but I guess that's because the television and photographs have the colors shifted so that they look brighter. I will hold off on uploading more photos as the jungle internet connection is very sloooooow.

We're posing for the camera as the boat leaves us behind in "Open Water 2: more stupid Americans abroad".

We're leaving the overnight boat. Yes, that's right, this is a picture of us leaving the overnight boat.

The Great Barrier Reef looks like this above water. From the air, it looks like wierd brown sand shoals that stretch off into the distance.

Leaving Cairns for the reef. Cairns is supposed to be the closest to the Great Barrier Reef, 90 minutes by boat.

Tropical fish in the reef.

Giant Maori Wrasse while diving. This is about 1.3 meters long.