Loggerhead turtle being bothered while laying eggs at Mon Repos.

Sunny, Hot and Humid at Rainbow Beach

The Bundaberg distillery was awesome. I mean, it's really fascinating about how they make rum out mollasses, the by-product of refining sugar cane into sugar. There are sugar cane fields all over Queensland, the northeast state of Australia. In fact, I am told that Queensland used to provide 70% of the world's sugar.
The tax on alcohol is steep here. They have oak barrels that hold 64,000 L of rum. This comes to about $5 million in booze. I am told that they have to pay 2/3 of that as tax to the government. Don't quote me on this, but it sort of explains why booze is expensive in stores. In bars, however, it's about the same as in the States. In the "bottle shops", liquor stores, the booze is about double the price you would expect to pay in the States, of course it's in Australian dollars, but it ends up being pretty close to double just the same.
Yeah, so the Bundaberg distillery was made extra nice since I got to have two free drinks of whatever I wanted. It was a nice walk back to the youth hostel...about 30 minutes away.
I also got to see the Loggerhead Turtles at Mon Repos. This is about 14 km from Bundaberg. I shared a taxi with two folks I met at the youth hostel across the street. The Loggerheads are a type of sea turtle that come up on the beach from November to March to lay their eggs. It is pretty amazing to see these turtles, about a meter across, crawl out, make a hole, lay eggs, and then bury them and crawl back into the sea. They take about 30 years to reach maturity to lay eggs, and they lay about 125 eggs every 2 weeks for about 2 months. They only lay eggs every 2-4 years. Out of 1000 eggs, only one turtle will reach maturity and return to Mon Repos. (I like factoids, can you tell?) So, it seems like a shame that the turtle, has to face about 50 people in the darkness, with their blinding flashlights and camera flashes after swimming 3000 km to return home to roost.
After Bundaberg, I went to Noosa (nice name), which is a pretty busy place on the Sunshine Coast. I was there the past couple of nights. There are supposed to be some nice restaurants there, and there is a inlet and sound where campers bring their trailers and boats to cruise around in the protected waterways. I hiked around in the Noosa National Park and saw some large monitors (lizards) and some brush turkeys. I had dinner both nights at a Malaysian Noodle house. I had some Laksa curry noodles; pretty good stuff. Wierd considering how I will probably pay 1/8th of what I paid in a few months for the same thing.
I just got to Rainbow Beach, and it's hot and humid. I heard that it might rain, but it doesn't look like it right now. I'll be here for one night, then I go with a group of folks to Fraser Island. We get to drive a 4wd around on this sand island. I read that there is more sand on Fraser Island than in the Sahara desert.(Who counts the grains of sand?) We'll be camping on Fraser for a couple nights, then we return back to Rainbow Beach.
Christmas on Fraser Island.

Merry Christmas everyone!

In the distance are the horses being herded by a dog at the Stoney Creek Farmstay

Stoney Creek Farmstay is a small working horse ranch.

Stoney Creek Farmstay

I just spent the last four days at a farmstay in Eton, which is a small town outside of Mackay. Four days of no other travellers. Just me, four cattle dogs, 15 horses, 3 calves, and a great family. A farmstay is where city slickers pay countryfolk to live on their property and experience country life. Yeah, it sounds like a scam, but it was a great experience. Their ranch, Dunbarra, is very self sufficient. 700 acres in valley, with a waterfall and creek, and forests and grazing pastures, and solar power. The only utilities they pay is telephone. I got to ride horses and joined them in bringing in the horses and taking them out to graze (with a pickup truck and a cattle dog). Dude, I could be a cowboy. The cabin I lived in didn't have a waterheater so it meant cold showers, which wasn't bad especially when it got up to 104 F. No air conditioning.
These folks have built their own house from modest beginnings (read: tin shack). Now it's a beautiful home with wood and stone, but only after years for work. A couple of the days were absolutely perfect for riding: a breeze, overcast skies, and a little sprinkle of rain. As you crest a ridge with the wind blowing, seeing the green trees and grazing lands, it really is a perfect moment. Pick your theme song: City Slickers or Bonanza. It's awwwwesome. Watching the horses gallop away, being herded by the dog is great. Man, I could spend a month here working with the horses. But that's not to be.
I was going to go down to Rainbow Beach to go to Fraser Island today, but I didn't book a week ahead, so now I have a few days to spend between here and there. I'm headed to Rockhampton today. It's the beef capital of Queensland, or Australia. I'm going to see if I can get into a bar fight there. riiiiight. Actually, from there, I'm going to go to the Great Keppel Island and spend a couple days there. After that, I will probably go to Bundaberg, where they make an awesome rum. It's really sweet like sugar cane, which is a perfect drink for me. You're supposed to be able to see sea turtles hatch near there. Oh, and there's a rum factory tour you can take too. Hmm...
After that, I'll go to Rainbow Beach where I'll meet up with some random people and rent a 4wd to go to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. That'll be during Christmas. Woohoo!
Oh yeah, more on the Whitsundays...
I met some awesome people during our two days on the boat. I also saw a couple sea turtles. One was during the day dive, and one was during the night dive. It is a freaky thing to be swimming in a murky soup with 2 meters visibility, and have a huge sea turtle (a meter across) swim around you. The four of us that were diving, kept it in our lights, as it cruised around us. This is not the sort of thing I would have done with only one other person. It's like walking through an abandoned house in the middle of the night with a flashlight. Pretty exhilirating, but scary as heck.
I also ditched Bernie, the dude from the UK who, may I say, was FREAKING ME OUT. I'll leave it at that. But it's great to be travelling alone again. Rock on!

Whitsunday Island crew and guests for the after trip party.

I've seen that face before. Partying with new friends from the Whitsunday Island trip.

Looking sunburnt after the Whitsunday's trip in Airlie Beach.

Sunsetting on the Whitsunday Islands.

The "New Horizon" was pretty packed with some 32 passengers. The weather was hot and we cramped up top in the evening for drinks and conversation. I slept up top both evenings because the air conditioning was broken. It was comfortable out at night.

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.