Realizing that driving from Melbourne to northern Queensland would be the equivalent of driving from Dallas to Boston, we added a flight to see the Great Barrier Reef, beaches, and rainforests of Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef is located off the coast of Queensland, the state that occupies the northeastern section of Australia. We started in Port Douglas, using it as a base to explore the area.
Traveling in this area can be a bit unnerving at times. Either Australians are just trying to scare you with all their "danger" and "warning" signs or there are truly many dangers awaiting tourists. We were warned about stinging trees, winding roads, stingers, falling rock, jellyfish, wet roads, snakes, cyclones, crocodiles, deadly currents, spiders and some big bird the size of me that you should avoid pissing off. It appears that the danger signs are just for tourists since the locals handle all these animals and call them by their names as if they are best friends. Our various tour guides pet huge fish in the ocean, handle crocodiles, hug lizards, kiss birds, hang snakes on themselves, and are not bothered when a koala "poos" on them.
Besides seeing animals in the wild, we had to get used to a variety of critters showing up in our rooms. Any food left out brought an immediate army of ants. Geckos obviously liked it better inside with us. A hornets nest in Noah's closet caused him to lose some sleep. I wish we had video of the three of us trying to chase a bat out of the house. Luckily the crocodile and kangaroo stayed outside. They would have been a little more difficult to deal with.
Noah turned 14 years old in Queensland! After failing in my attempt to make him pancakes (pre-packaged and stale) and bacon (thrashers are not bacon) for breakfast, we spent the rest of the day visiting various spots in the Daintree National Park on a beautiful day. The park is a wonderful combination of hills, streams, rainforest, and deserted beaches. It is the only place in the world where the rainforest meets up with a reef (the Great Barrier Reef in this case). We were meant to be as there was a Noah's Creek, Noah's Range, Noah's Campground and the massive Noah's Beach. We had Noah's Beach to ourselves. Was it because of the multiple warnings about deadly crocodiles and stingers? We finished off Noah's birthday by eating Mexican, and playing pool and video games back in Port Douglas. Noah agreed that it was a great Birthday.
Since you can't go to Queensland without snorkeling or diving at the Great Barrier Reef, we hopped on a boat that brought us to three locations for snorkeling. We of course had our stinger suits on to avoid ending up in the hospital. Each site brought more fish and variety in coral. We have snorkeled quite a bit and overall this is the best snorkeling that we have ever experienced. Another boat trip took us up Packers Creek in search of crocodiles. We only saw one due to the warm waters.
From Port Douglas, we drove down the coast to Airlie's Beach, the base town for visiting the Whitsunday Islands. We took a raft boat trip out to the Whitsunday's in some very high seas which made for a wild ride. We did some more snorkeling, but the highlight was going to Whitehaven Beach, which has to have the whitest sand in the world. The sand is 98.9% silicone. I am not quite sure of the significance of this composition, but it sure makes for incredible baby-powder sand.
Our final stop in Queensland was on Magnetic Island, just off the coast of Townsville. The island is a week-end destination for Australians so there are very few foreign tourists. It has a homey feel being void of large resorts. We rented a house in the rain forest on a lagoon about a 5 minute walk away from the ocean. It was a great house except for the aforementioned bat, geckos, and hornet's nest. This is where we saw our first kangaroo in Australia. Yes, it took us 2 weeks to see a kangaroo in Australia! Keeping with the nature theme, we held crocodiles, lizards and birds, and Jennifer got to hold a Koala! No, it did not poo on her.To view our slide show of Queensland, Australia, click on the following link ==> Queensland, Australia Slide Show
No comments:
Post a Comment