Our Goodbyes to Sydney and Oz (Australia)

We got into Sydney easily, and made it over to our friends’, Amy and Damon’s, place in the evening.  Amy and Damon have been fantastic to me, while I lived in Sydney, and offered to house us for the night.  We unloaded all of our junk, and the four of us headed out to a great dinner before heading to bed. 

The next day, I had to go meet with my lawyer, while Jared hung around Amy and Damon’s.  After that annoying to-do was done, I met up back with Jared and we went to meet a friend of his from Texas that I had befriended while living in Sydney.  That evening, we were staying with our friend Sheena, as she was house sitting a mansion in a fancy neighborhood, so she let us take advantage!  We packed up our stuff from Amy and Damon’s and met up with Sheena.  We spent the next few days there, meeting old friends from my stay in Sydney, and getting ourselves together for our next leg.  The days went by leisurely, before we went to Sheena’s home for one night.  I left the next morning, and Jared stayed a few more days before going on his own journey.  I headed for my friend’s wedding in Spain, and tacked on a few weeks in Paris and Italy, while Jared set out for a cruise through Tahiti and Easter Island, after which we would meet back up again in the Cook Islands.

OO-LOO-ROO (Australia)

The trip to Uluru, was not nice and easy.  In the evening, we flew to Sydney, where we had to spend the night until the next morning.  As you know, we’ve had our fair share of crappy nights of sleep and a few overnight airport stays, but this one was the worst.  The whole airport actually closes, so they confine everyone in this teenie area with limited seating.  Each chair has a metal armrest separating it from the next, so no lying down.  There were a lot of people sleeping on the ground, which was probably the smarter decision, but the prize went to the girl who actually curled up into a ball and slept on her suitcase, which was on a luggage trolley.  At 4am, I couldn’t sleep anymore, and just played around on the internet (thank God there was at least internet), until about 7am when we made our way back to our terminal.  The flight itself was fine, and we got in a little bit of shut eye.  We made it into Uluru mid-afternoon.
We had only scheduled about 24 hours in Uluru, so we had to book it.  Uluru, or Ayers Rock as the white conquerors dubbed it, is…well, jeez it sounds lame like this…a big rock.  Yes, it’s really just one huge rock in the middle of nowhere.  But, it’s pretty neat, I swear.  The dirty in that area of Australia is red, so the rock itself is red.  It, and a rock formation close to it called Kata Tjuta, are the only land formations for maybe a couple hundred miles.  It’s a very significant Aboriginal landmark, and the area is still inhabited by Aboriginal tribes.  There isn’t much to do in that area, and a very…very small town has formed to handle the tourists in a sustainable way, as the area was being degraded.  When we landed, we went to the center of town and the Information Site to figure out our options.  We got our maps and headed out to Uluru.  We drove the entire circumference of the rock, did a short trek to one of the gorges, and got to learn a little about the Aboriginal tribes in the area.  The walk was nice, but pretty hot and INFESTED with flies!!  Worse, I think, than any place to which we’ve been.  One of the most popular activities there is to watch the colors of Uluru change to a vibrant red as the sun both rises and sets.  As we were approaching sundown, we hightailed it to sunset lookout point and set up shop. Small world, all the fancy camera guys from the 12 Apostles were there too!  To be honest, I’ve seen some photos of Uluru at sunset, and it is awe inspiring, so as we were watching I kept expecting that National Geographic photo opt, but it kinda never happened.  I just sort of kept expecting it to get brighter and brighter and more and more vibrant, and then after a certain point it started becoming less and less of both, which was when I realized that was the whole shebang.  Anyway, we did get in our shots, and then headed back to the town area for dinner.  As the town was teeny, and there wasn’t much threat of anything, we decided to just park and sleep. 
The next morning, we woke up at the *bleep* crack of dawn to watch the sunrise.  I think we forgot to adjust our clocks correctly though, because we woke up way before everyone else, and actually ended up taking a little catnap there.  We finally woke up as the tour-bus-tourists started piling in and found our spot along with everyone else.  I was prepared this time for a slightly less spectacular view than Google portrayed, but again, it was a very pretty sight none-the-less.  After the sun was fully up in the sky, and the colors of the rock settled, we made our way back to the car, ate breakfast and headed over to Kata Tjuta.  We were able to get in a nice hour hike and lunch before having to pack up shop and head back to the airport.  Our last stop, Sydney!

Great Ocean Road and Melbourne (Australia)

So, I’m going to apologize right off the bat on this one.  Clearly, if you keep up with my or Jared’s social media, you will know we are no longer in Australia (well Jared is currently Facebook MIA island hopping while I’m playing with friends in Europe), but I made a cheat sheet of things we did on the Great Ocean Road, saved it to my laptop, and now cannot find (or my computer can’t find) that document, so details may be a bit sketchy.

We flew into Melbourne, late morning, and went to pick up our rental car.  This first stop was the grocery store to stock up on food and grab some much needed lunch; we were both starting to get a bit hangry (definition: hungry and angry combo; when you’re so hungry you start to get angry).  Melbourne was not our first destination, but rather driving the Great Ocean Road was, one of the most scenic drives…ever I guess, I dunno, we just get lists online of things to do.  I had elected a leisurely pace for the Great Ocean Road, which is really a rather short drive, but as I was the only driver, I didn’t want to miss all the good stuff, because I had my eyes on the road; so, I wanted to be able to stop and gawk to my heart’s content.  After getting out of the Melbourne area for about an hour or two, we stopped at the town of Geelong (the “gee” pronounced like “George” not “Gorge”, we didn’t know), which was the official start to the Great Ocean Road.  We went to the Information Site in town, and got advice on all the places to stop and gawk along the way.  The consultant at the desk was so nice, and also kept recommending that we stop in different towns to “check out their Information Site.”  So yea, we probably weren’t going to do that, one is enough thank you, but then she even gave us a recyclable bag with trip goodies and maps!  Jackpot, free stuff!  We had thought to spend our first night in town, so we attempted to drive around and find free parking, which we couldn’t, so we found the local mall parking lot, and decided to take a look to kill some time, at which time, we geniusly picked up a bottle of wine and some dark chocolate Tim Tams.  We walked around the mall a bit, staring into windows with things we couldn’t buy, and after a whopping 20 minutes, decided this was not the place for us to hangout.  In fact, when we were leaving, we both looked at our watches and were quite surprised we had only spent 20 minutes there; we were banking on about an hour.  We decided instead to just proceed on our way to the next town of Torquay for the evening.  We made it in a bit before the sun went down, found the library for wifi the next day, and prepped and ate our dinners; we didn’t have a whole lot to do to kill time, so we cracked open the bottle of wine and the Tim Tams and settled in for a movie.  Yea, that was a pretty luxurious night!  The next morning, we were ever-so-rudely awoken, by a bunch of mothers with their children being dropped off for morning childcare…whoops, probably not the best parking lot in which to sleep.  We made ourselves look somewhat presentable (aka as unhomeless as possible), and headed inside.  There was a surf museum that Jared had wanted to checkout, which ended up actually being ridiculously expensive, so he did not in fact go in.  We used the library’s internet for a while, before we set off on our drive.  The day was absolutely perfect, and the drive was beautifully scenic.  I was glad I decided for us to take our sweet time with the drive, because I probably pulled over ever 5 miles at all of the lookouts.  Until…we heard the weather forecast for the next day, which was rain rain rain.  That next day, we were supposed to hit up the main attraction of the Great Ocean Road, the 12 Apostles.  So, we both decided on screwing the leisure sightseeing driving, and booking it all the way through to the 12 Apostles.  The drive was still very beautiful; I just didn’t get to stop for quite as much of it.  We made it to the 12 Apostles a bit before sunset, which was perfect timing!  The best time to be there is sunset, so we were able to squeeze in amongst all the serious photogs with their massive cameras and gadgets, and find ourselves an open spot at just the right time.  We had about 30 minutes before sundown, and about 15 minutes before the dark clouds completely covered the sun, which stunk.  But we got some good shots in none the less, and were able to see the 12 Apostles in great lighting, with a bit of mist over the water as the sun went down; it was really quite eerie and transcendent, making for a beautiful scene.  By the way, you might describe the 12 Apostles as a set of 12 tall mini islands; the coastline along that area is a shear dropping cliffs, almost at a 90 degree angle from the beach and water below.  The Apostles are masses of land and rock that have stood erect and tall as the coastline has receded inland.  Also, little factoid, as of only a few years ago, there are actually only 11 Apostles, one fell, but the name stayed.  Anyway, just as people were giving up hope on seeing a great sunset over the water, a small slit of cloud parted, and opened up a vibrant, magenta ray of sunset over the rocks, which in turn made everyone freak out, grab their cameras and run to a better vantage point.  We did get a few shots off, before packing it up and calling it a good day.  As the dark sky took over, everyone piled into their cars and made their way to the closest town down the road, along with us.  We found a campsite, which was retardedly expensive, but we decided to splurge….I actually have no idea why at this point, I’m sure there was a reason we didn’t just opt out like usual.  I will say though, the camp ground did have really nice facilities and internet!  We both took indulgently long hot showers before again…sleeping in the car :/.

The next morning, we were happy to have booked it all the way through the Great Ocean Road.  We woke up when it was still dark out to see what the 12 Apostles looked like at sunrise, but as the sun rose and the light stayed gloomy and rainy, I decided to opt out of actually getting out of the car, and left the exploring to Jared, and the nappy to me.  After, we went back to the camp ground, and I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a few more hours of sleep in until joining Jared in the kitchen; we made an awesome hot breakfast and played on the camp ground’s internet till check out.  Over the course of the day, we stopped at a few other lookouts, as that entire area is full of neat limestone rock formations and caverns.  We also got up to Cheese World!  Yes, it’s what you’re thinking, tons of free cheese!  Uh, thank god I’m not lactose intolerant (knock on wood).  We gorged ourselves with cheese, before again, piling back in the car and heading back toward Melbourne.  I gotta tell you though, by this point I was going a bit car-stir-crazy and kind of lashing out, but Jared was able to tame the anti-car beast growing inside of me, and we made lots of pit stops along the way back.  By the end of the day, we arrived back in Torquay and decided to walk around the small town center a bit; our flaw was that we walked into an intriguing spud restaurant that smelled SO good!  Not a smart idea when you live on tuna and pasta.   We spent the night again in the library parking lot, just not in such an obviously homeless location for the wellbeing of the moms the next morning. 

As we were a bit ahead of schedule, the next morning we were able to spend a couple hours playing around on the internet (which is when I wrote the Great Ocean Road cliff notes that I have since lost).  That afternoon, we made it back into Melbourne and dropped the car off, before heading to our hostel in the city.  By the times we got to the hostel, it was well after dark.  We settled in and made it to the grocery store to make dinner and call it an early night.

Next morning, up early for free pancake breakfast!!  We used and abused that free pancake breakfast for a touch over an hour before calling it quits, fat and happy.  We headed to the library to do some research on Melbourne activities.  Jared had already been so he was planning on opting out of big touristy things.  That afternoon, I went on a free walking tour of the city, getting to see the different areas of the city, the government buildings, the awesome graffiti art, and learning all about the gold rush in the late 1800’s.  Did you know at one point, Melbourne was the richest city?  Neither did I.  Even as recently as about 15 years ago, someone found a gold nugget worth $150,000!!!  So that’s something I can consider for an alternate income, gold digger extraordinaire!  The walking tour ended a touch before sundown, and I meandered back to the hostel for dinner.

The next day was the Grand Final for the Australian Rules League (ARL) between the Sydney Swans and…crud, a team from right outside of Melbourne.  I may get in trouble for this, because Aussies are very passionate about what they call “rugby” and what they don’t, but for all intent and purpose for Americans, it’s Rugby.  People had flown in from all over Australia, but the hub of ARL is really in Melbourne, so the city was alive with everyone decked out in team gear.  We went to Federation Square to watch, which is sort of the center of town with art exhibits and, randomly, a huge jumbrotron TV screen.  Jared and I decided to join in on the fun by picked opposite teams to root for; I of course made the wiser decision, and my team kicked Jared’s team’s butt!  After the festivities, we headed back to the hostel, and joined some of our fellow hostelers for dinner and hostel drinking, which means Goons.  Let me explain; a rite of passage for backpackers in Australia is to get drunk on Goons, which is a super cheap boxed wine, about $10-15 for 4 liters.  We’ve all done it, we’ve all regretted it the next day.  BUT, seeing as how Jared wasn’t really a backpackers in Australia for long enough, he did not know this, and thought that when he bought this boxed wine, he was actually buying wine and not something made 80% from “wine stuff” (we’ve heard rumors that it’s onions, but they are still unconfirmed).  Anyway, we all got a chuckle when Jared whipped out the Goons, not knowing any better, and we all partook in drinking it.  That night, I actually decided to spend one night seeing the nightlife of Melbourne, so I went out until all hours of the night with some people from the hostel.

The next morning was a bit rough, by morning, I mean afternoon, because that’s when I got up.  Jared and I took it slow that day, and went to the library to play on the internet for ages.  We were still in the process of planning out the next legs of our journey, so there is always planning to be done.  Early evening, we went back to the hostel, and enjoyed a good dinner and a movie before calling it a night.  Sorry, this day was especially boring to write, so I’m assuming it was boring to read.

The next morning, we were heading to our last tourist destination, Uluru.  We woke up and had an early workout with someone from the hostel.  Came back and quickly packed up our stuff.  We weren’t actually leaving until that evening, so we were able to toodle around the hostel, watching movies and cooking up the last bit of our food, before we had to leave.

Adelaide, a Special Reunion, and More! (Australia)

We arrived into Adelaide the evening after leaving Perth and Margaret River.  This part of the trip was pretty special, because Clint lives there…remember Clint?  He is a friend of Jared’s from the Marines, and actually travelled with us initially when we drove from Texas.  He separated from us in Guatemala, and had always planned on attending school in Australia this year.  Jared and Clint are BFFs (not my word), so Jared was like a little school girl…in his own way, basically meaning when I asked how excited he was about seeing Clint, he shrugged and said “yea, pretty excited”.  Whatever Jared!  I could tell he was brimming with excitement below the surface.

We arrived on a Saturday night, pretty late and didn’t actually get to Clint’s place until around 11pm.  We immediately took over his living room with our massive amount of stuff and after a few minutes of quick catch up, hopped in the shower!!  Oh Lord, it had been days since a shower; I didn’t mention grabbing showers in Margaret River…because we didn’t take any :/  Anyway, we finally got a good shower in and were able to catch up with Clint.  He is studying his second year (I believe) at University of Southern Australia.  He liked his life in Australia, but said it’s been a bit difficult to break into normal living here.  School has been going alright, a job has been very difficult to find, he volunteers at a mental health facility for Aboriginals, and is really into Yoga!  So that’s basically the Clint run down.  We did nothing but chat that evening, which was nice.

The next morning, Jared and I threw some much needed laundry in, while Clint went to yoga.  We then, take a guess…headed to the grocery store.  Clint was shocked at our cheapness, noting that there was a close grocery store that was a little more expensive than our standard Coles, but Coles was about a 30 minute walk one way; we went with the Coles walk.  We hung around being lazy and getting some menial to-do’s done, and spending some quality time with Clint.  As the evening came, Jared and Clint decided to have some man-time playing Basketball, or more accurately HORSE.  I stayed back doing Blog homework for you all, and also just because I wanted the two of them to get some one-on-one time as boys.  Clint took us out to a bar that night in town, and we spent a few hours throwing back beers and hanging before calling it a night.

The next morning, Jared and I were heading to Flinder’s Ranges, a mountain range about five hours north of Adelaide with some good hiking.  I think I initially booked our rental car to leave at the crack of dawn, but we decided not to stress too much on our departure time, so I didn’t actually pick up the car until about four hours after I was expected, which didn’t get us into Flinder’s until dark.  I had originally planned to be in the mountains for two full days and two half days (including the arrival date), but Jared wanted to spend a bit more time in Adelaide with Clint, so we adjusted a few things.  When we arrived at our camp site in the national park, we set up shop and tried to prep some dinner.  Unfortunately, we had started our dinner prep work pretty late.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned yet, but we discovered a way to “cook” pasta without a microwave or stovetop; basically, if you just leave pasta soaking in water, it will eventually soak up the water and become soft.  It’s always a bit soggier than cooking pasta, and I can’t figure out how to make it “al dente”, but it serves well enough for us.  The main difference is that soaking pasta can take several hours, and we had forgotten to prep the pasta until we arrived at the camp.  No problem; we played our Scopa and waited around in the camp picnic area until we were totally overrun, not once but twice by a huge tour group and then a group of school girls.  Ug, lord, I forgot to mention the school groups!  There were two really big groups of high school girls on holiday, and as you would expect they were as loud as school girls can be when let out in the wild…literally.  It was a few hours before things settled down and by that time, I was basically too annoyed and tired and cold to care about eating, so I nestled up in my sleeping bag and tried to reach my crappy sleep state.
The next morning, we decided on a hike up to the tallest peak in the range.  Clearly, this range was not the highest; the ascent only took us a touch over two hours, but the walk itself was really nice through Australian bush.  Toward the end, the climb became much more arduous, which we enjoyed.  The top was nicely deserted, and quite chilly.  We had a bit of a snack while taking in the views and snapping photos, before we packed up our food and headed back down.  We decided to take a longer route going back to the campground, which led us through the “pound”.  The area was called Wilpena Pound, and basically was a mountain range connecting in a circular shape, making the center similar to a bowl, but I have no idea why it’s called a pound.  Anyway, we walked through this bowl, getting to see emus and wallabies and wildflowers.  By the end, we were both pretty tired after about a seven hour walk.  We made it back to the campsite with a bit of light left.  Jared wanted to try to get a head start on making it back to Adelaide, so he could have a bit more time with Clint, and I wanted to take a quick shower, as I knew we’d be sleeping in the car again that night.  Unfortunately, the stinking school group had made a huge line to use the showers, so I ended up having to forego cleaning up.  We had a bit of a snack before piling back into the car and starting the drive.  We watched as the sun went down over the mountains, and made one of the prettier sunsets we’ve seen.  I really hate driving through the outback around dusk and at night, due to the one kangaroo near-miss we had, so not long after it was dark, we pulled into a one road town, and parked it for the night.  We had our dinner and watched a quick movie before trying to get another restless night’s sleep.
The next morning, crack of dawn, we woke up and started making the last leg to Adelaide.  About an hour outside of the city, we made a small detour into the Barossa valley, known for its vineyards, and stopped for a wine tasting.  The region was known for its Shiraz, which was very unlike Shiraz that we are used to in the US, and much more robust, deep, and flavorful, which was nice to try.  The highlight was a $235 bottle we got to try.  At the end, we headed back into the city of Adelaide and Clint’s place.  We arrived around noon, and exploded all over Clint’s living room again.  After settling in, I set out to return the rental car, and run some legal errand (yes, I am taking legal routes to try to get the money back that my former boss owes me; unlikely to be effective in terms of actually getting any money back, but hopefully enough to stuff her up for a while).   The whole endeavor took a few hours, and I made it back to Clint’s house just as the boys were heading out for some basketball (HORSE); I stuck around the apartment doing some blog homework and getting in some solo girl time.  That evening, we cooked up our dinners; Jared and I did a bit of homework for the next leg of the trip, Kangaroo Island, and watched a movie before enjoying a good night’s sleep in a bed again!
That next morning, plans were a bit up in the air.  We wanted to go to Kangaroo Island, the third largest island off of Australia, known for its nature excursions.  Our main problem was getting there; basically it was exceedingly expensive, $300, for roundtrip to only spend one full day there.  We went back and forth a bit before deciding to just bite the bullet and go.  We booked last minute bus to ferry tickets and a car rental.  Luckily, the bus didn’t head out until late afternoon, so we were in perfect timing.  We again packed up everything, and hopped on the bus out to the central bus station.  Our drive to the coast was quite scenic and reminded us both of driving through New Zealand; to be honest, if we were to do it again, we probably would have tried to spend a bit of time in the hill country south of Adelaide.  The passage over to the island was easy, and got us in just after nightfall.  I had checked in advance and booked a camp ground in Cape Jervis that was walking distance from the ferry terminal, so we set up shop, and were able to use some of the camp ground facilities to make a hot dinner, before calling it a night. 
The next morning, we woke up early to pick up the rental car.  Budget did us dirty on this one, only allowing 100km per day of travel (the whole island was 300km one way, so we were prepared to get royally screwed on that) and provided absolutely zero insurance after 6pm due to the high occurrence (according to the rental car guy 50% chance) of wildlife accidents, and even if I returned the car a whole 12 hours early, they charged on a 24 hour basis, so it wouldn’t be any cheaper.  So, yea…ug.  After packing up camp, we set off into the island, stopping at a bunch of lookouts along the way.  I think Jared was a bit disappointed with the lookouts, as they just showed views of the beach, of which he claimed we had enough photos.  We went to a sea lion sanctuary and a koala sanctuary, where we saw a teenie joey (that’s what they call baby koalas) latched on to its mother’s back as she ran away from us into the trees, and a kangaroo with her…baby kangaroo (can’t remember if there’s a special cute name) in the pouch, as well as Little Sahara, which people often sandboard in, but we didn’t because we had already accomplished some epic sandboarding in Latin America.  We made it all the way to the other side of the island that day, to Flinders Chase National Park, just before the sun went down.  There were 2 camp grounds close to the entrance of the park, one was significantly more expensive, but had better facilities, i.e. plumbing, water, and a grill, so in true Cheap Kathleen and Jared fashion, we snuck into the more expensive camp ground, used their facilities to make dinner and then set off to our cheaper camp ground, which was exceedingly bare.  We didn’t even set up the tent that night, as we have found that the car is much warmer overnight, though we tend to sleep worse, so it’s kind of a crud-shoot. 
The next morning, we set out early again.  We made warm breakfast at the nicer camp ground, and drove deeper into the Flinders Chase National Park.  The big attractions within the park, besides the wildlife are the Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch, which we were able to see and walk around through.  Lunch time was right around the corner, so we made it to a Liguarian honey farm and got to have a bit of a self-guided tour, actually learning some pretty nifty factoids, along with eating homemade honey ice cream.  At the end of the day, we made it back to Cape Jervis to spend the night.  We were pretty cheap that night, and instead of actually staying inside of the camp grounds from the first night on the island, we parked outside of it, and just used the kitchen equipment, opting to sleep in the car again that night.  I gotta say, as you can probably deduce yourselves, we do this whole traveling/backpacker thing as cheaply as possible, and have both (well Jared already was [or so he claims ;)], it was really just me who had to adjust) become chipper morning people on very little sleep.  It would be easy for us to be at each other’s necks everyday with the crappy sleep we get each night, but we’ve learned to overcome that…if you want a good night sleep, go ahead and pay for it yourself! 
That next morning, we returned the car, and got back on the ferry and bus headed to Adelaide and back to Clint’s place where we ate and watched a (pretty bad, The Master?) movie.  Overall, Flinder’s Ranges was nice, and we could have probably spent an extra day hiking; Kangaroo Island was not our favorite, and was a bit less nature intensive than we had hoped; staying with Clint and getting to catch up was nice, and I think a really awesome moment for Jared.  That next morning was a travel day to Melbourne, so we woke up pretty early and had to make our way to the airport.

Margaret River for Vines and Wines (Australia)

After Cable Beach, we “went to Perth”.  I say that because Perth is one of Australia’s largest cities, so by mentioning it, you may get an idea of our whereabouts (south west, think San Diego placement, but San Francisco weather or maybe even colder); but we really did not visit Perth.  We flew into the Perth airport in the evening.  Jared did a bit of math and realized that the shuttle to and from the airport and our hostel would be kind of expensive, so he suggested we just sleep in the airport.  We had to pick up a rental car from the airport the next morning, so we opted to do that instead of pay the extra amount.  Also, airports are one of the few places where wifi is almost guaranteed, so we were able to pick up some internet, which I used to finalize some of our last minute Australia stuff.  We set up shop in the international terminal for the night, which was, surprisingly, a pretty popular decision among other people as well.  That night’s sleep was so-so, as to be expected, but the next morning we got up alright and got ready to head out.

I will mention here that I cannot stand it when a car rental company advertises themselves as being at the airport, you know one of the desks you can walk up to in the baggage terminal and then walk over to the parking lot and pick up your car, when they are in fact NOT located at the airport, but instead somewhat “close” to the airport necessitating some type of shuttle to pick you up and take you to the company hub; it drives me bananas.  At least, by the next morning I was aware that I needed to arrange this shuttle, but still, what if I didn’t have a phone to call them!?  Anyway, the shuttle came and picked us up and we got our rental car arranged.  Awhile back, when initially planning everything, we were actually discussing leaving Perth out of the itinerary entirely due to our time shortage, but I decided we could squeeze in a few days, and we both decided to focus entirely on a small town about 3 hours south of Perth along the water called Margaret River, more famous as one of Australia’s prominent wine districts.  The drive was short, but a bit excruciating, because I was sooooooo tired, and again, I am the only one who can drive, ug.  Anyway, we finally arrived in the cute little town of Margaret River.  First things first, the information center to figure out our tourist options, of which there was a surprising amount for such a small town.  We also hit up the grocery store.  As I was the driver and Jared the navigator, he basically planned and directed me where to go the entire time, which is kind of how I like it right now; I did about 95% of the planning and booking for Australia, so when we have an opportunity for me not to plan our activities, I revel in it.  First stop, nature.  Apparently, Margaret River is a biodiversity hub on par with the Amazon, and we had just come into wildflower season!  Jared planned out a few hikes through notable regions.  We didn’t exactly know what we were looking for or looking at, so I kind of tried to think of it all as very rare and exotic, ooh ahh…but how knows.  Either way, it was nice to look at!  On one walk, we made it out to a whale watching lookout, and despite not actually seeing one break up through the water in a huge whale leap, we did see a lot of blowhole mists and little bits of whale parts, so…I guess it’s kind of the same thing, right?  Yea, we didn’t think so either.  Anyway, as the day wore on, we made it to a great lookout just in time for sunset.  Now, remember the advice of the first car rental company about driving at dusk and dawn?  Well, we had our first encounter with a kangaroo that dusk.  It was driving through the very narrow dirty roads lined by bush (as in The Australian Bush), when out of nowhere a huge kangaroo came bounding out at the car.  I swerved and barely missed it, which was a bit scary, but kind of awesome because I hadn’t seen a kangaroo in the wild yet!  So I got to tick that off my box!  A bit after dark, we pulled in to make our dinners at a small lookout before driving a bit more to the town of Gracetown, where we pulled in to a boat inlet parking lot and spent the night sleeping in the car.

Needless to say, never the best sleep in a car, but the next morning, we found some good bathrooms along the beach and had a bit of a wash up before heading back to Margaret River’s town center.  That day, we decided to focus on wineries.  We drove south to Augusta and the Cape Leewin Lighthouse at the point of the Cape.  Unfortunately, the lighthouse charged admission just to even be able to walk to the point, which was lame, so we opted out.  We attempted to find a few more spots along the way with the mysterious wild flowers that we could not really identify, and eventually gave up to focus on our booze.  We went to a total of five wineries that day, Red Gate, Cape Mentelle, Voyager Estate (with Jared’s favorite Cabernet Sauvignon), Xanadu, and McHenry Hohnen.  The Margaret River region is mostly known for their Chardonnay, of which neither Jared nor I are big fans, and their Cabernet Sauvignon, of which Jared is a really big fan.  Ever since Jared traveled to Italy several months ago, he has developed an appreciation for wine (and olives), with a heavy preference for red, so he was very much enjoying the tasting…also he wasn’t driving haha  After our fill of red wine, we headed back to Margaret River’s town center.  We stopped again at the grocery store and found some really cheap pork mince for dinner.  There was a nice park with a picnic area, including a really nice and clean BBQ facility, so we were able to cook up the mince and have a hot dinner.  We again slept in the car that night, always in an attempt to skim a few dollars off of our expenditure. 

The next day was our last in the Perth region, but we weren’t flying out until the evening, so we woke up early and went for a nice nature walk through the park where we head spent the night.   Then we headed into town a bit to stop by the local farmer’s market, which was great because they had a massive amount of free food in the form of samples, so we took full advantage of everything!  That was basically enough for our lunches and when we had exhausted our free food allotment at each stall, we packed up and leisurely made our way back to Perth, stopping off at a cheese factory (with free cheese samples).  We got back to the car rental company in plenty of time, thankfully, because whenever we “live” in a car, it’s like our backpacks actually exploded all over the back seats and junk is everywhere, so we have a bit of rearranging and packing before we were ready to go.  Our next stop was one that Jared was pretty darn excited about!

Cable Beach and Broome...more like Cable Beach and Boring. (Australia)

Our flight to Broome was probably the best flight we’ve had; in fact, it was two flights, with a quick layover.  We always LOVE when there is a meal or snack served on our flights, which, as you can guess, there was on both flights; however, we must have looked really really poor or something, because on the first flight, the flight attendant gave us two extra big muffins each, after having given us the standard first muffin, and on the second flight actually made a little lunch bag for us with a wrap and bunch of chocolates that he handed us as we were walking off the flight.  Best flight ever right!?  Anyway, that started us off well.

The airport in Broome was pretty teenie, which always makes getting out and around easier.  We were able to pick up the outrageously overpriced shuttle, which dropped us off at our campsite.  Cable Beach is one of the top beaches to visit in Australia, but there is actually absolutely nothing in Cable Beach.  The “town” is Broome, which is a 20 minute car ride from Cable Beach through absolutely nothing.  When you look at a map of a small town, you seem to think that everything will be easily walk-able.  This was not; well I guess it could have been if we were willing to walk like an hour in pretty oppressive heat and humidity.  We got to our campsite, set up our tent and immediately stripped down.  Normally when we fly, we try to wear our heaviest stuff, so we both had on pants, hiking boots, and some sort of winter attire on top.  We did a quick inventory of the campsite; some campsites have loaded kitchens, washers, dryers, and some are totally bare.  This one was pretty great, the kitchen had a microwave and water heater, there was a fridge and washers and dryers and a big tub sink for laundry.  Anyway, after scoping out the joint, we headed to the beach, which ended up being a much longer walk than expected due to the map being way off scale.  Anyway, we made it to the beach, and basically hung out there for the rest of the day, as it was too hard to go into town and figure out activities.  So the first day was a nice relaxing beach day.  Even though Jared denies it, I think he has a bit of a harder time sitting and doing nothing (I have zero problem with that), so he was a bit more antsy.  Toward the end of the afternoon, we set off back to the campsite.  Jared took a big risk and had me cut his hair, military fade and all (I had done it once to my brother and botched it up, so I was a bit nervous), and I did a pretty darn good job, if I do say so myself.  That evening, we ate our airplane packed meals and a few protein bars for dinner, watched a movie in the tent, and called it an early night.

The next day was some town festival, so we woke up, had an early morning workout session at the beach, and after cleaning up again, made our way into town via the bus.  There are two main areas to Broome, Town Beach and Chinatown.  Our first stop was the information center to figure out what there was to do around town.  The answer to that: absolutely nothing.  We could not do anything exciting for free.  We asked about walking to Town Beach, and what we might be able to see or do there, and she literally said, there was nothing in Town Beach either, you can’t even swim at the beach (see: salties).  Jeez.  So, with that in mind, we decided to hit up the local McDonalds for crappy internet, and then made our way to a bit of shade under a tree in a park.  We got lucky, and that afternoon was the annual Chinatown fair, so we got to see the cute small town parade with lots of little floats and kids.  There were also overpriced food trucks, face painting and pretty terrible music.  After watching the parade and meandering a bit, we hit up the grocery store for some seriously cheap food, including a 10 cent half gallon of milk, (jackpot!) and set out to wait for the bus back to Cable Beach.  When we got back to the campsite, we cooked up our dinners.  Jared has become a water-heater-cooking expert of a sort; he has figured out some pretty unconventional things to cook it kettles, like eggs, and, that evening, pasta.  Some of the other people at the campsite, were looking at use sideways as I poured the pasta into the kettle, but after explaining, they too realized it was pretty genius.  We have really figured out so many corner-cutting tips for traveling.  Anyway, we had our dinner and opted out of a movie that night, as Jared was all tuckered out.

The next morning, we decided to wake up early and take the 7:30am bus out to the point, where, apparently during low tide, you can see dinosaur footprints!  Some of the other people at the campsite gave us the inside scoop on where to see them etc, as it can actually be quite difficult to pick them out among all the broken and sharp rocks.  So, no workout that morning, we had some breakfast from the last bits of Jared’s Afghanistan stash, and rode the bus out to the point.  We could have walked, but it was about a 7km walk from the campsite, and we knew we’d have to walk back as there was only that one bus in the morning to the area.  We sort of figured we’d be able to lie on the beach and read or nap.  Unfortunately, when we got to the point, there was nothing but a rocky cliff.  We tried to find a spot of shade among the rocks, which worked for about 45 minutes before the sun hit us.  The only place nearby was a pagoda with picnic tables and benches.  At about 11am, we had to give up the view of the ocean and the breeze and opt for the picnic tables.  Sadly, after about 3 hours of lying down on a picnic bench, something inside of me started screaming, and I could not just lie any longer.  We decided to give up our quest for dinosaur footprints and make the long way back to our side of the beach.  The sun was hot, our water supply borderline, and we had about 7km to walk.  Luckily, as we were walking back along the road, two nice girls picked us up and took about 2km off of our walk.  Apparently, they decided to pick us up, after one of them actually stated “God, I’d hate to be them”.  So, that was generous of them.  The remainder of the walk was nice; we were able to make it onto the sandy beach and walk the remaining 5km along the water, which makes 1000% difference compared to walking along a dusty highway.  Jared headed back to the campsite to get some camera equipment for the sunset, while I lounged on the beach a bit.  That evening we watched the sunset over the beach before heading back to the campsite for dinner.  I quickly want you to take inventory on what we did that day: bused to the point, did absolutely nothing until we walked back, watched the sunset, the end; I’m just saying, it was a slow day.

The next morning, we were prepared for a slow day again.  Like I said, there is really nothing to do in Cable Beach.  Also, as a side note, I mentioned earlier that Cable Beach is renowned as one of the nicest beaches in Australia.  I gotta say, we were not the biggest fans.  I mean, yes, it is a nice long beach, the sand is much better than that brown sharp sand we mostly get in the US, but the water was a bit sandy and there were big red jelly fish everywhere.  This is apparently the area that has the really serious teenie tiny jelly fish that paralyze and kill a person in the water, so we at least dodged that season, which starts in October (we dodged it by a hair), and at which time, I’m told, people don’t even dare to put their big toe in the ocean.  I should also mention, after writing that part about the sand and water…we are HUGE snobs now when it comes to views and beaches…HUGE, I will apologize in advance for any future comments I make.  It was a lovely beach…but seriously, go to Whitehaven.  I did a mini-workout, while Jared was a lazy bones.  We had breakfast and headed to the beach for a bit.  The big plan that evening was to go to the Staircase to the Moon.  This happens every month for about 3 days during the full moon.  Everyone gathers at Town Beach in the evening and watches as the sun sets behind them and the moon rises in front of them.  After a bit of sunning and lounging, we made our way back to the camp and hopped on the bus into town.  We first stopped in Chinatown and browsed the supermarket for anymore sweet deals, of which we found none, so we went to the bottle shop to drown our sorrows, haha just kidding.  We did pick up a bottle of wine for that evening some and nice ciders for that afternoon.  I guess that’s what you do when there is literally nothing to do…drink.  So, we popped open our nice cold ciders and went to the same park as the day before, sat in the shade and read, while sipping on our drinks.  As the afternoon waned, we packed up our stuff and started the kind of long walk to Town Beach, again the maps we were given we severely misleading, and what looked like a 10 minute walk on the map, was really more like a 40 minute walk.  Since there was whatever festival that week, all of the same vendors had set up at the beach, including a few new ones, through which we browsed in an effort to waste time before sunset.  As the sun started its low decent, we found a good spot to watch the moon rising, and took out our stash of protein bars and the red wine.  The Staircase to the Moon is basically what appears during low tide, as the water receded over the mudflats of the bay, the moon rises over the horizon and casts its glow over the ripples in the mudflat creating a perfect column of striated beams from the horizon to dry land.  This column, due to its striations, looks similar to a staircase.  That evening, the first glimpse of the moon as it broke the horizon was wonderful.  You know sometimes when the moon looks really really large, like it’s somehow much closer to Earth?  Well it shone just as big, and bright orange.  It was a pretty neat sight.  As it rose higher it began to shine its glow along the mudflat creating the staircase.  The whole transition didn’t take very long, and was something you might imagine could be seen anywhere in the world (though, they of course advertised that this is the only place it can be seen), but the effect was none-the-less inspiring.  After the moon rose high and the sky turned black, we packed up our little beach picnic and made the last bus back to our neck of the woods.  That evening, we had dinner with some of the other campers at our sight, all sharing the evenings show…like I said, there isn’t a whole lot to do there, but it was nice.

The next morning was our last.  We woke up, ate, and leisurely packed our things.  Our flight wasn’t until that evening, so we tried to wait around doing nothing at the campsite, so as to keep an eye on our belongings, before getting a bit stir crazy.  One of our camping neighbors offered to watch our things for us, which allowed us to make one more pit stop at the beach.  We quick headed down for a nice dip and stroll, and then headed back and to the airport, heading for Perth.  All-in-all, Cable Beach, very nice; look for a quiet time and rent a car.

Darwin and The Outback! The Real One, Not the Restaurant!! (Australia)

Our flight to Darwin was easy and quick.  We arrived, got our bags together, and after a bit of confused lost-person back-and-forth-walking looking for the town shuttle, we were offered a share cab with some other travelers into town.  We got dropped off at our hostel, and actually got a “that’s all your stuff” from some snot-nosed traveler; hey buddy, there’s winter gear and camping stuff in here too, ok?!?!?!  Anyway, we must look pretty prissy or something, because first we got that comment about carrying a ton of stuff, then when we went to check-in, the desk attendant warned us about three times about our room, saying it was all long-term workers (I guess kind of like the hostel I was staying in in Sydney), and so stuff was everywhere, there were 12 other people in the room, it got really really hot at night, and there was only the fan…maybe we should go check it out before committing to that room…really…seriously, check it out.  I have never been so deterred from staying in a room before, we must have looked like novice travelers or something.  In the end, we assured her that we could take pretty much any kind of living environment for one night, and whatever the room looked like was fine.  When we walked in, it wasn’t even that bad; I mean yes, there was the smell of warm bodies in a hot environment, and stuff everywhere, but lord, it wasn’t like there was raw meat hanging from the ceilings!  Anyway, we settled in and organized ourselves.

The next morning, we had a tour of Kakadu National Park for three days, and weren’t allowed to bring our large packs, so we have to prep stuff.  I got a “that’s all your bringing?  Really??” from Jared, so I think I did pretty well.  Once we had our main packs locked up in the luggage storage at the hostel, and all our stuff ready for the tour, we took some showers and purtied up.  Our blast-from-the-past travel friend, Jordan Allen, whom we originally met in Puerto Escondido, then again in Guatemala, Tasmania (only Jared) and Sydney (only me), was spending his last night in Darwin!!  He met us at our hostel, and showed us around town a bit.  We walked to the main esplanade, with a bay nicely netted off due to the large amount of salt-water crocodiles and sharks…my kind of bay!  He took us around town a bit, and we shared experiences and further plans, a lot of which consisted of, “well, I could do this….or this…or this…who knows we’ll see.  However long my money lasts”.  You know, the classic traveler’s “plans”.  For old time’s sake, we went to a Mexican restaurant that was actually surprisingly good; the boys got enchiladas and I got fish tacos.  After dinner, Jordan walked us back home, as we had to wake up pretty early.  We hugged it out and said our see-you-laters.  We’ll see him again, I have no doubt; he’s a great person. 

The next morning, we woke up nice and early to eat (free breakfast!) and be ready for our tour van to pick us up around 6:30am.  As usual, we drove around to a few other locations to pick up the other travelers, and with 11 of us, we set out into the outback of Australia!  Our first stop that day was in Wulna Country where we met a young aboriginal girl who was part of the Limilngan-Wulna people.  The first thing she did was bless each person, much like a baptism in her culture, and ward off negative spirits.  This was done by sipping on water from the local billabong and spitting on the face of the person you want to bless.  So, yea that happened, and now we are forever protected from evil spirits!  She then told us about some other traditions from her culture regarding education, coming of age ceremonies and local hierarchy.  I learned that if I fancy an aboriginal man who is married, all I have to do is bring a large stick into the village and challenge his most senior wife.  We then duke it out with our sticks, and if I’m still standing at the end, I am allowed to become a wife!  So that’s a safety for me, which is nice!!  I liked learning about the local aboriginal culture a lot, not just because it gives me a marital safety net.  After, we went to a different location and took a cruise through Mary River wetlands system, housing the largest concentration of salt water crocs in Australia.  We were strongly discouraged from sticking any part of our bodies over the side of the boat.  The guide was a very nice woman, who worked with a researched crocodiles.  She informed us the crocodiles were basically just very curious animals, like dogs, who were misunderstood and overly vilified…yea right lady, we’re not buying it.  “Salties”, as the ever-abbreviating culture of Australia has coined them (see also, Maccas, brekkie, sunnies, swimmers etc), are crazy man eating monsters…I’m never changing my mind on that.  She did inform us that the salties are probably the world’s most effective and efficient predators.  Anyway, the cruise ended up being nice, and we still have all of our extremities.  We got to see both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles along with local vegetation and exotic birds.  After our cruise, we grabbed some lunch of hotdogs, which did not impress Jared, until there were about 15 hotdogs left over that he got to dominate.  The end of the day brought us north to Ubirr to look at some ancient, and modern rock art from the local aboriginal tribes.  We walked around the protected area to the top of a lookout before calling it a day and heading into a campsite just before the sun went down.  There was a pool, so while half the group organized dinner, the other half hung around by the pool.  That night we ate two batches of kangaroo meat.  The first was marinated in barbeque sauce and onions, which was really quite tasty; the second batch was plain and so undercooked it was still hopping away.  Even Jared couldn’t eat it, which is saying a lot.  The tour guide recooked it a bit, but I gotta say kangaroo is really gamey; I took one bite and gave the remainder to Jared.  We went to bed early that night as we had an early morning rise the next day. 

At 5:30am we all started packing up and getting ready for the day.  We had a pretty indulgent breakfast, and Jared and I finally figured out how to eat Vegemite.  Proceed with caution, but it’s actually quite nice.  We loaded up the bus and headed into Kakadu National Park to view some of the waterfalls.  The first was Twin Falls.  The road leading to the falls was dirt, gravel, sand and generally crap, including a half meter deep river to drive through.  Needless to say, we were happy we did not attempt to DIY Kakadu.  We had a quick jaunt over to a ferry which took us upstream before hopping out and walking a bit more to the falls.  Unfortunately, because this was the end of the dry season, the falls were all but dried up.  It was still a lovely place to have lunch, right beside the water on the rocks below the falls.  The safety of swimming anywhere in Kakadu National Park, and the northern region in general, is entirely dictated by the presence of crocodiles.  The process by which crocodiles are detected in different water sources is by leaving a Styrofoam ball in the water; the ball is then checked at a later date to see if there are teeth marks.  The teeth marks are inspected to verify whether it is from a salt water or fresh water croc: if it’s a saltie, the water is deemed unsafe to swim, and that’s that.  So, seriously, that’s the entire process for verifying whether there are salt water crocodiles; needless to say, it’s not entirely foolproof, so at every water source there is a disclaimer making you aware that you swim at your own risk.  Jeeeezzzzz.  Anyway, Twin Falls had been deemed unsafe to swim, so after lunch, we headed back to the ferry and bus and over to the next waterfall, Jim Jim.  We got to do a bit of a mini-hike to Jim Jim, so Jared and I sped ahead trying to find fun rocks to climb to get great views on the way to the falls.  There had been a small amount of water coming down Twin Falls, but unfortunately, Jim Jim was entirely dried up.  Jim Jim is a thin but very tall waterfall that empties into a lake below, surrounded by huge boulders.  We set our things on the boulders and were able to swim through the lake all the way to the side where the falls would normally dump into, which was kind of neat, and obviously wouldn’t have been possible if the water levels were higher.  We spent a few hours swimming around in the beautiful lake surrounded by huge sharps cliffs.  After a few hours of lounging and swimming, we packed up our things and headed back to the bus, through the rugged roads and to our new campsite.  This campsite had showers, so we were all able to wash off two days of hiking and swimming.  Dinner was unremarkable that night, but oh God, the evening’s entertainment.  The tour guide had brought a guitar, which he had yet to pull out, but there had been talk of a campfire sing along.  I wish you could see my face as I write this; it’s not a pleasant face.  Low and behold, that night, as the sun set and dinner finished up, he pulled out that damned guitar.  At that exact moment, I attempted to say my goodbyes to the group, but the guide actually insisted that I stay for one song that I might know, so he proceeded to play some country song coaxing me to sing along with him throughout.  Yea that wasn’t happening.  Finally at the end of the song, I clapped, waved my hand and made a bee-line for our tent.  Nicole Jafar, if you’re reading this, I really really really wish you had been there at the exact moment when the guide and group all started singing “You Are My Sunshine”.  Oh, Jesus, no I’m not kidding.  I couldn’t keep it together.  Anyway, thankfully, the evenings serenade died down not long after that, and I was able to get some damned peace and quiet!  ;)  That night we slept in tents without the rain covers, allowing a great view of the stars, which was nice to wake up to throughout the night. 

The next morning, we woke with the birds, which means early.  We had our breakfast, packed up, started the bus, and immediately disembarked to fix a flat tire, which shockingly only took about 30 minutes.  I couldn’t change a flat on a normal car in 30 minutes, let along an all-terrain tire on a bus that looks like a hand-me-down from the military.  Anyway, our destination that day was called Maguk, which contained a waterfall and swimming holes.  We had about a 30-40 minute uphill climb before coming to the top of the waterfall, where we could jump from 6 meter cliffs into the swimming holes and through underwater tunnels.  We had a bunch of fun cheering each other onto higher and higher jumps.  I think Jared and I were the only two who made the tallest jump. We had lunch and spent a few hours enjoy the swimming and sun before leaving a bit after 3pm.  The rest of the day we spent driving back, only stopping to see the gargantuan termite castles that can grow to several meters high, and a couple pit stops before returning to Darwin a bit before sundown.

The tour guide had made reservations for the whole group to get together for dinner and drinks that night.  Jared opted out, so I went and met everyone. We had a nice dinner and drinks before making our way to one of the local nightclubs and getting a pretty serious dance sesh in before calling it a night!  It was a good thing I went that night, because I was able to set up a taxi share with a couple from the tour for the next morning.  I got back to hostel a bit late, prophylactically chugged some water, and made it to bed a touch after 2am, to be up by about 6am (hangover-free by the way) and head to Broome and Cable Beach.

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia)

Our next leg of the trip was an easy drive from Shute Harbour to Cairns.  Though it was a somewhat long, about 8 hours, it was easy and daylight the entire time.  We pulled into Cairns city center, found our hostel and settled into our rooms.  Jared was heading out for a five day diving cruise the next morning, so he packed all of his essential stuff, and stashed everything else under my bed.  The hostel had a dinner special with a bar down the street; Jared wasn’t interested but came with me to check it out, and I think got a bit of dinner envy.  I ordered the meat pie with mashed potatoes and veggies, and it was MASSIVE!!!  I could see poor Jared salivating through his eyeballs, so I feigned being full and let him have some, then we both topped off dinner with a Clif Bar.  We were pretty tired, so we called it a night early.

The next morning, Jared was up at some obscene hour to work out, then set out for his diving cruise while I set out for my work out.  I saw a lot of the photos from the trip, when he came back, and he told me the highlights were either all the sharks at North Horn or a dive at Ribbon reef with so much life and color, where he could swim thru small schools of fish getting really close and gliding thru without them swimming away.  Occasionally, Jared would have wifi on his supped up vessel, and tell me he was having a great time, and doing a massive amounts of dives.  Bear in mind at this point in my description, that getting said information at of him, Lord, sometimes is like pulling teeth!!

Anyway, my time in Cairns was uber relaxing.  I would casually walk around town getting a few last minute things together, oh I bought a Kmart tent for three people for $32!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is unheard of!!  Our four man tent we bought in the US was like $260 or something!!  Anyway, that was a great find.  Most mornings I would do a little workout along the water.  This was the first city that had wifi everywhere, so I got to FaceTime a bit, and was generally happy to just lounge around.  There was a really big pool that was built right on the boardwalk overlooking the ocean.  A great place to get in some writing and catching up.  I was still trying to run off of the food that Jared brought, so breakfast and lunch was leftover stuff from him, and at night I would get the dinner special at the bar down the street with a few roomies from the hostel.

The day after Jared left, I went out on a snorkel cruise of two reefs in the Great Barrier Reef, Saxon and North Hastings.  I woke up early that morning and was picked up by a bus and shuttled over to the port.  I found my boat, and along with a big group of people, rode out for the day.  The first reef was Saxon, then we had a buffet lunch and headed out to North Hastings.  Both reefs were really wonderful, but they saved the best for last.  North Hastings was a lagoon, and the life under the water was just breathtaking.  There was so much to see, such large areas of coral and sea life, and right at the surface of the water, so the colors were SO vibrant.  I was really amazing to see neon colors in nature.  My favorite fish was the Parrot fish; not sure if you’ve ever heard of it, but they are the most bright neon colors, magenta, teal, lime green, orange etc and all neon, really really beautiful.  I got to see where Nemo lives, which is a cool floating bubbly jelly-looking thing with soft tendrils sticking out, and you could see the little fish swimming in and out.  Apparently, it is very poisonous, but the fish that are born and bred inside are immune to the poison.  You know how when you see coral pieces on land, they are so rough and calloused, well in the water it all just looks so fluffy and welcoming, all I wanted to do was snuggle into the soft coral flowers and little fish cities, though I’d probably die from something.  Apparently, quite often, the prettier it is the more deadly, so opted against it.  Also, I’ve heard that just touching the coral can kill it and these massive sea life reef take hundreds of years to form.  At one point, I saw some JackA actually standing on the coral bed!!!  He got yelled at by the crew members, but I was just about ready to leave him out there Open Water style (the movie).  Anyway, it was a really amazing experience.  At the end, I rode in a “semi-submergable” boat, where the bottom of the was glass, so I could attempt to take some photos underwater (basically unsuccessfully).  THEN!!!!  The most exciting part!!  I opted to ride in a helicopter back to Cairns, and I lucked out!  I was riding back with two other people, one of whom was old high school friends with the pilot, so we got a few extras on the ride.  We all jumped into a small boat that took us to the floating helipad, where we boarded the helicopter.  The pilot flew us over a few different reefs and even landed on a sand island.  The ride was soooooo much fun and definitely one of the coolest things I ever done!  Most people don’t opt for the helicopter ride over the reef, because it is a bit more expensive, but I would highly recommend just splurging a bit and getting the flight!

The rest of the time was passed as I mentioned earlier, morning workouts, afternoon chatting and playing on the internet, and evening dinners.  Every night was pretty sedate.  I did go out in Friday night with some of the people from the hostel, little bit of dancing and drinking which was nice.   But for the most part it was nice to relax and tie up the few loose ends from leaving Sydney. 

Jared came back on the 1^st early in the morning, having had an amazing time, but happy be to off a boat and dived out.  We finished up a bit of packing and picked up a rental car to drive to Cape Tribulation up north.  We haphazardly threw everything into the teeniest car rentable, and drove north along the coast.  As we left Cairns pretty early and the drive was short, we were able to make the drive leisurely, stopping occasionally for photo ops and a few hiking trails through the Daintree Rainforest.  The big predator in the region are salt water crocodiles, so basically going near any water source can technically be incredibly dangerous.  Just to preface you on salt water crocodiles, according to an Australian crocodile researcher they are the most dangerous predator, because they see hunting more as a sport than a survival instinct.  I guess most other animals will attach you if they either feel threatened or need food.  Salt water crocodiles however, will stalk prey for weeks if they like.  When researching different locations in northern Australia, warning advise to just stay away from water sources, but also things like not returning to the same spots for several days in a row, making sure to change walking routes and again, just maybe staying away from all water.  We thought about taking a cruise down the river to check out the crocs, but opted against it in the end.  We arrived at our camp site in Cape Tribulation early evening, set up our tent, and explored a bit.  I was a bit nervous about the “exploring” part, because we were staying very close to the beach and river inlet, but Jared assured me he would run slower than me if we saw a croc ;).  We actually stubbled upon a man fishing who asked if we had seen the croc that had been lingering in that area recently, awesome.  When our adventure hike was done, we had a bit of time before dinner, so we walked some tv on Jared’s computer, then jumped in the car for a super quick drive down the road to a roadside restaurant.  Yes guys, we went to an actual restaurant, well like really small town style restaurant.  We had seen on our way in that this restaurant served crocodile, so we ended up ordering a surprisingly really good dinner of crocodile, emu and kangaroo miniburgers, accompanied by a fruit called taro that had been fried up like French fries and another fruit called choko that was served with a pinch of salt; the sides were a really great surprise as neither of us had heard of them and they were both very tasty.  Also, the burgers were good, and crocodile tastes like chicken!  After we finished dinner, it was very dark out, which meant (when camping) it was bedtime.  The next day we had to drive back to Cairns to make our flight really really early in the morning, so an early bedtime was necessary.

Usual rocking sleep, until 4:30 am when the alarm went off, ug.  We quickly packed up our stuff, Jared made us coffee and we started the drive back to Cairns.  Apparently, I was pretty tired at that hour because when I pulled out onto the main road, I drove the first several 100 meters, on the wrong side of the road…right for you guys, wrong for us, before Jared brought it my attention.  We caught the first ferry back across the river, and actually arrived in Cairns a little over an hour before we had to return the car, so we decided to park it in the center of town and take advantage of the free wifi before heading to the airport. 

Once at the airport we had another several hours before we could even check in.  A big shout out to Luca and Erin for the Scopa card game, that kept us occupied for a while before heading out to Darwin!    

Whitehaven/WhiteHEAVEN!!! (Australia)

Our drive to the Whitsundays started a little after the sun went down, prime kangaroo killing time.  The first thing we did was buy a coffee and some energy drinks to whip the two of us out of our Fraser-Island-induced comas.  Jared stayed up with me to help keep me awake, and most of the time, our tired/energized cycles were opposite which worked out really well, until the end when the two of us would potentially have sold off our firstborns to just pull over for a few hours of shut eye.  The drive was easily the most excruciating drive I’ve done, and I actually had to either stick my head out the window or slap myself around a few times to keep my eyelids from involuntarily closing.   This was also the drive we had been warned against when we picked up the car.  Thankfully, I didn’t hit any kangaroos, but did see a lot of roadside casualties.  Anyway, hours and hours and hours later, we finally pulled in to the parking lot of Shute Harbour, paid a retarded amount of money to park the car and got in about two hours of sleep before we had to wake up for our water taxi.
Despite the fact that we could have justifiably been at each other’s throat, we were actually quite energized and upbeat.  We packed a small bag to bring with us, and left everything else in the car.  Heck, we were lying on a pretty deserted beach for the next two days, so all we really needed were bathing suits and sunblock!!  The water taxi company provided us with 10 liters of water and some general island information.  It took about an hour to an hour and a half to get to Whitsunday Island on the water taxi, where we were camping on Whitehaven beach, apparently one of the top 10 beaches in the world, according to…well, technically Jared, but he found it in a book or something…I dunno, I just do what I’m told ;)  I had heard that it was on several must see beach lists.  There were two camping areas, one for groups (of which there was one) and one for individuals (of which there was only us!!).  We got to pick a prime location right in front of the water, with nothing but a view of the sand and surf in front of us. 
Since we were a bit tuckered out, we changed into our swimmers and took a nice morning nap on the beach.  When we woke up, it was just about lunch time.  We packed up an MRE lunch of space chicken and space mayo, some tortillas, peanut butter, crackers, and Zapplesauce….yes it’s called Zapplesauce, because again, this is not normal people food; it’s apparently loaded up with some 36 letter science word to boost energy and maintain a Marine’s life force, potentially even promoting the growth of a third arm so as to be more productive, who knows?  Needless to say, I wasn’t going to die of starvation.  We decided to take a stroll down to the end of the beach, and find a nice shady spot along the way to grab lunch.  The walk would probably take around 45 minutes, so we lubed up with sun block, grabbed our lunch and a bottle of water and set off.  The walk was really lovely, and the beach was totally deserted as we walked farther from our camp ground.  Jared and I both agreed that this was the nicest beach we had ever seen.  The sand was pure white, and so fine it was almost like dust.  The water was perfect; absolutely clear and light blue.  We walked and walked, and it was really nice to be on a completely deserted, absolutely stunningly, drop-dead-gorgeous beach…get the picture?  However, the beach is way longer than it looks from one end.  About 45 minutes into the walk, we were only about half way down the beach and running a bit low on water.  But we pressed on, because we wanted to see the inlet at the end.  Jared had heard about a great lookout point across the inlet where the classic pictures of Whitehaven Beach are taken, the ones you see on Google if you google “Whitehaven Beach”.  We reached the inlet at about 2:30pm, about an hour and 15-20 minutes after starting.  We could see a lot of people on the other side of the inlet, where the lookout hike was (mind you all these people had taken a boat there).  We tried for about 45 minutes to make it across the inlet; the main problem being that we couldn't just swim normally, we had to be able to transport Jared’s nice camera across, which would have been completely achievable if not for the really strong current from the inlet into the ocean.  I am very tentative when it comes to ocean water.  I do not like to screw around with the sea; I am fully aware it will chew me up and probably never spit me out, so I was not a fan of the cross.  Jared tried at first to just go across with his hands up, while I stood watching.  Then I had the genius idea that because there is generally more blubber on me than him, I might be more buoyant, at which time I, who am not that confident in my swimming when in the ocean, attempted the cross.  I couldn’t make it the entire way with my hands up, and got pulled pretty far into the ocean, before finally just turning and booking it to the other side before getting sucked out too far.  So, I did make it across the inlet, but had no camera, so just ended up walking back up the inlet and swimming back to Jared.  Several days later, by the way, I told another backpacker about this attempt and was informed that apparently, that inlet is swarming with stingrays…which might have explained why everyone on the opposite side of the inlet was watching our progress so intently.  Anyway, our first attempt at crossing the inlet failed, but, undeterred, we decided to give it another go the next day, and to bring the GoPro instead, also thinking that maybe we didn’t show up at low tide.  Anyway, we started the long, beautiful walk back to the other end of the beach.  By the time we got back to our campsite, we were really thirsty, very burnt, and had sore feet from walking so long barefoot.  The 45 minute walk ended up being a 4 hour walk, but an amazing walk none-the-less.  Chef Jared started prepping dinner, as the sun was heading out over the hills, and there was zero electricity.  We decided dinner was an Asian Beef MRE.  As we got all the fixings together, the bugs came out to play.  They have teeeeenie tiny, gnat-like bigs, about the size of a freckle, but painful when they bite.  We scrambled to gather up everything and took refuge and our dinner in the tent.  The sun went down completely at about 7pm, at which time, we had no problem reading a little and calling it a night, as we had only gotten the two hour sleep the night before. 
We slept pretty darn well, we say “for camping”, because we never sleep as well when we camp, understandably so.   I woke up for a few minutes around sunrise, and lifted my head to see the colors in the sky changing over the white sand and sea water…AMAZING!!!!  Then went back to bed for an hour or so more.  I think we had planned on taking a jog along the beach that morning, but for whatever reason (it doesn’t take much for me), we opted against it.  I took an early morning dip in the water to wake myself up, we had some coffee and breakfast (all MRE style), and decided to attempt to find a good viewpoint again, this time better prepared.  We set out on our morning walk, and it was lovely; no one around and beautiful scenery.  We had heard of a secret walk close to the inlet from the day before; it was “secret” basically just because some resourceful hikers, potentially also unable to cross the inlet, ventured into the national park and created their own path.  As the entire island is a national park, we weren’t really supposed to hike off designated tracks, but a woman working for the water taxi company told us she had just heard about it the day before (basically, she told us not to attempt the inlet and when we did not look deterred, she told us about this other track).  We were told to look for “two sticks” sticking out of the ground…super specific, but in the end, we found it!  The path had definitely been hiked by a few people, mostly very easy to follow and only about 20 minutes all the way to the top.  Along the way, there were two small lookouts, which revealed really amazing views, BUT the pièce de résistance was the top.  Oh.my.God.  Honestly, I can’t even explain it well enough, and the pictures, though STUNNINGGGGG never really do a view justice (but check them out anyway).  We got to see the inlet all the way through the island over to the ocean on the other side.  The water is so clear and blue that you can see the white sand all the way through, and the tides have formed a continuous S-shape pattern in the sand, snaking its way between the hilltops on either side before meeting the ocean again.  We discussed this spot's beauty in comparison to some of the other places and we easily decided it’s a top 5 view, if not the best view, maybe Lake Tekapo from New Zealand, but the two are neck and neck.  Either way, check it out people!  We sat on our big rock overlooking the most freaking gorgeous view EVER and had some of our super-human snacks, Jared took his photos, while I just gawked.  After a while, we had to go back down or we would roast, 50 SPF and all, since we had already created a good base roast the day before.  I literally almost started crying when I had to go, I’m not making this up.  When we got back down to the sand, we decided to actually forego crossing the inlet, as we liked our pictures more than the traditional.  So, if Jared hasn’t posted the pictures yet, and you’ve googled Whitehaven beach, come back and look ours (so much better ;)!!).  Anyway, we walked back across the beach to our camp site, along the way kinda chatting about how life FREAKING ROCKSSSS!!!  We are so happy with the decision that we made about 2+ years ago.  This is the exact life that we’ve wanted for ourselves.  Of course we miss everyone back home, but the experiences we’ve had top anything we could have imagined. 
We’ve taken procrastination of real life and responsibility and made a lifestyle out of it, but more than that, we are so happy and blessed by our families to be able to enjoy this experience.  Anyway, I gush. 
We made it back to camp in the early afternoon, and had some MRE lunch, then lied in the shade for an hour or two and napped/read, occasionally took a quick dip.  Jealous yet?  COME VISIT!!!!!  :D  As the sun went down, Jared prepped our dinner, which we decided to take a bit earlier to avoid the crazy gnats.  We had reserved the best dinner for that night; we had southwest style beef with corn and peppers…MRE style.  After dinner, we closed up shop.  The birds had apparently figured out that we kept our food in the brown plastic bags, so we had to bring everything into the tent with us.  We went to bed nice and early that night, in order to wake up and prep to leave.
The next morning, I woke up a bit earlier than Jared (which is always good on moving day, cuz I’m generally a bit slower).  I was able to relax and get some breakfast ready for us, take a nice dip in the ocean and lounge for a bit, before having to pack up all the gear.  The water taxi returned to pick us up at about 9:30am, and we headed back to Shute Harbour, incredibly satisfied.