NSW, QLD, NT, SA; Trip North east and then through the outback- August 2009

To bring it back to when I last wrote....I was busy with uni, the many papers they assigned, followed by exams and of coarse I had my head up in the clouds counting down the days to my next break.  Exams kept me and the day after my last one I took off on the best adventure ever!  I very busy for the month of June and were quite intense, but I did well know I always say this about every trip but this like all others was just as amazing!  I had 5 weeks off between semesters, left the day immediately following my last exam and returned the day before my first class of semester two!   

With Thibaut, a french couch surfer I had hosted when he first arrived in Australia, I headed up the coast towards Cairns!  Because I had already thoroughly covered from Newcastle to Brisbane, I drove straight to Brissy on the first day and spent the night with the first couple I met here.  The following day I met up with Thibaut and we were off!  Since we were gone for five weeks, I will only describe the highlights... 

In Rainbow beach we took a boat over to Fraser Island, where there are only a few roads, transportation is made possible only with a 4x4 when the tide is out, so with a group of 8 other backpackers from around the world we rented a 4x4 for three days!  We spent three days camping on the beach at night and discovering the gorgeous island during the day!  We found amazing fresh water lakes and encountered a number of dingos! 

Steve Irwin's Park

DRIVING UP THE COAST BETWEEN BRISBANE AND TOWNSVILLE

FRASER ISLAND

Afterwards we were back on the road, Whitsundays bound!  In Airlie beach we boarded a sail boat for three days of sailing, diving and discovering beaches!  The Whitsundays are proclaimed to be of the top 10 most gorgeous beaches in the world and I would not doubt it for a second.  The water was beautiful and the sand was so fine you can (and I did) polish your jewelry with it!  The diving was good but not at it's best so after only one dive I decided to wait it out, we were after all heading for the great barrier reef!   

After sailing the Whitsundays we drove up to Alva Beach where I did the Yongala dive!  Described as the Australian Titanic, the Yongala went down in 1911 with no survivors after encountering a cyclone off the east coast of Australia.  During WW2, the American Navy traveling the coast in search of mines to blow out of the water ways, caught their chain on the wreck (which lies 30 meters below), ensured it was not a mine and marked it as dangerous reef.  The area was avoided for some years, which left the ship undiscovered until 1958!  Because there were no survivors and of coarse no DNA in 1911, none of the bodies could be identified and were therefore left in their resting place inside of the ship, where the skeletons of everyone on board still remain today.  It is declared a burial/historic site and therefore an area banned from fishing. 


As a result, this wreck not only offered an amazing history but also an insane amount of marine life!  With sharks, turtles, bat fish, sting rays and a Queenslander Gropper which was literally larger then my small car, the dive was overwhelming amazing!  Amongst one of the best ever! 

After spending a few days in Alva beach, we drove up to the Tally river where we spent a day rafting before making it to Cairns, three weeks into the trip.  We camped and fished the entire time we were not on a boat, at this point with little success in regards to catching something we could eat, but great success in finding amazing beaches on which to camp  

Cairns was beautiful, it was 30 degrees the whole time we were there. After a few days of checking out the town we boarded a live aboard for three days where I had the most amazing time of my life!  The dives were incredible, with a minimum of 20 meter visibility, in 27 degree waters, with sharks, turtles, clams, sting rays, clown fish, groppers, pipe fish, and beautiful reef, the dives are questionably the best I have ever done!  We dove at 6 am so we were at the bottom when the sun rose and were able to watch as the ocean sprang to life in the its' light, 3 dives during the day and one final dive each night where we were able to see how much of the marine life sleeps, but also the nocturnal marine life we were otherwise not able to play with during the day!  The diving was surreal but the whole atmosphere was incredible. Many of the travelers on the boat were Canadian (which was a huge change!) including my dive buddy for the first 2 days who was a crown attorney from London Ontario, (who knows some of the crowns I worked with in Ottawa,small world!  To those who may be reading this, her name was Kenna) the crew was very friendly and extremely helpful, the rooms were nice, the food was great and I again met some of the most amazing people! If anyone is thinking of diving the great barrier reef, let me know and I will give a great recommendation!   

Once back on land we headed up to Port Stephens where we were able to walk through the Daintree rain forest,which has the most complex ecosystem in the world and is amongst one of the oldest! The whole walk was amazing!  Afterwards we were Uluru bound and via, Mount Isa, Tenant Creek, Barrow Creek, Alice Springs, we drove for two weeks straight through the Australian outback!  Stopping many times to talk with local aboriginal tribes and fellow campers, we had the time of our lives!  Uluru was a bit disappointing and funny enough, as our 

we met, the drive/walks through the dessert and the various other rock destination, was the least exciting part of the trip, where as the people formations were far more incredible!  Uluru was very commercialized, I didn't meet one aboriginal in the area surrounding it and it kinda felt like a large rock next to a resort in an area which is otherwise uninhabited. 

People were flying in and out through Alice Springs and missing the best parts of what this area of Australia has to offer.  So if you are willing to do the trek, drive the outback, if you go for the rock, it's not worth the time unless your main objective is to say you saw it, because it is otherwise not all that great...don't get me wrong, it's large and does have beautiful colors both at sunrise and sunset, but it just didn't do it for me.  Kings Canyon and places like Barrow Creek (somewhere everyone visiting the outback must visit) were far more incredible and like many road trips, it was the journey to and from where the greatest of memories were created. 

Getting back to Newy was not so exciting, as I fall back into my structured, read alot, go to class lifestyle I find my head often up in the clouds wondering where I might go next!  Last weekend I participated in City to Surf in Sydney with my cousin Claire and Jeff and this weekend I finished my advanced open water course!  (yay!!! Dive Master here I come!), more textbooks and future trips to dream of I am sure I can make this next 9 weeks fly by!  In only 5 and a half more I am free for a two week break!!!!  Still bribing myself to study with dreams of the next break and measuring what little I am making in kms.

 Australia has been great to me, just an incredible experience.  Since I will likely get caught up with my studies, diving and whatever else I find to get into, I will send an update after my next adventure!  Until then, I hope all is great!  I miss everyone and look forward to visiting in Nov/Dec.