Cairns and Whitsunday Islands - Cairns, Australia
Cairns, Australia
After a sleepy early morning cab ride and a quick check in at the airport, we were on our way to Australia. The seven hour flight was on time and we arrived to the Sydney airport in the late afternoon with some time to kill before our early morning flight to Cairns (pronounced "cans" with an Aussie accent). We decided to have dinner and relax and we ended up sleeping for a few hours in the airport until we had to check in again. We got to Cairns around 9:00 and split a taxi to the town center with a nice Indian couple. We walked around together looking for a good hostel and ended up finding one right on the esplanade. Cairns is up north on the coast, so the first thing we did was book out hop on/hop off bus pass down to Sydney. We spent the rest of our day napping and swimming at the man made lagoon on the seaside and were finally able to unwind after the full 24 hours of traveling we had just experienced. That night we decided to cook dinner in the hostel's kitchen, so we went to the grocery store and bought ingredients so Fra could make her tomatoe cream and ham pasta. I haven't had it five months and it was better than ever! We walked around town after dinner and spent a couple of hours going through a very cool indoor night market that is set up in the center of town. We had a very pleasant evening and an even better nights sleep. The next morning was Fra's birthday! She decided she wanted to do something fun, so we got up early to put our new scuba certification to use on the Great Barrier Reef. The boat trip out lasted two hours and we finally got in the water around 11:00. The water is warm, so we didn't need a wetsuit, but we did have to wear thinner stinger suits that protect you from coral and more importantly, jellyfish. I guess it was jellyfish season in Australia so you can't even swim at the beach without wearing one of these suits. Anyways, as soon as we jumped in we saw an immediate difference from the dives we did in Thailand. The water was crystal clear and coral was everywhere! On our first dive we saw a sting ray and a ton of multi-colored fish. Being underwater when it's so clear is amazing because you can see everything around you so you know you aren't missing out on anything. The next dive was even better than the first. We were only in the water for a couple minutes before I spotted a huge sea turtle swimming along the bottom. A few minutes later we saw a shark from a distance and were glad it didn't make a move to swim towards us. However, that luck ran out quickly because moments later a shark caught us by surprising by swimming up behind us. We turned to find it curiously inspecting us before moving on. I'll just say that the experience made Francesca more than a little uncomfortable and she spent the rest of the dive sandwiched between our dive master and me, holding one of our hands each. In our new formation we made our way around and got to see two huge barracudas and even swam through a slim coral canyon, which was an amazing experience. After our last dive, we got to do some snorkeling and then relaxed on the boat for the trip back to the mainland. We showered and changed before heading out to a nice Italian restaurant for a birthday dinner. We split a schnitzel and a mushroom risotto and both were delicious. For desert, we went to a real gelato place (the owners were Italian!) and got a come with pistachio and chocolate. We walked around town and enjoyed the ice cream before heading back to our room, tired from our busy day. The next day was once again spent relaxing by the lagoon. The weather in Cairns was perfect for lying in the sun with a good book. Mom, you'll be happy to know that Fra is worse than you when it comes to putting on too much sun screen, and I looked like frosty the snow man out there when she was "done" with my back. That afternoon we decided we would split up for a couple hours to do some Christmas shopping for each other. It was one of the few times we were actual apart for a significant amount of time and it was both strange but enjoyable at the same time. In the evening we got dinner at an Irish pub and stuck around for a while enjoying a beer with a Brazilian guy, Italian girl and American guy we had met. We stayed for as long as we could before we had to grab our bags and go to the bus station to catch our night bus down the coast. We had a pretty nice night on a fancy bus with wifi and plugs and all the other bells and whistles. We arrived the next morning in Airlee Beach, where we went down to the harbor and hopped onboard Broomstick, a sailboat we booked for a two night cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. Our boat was a 24 m racing boat that came in second in the annual Cape Town to Rio competition. We were 20 backpackers on the boat and the crew informed us that we were on the fastest sailboat in the whole Whitsunday's. It didn't take long for them to raise the sails and show off that speed. Before we knew it, we were all piled on the port side of the boat as wind filled the sails and half the boat rose out of the water as we skimmed across the waves. It was a wonderful and peaceful bit of sailing and I felt the wind in my beard for the first time in my life (I highly recommended it). After an hour we stopped and Francesca and I, along with a couple of Canadian sisters, jumps over to a diving boat so we could go scuba diving again. This time, the visibility was terrible and you could barley see anything more than a two meters away from you. In a way, this made it a very different but super cool experience that made us feel like we were transported to another world. We actually saw sole really big fish and had a great time swimming around for almost 45 minutes, making it the longest dive we had done. After finishing, we transferred back to Broomstick just in time for a delicious BBQ dinner that the crew had prepared. It was also the first time since Africa that I ate mashed potatoes and I didn't realize how much I had missed them until I had the first bite. That night we stayed on deck drinking and talking with everyone. We hit it off with the Canadian girls (Gabrielle and Bridgette) and ended up talking with them the whole night. We slept below deck in bunk style arrangements and got rocked to sleep by the rolling waves. We woke up bright and early to the call for breakfast and brushed the sleep from our eyes as we made it above deck. The first stop of the day was to White Haven Beach, which was last rated as the #4 beach in the whole world. When we arrived it was easy to see why. The almost pure white sand is smoother than a baby's bottom and countless sandbars rise just off the shore to form a stunning visual. The sand is actually so fine that you can use it to exfoliate your skin and even polish precious metals. We spent a couple of hours at the beach mostly in the warm clear water and even experienced a bit of commotion as someone spotted a small shark lurking in the shallows. Although in a bizarre down under twist, Australians actually ran into the water with their cameras when the lady first yelled, "shark!". From the beach we got back on the boat and sailed to a couple of good snorkeling spots where we saw more and more awesome fish. We got to help out with the sailing and I got to help raise the main sail. When we weren't snorkeling or helping out, we were relaxing on the deck and generally just enjoying life. That night we had another nice dinner, steaks this time, and listened to good music and watched the stars. We talked a lot with the Canadians again and also a Brazilian guy and an Austrian guy who sounded just like Arnold SWARZERNEGER. We had a great night drinking and singing along while the Australian DJ'ed and we all went to bed happy. Today we woke up and had an early morning snorkel followed by breakfast. Then Fra and I both helped hoist the sailed and we flew back into the harbor. We were really morning and probably at a 45 degree angle in the water. Every few minutes a huge wave would splash il and soak everyone and all in all it was a fantastic experience. We finally got back to port and sadly had to disembark. We said goodbye to some people, but planned to see some others later at a bar for dinner. We ended up sticking with the Canadians for the day and relaxed at the lagoon in town, eating fish and chips for lunch. We said bye to the Canadians, but planned to meet them for dinner later at the bar. Unfortunately, we got the time of our bus wrong and had to leave earlier then we thought. Luckily we looked at our tickets 20 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave and ended up barely making it to the station on time. We're on the bus now but we are a little bummed. We got along really well with the Canadian girls and they gave us their emails. We just realized that we somehow lost the paper they wrote them on. Now we won't show up at the bar and we've got no way to tell them why we didn't. We've got their full names though and they do have my email.. So hopefully they aren't too offended to write! Right now we've got yet another overnight ride, this time to Rainbow Beach. Only two weeks until we're home.. Can't believe how fast it's gone by! K