Our Early Christmas Present

The Early Christmas Present - Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

We decided to spend some of our Christmas gift money from Kathrine on a snorkeling trip out on the Great Barrier Reef. It's something we both always wanted to do, and now that we were over here on the Queensland coast, we were eager to go. We picked a snorkel trip which stopped at 2 places - Michaelmas Cay, where you can both snorkel and observe seabirds nesting, and Hastings Reef, which is an outer reef and has no island but much more varied and larger sea life.

We went with "SnorkelStar", who advertised a small boat with a maximum of 30 passengers. It was actually pretty nice. The passengers were mostly couples and families with grown children, and no one staggered on looking like he or she'd spent last night getting plastered.



The day was spectacularly clear with the kind of vibrant blue skies you see in advertising brochures for the reef. The boat itself was a catamaran, and the sea was fairly calm, so our ride out to Michaelmas Cay was quite smooth. The trip out to the cay took about 45 minutes, during which we had a snack, got fitted for snorkel and flippers, and learned a bit about the reef.

We got to Michaelmas Cay before any other tour boats - another advertised feature we liked - and then opted to walk on the cay and observe the birds. A small inflatable launch took us on a loop around the island and then landed us on the narrow strip of sand on which visitors are allowed to walk. The island is an important seabird nesting site and too much disturbance would probably chase them away.



Some bird shots:










After getting scorched for an hour or so looking at birds, we took the launch back to the boat, slipped on our snorkel gear and stinger suits, then clumsily lurched off the boat into the water. This time of year the tropical waters off Northern Queensland harbor poisonous jellyfish - the box jellies and the irukandji - neither of which is particularly pleasant to encounter. The stinger suits weren't too bad, though after watching everyone struggle in and out of theirs, I'm not sure all the other passengers would agree.

The water was fairly clear, and we immediately began to see fish. If you've never snorkeled, it's not quite what you expect. Without the need to constantly keep raising your head out of the water to breathe, it's easy to get lost in looking around at all the underwater life. We saw quite a few different fish.



The hour in the water went by all too quickly, and we climbed back onboard for lunch. The included lunch was quite nice - cold deli meats, prawns, fruits, and salads. Swimming does wonders for the appetite.



After another short boat ride, we anchored off Hastings Reef. One of the guides put on a short fish identification talk, then we jumped back in the water. Here, much nearer the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, the fish were more varied and larger. The coral varieties were also astounding. It's hard to imagine just how diverse the forms the corals take without actually seeing them first-hand.

Here are a few photos:









After 2 1/2 hours here, it was time to head home. We climbed back on the boat, stripped off our stinger suits for the last time, then settled back with coffee and tea to watch the waves roll by. The ride back to Cairns in the late afternoon was quick but not rough. We talked a little more to one of the crew, who, it turns out, was a girl from NZ. She was working her way around the world on boats, working as a member of yacht crews and as a dive instructor. We compared travel notes and talked about NZ.

All too soon, we arrived back in Cairns. It was a long day but a whole lot of fun.

Above Water set
Below Water set

Birthday Boy

It's Justin's birthday today (Dec 6th) so let's all wish him a big...


Happy "good on you mate" Birthday!!


Here's a couple pics Laura sent us to celebrate Justin's humble beginnings - isn't he cute? (I know he'll get me back for this on my birthday!)


(Laura wondering just what exactly is so cute about baby brothers)



(Justin practicing for a future of 4wd tracks in the outback!)

Thanks Laura :)

Singapore was Great!

Hi all,

We're back in Australia after a week in Singapore, where we really enjoyed ourselves! Everything was decorated for Christmas and very festive. Also Singapore is truly a food paradise - we indulged in a different cuisine for every meal: Malaysian, various Chinese styles, North and South Indian, Thai, Japanese, and even Egyptian! Yum. Plus lots of snacks - avocado milkshakes, pork buns, bubble tea, kaya toast, fried bananas and lots and lots of iced coffee.

When we weren't busy eating, we went to three animal parks where I got to hold a vulture, feed lorikeets and elephants (not at the same time!) The rest of the time we just walked all over taking in the sights and local colors. We stayed in the Little India neighborhood which was a lot of fun and very lively. We had a great time and hope to get back there again.





In other news, we've decided at the last minute to bail on Western Australia and to instead drive to Queensland to reduce our driving. We really want to see WA someday, but it's just going to have to be on another trip.

We've been too busy (and too hot!) to write any more posts yet, but I'll get some current ones up soon. What did you think of the last three posts? I can't believe I haven't gotten any comments on the "Arf burger" yet?!! haha.

A few more old posts

Hi all - here are a couple more posts from our time before Ayer's Rock. I'm still working on the backlog :)

We're in Darwin right now (where it's very hot, humid and buggy.) We'll be going to Singapore for week next Monday to renew our visas - it only costs a little more to leave the country and come back than to stay here and pay for a visa extension. Singapore should be really fun!

-Christina

A Day on the Oodnadatta Track

Muloorina to William Creek
09Oct08

Today we drove a long section of the famous Oodnadatta track which follows the old abandoned train line and telegraph line that were historically very significant. Everyone used this particular route through the harsh desert because it follows a string of natural springs.

First stop was in the town of Marree to see some old train tracks and an engine.



Next up was the not-so-historical Sculpture Garden full of various sculptures cobbled together from random junk. This airplane sculpture was inhabited by cockatoos (who were not happy with us!)



My other favorite was this robot-like statue of a film maker :)



And here's Justin playing the gongs...



The land in this area is extremely arid, harsh and flat - very surreal. At one point we were driving along listening to my favorite Dead album - Live Dead - and I realized that the song "Feedback" is the perfect compliment for this bizarre landscape.

Later on we stopped at the Wabmu Mound Springs National Park to see, you guessed it, mound springs. These are salty hot springs bubbling up from the giant underground aquifer that have built up large hill-like mounds from all the minerals in the water. The springs are pretty but unfortunately inhabited by biting flies that quickly chased us back to the car! This was our first encounter with the friendly biting fly... as though the bush flies constantly dive-bombing into our eyes, nose and mouth weren't bad enough!



Our last stop for the day was a ghosttown called Strangeways (how could we pass up a place with a name like that?)It was a town built around one of the telegraph repeater stations.



The telegraph line across the center of Australia was so extremely important because it linked the populated area of SE Australia with the rest of the world via an underwater cable from Darwin to Indonesia. Strangeways was an interesting place with many half-crumbled buildings and some good information about the town's history, but again there were clouds of bush flies following us around so we could only stand it for so long before running back to the car.

That night we stayed at the holiday park at the William Creek roadhouse - the only settlement within at least a 100 mile radius. This is a proper outback roadhouse - a tin roofed rambling building with a bar/restaurant/gas station decorated with everything from rusty lanterns and faded photos, to foreign paper bills and ladies underwear stapled to the walls! We were hoping to eat a real meal there so we hurried to shower before the kitchen closed at 8pm. But alas when we returned at 7:30 clean and hungry, the rather acerbic young women at the counter informed us that it was too late - the kitchen had closed. I started to argue about the time and she just snapped, "you're in the wrong time zone!" So frustrated and hungry we trudged back to the truck to scrounge up something to eat (more canned soup) and tried to figure out how we had crossed time zones! We didn't figure it out til about a week later in Uluru when someone clued us in that South Australia had switched to daylight savings time while we were camping in the Flinders - and by then we were completely confused because NT (Northern Territory) doesn't follow DST! So it seems that we now can't keep track of the date, day of the week or even the time of day :)

Oodnadatta track photoset

Muloorina Oasis and Lake Eyre Salt

Muloorina Waterhole and Lake Eyre
08Oct08

In an attempt to see the dawn chorus we crawled out of bed just as the sun crept over the horizon, but these desert birds are extremely early risers and we had already missed the crescendo.



However it did mean we got an early start on the day, which is something we keep trying to do since it gets oppressively hot by midday.
After breakfasting with some curious galahs, I got my first driving lesson in the landcruiser. Yes, I'm terribly embarrassed to admit it but I'm not comfortable driving a manual and Justin did all the driving in NZ and in Australia thus far. However Australia is so large and we will be doing so much driving that I really need to be helping out. So since we had the campground to ourselves it was a great place for me to practice driving on the wrong side and shifting gears. Fortunately the truck is pretty easy to shift and not prone to stalling (like the VW which convinced me I'd never drive a stick!), so I did fine. Now all I need to get used to are roundabouts :)

After that bit of fun we drove north to Lake Eyre – I should say Justin drove because the road was terribly corrugated and sandy and I wasn't quite ready for that! Lake Eyre is a giant salt lake, currently dry, surrounded by very bleak and flat desert.



The lake itself is immense. We walked on it for a good thirty minutes towards the center and we only covered a fraction of it. When you're standing in the middle of it you can see a near 360degree mirage on the horizon. The mirage looks so much like water shimmering in the distance that we kept thinking that perhaps there was water in the lake after all – until we walked a bit further and realized that rock we thought was sticking out of water, was just stuck in the salty mud.






Back at Muloorina that afternoon we relaxed under the shade of a gum tree and under the protection of our fly net (the flies are horrendous here) and watched all the birds at sunset from the comfort of our folding chairs :)

Muloorina photoset

Arf Burgers and Parrot Sunsets

Arkaroola to Muloorina Station
07Oct08

Today we were tempted to take one of the expensive geology or observatory tours at Arkaroola, but as they were all booked up or not running the decision was made for us. We did however need diesel before we could leave – gas stations are few and far between out here – but they were just filling the diesel tank with fuel that had been trucked in from Pt Augusta so we had to wait. This gave us an excuse to check out the small but charming geological museum and to learn more about Reg Sprigg, one of the founders of the Arkaroola Reserve and a fascinating man. He was involved in many important geological explorations and discoveries in Australia including finding the world's oldest fossil animals (the Edicarian era) in the 1940s. I'll have to read more about him when I have time.



The delay also led to us to guiltily indulge in lunch at the cafe. We both ordered the “Ark burger” which sounded good but turned out to be a towering monstrosity we've dubbed the “Arf burger”. It started with a huge patty that was more like a flattened meatball than a burger – what they call a rissole here. Plus lettuce, tomato, cheese, pickled beets, a fried egg, bacon, and bbq sauce. Amazingly we ate most of it, but we groaned about it for the rest of the day!

And here is what I consider to be my best photograph EVER of Justin and the Arf burger:


nice, eh?

After that we drove through more desolate arid county to the small town of Marree, where we refueled and headed to the Muloorina Station campground for the night. A station is what they call a really large ranch out here. We saw several sheep wandering with practically nothing for them to eat, which led to my brilliant idea of the Lucky Sheep Contest. (drumroll) I think that every year they should run a lottery to choose one lucky Australian sheep whose prize is to be moved to the lush pastures of New Zealand to live out his natural life. It's only fair considering what hard lives the sheep have in the desert!
On the way we crossed the famous “Dog Fence” - the longest fence in the world stretching over 3000 miles and built to keep dingos out of southern Australia. Don't worry, I remembered to shut the gate behind us :)



I was very excited to stay at the Muloorina campground as we'd been told by a friendly stranger in Pt Augusta that it was a beautiful oasis and a fantastic place for birdwatching. What the stranger forgot to add was that the campground had FLUSH toilets and only cost $2 per night! Sigh, I could have stayed here forever. The campground is located on the shores of a lake oasis that is fed by a bore (or well), and indeed has more birdlife than I've seen since NZ. We arrived just in time for a glorious sunset and a cacophonous dusk chorus.



Galahs, corellas, herons, ravens, coots, stilts, swamphens, and plenty of other birds I couldn't identify were all flying about and settling in for the night. Very enchanting...



Arkaroola photoset