This is Queensland

We've been up in Queensland now for three days and it has been pretty cool. I didn't really know what to expect, but the landscape up here is so completely different than what I expected. When you land, the airport is right on the coast and inland are mountains covered with trees. There are random mountains every which way you look as well. It's quite a site. I have taken a bunch of pictures but can't upload them from my iPad so I'll post the when I get back to Sydney.

We caught a 6am flight to gtg up here and just messed around the first day. Spent some time picking up groceries to BBQ for the first few nights and spent some time down at the beach. There are warning signs as you approach the beach to watch out for stingers and crocs. Luckily, we saw neither. The water was probably around 80 degrees and not quite as refreshing as you'd hope when it's 90 degrees outside. But I'm not one to complain.

We got up bright and early the second day to head up to Port Douglas to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. The drive was up a very scenic two lane highway and at times bordering a rock mountain. About 20 minutes away there's a big ole rock just off center in the road. I'm panicking as I approach it because if I swerve right I'm in incoming traffic and if I go left I could go off the road. This being My second time driving I panic and decide to play chicken with the rock. I'm going to split the uprights. Well, I missed. I didn't judge the right side of the car very well and crushed the rock. The tire took about 30 seconds to deflate and I pulled over. Where I ended up was probably the most inopportune spot. Right after a very curvy road where we were a sitting target. I immediately got out of the car and ran back to try to get people to slow down before slamming into the back of the car. Luckily we got the tire changed and were back on the road in about 20 minutes.

We were the last people to board the boat, but we'd made it. We journeyed about 90 minutes to the first spot, Turtle Bay. The hope was to see turtles but we weren't so lucky. We did how ever get to snorkel with a few white tip reef sharks which despite being docile still look like sharks, especially when they swim at you (or just close to you.). We also got to see a few Nemo, a massive school of parrot fish, a very large fish I don't know the name of and countless other types of fish and coral.

The second stop had some amazing coral "gardens.". And try were right on the edge of the Continental Shelf. So we were literally on the edge of Australia. We saw a few giant clams, sea cucumbers and many other fish I couldn't recognize. But the sites were amazing. I didn't get sea sick on the boat at all, but after every snorkel stop I'd feel a little queezy. I think it was more bobbing out in the middle of the ocean that got my stomach going. We hit one final stop and got a few pictures (again I'll post them when I'm back in Sydney) before venturing back to land. It sounds like we were just under 30 miles off the coast, just bobbing along with our heads down. While we never saw anything dangerous, it was tough not to think of Jaws as you got to the edge of a reef and saw just blue water fade to nothing. I had an 18 inch parrot fish swim pretty aggressively at me (maybe more near me) but that got me to do a knee jerk reaction so I'm glad we didn't see any sharks.

I was sure cautious driving back and as we got close to the apartment we rented, I saw a stick on the side of the road. Not wanting to risk it, I swerved to the right. As I did that, the stick moved. Turned out to be crocodile probably between 3 and 4 feet long.

Today, we went into Cairns and messed around and swapped cars. Not much was happening so we drove up to Kerunda for a walk though the forrest. The neatest part was the drive up the winding mountain, but we did it. Everyones resting now before heading out for dinner and to spend some quality time with a few nocturnal inhabitants. We're hoping to het a few pictures with kangaroos tonight, so hopefully I'll have some to post tomorrow.

I did post a few pictures to Flickr which you can get to from the photo stream up top, but I'll try to get more tomorrow after walking through the rainforrest.