Discovering reef and scary shells!
Before coming to Australia, Allie and I decided two things at the top of our list in this country were seeing the Great Barrier Reef and sailing the Whitsunday Islands (a collection of 74 islands off the east coast). So, in order to see the Reef we went to Cairns and then rented a car to get down to Airlie Beach to sail the islands. Here was our driving route, including stops overnight: Cairns -> Townsville -> Airlie Beach -> Mission Beach -> Cairns from November 6th to 14th.
On November 6th we arrived in Cairns around 8:30am after a 3ish hour flight from Sydney (Australia is big) and were shocked at how hot and humid it was. We checked into our awesome hostel (Dreamtime Travellers Rest - would highly recommend), ready to bust out our bathing suits, and as our gal is checking us in she says 'do NOT go in the ocean as there are sharks and crocodiles in there. If you are going to swim, only swim in the lagoon area.' Ummm excuse me?! We knew sharks were a possibility but didn't even think about crocs. And didn't think either would be right on shore. Oh boy. So, after hearing that news we walked around town for awhile (sweating profusely) did some much needed laundry and booked our Great Barrier Reef tour for the next day (after asking many questions about sharks and crocs).
Early the next morning we caught our tour bus and headed out to a river to embark on our day long adventure. We booked with Frankland Island Tours and were able to take a cruise boat out to Frankland Island. They are the only company that has access to this island through an exclusive deal with the city. We really lucked out with our tour - the company could accommodate around 100 people on the boat although on our day we only had about 30 people total - thanks Monday! Once arriving on the island, we saw several sea turtles in the clear bright blue water and went on a "bush walk" around the island with our Aussie guide, Jack. He told us all about the reef and different animals on/around the island to include; massive oysters, fish, sea turtles, sea urchins and shells. It was so interesting to learn about the reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living thing on earth and has survived three ice ages. It is the size of 70 million football fields and can be seen from outer space! There are over 600 types of hard and soft corals and many are named after what they look like; plate coral, brain coral, cabbage coral, etc. After walking around the island for about 30 minutes and checking out different shells (and Allie picking up almost every one) Jack stopped to inform us about a certain type of shell that is highly deadly - if the animal inside stings you it can kill you nearly instantly. I let Jack know that would have been helpful information 30 minutes ago! Sheesh! After our bush walk we had a guided snorkel tour of the reef where Jack lead the group and would help point out turtles and different sea life and coral to us. Allie and I were pretty scared of seeing a shark, but luckily made it through the day unscathed. As we were loading back onto the boat to go back, a shark jumped out of the water and ate a fish right near our boat! The guides couldn't believe it! Neither could we....luckily our shorts were already wet. And, we were done with our water activities for the day. Had we seen that on the way out there would have been NO WAY we would have gotten in the water (even though they are harmless reef sharks).
After our great day of reef exploring, we hit the road for about three hours to make it to our first stopover in Townsville. Townsville was an interesting town with not a ton to do. The highlight was hiking up Castle Hill, which had a nice lookout of the city as well as Magnetic Island which is a popular tourist destination. We also learned about another friendly Australian animal, the brown snake, which also has the ability to kill you within five minutes. A real gem of a guy told us about these about 3 minutes in to our hike so needless to say I think we got up the hill a lot quicker than we originally planned. After spending two nights in Townsville we hit the road for about another three hours to make it to Airlie Beach for our sailing adventure!
Sailing the Whitsunday islands was my first time sailing and definitely an amazing experience! We arrived in Airlie Beach and booked a tour with a company that actually takes a racing sail boat (sailed in the America's Cup in the 70s) out through the islands. It was much narrower than I thought it was going to be and we had over 30 people on the boat! Luckily, I hustled to the back of the ship and got a seat behind the captain - with all the other wusses. The wind was pretty strong when we started out, so the captain said he was going to change our route a bit for the day. We sailed for about 2 hours to start and then arrived at Whitehaven beach, which is the number two beach in the world and the largest of the Whitsunday islands! It was nothing like I had ever seen before. The sand was so incredibly white and soft - 98 percent silica! We exfoliated our skin and they said we could even polish our jewelry with it! Typical for Australia, though, they strongly suggested we wear stinger suits before going in the water at the beach. They have these stinger jelly fish that are the size of your thumbnail and if you are stung in your mid section, they can shut down your respiratory system. So, needless to say, Allie and I wore the suits before getting in the water. After doing a short walk around the island and the beach, we stopped to snorkel and then sail back to Airlie Beach. On the way back luckily I got my same seat in the back because boy did I need it. Let's just say I am not going to be a skipper of a sail boat or a pirate anytime soon. The wind really picked up on the way home and we were sideways for most of the ride. Count me terrified for yet another time on this trip!
After sailing (and neither of us getting sick!) we headed north and ended up stopping in Mission Beach, a cute small beach town a bit further north than Townsville. Driving into Mission Beach we went through a Cassowa (looks like an emu with a colorful mohawk) preserve area so there were some pretty crazy road signs, but unfortunately we didn't see one. Mission Beach is known as the best place to sky dive in Australia so that is a big reason a lot of people visit there. Luckily, Allie and I are both pretty lukewarm adventurers so skydiving was not on our list. But we still enjoyed the town and met some interesting people at our hostel that night from Canada and Germany.
Driving in Australia was quite the experience. Driving on the left side of the car and the left side of the road was something that was foreign to both Allie and I. We got our rental car in Cairns (a snazzy white toyota carola hatchback) and started out on the road. Luckily, Allie drove first so I could watch her. A few things to note about Aussie driving: everything is (clearly) in kilometers, they do not mess around with their road signs (i.e. 'Survive this drive' or 'Stay alert, stay alive.'), where we drove there were lots of two lane roads, TONS of sugar cane fields along our A1 route which meant a lot of sugar cane railroad crossings, blinkers and windshield wipers are on the opposite sides (something I could not get used to), there was McDonalds (or Maccas) in every small town, most of the road signs must be made for tourists because they were constantly reminding us to stay left, we saw heaps of camper vans and our same type of rental car. We were surprised at how jungly the drive was and we saw a lot of farming and agricultural areas. There were lots of cows - at least we think they were cows - most of them looked pretty skinny with weird bumps on their necks. We also saw wild camels...who knew those even existed in Australia?!
Once we safely made it back to Cairns with no bites, stings, car crashes, and bellies full of Maccas we got ready to head to Brisbane! Or as the locals call it, Brissy.
Lessons Learned:
1. Things in Australia that can kill you: a certain type of shell that looks very similar to lots of other shells, sharks, stingers, crocodiles, brown snakes, driving on the other side of the road.
2. Things that can't kill you in Australia: TBD.
3. Northeast Australia is pretty humid (even in spring time). And tropical.
4. Even though we were pretty much sideways on that sailboat, we didn't tip over. Thanks, physics.
5. Sugarcane smells funny.
6. You can always count on Maccas for food and free wifi (they call it wi-fry, how awesome is that) in the middle of nowhere Australia.
7. There is a reason all these Australians are tan - it was so sunny and hot!
Highlights:
1. Frankland Island tour out of Cairns - its not everyday you get to go to a private island and see the Great Barrier Reef! Also, I would highly recommend this company - they did a great job!
2. Sailing the Whitsunday Islands - such a unique experience and got to see a beautiful beach!
3. Driving - although we were pretty terrified at first, Allie and I got the hang of driving on the wrong side - watch out for us when we get back to the states, we'll be all confused!
4. The people - our crew and guides with both companies were great - very friendly and informative and it was fun to talk to locals.
Thanks for reading!
Captain Jack leading us around the island.
Whitehaven Beach.