Reef Magic / Marine World

After the Green Island trip, I had a rest day - which was a very wise move as I certainly needed to recover.

The following day was the big trip to the outer reef.  I was up early and headed to the Reef Terminal where all the boats leave from.  I checked in and headed towards the boat.  I was met by Erin who said she would be the official photographer for the day, including in the water.  She handed me a "Reef Magic" life buoy and took a photo of me.  It was then onto the boat for the 90min trip out to the dive platform.  On the way there were various briefings for those doing various activities from snorkelling to diving, and at the end there was a final briefing for those who would be flying in the helicopter (which included me).

My plans for the day were pretty full, and I certainly got the absolute most out of the trip.  As it turned out my day unfolded as follows:
1) Semi-submersible trip
2) Several Snorkelling sessions close to the pontoon
3) Quick lunch
4) Back into the water to watch the fish feeding
5) Back out of the water onto another boat to be taken out to the Adventure Snorkel
6) Boat back to the platform, quick change into dry clothes, back onto another boat to the helicopter platform
7) Helicopter flight around the reef for 15mins.

The Marine World platform is ancored on the outer reef, and between it and the boat we arrived on, we have all the facilities we need for a great day - in the middle of the ocean.

The semi-submersible trip was a great introduction to the reef, along with commentary from one of the Marine World guides discussing the various coral types and fish species.  Straight after this trip, I changed into my swimming gear (complete with stinger suit - more strange yoga positions required) and it was into the water for some snorkelling.

The reef and fish species were certainly much better and more diverse than those I'd see at Green Island.  It wasn't long before I saw Erin in the water and she signalled me to approach, and she bought Wally (Murray Rasse) over to meet me for a photo.  She also gave me a couple of other objects to hold while taking photos of me.   Here's me and Wally...

I had plenty of time in the water and pused a bit further away from the platform.  Some of the most exciting bits were were the coral dropped off into deeper water and you could see a "wall" with a variety of Parrot fish, Surgeon fish and Cleaner fish, along with some Clown fish (Nemo).  There were also a few Giant Trevally hanging around.   Swimming back towards the platform I saw Wally again.  I spoke to Erin on the trip back and she said he was like her "puppy".  Here's a quick video of Erin interacting with Wally (sorry for the fingers over the lens towards the end of the clip).

After a quick lunch, there was an announcement that there would be fish feeding at the end of the platform - I had to be in the water for that !!!!!  So back on with all my gear, and back into the water.  It was quite amazing to be in the water only metres from hundreds of feeding fish, including some very large, very fast Giant Trevally (I can see why these are a prized sport fish).

 A bit more snorkelling around the pontoon before it was time to jump in a boat and head out a bit further for the Adventure Snorkel.  This is a mini-tour hosted by a marine biologist (Erik) where we went towards the outside of the reef (open ocean), then drift back towards the pontoon.  I was immediately struck by the depth (couldn't see the bottom), but interestingly I wasn't all that fussed when my head was under the water, it only concerned me when my head was above water!  Out here there were a few larger schools of fish, but they were a little harder to photograph since they were further away.  Erik explained a bit about the fish, as well as how things worked on the outer "barrier" reef.  There was quite a bit of chop and strong currents so it took a fair bit of effort to stay within earshot of Erik to hear what he had to say.

The snorkelling normall goes for 1hr, but for me to make it back in time for the helicopter tour they had arranged a special boat to come out and pick me up.  As it turned out, several other people on the Adventure Snorkel had had enough (a bit tired out, I think) by then, so also grabbed a ride back to the pontoon.

A very quick change into some dry gear, and it was onto another boat for a quick trip out to the helicopter pontoon.

I'd never been in a helicopter before, and although I'd have several opportunities on the way up the coast I thought I'd save my first time for "something special".  Well, that it was.  Once strapped in and had the headset on, the engine started to ramp up and soon enough we were taking off - very smooth.  I had the back left seat and kept the window open so I could take photos out the window.  Climbing over the pontoon the spectacle of the reef began to unfold in front of us.  While the pontoon was visible it was easy to put everything in scale, but once we lost sight of the pontoon it was quite hard to put a scale to the reef.

It was beautiful, crystal clear water, lots of cays, sand, open water.  We also got to see a few turtles and a shark.  Soon enough the flight was over and it was back onto the pontoon and then quickly onto the boat for the trip home (we were the last ones to get on). 

As with the Green Island tour, there were some very tired tourists on the boat on the way home.  On the way back, I looked at Erin's photos and decided to get "the lot" which consisted off all the photos of me, plus a few stock photos of the reef and fish, all on a Nemo-style USB stick.   A bit expensive, but hey, I'm not likely to do it again!  I also showed Erin the video I took of her interacting with Wally.

I've got to say the staff on Reef Magic were absolutely fantastic and although we were intially given name tags at the start of the day, I suspect they would have all known our names (without the tags) by the end of the day.  Special shout out to Rossi who helped me through the activities on the day, including arranging a boat to pick me up from the Adventure Snorkel so I wouldn't miss my Helicopter flight.  She also managed to find a souvenir "I Love Wally" T-Shirt in my size on the trip home.

After getting back to the Reef Terminal, it was back to the caravan park and an early night, after what was a fantastic once-off day.

HERE is a link to quite a few more photos and VIDEO of my day at Marine World.

Also, HERE'S a link to photos taken by the Marine World photographers, including a few stock ones of the reef (I can't take credit for these ones).

Green Island

The first of my "reef" adventures was a cruise out to Green Island.  It was a great way to get my feet wet (pun intended) and get re-aquianted with snorkelling, as well as trying out my camera gear and stinger suit.

I have been known to get a bit sea sick, but between it being a catermaran, the ginger tablets and me sitting low down in the ship near the centre, I was perfectly OK.  The cruise took about 50 minutes to get to Green Island, and once we'd docked it was off to the Dive Shop to pick up my snorkelling gear.  Unfortunately, nearly everyone else had the same idea so there was a bit of a line.  After that, it was a challenge to then find somewhere to get changed into my swimming gear.   Finally after doing that and storing all my stuff in a locker, I headed towards the beach.   There's a couple of snorkelling/swimming areas at Green Island, but the area to the right of the pier is manned by lifeguards and recommended - so that's where I started.  

Putting on the stinger suit was akin to some type of beach yoga, and I suspect I may have invented a couple of new positions.  The type of suit I had is basically stocking material and it goes over your entire body.  After that it was on with the mask and snorkel, get the camera gear ready then down to the water to get the flippers on.  It was all a bit of a rigmarole, and not very elegant.   Eventually I made it into the water and started snorkelling. 

It wasn't long before I got the hang of it, and could snorkel and operate the camera properly.  Here's proof...

There were a few small fish to see, along with some Parrot Fish, surgeon fish and even a small barracuda.  They weren't very fussed by the people, and some of them were even swimming very close to the shore.  

In terms of my gear, the Canon D20 performed REALLY well - was easy to operate underwater, I could see the screen, and showed no sign of fogging up.  Next I tried my Sony Action Cam.  This has it's own waterproof housing - which is waterproof to 60m - but the down side is that the only button you have access to once it's in the housing is the start/stop record button.  I took it for a swim and soon realised that I must have set it up for Time Lapse Photos, not Movies, so all it was doing when I hit the record button was taking a photo every 10 seconds - DOH!.  I mad the mistake of openning the case back on the beach, and although the case was dry, I suspect there may have been a bit of moisture still on my hands, because once I closed the case and got back into the water, the housing started to fog up - DOH AGAIN!  Oh well,  one of the aims of this day trip was to check out the gear and try to correct any problems before the "big trip".

The morning had been great and I'd spent 3 lots of about 30mins each snorkelling off the beach.  I had a quick shower and some expensive lunch.   After lunch I wandered around the board walk which has some interpretive signs talking about the island and it's wildlife.  The boardwalk goes for about half the island, then you can walk on the beach for the remainder.  All in all you can walk right around the island in about 40mins (it's not very big).

About 3/4 of the way around I ran into some French tourists who said "you can see turtles here?"  They way they phrased it made it sound like a question, but in fact it was a statement, and when I looked out onto the beach, inbetween some rocks on the beach and some weed beds further out was a clear sandy stretch of water and every 30 secs or so a turtle would swim by.   We had a bit of a chat about it, and I jokingly referred to it as the Turtle Highway.  The back portion of the island was beautiful, very unspoilt.  Here's a shot...

Due to the crystal clear turquiose water, blue skies and sandy beaches, virtually every photo you take in this area is "picture postcard" stuff - great!

They do have some crocs in captivity on the island, including Cassium (The biggest saltwater croc in captivity in the world), however I'd seen enough cros shows, so decided to give it a miss.

For the afternoon snorkelling session I thought I would try the area to the left of the pier.  One of the attendants on the boat had said she was snorkelling there Monday and saw some White Tipped Reef Sharks.   This area turned out to be a little less "reefy" and I had no luck in seeing any sharks.  I did, however, have the pleasure of following a Green Turtle for about 10mins while it was feeding on the weed beds.   It was pretty cool, and I would have followed it for a bit longer but was distracted by the sound of a tourist screaming her lungs out.   I asked if everything was OK (she wasn't making any distress type signals - just screaming), but she couldn't understand me.   I suspect she just got separated from her group and when she looked up she was further out that she expected.   Anyway, two members of her group swam over to her and all was good.  However when I looked back down the turtle was gone.

Here's a photo...

And here's some video...

It was getting later in the day and I thought I'd allow some time for getting showered and changed, and also try to re-hydrate a bit, since it was pretty hot.  As it turns out I'd got a little bit sunburnt, even though I had sunscreen on (should have put a second layer on at lunchtime).  It was then onto the ferry for the trip home.  I suspect many people had learned their lesson from the trip over, because the downstairs area of the ferry was absolutely packed, with some very tired snorkellers.

HERE'S a link to some more photos and a few videos as well.

Innisfail and Atherton Tablelands

From Paronella Park I made my way back towards the Bruce Highway and on to Innisfail.   First stop was the Australian Sugar Heritage Centre, which is basically a sugar museum. 

Driving through Innisfail it was clear that it wasn't a tourist town, but was key in supporting the farming and cane production in the area.  What struck me as I drove through town was how much the architecture was similar to that in Ballarat.

From here I drove to the coast for a quick look...

HERE's a few more photos from Innisfail and surrounding area.

The next stop on the tour was the Atherton Tablelands,  a big loop driving inland from Innisfail and then returning to Cairns.   Shortly after turning off the Bruce Highway I started the long climb into the mountains and onto the plateau that is the Tablelands.  On the way I came across a small picnic area called Genevieve Creek.  It was high enough into the mountains that it was surrounded by lush, thick rainforest, and the creek was free of crocs and had a great swimming hole.   It also had a great little secluded campground, and was one of the first places I'd passed through that felt truly "tropical" - the heat and humidity probably helped this assesment.  I was faced with one of those nasty decisions - I'd love to camp here, but it was very early in the day and I'd lose about 3/4 of a day's sightseeing.  As it turns out, I should probably have stopped here, as Lake Tinnaroo wasn't quite what I'd expected (more on that later).

I also ran into the same British couple that I'd seen on both Fraser Island and also feeding the birds at Airlie Beach.  I did my best to assure them that I wasn't stalking them, then proceeded to ask what their plans were - which probably made it seem like I WAS stalking them!

As I kept driving I was blown away by the beauty of the area - rolling, lush green hills (they obviously get a lot of rain), pockets of rainforest, and on the day I was there a few storms rolling through that made for great photo opps...

I had also noticed the odd field here or there with a low very square hedgy looking bush.  As it turns out this was tea, and the Nerda Tea Company grow and process their own tea in the region.  I dropped into the Nera Tea Visitors centre, and although there was no tour (or at least not the day I was there) there was lots of info on the walls to read, and I had a great chat with one of the attendants (turns out it was only her 2nd day, and she ended up being from Ballarat).  She mentioned they had a local Tree Kangaroo and that he'd been around in the morning.  We went out the back and sure enough he was still there - way up high in the trees.  I was pretty excited because I love Tree Kangaroos (I photograph them a lot at Melbourne Zoo), but this was the first one I'd seen in the wild.

I continued on to the town of Atherton, and to a place called the Crystal Caves.  It's a shop in town that has a "cavern" under the shop showing lots of crystals and geodes.  Unfortunately I was too late for the last tour, so it was back into the van and onto Tolga and towards Lake Tinnaroo.  The lake had been given a HUGE wrap by a fellow traveller that I ran into down in Victoria, so I thought it would be a great place to camp.  On the way there I noticed that all the camping was "pre-booked" only, meaning you supposedly couldn't use the little registration envelops to pay for the spot, that are at a lot of camp sites.   The information station and sign indicating "pre-booked" only was a fair way out of town, however my phone was showing good reception.  You could book and pay for the sites via Internet or Phone - sadly, I chose the phone.  It was possibly THE worst phone/booking process I've EVER been through.  Although I could here the receptionist very well, she kept saying she could hardly hear me and I had I regressed to shouting out every-single-letter of what I was trying to say   Peers  - "that's P for Peter, E for egg, another E for egg" sorry was that "E"?    I was getting angier by the minute.   I'm pretty sure it was her headset that was the problem, because I could not only hear her very clearly, I could also hear at least 2 other call centre staff taking camping bookings in the call centre.   I finally finished the booking and continued up the road.   I knew it was going to turn into a gravel road, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite to rough.  It got to the point where things were starting to get thrown around in the back of the van (including my laptop) which made me even angier.

I finally got to the Playtypus Creek Campground, only to discover that a) there are registration envelops on site, and I probably could have paid that way and b) my site was near the lake, but was also very exposed and it was extremely windy and c) it wasn't that great a spot after all (especially compared to Genevieve Creek's rainforest).
Although I'd booked 2 nights (in case it was "great") I vowed I'd only stay one night and try to get to Cairns a bit quicker.  The only saving grace for the location was that because it was up in the mountains, it cooled down quite a bit at night and was actually quite comfortable for sleeping.

This shot makes it look better than it was...

The next morning I drove back into Atherton to check out the Crystal Cave.  Turns out it's a man made fibreglass construction made to look like a cave!  But none the less, it was quite interesting with a large array of gems, crystals and geodes on display from all around the world - the owner's lifes work.  Before entering the exhibit you have to put on a construction/mining helmet with a light on the top.  The light is not really that necessary (more for effect), but due to some very low area the helmet certainly IS necessary. The pride of the collection is the largest amethyst geode in the world, and it certainly was impressive and sparkly...

The next stop after Atherton was The Peanut Place - a shop on the side of the road that sells all sorts of different types of peanuts (grown in the area).  My two favourites were Lime & Ginger Peanuts and Curry Peanuts - yum.

One of the few "planned" stops for the day was to be the Distillery - the only one in North Queensland. However as I drove up to the entrance I noticed it was closed, and there was a sign indicating it was closed for a Private Function for Melbourne Cup - NOT HAPPY.

Anyway, no time to hang around, so it was onwards.  Quick stop at a timber and wood-working shop/cafe/workshop where there were some magnificent pieces by various artists.

Next stop was Coffee Works.  They buy beans from local growers, as well as international growers and roast/mix them themselves.   They have tastings set up for all varieties of their coffees, as well as tea and CHOCOLATE.  For a small price you get to taste them all, as well as see the coffee museum with audio guide.  Sadly my lack of smell didn't let me fully appreciate the tastings but I still got a "rough idea" of the coffees and also a great hit from the Lime & Chilli Chocolate.  I got about half way through the museum when I realised the Melbourne Cup was nearly due to start, and my sister was singing in the choir that would feature on the TV before the race.  I popped back out to the van, and madly set up the TV receiver for the laptop only to find that I couldn't get a signal.  I tried various positions for the antenna in vein (much to the amusement of anyone watching in the carpark), but no luck.  I then had the brialliant idea of trying to stream it live on the iPad.  I did find a few web sites that claimed they were streaming the coverage, but alas they were all so busy that I couldn't get on.  I had a quick chat with the Parents (who had taped the race), and afterwards headed back inside to finish the audio tour of the museum.

After the Coffee Museum, it was time to head towards Cairns, via the Kuranda Pass - a very steep hilly section of road that within 10 - 20 kms takes you off the Atherton plain (approx 450m in elevation) down to sea level.   It also didn't help that there were road works along the way.  

The first stop in Cairns was the Tourist Info / Tour Booking place (I'm sure there are plenty but I found a biggish one that I was happy with).  I'd already grabbed a few brochures on reef tours, so had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.   I chatted with the attendant and after getting a map and sorting out which would be a good caravan park for me, it was time to book the tours.   I mentioned a couple I'd seen, and what I thought were the pros and cons of each, and she quickly mentioned that it looked like "I'd done my homework".  This made her job a bit easier, and we were very quickly able to narrow down a couple of options.  I also mentioned that I wanted to "test out" my underwater camera gear before doing the main reef trip.  So I decided to do two trips, with a day inbetween as a break.  The first was a cruise out to Green Island, with some snorkelling off the beach, and the second was a trip to the outer reef with Reef Magic and some more adventureous snorkelling.  More about that in the next post...

After booking the tours, I drove out to the carvan park and checked in.  Although I would have been happy with a powered site, I thought it would be nice to stretch out a bit and make sure all my gear was ready, given that the snorkelling trips would be one of the major highlights of the trip.  As it turns out they had one lodge left - I just seem to be very lucky that way.   I initially booked it for one night, but after seeing it, went back and booked it for an additional 3 nights !!!

HERE'S a few more shots of the Atherton Tablelands area.

Mission Beach and Paronella Park

From Townsville, the Bruce Highway stays inland for quite a while.  Not much to see but miles of cane fields, farmlands, periodically stopped by road works.   I took a detour to the coast to drop in to Mission Beach.  South Mission was the site of an early Aboriginal Mission, but these days is a hangout for trendy backpackers, looking to escape the busyness of Airlie Beach (that's my assesment, not from a tourist brochure).  There are some beautiful beaches (which you can't swim in at this time of year) and some cool bars.

Driving on a bit from Mission I came across Stumpy Jetty.  It was located in a beautiful little cove, with crystal clear water.  There were a few locals out fishing on the pier so I wandered out.  On the way I saw a MASSIVE Manta Ray swimming into the shallows, then criss-crossing the waves near the beach - I guess it was feeding on something - maybe jellyfish?

With a few clouds in the sky, the scene looking back from the pier made for a great black and white photo:

HERE's a couple more photos from the Mission Beach area.

From here it was onward and northward to a place called Paronella Park.   I had no idea what was there, or even what the place was, but I'd picked up a brochure and knew that a) there was something to see, and b) they had powered sites available for caravans.  When I arrived, I checked in and got a site for the van.  I was also in time for the last "day" tour, so after parking the van came back down to reception. 

The park was the dream of a spanish migrant Paronella back in the 1930's  who wanted to build his own castle in the hills and have people come visit.  After finding some appropriate land, which included a waterfall, he started to build his dream.  After many years building, he had created a magnificent park with castle style buildings that were used for dances, balls, weddings etc (complete with very early version of a disco ball), along with a cafe style build, changing rooms, bocce arena, and skating rink.  Back in the day it was a hit.  It was prior to the time of machine harvesting of the cane, so the area was chock full of labourers and their families who were involved one way or another in the harvesting and processing of the sugar cane.

He put the waterfall to good use and began generating power to run the place - it was one of the first places in the area to have a permanent power supply.   Today the generator has been refurbished, and still supplies nearly all the power needs of the park (in fact the surplus is fed back into the grid).

It eventually fell out of family ownership and in the late 1970's the new owner couldn't make a go of it, but also didn't sell it to anyone, so it was left to rack and ruin.  Given how quickly plants grow in this area, it because overgrown very quickly.

I don't know the exact chronology of the next couple of events, but in the late 90's it was used as a filming location for the Hollywood film Sniper with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane.  Around the same time, it got new owners who started to reclaim the buildings from the jungle and contacted one of the daughters of Mr Paronella, to try to re-capture some of the story of the place.  They still own it today, and are still working on restoring and saving many of the buildings.  One of the problems they face now is "concrete cancer" this is where the reinforcing steel within the concrete starts to rust and expand and then destroy the concrete.  They are going to have to put scaffolding up around some of the affected buildings to try to keep them intact.

Since I was staying overnight, I also had a ticket for the Night Tour.  This was less history and more ambience, with parts of the property being lit up with lights.  Although the tour was great and the place looked spectacular at night (especially the waterfall), there were two "natural" highlights for me.  Firstly, I got to see a colony of Bent Wing Bats up close - they are very small and cute. Secondly, I got to see a tree full of Fireflies all flashing at each other.  Unfortunately, neither of these I could get photos of.  But to make up for it, here's a photo of the waterfall at night...

And HERE's a few more photos from Paronella Park.

Townsville

Drove around town to get familiar with the place.  I must admit, any town where it's relatively easy to drive and navigate the van makes a great first impression on me.  And although several people had set the bar pretty low for Townsville, I ended up really liking the place.  On my way around town I found "The Esplanade" - a park/garden area that runs for a couple of kms along the foreshore.  It has a "stinger net" for safe swimming, lots of picnic tables and trees for shade, and there is also a swimming lagoon at one end.  The day I arrived there was also a massive market on at one end of The Esplanade, so it was a bit tricky to find a park.   I continued on to find a caravan park relatively close to town, and on the beach (Rowes Bay).

The next day it was into town to visit Reef HQ & Turtle Hospital (it has a much longer name than this, but "Reef HQ" seems to have stuck).  It holds the largest living reef in an aquarium environment in the world, and contains examples of many types of coral and fish speciies.  It also holds numerous shark and ray species, one of which - the Leopard Shark - has been a bit TOO successful at breeding and they've had to separate the boys and girls.  They run a breeding program and provide many other aquariums around Australia and the World with sharks and rays.  This has two benefits - firstly captive raised sharks and rays are used to being around humans and handled so survive better than wild ones, and secondly it prevents the need to catch wild sharks and rays.

Although only small, with the various exhibits and also the talks they gave each hour, I managed to spend about 2 1/2 hrs here.   The first talk was a joint effort between our host in the theatrette and a diver in the aquarium.  A lot of topics were covered, including the distinction between various shark species - those that need to keep swimming in order to breath/survive, versus those that can sit on the bottom such as the Shovel Nosed Shark and thanks to active gills can continue breath. 

The next talk they gave (DVD actually) was about marine stingers.  For most of the presentation I was the only one in the theatre, but given that I was new to the whole "marine stinger" environment, I thought it was worth a watch.   I found out what the vinegar is for - I originally thought it was to help with the pain, but it's not.  When you come in contact with a box jellyfish only about 1/4 of the stingers actually fire, this means that if you attempt to move/remove/rub the stingers while still on the skin there are still about 3/4 of the stingers able to fire - more pain !!!!  So the vinegar simply disables the rest of the stingers (namatasites?), which allows the tentacles to be removed by hand and prevents it from getting worse.  As for the pain caused by those that have already fired - too bad.

The stings of the box jelly fish are the fastest biological mechanism known to man.

The third talk was on the Turtle Hospital.  They didn't originally have one, but so many people were bringing sick and injured turtles in because they had no where else to go, they raised some money and started a hospital.  During the talk, they did a quick demonstation of why we need to prevent rubbish and plastics from entering the sea.   They had something in a glass jar and asked the audience what they thought it was.  It looked just like a jelly fish, but was in fact a plastic bag - it was the ideal demonstation to show how a turtle could easily mistake it for a jelly fish.

After the talk it was out to the Turtle Hospital to see a few of the turtle they had.  One had just come in with "floating disorder" which can be caused by numerous things, but the outcome is still the same - they can't dive to feed so slowly starve, and also can't dive to get out of the way of boats so are more likely to be hit.   He was heading off to get an X-Ray to find out what was wrong.   They also had another Turtle "Sally Sunshine" who was ready for release - and she certainly looked raring to go, racing around her pool and coming up the sides to investigate the people.

After the Turtle Hospital I drove out to one of the shopping centres for a spot of shopping, including getting some mosquito netting for the back of the van.   After that it was back into town and up to a lookout on the top of Castle Hill.  This hill is smack bang in the middle of town and rises straight up (about 250m) from the surrounding area.   The van made it up, although it was back into 1st gear on occassions.

After the lookout it was back to the caravan park, and time to do some washing.

HERE are some more shots from Townsville.

Bowen

Famous for it's mangos. 

Has a pier, and I was there in time to see an Australian Navy ship come in for docking.

That is all.

Airlie Beach

Driving into Airlie Beach, I'll admit the view was spectacular - beautiful turquoise water, lots of expensive yatchs and a lovely harbour.   However all the road works that are going on around the main street make it a bit difficult to drive through and park the van (which tainted my experience). 

I had arranged to catch up with an old work collegue,  Michelle, and we meet in a carpark near the salt water lagoon, where all the beautiful people hang out (I suspect I was bringing the tone down somewhat).  We chatted for a while and caught up on some gossip, along with who is doing what.  I also gave her a quick tour of the van.  It wasn't until later that arvo that I realised I hadn't been wearing a hat or sunscreen, and even that short time in the midday sun had resulted in sunburn.

The lagoon was surrounded by half naked bronzed backpackers from all over the world - it certainly was the place to hang out.   What I couldn't figure out was "why Airlie Beach"?  There are plenty of other spots up and down the coast that could have been picked, but for some reason Airlie Beach is the place to be for international backpackers.

I checked into a caravan park on the outskirts of town, and because I was feeling so hot I booked a cabin/room.
After settling in I had a shower, lots of cold drinks, on with the fan and air-con and that pretty much saw out the rest of the day.

When I checked in they said they did bird feeding at 8am in the mornings near the pool.  So the next morning, as I was having a coffee on my balcony at about 7:40am, I saw quite a few birds making a b-line for the pool area - they knew what time it was better than I did !  I made my way down there in time for the feeding, and hundreds of Lorikeets going crazy over their food.  You could even grab some food and they would jump on your arms and eat it out of your hands.   I recognised a couple of travellers from the Fraser Island tour, so said "hi" and got him to take a photo of me feeding the birds.

I might have to borrow some of these birds for "talk like a pirate" day..

HERE'S a couple of other shots from Airlie Beach. 

Cape Hillsborough National Park

From Rockhampton I drove north on to Mackay.   I dropped by one of the beaches, and drove out onto the breakwater to see a large ship coming into port.  

One or two other photos of Mackay - HERE.

There's not a lot to see in Mackay (sorry to the Mackayians), and had picked up a brochure about a place called Cape Hilsborough National Park, just a bit further north, so drove there.

I think the best way I can describe the place is like a tropical version of Wilsons Prom (Victoria) - it was absolutely fantastic and would highly recommend it to everyone.  There is a caravan/cabin park there right on the beach, which I managed to get a powered site at only about 30m from the beach.

The location has a beautiful bay, protected on either end my large capes, along with an island in the middle of the bay.  At low tide, it's possible to walk all the way around the cape and onto the island.  The area has thick, lush tropical vegetation, and there was plenty of wildlife to see including birds, lizards, possums and wallabies.  Interstingly, the wallabies hit the beach at dawn and eat some of the seaweed that's exposed - I was told they get some salts and minerals from it - it's certainly the first time I've seen lots of kangaroos and wallabies congrating on a beach!    It was also my first introduction to the House Gecko.  These are pretty common, but it was certainly intersting to see them on the walls of the bathroom.  The ones in that area a very pale colour and they almost look transparent at night.

Post Script:   From about Rockhampton onwards I'd been hearing this "chuck-chuck-chuck" sound at night and thought it was some type of bird, but I could never see them.  Turns out it's the House Geckos making this sound - which is quite loud for such a small critter.

While at Cape Hillsborough I got some great photos, including sunrise and sunset shots, but also some moonrise photos.   Strangely though, the Canon G1X when taking very long exposures turned all the shots bright green - not sure what's going on there - so I had to turn many of my moon shots into black & white.

Here's a LINK to a few more shots from the area.

Rockhampton

After the rest day, I checked out of the cabin and hit Rocky for a bit of sightseeing.

The day before I'd gone to the Visitor Info, and when I asked what there was to see in the town and was greeted with a few "ums and ahhs", I wasn't holding out much hope.   But I did find a few things to do in and around town.

The first stop was the Botanic Gardens.  The gardens are spread out over a massive area, and when you have a tropical climate it would appear possible to grow just about anything (the only thing they might have trouble with would be maintaining a "desert" type garden).  There were japanese gardens, giant strangler figs, rainforest areas and a lagoon.  While I was having coffee at the cafe, a small cute lorikeet landed on my table - "lovely" I thought.  It then started edging it's way closer to my cup and saucer, and finally made a lunge for the empty sugar packet!  They must have learned that even though the packet was empty, there are probably still a few grains left in the bottom.   I just managed snatch it back in time.  It hung around for a little while, but after realising I would relinquish my sugar it flew over to another table to try it's luck with some other patrons.

From here it was on to Archer Park Rail Museum.  Here they have a recreation of an old railway station, along with ghostly white lifesize figures.  They also have working trains, along with a working Steam Tram (yes, Tram) that operates about once a month.   It's the only example of a Steam Tram I've ever seen.

A guy called Russell took me on a personal guided tour of the place, including a tour of the carriages on one of the trains.   He also explained how the "staff" system worked that used physically metal staffs being taken out of a machine and handed to the driver to physically lock certain track connections, to ensure that only one train could be on the tracks at one time.   It was a nearly fool proof system that prevented two trains colliding, except on the odd occassion where the staff was mishandled.

 

Next stop was the Rockhampton Heritage Village.  It was a recreation of a mid 19th century village that would have existed in the area (with a few additional bits here and there, including vintage cars).   It was spread out over a massive area and included blacksmith shop, slab huts, horse drawn carriages, and a newly created hospital exhibit complete with an example of a an Iron Lung and medical equipment from the era.

 Next, and final stop for the day was Capricorn Caves. A bloke names Olsen discoverd these caves a long time ago (precise, hey?) and managed to conceal the caves from the government inspector when he applied to buy the land.   The caves were full of bat guano (poo) which apparently was worth a bit of money, so he employed several people to mine it, on the proviso that they didn't damage the caves.   They mined several metres of the stuff, but after he found out that they'd dynamited a new entrance he sacked them.   Something, something, something .... and then he turned into a tourist attraction.   One of the rooms is called Cathedral Cavern and Olsen had hosted a few weddings down there.   These days they still hold weddings there, and the acoustics are said to be so good that they also host opera performances in the cave.   On the tour to demonstrate the accoustics, the guide turned down the lights and played a rendition of Leondard Cohen's Hallelujah (I think it was Rufus Wainwright) - very moving.

To exit the cave they gave us a choice, we could take the easy way, or we could try to get through the "zig zag" tunnel that the miners had created to get the bat poo out.   I tried the tunnel and it certainly was a tight squeeze, at one point I was down on my knees in some very strange positions trying to get through - how they thought this made it EASIER to get the bat poo out I'll never know!

At the exit of the cave is a suspension bridge that they actually ENCOURAGE people to bounce and swing around on, which one of the tour participants took great delight in doing - luckily after I was safely over the other side.

As mentioned a couple of times, the cave has bat poo.  This poo comes from the tiny Bent Wing bat which is about as big as your thumb.   They are not there all year around, and were just starting to come back to the cave, as the humity was starting to increase.   On the tour we could hear them, but didn't get a good look.

Prior to the tour I'd booked a camp spot and set up the van.   There were only a handful of campers, and since the caves are in the middle of nowhere, it was a really peaceful/quiet place to camp.   The other benefit of camping near the caves was that right on dusk, I got to see some of the bats flying around.

Here's a LINK to quite a few more photos from the Rockhampton sightseeting day.

Bundaberg - Huzzah!

Going to Bundaberg was a slight detour, but there was no way I was missing out on a tour of the Bundaberg Distillary Company, where Bundy Rum is made - Hazzah!  (If you are wondering why I keep saying "Huzzah!", you'll need to do some research on the founders of the distillary, or go on the tour.)

I love the fact that the starting of the distillary was in response to the region having a massive surplus of molasses (by-product of sugar refining), which they didn't know what to do with.  Let's make alcohol !!!!

The tour was great - even if we weren't allowed to take ANYTHING electronic, or even with a battery in it, including watches, phones and cameras (so no photos).  The guides was quite funny, even if 1/2 the group weren't laughing at her jokes.    Since sugar refining only occurs for about 4 months per year, they have massive vats on site containing millions of litres of molasses so that they can continue to produce rum all year round - huzzah!

Here's a LINK to a couple of other (not many) photos of the Distillary.

From here I drove north (suprise!) towards Gladstone.  The going was slow due to the constant road works on the Bruce highway - lots of stopping and starting.   One of the other consequences of the large amount of roadworks is that the road works have to stay somewhere, so almost all accommodation in Gladstone was booked out, including caravan parks!!  I kept driving through Gladstone but couldn't get any accomodation.  Also, some of the roadside stops were also not accessible due to the road works - doh!

By this stage it was dark, and I'd prefer not to drive at night, so I found a road side stop at Mount Larcom, pulled over and tried to get some sleep.   It was pretty noisy between the trucks going passed and coal trains rumbling by every 15 mins, so I didn't get much sleep.   

The next day I drove the final 80km to Rockhampton.  I was pretty tired, and the forecast was for rain, so I thought I'd get a cabin and have a rest day.  I found a caravan park, and even though it was only 9:30am they allowed me to check in.  I took my stuff in, had a shower and relaxed - ahhh!

Fraser Island

NOTE: Since I'm way behind with my blog posts, they don't really reflect to correct date of the activity.  The Fraser Island tour occured on 26/10/2012.

Fraser Island is the world's biggest sand island - approx 127km long x 15 km wide.  Although all roads on the island are just 4WD tracks, they are all gazzetted roads, including 75Mile Beach, and the island has a local cop who enforces the road rules.  We saw him in action on the beach, pulling over cars.

To get to the island we took the ferry and were then split into several smaller groups and assigned to specially designed 4WD buses.  The buses are outfitted with seatbelts, which are mandatory, and after 5 mins driving it was easy to see why.

The first stop was Central Station where the driver took us on a walk through forest, along a boardwalk, showing us beautiful kauri trees next to a crystal clear stream.  Here's a quick video...
 

Then it was back into the bus for some more very rough travelling across to the other side of the island, and a place called Eurong.  There is a resort here, and this is where we had an early lunch.  The schedule of the tour can vary from day to day, because part of the tour involves a drive along 75mile beach, which is subject to the tides.

After lunch it was back into the bus for a drive along the beach - ahhhh, much smother!   Aside from a couple of spots along the beach, the speed limit is 80kph, and it was quite strange to see lots & lots of 4WDs speeding up and down the beach in both directions.   Not too far along we saw a plane on the beach, and the driver announced that we could take a joy flight if we liked.  I hate flying in small planes (not good with turbulence), but my hand shot up to be one of the first - I couldn't miss out on this.   

Once into the plane (I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat) he revved the engine and we started taxing down the beach to take off - IN BETWEEN THE ON COMING TRAFFIC.   It was the weirdest sensation to take off from the beach.   We climbed out over the ocean, for a brief bit of whale spotting, before banking back to fly over the island.   Magnificent sight - there were huge swathes of green dotted with small pockets of sand as well as the odd lake.  Coming into land was one of the scariest things I've done.   First we came in perpendicular to the beach, then at the last minute banked sharply to the right (I thought the wing was going to touch the waves) then hit the sand - trying to pick a big enough gap between the cars.   Still, I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Once we landed we caught up with the bus, and had a quick look at the wreck of the Maheno.

We then stopped off at the coloured sands, as well as Eli Creeek which is a beautiful oasis based around one of the crystal clear creeks that a scattered around the island.   It was a real party atmosphere with about 15-20 4WDs parked around the creek, with people playing beach volleyball, splashing around in the water, having picnics etc.  

After that it was back down the beach towards Eurong (where the bus was washed), and inland again over some more rough tracks towards Lake Mackenzie.   This is a freshwater lake that is not actually fed by and creeks or streams, but simply relies on the rainfall to fill it - which is normally an ample 2meters per year !!  Due to the nature of the vegetation & clay that make up the lake floor, the water is slightly acidic with a pH of approx 4.4, which makes it feel very refreshing.   Because of this acidity, there is virtually nothing living in the water, which also makes it extremely clear.   After a long, hot day travelling on the bus it was fantastic to have a swim.

After the swim it was back onto the bus and hit the final stretch back to the ferry.

Having a day to explore Fraser Island was really only a "taster", and someday I'd really love to come back and spend a week or more exploring and camping on the island in a 4WD.

Here's a LINK to other photos from Fraser Island.

Whale Watching

It was late in the season for watching whales, but it was still worth a try.  Early start, bus trip, then onto the boat .  About 1 hour into the journey we spotted our first whales - a mother and calf - swimming in the bay.  They weren't being very "playful", but we did get a good look at them every time they breathed.  Other boats weren't reporting much activity either, which apparently can be the case after a day or two of high wind & seas, so we stayed with the mother & calf.   The mother did two jumps/breaches, one of which I managed to capture on camera, and even though I've seen many documentaries on whales, it really is amazing to see how big they are in person and to watch them launch themselves out of the water.

We headed towards Fraser Island to view another pod of whales (apparently, even a single whale is called a "pod"), once again a mother an calf.

Again, not a lot of action from whales (what was I expecting? performing monkeys? For the price, maybe.) but plenty of info from the captain.  One way to tell them apart is by the various patterns on the underside of their tail (fluke).

All in all a good day was had by all, and even though the whales were a bit quiet because of the calm conditions, I would NOT have wanted to be out on the bay yesterday!!!!

Picture of mother and calf surfacing at the same time...

Here's a LINK to other photos from the whale watching day.

Eumundi Markets & Hervey Bay

Although there are some market stalls open every day, the main market ramps up on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Luckily, today was a Wednesday.   I'm usually 50/50 about markets, it can really vary depending on the stall holders, along with the "vibe".   I was in for a suprise at Eumindi - it was a MASSIVE market with a huge variety of stalls and products, almost all handmade by artisans.  But one of the best aspects was the large number of musicians dotted around the place playing live music - it really added to the atmosphere.  Two artists in particular grabed my attention.  Firstly Matt James who played the Didge, guitars, wooden flute, synth, etc to produce some amazing ethereal "Australian" tracks.   I stayed for quite a while (and went back a second time) to hear his music.  I liked it so much I bought the CD.  I also promised I'd put a link to his website in my blog:
http://mattjames.com.au/v2/ 
(I did record some video of him on my iPhone, but it's nowhere near as good as the samples of music available on his web site - so go have a listen.   I promise I'm not being paid for this plug!!!) 

The second artist playing by himself was Tom Richardson - I'm sure he doesn't like comparisons, but a little like John Butler.  He was using a digital sampler, and using just his guitar he was able to lay down different aspects to a track (Bass, rythym, backing vocals) and produce some amazing sounds by accompanying himself with the samples - turning them on/off live - sounded like a full band!!  ... I bought his CD.

I also watched an artisan making rings from old cuttlery by hand.  Although I'm not big on jewellry I was definitely in the "hippy vibe" by this time and decided to buy one of the rings.

After some lunch I did a few more laps of the market.  Although it was getting a bit busier by this time (which made it a little harder to get around) it still had a great vibe that I was soaking up.   It was fantastic and I had this feeling that my trip had "finally begun" - not sure why now...

Back to the van and looking at the map I thought I'd aim for Hervey Bay, via Maryborough.  The going was a little slow due to the reduced speed limit on the Bruce Highway in this area, along with all the stop/go roadworks.   Although the roadworks are really slowing my progress, I'm happy to see them and really hope they improve the road safety on the Bruce Highway, because it's quite sad to see how many little crosses are dotted along the road commemorating people that have died.   On some stretches, there is literally one every couple of KMs.

Stopped into Tourist Info in Hervey Bay (almost always my first stop in a new town), and got a map, along with some recommendations for various Whale Watching and Fraser Island tours.   It was interesting that key caravan parks along the beach were all run by the council, and that the more commercial caravan parks (Big4, Top Tourist etc) were inland.   I felt I wanted to stay close to the beach, so I pulled into the first council park.  The facilities were pretty basic (what I'd call and "old fashioned" caravan park), but perfectly OK, and they had powered sites.

At check-in I asked the guy about tours and he recommended a couple for me (he used to run whale watching tours).  After looking at the brochures for a while I went back and booked a tour for tomorrow.

I then decided to go for a swim - it was still warm and the water looked absolutey beautiful.  Also because of the fact that Fraser Island blocks the swell, there was virtually no surf.  But strangely, there was no one else in the water.   After a few minutes, I think I figured out why - I felt a small sting on my arm.  Nothing serious, just a little pin prick.  Then another on back and neck.   These weren't painful, just marginally annoying - I guess that's why no one else is swimming !!!

 

Noosa

The caravan park was right on the beach/bay and 50 metres from my van I was able to capture the following sunset shot:

I was looking forward to doing some kyaking in the river and through some of the wetlands, however when I woke up it was very windy.   I saw a guy doing some Stand Up Paddleboarding - he was going ok WITH the wind, but when he turned around he was paddling hard and still beling blown backwards.  He ended up lying down on his board and paddlign with his arms to make some progress.   I walked into town to check it out anyway, and even the boat hire guy talked me out of it !!!!

Had a bit of a walk around town (great little beachy/resort town), then back to the van for lunch.  Bit of a read, and then a rare afternoon nap.   Lots of time spent trying to upload photos, sunset not as good as the previous night, then off to bed.

I thought I'd found a new "big thing" - The Big Pelican - but sure enough it's already recorded in the Wikipedia Australian Big Things page - doh!
 

Sunshine Coast

Today was suppose to be a rest day after the big day at Australia Zoo yesterday. however it didn't really turn out that way.

First stop was the Queensland Air Museum in Calloundra.  It has a large number of civil and military airplanes and jets, along with all sorts of flying related parephenalia, including a Norden Bomb Sight.  My two favourite things were the Westland Wescott Helicopter - first time I've seen one in person, they are huge - and the wing of the P51 Mustang that had been openned up to show the workings and ammunition storage of the cannons.

Next was a quick stop at the Ettamogah Pub, just a few KM's up the road.  Not much to see here, so grabbed a souvenir and then off again.

From here, I drove to the town of Buderim on the assumption that this is where the Buderim Ginger factory was - oh, silly me !!!!! It's a lovely town in the hills (some streets have a 20% incline - ouch), but it turns out the ginger factory moved about 20 years ago - oh well.

From there it was back to the highway and on to the Big Pineapple. Turns out it's not really operating as a major tourist attraction any more.  There's a small cafe there, and you can still walk inside the Pineapple, but it's only just getting back on it's feet after apparently going broke.  So I wasn't able to rekindle my memories of the plantation tour from where I was a kid.

Then on to Yandina, where the Buderim Ginger factory REALLY is - I promise.
I booked myself on a couple of tours (Ginger one & Honey Bee one), then had lunch - including ginger beer.  I went on the Ginger Tour - including 5 ginger tasting and more ginger beer, then had a lime and ginger slushie (very, very refreshing - must make some when I get home).   By this time I was nearly all gingered out, so it was on to the Honey Bee tour - with more tastings, this time of honey.  The guide for the Honey Tour was a bee keeper herself and gave a very interesting tour.  I was keen to find out a bit more about the mysterous "colony collapse" syndrom, and she mentioned that there is no specific/known reason, but one cause may be GM crops.  An impact of some GM crops is that the pollen produced by the crops is just a fraction more "sticky" than regular crops.  When bees feed on the crops, then get covered in pollen (normal), and then groom themselves to push the pollen down into little baskets on their legs.  However with the stickier pollen they are expending way too much energy grooming themselves and often collapse and die while out foraging.

By the end of both tours I was feeling really great and full of energy, but I suspect it may have just been all the sugar.  I bought some ginger and honey products for my trip, along with a few souvenirs (fridge magnet anybody?) and it was time to hit the road to find somewhere to stay.   I felt Noosa was probably a good spot - not too far, on the coast, had heard of it before - so drove there.

Here's a LINK to other photos from the Sunshine Coast.

Australia Zoo

From the Gold Coast, I drove north around Brisbane and headed for the Glasshouse Mountains, with the aim of going to Australia Zoo - started by Steve Erwin.  As I was to find out, there was very little accommodation available due to several reasons.   Firstly, there was a darts tournament on in Caboulture, then there appeared to be a wedding (or 2?) on in the Glasshouse Mountain area, then I finally found out that Monday was also a "student free" day at the schools, so many people were treating it as a long weekend.   After about 100km of extra driving back and forth along Steve Erwin Way, I couldn't get anything.  I drove into Caloundra and the story was the same.   The last caravan park I tried had a couple of unpowered sites left, so I grabbed one of those.  It was at a place called Dickies Beach, was absoultely beautiful, and a swim at the end of the day was a great way to relax from all the driving.   

That night I read up on all the various offers and experiences available at Australia Zoo.  They ranged from Koala cuddling for $40 through to a Tiger experience for $450.  Add on top of that $50+ for photos, and I suspect they make a lot of their revenue from the "add ons".   

I wasn't going to partake in any of the animal experiences, but I had one of those "what the hell" moments when standing in line for entry and signed up for the Red Panda experience.    After getting inside, familiarising myself with the map, I made my way across for the Elephant feedings where you get to hand the Elephants bits of fruit.

I then made my way to the Red Panda enclosure to meet and feed them.  I'm gald I did !!!!  I got to meet two very handsome Red Pandas - Yoda and Pasang.   The night before they had eaten 1/2 a Water Dragon (lizard) so were a little hard to cox down from the trees, but they eventually made their way down.  There were only three of us for the feeding, so we all got some quality time with each of the Pandas.  They have massive paws, covered in thick fur - including the pads - as they come from the Himalayas.  They also have a "6th toe" to help them climb and hang on in the trees.

After the Red Panda feeding I made my way to the Crocaseum for the main show at midday.  It was hot, damn hot, and to get the best photos I needed to sit down near the front - in the sun.  I think I got a bit of heat stroke, but I did get some good shots.

 

Here's a LINK to a few more photos from Australia Zoo.

Back to the Gold Coast

Prior to heading to Brisbane, I had put an order in for a new roll-out awning for the campervan, back in the Gold Coast.  I got a call to say it was ready so I headed back down.  I dropped the van off, and they were kind enough to drive me to the nearest shopping centre to spend a few hours and watch a movie.  I picked up the van and got a quick demo of the awning - it's awesome and sets up in a minute or two - instant shade yeay!!!

Since the V8 Supercars were on at the Surfers Paradise, I decided to stay in town and grabbed a spot (one of the last available) at the Main Beach Caravan Park.   The park was litterally only a couple of hundred metres from the track so the next day I walked to the track and bought a ticket.  I had noticed some other campers taking their camp-chairs, so I decided to do the same.  It was a practice day all of Friday, with various categories, including the V8's hitting the track.  I positioned myself on turn 14, better known as "The Hill" and saw a few incidents involving the cars coming to a rapid stop after meeting the wall.  Lots of good people watching to be done as well (very interesting mix).

Couple of other photos are HERE.

After staying overnight, I drove a bit further south back down to Burleigh Heads, then back onto the highway to continue north.

It was a very warm morning, and I decided jumped in for a swim to cool off - one of the benefits of having all my stuff with me, all the time.

There were a couple of other shots of Burleigh Heads - LINK.

Brisbane and Wynnum

From Lone Pine I drove to Sean & Nikki's place in Wynnum, a suburb of Brisbane.  I stayed with them for a few days.  It was great to catch up, partake of some fantastic food, and be chaufer driven around the Wynnum area for some great sightseeing.  We went down to the Wynnum mangrove board walk, and then in the afternoon drove out to Sirromet Winery for a few tastings.  

Here's a LINK to a couple of other shots from the Wynnum Mangrove Boardwalk.

The following day we caught the bus into Brisbane, took the free Ferry around the Brisbane river, and did a few walks including the botanic gardens.

Here's a LINK to a couple of other shots of Brisbane.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

I vaguely remember going to Lone Pine on one of the family trips to Queensland.  It's primarily a sanctuary for sick/injured Koalas (they have about 127), but is also a wildlife park.  They had the usual Koala show/talk, Birds of Prey show (which was great because they kept two of the birds out after the show for up close photos), but interestingly they also had a sheep dog demonstration and shearing demonstration.  The video of which is availble on Flickr via the link below.

"Don't look dear, his shirt is too disturbing"

Happy Family:
 

Here's a LINK to more photos and video from Line Pine Sanctuary.

South Moreton Bay

On the way to Brisbane from Tambourine Mountain, I took the tourist route to the coast and stopped at a place called Victoria Point.  A great little harbour with mangroves, and as I discovered, lots of tiny little crabs.

Here's a video of the crabs...

Here's a LINK to other photos.