"Where the rainforest meets the Reef!"

This time we're writing from the far north of Queensland, from a town called Port Douglas to be precise. That means we moved quite a few kilometers since our stay in Brisbane. And that means that we saw and did a lot of things!

After our stay in Brisbane we got back on the train and bus to good old Gayndah, where we were excited to pick up our car. We were unpleasantly surprised when we found out that the car still leaked oil, and that basically meant that the car would stay at the mechanic for another week. It made the delay in our travelling schedule even bigger, but we had the best place to stay for those days: even though we didn't travel, we had a very nice week at Tim and Jenni's place: playing ping pong, enjoying their amazing cooking, packing mandarins for their markets and changing our travelling schedule for the coming weeks.

As you may know, we planned to drive all the way back to Perth, which would've been perfectly possible if we would have left 3,5 weeks earlier. Now it would become very tight, so we had to arrrange a different way to be back in Perth on time. So, that means, we have to be in Darwin around the 10th of July, where we will have a week to sell our car. Then, on the 17th, we'll fly to Alice Springs, where we will do a 3 day outback tour from the day after. On the 22nd we take another plane, this time all the way to Perth. There we'll see Henk-Jan and Paula again, but also meet Berries family, as they are flying to Australia tomorrow!

That's about what's still ahead of us, now we'll tell you about what we've done. On the day we finally left Gayndah we didn't drive far, but it was just good to be on the road again. We stayed in Biloela, which was only an overnight stay so the next morning we went on again. This time we drove to Emerald, but on the way we visited the stunning Blackdown Tablelands National Park. There was no one else visiting, so we had it all for ourselves. Our favourite part was the Two Mile Falls. It is the dry season so there wasn't a lot of water, but the surroundings were stunning and it was possible to stand on the edge of the waterfall (see picture below).

Our next stop was Emerald, where we stayed for the night. The next day we drove further to the Sapphire Gem Fields. We wanted to have a look at the Gemstone Information Centre, but it had shut its doors so we just went on to Sapphire, a tiny fossickers town. The friendly man at the Blue Hollow Mine advised us to just walk out to the fields and search for sapphires, which we tried. All we saw were piles of dirt, and even though we're sure it must've been full of expensive stones, it all looked the same to us so we went back to the mine to buy a bag of mine dirt. That means you get a bag of leftover sand/stones, which the miners already fossicked through (see picture above). The next 2 hours we spent searching and washing the dirt, which was good fun! In the end we both had a little bag with some sapphires and zirkons. We both have a gemstone that is suitable for cutting and would make nice jewellery.

The same evening we had trouble finding a place to sleep, all the campsites and motels in country-Queensland were fully booked due to all the dozens of mining sites and their workers. It forced us to drive on way longer than we expected, and we ended up in Mackay. Even here it was very busy (no campsites or youth hostels available), but we were advised to check the McGuire hotel. And so we did! We had the worst night in Australia so far... Our room was located directly above the stage in the pub below, which meant we were enjoying the live band's music all the way until 2am in the morning. We were shaking in our beds (not because of coldness...). It was a huge relief to step in our car the next morning and an even bigger relief to sleep in our own tent in Airlie Beach that evening, because that's where we went next!

Airlie Beach was full of tourists, but we had no problem finding a nice campingground just outside of the city. It was beautifully located in a tropical surrounding, next to the airport... But most of the time we spent in and around Airlie Beach. On the second day we booked a 1-day-tour to the Whitsunday Islands/Great Barrier Reef. (Picture: sunset impression at Airlie Beach feat. Berrie)

Now you also would expect Airlie Beach to actually have a beach, and it does indeed, but no one was swimming in the water due to dangerous marine stingers (even though it is lowseason for them). The only place where you can enjoy a save swim is the Airlie Beach Lagoon - an artificial swimming pool next to the towncentre. It was highly popular with the locals and tourists, so it was packed with people when we decided to give the cold water a go.

On the third day we were excited to go on the tour we booked the day before. At 7.25am a courtesybus took us to Abel Point, a port next to Airlie Beach. One hour later, the tourjet left Abel Point with 60 passengers aboard, to head for the Whitsunday Islands. Our first stop was the Hill Inlet Lookout point, overlooking Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach (see picture left). In the bay where the jet stopped, we also saw some turtles stretching their long necks above the water! Sadly they were a bit too quick for our camera.

After the lookout point we went straight to Whitehaven Beach (see picture above). Even though the wind made the bright sunlight a bit less intense, we enjoyed a nice swim in the crystal clear water and a little bit of sunbathing. When we got back on the boat an hour later, a light lunch buffet was waiting for us to be eaten. While we had our sandwiches, we headed to our snorkeling spot, Border Island Reef.

The Reefjet crew gave us some instructions on how to use the snorkel and goggles ("Don't spit in them!"); we put on our wetsuits, grapped a pair of fins, a swimming noodle (Yes, even the snorkelinstructors advised them a lot) and dropped ourselves from the back of the jet into the water. It took some time to get used to breathing through your mouth only, but eventually we got on with it and could finally enjoy the beauty of the underwater world. (Picture: Paul with snorkeling gear)

It was absolutely amazing and one of our favourite memories of being in Australia!

We also had an underwater camera to capture the colorful corals and fishes, but unfortunately the pictures don't reflect what it actually looks like. We're still going to post two pictures, which we think are quite nice (see pictures right and below).

30 minutes later we got back on the jet, and cruised back to Abel Point. At 4.30pm we arrived back at the port, feeling a little bit wet due to the occasional wave drowning us on the sundeck. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic day at the Whitsunday Island and especially the Great Barrier Reef.

From Airlie Beach we went on to Townsville for a night. We had our tent replaced there for the second time without any problems (Thanks K-Mart!). The next day we went to Cairns, and we planned to stay there for a night or two, but the campinggrounds were just too expensive. We drove on to Port Douglas/Mossman, close to the Daintree National Park (see pictures below).

That's what we discovered yesterday! Daintree National Park exists of dense tropical rain forests, inhabited by crocodiles and cassowaries and other sorts of animals. Unfortunately we didn't see any of those mentioned animals, even though we saw dozens and dozens of signs warning us not to drive over them.

The rainforest itself was another highlight of our journey. It's just like what you imagine a jungle to be like: lush green palms, bushes, trees and clear creeks. We did two boardwalks which showed us the rainforest and a mangrove forest.

And that's it for this blogentry! See you soon!

Distance travelled as of 26/06/08: 20200+ km