Fraser Island

Fraser Island off the Queensland coast,  is the worlds largest sand island. We went on a three day guided tour of this amazing place.

Our guide drove us around in a 4 wheel drive bus and took us to beautiful fresh water lakes, magical looking sand formations, sand blows and rain forests. With the whole island being sand it is fascinating that trees can grow on it and that animals can live there. The island has a large population of Dingos (Australian wild dogs) and a large variety of native Australian forests.

The beach that runs along the entire east coast is the islands main highway. It was thrilling to drive 80 kilometers an hour at high tide and race the waves coming in. The inland sand roads have bumps like ski moguls and reminded us of constant roller coaster rides.

If you ever go to Australia, make sure you don't miss Fraser Island and request to have ranger Les as your guide.

Hatching turtles

During December and January the sea turtles come to a number of beaches in Australia to lay their eggs. The eggs  hatch during February and March.
Most of the turtle beaches are very hard to access because they are far from any roads or are on islands. But just outside the town of Bundaberg (mainly famous for it's Rum) you will find the beach Mon Repos. This is one of the very few turtle beaches that can be accessed easily. Every evening during turtle season they close the beach for general public access and you can go out with a ranger to try and spot turtles and hatchlings.

We were very lucky when our ranger had already found a nest where  some hatchlings were about to hatch. It was fascinating to see almost one hundred baby  turtles dig their way up through the sand, crawling down the beach and heading out into the ocean. The statistics are not in favor of the newborns though, only one out of one thousand will make it back as an adult turtle one day.

The baby turtles use the slope of the beach, the sound of the waves and the light over the ocean for orientation.  We were not able to take any photos of them as they were making their way down to the ocean this could have upset their sense of direction.

After all the turtles had left the nest the ranger dug out the shells in order to count the number of hatchlings as well as the number of unsuccessful ones.

A growing problem for turtles today is the increasing number of high rise buildings close to the beaches. The shade from the buildings affect the temperature on the beaches. The sand temperature determines the sex of the new born hatchlings and this unnatural temperature change is upsetting the male-female balance among turtles. A second problem caused by these buildings is the light that they give off. It tricks the hatchlings to walk in the wrong direction and they never make it to the ocean.

Camper or car

Our initial plan while traveling along the east coast of Australia was to rent a car. When we found the company Spaceships that claimed to provide the Swiss army knife of campers for a price less then a normal car rental we thought why not give it a try.

The spaceship (space shit) is a Toyota mini van with a foam mattress, a mini fridge and two pullout cooking burners. After a week in the spaceship and a few tears from Erika we found out that its not a camper.  It is a gas guzzling car with an emergency bed and a small fridge. Sleeping in it in tropical Queensland when you have no windows or ventilation makes for a hot and rough night sleep.

On a good note we are able to pullover at any beach side BBQ spot and cook up a storm thanks to our car with a fridge:)

Australian river crossing

BBQ lunch

Great Barrier Reef

Together with 25 other people we boarded a dive boat in Cairns for a three day liveaboard trip. During these three days we did eleven dives, two of them night dives, and Erika completed  her advanced open water certification.

The diving on the great barrier reef is very beautiful. At first we were a bit scared as there was no guide provided, you were expected to go out with your buddy and navigate on your own. After diving a lot in Asia we were used to always having a guide under water.

As it turned out, the dive sites we went to were very easy to navigate and the dive conditions were excellent without drift and currents. The night dive was still a bit scary because the only light is a small hand held flash light.

We got to see lots of fish, coral and turtles. The most amazing experience was when we positioned ourselves under the boat at five meters depth during the night dive and had sharks circling around us.

It is very hard on your body to do so many dives in such a short period of time. At the end it  was the pressure in your head and the equalizing of your ears that felt the pain.  Diving without a guide made us confident as divers. It is a great feeling to be able to navigate under water on your own.

Tropical Queensland

A wall of humidity hit us when we stepped out of the airport in Cairns. The winter hats and fleece jackets that we wore in Tasmania were shoved to the bottom of the backpacks and quickly forgotten. What we had to take out though was our rain jackets. Right now it is rainy season in the tropical northern Queensland and boy did it rain.

With two days to spare in Cairns before our dive trip to the great barrier reef we decided to fight the rain. We picked up our camper a bit earlier than planned and headed for Cape Tribulation and the Atherton Tablelands. After some crocodile spotting and a couple of rain forest hikes we were back in Cairns ready to go diving (see separate post).

After our diving trip our next destination was Townsville and Magnetic Island. On Magnetic Island we managed to find a wonderful bed and breakfast with safari tents. It was situated perfectly with the beach out the front, waterfalls with swimming holes around the corner and plenty of hiking trails close by.

Northern Queensland has amazing nature with rain forests, mangrove, high lands and of course lots of beautiful beaches. It does however also have stringers during rainy season. Stingers are different types of jelly fish that are strong enough to kill humans. So despite stopping at all these wonderful beaches along the way the cold only swim in the fresh water swimming holes. Luckily we did not encounter any crocodiles in them.

One week in Tassie

Once we were finished exploring the two main cities of Australia we headed for the countries smallest state, Tasmania. With one third of the state covered by national parks it is easy to understand that the beautiful outdoors attracts visitors. After picking up our rental car we set off to explore these parks.

Our first stop was Maria island national park. Maria Island is a former prison island on the east coast of Tasmania with a very interesting geology. After taking a ship to the island we walked to a fascinating rock formation that looked at though it had been hand painted. The walk on Maria
Island also made us come face to face with wild kangaroos for the first time.

Our second park on the agenda was Freycinet. It is mainly famous for one thing, wine glass bay. The bay with it's white sand beach is as picture perfect as a beach can be. The short hike from the parking lot up to the lookout point was very crowded. Luckily most people turned back after snapping a few pictures and we could enjoy the rest of our hike without the flip flop hikers. Towards the end of the hike we saw a poisonous Australian snake for the first time.

The third and last park we visited was the most famous national park in Tasmania, Cradle Mountain. It is famous for it's beautiful mountain scenery and extensive number of excellent hiking trails. The park is located on higher altitude and like always weather can be very unpredictable when reaching these heights. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and we could not witness the true beauty of this park.

The week in Tasmania was our first driving experience in Australia and one thing that really struck both of us was the amount of road kill. There were so many dead kangaroos, wombats and snakes. We realized that driving at night was out of the question due to the large amount of wild life in Australia.

Before leaving Tasmania we spent some time in the state capital Hobart. It is a wonderful waterfront city with a real small town feel, just like the rest of the island.

Melbourne

Melbourne is a cool, hip and artistic city where we spent a long weekend. The city has a large number of old beautiful arcades that are hidden within the backstreets. Inside the arcades it feels like a world away from the regular hustle and bustle of the downtown area.

We jumped on a vintage tram that took us all around the city centre. On the second day we wanted to enjoy the sunshine and headed for yet another beautiful beach.

Harbor bridge

What can you do for valentines day in Sydney? We thought, why not climb the famous harbor bridge and enjoy the spectacular views of the city as well as the world's most famous opera house. We did not go as far as the couple on the morning tour that got married at the top of the bridge but it still did feel very special to share these spectacular views together.

The Sydney bridge climbs have been organized since 1998. Paul Cave, the founder of the bridge climb company, came up with the idea already in 1989. It took him 9 years to convince the politicians of Sydney to allow him to go on with his idea.

We started the tour on a ladder leading us up between the scaffolds with cars racing by beneath us. Once on the actual arch we could start enjoying the view while making our way up to the summit of the bridge at 134 meters above the water.

It was an amazing experience that we would highly recommend but would probably never find the money to do it again.