As soon as Gus the Wonder Bus pulled up I knew today was going to be a crazy day. 'Cousin Brad' greeted everyone with a huge hug and introduced us to the 'family' - he knew everyone's name. And Mike (my German friend from Noosa who I keep bumping into was on the bus. Of all the companies that run this tour, of all the days and considering 2 Uncle Brian buses were doing the tour the fact that we were on the same one was pretty crazy.
Cousin Brad was hilarious and talked pretty much without taking a breath (matching even my best over excited babble) all the way to our first stop.
The first place we stopped at was Babinda boulders. We did a jungle walk and it chucked it down. I could have been back trekking in Chiang Mai except it was on a path rather than through mud. By the time we got back to the car park we were soaked through! We had orange squash and cakes and then went for a swim in the calm part of the river. One of the girls, who wasn't a strong swimmer decided to swim next to a boulder where the current was moving much faster (still pretty slow) than the rest of the river and she panicked and swallowed water so, as I was nearest, ended up with her arms around my shoulders and I swam her back to shore. It was pretty scary seeing someone that shaken up.
Babinda boulders - obviously we swam in a calm bit!
We drove to Josephine falls through Babinda town itself which has the golden wellly boot trophy proudly displayed in the post office window as its the wettest place in the whole of Queenstown! It also prides itself on being the friendliest place. And everyone we drove past did was into the bus!
At Josephine falls we were meant to be sliding down a natural water slide over the rocks but, even if we hadn't seen all the fire and rescue guys, one look at the water said 'nope we're not going in there'. All the rain had made the water level too high and the area is prone to flash floods so we had to just enjoy it from the bank. We did throw a log over to see what happened to it and it didn't look pretty so we were glad to be on he side!
Usually on the tours you just have to sit and look out of the window as you drive an hour to lunch but not on this tour! First we played the Polo game where we had to pass a polo from matchstick to matchstick, then we ate 4 of the big bars of chocolate between the 20 of us and then we were given whiteboard markers to draw on the bus windows and then brain teaser puzzles to keep us entertained.
Trying to pass the polo on.
We stopped at a restaurant for a delicious lunch over looking the top I the tablelands which is rolling countryside and cow fields. Didn't feel like Australia at all! And it was chilly so I had to put a jumper on! Had warm chocolate cake and ice cream for desert. Yum!! I am beginning to think I am only concerned with food as I always talk about it!!!
After lunch we drove 5 minutes down the road, around a lot of cows who were standing in the middle of the road to Millaa Millaa falls which is where Peter Andre filmed the video for mysterious girls and where all the shampoo companies use for the hair flick scenes. Obviously we all tried it to get the perfect rainbow of water over our head!
Millaa Millaa falls - the water was freezing
We then pulled over by a river to try and see a platypus. Not quite sure why we bothered looking as they are incredible rare and don't like noise so surely a whole bus load of people isn't going to help. And our guide said he's only ever seen a couple in the whole time he's worked there!
Our final stop was at lake eacham which is a lake formed from rainwater filling in a volcano crater. So I have now swum in a volcano! The water here was so much warmer than else where but when we got out it was freezing cold as the sun was going down. Luckily we had muffins, hot chocolate and marshmallows to warm us up before the drive back to Cairns.
Jumping into a volcano!
Now by this time on most tours, as its dark and had been a long day everyone would be asleep in the bus but not Us. As well as the road having 260 turns to get down off the mountain Brad had the music up and was making us sing along and do all the dance moves to everyone song he played. It was such a great trip!
Met up with my friend Marc from the Whitsudays for dinner as it was our last night in the same place. He was staying at Giligans and it was crazy. His room sounded like you were inside the night club. It wa crazy! After eating we wandere down to a local pub for a few beers where he spent the night making me say things in German then laughing at my accent! We were only meant to stay for an hour as we both had early starts but didn't ended up leaving until gone midnight :s
Day 51: Great Barrier Reef
Was up early after about 6 hours sleep to walk down to reef fleet terminal to check in for the boat. I completely forgot to bring my reference number so stood in the queue worrying that they wouldn't let me on for 15 minutes but once I finally got to the front they only wanted my surname, such relief!
I hadn't really looked too much into the tour or what type of boat I'd be on so was really happy I was on a catamaran rather than a normal boring engine only boat. Also turns out that Passions of Paradise (my boat) is one of the very few locally own boats and so they have some special licences (private morning spot on the reef and they can fed a very small amount of food to the fish). The boat was huge! We had about 90 passengers I think! Plus crew!!!
Onboard I sat down on the front of the boat next to a really lovely girl called Charlotte from Wales who was also on the tour alone. As we didn't have anyone else we had to witness each others medical forms and ended up chatting for the entire day! Had morning tea and lemon and blueberry muffins before we set sail. (I don't care that I pay for the food as part of the price of the trip. When you get given it without paying at that time it feels free!)
The journey to the first spot took about 2 hours but that time flew by lying on deck,sorting out a waterproof camera casing (don't trust my camera not to fog up again!) and listening to the safety briefing. We kept getting drenched when waves sprayed up through the netting at the front of the catamaran. It was like having our own cooling water fan.
For the dive I was in the first group to go out. After having all our gear fitted and then penguin shuffling down the stairs to the back of the boat we stepped into the sea. There was a line set up between the two sets of stairs and we spent the first 15 minutes practicing all the different things we might need underwater on a first dive; taking the breather out and putting it back in, equalising our ears and clearing our masks. Everything else was to be done by the instructor.
We all had to link arm with our instructor as we descended slowly down. I loved diving! It's so cool seeing the fish and coral that close up! Got about 20-30 minutes swimming around seeing all different types of fish. I saw the entire cast of finding Nemo - Nemo, Dory, Bubbles and Squirt. I got so excited when I saw the turtle I started swimming next to him following him (or her) so my instructor had to do a very clear 'stop' sign so I waited for the group to catch up.
Diving
Nemo!
When we got out we had a huge buffet lunch and fed the trivelli. The boat can only feed them a kilo of fish so they don't become dependant on the boat for food but they certainly know what's about to happen as there was loads around the boat. And those fish can swim super fast! There top speed is 40mph!!
We then sailed to the next snorkelling site. I loved the first dive so much that I signed myself up for the second dive. (Oh how I now wish I'd actually done a Padi course at Uni.) This time we had a bit more freedom and were aloud slightly further from the instructor and deeper. This part of the reef was wry different to the other part. Where the first bit was below you this was a cliff of coral. Saw lots of really cool fish and Wally the Wasse (I think). He's the big friendly fish that everyone sees but he's been missing for the last 2 weeks so the instructor was so happy to see him again.
We got certificates for the diving so what I've done counts as the first part of the Padi course. Just need to do it in the next 5 years :)
We had cheese and biscuits back onboard and a marine talk about the animals we had seen and then sailed back to cairns. On the way around the crew brought around pieces of rope so we had another brain teaser trying to figure out how to separate ourselves from each other! The Aussie's definitely make sure you're never bored!
Somehow today, even though I was wearing a stinger suit in the sea and sitting most of the day I managed to burn my backside! Ouch! Siting is a real problem!
When we were back I had some food and a shower and then met up with Charlotte and some of her friends to go to the night market. It was pretty disappointing. It was inside and they seemed more like established shops than market stalls. Obviously that didn't stop me buying a toe ring and a bracelet. Us four girls were really cool and all bought matching bracelets but bought each others and then swapped!
We stopped on the way back for frozen yoghurt in this empty shop. My hazelnut frozen yoghurt with crushed up tim tams on top was delicious! By the time we left it was full! Clearly we had power to pull in all the customers!
Left the girls there and went back to the hostel to see Tristan as it was his last night before he flew down to Sydney. We and a French couple went to an Irish Bar for a quick drink and then I left early for bed as I was shattered from a day on the boat.
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