Last Stop – Land Down Under

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. – John Wooden

Shia really wanted to add Australia to the roster based primarily on her love for Koala and Kangaroo.  Somehow she got her way, even though it is winter here right now.  We decided against Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria (where we originally intended to end our trip) a few months ago due to the situation going on there. On the day we flew to Australia (probably around the same day we would have flown to Turkey) we heard about the airport bombings in Istanbull. Good call.

Back to Australia…..Heidi was “all in” based on the assumption that being from Colorado she can handle wearing summer clothes in an Australian winter if we stuck to the Northern half.  Heidi was soon to learn that after being in the tropics for 6 months and feeling suprisingly comfortable in temps over 100 with ridiculous humidity, she would search the sky for snowflakes when it is in the 60’s. Landing in Sydney was a shock to us all, fortunately it was just a quick plane change for a flight to the more tropical city of Cairns.  But it was also a harsh reminder that we are coming back to Sydney later, so get ready for some cold weather!

The flight from Bangkok was 8 hours so we had plenty of time to read and part of our preparation for this leg was reading the Bill Bryson book In A Sunburned Country.  We don’t read much travel writing, but in our opinion, this book is brilliant.  He is so funny, well researched, and frankly Australia is very generous with great material.  It seems odd to mention a book, but we view the country through different eyes after reading this book and most days we laugh out loud at something we see with a connection to his funny prose.  So, if you are ever finding yourself with a ticket to Oz, we recommend picking up a copy.

In Cairns we prepared ourselves for our visit to the Great Barrier Reef, or The Reef, as it is referred to here, by going to Reef Teach.  Chad and Heidi did this years ago and it brought the whole experience up a notch to get some education on what lies beneath.  Loved it again.  It was essentially a classroom lecture on the wild and wonderful things that we might see, including the obligatory Australian deadlies.   Every tour or activity we’ve done has found a new thing that can kill ya to introduce us to.  Crazy, crazy stuff here.  The great news is that it isn’t Stinger Season now  so our trendy “Stinger Suits” were more for warmth then survival.  Stinger season is when the Box Jellyfish and Irukandji Jellyfish are in the waters, these two jellyfish rank 1 & 2 on the most deadly list.  Stinger suits are pretty entertaining in their own right.  They are lycra suits with a hood and mittens all built in.  They aren’t much more than a teletubby leotard, so we had to ask how that was much of a defense.  Apparently in the early days fishermen figured out that they could do the trick by wearing nylons!  Yup, women’s pantyhose on a burly sea fisherman.  That thin coating of synthetic material is enough to convince the jellies not to fire their stingers if you touch them.  Wouldn’t be a defense if they did fire, but apparently, the fabric is sufficiently foreign that they won’t waste the effort.  Hah!

The next day we headed to Reef Fleet Terminal to board one of the many boats headed out, with 2,500 km in length there are plenty of spots for everyone to spread out and enjoy.  But it is a long distance from shore to the largest living thing on Earth and the boat was really rockin’.  We were shocked at how many were clutching their barf bags at the back of the boat, Shia struggled with seasickness for the first time.  But once we jumped in the water, all was calm again.  We ended up doing 3 dives that day and it was fun to see some of the celebrities we learned about at Reef Teach.  Heidi found the blue green fish, they are named that because they change from blue to green when they get scared.  Nature’s mood ring.  Shia enjoyed recognizing the different types of fish, including a Leopard Shark (sharks are always high on her list).  Liam saw the Black Angel Fish we learned about.  The males are very territorial so the young males have completely different markings so the adults don’t recognize them as a threat until they are big enough. These little backstories made it all so fun, like a scavenger hunt!  Then there were the big moments like when we came through a pretty tight canyon to see a huge Barracuda hanging out.  He was being still so we could really get a good look at his scary teeth and huge size.  And we saw a handful of sea turtles, as small as a dinner plate and as big as Heidi.  When we got out we asked why we’ve never seen one smaller than a dinner plate and our divemaster said that they don’t know where they go between those two stages, it’s called “The Lost Years”.  It’s one of the many underwater mysteries that remain to be solved by our budding scientists.

Another thing we did in Cairns that was a repeat from our 2002 trip was the Uncle Brian’s Fun, Falls and Forest daytrip.  Back then Uncle Brian blew our minds and we didn’t know if it would be nearly as good, but it was worth a try!  Uncle Brian created this tour and never in my life have I participated in a more perfectly executed tour.  It was a series of 4 unique and beautiful swimming holes nestled in the rainforest and with that foundation he added enthusiasm, humor, a wonderful camaraderie among everyone in the van to feel like it was a family reunion – if you didn’t feel like family at the beginning, you did by the end, AND he choreographed it to music.  He has since sold the concept and our guide, Sid, delivered it very well.  It wasn’t quite as perfect, but it was still a 5 star day and one heck of a good time!  The first waterfall was Babindi Boulders where we leapt off huge rocks into the river, then Josephine Falls where we zoomed down a natural waterslide, then Millaa Millaa Falls for a sheer waterfall cascade that we could swim behind and through for a deep tissue massage, and lastly a big very deep lake.  We visited the world’s oldest rainforest, where we saw beans that if eaten would make you blind in an hour and dead in 4.  We also saw primitive plant species that remain from the before the dinosaur age, which was a nice tie in to when Sid played the Jurassic Park theme song as we turned a bend that looked like the track into the park.  So funny!

That night we stayed at On The Wallaby Lodge and remembered how much we like staying at Backpackers.  Liam was making friends and learning Aussie rules for pool, we had a heated game of Jenga, and helped our Swiss friend enhance his English playing Apples to Apples.  Then the boys headed off for another mountain biking mens day, while the girls slept in.  We reunited for more lake swimming, monstrous hamburgers (we forgot how huge western portion sizes are!), and kayaking.  Returning back to Cairns for one night we went with another backpacker lodge and it was super fun too. We all fell in love with the gorgeous 1964 VW Kombi that they restored to be a lounge in the courtyard.  These are our kind of people!

Then we bravely got on a plane to fly south to Brisbane, where it would be colder.  It was Coughlin fear factor.  We rented a car and drove straight to the Sunshine Coast, sounds warm, right?  Shia busted out her newly purchased UGGs and we were surprised to see a plethora of al fresco diners, despite the chill.  The kids hunkered down with Nickolodeon and Chad and Heidi hunkered down under a heat lamp and had a beer.

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