Queensland

Learning to Dive at the Great Barrier Reef

Nov 7, 2017

After a rather disappointing visit to Cairns two weeks ago due to the miserable weather, Ilinca and I decided to give Cairns a second chance and to finally make it to the Great Barrier Reef. And because the best way to see the reef is from underwater, we both enrolled to a 4-day diving course, from which 2 days are spent in Cairns to learn the basics of diving, and the other two days out on the reef, 70 km off the coast line from Cairns.

The Temptation of Diving

One of my big passions back home in Switzerland in paragliding. I love it because it allows me to move freely through the air with only my and nature’s energy sources. I enjoy beautiful views, observe birds in flight and other wild animals on the ground. It is a good way for me to relax.

I had similar expectations about diving, and I guess the reason why I only decided now to go diving is that I have never really been at the appropriate place for learning it. And what better place to learn diving than on the Great Barrier Reef?

Becoming a Certified Open Water Diver

To be honest, I did not know too much about diving, but neither did I when I started paragliding. But this lack of knowledge got filled already on day one of the education. A full day of theory about all aspects of safe diving. And wow, it was a lot more theory than I thought, and diving is also a lot more technical than I imagined. There are a lot more skills you need to master for a first safe dive than for a first paragliding flight. Those readers who also dive probably know what I am talking about.

Only on day two did we finally make it into the swimming pool to apply the theory and perform the first few exercises such as filling the mask with water and clearing it, or taking out the regulator (= air supply) from your mouth and but it back in – all under water of course. While I felt very comfortable doing these exercises, Ilinca realized that diving maybe is not the right thing for her. So unfortunately I had to continue the course alone from now on.

Day three was the big day. We went out to the reef and together with my instructor Luke and my co-student Grady from California, we went on our first open water dive. And what a dive it was! Of course I was very busy with not doing anything wrong, nevertheless I already saw a shark on my first dive, dozens of other kinds of fish, and lots of corals as to be expected on a reef. It felt like I were diving in a giant aquarium. We descended down to a depth of 12m on this first dive. In the meantime, Ilinca was snorkeling somewhere above me and enjoyed the reef from a different perspective.

After three dives, day three was over and I spent the night out on the reef on a larger ship that belonged to the same diving company. It was exciting to spend the night out in the ocean, and because I had trouble sleeping, I also enjoyed the almost full moon over the calm ocean at two in the morning and saw some big fish (a grouper of around 2-3m length and some sharks) swimming around the boat during the night.

Day four was the big day. After an early morning snorkeling session on the reef with not too many exciting sightings and breakfast, Grady and I had our certification dive together, and the instructor assessed if we had become safe divers in the past three days. We both passed, and voilà: I am now a certified open water diver and I am allowed to dive to a depth of 18m without any instructor (but always with a dive buddy because you never dive alone). After that, there was one more dive together with Grady, and then I headed back to Cairns where I met Ilinca. She went to Port Douglas in the meantime as one day of snorkeling was enough for her.

Those were four intensive but very exciting days, and I cannot wait to go diving again. As we intend to visit Thailand and other South East Asian countries later on, I will definitely get the opportunity to go under water again.

The Condition of the Great Barrier Reef

Even though diving at the Great Barrier Reef was very exciting, it was impossible to ignore that the reef has seen better years. Diving tours nowadays go to the outer reef because the inner reefs are not in a great condition anymore. But even in the outer reefs, there were some parts of the reef where all corals have died and hence the colors and much of the marine wildlife has disappeared. But luckily there are still plenty of places where the corals are still intact and hence provides a living space hundreds of animal species. I hope that the reef’s conditions will not continue to get worse, because it is really a wonderful place on our planet. Unfortunately I did not have a underwater camera with me, so I cannot share any pictures from the Great Barrier Reef.

Next Stop: Sydney

After several weeks in warm climate, we are heading down to Sydney today, where I might have to put on my long pants for the first time on my trip.

Driving Through Sand and Swimming in Natural Pools on Fraser Island

Nov 1, 2017

Fraser Island is the world’s largest island made of sand and is located in between the Pacific Ocean and Hervey Bay. Its length is around 120 km and the width up to 15 km. While at the beaches the sand is visible everywhere, the center of the island is covered with dense forest, numerous natural pools, and also sand dunes. Driving on Fraser Island requires a special 4WD car as almost all the roads are on sand.

Driving the 4WD on Fraser Island

After taking the barge at 6:45 from River Heads near Hervey Bay to Fraser Island, we arrived with our rented Land Rover 4WD at Kingfisher Bay on Fraser Island. The first kilometer on the island was nicely paved road, but then the paved road abruptly ends and a road with deep sand follows. Time to enable the 4WD on our car in order to not get stuck in the sand.

Driving on Inland Routes

To get to the Eastern side of the island where the nice pacific beach is located, we had to drive first for more than 20 km on inland routes. All those routes are unpaved, and all of them are very difficult to drive, as there is sometimes deep sand where the vehicle might get stuck, other times there are big roots from trees in the middle of the road, and sometimes there was traffic coming from the opposite side which made crossing difficult. And the island is by no means flat! It basically goes either up or down, flat it is only at the beaches. But it was very beautiful to drive through the dense forest and overlook some nice lagoons along the way. It took us around 1.5 hours to make the first crossing to the Pacific Ocean. The speed limit on these roads was 30 km/h, however most of the time we were going at less than 20 km/h due to the difficult conditions. Ilinca was very happy once we arrived at the beach on the Pacific Ocean because as a passenger, these road conditions are way less fun than for the driver.

Driving along Fraser Island’s Eastern Beach

The route along the beach is completely different. Fraser Island basically has a wide, beautiful beach along the whole 120 km of the east coast with no obstacles apart from the saltwater that comes in with the waves and some small inland freshwater streams that flow across the beach into the ocean. There is not really a classic road, but the whole beach is open for driving (and even some small planes land there). At some parts the beach was at least 50m wide, so driving there was lots of fun.

Driving on the beach was much more comfortable as the sand was very flat. Speed limits here are 80 km/h, which is ok on the harder parts of the sand. But beware when driving into some deeper sand with high speed. It is very difficult to keep control of your vehicle and it’s best to spot those deep sand stretches way ahead and drive around them or reduce speed.

Nature on Fraser Island

Sandy Green Hills

What impressed me most about Fraser Island is that the island is by no means flat and the hills, which are obviously also only made out of sand, were very stable and covered by dense vegetation. If there had not been the inland roads which were basically sand tracks, one could easily forget about the sand underneath.

Crystal Clear Lagoons

By no means less impressive was swimming in the lagoons which can be found at various places inland. They are basically freshwater lakes that are filled by rain and some of them are very clear. On our second day on Fraser Island I went into no less than three lakes for a swim. In one of the lakes I could spot some freshwater turtles during a short free dive. And the advantage as compared to swimming in the ocean is that you are not full of saltwater when going out of the water.

Beautiful Beaches

The beaches on Fraser Island are equally beautiful as compared to the beaches we have seen previously on Australia’s east coast. The sand was clean and white, and the water was clear and very inviting for a swim. From the Indian Head lookout point, it was possible to see big marine turtles swimming below the surface, and also some dolphins paid us a visit. As common in Australia, swimming at the beaches is not recommended without giving any official reasons. I guess it is a liability problem, because locals go in there all the time and I am sure a swim there would have been safe for good swimmers.

Animal World on Fraser Island

The fauna on Fraser Island however is nothing too special. Yes, there were some marine animals visible, and we also saw some bigger lizards and one kangaroo jumping across the road, but those animals are all common on Australia’s east coast. The only animals less common are Dingoes. Dingoes are basically wild dogs and the marketing organizations of Fraser Island emphasize how special these animals are, especially on Fraser Island. But to me they were just stray dogs and not that special at all. That’s maybe why I did not even bother to stop the car and take a picture when a dingo was passing near the beach.

Sleeping in a Luxury Tent on Fraser Island

Ilinca and I had different expectations of the accommodation on Fraser Island. I would have liked to simply rent a small tent and camp near one of the camping locations directly at the beach. Ilinca preferred a room in a lodge or hotel. So in the end we found each other in the middle. We were sleeping in a not-so-small tent at Beachcamp Eco Resort, which was basically a hostel, but instead of having buildings, all their rooms consist of tents. Inside the tents, there is everything you expect. A king-size bed, bathroom and also a shower. Even electricity and a shared kitchen was available.

We both loved staying there for one night. Cooking our own food in the evening and then sleeping in a comfortable bed while listening to the waves from the beach was a very good way of relaxing after the bumpy rides with the car during the day.

Is Fraser Island Worth a Visit?

It was really beautiful on Fraser Island and somewhat also special, but because we have already seen lots of nice places on the east coast, I don’t know if it was really worth the price, because getting there was quite expensive. The rent of our 4WD car and the accommodation together cost more than USD 600 for two days, incl. getting there and returning to the mainland. To be fair, I have to mention that when joining a tour on a big tourist vehicle instead of renting our own car, we could have saved some money, but driving on Fraser Island is really fun, and Ilinca and I love travelling a bit more spontaneously than on a tour.

Next Stop: Cairns

After consulting with the weather forecast, we give Cairns a second chance after our disappointing visit two weeks ago when it was basically raining nonstop. We will first drive our car south to Brisbane, return it, and then fly north to Cairns to start our PADI Open Water diving courses and then visit the Great Barrier Reef.

Kangaroos and Emus instead of Whale Watching at Hervey Bay

Oct 30, 2017

Hervey Bay is famous for its whale watching cruises and because mothers with their calves have a protected environment in the bay and often rest there for a few days on their migration north or south (depending on the season). As the migration season ends end of October, Ilinca and I managed to basically book the last tour available and we drove early in the morning from Noosa towards Hervey Bay. Half way at Hervey Bay, we however received a phone call from the tour agency that our cruise had to be cancelled due to strong winds. We were both very disappointed, but in the end, going out on the sea and not spotting any whales would have been even more frustrating.

Improvising a Day at Hervey Bay

So we arrived at 10:00 at Hervey Bay without any plans, and we had a full day there as we only leave for Fraser Island the day after. We went first to the tour agency to get our tour refunded and collected some advice from another tour agency what could be done. As we have not seen any kangaroos so far, we visited Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary, a not very touristic and non-profit organization near Maryborough that takes care of injured wildlife.

Rescued Wildlife at Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary

As the sanctuary is not primarily aimed at tourists, there were no animal shows or other attractions from which animals suffer. The only events that occur were the feedings of the animals. We attended the feeding of the kangaroos and emus, which were in a very large fenced area where visitors could walk in. As Ilinca and I were the only visitors, we basically could feed dozens of kangaroos and emus ourselves with sweet potatoes, apples, and other fresh food. It was a very nice way of getting close to some of Australia’s most famous inhabitants.

Due to its large beak, I was first a bit skeptical about letting emus eating directly from my hand, but it turned out they pick up the food very gently and it would not hurt at all. The same applied for the kangaroos. Ilinca and I really had a lot of fun feeding them.

Other animals in the park were a rescued camel, which we fed with three apples, some reptiles, birds, and dingoes, which are wild dogs.

I really loved this sanctuary because they care most about the animals and not about the tourist dollars, and the animals I met seemed to have good living conditions.

Preparing for Fraser Island

Once we had returned to Hervey Bay, we picked up our 4wd car that we need the next two days on Fraser Island, bought all the food necessary for the remote island, and had dinner at an Italian place.

Relaxing Days in Noosa

Oct 29, 2017

After a beautiful stay at Byron Bay we moved up north along the coast up to spend three relaxing days in Noosa, another nice place with beautiful beaches and a National Park with koalas to be spotted. In addition, Noosa River ends here and the mix of saltwater and freshwater creates a very diverse flora and fauna which Ilinca and I discovered by Kayak.

Noosa National Park

Imagine a coast with rocky cliffs and small embedded beaches at the foot of a hill that is covered with a forest of eucalyptus trees and its inhabitants, the koalas. This is what expects you at Noosa National Park. And as the waters are usually very clear, there is also a fair chance of spotting dolphins, whales, and other marine animals from the hiking trail which leads along the coastline.

Unfortunately we did not encounter as many animals as expected. Maybe it was because the sea was very rough due to the strong wind, or maybe because we were just unlucky. We did not see a single koala in the forest. Also no whales were in sight. At least towards the end of our 3 hour walk we could spot some dolphins far out in the ocean and either a manta or a turtle.

But the beautiful bays, cliffs and beaches alone were well worth the hike.

Staying in Noosa

Noosa Heads, the part of Noosa with direct access to the beach, was not too interesting for me. Even though the beach is very beautiful and the architecture of the countless villas at the waterfront is very impressive, it is a very touristic place after all with overpriced restaurants, bars, and shops.

I was really happy that our Airbnb hosts Michael and Levana were living in Noosaville, around 4 km from the touristic center. They had a wonderful house and garden in which I usually spend the early morning hours to either write my blogposts or plan the next steps of our trip. Noosaville is a much quieter neighborhood than Noosa Heads, but still very convenient because of the proximity to the Noosa River and the short distance to the national park and the beaches.

One morning Ilinca and I rented a Kayak and explored the Noosa River. In almost three hours, we paddled first down the Noosa River, then into the mangroves, up to Noosa Heads past all the fancy yachts and villas. It was a very beautiful way of seeing Noosa.

Market in Eumundi

We also spent Saturday morning at a local market in Eumundi, a small town about a 20 minute drive from Noosa. There was lots of different food stalls, musicians performing various instruments (I was most interested in the didgeridoos), and all the other types of shops you find at a local market. Ilinca really loves these markets and she had to make sure that we did not miss a single part of it.

Next Stop: Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

After four nights in Noosa, we decided to move on to Hervey Bay, about 2.5 hours north by car. The bay is very famous for whale watching tours, and we had booked the last tour available this year as the season is over end of October. Fraser Island, the largest island made of sand only, lies just in front of Hervey Bay in the Pacific Ocean, so after the whale watching adventure we will spend two days with a 4wd in the sand.

Long Weekend in Brisbane

Oct 22, 2017

Our escape from the bad weather in Cairns led us to Brisbane, our first major city in Australia with a population of more than 2 million. We visited the city center, tried many good restaurants, visited museums, and last but not least had a great time with our Airbnb hosts Barry and Susi during our stay.

Brisbane’s Gastronomy

As Ilinca and I both love food, one of the first things we check when moving to a new city is where to eat. Ilinca is more the breakfast and café type, for me the most important meal during a day is dinner. And Brisbane has plenty of food options. Ilinca made sure we had an extensive breakfast every morning, and my sushi addiction also was taken care of twice for lunch. The price of the Sushi is about half of what we pay in Switzerland. In addition we also had good Thai, Indian and even Turkish food one night.

Atmosphere in Brisbane

Brisbane is a very beautiful city. There are any peninsulas formed by the meandering Brisbane River, on one of them lies the CBD (Central Business District), or in non-Australian terms, downtown. In this area are the historic city hall and the treasury, and there are also many shops, hotels, and restaurants. As some streets are closed to traffic and in general, traffic is very easy going in Brisbane, it is very inviting to discover the CBD on foot.

On the southern tip of the CBD peninsula is a nice botanical garden. While the trees and plants are really beautiful, for me the main attraction there were the countless water dragons roaming around freely in the park, not showing much fear from humans at all. Some of them were almost one meter long.

Across the river from CBD is the South Bank, a modern area with the most famous museums and concert hall and a city beach incl. swimming pool that is open to the public. Even though I am not really a museum person, I enjoyed the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), first because of the buildings beautiful architecture, second because it was raining outside, and third also because of the exhibition.

We have also visited some of the residential areas in Brisbane, and all of them were very clean and quiet. I guess life here in Brisbane must be nice.

Our Accommodation in Brisbane

Not for the first time on our travels we stayed at a local couple’s home that we found through Airbnb. Whenever we book such an accommodation we hope that we are actually living in the same house as the host, and not just in some apartment where we get handed over the keys on our arrival and there is no sign of our host for the whole duration of our stay (as it was e.g. the case in Kuala Lumpur and Cairns).

In Brisbane we were lucky, we could stay in the guest room of a beautifully renovated Queenslander (typical wooden house from this area). As Barry was working from home, we talked a lot with him about his children who live in France, his occupation as an interior designer, and about our and his travels. Also, we had a nice dinner together with Susi and Barry at their home and watched a bad movie together afterwards. I hope to get many more such encounters here in Australia.

Next Stop: Byron Bay

Tomorrow we will pick up a new rental car and head south to Byron Bay, a nice beach town with good waves for surfing. Time to refresh my surfing skills that I gained in Brazil 11 years ago.

Rain and Clouds in Tropical Cairns

Oct 18, 2017

Cairns is a small city in the north east of Australia and is famous for its access to the Great Barrier Reef as well as the beautiful beaches and forests. All things that require good weather for visiting. But Cairns showed us its rainy side, and after three days of bad weather and a forecast of another 4 days of bad weather we decided to move south to Brisbane and maybe visit Cairns again later on our trip.

Cairns City

Just like Darwin, Cairns is a very small city for Australian standards, but unlike Darwin, it is very much set up for tourism. On its main street there are dozens of tour agencies trying to sell tours to the nearby attractions, many of them even have German-speaking girls in front of the shops to target the countless German-speaking tourists in Cairns. Also, there are restaurants from all over the world, and prices are set accordingly, and if someone wants to buy a didgeridoo, there is also a shop that offers lessons together with the purchase of one of those traditional wooden instruments. I felt very tempted to actually buy one, but priced up to USD 1000 it was a bit too much for something that will most likely just decorate my apartment back home.

Cairns is quite nice, has lots of trees, traffic is not very intense, and especially at the waterfront it is very beautiful. They have a very big public swimming pool called the Lagoon directly at the waterfront which on any hot and sunny day would invite hundreds of tourists for a swim. Given the wet weather however we decided to stay outside.

Around Cairns

As the city center can be visited easily in one day, Cairns is all about the region. Towards the north, there are supposed to be beautiful beaches, and a few kilometers off the coast there is the world famous Great Barrier Reef. Inland, there is rainforest and also large food plantations. Given the ugly weather however we only went for a day to the rainforest, the remaining attractions we want to visit once there is better weather.

Visiting Kuranda

The only place outside Cairns we visited was Kuranda, a small village located in the hills behind the coast that is surrounded by tropical rainforest. It was a quiet place and the walks in the patches of rainforest were nice, but it cannot even closely compete with the almost endless tropical rainforest on Borneo, but for tourists who have never seen a forest in the tropics, in is a good introduction.

The highlight of our visit to Kuranda was the Butterfly Sanctuary. At this place, domestic butterflies are bred systematically in order to populate the tropical hall nearby with hundreds if not thousands of butterflies. The butterflies were literally everywhere, landing on people’s shirts, backpacks, glasses, etc. Apart from the butterflies, there were also some giant moths like the Hercules Moth with a wingspan of more than 30 cm around, however, due to the fact that they are nocturnal, they were in a separate building and only few species were on display.

Also in Kuranda there was a small bird park and a koala park that we decided not to visit because they looked quite small and had a steep pricing as well. E.g. for the koala park, the admission was around USD 18, and if you actually wanted to hold a koala and take a picture with it, the price doubled. Extra costs would have applied for a digital copy of the picture…

Diving and Snorkeling at Great Barrier Reef

Tours out to the reef are very expensive, and given the bad weather, we decided to not go and wait for better weather. I am very tempted to learn how to dive, but if the water is all brown from the rain, it is not that appealing to me. If the weather gets better next week, we might however go back to Cairns and catch up on that.

Animal Parks in Australia

I have not been very keen on going to any animal parks in Darwin and Cairns apart from the butterfly sanctuary. This is not only because of the high prices, but more because it seems that animals are squeezed into very tiny spaces and are treated like toys for tourists that want to take a picture holding a young crocodile or a koala. The most ridiculous thing I have seen so far was in Cairns’ Casino: They set up a zip-line over the pool of a 4m crocodile so people could attach themselves to the zip line and basically fly with a close distance over the crocodile, which, at least on the advertisement, jumps up and tries to catch the tourist. At the same location, there was a koala kept on maybe five square meters on an artificial tree trunk and some leaves, waiting for tourists to lift it, take a picture with it, and then put it back on the trunk. There was no place to retreat for the poor animal.

I hope that we will also have the chance to visit a decent zoo at some point on our trip where the animals are treated with dignity.

Heading Off to Brisbane

We either had to choice of another 4 days of rainy weather in Cairns, or go more south hoping for better weather. We chose the second option and booked a last minute flight to Brisbane. Being a very large city, the options for bad weather here are better, and also the forecast for the next few days is slightly better.