Cairns II

Well, Today is my last day in Cairns before I head down the East Coast tomorrow morning to begin the final leg of my Australian tour.

I have already booked most of the stuff Ill be doing by a travel agency ahead of time and Ill be traveling by bus for the whole trip so I dont see much potential for flat tires or hitchhiking but who knows. So I expect the actual traveling to be pretty tame, but I am more then welcoming it. I wouldnt mind some effortless travel at this point.

Traveling without a plan where everything is up in the air is a great experience and really has been the best bits of my trip, but you need some time in between to just recuperate and just veg out. Particularly, when you are already trying to be as thrifty as possible anyway, which usually involves sacrificing most of the luxuries you are use to already.

But still I am very much looking forward to this last bit of my trip in Australia. The main highlights are going to be my Yongala dive, the Whitsundays sailing, and the Fraser island 4WD.

1) The SS Yongala is a freight steamer that sunk in 1911 about 22 kms off the coast of Australia, near Townsville. It was a ship that was headed to Cairns from Melbourne but a cyclone sunk it and is now suppose to be one of the best dive sites in the world. The top of the deck is 16m down and the bottom of the wreck is about 30m down, and the wreck itself is suppose to be teaming with fish.

I myself am only open water certified which means that I can only dive to a max depth of 18m, but I am going to take some brief course once I get there and theyll let me dive the full depth and go throughout the wreck. I am mucho excited!

2) Whitsundays is suppose to be a beautiful bunch of islands off the coast to go snorkeling and sailing. The dream 'island caretaker' position offered about 6 months ago in Australia was for an island right near Whitsundays.

Im going to go on a sail boat out there for 2 days and two nights do whatever it is you do on a boat.

3) Fraser Island is a world heritage site, again an island off the coast that is suppose to full of a type of dingo unique to the island and some great beaches. Less then two weeks ago, a Dutch couple's child was attacked by one of the dingo and the dingo had to be put down. The child survived but it was still a big story.

So yeah, thats the plan. The end of the trip will plant me back in Sydney after nine and a half months of Australia, where Kevin Rudd will give me the keys to the country, because I have been owning Australia!

. . . . .

When I get back into Sydney Ill swing into the Embassy down there, pick up some more passport pages, and fly over to Auckland in New Zealand. Ill treck around there for some 6 weeks. Then Ill fly back to Sydney for a day then onto Hawaii where Ill be back on US soil for the first time in 17 months! Oh yeah! Cheney is president right?

Still in Cairns, but here are old photos.

A Dingo at our campsite in Karijini.


The cost of gas on the Gibbs River Road in the middle of nowhere. Two Dollar Australian per Litre means its about Eight Australian Dollars to a Gallon, which means its about Seven Dollars American per Gallon.


We actually saw this guy in the middle of the Gibbs too. He was this guy who looked like he rolled out of the bush. He was walking next to his red van which had its front cut off so that it could be towed by these two huge camels. I guess thats the best way to save on gas.


The first flat.


The second of four, 100 metres from the first. We are stuck at this point and know it.


The Great Barrier Reef. I got to do three dives here yesterday. It was good stuff!


The Cairns Marine.