Nemo = Found

We had an amazing day on the outer reef today. After a slightly stomach-turning ride out, we arrived at the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs – some of the northernmost reefs accessible by day boat. Sarah did a few dives and then joined Jonathan as he snorkeled around. We purchased a waterproof case for our digital camera so were able to capture photos and video from underwater.
We saw an incredible diversity of wildlife – sharks, clownfish, turtles, rays, barracudas, and about every type and size of fish imaginable. We even saw some fish that we have cooked for dinner (slight pang of guilt, but we got over that quickly). We saw a lion fish, played with sea cucumbers and stuck our hands in a giant clam. The coral was unbelievable and it’s hard to imagine that we only saw a drop of it. The reef extends for over 2500 kms. A picture can’t do it justice. It really needs to be seen!
On the ride back to shore we chatted with a traveler who was a year ahead of Sarah in undergrad – and was even in Kirkland house (what a small world!).
It was a perfect completion to our trip. Exhausted from our day in the water, we returned to our favorite camp spot. Tomorrow morning we’ll do a quick inventory on the camper, Jonathan will spend some emotional alone time with it before we say goodbye and we’ll head to Cairns for a night in a hotel before our way-too-early flight on Saturday.
See you all back in the states soon!

Unwelcome U.S. import: Cane Toads

After a rainy afternoon in the camper, we had a night on the town in Port Douglas – which started at the local Cane Toad races. Hosted by a Steve Irwin-esque bloke, the races consisted of 6 toads that were placed on a table. The jockeys, randomly selected from the audience, had to coax their toads off the table by blowing party blowers at them, making the toad jump into their hands and placing the toad in the victory bucket. Overall, very amusing. Sadly, our tickets did not get called to be jockeys and I resisted the competitive urge to pay $40 for one in the last “auction” race. We did, however, get to play with them afterwards. We learned that they were an ill-advised import from the U.S. The sugar cane famer who introduced them (to get rid of the destructive cane beetle) brought 100 to Queensland. They did not in fact get rid of the beetle and with no natural predators in Australia, have multiplied population figures that exceed that of the human race. Yikes.


The Roster

Jockeys trying their best to get the stubborn toads to move

Sarah has had to kiss a lot of toads in her day...now it was Jonathan's turn. He chose the most petite one.

Port Douglas

As we wind down our trip we are taking it a bit easy. We grabbed sushi and ate on the beach one day, and followed that up with a long drive deep into the rainforest (4WD track of course). When Sarah finally yelled UNCLE!! (actually, she just looked really barfy) we turned back and headed to our standby camping spot. The only friend we met this night was related to Kermit (see below). Jonathan harassed him during a photo shoot and he still just sat there. In fact, he was still there the next morning.
We spent another morning shopping in Port Douglas, explored some coastline and giant fig trees near town and grabbed a bite to eat on the main drag before some rain came in. If the rain stops, we plan to participate in some Cane Toad races at a local pub this evening…we’ll let you know how we fare.

Sarah & the giant curtain fig, which Jonathan clearly had to climb

Digeridoos in a local aboriginal art shop

Kermit was about 6" long (a GIANT green tree frog, literally)

The Friendly Campsite

For the first time since we’ve been camping we decided to stay in the same place for a second night. We were wiped out after our day on the water so returned to the campground where we had met our motorcycle friends. This night we met additional interesting people – a young German couple who was completing a similar trip to ours (Sydney north) and a British guy who was mountain biking Cape York. We had heard about the Brit earlier on our trip – a couple we chatted with mentioned meeting him and that he had biked the Rockies last year. We had quite a long chat with him and it was interesting to hear his impressions of England, America and Australia, and how they compared to ours. Later that evening, we chatted with the German couple (Anke & Eicher) and compared on our trip. They were quite friendly and by the end of the night we were Facebook friends and had a place to stay in Germany should we ever visit.

Australian Cuisine

Though we’ve written about all the things that could eat US (sharks, crocs, mosquitoes that actually are eating us) there has been a lot of interest in what WE are eating (whether cooked in our camper or eaten at a restaurant). We thought we’d give a rundown of the cuisine here:
Fish & Chips galore. The Aussies LOVE their fish and chips (fries). They are everywhere. Usually it’s beer battered barramundi, a local freshwater fish, but it is nearly always fried. Blooming onion not included.
Wedges with sour cream & sweet chili. These are delicious. They are thick, wedge cut fries served with sour cream and this thai sweet chili sauce that adds a little zing.
Lots o’ lamb. We knew lamb was big over here. We’ve had it a few nights – in stir fry, grilled lamb chops, etc. They are also big on kabobs and we’ve had the lamb version of those too. Not all that different than spiedies! Lamb and beef sausages are also quite delicious.
Lamingtons. These Australian desserts are like little slices of pound cake covered in chocolate then rolled in shredded coconut. They are ok.
Tim Tams. Little bites of heaven. These cookies are chocolate biscuits covered in chocolate and come in many varieties. We wish they were available in the states.
Vegemite: We actually haven’t had a lot of this, but this concentrated yeast extract is everywhere.
Seafood: Surprisingly, there is not the plethora of seafood we’d imagined would be in this region. We’ve had “bugs” – weird lobster-like shell fish and lots of prawns (no shrimp here and no one would ever say "throw another shrimp on the barbie"!) and Jonathan made some great fish (called Sweet Lips (just like me)) the other night.
Crocodile and Kangaroo. We’ve seen jerky of both of these meats but have opted not to try. We like the live ones better.
Beverages: We’ve mentioned before that the boxed wine is big here. Beer is oddly expensive - $15-$20 for a 6 pack. Toohey’s New (beer type) is our fave.

Cooking for ourselves – mainly we’ve had cereal for breakfast (Jonathan vetoed eggs after one try since it’s a pain to do the dishes). Lunch is often a sandwich and fruit (kind of like elementary school). For dinner we grill some seafood or steaks or make some type of Asian stir-fry.


Surf & Turf - a steak and a "bug"

Jonathan still gets his sugary cereal overseas

mmm....tim tams

lamington

box of wine

Shark Bait – Ooh-Ah-Ah!

Monday we took our first trip to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Though we had snorkeled a bit on fringing reef further south, this trip was more elaborate. We boarded a large catamaran that sailed out to the Low Isles reef – part of the GBR. This reef actually has two permanent islands associated with it so after the catamaran moored, we took smaller boats in to the shore, from which we snorkeled around the beach/reef. Right away we saw green turtles, giant clams, all colors of soft coral and lots of cool fish – butterfly fish, parrot fish (Dory), angel fish, etc. Though we didn’t see Nemo we DID see a bunch of reef sharks. They were all about 6-7 feet long and really neat! I was a bit nervous when we saw the first one, but after the next few it became less rattling. Jonathan tried to catch a big 2’ fish that was quite interested in us, but the fish was a little too slippery for him.
Even though it is not stinger season, I chose to wear a HOT lycra suit(which provides protection from marine stingers or box jellies) – it was also 100% UV protective and you can never be too safe. Below is a pretty picture of me getting into it. I wanted to take it home so I could be a smurf for Halloween…no luck though.
No photos of the actual underwater stuff yet (we had a non-digital camera).
We are going to the outer GBR on Thursday and are looking forward to what we’ll see out there! Grab shell dude!

Self portrait on the catamaran

Think this will pass for professional attire when I start working?

Another boat sailing to the Low Isles

Life is rough for Jonathan

Adventures of a different kind

Leaving Archer point we took the Bloomfield Track back and spotted another large croc sunning itself on the bank of the river. We also stopped and took a long hike out to the reef to do a little exploration. The tide was out which meant that it was about a 10 min walk to the ocean. On the way we saw some tiny sand crabs with brilliant blue shells. We stopped for a bit in Cape Tribulation for some wattleseed flavored ice cream (local produce tastes like coffee!) but seeing as Sarah was carsick (and a little cranky) we soon continued to Port Douglas with hopes of booking a reef tour the next day. We stopped in at the local tourist information agent and booked a trip to the inner reef on the Low Isles for the following day. We decided to stay at the local Big4 campground. We have stayed at a few of them so far this trip and they are all very nice. Upon arriving at our camping spot I quickly realized two things 1. three motorcycle campers were directly across from us and 2. For the second time in 24 hours our cooler was a mess. The first time the terrible roads (and my driving) vibrated the lid off the jam and mustard. Also, something shattered the eggs or they were vibrated to their death (my bet). This time the roads vibrated the cap off a beer. After cleaning the cooler I introduced myself to the motorcycle group (dirt bikes) and as it turned out we spent the entire night talking with them. Sarah and I had such fun that we decided to forgo dinner that night! The trio was from Perth on the western coast. Two were native Australians, (one 6th generation – is that even possible?) and the third was from South Africa and had immigrated to Australia. They were all in the mining business. They spoke very highly about the west coast, minimal people beautiful coastline and vast resources. They were on a trip that I would love to try. 3500 miles, Cairns to the tip then on to Darwin and finishing in Broome…WOW. Last year they crossed the central desert which is about the same mileage and as we heard several times that night, “Jonathan, it was very tough”. We learned Australian slang, how to decipher the Aussie accent and at one point in the night all were forced to say “park the car in the garage” just to laugh at 5 different ways of saying it. We learned about Aussie pay, cars and amazing things like how an unskilled laborer can make 160K+ USD working at the Aussie mines. We had so much fun that the campground manager needed to come tell us to quiet down! We also had too many VB’s (Victoria Bitter) and closed the night with 20 year old Scotch that you can’t get in the states! Motorcycle Friends Sarah after being subjected to too much 4WD Early formation of brain coral (when tide is out)

Video of Jonathan crossing one of the rivers in Lakefield NP

Video of camping at Archer Point - Far North Queensland