Another full day

So today we woke up early to meet our bus that would take us to the Freshwater Train station where we would start our journey up to Kuranda in the rainforest. The scenic railway winds up the mountain past waterfalls and what should have beautiful views of Cairns. However, it was another rainy/cloudy day and visibility was a bit limited. On the train we heard about the construction of the railway and all the history behind it.

Once we arrived in Kuranda, we took a walk through rainforest, visited the market, and went to a butterfly sanctuary. Butterflies kept landing on me--they must realize my new appreciation for the animal kingdom. Or maybe I was just standing still too long.

To get back down the mountain, we took the skyrail--a gondala ride through the canopy (again, more lovely views of fog). Our guide did tell us to look for a crocodile that she often sees sunning itself out on log as we went over the river. She was right--it was there. We decided being 200ft up in the air was a safe enough distance to see a crocodile in the wild.

Our last stop on the tour today was an Aboriginal cultural show/presentation. We saw dancing, learned how to throw a boomerang and spear, listened to playing of the didgeridoo, and learned about the history of the aboriginals in Australia and how, like all indigenous peoples, were enslaved or killed and robbed of their land.

We're all currently hanging out at the hostel watching some tv and reading and relaxing. I think we'll sleep in tomorrow. We don't have anything really planned tomorrow but we're hoping to see the sun.

"The Dropoff!"

The majority of today was spent quoting "Finding Nemo". Amy, Laurie, Roberta, and I took a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was not the best--cloudy and rainy--but we had a great day nonetheless. It took about 2 hours to get to the reef, but once there we snorkeled off a small island (Michaelmans Island I think). We saw many fish--small and big but the reef itself was stunning. Being wary of swimming in the ocean near live things, I was a bit nervous most of the time. The water was also relatively shallow where we were so I had to try hard not to kick any of the coral. The temperatures weren't too bad, but I was slightly concerned about hypothermia. The wind and rain made things just unpleasant enough.

After lunch on the boat (a delicious buffet where I had prawns--the eyes freaked me out), we took a ride on a semi-submersible to get a closer look at the reef. That was very cool--we saw some different types of coral we hadn't seen and several different types of fish. Again, the pictures that we took can not do what we saw justice.

Cairns is a much smaller town than Brisbane and is right on the beach. It's hot and humid here which is a nice change from the cool dry temps in Brisbane. I can stop wearing the same long sleeve shirt that I've been wearing for the past week. We're also enjoying hanging out with Roberta since that hasn't happened in forever. We have another full day tomorrow--something cultural I think--and I'm looking forward to it.

"We're going to the show..."

"but not just ANY show, the mother of all shows." This is the comment we heard from a mom on the train on the way to Ekka. We really weren't sure what Ekka was exactly but it's only in town for a week or so, so we thought we better check it out. It turns out Ekka is kind of like a combination between the Harrisburg farm show, Roots market, and an amusement park.

We saw farm animals (and of course petted many of them--Amy accused me of becoming an animal lover on this trip). We watched part of a horse competition, a motorcross demonstration, and a band competition. We walked through all the exhibition tents sampling meat and fruit and salmon. We also wandered through the "showbag" building. It's like the arcade without any of the games and only the prizes. People buy bags of stuff from all different kinds of vendors--candy, clothes, sports, food, and pretty much anything else you can think of. There were a ton of people everywhere and obviously a popular family event.

Now we're off to Cairns where we'll be hopefully in warmer weather and lots of time on the beach.

A day on the Gold Coast

After figuring out the best way to get to the Gold Coast, we figured out what train to take. That was the easy part. We had a few little issues with the bus to the actual beach, but eventually got on the right one (or at least one that took us to a beach) with the help of a few drivers and the guy at the train/bus station. We're at a real disadvantage with never having to take public transportation ever.

We ended up at Burleigh Head beach which is on the Gold Coast. It's a bit farther south than the more touristy beaches (Surfers Paradise) but it was well worth the trip. The air temperature was probably in the 70's today but the breeze made it a bit cold. Laurie and I went for a swim--the waves were great but the current was a bit too strong for my liking. The water was also cold but not unbearable. There were many surfers along the shoreline and we just enjoyed an afternoon of lying on the beach and soaking it all in. Yes, mom, we wore sunscreen.

We also came across a little state park area which had a couple of kilometers of hiking trails along the shore and up into a rainforest-like area. We had some great views of the Pacific and coastline.

The bus and trainride back were uneventful except for a massive amount of soccer or rugby fans that had just left the stadium and flooded our train. Both teams were well represented--seas of orange for the Queensland team and gold for the Gold Coast team. I'm not really sure who won but the gold fans seemed a bit happier. There were several groups of people bursting out in their team's songs. Funny, I don't ever experience that after leaving an Orioles game...

We have one more day in Brisbane tomorrow but our flight out to Cairns leaves around 6pm. We'll finally meet up with Roberta and I'm looking forward to our next stop in Australia.

Visiting continent number 6

Hello from the future and "down under"! We've been in Brisbane for a few days now and this is the first time I'm posting--sorry about that. The jet lag is getting better--I'm able to stay up past 8pm and not wake up until after 7am. The traveling here went quite smoothly--a train to philly, a plane to LA, another plane to Auckland NZ, another plane to Brisbane, and a bus to our hostel. Needless to say, we were exhausted. Our accomodations are okay--I mean, it's a hostel. We're in a very central part of the city and it's very walkable. We're right along the river and they have a great cycling/running path along both sides. It's been nice to go out for a run in the mornings. It's kind of chilly however in the mornings and especially when the sun goes down.

Yesterday we spent the morning walking around the botanical gardens in Southbank and then took a tour to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It was unlike any kind of zoo that I've ever been to because there were very few fenced in areas or the areas that were fenced in or had walls were kind of low so you really could get close to the animals. The kangaroo and emu enclosure was huge and you could just walk around and pet things. I was waiting for one to attack. They didn't. Amy and I held a koala--they have large claws but are very soft and look like stuffed animals. Of course we have many pictures. I'll have to wait to post those until I get home however. We also we to the Mt. Coot-tha lookout in the late afternoon and got a good perspective of Brisbane and just how large it is.

We met some Tazmanians (they were on this tour with us) and they asked if we like shows. We were kind of perplexed at the question but said sure, thinking like Broadway shows. We learned that a show is kind of like a country fair. We're going to attempt to go it tonight as it only runs for a week or so.

As for today, we spent it walking around Brisbane and doing some shopping (there's an artisan's market on the weekends). It's been relaxing and a good day overall. We're hopefully going down to the gold coast tomorrow to check out the beaches there. It's a two hour bus ride and we're still figuring out where and when to get those. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully post again soon.

Biking in CA

If you're interested in reading about my family trip in Lake Tahoe click here.

The start of summer 2010

Another school year has ended (and a good one it has been) so that means that my summer traveling plans have begun. This past weekend, my friend Tanya and I spent three days on the Loyalsock Trail. We planned on doing about 38 miles of the 59 mile trail but hiked 42 miles due to some directional challenges. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for hiking and the company was was pretty great too.

On day one we started off on what we thought was the right direction but when we passed mile marker 20 (we started at 22 and were supposed to be counting up) we realized we hiked for about an hour in the wrong direction. The trail guide told us that the section we were planning on hiking that day would take us 12 hours so we were a bit concerned about getting into camp late after hiking 4 miles out of our way. However, Tanya and I hiked like it was our job and did 10 miles before lunch and then finished the last 6 to get us into camp at 4pm. We definitely celebrated with some "celebration stew" and biscuits for dinner and were asleep before the sun went down.

Day two was a little less strenuous but tired legs from the day before caused us to hike much slower and we took frequent breaks and a long lunch. We hiked 12 miles to World's End State Park and checked in at the park office since we had already reserved a campsite. However, when we learned that our campsite was another mile from the office, our look of despair must have caused the park rangers to have pity on us and we got a ride to the campsite from Ruth, a lovely retired teacher who volunteers with the Alpine Club and helps maintain the trail.

We decided to change our plans a bit on day 3 and make it to "the haystacks" to play in the water and then camp instead of getting there on sunday. It was a hot afternoon and the water felt great. We took advantage of various photo opportunities and lounged on rocks. We ate our last dinner (more biscuits of course with a hamburger stew) and hiked the last two miles to Tanya's car and came off the trail a night early.

It really was a great trip--one of the best backpacking trips either of us have ever had and a great way to start the summer for me. Now my legs can rest for a few days before they tackle cycling in the Sierra Nevadas with my brother and dad.