Weeks ending 15-Mar: Far North Queensland

The biggest news of the last few weeks is that I resigned from my job at GSJBW. I decided it was time to have a chance to really travel the country before we have to head back to the U.S. for Michelle to start her medical residency. This is the beginning of the second week of my current “retirement” and it still hasn’t completely sunken in what it means…I still feel like I’m just on a vacation and will have to go back to work soon enough. The morning after my last day at work a friend from high school (Aaron) arrived to Sydney. He arrived on Sydney’s Mardi Gras day which is a big crazy day with a parade that goes down the street onto which our balcony has a view. So we had a little party to watch the parade which was quite festive and a tad rowdy.

We were planning on flying up to Queensland and camping on Fraser Island starting Monday. It was only when I called the company who was organizing our camping gear to ask if we needed to bring sleeping bags did I find out a category 5 cyclone, Cyclone Hamish, was off the coast of Queensland and its projected path sent it right through Fraser Island. This cyclone was stronger than Hurricane Katrina with winds up to 160 mph so needless to say they had evacuated the island along with many other areas in coastal Queensland in advance of the storm. Camping in a category 5 storm probably wouldn’t have been that much fun so we went to plan Bravo and flew much further north in Queensland up to Cairns for a few days.

View Larger Map

We drove through Daintree National Park, across the Daintree River on a ferry and along Cape Tribulation. It being the end of summer in a tropical rainforest it was Hot and Humid! The rainforest was pretty fascinating…you could just tell you were in an other-worldly type of place. We took a boat cruise on the Daintree River and saw a big crocodile swimming along, as well as snakes in the trees and a bright green frog.

We stayed in Port Douglas which is a really quaint little town on the coast. From there we took a day long boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel. The Great Barrier Reef is something I feel like you hear about all your life and how amazing it is, so expectations get built up pretty high, but I have to say, being out there snorkeling around on the reef did not disappoint in the least bit. It was absolutely spectacular! We saw bright fish of every color you could imagine swimming all around, the reef was gorgeous and we saw a sea turtle too! Really cool and makes me really excited for when we go back up to a different part of the reef in April to go scuba diving.

We had to wear full body “stinger” suits when we were in the water because it’s the time of year jellyfish are around and you don’t want to get stung because it’s evidently not pleasant.

Back in Sydney we showed Aaron the sights, went to the beach, etc. He left yesterday and tomorrow morning our next guests arrive so more fun to be had.