DJ-RTW's Travel Blog

Kangaroos and Koalas - Brisbane, Australia

 This place was Great visited Mar 31, 2008

The city looks nice enough but we are spending most of our time in the area just outside the State of Queensland capital. The best experience here, it won’t surprise you, was dealing with nature: a koala sanctuary. There are 130 koalas living here – originally rescued, but now bred – as well as many tropical birds, dingoes (wild dogs), wallabies and kangaroos. There were so many interesting birds but one that was really fun to see was the Laughing Kakooburras – their calls of “koo-koo-koo-koo kaa-kaa-kaa-kaa” – are often mistaken for those jungle monkeys and we’ve been hearing them for a couple of weeks now without ever seeing them. It was interesting learning more about koalas and the threat they are under: 80% of their territory has been destroyed and the population has gone from over one million to approximately 100,000 since Europeans arrived. The best part though was holding one for a few minutes. Petals is a young female who appeared pretty calm in my hands. Feeding the kangaroos was another fun and weird experience. We entered this large fenced yard where kangaroos and wallabies roamed around, rested and ate out of our hands. There were a number of joeys (babies) coming in and out of their mothers’ pouches and bouncing all over the place playing. The tropical birds on display were amazing as well. These are all from Australia but are either rare, have very small territories in the far reaches of the country, or come from areas of the country we won’t be visiting.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Snorkeling in Whitsunday Islands - Townsville, Australia

 This place was Great visited Mar 26, 2008

The next day, even though we were exhausted by our first scuba diving experience – we went snorkeling. This, too, was a full-day boat tour this one taking us to a swimming and BBQ spot, then for a short hike and finally, snorkeling where we saw more corral and tropical fish.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef - Townsville, Australia

 This place was Amazing visited Mar 25, 2008

Fabulous Great Barrier Reef! We went on a day boat tour for snorkeling and ended up SCUBA diving for the first time ever! Wow what a place for a first dive! Both Jacob and I were amazed at the experience as well as the fact that we actually were able to put all of our fears aside and try it out. It was the safest environment in which we could attempt this with a dive guide having only four people for whom he was responsible. Two had already dived before and so were more independent leaving the guide to take care of Jacob and I. It was amazing: corral in all colors and sizes (some as large as huge boulders) and fish of every kind, shape and color. A fast Cruise Whitsundays boat took us out to a pontoon permanently anchored near the Great Barrier Reef at Hook Reef – it still took two hours to get there as the reef is over 100 kilometers offshore at this point. The pontoon had diving platforms and all of the equipment needed to snorkel or dive, a waterslide, bathrooms, etc. You could get a massage or even take a helicopter ride (too expensive)! Photos from our underwater camera turned just so so and they need to be scanned in, so there aren’t too many photos here.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Reef HQ Aquarium - Townsville, Australia

 This place was Average visited Mar 23, 2008

Probably the best thing we did in Townsville was to visit the reef H.Q. This aquarium focuses on the creatures of the Great Barrier Reef: corals and fish. It was a great educational afternoon that will serve us well when we visit the reef ourselves as we will have a better understanding of the living coral and of the myriad of fish to be found there. The photos included here speak for themselves as to the variety and colors of the fragile ecosystem currently threatened by global warming. We also drove up Castle Hill which, even though it is only 300 meters high (900 feet or so), provides a great view of the town, the ocean and Magnetic Island in the distance. We walked along the town’s boardwalk – The Strand – which is truly a wonderful combination of park and seashore which provides safe swimming and many play areas. What makes the coast dangerous in this area are marine stingers (otherwise known as jellyfish) whose stings can be life threatening. Swimming enclosures are provided at many beaches during the months between October and May – when the stingers are most active – and divers and snorkelers wear Lycra stinger suits (like skin diving suits) to avoid injury. The beaches often have signs explaining the dangers and provide bottles of vinegar to soak the wounds to reduce the pain inflicted by the big buggers.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)

Town or ville of Townsville?!? - Townsville, Australia

 This place was Average visited Mar 20, 2008

We decided to stay put for four days in the small town/ville of Townsville (pop. 120,000) on the Queensland coast knowing that campgrounds would be booked up and traffic would likely be pretty bad for the Easter long weekend. Four-year old Aiden and three-year old Kayla – our neighbors in the park – made our weekend that much more fun as the chattering duo amused us at breakfast every day and in the evenings when we were all at camp. Their parents, Leo and Maikan, were very pleasant as well and entertained us with their stories of culture shock (when she moved to Oz from Japan) and reverse culture shock when he returned to Australia after living in Japan for many years. The weather was much hotter than we had expected (30s Celsius/90s Fahrenheit with very high humidity) as it is AUTUMN!. Locals obviously weren’t feeling the heat as many of them were wearing long jeans, sweatshirts and running shoes while Jacob and I were wearing as little as legally possible! In any case, it was hard doing much more than lying by the pool, reading a book. We did manage to take a ferry to beautiful Magnetic Island where we had hoped to hike all over the island, snorkel or, at least, take a pedal boat out over the nearby coral. It was too hot, however, by the time we might have gone out and we were worried we would just fry over the water. Horseshoe Bay, on the Island, is nice but we were surprised at how messy the beach was (litter and ocean debris) as well as how small it was. Australia’s reputation for superb beaches was not established here. Photos here are mostly of birds as the tropics here offered us so many species we had never seen before including the rare and endangered southern cassowary, ibis, silver gulls with their red beaks and legs, and colorful rainbow lorikeets.

posted Mar 31, 2008 | Comments (0)