DOWN UNDER – PART 4

The humidity hit us as soon as we landed in Cairns after our cross-country flight.  The climate, landscape, and vegetation on the east coast are very different from the west and the centre.  This is the jungle, known here as the Wet Tropics.  Used to humidities in the 30% range, we struggled in the 80%+.

Port Douglas is very much a tourist town, catering to those visiting the region’s two UNESCO Sites: the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Forest / Cape Tribulation National Park.  The beachfront is lined with resort hotels and the main street with cafés, restaurants, hotels, boutiques, and souvenir shops.

On our first full day, we boarded the tour boat Bubbles for the two-hour sail out to the Great Barrier Reef.  Due to the presence of deadly box jellyfish, we had to don protective Lycra suits before getting in the water.  Elva looks pretty good in hers, doesn’t she?

It’s impossible to describe in words what one sees on the Reef.  The colours, shapes and textures of the corals are mesmerizing.  Same goes for the fish.  Since I don’t have an underwater camera, I lifted these photos from a website.  They illustrate what I saw during the three days we snorkelled on the Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reefs.  I couldn’t get enough!

 I swam with a green turtle like this one.

That's not me with the big fish, but I did get up close and personal to one the same size.  It's a humphead wrasse.

The next morning, we walked into town and explored the waterfront.  I decided to stop for a coffee while Elva went looking for postcards.  Not long after, she arrived, all excited.  “You’ll never guess who I saw!”  After a few unsuccessful tries, I gave up.  “Dave and Donna Crocker!”  Our friends from Alberton, PEI, were having a late breakfast when Donna saw Elva walking by, and called to her.

Dave was in the process of sending us an email to find out where we were!  We hadn’t spoken to them since last fall and had no idea they were in Australia.  The odds of such a meeting are incalculable.  We enjoyed dinner together that evening and then went our separate ways, still shaking our heads over such an incredible coincidence.

On our third day in Port Douglas, we joined a group heading to the Daintree Forest and Cape Tribulation.  We visited an excellent zoo, featuring the birds, mammals and reptiles common to this part of the country.  This guy, a red-tailed black cockatoo, tried to steal my hat.

The symbol of the Australian wet tropics is the cassowary, a large flightless bird, similar in size to the emu, but with a multi-coloured, iridescent crest and wattle.  Unlike most bird species, the female cassowary is more colourful than the male.  She mates with several males and leaves them to hatch the eggs and rear the young.  Truly an example for feminists everywhere.

The rain forest was, as expected, hot and sticky.  We had an excellent guide but didn’t see much wildlife.  Even our river cruise failed to produce more than a couple of very small salt-water crocodiles.  The jungle was beautiful though.

After our last day in Port Douglas, it was off to Sydney and our hotel near Bondi Beach.  We arrived there just in time to see the last of the surfers come out of the water before it got too dark.  Bondi is a funky kind of place, with lots of sidewalk cafés, and we were right in the heart of the action on Hill St.  On our first morning, we headed out for a walk along the waterfront bound for nearby Bronte Beach.  Although it rained a bit, we enjoyed beautiful views of the cliffs and beaches.

The bus took us to the ferry terminal in downtown Sydney where we boarded the Manly Ferry.  During the half-hour trip, we enjoyed beautiful views of Sydney Harbour and the neighbourhood around the Manly terminal.  It left us with a much better appreciation of the city than we’d had on our first couple of days there in early February.  If I had to live in a big city, Sydney might just do!

We continued exploring Sydney on our last day in Australia.  Dodging morning showers, we met our old friend Gordon Hyslop at a downtown Starbucks and had a great chat about travelling, American politics, and family, and solved a few of the world’s problems at the same time.

Then, it was aboard the ferry again, this time headed for Olympic Park, site of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  The ride there and back provided incredible views of the city and the iconic Harbour Bridge.

On our last evening in Sydney, we had dinner with Ben Houseman, one of our travelling companions from the 2014 Central American trip.  It was nice to catch up on his news.

Too soon, we were on our way to the airport and the long flight back to Orlando.  Our six weeks here went by in a flash.  We loved every day of the trip.After our last day in Port Douglas, it was off to Sydney and our hotel in Bondi Beach.

A few parting thoughts as we leave this wonderful country:

1.    We felt very much at home in Australia and among Australians.  While we have far different histories and come from different backgrounds ethnically, our countries share the tradition of being parliamentary democracies with historic ties to Britain.  We have similar values and look at the world in the same way.  Aussies are friendly, outgoing people who love to travel and, consequently, know what’s going on in the world.  They share the same hopes and fears we do about the future of the planet and are quite willing to express an opinion on the best path forward.

2.    I’d never experienced heat like I did here.  I sweated buckets in Louisiana when we visited in August 1999, and we had some hot, humid days in Central America two years ago, but nothing like the Outback and the Northeast.  There’s no way to explain what 40 degrees C feels like.  My cycling buddies know the old Diesel doesn’t like the heat!  Aussies asked us what minus 40 degrees C felt like.  We told them that both are at the limit of human endurance, at least ours.  The worst was knowing there would be little relief, even at night.  During the day, we dripped with sweat most of the time.  “Like sitting in a puddle,” one of our fellow travellers described it.  She wasn’t far off.  And we drank as much water in a day as we usually do in a week!

3.    The remoteness of the Outback and the West Coast left a strong and lasting impression on both of us.  We learned that 85% of Australians live along the coast.  The interior is very sparsely populated, and people there eke out a living under the harshest conditions.  They’re independent and self-reliant.  In that regard, much of Australia is like Canada’s North.  In fact, isolated communities must generate their own electricity from solar, wind and diesel.  Some coastal communities must desalinate their water.  Dots on the map like William Creek, Minilya, and Erldunda are not even hamlets; just lonely roadhouses offering fuel, a quick meal, and basic accommodations.

4.    The cost of things is a shock!  I paid as much as $6 for a coffee and the same for a 1.5-litre bottle of water.  The coffee’s good, but not that good!  Accommodation is expensive by our standards, and restaurant meals are about 50% more costly than back home.  Canada’s median household income was about $41,000 in 2012 while Australia’s was $46,000.  They were number 4 on the list of countries while we were number 7.  The US fell in between at number 6.  Australia’s minimum wage is $17.25 an hour, compared to an average minimum wage in Canada of $10.30.  The minimum wage difference may explain the high cost of meals and accommodations.

5.    One thing that’s significantly cheaper here is air travel.  Our five domestic flights cost us about $2,900.  The same flights in Canada would have cost AT LEAST $5,000, or 72% more!  As for the level of service, there’s no comparison.   Qantas wins hands-down over Air Canada.  We got snacks on even the shortest flights and check-ins were a breeze.  As for security procedures, I suspect  we’re paying a very high price in Canada simply because of our proximity to the US.

6.    A good measure of quality attractions is UNESCO designation.  We visited eight of Australia’s nineteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and walked by one in Melbourne (Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens) without knowing it was on the list.  The ones we visited: Port Arthur (Convict Sites), Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Reef, Shark Bay, Sydney Opera House, Tasmanian Wilderness, Uluru – Kata-Tjuta National Park, and the Wet Tropics of Queensland.

7.    For those thinking of visiting Australia, be aware of the distances involved.  After flying almost half-way around the world to get to Sydney, we travelled 8,000 km over land and flew 11,000 km!  We saw a good bit of the country in six weeks - all six states and the territory - but missed out on some ‘must-sees’.  It’s huge!  I don’t think there’s a ‘best’ way to see the country.  It all depends of how much time you have and how much you want to spend.

8.    Adventure travel is not for the faint of heart.  But, for those with an open mind, a good stomach, and the patience to go with the flow (and swallow a few flies), it can be very rewarding.  Our three Intrepid journeys were first-hand opportunities to see the best the country has to offer, and we visited places not found on most itineraries.  We watched as others in fancy buses waddled around parking lots to see attractions like Uluru from a distance, while we walked around the base of the rock on our own two feet, seeing it from every possible angle.  But I couldn’t travel this way without a willing partner.  I’m lucky to be able to share these special experiences with my best friend, and I hope there are many more to come!