Cool caves and even cooler water
On the morning of Friday the 21st, I took the free hostel shuttle to the Brisbane transit centre to catch my train to Rockhampton... my first time ever on a long-distance train (it so happens that this very train company had a terrible mishap a week later, in which a train collided with a semi truck and killed both conductors). A fellow traveller had told me the train never fills up and it was not necessary to reserve a seat, so I just showed up -- and wouldn't you know it, the train was full! There was another one going at 5pm, but I would get in at midnight and would have to email David and Danielle in hopes that they would receive it before trying to pick me up. However, the guy in the office said I could go up to the platform and see if anyone who had booked a ticket didn't show up. I got a visitor's pass and headed up the escalator enoute to Platform 10... where I was greeted by an empty area and a man in a construction uniform, who told me this route to the platform was closed and I had to go around the other way. Thanks for putting up a sign! < /sarcasm > I wonder how many times he had to say that that day before he did something about it. I lugged my heavy bags down the stairs and along the alternate route, which was, naturally, the furthest point away in the train station. I talked to a man in the ticket office there, who told me to come back at 10:45, 15 minutes before the train left. He said no guarantees, so I did all I could do: sat down, crossed my fingers, and rubbed my good luck necklace. I went up at the requested time, and lo and behold, he said, "We can get you on."
Me: "Have I told you that I love you lately?"
Him: "Sorry, I'm taken."
Me: "I didn't say romantic love. I meant good will of the world love."
Him: "Are you saying you don't think we'd work out?"
Me: "I thought you were taken!"
The 7.5 hour train ride went by quickly (I think I can do anything after the 24 hour trip it took to get to Australia!). It was super-smooth, even on the corners thanks to the "tilt train" technology, and I had a window seat, so I had a view too (not that it changed much throughout the journey). Plus, there was lots of leg room... and a lot of the passengers got off at Bundaberg, just over halfway between Brisbane and Rockhampton -- including the person next to me -- so I had ample room to spread out after that. It was over before I knew it, and D&D were waiting to meet me on the platform. We got some groceries and then went to the hostel they had found, which was the nicest and cheapest yet at only $20 a night! It had hardwood floors and... *drum roll* ...no bunk beds! There was no air conditioning in the room, though, and it was 36C even after the sun had gone down, so we all hung out in the common room for the evening, which did have A/C.
On Saturday we drove out to Yeppoon, 30 minutes east, to see if we could catch a ferry to Great Keppel Island. The only one for the day had only gone (we thought they would be throughout the day), so instead we went to the Capricorn Caves, which are limestone caves featuring incredible natural accoustics, especially in the "cathedral" section. We went on a one hour tour and got to squeeze through some small spaces (optional), see a huge Huntsman spider (harmless) and some bats, and walk across an Indiana Jones-style bridge.
The stalactites in these caves are very slow-forming...
these tiny ones are hundreds of years old.
A crack in the ceiling sealed with super-glue. :p
This is the "cathedral", a fairly large (can seat 80) room in the caves.
People get married here, and they held a special event, an opera, in here in the evening that D&D went to.
After being in the cool caves, coming back out into the blasting heat was even worse than before, so we took advantage of the offer to take a dip in the pool on the grounds. We talked to a woman who had just moved out to the area from the Glass Mountains near Sydney. I'm not sure why she was swimming there, but apparently she had been there that morning as well, and said that she had to scoop a bunch of cane toads out of the pool. "You think they're dead, and then you scoop them up and they start trying to hop away!".
On Sunday we drove through Mackay and continued to Airlie Beach. It had the same air about it as Byron Bay, except it was overrun with "schoolies", kids who had just graduated and were ready to par-tay. Airlie Beach is now a hot destination, but not long ago, it "was nothing but mudflats until an enterprising developer's proposal to make a beach was turned down by the nearby shire of Bowen, and he was redirected to this quaint seaside port. With truckloads of Bowen sand, he put the 'beach' in Airlie." (from Let's Go Australia). I find the fact that they had to make a beach here funny, since Australia already has a bajillion beaches (that's more than a trillion but less than a jillion, just so you know). Earlier in the day when we stopped on a roadside pullout for a stretch, I had commented that although it was 35C, it wasn't as humid as I had expected for this far north. Well, when we stepped out of the car in Airlie Beach, we were hit with a wave of moisture and were covered in sweat just carrying our bags in. That reminds me -- one thing I don't think I have mentioned yet is how hot it is cooking in hostel kitchens with a bunch of people in there and many of the burners on, and no fans. Ick, it makes me sweat just thinking about it. Of course the heat makes you tired, so after a quick trip into town to check out hostels for the next night (as there was no room for us in our current one), we retired to bed early with plans to go on an "ocean rafting" trip to some of the Whitsunday Islands in the morning.
It was not nearly as humid in the morning, and we took a shuttle to the jetty at 8:45am, where we had to wait until nearly 10am for the boat to leave. It was like a big, high-powered whitewater raft, and surely the fastest of the vessels to get you out to the islands with speeds up to 65km/h. First, though, we zoomed off with the wind in our hair for half an hour, enroute to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, the biggest of the 74 islands in the area.
The water was very blue right off-shore from the jetty.
Pirate ship, yar?
(mind the blurriness -- taken with my compact cam at full speed in the boat)
Neat rocks off-shore.
Whitehaven Beach is a 7km stretch of white sand, so soft that it
melts through your hands and can be used to polish jewellery.
The water was the bluest I have ever seen.
We stopped and went for a short bush walk to a viewpoint over the beach.
Click here for an awesome panorama of the bay
Then we moored near the beach to enjoy the white sand for a bit.
Here's the other ocean raft that moored shortly after us.
Other boat leaving.
Running parallel to the beach was a strong river-like current, created in part by the presence of a sandbar 25m from shore, and the fact that the tide was going out. Once the boat was anchored, I immediately donned my "stinger suit" (a body suit made of Lycra to protect you from jellyfish stings... very fetching, I assure you), and floated down the "river" about 500m, until I was nearing some rocks. I then laid in the shallow bath-temperature water near the shore. I had a little nap in the sun and then sat up to see a fish swimming by my feet! He was white with black and brown stripes/spots on him, and I watched him dart around my feet and then come in to nibble on my toes. So cute. His girlfriend joined him too. After they got bored with me and left, I walked back down the beach to where I had started and had some lunch.
The beach, "river", sandbar, and beyond.
Then, tempting death, I decided to try to swim across the river to the sandbar (ok, the guides were the ones who suggested it and other people had already made it across, so I knew it could be done). I started as close to the boat as possible, because if I started before it, I could get swept under by the current. I took a big breath and swam under the water for as long as I could, repeated this on a single breath, and then had to come up for a few breaths. I looked over my shoulder and was amazed to see the boat already about 20m upstream. This encouraged me to continue as quickly as possible, and soon I could touch the ground again. The current was still strong even in the shallow water, and it was a struggle to walk through it. Relaxing on the white sandbar was well worth it. David and Danielle had made the trek too, and we joined up and watched a crab the size of my thumbnail scurry along the labyrinth of watery pathways within the sand; occasionally he would wiggle backwards and disappear into the milky grains. I could have stayed there much longer, but it was time to return to shore. The swim back to the boat was easier for some reason, although we were still swept down a short distance.
We boarded the boat again shortly after that, and were whisked off to the first of two snorkelling spots on the nearby Hook Island. At the first, some resident fish had been "trained" to come by the boat when it arrived via a food reward, including a huge Barramundi, the blue fish that looks like he is made out of Play-doh. Pool noodles were handed out to the less apt swimmers ("Based on some of the attempts to cross the channel I saw awhile ago, some of you will need these!" the guide said.) The coral here was amazing, even though we weren't technically on the Great Barrier Reef (oops, I lied before in my quick update)... it's impossible to describe the variety, but my favourite was the finger-like pieces; although most of it was brown, here and there a bright blue piece stood out among the rest. The fish were quite colourful, too, of course, but I have honestly seen more snorkelling off-shore in Hawaii and Mexico, which was a bit disappointing. There were some neat large teal-coloured ones with hot pink and electric blue on them, though, and the best part was that you could HEAR them munching on the coral! It sounded like someone biting into a crunchy apple.
The second location was not much different than the first, except the fish were not "trained" there! The coral was closer to the shore this time, so we had to swim a short distance to get to it. I dove down to get a better look a few times, and remarked at how much pressure there was on my ears only a few meters down. It's going to be interesting when I do my intro SCUBA dive later!
We spent 45 minutes in each snorkelling location, which went by very quickly, and then it was time to head home. The driver did some fun zig-zags along the way, and as we came up to the jetty, he told us to hang on and spun the boat 180 degrees, lining it up perfectly with the dock. Zoom zoom!
When we got back, we moved over to our new accomodation, which wasn't a hostel but a cute self-contained cabin, which was worth the little extra it cost, as it was very clean and comfy. We were all tired from the day's activities, so we went to bed early and slept soundly. Our drive to Townsville the next day was uneventful, and it was so hot there that we didn't want to do anything but lay in the air-conditioned room. It was all I could do to cook dinner in the surprisingly sparsely equipped and malfunctioning kitchen, considering the hostel had 300 rooms and was more like an apartment complex... although David pointed out that our room was like a jail cell, complete with cinder blocks and squeaky wire-frame bunks with boards under them so the mattresses wouldn't sag as much!
That's all I have the energy for at the moment, but the next post will be a gooder -- the highest single-drop waterfalls in Australia one day, and then free-falling from a far great height the next day. That's right... *I* went skydiving!
Me: "Have I told you that I love you lately?"
Him: "Sorry, I'm taken."
Me: "I didn't say romantic love. I meant good will of the world love."
Him: "Are you saying you don't think we'd work out?"
Me: "I thought you were taken!"
The 7.5 hour train ride went by quickly (I think I can do anything after the 24 hour trip it took to get to Australia!). It was super-smooth, even on the corners thanks to the "tilt train" technology, and I had a window seat, so I had a view too (not that it changed much throughout the journey). Plus, there was lots of leg room... and a lot of the passengers got off at Bundaberg, just over halfway between Brisbane and Rockhampton -- including the person next to me -- so I had ample room to spread out after that. It was over before I knew it, and D&D were waiting to meet me on the platform. We got some groceries and then went to the hostel they had found, which was the nicest and cheapest yet at only $20 a night! It had hardwood floors and... *drum roll* ...no bunk beds! There was no air conditioning in the room, though, and it was 36C even after the sun had gone down, so we all hung out in the common room for the evening, which did have A/C.
On Saturday we drove out to Yeppoon, 30 minutes east, to see if we could catch a ferry to Great Keppel Island. The only one for the day had only gone (we thought they would be throughout the day), so instead we went to the Capricorn Caves, which are limestone caves featuring incredible natural accoustics, especially in the "cathedral" section. We went on a one hour tour and got to squeeze through some small spaces (optional), see a huge Huntsman spider (harmless) and some bats, and walk across an Indiana Jones-style bridge.
The stalactites in these caves are very slow-forming...
these tiny ones are hundreds of years old.
A crack in the ceiling sealed with super-glue. :p
This is the "cathedral", a fairly large (can seat 80) room in the caves.
People get married here, and they held a special event, an opera, in here in the evening that D&D went to.
After being in the cool caves, coming back out into the blasting heat was even worse than before, so we took advantage of the offer to take a dip in the pool on the grounds. We talked to a woman who had just moved out to the area from the Glass Mountains near Sydney. I'm not sure why she was swimming there, but apparently she had been there that morning as well, and said that she had to scoop a bunch of cane toads out of the pool. "You think they're dead, and then you scoop them up and they start trying to hop away!".
On Sunday we drove through Mackay and continued to Airlie Beach. It had the same air about it as Byron Bay, except it was overrun with "schoolies", kids who had just graduated and were ready to par-tay. Airlie Beach is now a hot destination, but not long ago, it "was nothing but mudflats until an enterprising developer's proposal to make a beach was turned down by the nearby shire of Bowen, and he was redirected to this quaint seaside port. With truckloads of Bowen sand, he put the 'beach' in Airlie." (from Let's Go Australia). I find the fact that they had to make a beach here funny, since Australia already has a bajillion beaches (that's more than a trillion but less than a jillion, just so you know). Earlier in the day when we stopped on a roadside pullout for a stretch, I had commented that although it was 35C, it wasn't as humid as I had expected for this far north. Well, when we stepped out of the car in Airlie Beach, we were hit with a wave of moisture and were covered in sweat just carrying our bags in. That reminds me -- one thing I don't think I have mentioned yet is how hot it is cooking in hostel kitchens with a bunch of people in there and many of the burners on, and no fans. Ick, it makes me sweat just thinking about it. Of course the heat makes you tired, so after a quick trip into town to check out hostels for the next night (as there was no room for us in our current one), we retired to bed early with plans to go on an "ocean rafting" trip to some of the Whitsunday Islands in the morning.
It was not nearly as humid in the morning, and we took a shuttle to the jetty at 8:45am, where we had to wait until nearly 10am for the boat to leave. It was like a big, high-powered whitewater raft, and surely the fastest of the vessels to get you out to the islands with speeds up to 65km/h. First, though, we zoomed off with the wind in our hair for half an hour, enroute to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, the biggest of the 74 islands in the area.
The water was very blue right off-shore from the jetty.
Pirate ship, yar?
(mind the blurriness -- taken with my compact cam at full speed in the boat)
Neat rocks off-shore.
Whitehaven Beach is a 7km stretch of white sand, so soft that it
melts through your hands and can be used to polish jewellery.
The water was the bluest I have ever seen.
We stopped and went for a short bush walk to a viewpoint over the beach.
Click here for an awesome panorama of the bay
Then we moored near the beach to enjoy the white sand for a bit.
Here's the other ocean raft that moored shortly after us.
Other boat leaving.
Running parallel to the beach was a strong river-like current, created in part by the presence of a sandbar 25m from shore, and the fact that the tide was going out. Once the boat was anchored, I immediately donned my "stinger suit" (a body suit made of Lycra to protect you from jellyfish stings... very fetching, I assure you), and floated down the "river" about 500m, until I was nearing some rocks. I then laid in the shallow bath-temperature water near the shore. I had a little nap in the sun and then sat up to see a fish swimming by my feet! He was white with black and brown stripes/spots on him, and I watched him dart around my feet and then come in to nibble on my toes. So cute. His girlfriend joined him too. After they got bored with me and left, I walked back down the beach to where I had started and had some lunch.
The beach, "river", sandbar, and beyond.
Then, tempting death, I decided to try to swim across the river to the sandbar (ok, the guides were the ones who suggested it and other people had already made it across, so I knew it could be done). I started as close to the boat as possible, because if I started before it, I could get swept under by the current. I took a big breath and swam under the water for as long as I could, repeated this on a single breath, and then had to come up for a few breaths. I looked over my shoulder and was amazed to see the boat already about 20m upstream. This encouraged me to continue as quickly as possible, and soon I could touch the ground again. The current was still strong even in the shallow water, and it was a struggle to walk through it. Relaxing on the white sandbar was well worth it. David and Danielle had made the trek too, and we joined up and watched a crab the size of my thumbnail scurry along the labyrinth of watery pathways within the sand; occasionally he would wiggle backwards and disappear into the milky grains. I could have stayed there much longer, but it was time to return to shore. The swim back to the boat was easier for some reason, although we were still swept down a short distance.
We boarded the boat again shortly after that, and were whisked off to the first of two snorkelling spots on the nearby Hook Island. At the first, some resident fish had been "trained" to come by the boat when it arrived via a food reward, including a huge Barramundi, the blue fish that looks like he is made out of Play-doh. Pool noodles were handed out to the less apt swimmers ("Based on some of the attempts to cross the channel I saw awhile ago, some of you will need these!" the guide said.) The coral here was amazing, even though we weren't technically on the Great Barrier Reef (oops, I lied before in my quick update)... it's impossible to describe the variety, but my favourite was the finger-like pieces; although most of it was brown, here and there a bright blue piece stood out among the rest. The fish were quite colourful, too, of course, but I have honestly seen more snorkelling off-shore in Hawaii and Mexico, which was a bit disappointing. There were some neat large teal-coloured ones with hot pink and electric blue on them, though, and the best part was that you could HEAR them munching on the coral! It sounded like someone biting into a crunchy apple.
The second location was not much different than the first, except the fish were not "trained" there! The coral was closer to the shore this time, so we had to swim a short distance to get to it. I dove down to get a better look a few times, and remarked at how much pressure there was on my ears only a few meters down. It's going to be interesting when I do my intro SCUBA dive later!
We spent 45 minutes in each snorkelling location, which went by very quickly, and then it was time to head home. The driver did some fun zig-zags along the way, and as we came up to the jetty, he told us to hang on and spun the boat 180 degrees, lining it up perfectly with the dock. Zoom zoom!
When we got back, we moved over to our new accomodation, which wasn't a hostel but a cute self-contained cabin, which was worth the little extra it cost, as it was very clean and comfy. We were all tired from the day's activities, so we went to bed early and slept soundly. Our drive to Townsville the next day was uneventful, and it was so hot there that we didn't want to do anything but lay in the air-conditioned room. It was all I could do to cook dinner in the surprisingly sparsely equipped and malfunctioning kitchen, considering the hostel had 300 rooms and was more like an apartment complex... although David pointed out that our room was like a jail cell, complete with cinder blocks and squeaky wire-frame bunks with boards under them so the mattresses wouldn't sag as much!
That's all I have the energy for at the moment, but the next post will be a gooder -- the highest single-drop waterfalls in Australia one day, and then free-falling from a far great height the next day. That's right... *I* went skydiving!