How ya goin’? It’s May 18
th and we are packing
our bags to head to New Zealand. We can’t believe our month in Australia is
over.
The last time we left off we were heading to Uluru.
We are about 2 weeks behind in our blogging so you may want to make yourself a
snack before you start reading this entry.
Cairns
We arrived in Cairns around midnight on May 3rd.
Our lovely friend, Lesley, greeted us at the bus stop and took us to what would
be our home for the next week. Lesley’s parents were gracious enough to let us
stay in one of their bungalows.
We caught up until around 2:30 am before hitting the sack
for the night. We had a wonderful night’s sleep on a real mattress and room
with our own bathroom for the first time in 2 weeks. It’s the little things
that make you happy when you are traveling.
We spent the day enjoying a nice lunch and exploring the esplanade.
That night we knew we were going to go out big because it
was Lesley’s birthday. Well, Josh and
Lesley went out big and Leanne enjoyed being the DD for the night whilst
driving on the other side of the road.
What a fun night! Leanne got up and sang at an open mic
night. An Aussie bloke was kind enough to play the guitar while she sang.
Leanne had to crack the whip on Josh because he was blowing
through our allotted budget for the night.
At 3:00 am we decided to call it a night. We were so happy
that we were able to spend Lesley’s birthday with her.
The next day was a slower start than intended. Imagine that?
We headed to Kuranda and the Bebinda Boulders for a day of exploring.
We closed out the night with some amazing fish and chips
from Davinda’s in Freshwater (just outside of Cairns). We got up and at ‘em the next morning. Destination: Cape
Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest.
We were so excited when we saw this guy during our drive:
We can’t believe we saw a croc in the wild!!! What an
amazing experience. Lesley has lived in Australia her entire life and this was
the first time she saw one in the wild so we felt extremely fortunate.
We motored onto Port Douglas and walked around the pretty
town for a little while. Many people have told us that this is one of their
favorite places so we were sad that we only had an hour to check it out. For
us, it was Cape Tribulation or bust!!
Along the way we made a few stops:
Cape Kimberly
Daintree River
Hiking through the Daintree Rainforest
Lesley told us that we had to lick a green ant’s bum because
it tasted sour. We both experienced the sour taste of the bum. That’s right, we
licked an ant’s butt. Click on the link below to check out the video
of Josh’s green ant bum licking experience.
Sunset hike at Cape Tribulation
What a jammed packed day of beauty!
Sunday we went to the farmer’s market and walked around
Cairns.
That night we drove Lesley to the airport so she could make
her way back home to Melbourne. We made plans to stay with her for one more
night when we returned to Melbourne after our Ulu
ru trip. We used our “selfy stick” to take one more picture with Lesley and Nathan (Lesley’s friend that lives in one of the bungalows) before she headed off.
Monday, May 7th was an exciting day for us
because we took a tour of the Great Barrier Reef! We had to wear ridiculous
looking stinger suits because of the poisonous jellyfish. Apparently, there are
jellyfish the size of your fingernail that can kill you. We erred on the side
of safety rather than fashion.
The reef was unbelievable with turtles, fish and giant
clams.
We took our tour with Pleasure Adventures (don’t mind the
name) and had a truly memorable experience.
That night we had a date night at the food court. We could pile as much food on the plate for
$14 so we loaded up and shared the plate.
After our romantic dinner we watched the huge bats in the
esplanade. These were not your average American bats. These bats weighed as
much as Leanne. Josh was infatuated with the bats.
Our time in Cairns was truly special but we were being
summoned by the world’s largest rock and it was time to move on.
Uluru, a.k.a
Ayers Rock
We made a commitment to make the trip to Uluru.
Because of it’s remote location the trip involved flights, buses and a camping
tour group. Josh had dreamed of visiting Uluru since he was 7 years old.
Uluru is the world’s largest monolith with only 10% of the rock above
ground.
We flew into Alice Springs and spent the night in a dorm
room before heading out on our tour with The Rock Tour at 6:00 am the next
morning. Josh was very proud of Leanne because she only packed her small
backpack for the 3-day camping trip. This time we remembered to bring our head
torches!
For the next 3 days the open road would take us to some of
the most beautiful places we have seen. Our tour included stops at Uluru,
Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Kings Canyon. There were 22 tour members
including our guide, Ally. We were by far the oldest members of the tour but
age doesn’t matter when you are as cool as we are.
Our Bus:
Our Tour Group:
Camping – we camped on the ground with our swag and sleeping
bag. The view of the stars was unimaginable.
We hiked around Uluru
Caught the sunset
Caught the sunrise
Hiked Kata Tjuta
Hiked Kings Canyon
Much to our surprise, wild single-humped camels roamed
freely throughout Central Australia. Australia is the only country with wild
single-humped camels. Leanne rode a camel!
We made heaps of new friends!
Wouter from Holland a.k.a Walter White
Jarvis from Hong Kong
Alice and Lucy from the U.K.
We weren’t able to take pictures with everyone. If some of
our new friends are reading this and have pictures with us please send them our
way so we can post them to the blog
We drove 1,500 kms, hike 25 kms, made countless new friends
and left a piece of our heart with the dusty road.
We spent another night in Alice Springs before hopping a
flight back to Melbourne.
Back in Melbourne
Josh’s parents picked us up from the airport that night in
Melbourne. We couldn’t wait to spend the next few days with them at their bush land
resort in Kyneton (Northwest of Melbourne).
It was our mission to show Mom a kangaroo. We made our way
to Philip Island (90 minutes southeast of Melbourne). The mission was a
success!
On Tuesday, we tackled The Great Ocean Road.
We drove 700 kms through the windy streets of beautiful
sights and sounds.
Bells Beach –
Josh was really excited about this stop because it was the location of the
final scene in Point Break. For those of you that don’t know, Point Break is
one of Josh’s favorite movies and he can quote the entire movie. Check out our
video tab for a reenactment of his favorite lines.
Cruising through the rainforest
Koalas in Otway National Park – Leanne was thrilled to see
these cuties
12 Apostles
Sunset at London Bridge
Even though the drive was long it was definitely worth the
experience.
The next few days were spent back in Melbourne. Josh’s parents dropped us off at Lesley’s
house for one last slumber party. Lesley made Pavlova (an Australian dessert
created for Anna Pavlova the Russian ballerina). Five of us devoured the entire dessert and
enjoyed lengthy conversations at the kitchen table.
Great job on the Pavlova, Lesley!
We spent Friday night watching the Footie match and saying
goodbye to our wonderful friends. Collingwood and Geelong were opponents in the
match. While we were in Cairns, Josh
decided that Collingwood would be his favorite Footie team because their mascot
is a magpie. We later found out that most people consider Collingwood fans to
be “Bogans”. A bogan is basically an Australian redneck. Josh reckons he is
part bogan anyways because he is from Texas and married to Leanne who is from
Georgia.
We feel that we did as much as we possibly could in the
month that we visited Australia. Much like North America it would be quite easy
to spend 18 months exploring Australia. Despite the fact that we are extremely
sad to leave we feel fortunate to have met so many fantastic people.
Next on the agenda: New Zealand for 26 days!
Is anyone reading this? Please leave a comment, as we would
love to hear from you all!
Thanks for following.
Cheers!
Leanne & Josh