The first two weeks in Aus!

Hey Everyone!!

Hope all is well in the northern hemisphere, it is incredible down here.... I have only been in Aus for two weeks but I have been having sooooo much fun, I have done a ton of things and each day has been such an adventure.....

I started my journey in Cairns, spent 3 days there. Cairns is in Queensland on the North East Coast of Australia. My flight was really long 24 plus hours so I needed to chill and decided to go to a yoga class.... I thought that would give me a good stretch and a chance to relax... on my way there I thought I'd cross this field as a short cut however I ended up getting chased off the field by these birds that were nose diving me. Instead of being chill and relaxed I thought I was going to be pecked to death.... I did manage to survive without a scratch, apparently these birds do it all the time to people, its crazy...

One day I went to the zoo in cairns, got to hug a Koala Bear, totally cute, I mailed Garret the tourist photo I got when I hugged the Koala bear. The is also a photo in the slideshow application on this blog. I couldn't resist the Koala Hug, Koalas are so cut and cuddly.... I also held a small crocodile (with its mouth taped shut) and I attempted to touch a snake but I just didn't have it in me....

Cairns is a big city so I kind out wanted to get out of there fast... So I went to a small town north of Cairns to Port Douglas,, very quaint, and ritzy, it took all my will not to spend my travel money on the beautiful clothes and jewllery there.

I had my first chance out on the Great barrier Reef there, it was just a day trip with three dives, not bad scuba diving, but not totally impressive... I took seasickness tabs in hopes to keep my breakfast down but unfortunately it didn't do the trick, my breakfst came up fast, but then I felt great, this trip was the prep trip for the liveaboard I signed up for... I'll tell you about that in a minute.... While in Port Douglas I walked along 4 mile beach, this girl and I despartely tried to get a coconut from a Palm tree for a good hour, no luck, we ended up stealing one from the ground.... One night I went out on a local sunset sailing night, had a beautiful night out on the boat, I befriended a local 22 year old living on his Granddads boat, he had a crab trap set and said he was sick of eating crab, so I happily took some off his hands.... delicious!

I continued to travel North to Mossman Gorge, a great swimming spot also a World heritage Site, continued to the Daintree national Park another World Heritage site.....I stayed in a place called Cape Tribulation... its were the Tropical Rainforest meets the Coral Sea... I learned about the variety of rainforests this national Park has within one rainforest.... In the guide book it says the Wet tropics World Heritage Area covers 0.01% of Australias surface area but has 36% of all mammal species, 50% of all bird specieces, around 60% of all butterfly species and 65% of the fern species..... extremely beautiful.... My stay in Cape Tribulation was filled with walks through the rainforest and beach, finding the local swimming holes and going on an exotic fruit tasting class.... spectacular..... My favorite fruit was one called Rollinia, it was white slimy, delicious custard like fruit.... On one of the hikes my guide jumped at one point and yelled snake, you know when your 40 year old Aussie guide jumps and yells snake, there must be danger.... I moved quite quickly.... what happened was this frog had jumped towards him because the frog was being chased by a brown snake, the snaked literally jumped 5 feet to catch this frog, the frog died within 30 secs and the guide told us it was a venamous snake.... gross but cool all at the same time....

Finally made it back to Cairns and jumped on a liveaboard ship for 4 days and 3 nights, my plan was to work on this boat as housekeeper, dishwasher, basically the boats bitch.... whatever it took so that I could dive at least twice a day.... well it was far better than I expected and although I worked, it wasn't hard work, just busy work and I managed to convince them to let me stay an extra night.... so I spent 5 days and 4 nights, all my meals, accomadations and diving included..... I got 15 dives in, my confidence with diving went way up... The reefs this boat took us to far exceeded my expectations and far exceded the diving I did in Port Douglas..... the diving was incredicle... I can't even explain the reef and wildlife under the sea along the Great Barrier Reef, it is just absolutely spectacular..... I saw sharks, and a crazy mount of beautiful fish... cute sea turtles, just unreal.... one dive, my dive partner and I got taken a little farther than we expected with the current, and well we needed to get the little motor boat come out and get us, we were maybe 200 meters from them boat... opps overshot my landmark I guess... had a good laugh about it....

The video of the shark dive was taken just before the night dive, its all good though, they are grey reef sharks so no threat to humans....

I just got off the boat, and am going to head south tomorrow to do another dive, its a Wreck Dive, supposed to be Australias number one dive and one of top ten in the world.....

Hope you have fun reading the blog and sharing it with friends... Have a beautiful Day!! Jamie