Queensland
Queensland.
After the three-week odyssey in Melbourne, I had to move on with my travels. Reluctantly, I packed my bags and divided everything I owned into two piles—one that was to go with me for the next 11 months, and one that I was to send home. See, after less than a month I knew I had brought too much stuff with me. Clothes, moisturizers, hair products, warm weather gear, cold weather gear, tops, bottoms, middles, shoes, shorts—in short I halved everything and put it in my carry on and sent it on a boat home, leaving me with a (still too) heavy backpack and smaller bag for my laptop and various electronics. So, I had my sad goodbyes with Juzzy and the household, and had a last dinner with Cleary, enjoying her kangaroo sirloin salad before I flew to Cairns in the morning.
I had decided since I had spent so much time enjoying Melbourne, and since it had been expensive to boot, I would do a whistle stop tour of Queensland and see as much as possible from Cairns to Brisbane—not my favorite thing to do when seeing the sights but in this case it was my only option if I wanted meaningful time in Asia. I left myself less than two weeks until I flew out of Brisbane to Singapore, and I literally flew down the coast. First thing in Cairns I knew what I had heard on the road in Oz was true—Cairns, while a jump off point to the Great Barrier Reef, is a piece of shit tourist trap. There are three types of business in Cairns vying for your money—tour operators, restaurants and bars, and sometimes if you are lucky you can go to one place and satisfies all three needs in one. And it is filled with drunken English Irish and German folk in between dives or short terms jobs and, bless ‘em, I got tired of the “Oz backpacker scene” real quick. Starting off my trip staying with friends was fantastic but spoiled me for my life on the road, and as I look back on it now I know how good I had it. So, I took one quick island trip to the fringe of The Reef and then booked it Mackay on a little twin prop for my favorite part of my Queensland experience—sailing.
Airlie beach is definitely another tourist trap but I booked a trip as soon as possible upon getting in and spent two days and two nights out in the Whitsunday Islands and it was amazing. Even though we were still in the tail end of the colder months It was still warm enough to go about in shorts and t shirts, even though we dove and snorkeled in wet suits it was still beautiful, especially at night under the stars when we moored in the bays of the some 74 islands that dot the coast off Airlie. The crew, a crazy mix of Aussie, Canadian and English were all young and obviously loved the ocean and their jobs, and with a good group of passengers as well we all had a great time in the water, seeing the pretty coral and fishies, going to the draw droppingly beautiful Whitehaven beach, a 3 km stretch of shifting white sands and turquoise waters, and eating and drinking on the boat at night.
After sailing I was tapped and needed to get to the cheap shores of Asia, so I spent a quick weekend in Brisbane, and with the exception of a nice day out at the Koala Sanctuary where I cuddled koalas, fed kangaroos and watched Aussie sheepdogs in actions, I chilled out and caught a 10 hour flight out of Oz to Singapore to begin my second leg of my trip. All in all Australia was great, but I had too little time, money and patience to fully explore it—I never made it inland, to the Western Coast, or even out of a major city. I think when I return I want to do at least 3-6 months taking my time in the country and I definitely want to return to Melbourne as it is now one of my favorite cities; officially.
Tags: Travel
