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Articles Tagged ‘Great Barrier Reef’

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Risky business

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

(I’ve added captions to some of the pictures on smugmug. If there is a series of pics I didn’t caption all of them. I’m uploading a few more now.)

I’m sitting in a relatively cool internet cafe in Cairns right now. When I say relatively, I mean the sweat isn’t pouring off me, but just rather sticky and clammy. It is unbelievable how hot and humid it is here in Queensland, especially coming from the southern part of Australia, where it’s warm but very dry. In fact, most part of Australia are actually in a drought and screaming for rain, whereas Queensland has more moisture than they know what to do with. I have a whole day to do nothing really, as I’ve booked an overnight bus south to Airlie Beach, the departure town for my sailing trip on the Whitsundays. I’m not really looking forward to this bus ride, not only because it leaves at midnight, but also because it is 11 hours and I paid over AUS$100 for it. It was a slight shock to me, as my flight from Melbourne all the way up to Cairns was only $160. I think I got slightly ripped off, and I’ve know heard from other travelers there are other bus companies that are cheaper. It is a little bit of an adjustment coming from New Zealand, where the hostels and information centers are unbiased places where you can book transport and activities. Here, the hostels and “i centers” make commissions on their bookings, so you really don’t know if they are any good or not. Case in point was my day trip into the Atherton Tablelands yesterday. [read on]

Two coasts, two routes

Wednesday, March 1st, 2006

Happy Birthday to my sister Kendra…Hope you are having a great time in Vegas!

I took a few days extra before writing again. I’ve just spent 5 days “recuperating” in Melbourne at my friend Jane’s apartment and trying to get things sorted. I managed to upload a fair amount of photos in that time, but even on a home computer it still takes ages. I have posted them on my smugmug, and was going to transfer some on to here, but still haven’t found the time. I also haven’t put captions on any pics yet, so you might not know exactly what you are looking at. But since you all just miss seeing my face, it will do you just fine. Here is my website on smugmug. Smugmughomepage It will be about the first 3-4 weeks in NZ and the first two weeks that I spent in Oz for NYE. Also my going away party is on there as well. I’ll have to try and be more picky about which photos to keep and to upload in the future, as I didn’t delete enough from my camera and some just aren’t that great. But it’s all a learning process so bear with me.

[read on]