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Brisbane

After a one day stop in the Glass House Mountains with some rainy weather and limited hiking as well as a half day at Australia Zoo, we arrived in Brisy (as the locals call Brisbane) yesterday. We returned the camper that was our home for the last 3 weeks and are spending our first night in a hotel in a long time. Ahhhhhh... a real bed for once... not a camper, not a tent, not a sailing boat! :)

We have to admit, once in a while it's nice to be in a big city. We spent the better part of today strolling past gardens, visiting museums, and enjoying a cup of iced coffee... considering the hot and steamy temperatures. 2nite we are planning an excursion into the Fortitude Valley, one of the fine restaurant districts of Brisy, and possibly a movie after. You have to enjoy civilization while it lasts - in a couple of days it's back 2 the outback.

2morrow our flight to Alice Springs leaves early in the morning and we'll be picking up a 4WD to explore the Outback of Australia. The plan is to do some hiking in the West MacDonald Ranges, then cruise on to Kings Canyon, via back roads on to Ayers Rock and the Olgas only to return after a short 8 days for the flight onto Auckland, New Zealand via Sydney. More as the adventures unfold :)

Rockhampton - Bundaberg - Maryborough - Rainbow Beach

The last couple of days have been spent travelling further down the east coast towards Rainbow Beach. We stopped south of Rockhampton and decided to camp in the wild instead of finding a campsite. This turned out to be a mistake as we found out the next morning after a goodnights worth of rain. Our camper was stuck on the side of the road and the more we tried to get it out, the more it burried itself in mud! Luckely, a farmer driving by noticed our troubles and said that he would go get a tractor to pull us out. Within 15 minutes he was back with another mate, they attached a long chain and pulled the sorry little camper out of the mud within minutes. What friendly people and angels we had all around us!

We spent the afternoon in Bundaberg, where the famous Australian Rum originates. Anja had another session with a Chiropractic and I visited the Rum distillery just outside of town with two samples at the end :) We continued on the the beautiful town of Maryborough where we spent the night and visited the city this morning. Next it's on to Rainbow Beach where we will embark on a 3-day tour to Fraser Island. We will be driving a 4WD through the biggest sand Island of the world where freshwater lakes and rivers exist in abundance.

Sailing the Whitsunday Islands

We just got back from an amazing sailing tour around the Whitsunday Islands. Sunday evening around 18:30 a group of exclusively Europeans (2 Belgians, 2 Dutch, 4 Germans, and this strange Swiss couple) boarded the Madison, a 16 meter Yacht, in Airley Beach Marina. The skipper Robbie (an American) and the Deckhands Bryony (England) were a wonderful team, briefing us on the safety, trip, and other essentials. Robbie customized the 3 day sailing trip after each one of us had an opportunity to share with the group what they expected! We set sail around 20:00 and and after about 1.5 h under an almost full-moon which illuminated all of the islands around us, we anchored in a cozy bay off of Hook Island (pretty much straight east from Airley Beach). After some snacks and stimulating conversation we hit the bunks around midnight.

The next morning we got up at 5:00 to catch a beautiful sun rising over the pacific waters as we sailed approximately 3 hours to Bait Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef. We were fortunate to be able to meet up with a diving boat and 6 of our group including myself went scuba diving while the rest did some wonderful snorkeling. I wish I had an underwater camera to share the amazing world below the surface with you guys... but its something you just have to experience... it's like visiting a different planet. After lunch, there was more time for snorkeling before we had to head back toward the Whitsundays to arrive before dark.

Yesterday we got up around 6:00 to more beautiful weather and visited world-famous Whitehaven beach. The sand is said to be almost 95% quarts and is so fine that it will scratch your glasses, ruin your camera and get into every possible place you can imagine. We spent the morning enjoying the turquois colors, due to the refraction of the light within the water containing these same crystals and headed back on board for lunch. Then we sailed on thru the Solway Passage and anchored near yet another picture perfect beach. The sand here was so fine that your feet sqweakt when you walk on it (kinda like snow in Minnesota at -20 C). We swam back to the boat and had a full-moon evening with conversation carrying on until 23:30.

Today we got up around 6:00 and sailed around the southern-most tip of the Whitsunday Island, just north of Hamilton Island and back around the western shore of the Island past Cid Island and Harbor before anchoring in another bay of Hook island. Here we snorkeled and swam enjoying the warm tropical waters. Before we knew it we were on our way back to Airley Beach. Slow sailing without motor took us past North Molle Island at 4 kts before arriving back in Airley beach around 14:45. Anja is currently seeing a chiropractic because her Ischias Nerve is bothering her in her left leg. Hopefully they will be able to fix her up so we can enjoy our next destination: Fraser Island.

Magnetic Island

The ferry departed Townsville at 7:40am and after a short 35 minutes we arrived in Nelly Bay on beautiful Magnetic Island. We bought some lunch and hopped on a bus that took us to the northeastern part of the island. From there we hiked approximately 11km total visiting various bays. Since we were the almost the only people on the beach we didn't miss the opportunity to skinny dip (Pictures will NOT be available).

Of Arthur, Florence, Radical and Baldin Bay we liked Radical the most and spent the afternoon swimming and sun-bathing. On the way back we hitch-hiked and treated ourselves to a drink in Arcadia before catching the ferry back to the mainland at sunset.

What a beautiful day it has been... we can't say enough how priviledged we feel to have the opportunity to travel around this beautiful. We thank the Lord everyday for all the miracles and think of all the people who are less fortunate!

Wallaman Falls and Townsville

Yesterday we took a detour inland to the Wallaman waterfalls (largest vertical drop, 268m, within Australia). We hiked down to the base of the falls and I went for a swim while Anja was scared because some bloke told her that there were eels and prawns in the 20m deep pool. Oh well, missed out on a fantastic refreshment :) After a 35 min steep climb back to the rim of the canyon we drove back to the coast and set up camp south of Ingham enjoying potatoes and sour cream for dinner in our cozy little camper van.

Today we continued south and arrived in Townsville around 11am. After checking out the town and deciding not to visit the pricy ReefHQ Aquarium, we got information about how to reach Magnetic Island which we will be exploring 2morrow.

Tablelands

Yesterday we cruised through the tablelands east of Cairns. The countryside reminded us a lot of Switzerland with the rolling hills, the cows, and the termite hills (okay, maybe not the termite hills). We stopped at a coffee processing plant for a refreshing iced coffee and latte and it was interesting to compare it with the coffee tour that we took in Costa Rica. In the evening we camped in a cute little village called Milla-milla in the midst of frog quacks and ear-deafening crickets.

Today we followed a road that is called the Waterfall Circuit. Within a couple kilometers of each other we saw three different waterfalls set within the tropical rainforest of northeastern Queensland. We also attempted a small hike but had to turn around due to some really annoying bugs/flies (sandflies?) that were eating us alive. We are currently in Innisfail, back on the east coast, and will be heading south towards Townsville and Mission Beach.

Great Barrier Reef - Cape Tribulation

Yesterday we had a picture perfect day on the Great Barrier Reef. We booked a catamaran sail boat to take the 1.5h cruise out to the Reef. Out on the reef it was my first ever Scuba diving experience... and what a blast it was. The underwater world is amazing. I was able to do two 30 minute dives to about 12m depth. Anja stayed at the surface snorkling, still nursing a slight cold. Although, she was able to shadow me for the entire length from the surface. The corals are out-of-this-world beautiful, all shapes and colors that you could possibly imagine and more. We also saw baby sharks, trumpet fish, and millions of various colored fish. It was an experience that we won't forget!

We returned to the mainland around 5pm and were shuttled back to our campground. There we enjoyed the last rays of sunlight on the beach, exersicing pilates and jogging for 20 min. Finally, we ended the day with a large portion (yes, portion) of spaghetti. Today we are heading south through the tablelands a ways inward from the east coast. (Pictures will follow since I am currently enjoying a 24.4 kbps connection :)

Cairns and Umgebung

Yesterday we flew from Sydney up to Cairns on the east coast of Australia. We picked up our Camper and were on the road by 5 pm. After a brief stop at a grocery store, where we picked up the essentials, we continued along the coast north to Palm Cove, where the campground was already closed and forcefully on to Ellis Beach... a beautiful campsite right on the coast under Palmtrees with Pool and all. We were too tired (still jetlaged) to cook a real meal and settled for yes, you guessed it, Bread and Cheese! After reconfiguring the back of the camper we fell sound asleep for a straight 8 hours.

This morning we got up around 6, and after breakfast went for a swim in the chilly Pacific Ocean... it was marvelously refreshing. We are currently in Port Douglas and are continuing up to Cape Tribulation where we plan on doing some serious relaxing. Maybe we'll hire a tour out to the Great Barrier Reef for some snorkeling... we'll see.

Sydney

We touched down early this morning after a 14h flight from LAX. The spring-like weather greeted us with much sunshine and temperatures in the mid 20s Celsius. We checked into our hotel around 9 and started our tour of Sydney by foot. What a beautiful city with all the bays, ships, modern buildings glistening in the wide skies of down-under.

2morrow we fly out to Cairns and start our 4 week drive along the east coast of the continent with a camper.

Cusco - Lima - San Jose - LAX

We are back in the U.S. for just one short day. The flight from Cusco Peru via Lima and San Jose, Costa Rica were long but went without much of a glitch except for a missed approach and go-around in San Jose. The weather was really bad and we circled for 30 minutes to wait for weather conditions to improve.

Back in the U.S. we waited 1 hour at immigrations... talk about a 1st world country!!! :( We managed to get to our Hotel close by the airport around 1am, showered and fell into bed.

Today we slept in until 9am and will be sending souvenirs home from South America. Maybe we will have time to visit Universal Studios or downtown L.A. We'll see. 2nite our flight to Sydney leaves at 22:50 and we arrive in Sydney on Wednesday morning (14h later) across the dateline.