Aussie Adventures

Our travel day started at 3am today… thankfully this is our last crazy early flight of the trip (I think). We arrived in Sydney in time to catch second breakfast at our hotel before hitting the town. Our plan was to head to the harbor to see the main attractions, but if you know us, we often just keep walking and see more than expected. By the time we finished our 28,780 steps (13 miles) had taken us all around the city. 

We started at Darling Harbour, wandered through Millers Point, over to the Rocks for our first view of the famous Sydney Opera House, followed by a stroll through the main Harbour. We toured the outside of the Opera House and ambled through the Botanic Gardens before making our way back into the city to find Nemo at P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. One of our favorite parts was viewing all of the different birds in the park and throughout the city. The colorful parrots were our favorite! 

Continuing our walk, we passed through the shopping district and over to Chinatown where we ended the day dining on some delectable soup dumplings.

We took to the waters today to see the sights from a different angle. Our first ferry departed from the city center and took us to Watson Bay. We walked along the costal trail to Hornby Lighthouse, a historic candy cane lighthouse, and as we rounded the corner for the view we were greeted with scaffolding and a covered lighthouse… it was Big Ben all over again! Such is life. We continued on and made our way to a second look out where we watched the waves crash against the rocks and tried to find some whales in the distance. It’s the start of whale season so there’s a chance we’ll see some, but not today. We ended our time in Watson Bay digging in to some famous Fish & Chips at Doyle’s, open since 1885! 

From Watson Bay, we caught another ferry to Manly Harbour and strolled along the shore to Shelly Beach. On the walk, we saw a foot long water dragon (lizard) skitter by, I think it was as startled as we were! 

We laid out our towels and settled in, soaking up some sun and watching the wild turkeys explore the beach-goers bags. We saw one turkey kick over a bag and another grab a bag of Doritos before we could shoo them away. We dipped our toes in the water but it was too chilly for a full swim (at least for these two non-coastals). 

Back in Sydney, we strolled around the Harbour and The Rocks. We enjoyed wood-fired pizza for dinner and then headed back to our hotel. We were in bed by 9pm! This trip may finally turn us into morning people… 

On our last morning in Sydney, we caught the bus to Bondi Beach and strolled along another stunning coastal path. It was the perfect way to spend a weekday morning. The walk was beautiful, the surfers were entertaining, and the temperature was superb. If it was a bit warmer, we would have considered dipping into the beach baths or playing in the ocean waves, but we’ll save that for one of our summer destinations, it is fall here after all. For lunch we found one of our favorite beach foods… açaí bowls! We first had them in Hawaii and they’ve been a favorite ever since. Yummy!

We only had one major item left on our list once we arrived back in Sydney and that was to walk along the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We took in the famous views yet again (how many different angles can we see it?) and marveled at the sheer size of the bridge and cruise liner below. We timed our departure perfectly, and found a secret path back to the main digs to watch the sunset across the harbour. 

On our walk out of the park we saw the infamous flying fox, aka massive bats, swooping above us. Their wingspan can reach 3 feet and I believe it! I knew they wouldn’t bother us, but it was still a little eerie watching them swoop out of a tree and soar through the sky. 

So far Australia is holding up to its reputation of having formidable wildlife. We’ve seen big spiders, big lizards, and big bats! We’re hoping to avoid big snakes and big sharks at our next stop.

We left Sydney, and arrived in Port Douglas on Friday afternoon and were greeted by tree-fulls of cockatoos. They were really fun to watch, but boy were they noisy! We strolled around the beach town, took a peek at Dickson Inlet, grabbed some Thai to go, and enjoyed a sunset picnic by the water. If you haven’t realized this yet, I love sunsets! :) 

We have many things to look forward to on this three month trip, and today was one excursion we were super excited about… a tour of the Great Barrier Reef! Jeff had two scuba dives booked and I opted for snorkeling. After puncturing my ear drum in March, I figured it would be best to let my ear continue to heal and stick to swimming on the surface. Both were incredible experiences, so much so that Jeff added a third dive to his day instead of changing to snorkeling. 

Luckily the weather cooperated and the rain stayed away for the most part, but the ride to and from the reef was quite choppy. We had emergency ginger tablets, but after multiple onboard announcements prior to our departure, and our table mates recommending the anti-nausea pills (they were on the same scuba trip the day before), we opted to take the pills just in case. The meds did the trick and thankfully neither of us felt sick. There were some unfortunate souls who didn’t fare so well… the swells were crazy splashing to the second floor of the catamaran. 

One of my favorite things about scuba diving/snorkeling is that above the water, on the surface, everything is quiet and rather boring, but once you stick your head under water, you’re welcomed into a whole new colorful, lively world and you never know what you might see. In our case, there were massive clams, colorful coral, and SO many fish. Our favorites were the bright blue parrot fish, the trumpet fish, the clown fish (aka Nemo), and the massive humphead maori wrasse (massive meaning a minimum of 3 feet long) , but I also loved the schools of fish swimming right around me. Some were small 2-3 inch fish, others were 6-8 inches with 20+ fish in the school just gliding by. 

But the best part was that both Jeff and I saw sharks! I saw a white tip reef shark on our third stop. It appeared from behind the coral and swam right by me. I snapped a blurry photo, popped my head up to see if anyone was around so they could see it too, but no one was close, so I quickly dipped my head back under water and watched the little guy glide away to the safety of the shallow reef. It was so cool! 

Jeff was even luckier as he saw a 3-foot sea turtle and two sharks on his dives. One was a white tip reef shark and one a grey reef shark, both were around 4 feet long! (Photo credit of the non-blurry sharks, turtle, and fish goes to the dive boat). 

Our Great Barrier Reef tour was definitely a highlight of our time in Australia! It was another thing we’ve dreamed of doing, and it’s incredible that we actually did it! We’d love to come back and do it again!

During our time in Port Douglas, we went from the ocean to the oldest rainforest in the world! We opted for a tour that started in the park verses the popular small group tour and it paid off. The Hewett’s live in Daintree and own ~180 acres of rainforest. Angie was our tour guide for the day and her knowledge of the rainforest and 4,000 plant species was absolutely incredible. 

Before starting the tour, and on our way back from the picturesque outhouse, we got our first glimpse of what creatures live hidden in this forest… except this one wasn’t hidden… It was hanging out between two pillars on the Hewett’s deck. There sitting chest level was a spider the size of our hand! It. Was. Massive, like minimum 6 inch leg span. Angie casually pointed out the different parts of the spider and pulled on the web to show us the strength of the silk. She then proceeded to tell us that this spider had recently had her second set of babies, showed us the old egg sac, and informed us that this lady was on her third sac which could hatch any time… how this translated to us was, “There are hundreds of giant spiders lurking about”. The only reassurance was that this species is not harmful to humans. As Angie put it, she could pick it up and move it. Her husband had already picked it up once and moved it after the spider formed its web in front of their bedroom door… imagine waking up to that thing every day…

Moving on from that beast, we began our walk and as we entered into the forest, Angie stopped to point out a hidden huntsman spider. I’ve heard of giant huntsman before, but thankfully this little gal was only about the size of a quarter. However, she was insanely camouflaged due to her hair. Can you find her in the picture? As Angie was pointing out the spider, she told us this is why you don’t lean up against anything or touch anything in the rainforest. You never know what might be hiding… venomous spiders, a spider disguised as bird poop (yes there’s such a thing), pythons and other snakes, poisonous mucus on plant leaves, spiny needles you don’t want in your skin, you know, all the usuals… let’s just say we didn’t touch a thing in that forest and we definitely didn’t taste test anything. 

As we wandered further into the forest, we began wondering what we were getting into, but at the same time it was absolutely amazing and so fascinating. Where else do you get to see a tree that’s 1,500 years old or another tree that was shorter than us but 200 years old? 

Angie continued teaching us about this incredible ecosystem, and we continued to be awestruck by our surroundings. We learned about plants that contain cyanide, some that have fruits that you can eat the flesh but the seeds can kill you, and anther fruit that if consumed will stop your heart within 6 hours… Other plants were just fascinating. Did you know there are plants that literally explode to disperse their seeds? Or plants that heat up so the bugs will leave the male cone and travel to the female cone and vice versa in order to spread their pollen? There are also trees that grow buttresses to trap leaves around them so they have a continuous stream of nutrients. And there are birds that fly from New Guinea to build their nest in the termite mounds. The termite mounds keeps the bird’s nest “air conditioned” and temperature controlled while the little ones hatch. And another tree releases a chemical that tells a beetle to come hollow it out so that a colony of ants can come live in the tree and those ants create a barrier so fungi can’t grow on the tree? It’s simply amazing (or maybe I should say it’s complex and amazing). I love discovering gems during our travels, and our tour today was definitely a great discovery! 

Two other incredible things we saw on our tour were a little wallaby and a Casawary bird. Cassowaries are large, colorful, flightless bird that look completely made up (nice find Jeff!). They’re really neat birds! (Keep scrolling and you’ll see better pic of the bird further down).

Following the guided tour, we were originally planning to stroll through the forest along some public trials, but after learning about all of the dangerous plants and creatures residing in there, we opted to skip the walk and instead took a crocodile cruise down the Daintree river. It somehow felt a little safer… 

We saw three salt water crocs on our tour with the biggest being ~50 years old and measuring ~9 feet. We also saw a “rare sighting” according to our guide and thanks to my eagle eyes. This little creature was ~3 years old and about 3 feet long, which is apparently snacking size for the big crocs, especially when they’re defending their territory. We also saw three bright green tree frogs tucked in the rafters of our boat. 

On Monday, we grabbed a coffee and strolled along Four Mile Beach, what a great way to start a Monday! We also stopped at the recommended Wildlife Habitat on our way out of Port Douglas. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it ended up being one of our favorite stops in Australia because we got to pet and feed kangaroos! They were absolutely adorable and so soft. The Wildlife Habitat as a whole was a really neat place. It utilized open enclosures where you can see lizards run by your feet, birds flying freely (one befriended Jeff), koalas chilling in the trees, kangaroos and wallabies hopping around, and an emu strolling the paths just like us. The only animals in their own enclosures were the creepy crawlers, the crocodiles, and the two cassowaries. We spent more time than we expected admiring all of the creatures in the habitat. 

Or second stop on our way to Cairns was Ellis Beach for another stroll by the water. Not that we were thinking about it, but there was no swimming allowed today. The red flags were up and the swim net that helps protect from stingers was pulled in. That was fine by us! Our simple stroll was just perfect. 

Our day in a half in Cairns were designated as rest days, and that’s what we did. We took it easy strolling along the wharf and through the city and lazing by the pool. We sampled our first Vietnamese coffee and are looking forward to more of that in a week! And we ate the best fish and chips at Hemingway’s Brewery, I’ll be dreaming of those for years to come! 

It was a great end to our time in Australia and the perfect chance to rest up before our nonstop travels through Asia!