Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort

Well this is the last leg of the journey, it has been a great and tiresome trip so finally we are going to sit back and do nothing (no tours with duncan - see kuranda post) but sit on the beach and enjoy the last few days before we have to go back to reality.

WE arrived in brisbane and headed towards the jetty to take the 1:15 ferry ride to the island. We arrived and saw pelicans being feed and the sun was beating down on us, on the second largest sand island in the world. There was nothing but ocean, sand and trees on the island. We were guided around the resort and then went to check in at 12:00, well we were told that our room would be ready in 30 minutes, which actually meant 3 hours. And me being the ever patient one, took it all in stride and went with the flow... okay i might have raised my voice a little and the guy behind the counter as he never made eye contact with me EVER again. Oh well we sat and enjoyed a pint of australias finest - Tooheys new - lager so take away some of the frustration.

When we finally got into our room we changed and went right to the beach and went swimming. After this we went and looked at where we wanted to eat, and then thought we had better just get a pizza unless we wanted to take out a second mortgage for dinner everynight. So Pizza and beer it was (at least is was happy hour, which only lasted 30 minutes... crazy aussies) but the two jugs we had went down smooth as we watch a beautiful sunset over the bay.

The next day we went snorkling where there were old whaling boats scuttled, we didnt last long as the current was likely to carry us all the way back to canada a few days early. I tried swimming (no flippers) as hard as i could to see how far i would get, only to look up and realize i was in the exact same spot. So it took most of our energy just to get to the wrecks and back with the flippers. The rest of the day we spent on the beach and swimming in the pool.

Over the next few days we played teniis everyday ( but only lasted an hour or so before heat exhaustion took over) and then headed to the pool and beach. One day katie spotted a whole mit full of giant starfish and the next day i snorkled over the sting ray infested waters, which we later would walk in at low tide. The sting rays are almost impossible to see excpet for there black eyes in the sand, a few times i was almost impaled by the stinger, but not in the heart so no worries.

The last night we were there, we took the opportunity to go and fed the wild dolphins. This was wuite neat as we are instructed as to what to do, and then everynight the sunset brings anywhere from 5-10 bottle nose dolphins into the shores. The marine biologists bring us waist deep into the water where we had the chance to hand feed "Echo" three fish each. It was neat to see the playful side and wild side of these creatures. They do this everynight, but only feed them abot 10% of their diet and dont allow them to be touched to keep the wild.

After this headed to sydney for our long flight home, but not before a 7 hour lay over in the brisbane airport. We had dinner with sandra and steve once again and then at 8:20 down under on march 24 we ended the trip and started the 18 hour flight home. It was sad to leave and was the trip of a lifetime, when we got home we had been awake for 36 hours before we went to bed and had celebrated Chris' birthday March 24 for 48 hours. So at least we got the day back that we lost on the way there.

Kuranda and Rainforestation

We went to the little town in the mountains just north of cairns. I believe it was started as an aboriginal city and now they have a very scenic skyrail that takes you up the mountains to the city. It takes 45 minutes and you need to transfer twice to other gondolas. It is amazing how high you are and the dense green canopy of the rainforest below. The other way to get u p to the city is to take the train, which i have remember from 1990 as being very scenic, however, there was a mudslide 2 months before we arrived and the train hasnt run since due to the clean up efforts. (again everything here is dangerous).

We stopped at both the places to transfer and took a walk along the board walk to see the different trees and view. At the first one there was a cool stick bug which is almost impossible to see as it looks like, you guessed it, a stick (imagine that). Then we stopped at the second place and walked to the lookout to see the barron falls. These are the falls that start well above the city and work there way down. The water was thundering over the rocks and it was very neat to see.

In Kuranda we walked around and looked in the shops and vertured the city in search of the market. Once we were there we browsed a few items and found a "local" artist that actually hailed from calgary. It was neat to see how far people come to see and evetually stay in this country. We had lunch at a little german bistro (of course beer) and then headed to our booked Rainforestation tours which is where it turns funny/weird (at least sort of)

At the first tour we were greeted by this crazy bloke named duncan. He was a Steve Irwin wanna be and was right away loud and abnoxiuos, and unfortunately for us there we only two other people with us, Pommies (british people). We were supposed to be treated to this wildlife tour which consisted of a few koalas, one giant croc named larry, a few snakes and lizards and that was about all she wrote. During this "amazing tour" the four of us were man handled by Ste... er Duncan as he had no idea about personal space, more so with the women than with me. I sat back and was ammused by the looks that katie kept giving him and saw how she tried to keep moving but was ultimatley cornered everytime. So not only did the wildelife park suck, but i paid to have my wife felt up... :) and to top it all off, he knows our names and is coming to calgary this year, saying that he is going to look us up and stay with us... ahhhh the memories, well i laughed about it.

Then we went on the next great tour.... riiiigghhhhttt. It was called the army duck tour and basically we went through a tiny part of rainforest which we had see earlier, (see daintree post) in an old WWII vehicle that was built by all women in Michigan for the war efforts. They were big open rood trucks that looked like big aluminum boats, because they also floated and were boats. So that was alright, but nothing special. Again the dutch in me thinks about paying twice to see the same thing... once again contributing to the whoops we are idoits fund we have been keeping track of - sa far up near $800 or so- on the trip thus far.

After these "fantastic tours" we headed back down on the skyrail again and headed back to town. This time there was now rain so we headed into the city and looked for some open shops or anything, well it seems that a vast majority of shops close a little early and we missed most of them. So after a few too many pints (st patty's day after all) we headed back to the hotel and got ready to fly out to Brisbane.

Great Barrier Reef: Calypso

This was the second day in a row of diving. We headed out early in the morning to Port Douglas, 30 minutes north of Cairns. It was dreary yet like all the others days, very hot and humid. We arrived and went to the dock to board the boat, when we arrived we were informed that it was going to be a small group going out that day, only 1 other diver and the instructor. The best part was that we were all certified so that we would not have the same experience of the previous day (see Tusa dive). The trip to the outer reef was again an hour and a half and this day quite rough and choppy, it is a good thing that neither one of us gets sea sick.

Once we arrived at the dive site, called Opal reef, we suited up and began the first of three dives at the "split bommie". We went with our guide marty and another katie and were on our way to 60' below the surface. This reef today seemed much more vibrant and colorful and more what i think both of us were expecting. The fish were everywhere and there was coral of all shapes and sizes. Even though the sun was not shining, the color and water seemed more blue and clear today, right away we were treated to some parrot fish, sea cucumbers, feather starfish and even a whaler shark! The most interesting thing that we saw on this dive was the "nudi branch". in essence it is a sea slug, but the color and difference from each one to the next it amazing. They are only about and inch long and when the swim, they flutter through the water, with their color being their fingerprint. The size and the fact that they like to hide in small places makes them hard to find, but marty knew where to look at snatched a few here and there for us to see. The rest of the dive was just as great with katie and I just in awe and trying to take it all in. We were down for around 50 minutes because we had the larger tanks which was much nicer as we could take in more of the beauty.

Once we headed back up to the surface, we were surpised by the weather. It was still the same as before, but underwater we could have swon that the sun was shining. WE jumped back on the boat, waited for the snorklers to finish up and were off to the next site. We arrived in about 10 minutes and after a coffee to warm up, some water to hydrate we were back on the end of the boat and decending to the depths again. This site was called "Blue Boy" and like all the sites today was all part of the huge Opal reef. Once on the ocean floor we swam towards the larger reef, and passed some small clumps of reef around 3 x 3 x 3 total, but the amount of life on these small areas of coral was amazing! Sea slugs, starfish, sea cucumbers, anemonie's, clown fish, chromus ish, and that isnt even the coral.

At one point Marty was pointing out another nudi branch when we saw a lion fish, very pretty but also deadly. Suffice it to say, we were very careful around the lion fish and as we were observing this, the other katie pointed out a shark just a little ways off. This time we were able to follow the shark, which was a white tipped reef shark, and at one point marty told us to stay put and he took off... moments later the shark was speeding towards us and at one point was within arms length of me and swam right under katie. Up close and personal with a shark is something that was very thrilling and we loved it. It was about 6 feet long and beautiful, the way it glided through the water, when it swim by us i looked at the shark dead in the eye and almost could feel him telling me to "Bugger off mate, this is my turf and i just want to relax". After this we saw a lot more coral and fish, but our minds were on the shark and how cool that was!! Again we headed to the surface from about 50' down and 50 minutes.

Once we were on the boat, we had lunch and we talked about how we thought the first dive couldnt be topped and it was, and how was this last dive going to be topped... it would prove out to be topped yet again, and it started with the entry.
Instead of a regular entry off the big boat, we agreed that it would be a neat and fun thing to take a little dingy out into the ocean and do a a reverese roll entry, when you sit on the edge of the boat and rool backwards into the water. So this is what we did, and then we headed again to the depths and started our swim back to the boat way off in the distance, we truly were onn the endge on the continental shelf, with the deeps depths of the unknow just a little further out to sea. Once we descended we began our dive at "The Wedge" which katie prefers now to call "The thriller" as it was a rush from start to finish. This dive was not going to be an easy dive, the closer to truly open OPEN water you get, the more the tide and current comes into play. OUr previous two dives were within the protection of the Opal reef, this dive was on the unprotected and most outer part of Opal reef. Right away we could all feel the power of the water around us and the current pulled us in every direction possible, i thought to myself "this is what diving is all about" like the other dives, we were treated to something special right away. Katie spotted a blue spotted lagoon ray. It was about 1 meter in diameter and very timid, it was just sitting in the stag coral and the bright blue was so vibrant and beautiful, the beauty that God has come up with has astounded us this day. We were looking at the ray for quite a while when we realized that katie and i were alone... not the best place to find yourself in the middle of the ocean, but we were able to look around and find the other katie and marty and catch up fairly quick.

Along the wayfor the rest of the dive, we were treated to some very brilliantly colored giant clams, that are so fat if you put you hand in them, they cant close all the way, and when they say giant, they mean giant, about 1-2 meters are some of the sizes of them. ONce we touched them, they feel almost like velvet and not slimy at all. At one point, the current was so strong that we all had to time our entry into a swim through, and as we all went through, the water pushed us forward then pulled us back, but we all made it through. and just when we were patting ourselves on the back and thinking this cant get any better... it did!! We were almost back at the boat and could see some of the snorklers way above us on the surface when marty gave us the "REALLY REALLY COOL" hand signal. Well we rushed over and saw one of the top 5 things that we wanted to see, a giant Green sea turtle. It was just eating and picking at the coral and didnt even bother with us. We went right up to it and felt the shell and felt the flippers. It was so graceful and just awesome. The way that it swam and did everything with so little effort, and we had just exhausted ourselves to get back to the boat, left me in awe. The four of us just hovered there for a long time and watched our new friend "crush". We would have stayed down all day had we not been limited by the amount of air we had left, and the fact that we still needed to get back to the boat. WE finished our dive and were able to see jellyfish, a giant puffer (which wouldnt puff even though i tried to scare it) clown fish, anemone and many others. At then end, we had been down for around 45 mintues and had had the experience of a lifetime!!

Once on the boat we couldnt stop talking about the tree dives and what we had seen on all three. We were like little school kids with smiles from ear to ear! the boat ride and bus ride back seemed like mere minutes as we had tons to talk about. And the best part of all, is that katie now has the itch to dive and has been dreaming of our next diving trip!

Once back we headed out onto the town and had a few pints at a local pub and just walked and talked about the day we just had! IT rates as one of the tops of all time! It is too bad that we are now done with diving here and wont be able to see more of gods beauty under the ocean.