After all the volunteer work it was time for us to get some wheels and start our road trip down the coast. But what goes down must go up so we started by going up to Daintree rainforest. On our way we had a pit stop in Palm Cove, a popular holiday destination. After lunch we drove on to Miallo, where we had booked an AirBnB for the next couple of nights. Our AirBnB was really nice sitting on the edge of the rainforest with lovely views over the sugar cane fields. First thing we did after arriving was to go for a swim in one of the close by creeks.
Palm Cove
View from our AirBnB
A dog on a bridge
Jungle swim
Sunset over our AirBnB
Next day we drove up to Cape Tribulation village to explore the surrounding rainforest which is world's oldest. The village isn't part of the main electricity grid so they generate all their electricity with generators and there is no mobile reception. We chose to do a zipline adventure through the rainforest canopy and a couple of rainforest walks in the hope of spotting the rare Cassowary, no luck there. That was not a problem as the rainforest was amazing and we loved walking through listening to all the sounds. We were happy to learn that the rainforest expands by five meters every year unlike any other rainforest in the world.
Hamster wheel
To winch people up
In the canopy
Watch out for those dead Cassowaries
Cape Tribulation beach
Mangroves
Bouncy man
Luckily it wasn't stinger season
In the jungle
Cassowaries ahead
On our second day we went on a crocodile tour on the Daintree river where we saw many salt water crocodiles and birds. Our guide had been doing tours on the river for almost 20 years so the tour was very educational. We also went for a swim in Mossman Gorge with a hundred other tourists, so relaxing. That night we spent in Port Douglas which we didn't have time to explore much.
Private little pond
Not so private
Next day was a heavy driving day as we wanted to visit many waterfalls and freshwater holes as well as go and spot some wild platypie. We managed to stop at four locations before taking a guided tour on a small pond with a relatively big platypie population. We really enjoyed the tour and learned that against common belief platypie aren't nocturnal. They were very curios animals and a few came to suss us out. The following night we spent in Mission Beach, but again we didn't have time to explore it as we had a barge to catch.
Crystal Cascades
Babinda Boulders
Swimming hole close to Babinda Boulders
Ferns
Millaa Millaa Waterfall
Lake Eacham
We caught the ferry to Magnetic Island from Townsville. We fell in love with Magnetic Island and spent the three days there walking, snorkelling and wild life spotting. Rosanna's highlight was horseback riding through the bush and swimming with the horses on the beach. On one of the walks we spotted a bunch of koala's resting in the trees just off the path! We also spotted many birds and a rock wallabi from our AirBnB's veranda. Our hosts were absolutely amazing. They were a lovely older couple genuinely interested in us which made this one of the best AirBnB experiences so far. We were sad to leave after a lovely three days but at the same time excited about the upcoming three day sailing excursion of the Whitsunday Islands.
Eyyyyyyyyy
Is it a teddybear?
View from the Forts over Horseshoe bay
One excited rider!
Lets go in to the bush!
Horseshoe Bay beach
A welcome relief for the horses
Birdwatching at Picnic Bay beach
View over the beaches from Hawkins Point lookout
Good morning Mr. or Mrs. Kookaburra
The boat we were sailing the Whitsundays with was called Anaconda III. Neither of us had ever slept on a sailing boat, which we were excited to experience and especially in such an amazing location. We had read mixed reviews on the boat's condition and the crew so we went onboard with low expectations. The crew didn't seem friendly at first, especially when we had encountered such amazing crews while in Cairns, but after the first day they warmed up a bit and were quite nice. The boat was old and rugged, but fairly clean. Oliver kept the cockroaches a secret from Rosanna, which was good since she would have freaked out. The most challenging part for Rosanna was not being able to properly shower for three days. The boat had limited amount of water onboard so we were allowed to take only one 1 minute shower per day but no shampoo etc could be used. This turned out to be okay but the first proper shower after the cruise did feel pretty good ;)
The route
Getting ready
Enjoying the sailing
The boat stopped at several different locations around the Whitsunday islands and on the second day made its way to the outer reef. It was great to be back on the Great Barrier Reef, since we seemed not to be able to get enough of its beauty. We ended up doing two dives while onboard, the first one near one of the islands and the second on the reef. A hurricane had destroyed most of the coral close to the islands, and it resembled a coral grave yard which was sad to witness. The outer reef was in better condition, although also effected by hurricane Debbie. One only has to hope that the coral is able to recover from the damage to its original glory.
Whitehaven beach
Strut
The mandatory pair acrobatics picture
While snorkeling and diving on the reef we were lucky enough to spot several turtles, a weird sea snail, bump head parrotfish, batfish, a puffer fish couple and of course anemone fish, also known as Nemo :) One of the highlights was when three dolphins appeared to play with our boat while we were sailing from the outer reef back towards the islands.
Ready to go under with Martina
Leap to the unknown
Head first?
Bump head parrotfish
Batfish
Nemo
I like turtles
Drone view over the Stepping Stones and our boat thanks to Greg
A shark?
Enjoying the sunset
The best part of the cruise were the people me wet onboard. We hanged out with a group of girls from Slovakia, Germany and Netherlands, two Swiss girls, Indian sisters and a British couple. After the cruise there was an after party on Airlie Beach before everyone headed in their own directions the next day.
The last dinner
After the sailing trip we were pretty exhausted and happy to get to sleep in a normal size bed after the tiny cabins. We drove down seven hours to our next stop at an alpaca farm close to Gladstone. We were heading for Bundaberg but the drive would have been too long for one day so we decided to make a pit stop. The alpacas were funny dudes with a lot of hair and weird sounds. The farm also had ducks and we were given two of their eggs to try for the first in our lives. A lot of firsts for this trip!
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