Feeding Dolphins & Finding More Friends

We're writing to you now from Caloundra, Queensland. Another fun trip down memory lane. I spent several months here as well, 25 years ago, as a young backpacker. Marit became a good friend and still lives here but now with her hubby Max and 10-year-old daughter Mia instead of various roommates from assorted countries. Marit has not changed much but I don't recognize a thing in Caloundra. Another Sunshine Coast town that has boomed into a city. I worked about three different jobs here, waitressing at a couple of places and looking after the children of a motel owner during the days. Of course, this has all changed completely. The motel is a dump that they tell me only "no hopers" stay at. The restaurant is now a cinema and the other restaurant has morphed into a new strip mall. We parked our campa on Marit & Max's 1/2 acre lot for a few days and had a fun visit.

Along the way to Caloundra, we stopped in a place called Tin Can Bay along the Fraser Coast. We had heard there was a wild Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin named Mystique who swims into the public marina every morning for free fish handouts. We got up early, headed down to the marina, bought some small fish and got ourselves ready to see if Mystique would show up:
Right on cue, there's Mystique! He has "raking" marks on his back from fights with other dolphins. He also had a mangled dorsal fin from an earlier shark attack:

Jackson feeding Mystique. We thought this smart dolphin might notice Jackson's shark swim-trunks and get spooked but he must've been too hungry:

Mitchell's turn. A volunteer stands by to oversee the feeding:

We now have a teenager in the family. Happy Birthday Mitchell! Mitchell spent his 13th birthday at the Big Pineapple and sightseeing in Caloundra:

The Big Pineapple - who knew pineapple could be this cheesy?

All aboard the pineapple express:

Pineapple fields forever . . . call it more homeschooling, we all learned a lot about the art and science of producing pineapples:

Just like the Big Apple in Cobourg, Ontario, the Big Pineapple has a small animal sanctuary. The boys have had several opportunities now to get up close and personal with kangaroos and koalas. No platypus sightings yet, though.

Mia, Marit & Max in Caloundra:

The Maroochy region of the Sunshine Coast (includes Maroochydore, Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland). Susan if you're reading this, you would not believe how built-up it has become:

Beautiful coastline near Point Cartwright. We had some gorgeous sunny days to walk the beaches, climb on rocks and enjoy the views:

Next stop: Brisbane and the Gold Coast

Good Friends on the Capricorn Coast

Sunrise looking out the guest bedroom verandah of our friends' home in Yeppoon: Continuing our journey down the east coast of Queensland, we stopped for several days in the beautiful, quaint seaside town of Yeppoon. Yeppoon is the home of my good friend Julie, her husband John and their two great kids, Dylan and Brianna. Where is Yeppoon, you ask? Why, right next to your fork and knife of course. (Julie told me this joke). I mentioned in an earlier post that I met Julie when backpacking around Australia nearly 25 years ago. We have managed to keep in touch all these years and it was so good to re-connect.

The view from their home is absolutely incredible. They are on a sand dune rght on the beach of the South Pacific Ocean - stunning views!

Yeppoon is close to the beef capital of Australia, Rockhampton. There are large bull statues all over town. It's really incredi-bull:

At the zoo at Rockhampton Botanic Gardens, we spied a kangaroo with a joey in her pouch:

Cuddly koala bear, sleeping of course. Not sure I have ever seen a koala doing anything else:

Brianna and their dog Jaunty. Were the guys excited there was a dog at the home we were visiting? Just a little!

Dylan and Mitchell had a lot in common, including a love for computers, gaming, and Pokemon:

Jackson going wild on their backyard trampoline. Brianna is the sane person on the left:

A kangaroo in the wild, on the gorgeous grounds of the Yeppoon golf course:

Hmmm, Mitchell must be contemplating impending teenage-hood:

A black swan at the golf course. Maroochydore is the aboriginal name for "black swan" and is a beautiful town on the Sunshine Coast where my sister Susan used to live. Our next stop is the Sunshine Coast:

Rainbow lorikeets feasting on the remnants of Jackson's pancakes and maple syrup:

Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef: Mitchell

A big first for me on this trip: I had my first experience scuba diving and what better place than the Great Barrier Reef. When we got to Airlie Beach, we camped at the Big4 Adventure Whitsunday camping resort, and we all liked it a lot. At the camping resort, we had a pool, a mini-golf course that my brother and I liked, and these go-karts that you could rent for an hour and drive around the campsite.

A few days later we took a cruise through the Whitsunday Islands. We went to three different islands: Hook island, Whitsunday Island and Daydream Island. At Hook Island, we were supposed to go snorkeling, but my mom asked me if I wanted to go scuba diving and I said yes! When I went scuba diving, I had an instructor to help me, and his name was Jayden. I also had to wear a stinger suit, because there are box jellyfish and marine stingers that can kill you with their sting. They are mainly in the water between the months of November to end of May, so we are at the end of the stinger season. I enjoyed scuba diving because I got to go deep under water and feel the coral. I even got to hold a sea cucumber that Jayden passed to me. Jayden told me that I can continue to dive with a PADI-certified instructor until I am 15, then I can become certified myself. Before age 15, you can only take the Junior Diving Course.

Afterwards, we got back in the cruise ship and went to our next island, Whitsunday Island. But we weren’t there for the island; we were there for Whitehaven Beach, a nice beach that is famous for its pure white silica sand. We swam there for an hour or two, and then left for the final island - Daydream Island. Once we got there, we decided to swim at the pool. After that, we played bocce ball, and we happened to see some wallabies. The wallabies were very nice because they would let you come up close to them. Afterwards, we took the cruise ship home, but I had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Getting ready to go snorkelling in our "stinger" suits:

Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island:

Wallaby on Daydream Island:

Whitehaven Beach (South Pacific Ocean):

Check out our Aussie Campa!

G'day, we're travelling down the beautiful east coast of Australia in our campa. That's camper for the North Americans among us. We flew to the northern Queensland town of Cairns a few days ago and picked up our Jucy Choppa. Let me tell you, this is a company that does not take itself too seriously. They are so campy, which is fitting I suppose for a campervan company. Take their slogan, "We're Jucy without the I because it's all about U". Another ad says, "Don't you wish your campa was hot like mine".

We could have done much worse, though. There's another rental company called "Wicked Campervans" with outrageous and crude slogans painted all over their beat-up vans. They have a deal right now where, if you walk in and pick up your van stark naked, you get the first day free. Truly. But, if you're over 60, they advise you not to do this and they promise to just give you that first day free, ha, ha. Okay so maybe I won't find that so funny in another 15 years or so.

Back to camping. It's actually going well. I can't say I'm normally the hugest fan of camping but the campgrounds (caravan parks) in Australia are quite gorgeous and have so many great amenities (pools, tennis courts, mini-golf, outdoor movie theatre). The part of camping I don't like is the work, which as the lone female in the family often turns out to be considerable. A typical day feels like this: wake up, prepare breakfast, eat breakfast, clean up breakfast dishes, oh look at the time, prepare lunch, eat lunch, clean up lunch dishes, take a walk, have a swim, oh look at the time, prepare supper, eat supper, clean up supper dishes, etc. You get the idea. But Ted is doing alot and the boys do the dishes - yeah! The parts of camping I do like are seeing nature all around, waking up at 6:00am because of the sun (that never happens to me in Ottawa but might possibly have something to do with the blackout curtains in our room), and the smells (damp, earthy, grassy smells). Camping is good and Mitchell & Jackson absolutely love it.

After we left Cairns, we drove through an area called the Atherton Tablelands - deep gorges, waterfalls, lush valleys. It's the tropical northern Queensland you may have seen pictures of, where turquoise sea meets emerald green rainforests. Sounds like a tourist brochure but that's really what it's like. Stunning. We stopped in Townsville for one night, a booming town that boats of 320 days of sunshine per year. Sounds like Saskatoon!

Now we're in Airlie Beach, known as Gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and Great Barrier Reef. When I finished my 4-year undergrad degree, I backpacked throughout Australia, New Zealand and Fiji for one year (I was 21 at the time). It's very strange being back in Airlie Beach because this was one of the places where I dropped anchor for 3 months in order to work and save money to keep going. I waitressed at a place called Angelo's Restaurant at the Coral Sea Resort. I stayed at a youth hostel for the princely sum of $35 per week. What I discovered is neither place is here anymore sadly. We found the Coral Sea resort and dropped in. The restaurant has changed hands and no-one knew what had happened to Angelo, my old boss. The hostel where I stayed is now a shopping mall. Airlie Beach has really boomed and is so much more expensive than I ever remember, and I definitely don't recognize a whole lot of it.

But I do have one thing to really look forward to: visiting friends I made when I was here over two decades ago. There are two people I have kept in touch with . . . I will see my friend Julie in Yeppoon next week. We were both single girls in Airlie Beach all those years ago and now we are both married with two kids. She was working as a Gr. 2 teacher when I was here and I remember speaking to her class about Canada. I remember a cute little Aussie kid who asked me how long the bus trip was from Canada to Australia and we both cracked up. It will be so fun to catch up. My other friend is Marit from Caloundra (Sunshine Coast). I worked in Caloundra as well and rented a room from Marit in her house. She is now homeschooling her 10-year old. Maybe she can give us some tips!

Tomorrow we will do a day-trip to the Great Barrier Reef for some snorkelling and a visit to Hook Island, Daydream Island and Whitsunday Island's amazing Whitehaven Beach (7 km. of pure white silica sand that squeaks when you walk on it).

Here we've just picked up the campa for the big Aussie road trip: Millaa Millaa Waterfall:

Atherton Tablelands vista:
A snazzy-looking bird in the wild (parikeet, lorikeet?):

The boys continue to make friends with every canine that crosses their path (this one at a campground in the Atherton Tablelands):

We passed through a small town called Innisfail, also known as the Art Deco capital of Australia. Most of the town's timber buildings were destroyed in a cyclone back in the years between WW1 and WW2, so when everything was re-built they used concrete and incoropated the style of the perod which was Art Deco:

Some architectural details (Ted's favourite, the Art Deco style):

On the road again:

Fields of sugarcane all along the highways in Queensland:

Townsville (The Strand esplanade):

At our Airlie Beach campsite:

Airlie Beach main street:

Coral Sea off the coast of Airlie Beach:

Lagoon Park at Airlie Beach: