Brisbane to Cairns: A whirlwind trip up the northeastern coast

With our time in Australia running out, we decided to see the Eastern coast with an all out 11 day tour beginning in Brisbane and finishing over 1600 kms later in Cairns. We experienced everything from wrestling goats to SCUBA diving on a reef in the Whitsundays and nearly everything in between.

Along the way we met some great people from Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, and England. The Hansen family (Soran, Gitte, Jesper, and Michael), Gitte and Ida from Denmark, Sandra (a frisbee player!) from Switzerland, Pierre and Cajsa from Sweden, Carol and Simon from Ireland, and Amy whom we met later in the trip from England. Without these new friends the trip would not have been as memorable. We hope to see them in our future travels and when they travel to the U.S.

We'll let the pictures do the talking:
Our first day we hiked a fire lookout for the Glass House Mountains, just north of Brisbane. As you can see in the picture, the land is mostly used for tree harvesting.
Rounding up cattle and sheep on a working ranch in Kroombit, central Queensland. I swear Mike was a cowboy in a former life. We got to herd them into their holding pens and yell cheesy things like "Ippp! Ip! IP! IP!" and "Get along little dogie!"

After rounding up sheep and cattle we had our own little rodeo. We were split into teams and a goat was let loose in the ring. Each team had to catch their goat, get it to the ground and in branding position, and then "brand" the goat with a branding rod. It wasn't a hot rod, so mainly we just chased goats around like fools laying out right and left and trying to drag them by their horns to the holding area. One goat cleared a 6-7 foot fence...it was crazy!
Another part of the rodeo was a mechanical bull ride. The boys had some trouble with this one.
Me playing cowgirl.


Mike Baywatch running into McKenzie Lake, a freshwater lake on Fraser Island.


Ely creek, a spring fed stream that runs into the ocean. Fraser Island.

Our behemouth transport around Fraser Island. It's a large island, 70+ miles long and 15 miles wide on average, and is entirely made of sand...the largest sand island in the world. So obviously, some crazy 4 WD is required to get from place to place. What makes it so fascinating however is the water. It holds more water on and in it than the Sydney Harbor, which is huge, and the water is all filtered through the sand making it completely clear, fresh, drinkable water. It's also the only place left in Australia with pure dingos left that haven't interbreeded with domesticated dogs.
Driving along 70 mile beach in our monster truck. When a large wave came in, it looked like we were going to be carried away to sea. Riding in this thing was like a roller coaster.

A shipwreck on 70 mile beach, Fraser Island.

Our sweet mode of transportation for three days sailing the Whitsunday Islands, and group of reef studded islands off the coast between Arlie Beach and the Great Barrier Reef. The Alexander Stewart.

All the crew up on deck. Popular activities on deck were: reading, eating, tanning, playing chess, drinking, and napping.

The first stop was Whitsunday Island, the largest island of the chain and home to the famous Whitehaven Beach. We climbed a lookout to view the beach from above at low tide. The sandflies were as thick as molasses...you practically had to run to stay away from them.

Team Sizu. Mike and I in our "Stinger Suits" on Whitsunday Island. These jellyfish suits supposedly protect you from getting stung, except for the gaping wholes in everyone's face, hands, feet, and crotch areas. I guess you aren't supposed to worry about your face, or crotch, being fatally stung by a bluebox jellyfish.

Ida, Carol, and I giving our best glamour shot on Whitehaven Beach in our sexy stinger suits.

We did a lot of snorkeling and saw some really cool stuff, but we also got dropped off at a local scuba diving boat and got to do a dive. It was incredible, and enough to make us want to get certified and live the winter months in the Carribean. The snorkeling was awesome too though; we saw a shark, some sting rays, tons of huge clams, jellyfish (good thing we had the stinger suits), every color and size fish, and lots of mind blowing coral. One of my favorites was seeing a clown fish chillin' in an anenome.

All of the crew at dinner on Magnetic Island.

Ida taking the "Tour de Franzia" which we introduced to the Europeans to much fanfare. They call bag-o-wine a "goon" here, so a bit of explaining was necessary.

Traveling with the Hansen family, from Denmark, really added to the fun of our trip. Jesper, Michael, Gitte, and Saren.

Pierre and Cajsa, from Sweden. Sorry Kristiane, they were really cool! =)

We explored the Atherton Tablelands, a range just outside of Cairnes on our last day of the tour. This "curtain fig" tree was one of the highlights. It has an aerial root system, which explains the tenticle-like things handing down...it's not moss.

This salty was in a crocodile farm our tour stopped at. After the guy in the pen fed him, the crocodile ate the rake that was holding the food out. It was pretty awesome.

The cassowary bird, the world's most dangerous bird, is only found in the very northeastern part of Australia. It looks like a combo between an emu and a turkey, and has a 5 inch razor sharp claw on both feet. When threatened, it jumps up and karate chops it's enemy with it's razor claws. It's been known to disembowel people...dun, dun, duuuuhn!

Simon, from Ireland, chowing down on his plate of beefy goodness while Sandra (Switzerland) and I look on.

Port Douglas, north of Cairnes.

I know...it all looks the same! This is just north of Cairnes, on our drive up to Port Douglas and Daintree.

Swimming in the Masman Gorge. It runs too fast for crocodiles so we took a dip.

Masman Gorge, Daintree National Park. The view upstream from where we were swimming. As you can see, white water rafting is one of the most popular activities up here in nothern Queensland.