The Circuit is Complete

Australia is the world's sixth largest country at 7.7 million square kilometers, so there is a lot of ground to cover if you want to see it all.  18,800 kilometers later and we have completed our circuit and as you can see on the map, we didn't even touch Western Australia, nor did we make it across to Tasmania.  We'll just have to come back another time.

It's hard to say what we loved best, but I loved the kangaroos.  I know they can be a pest to farmers and a hazard on the roads at dusk, but they are rather lovely creatures the way they lounge around and hop on their tails, not to mention the cute little joeys in their pouches.  The koala, on the other hand, apart from being cute, don't do very much but hang around in trees.  The only place we saw them was at the sanctuary in Brisbane.  Jens loved the long open roads of the outback, especially when the GPS would say 'drive 680 kilometers to destination'; no turns, no stops, just a long straight road.

We had a great time travelling around this great big country seeing so many wonderful places, tripping through the vineyards, exploring mountains and waterfalls, diving The Great Barrier Reef and driving through the outback meeting friendly Aussies every step of the way.  

  

We have come to the end of our visit to Australia.  And sadly, this also marks the end of our journey.  It's time to say goodbye to SY SEGWUN, hang up the trekking shoes, put away the guide books and start living a more normal life.  We'll be settling in Canada where we will be writing the script to the next chapters of our life together.  

We have been using the blog as a diary of our trip.  To everyone who followed us along the way, a big thank you and a sad farewell.  It has been great fun sharing our adventures with you.  

A Few Big Things

It all started with the big carrot in New Zealand.  And now it has become a compulsive act of hugging and sometimes even kissing.  We get quite excited when we come across giant-sized things and Australia has lots of them.  Here are some of our favs.

This evil looking giant koala definitely needed a hug (I am hugging his front left paw).  Like they say, be kind to unkind people - they need it the most.

This is the famous Australian bad guy - Ned Kelly.  Thanks to his homemade bucket helmet and body armor, he was hard to kill.  And because of his great size, he was kind of hard to hug as well.

This is the Cunnamulla Fella with my fella.  He is a young, single ranch hand and I was a bit shy about hugging him.  So Jens stood in for me on this one.

This cutie hasn't been around for a long time.  Ziggy (Zygomaturus trilobus) and his kin disappeared off the face of this earth 46,000 years ago, give or take.

This fine gentleman is Australia's most prolific poet.  CJ Dennis is best known for "The Sentimental Bloke".  

Just no way to hug this woolly.  Gosh darn he's huge!  I doubt Subway would ever dare to serve lamb with him looking over them. 

Now we are in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy.  They're not so creative these miners so their big thing was a bucket... 

...and a very tall and skinny miner.  

A little further North was an Aborigine lady and her daughter.  Quite a beautiful piece of art - perhaps a bit too large to bring home though.

And here is another long lost creature outside the museum in Richmond.  

A rather large gumboot in Tully ... That's me at the top shaking hands with the cane toad.

It's a giant pumpkin squash!  And below a sun kissed (and Ev kissed) mango.

No, it isn't an alien.  It's supposed to be a cane toad.  Ugly little creature, but he got a kiss nonetheless. 

Well that pretty much wraps up our collection of big things.  And yes, I guess the long drives can get a little boring.

The Last Leg of the Great Australian Driving Adventure

Today we said farewell to Ken and Lil and wished them a safe and enjoyable journey as they will soon be off to Indonesia continuing their 'round the world sailing adventure.  We, on the other hand, are heading South in KiaRoo on the final leg of our Australian adventure.  We have 1,730 kilometers to go and only 14 days before we leave Australia.

Babinda's Boulders

Our first stop was just two hours south of Cairns.  Passing through the quaint old town of Babinda (they have a Picture Show, not a cinema) takes you to a lovely picnic area in a lush green rainforest where you find the very picturesque boulders worn and polished by the water flowing from the mountains.

We ended our day just to the south of Townsville where we found a caravan site and set up camp for the first time in about three weeks.  We are told the temperature tonight will drop to 8°c.  Heavens to Murgatroyde!! We may have to start looking for motels as we continue down to Brisbane.  We shouldn't be overly surprised by the cool weather, it is the middle of winter here after all.  

What a Dive!

We spent a wonderful, lazy week chillaxing with Ken and Lil on their beautiful Moonbeam enjoying wonderful dinners, homemade cookies, a movie or two, and a few good laughs.  As much as we were enjoying our time together it was time for Jens and me to leave for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) on a dive expedition.

We boarded our new live aboard, Taka, around 4PM and met 28 new dive friends, or should I say dive fiends.  Over the course of the next three days we would be doing 15 dives while looking for Dwarf Minky Whales.  

The Minky whales are in this region for a couple of months having swum up from the Antarctic.  The researchers know very little about these little whales and aren't sure why they are here.  They do know that they are as curious about humans as dolphins are and when they spot a dive boat, they always come round to check us out.  That's when the crew string out a couple of lines from the boat as we don our masks, snorkels and fins and jump in for a chance to get up close and personal with these giant dwarfs.

Hanging on a line to say 'heellllloooo' to a whale.

'Spud' the potato cod.  If you think he's big, you should see his mother. 

It was all great fun with lots of good food and snacks between the diving.  Feeling completely waterlogged after some superb diving and whale spotting, we're back to Moonbeam for a couple of days before we continue our journey south.  

In the meantime, KiaRoo has had an easy life hanging in the parking lot and getting a little TLC from the Captain.  

Moonbeam at Sea

The sky was clear and the winds were favorable.   It would have been criminal to keep a yacht like Moonbeam tethered to the dock on a day like this.  We headed off for a sail to Fitzroy Island.  It isn't far to Fitzroy; just long enough to get the sails up and to feel the fresh sea wind on your face.  For all the times I have been a guest on SY Moonbeam, this is the first time sailing on her.  She is a lovely boat but I am a little partial because she is also an Island Packet.  

We arrived to Fitzroy, had lunch, did a little snorkeling and watched a beautiful sunset over the mainland.  Not so bad.

Hanging on a Moonbeam

....It's been a while since our last blog ...we made it to the East coast visiting Cooktown and Cape Tribulation along the way to Cairns.  Both these towns are famous thanks to the illustrious Captain Cook who has left his imprint in many places in the Southern Hemisphere.

Once again we took the road less traveled and I was thankful we had a 4wd and a good driver behind the wheel.  But we did get stuck on a muddy hill and I was ready to walk the rest of the way if needed when along came our rescuers.  They took the time to unhitch their trailer and hitch up KiaRoo pulling us all the way up the hill to solid road.  A huge thank you to the kindness of Mark and Robyn in their Toyota Land Cruiser.  

The coast is lovely here, but the signs warning of crocodiles kind of put you off going in for a swim. The weather had been rather poor this past week; cool, very windy and raining, so we were happy to meet up with Ken and Lil in Cairns and take a break from our traveling.  We'll spend the next week hanging out on Moonbeam at the Yorkey's Knob Marina.

The weather is clearing up nicely (now that Denise and Betty have left) so it's time to provision and get out of port for a couple of days.  

Ancient and Modern Seas

The geography of Australia is as old as time itself.  We discovered the ancient inland seabed and it's fascinating fossils in a small town called Richmond on our way to the coast.

Richmond has an incredible little museum full of fossils found in the area.  We were camping next to a Canadian couple who have volunteered at the museum and on digs in the area for months at a time over the past few years.  Barb and Gary, both retired school teachers, are exploring a passion of theirs here in the outback, living in a humble tent and spending their days hunched over their latest find, slowly peeling back the years of sediment to uncover the mysteries of the marine life in prehistoric times.  Having already discovered several new species dating back more than 100 million years, they believe there is still a lot to be discovered.

Gary, hard at work on their latest project. 

Barb, in front of a display of one of their many finds.

Fossilised marine creatures are being found in almost fully intact conditions. 

And now we are back on the coast, to a town called Townsville.  We spent the day out in the water diving the wreck Yongala and looking at the incredible modern day sea life.  The SS Yongala sunk in 1911 with 121 passengers on board.  They never knew where it sank and it wasnt until 1943 when a Navy minesweeper identified an object which was later investigated and identified as a fair size steamship lying in its side in about 24 meters of water.  It lay there untouched until 1958 when the first divers went down and identified it as the Yongala.  

The Yongala has an amazing variety of new residents - turtles, bull rays, eagle rays, giant trevallies, barracuda, bat fish, etc.  It makes for an interesting but solemn dive knowing this is the watery grave of 121 souls.