Rachel in the Rainforest: Whitsundays!

Warning.
MASSIVE blog entry!

All photos are property of Nathan Sell,
who has an amazing camera!

All of the students had mid-semester break starting on Thursday the 19th, we were dropped off in Cairns in the morning. My break group consisted of myself and two friends: Christy and Nate. We were off to a set of 73 islands associated with the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped at the grocery and then caught a bus to the Wicked office. Wicked is a slightly sketchy camper van rental company, and the only place in Australia that will rent to a bunch of twenty-year-olds. The (VW-style) vans have slogans and paintings all over the sides often incorporating sex or swearing, and we were really, really hoping for a clean van. Not to mention an automatic- we requested but there were no guarentees.

Me driving the Wicked van. That's right, the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

After waiting quite a while at the office, we were told we were getting a 'standard'. We protested and they said 'standard' meant no air-conditioning. And then they checked and saw that we were assigned a manual. Then they said that some Americans coming in later had an automatic assigned, but they really needed it because they were American. Our response was, "WE'RE Amercian!" Finally, we convinced the office workers that we were pitiful and we were able to steal the automatic, which found out was supposed to go with some of our classmates. No regrets. Also, it was John Lennon on the side. No horrible slogans!

The road trip down was fine, after we adjusted to the left side. The only issues we had were drifting slightly off the road to avoid the oncoming traffic, but we had that sorted quickly. Not to mention our secret weapon, Nate, who is used to driving on the left side at home (US Virgin Islands). The drive was about eight and a half hours. We reached Airlie Beach by 9pm and cruised for parking. Our plan was to find a slightly deserted area, park, lock the doors and sleep. After grabbing some food we decided on a public parking lot that had a no camping sign (which every parking spot/lot had) but had ten-ish other camper vans. We were counting on safety in numbers. I woke up at 6am and bought a parking pass, which came in handy 20 minutes later when a Parks official rapped on our window.

I hopped over the front seat and opened the door. He said that it was nice that we bought a pass, but he was just warning all of the vans in the area that if they were camping a $150 fine per person was possible. He left, and we thanked our lucky stars that it wasn't a fining day. We swam in the swimming pool and used the outdoor showers and killed time in Airlie, a very nice little tourist town.

We boarded Habibi, our 70 ft sailing yacht, with the other 17 passengers. There were three expert crew- one good cook, a skipper and a jack-of-all-trades. We sailed out to our first overnight protected bay and had a barbecue. The ship was a little tight, but comfortable for our 2 day 2 night journey. It was windy the whole weekend which made for some bumpy and breezy sails, but the skipper kept us on the protected side of the islands. Our berths, while semi-private, were on top of/next to the engine which meant it was incredibly hot at night. We hung out on deck almost the entire weekend reading books and just enjoying the sights.

The berths!

Our first night on the ship.

Saturday morning we were up at 6, snorkeling at 8. We went to Manta Ray Bay first, and it was amazing.

Pre-snorkeling

There were huge meter long Wrasses, apparently friendly. All I know is that when Nate accidently bumped into my back, I freaked out, envisioning a over-enthusiastic giant fish. The coral coated the sea floor and was amazing beyond words. There were so many different species of fish, and a school would totally envelope me. After an hour and a half, we headed off to Blue Pearl Bay. It's nicknamed 'the Zoo' because of the number of fish. The coral was even more shallow- I could have kicked it while treading water! And probably 5x more fish than the previous site. And... I saw a shark! It was sneaking behind an equally large (meter) fish about ten feet under Christy and I. We were the only people on our ship to be so lucky.

Fish seen, in case anyone wants to surf Google pictures: Butterfly fish, Angelfish, Surgeonfish, Fusilier, Spotted Coral Grouper, Parrotfish, Wrass, and a 'reef' (tawny nurse) shark.

I had just seen a huge fish!

Me on the left, Christy on the right

Parrotfish. They eat the coral (with the algae) and produce sand. Not a fish I was letting my fingers anywhere near.

Who needs SFS? I'll go to Zebrafish and Fusilier school.

That afternoon we went to Langston Key, a beach-island. It was also beautiful, with crystal clear water. After parking in Nara inlet, checking out 2,500 year old Aboriginal paintings in the morning, we did a 'rip-roaring sail' back to the mainland on Sunday. It was fast and so exciting!

Langton Key- a mostly sand island with crystal blue water!

Nara Inlet- caves with 2,500 year old Aboriginal paintings

The drive back was fine- we stopped at Tully Sunday night. This was a planned stop... which requires a backstory. By chance over Christmas break, Mom and I watched this off the wall documentary about a quirky sculptor in Queensland who built a giant Golden Gumboot. The sculptor got into a fight with the guy who designed the matching frog. We watched the whole thing, and then wondered if everyone I met would be as strange.

As Christy, Nate and I drove to Airlie, Nate noticed the sign for the Golden Gumboot along the way. I was very excited, but a little doubtful. So, we stopped in Tully on the way back and THERE IT WAS! We stayed the night at a campground and had a photo-fest in the morning. We drove to Cairns Monday morning, returned the van with a sigh of relief. It had been having some serious trouble turning over- Nate had to do a trick to get it to stay alive each time we turned it on. The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the Lagoon (public swimming/grass area) and eating gelato, waiting to be picked up.