beaches, rainforests and wineries... oh my!

Wow! I can't believe it's only 7 days until Christmas!!! I have to say the lead up to our first hot Christmas has been good! I'm not sure I could get used to it though, but fun to experience at least once.

Let's see, it's been awhile since we've been online so I have a lot of recalling to do. We did make it up to Port Douglas after Cairns and had a relaxing day and a half there. We just laid out and did some swimming in the netted area at the 4 mile long beach. Because of the stingers in the water, you can't swim unless there's an area netted off and guarded by lifeguards. Luckily there was such an area in Port Douglas b/c it was very hot and we just wanted to get in the water. The temperature of the water was so warm too! It was like bath water. I never thought the ocean could get that warm since it's so big, but apparently it does in Northern Queensland! Port Douglas is a very pretty town too with a nice selection of restaurants and a pretty marina. Mom and Dad - it would be a perfect place to retire on a boat... :) We saw lots of pretty ones in the marina, there were even a couple for sale!!!

After Port Douglas we headed up to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest living rainforest in the world. It was beautiful country up there and we stayed at the Crocodylus Village right in the middle of the rainforest. Everytime we set foot out of our cabin we encountered a different and new type of wildlife. It was amazing! We saw several Boyd's Rainforest Dragon (there was one that hung out on a tree next to our cabin for an entire day), some Pademelons (like small wallabies or very small kangaroos) eating next to our cabin and we saw a couple of Lace Monitors. We also went on a guided night walk and saw all sorts of cool bugs and spiders as well as a 5 foot Amethystine Python. It was very cool and a totally new environment for us!

From Daintree we headed south for the Whitsundays and made a stop on Magnetic Island for a night. It was a beautiful island and we were able to do a little snorkeling (after a very long hike!) with stinger suits on. That's one thing we've found frustrating about the Queensland coast in the summer - there are tons of stingers (some that are very small and deadly) and it's so hot that all you want to do is get in the water but you can't b/c of the stingers. You have to swim in pools or designated swimming areas which takes a bit of fun out of it. But, we've made the most of it and so far so good!

We drove on to Airlie Beach from Magnetic Island and did a day trip out to the outer Barrier Reef to do some snorkeling. That was a real highlight b/c we saw sea turtles and a couple of reef sharks! We were even able to touch the turtles shells and I touched ones foot. They are so graceful underwater and so beautiful! We wish we could have seen more sharks but even a quick sighting seemed to satisfy us. It was an excellent day out on a smaller boat with only 9 of us diving and snorkeling so it was just about perfect!

We moved on from there to Hervey Bay to join a 2 day, 1 night trip to Fraser Island. Fraser is such a unique and amazing place! (I'm trying to think of different descriptive words for all these places we've been b/c they are all so amazing, excellent, beautiful, etc!!!) For those of you that don't know, Fraser is the largest sand island in the world. It was formed by sand being deposited over millions of years and is now quite large. There are about 400 people that actually live on it today. Because the island is all sand, you are only allowed on it with 4WD transportation b/c literally EVERYTHING is sand, roads, beaches, roads on beaches, etc. Since we were on a tour, we rode around in a huge 4WD coach bus - it had 20 gears! It was still a very rough ride and quite the adventure. The landscape on Fraser is so unusal and unique. We walked through a rainforest, visited several freshwater lakes, drove along 75 mile beach (it's actually a national highway!), hiked across a sandblow (it's a sand dune w/o vegetation - think big open desert!), and swam a lot. It was an amazing side trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone who makes it to Australia! We also spent a few hours at the famous Lake McKenzie and it was like an afternoon at the spa - complete with a dingo (she just made a quick appearance on the beach, had a sniff around and a dip in the lake and then wandered off)! The sand at Lake McKenzie is all silica based and is so fine. It's like the exfoliating ingredient used in beauty products. So, at the suggestion of our tour guide, we all sat in the shallow bit of water and rubbed the sand all over us until we were nice and soft. And the water is quite acidic w/ a pH balance similar to the conditioner we all use in the shower. So, as we boarded the bus to go back to Hervey Bay, we were all nicely exfoliated with really soft hair! :)

After Fraser Island, we drove the rest of the way into Brisbane to catch our flight to Adelaide. We've been in Adelaide for the last 1 1/2 days and we've been staying with our friend Kristin (who we met in Dublin - she recently moved back home to Adelaide) and her parents Gayle and Trevor. What great hosts they all are - we feel quite spoiled!! We did a self-guided winery tour yesterday through the McLaren Vale and stopped at 4 wineries along the way for some wine tasting and a lovely lunch. It was an enjoyable day out and we discovered some new little gems we'll have to try to find once we're back home! Today we're going to head to one of the local beaches for some more sun and sand - can't get enough of either!!! - and then we'll start the drive to Melbourne tomorrow via the Great Ocean Road. It's supposed to be a beautiful drive and we're really looking forward to the coastal scenery along the way.

I will try my hardest to put up another post before Christmas but if I don't get around to it, Merry/Happy Christmas to everyone and we wish you a Happy and Healthy 2008 too! We send our love to everyone and for those of you counting the days until we get home, we are now officially past the halfway mark of our trip so we'll be seeing you before you know it!!! Talk to you all again soon!

Love to all!

Renee & Chuck

(Pictures from top to bottom: Hang Gliders on the way to Port Douglas, Beach at Port Douglas, Four Mile Beach, lookout on the drive to Daintree, Boyd's Rainforest Dragon, Pademelon, Amethystine Python, Moheno shipwreck on Fraser Island, Champagne Pools on Fraser Island, Lake McKenzie, Kangaroo Crossing sign)