Bit by a Rock Wallaby; and other adventures with Canadians and Germans

Yes, I did get bit by an Allied Rock Wallaby on Magnetic Island. No, it did not draw blood. I think it was mad that I abused its privacy and snuck some candid photos of it without it's written consent. But I was feeding him! Cheeky bastard. And, oh yeah, I should just consider myself in Bavaria right now or maybe even Calgary because I think 98% of every person I've meet up here in Queensland (the northern State about New South Wales) is either of the German influence or likes hockey. That's OK though, except for feeling like I was in Das Boot earlier today while in a semi-submersible ship on the Great Barrier Reef and all the Germans kept yelling out random things - maybe they were just talking, but it sounded aggressive and angry...

Ok, enough stream of consciousness. I'll tell you how things are going. It's sweaty, humid, people (see: women) are wearing short clothing, and I am in Cairns. Cairns, I was told, is boring. I was told to only spend 1 day in Cairns as there is nothing to see. False. It is a very entertaining, tropical town to hang around and is the ultimate jumping point to get to so many amazing sites that Queensland has to offer. What have I been doing all this time you may ask? You may ask yourself, how did I get here. Ok, maybe not, that's just a Talking Heads line. Well, I flew in to Townsville, yes, the bustling metropolis of Townsville this past Monday on Jetstar (the worst airline known to Mankind) and arrived at 9 am; just in time to see rush hour and people making their way to commence commerce? It did not look that way as it seemed like the 191,000 people of Townsville were hiding under a rock somewhere and I arrived at a ghostown with absolutely nothing to do. Although, it was gloriously humid out and I couldn't swim because the fatally fantastic box jellyfish (most dangerous in the world as Queen Latifah found out in The Sphere) were still in season. But for one day, it wasn't a bad place and I went to their Aquarium to see the largest coral reef tank in the world (moderately cool) and hang out at a raving Mexican joint with a girl from Birmingham, AL, one from Brussels, one from somewhere in Holland, and a German dude (yup, German). Ok, it wasn't raving, I was being facetious, but it was a very pleasant evening on the first night traveling solo through these parts.

The following morning I took a ferry over to Magnetic Island, which is only 8 km across the Cleveland Bay. I was fascinated (not being sarcastic anymore) to find out that the Japanese ("Dude, Asian-American, please") raided Townsville 3 times during WWII and Australia built a fortification on Magnetic Island in case there were more attacks. Long story short, England screwed them, Aussies had to fight for themselves and spurn a possible invasion from the Japanese taking over the entire continent. After the war, this led to Australia somewhat ditching their "White-Only" policy of immigration and doubling their population so that their country actually had people in it, in pockets here and there, and would not be as susceptible to being invaded. Anyway, enough history. The island, at first I thought, did not have much to offer and I would just spend two days sweating through the couple of items I packed with me. I was wrong. Magnetic Island, or "Maggie" to the locals, was an awesome place. Over the course of 2 days, I held several interesting animals (see picture of the iconic one), hiked along the "Fort track" and saw where the gun emplacements and other WWII sites were built, participated in the popular Queenslander sport of "cane toad racing," (yes, racing toads. but no, not licking them), and got an awesome tour of the island from a local guy in a stretch jeep. Oh, and I bid $25 and had the privilege of being the "owner" of the "Red Russian" toad, and he came in dead-last, which, to my surprise, entitled me to two free awesome t-shirts to commemorate the popular event at the Arcadia Holiday Resort. Here are some more pictures of toad racing and other things I held (in order, toad race, an echidna, carpet python). Oh, and I uploaded a nice video of a feeding we did at the end of the wildlife tour to several hundred Rainbow Lorikeet (the end is the best): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihzxB_oYGzE

I left Magnetic Island Thursday morning, taking a bus to the ferry terminal, a ferry to Townsville, and then a 6-hour Greyhound bus up north to Cairns. I arrived in Cairns at about 6 pm, did some much-needed laundry, and just chilled out for the night, booking my next two days of activities around the area. Yesterday, I went on Uncle Brian's tour to the Atherton Tablelands. The Tablelands are an area of expansive rainforests, rolling green hills and mountains, hectares of sugarcane fields and banana plantations and several incredibly large waterfalls. The atmosphere on this bus was amazing and all the work of "Cousin Paul," who was our guide for the day. The other cast of characters mentioned during the day: Uncle Brian (owner of the company, but not present), Aunt Karen (Brian's wife, and reason Brian was not there as she just had baby boy #2), "Gus" the Bus, a stuffed Elmo doll as our mascot, Mr. Lunch (who, you guessed it, served us lunch in Millaa Millaa - aboriginal for waterfall, waterfall - they're so clever), and "Grandma" (a random old women who started stalking the buses coming through her small town and pops up every time the bus goes by, with puppets, strange gyrating, etc. - see picture). The bus was filled with people from many different countries, mostly in Western Europe (and, yes, Germans and Canadians). The trip was a blast, as we went walking through several different rainforest tracks, eating every couple hours, and swimming at 4 different spots (a multi-tiered waterfall with natural rock slides, a river above the lethal Babinda Boulders, a Volcanic Crater Marr, and the best, the Millaa Millaa falls, which, as you can to the left, are massive. We ended up spending a fair bit of time there, which was very memorable. After tip-toeing through the slippery rocks on the bottom of the water, we made our way towards the falls as they pounded the water below with a tremendous fury. The mist and water spraying up as we made our way around the right-hand side of the falls made visibility pretty difficult. But once we hoisted ourselves up on the rocks there, the views were remarkable. As I stood behind the waterfall, I was amazed and in awe of a perspective in nature that is unique and that many people don't get to experience. The natural rock slides at the Josephine Falls were also pretty amazing, as rock slides go in the world. I was doing all sorts of different dives down them, including head-first, backwards, and the "spinning, upside-down turtle." It's difficult to describe everything we did in this 12-hour tour to the Tablelands, but it was an amazing time. The sites, the way our group got along (there were many sing-a-longs, games, prizes, etc.), Cousin Paul, and of course, Gus the Bus, made this one day pretty memorable, even when compared to everything that I have seen and done on the trip so far. Here is a picture of the rock slides:

Now, to the present. Today I did an introductory dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Yeah, you're typical couple days in a row. The only other time I have gone diving (Mr. Engel, you can attest to this), was of the coast of Italy on a small island called Ventonene. As many Italian operations go, it was pretty shady and we were only down in the water for about 10 minutes, without any instruction. Today was the real deal and I did two dives, both of which were for about 30 minutes. I did not have any problems equalizing (getting the pressure right in my nose), but on the second dive I did have many problems with my leaky mask, thus hindering any viewing of beautiful coral and fish. But, over the two dives, I was able to see a sea turtle, a couple rays, sea cucumbers (huge slugs at the bottom that filter the sand), and the iconic clownfish.

I am now going to Port Douglas, which is about 90 min. north of Cairns, to see the Daintree Rainforest (another World Heritage site and the largest continuous area of rainforest in Australia), the Mossman Gorge, and Cape Tribulation. I then leave Cairns on Friday to head back to Sydney, where I will (with the cooperation of the weather), sit on the beaches for most of the time and say farewell to Australasia and make my way back to NYC on the 25th. I will probably be able to post one more blog before I get back home. I hope you are all well and I really look forward to seeing you all or catching up with you when I get back to the States. Here are a couple more pictures of the past week too:

Adios,

Justin