THE RACHELEN PROJECT

I've got quite a bit to catch up on as we arrived in Australia on the 18th! So far it's been a bit of a culture shock and we're a bit disappointed at how little we can get for our money. Most things are a bit more expensive than back home in the UK and the hostels have a much lower standard. 

We are also reeling from the unfortunate results of the EU referendum. As well as being disappointed with the outcome, the plummeting value of the £1 is going to have a real impact on our trip and we feel much more aware of every dollar that we spend! It's a bit of a sad atmosphere at the moment as I think most people our age were hoping to stay and even travellers from other countries have expressed their disappointment at the result.

In the meantime I'll get on with the blog! Here's a summary of what we've been up to.

CAIRNS

We arrived in Cairns early morning after a sleepless flight and checked into our hostel. It was right by the sea and directly opposite the lagoon, a seaside swimming pool to keep locals and tourists out of the sea. This is quite heartwarming as the city has chosen to promote swimming in safe places rather than corden off parts of the sea to keep sharks away.

Cairns is small and there's a sense of community; even a 'free Cairns community wifi' all over the town, despite its touristy nature and reputation as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. It's quite sleepy and has a grid layout. 

We were quite tired and wandered slowly around town, getting used to the culture and gawking at the hundreds of bats flying overhead. An Australian man we met in Bali had advised us to check all the toilet seats; in his experience he found a spider under one in three. In true Australian style he was pulling our legs as I've yet to find one under any toilet seat, despite checking at least 30 (this won't stop me from checking every single one).

We went to the cinema that evening to watch Finding Dory (a good film by the way). We intended to leave Cairns the next day as we couldn't afford any of the diving trips from there but I fell ill and we ended up staying one more day. 

The next day we took the bus to a nearby village called Kuranda. There's actually a lot of history in Kuranda as it was, and still is, primarily an aboriginal town despite its catering for tourists. There's an interesting market and museum with fossils and crystals, as well as birds, koalas and reptiles. We visited an aboriginal art gallery where each piece was accompanied by an artist profile. They had a very distinctive geometric style and mostly portrayed representations of nature, hunting and day to day life. Many were inspired by the 'Dream Time' which the curator explained to the best of his knowledge wad the basis for aboriginal culture; a sort of set of principles to live by. Different tribes translated the word differently and another way to describe it was 'Water Lines'.

That evening, !s there isn't much to do in Cairns other than shop or dive in the Reef, we found ourselves at another cinema to watch the Nice Guys which is an OK film.

A shaky start to our trip to Australia but we had high hopes there was much more to do in the cities to come!

AIRLIE BEACH & THE WHITSUNDAYS 

Next stop was after a night bus and we arrived in Airlie Beach the next morning. By Australian standards it was busy from the moment we got off the bus (but still sleepy) and we spent some time down at the beach, booked a day trip to the Whitsundays and had a few drinks at the bar downstairs. 

We were picked up at 9am the next day and brought down to the harbour where we were introduced to our very enthusiastic tour guide. We boarded a speedboat with 30 others and headed over to the islands, which were  "discovered" (along with most of the East coast of Australia) in 1770 by Captain Cook (actually the Dutch discovered the West coast of Australia 200 years prior to this but didn't think there was anything of interest on the land).

We alighted on the West side of Whitsunday Island and climbed up to the Swirling Sands lookout where we got a great view of the East coast. The patterns in the sand are caused by the current and we could see sting rays and lemon sharks swimming in the shallows. 

After getting back onto the boat we were driven around to the other side and alighted on Whitehaven Beach; frequently voted one of the top three beaches in the world! The sand is 99% silicon and squeaks as you walk on it. You can use it to polish jewellery and brush your teeth. We had a buffet lunch at a campsite in the trees, where lace monitor lizards roamed around our feet. We were advised to ignore them, and after lunch two broke into a fight over territory. We sunbathed a while and watched while our tour guide fed bits of food to fish in the shallows, which would jump up to grab it (and some were then taken by seagulls).

Finally we were taken to the Southern coast of Hook Island, to the West of Whitsunday Island, where we donned masks and snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef. It was an incredible experience and we felt very privelidge to get so close to such beautiful tropical fish. We saw clownfish too! The coral is spectacular and you have to be very careful where you put your flippers, as even a plate sized piece can take 20 years to grow. 

It was a great tour by Max Fury and I highly recommend it to anyone in Airlie Beach. Our dorms were essentially cabins around a garden, and the following day I was pretty tired after sleepwalking and locking myself out of our dorm (I woke up just as the door shut in my face and spent an hour walking around outside looking for a chair to climb in the window with) so we spent time at the lagoon, very similar to but a little busier than Cairns' lagoon. We also went to a beach with a safe swimming zone and watched the sunset from there.

HERVEY BAY & FRASER ISLAND

Hervey Bay itself is a town for the older generation, and mainly used as an access point for Fraser Island. We arrived at 11am on the night bus and took the local bus to a little shopping centre to buy warm clothes. So far every place down the East coast has got a little colder and a little more expensive. It was about 22 degrees but we were used to being in 35 degrees and we'd heard it was colder on the island!

We'd already booked our tour of Fraser Island while we were in Cairns. Essentially it was a 3 day/2 night tour on the island, driving around in 4x4s and viewing lakes and wildlife, camping on the beach. We were briefed the night before and being over 21 and having a driving license, I was able to put my name down as a driver. I'd had experience in a 4x4 before but not on sand! We were shown a safety video and given a few tips but it was still nerve wracking the first time I got behind the wheel.

The night before we left, we grouped together with four others and bought food for a BBQ for the two evenings we'd be on the island. We went to bed early and checked out at 6am to leave in the 4x4s at half past 7. For the first day our group travelled with our guide in the lead car, which he had to drive at all times. Nevertheless we got a running commentary as we went, learning all sorts of interesting things about the island. 

We had to be on the lookout for dingoes, dog like creatures which inhabit Fraser Island and can be aggressive if approached or where food is concerned. We were made very aware of the footprint we made on the island and encouraged to clear every scrap of food whenever we ate; if dingoes and other wildlife begin to associate humans with food then they could lose their sense of caution and become more aggressive. Our camp was surrounded by a chain link fence on one side and an electric fence on the other so we were relatively protected, but the portaloo was outside of the fence and one night a dingo started hanging around so none of us used the toilet for a while. We also passed one while we were driving along the beach; it was minding its own business and we got a really good close up view. They are very elegant creatures but also hostile so we were lucky we had no more encounters (the guide video for the island simply said if attacked to "defend yourself aggressively").

The second day we were there I got to drive a fair distance. Fraser Island is deceptively large - 80km long - and before you know it you've been driving for 40 minutes in one go. Driving a 4x4 through sand is really fun,  but you have to be very careful not to tip. If you swerved to avoid a wave on the beach (the highways on the island are the beaches, most notably 75 Mile Beach), you would more likely than not topple, and with speed limits of 50mph it might not be a minor accident. Nevertheless it was fun and anyone with a licence and over 21 years old got to take turns at driving.

​

We camped for two nights (overnight it was freezing - was not prepared!) and got to see a few lakes, a lot of wildlife and a pretty cool  shipwreck. The SS Maheno, since 1905, has been used as a warship, a hospotal ship and a cruise ship and was eventually left by the Japanese when it was beached from a cyclone in the 1930s. No-one wanted to buy  a ship that couldn'tmove so since then it has been sinking into the sand. About 5 levels are submerged but you can still se the top two levels of one half of the ship.

​

We got to see several lakes and pools: Lake  Boomanjin is the largest perched lake in the world (literally created by being an elevated puddle collecting rainwater); Lake Birrabeen's water is tinted red from the tea tree oils seeping out of the surrounding plants, Eli's Creek is a gentle moving stream with an Olympic swimming pool's volume of water flowing through every hour; the Champagne Pools are saltwater pools off the beach where the movement of water over the nearby rocks causes it to bubble and froth; and Lake McKenzie contains some of the purest water in the world - so clear you sink like a stone.

​

By far the best part of our time on Fraser Island was going to Indian Head to look for whales (Indian Head was named when Captain Cook saw dark skinned people there when he first arrived in 1770 and assumed they were Indians). There were so many whales it was impossible to not see them. The majority of whales we wsaw were humpbacks. A mother with her calf passed so close to us that we could see them under the water, and another young male impressed us with backflips for about half an hour, slowly heading North (in truth he was probably trying to impress another female whale, not us). It was a great time to visit as hundreds of whales are migrating to breed at the moment.

​

It's definitely a tour I recommend, as driving around the island and seeing so much wildlife is such a treat. We also got to see some log settlements from the 60s which are now disused. It was cold going in Winter but definitely better - you get to see all the migrating whales and on't have to see many people! We also got to see kangaroos when we drove off the ferry on the way back to the hostel.

​

http://www.palaceadventures.com.au/fraser-island-tours/stargazer-guided-tours.html

​