Sydney

We took the 30 minute journey by ferry to area called The Rocks at the centre of Sydney and it is located right between two very recognisable structures, the harbour bridge and the opera house. The city has some amazing buildings, and is very impressive from the water. Because the of the mount of inlets, bays, coves...etc the city has a huge amount of water frontage. We walked around the city and had finished up our day at Darling Harbour where we had something to eat and took in a movie at the IMAX called Deep Sea 3D. This was excellent, it brought us right back to our diving in Cairns.

Manly

We arrive safely in Manly seven miles north of Sydney and are so lucky to be staying with Nancy Wagner a very good friend of Maureen's from the U.S. Nancy lives in an excellent apartment right on the beach front over looking the blue ocean. (Top photo) This particular beach front is very popular for all types of surfing. The area has alot of restaurants and is popular with people that work in the city and tourists. The best way to visit Manly is by the ferry which takes about 30 minutes. Middle photo is the ferry pulling into Manly, its also the home to Sydney Harbour National Park and is has some amazing tracks for hiking around, and are full of many animals, especially lizards, which are harder to catch than you would think.

Back In Brisbane.....

Well...........on our way back down to Brisbane we stopped at Australia's Zoo......so Noel finally got to see plenty of crocodiles but I guess its a little different to see them out in the wild.

Of course he had to go jump in its mouth:):)

And the cute little Koalas..that sleep 18-20 hours per day!!

And my cousin Sharon came up from Surfers Paradise, she also is in Australia for the next year or so....so it was a great reunion and we had a great night out in Brisbane...Caroline brought us to the late night markets and a few pubs..and Noel was just surrounded by woman for the night. And yes he is right....I do seem to have cousins in every part of the world!

Thanks Caroline for your car:):) It was great to see you guys!! And sad to leave:(:(

Fig Strangler Tree

This tree on the island hollow inside and hundreds of years old!!!

Frasier Island

As you can see in the photos, you can easily get stuck in the sand and the tide was quickly coming in so our tour guide was getting a little nervous.

We had a great group of 13 that we spent the 3 days with.....3 Swiss, 2 irish, 1 Scottish, 2 Dutch, 1 English, 1 Greek. 1 Romania, 1 Auzzie, 1 Kiwi ( our guide) and 1 American (me:)

So a varied group and we had great fun in our close knit quarters....as you can see in the photo...our guide called it the Hilton of camping because the tents were built off the ground (on timber floors) with comfortable beds that had linen on them............so as Noel reminded me...we were not roughing it......until the very last morning when we had a visitor in our tent...of course only our tent...at 530am. So.....our neighbors were woken up to me screaming....I really hate little creatures that run very fast.....so I was out and up for breakfast very early!!!

(And Noel more concerned with taking a photo of it than getting it out...actually the photo above is the spot where Noel found its entrance that was suppose to be blocked off.....this is the 2nd one about to get in) Good thing this did not happen earlier because we really had the best 3 days.....probably one of the many highlights thus far!

Noel finally got to see a snack...called a childrens python...this one was at the camp site next to ours...so we all went to have a look. He wanted to hold it but luckily our tour guide told him not to!!

Brisbane......

Well we decided to travel south to Brisbane, we were planning to travel by bus whish would have taken 20 hours so we were told flying with a cheap airlines is not that much more so.....sounded like a better option.

Arrived on the 11th Nov and stayed in a really nice hostel, we have been very lucky as we can get a room to ourselves and the hostels have been an nice as hotels but alot cheaper!

My cousin Caroline has been in Brisbane the last 6 months so she met us when we arrived and had a great night on the town. She also offered her station wagon to us for a trip that we had planned to Frasier island which is about 4 hours north. We had planned on renting a car or taking the bus so this was a great treat. So we hit the road on the Tuesday until Friday for a 3 day tour to the largest Sand Island in the world...Frasier Island. The highway (motorway) on the island is a 120km beach of sand that only allows 4 wheel drivers! The roads are sand tracks!

Cape Tribulation

Well...we headed North about 2 hours to a Cape Tribulation for 3 days, population 90 people so quite remote. Beautiful beaches, although they are empty as the ocean in these areas are where many crocodiles roam along with sharks and stinger jellyfish. We also visited the Daintree Rainforest. This is a very unique area because the Rainforest meets the ocean......pretty cool!!

The nearest shop/internet was a 20 minute walk away so we really chilled out, no phone coverage as well so felt very removed from civilization.

Noel was slighly dissapointed that he did not get to see a crocodile or snack. We were told because it was so hot and humid (about 95 degrees) they were staying our of sight.

We did manage to kayak the 1st evening to watch the sunset, we went with a guide and an American couple from Utah, so it was nice to see the 1st Americans since we left.

Our guide was pointing out where they spotted crocodiles the previous week....so it left us a little worried. (not Noel of course....he would have loved if one swam next to us!!)

So I was not happy enough when we got back to shore.