Airlie Beach-Prosperpine

From Townsville I travelled [again by Greyhound] to Airlie Beach- a small harbour town near the Whitsunday Islands. I am planning to go sailing there for a couple of days. But first I continued travelling to Prosperpine where Leanne, my friend from Maastricht was picking Eggplants [aubergines]. She was staying in a guesthouse where everybody was working, so a nice group of people who all knew eachother. It was great staying there!

It was simply perfect, seeing Leanne. We spent most of our time catching up- talking about our travels, our troubles and all the things we miss! She is now off to New Zealand, but we'll probably meet again in Melbourne in December, so maybe even celebrate Christmas/New Year together!?

I am back in Airlie Beach, where I booked a sailtrip to the islands, but the boat was nut fully booked, so now i need to wait another 3 days in this boring town [mainly filled with drunk young backpackers]. Good thing is, that Alister, the South African guy I met in Cairns, is making his way down here [after two weeks of chilly-picking]. Maybe we'll sail toghether, or maybe we'll head south together afterwards... we'll see!

Enough for now. Enjoy the pictures [reality is however much better].

Take care people!

Bas.

Townsville

Hi there again!

Long time no write- me sorry! But last time I think I gave you enough to read for a while!

After my bus-trip I arrived in Townsville in the late evening, and was, to my surprise, picked-up by my cousing Marc and my aunt Tante Tiny! My aunt and uncle had just arrived that afternoon. We drove to Marc's house where he lives with Clarissa (his sweet girlfriend) and Marion and Andy- Andy studies with Marc. It was a big German family so I have been re-learning my German for a week (although it was mixed with English all the time). But it was great! I got a big matrass in the livingroom and it really felt like home!

We had ofcourse lots and lots to talk about, which we did most of the next day. In the evening Clarissa and Marc had the great idea to all go to a Shakespeare play in the botanical gardens of Townsville. IT WAS AMAZING. A group of very funny and diligent actors had set up a temporary theatre in between the trees. Actually, there were only seats for the audience, the actors themselves didn't have a real stage but some stage-elements (a bench, a table, etc.) were just placed in between the trees of the garden. It was great! They mixed the old play with some modern elements and music, a few days later we were still lauging about it and enjoying that great night out!

We also took Marks' Monster-Machine (a huge 4WD) to a national park north of Townsville. It was a beautifull rainforrest on some mountains reaching 1000m. We walked around on some trails and were stunned by the amazing plants (see photos) and sights (photos).

The last evening with Tante Tiny and Ome Mike (they are so nice) we went out for dinner. Townsville is not the most lively of places, so finding a nice place proved not very simple, but in the end we found a nice steakhouse. I had advised Clarissa Marc and Ome Mike on Kangaroo. Luckily they really loved it! Did I already tell you about Kangaroo meat?

[KANGAROO MEAT is extremely good for the environment. Kangaroo's don't consume a lot of water, their feet are adapted to the dry soils so they don't damage the toplayers of the firtile lands, their dun (poo) doesn't contain a lot of CO2 (15% of Australia's CO2 production is caused by cattle), they only eat some plants and leave the rest growing so it can re-pollinate the land (so not the cow-as-lawnmower-effect), AND their meat contains very little fat. So, in Australia, forget normal steaks, EAT KANGAROO (or vergetarian)]

What was extremely nice is that my aunt Tiny (the oldest sister of my mother) reminded my so much of my own mother! The way she talked and says things and just IS... really like 'mi mum'... It was so nice to have a sort of surrogate mother here for a couple of days! Thanks for everything!!

The group (Marc, Clarissa, Andy, Marion) and another friend that studies with Marc and his girlfriend, Jochem and Nicole, together with some others, we're busy doing a diving course. So, one day we went to Magnetic Island for some diving practise. I took the snorkelgear to go along.

Magnetic Island is a small island in front of Townsville's coast. It is very nice and the Koala's and nice beaches attrack many backpackers and tourists. The ferry takes about 20min, so it is really close. While the whole bunch was occupied with diving I did some snorkeling and stayed on the beach with either Jochem or Nicole who were taking turns looking after their little baby, amazingly sweet and incredibly nice Julie!

Later that week I got a cal from Birthe, who was staying at Magnetic Island, to see if I wanted to come and see the Koala's. So, i went over there for a nice lazy day, crowned by some nice pictures of some beautifull Koala's.

The last night at Marc-and-Clarissa-and-Marion-and-Andy's place I cooked some Red Emperor-fish for them (with some potato and salad help from the others). It was very good (ahum, if I say so myself). I had some small presents for all of them because they have really spoiled me! There was beer in the fridge, and enough food (crunchy peanutbutter sandwiches as much as I could eat- which is a lot, as most of you know) all the time and such a great atmosphere! It was definitely one of the best weeks (9days) of my Australia-trip! I felt like a little prince! It was so nice to spent a long week with Marc, my cousin. We figured out that we have probably never spent so much time together in our lives (maybe not even all time added up)! But it was really really nice.

In Januari they will be coming to Melbourne, so I can return the favor!!! Thanks for all! Great people! (Also the whole rest- Andy, Marion, Nicole, Jochem, Julie and the others).

PS. Clarissa, special thanks for the cellular-biology-classes!!

PICTURES!

instructions

Hi there people! I posted a few new messages on the blog. On the right side of the blogpage you can see the titles I've posted in september- best to read them in the following order:
from Perth to Darwin-1
from Perth to Darwin-2
from Perth to Darwin-3 STORY OF THE SNAKE
Darwin-Cairns-Townsville
Bas.

Darwin-Cairns-Townsville

Darwin was a pretty nice town. The climate however, was a bit hard to deal with. At the moment is what they call the build-up. Everyday starts sunny and warm and end a cloudy and humid. There is no rain yet, the Wet will start only in a month or two, but humidity is building up. So, in Darwin it was warm and humid. And not much of a breeze to relief us.

Mark and I spent our last days hanging out together, visting a night market next to Mindil beach (where we ate Crocodile, Emu, Camel and Wallaby). We met tons of interesting people to hangout with (japanese, Irish, kiwi, south-korean). Among them Marielle and Birthe, the girls from on the road. We met up several times for some beers, or just some hanging out. I tought them the TIMTAMTRICK. Tim Tam's are Australia's favourite chocolate cookie (oh yes they are amazingly good, hard chocolate on the outside, soft caramel chand chocolate inside between some crunchy biscuits). They are rectangular and the trick goes as follows (Dennis and co. tought me in Melbourne): bite of the diagonal oposite corners of the cookie, dip one end in hot tea, and suck the other end. Once you either feel tea in your mouth or the cookie going soft, you pop it into your mouths entirely at once. It will just explode inside... superb! Marielle got the hang of it quickly, Mark and especially Birthe will need a lot of practise to get the prober result.

I left Darwin by plane, to Cairns where I stayed in a very nice hostell. Birthe followed me the next day, because she had 3 weeks of travelling booked, starting from that hostell. I also met Alister, a South African guy who's going to live her in Australia permanently after travelling for a while (which he starts now). We had some great political discussions, right from the start! I had missed that a bit with Mark. I have also told myself I should take more pictures of the people I meet, so I can remember them properly, so Alister (and Gary) and Birthe and Marielle should be there in between the photos somewhere.

After two days in Cairns I took the Greyhound bus and travelled to Townsville. The bustrip was amazing! I hope the fotos (from the bus, so those pictures will not be the best) well show it a bit. Beautifull rainforrested mountains and the valleys filled with suger-cane and banana plantations. So nice to travel those (6hours) distances and just enjoy my ipod!

from Perth to Darwin-3: THE STORY OF THE SNAKE

The last night with our van, we stayed at a crappy old caravan park just 2hours west of Darwin. When it got dark we spent, like we did almost every night, reading outside, next to the van. Then, time came to go brush my teeth, so I walked over to the toilets/showers. I didn’t take a flashlight so only at the very last moment I noticed the big snake enjoying the warm pavement just outside the showers. My foot was about 30cm’s from stepping on it. My hart skipped as I stepped back quickly! I called for Mark in the darkness, and while I went to take the camera with my hart beating like crazy, Mark had teamed up with a couple of Aussies that had heard me calling Mark.

“aaah, that’s probably just a tree-snake.”

“well, isn’t it a bit aggressive for a treesnake, John?”

“jeah John, I think it is a Taipan”

“well, maybe it is… jeah, I think you’re right”

One of them nutty guys tried to catch it for a while, and when he did (I was standing 20m’s back, shaking as a leaf) he carried it away and with a big, discuss-trowing spin, trew it as far away into the bushes as he could.

I’ve been doing some looking up, and judging from the pictures and all, I have come to understand that it was actually a Taipan. It is regarded as the most deadly and aggressive snake in Australia…. I think I have been quite lucky!

(so, all the stories actually seem to be true… I am for sure never going to pee in the dark again without bringing a flashlight).

from Perth to Darwin-2

first scroll down to read "from Perth to Darwin-1"

Well, sorry for that long story there people. I will try and keep this second one shorter. But at least one of the stories will have given you a good view of how amazingly cool our trip was.

At Coral Bay we met a couple of nice people with whom we spent a night in the pub and a night on the campsite. After Coral Bay we drove further north to Exmouth, a ratherdull place. We camped some 30km outside of the town on a caravan park along the coast. At sundown we went to the beach to cook some seafood pasta.. it was great, sitting there with a beer, under the stars! After that we drove back to the caravanpark at 20km/h. There were kangaroos everywhere. We had a hilarious trip. We got some of it on video, so I’ll try to put these little movies online when I#ve got a chance to.

Continuing north we headed inland for a while, towards Tom Price- on the 2,5hour road we saw about 11other vehicles.... I ran over a snake (our first)! Around Tom Price (mainly a mining town) we visited beautiful Karinjini National Park- beautiful gorges in the middle of very hilly desert landscapes. We swam in one of the river-pools, underneath a waterfall- the water was so blue! And it was so nice and quiet- just great.

After Tom Price we stayed at a beautiful free campsite in the absolute middle of the desert again. Amazing place, an amazing sunset and so many stars! And then when you wake up, the first thing you see is this amazing landscape all around!

Heading further north, towards Broome, we encountered a lot of monotonous landscapes, interrupted by the occasional gigantic bushfire (flames we saw from afar were at least 30m high!). We also encountered dustdevils: small (but big) tornados going through the sandy landscape. One came very close when we were parking for a break somewhere. Amzing how is seemed to have a brain, it seemed like an animal, going through the forest searching for food. It was very small, maybe 1,5-2m across, and (visibly) 8m tall… slowly following its fast and blowing up leaves and sand. We really wondered how things like that sustain themselves. It seemed so small, but kept on going and going.

We stayed the night at 80mile beach, a beautiful caravan park on a great beach, but since the sea is full of, well, virtually anything dangerous you can think of, swimming was not advised. Look but don’t touch! Amazing seashells littered the 100m wide (and 80mile long?) white sands.

The next day we hit Broome, where we stayed two nights on a very nice caravan park where we could just walk onto the beach, even see the blue sea from our van! Broome was very lay-back, but nothing really special. At night there was the rising of the moon- celebrated as the “stairway to the moon” because of the moon’s reflex ion in the mud plains at low-tide. We had never watched the moon rise before, and the whole town came to watch it with us, but it was just amazing. It just takes a couple of minutes. The nicest is just before the moon appears the light shines from behind the horizon for a moment- Brilliant. We tried to meet up with Marielle and Birthe, the French and German girl we met along the way since they had sent us an sms that they were in Broome and up for a beer, but they were in the end already to tipsy to walk all the way from their side of Broome to our side (where the moon was rising). But we didn’t miss it fortunately.

Further north we stayed at Kunnanura, a small town along the banks of a huge lake. I was writing in my little logbook (in which I write down all the nasty stuff I think of all of you, haha) while the sun was setting. Mark was taking a shower and had locked the van, so unfortunately I have no pictures to prove it, but: suddenly the skies turned black and full of noise. I thought they were birds but when I looked better hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of bats, flying foxes, filled the skies. From where I was sitting to the horizon. For about 15minutes! What an awesome sight. Apparently they nest in the trees along the lake on one side and go off feeding every evening, all of the together (poor fruit-farmers). Coolest were the couple of bats after the big group had passed; the followed quickly, but strangely unsure of their route, all alone in the skies: “hey guys, wait up! Sorry, I forgot to put my alarm again!”

At the caravan park, Mark and I barbequed. While at it, some older guys, all Aussies staying with their families, talked to us about travelling Australia, their memories of travelling in Europe, beers, etc. Three nice girls working there, really cool, came up for a chat. One, Jade, spoke Dutch. She had been living in Den Haag for a while and loved it. She was actually planning on going back there in spring, because her boyfriend was Dutch (bommer).

Near Kunnanura was a small National Park with a couple of walks. It was aboriginal land. Many trees and plants were explained through the eyes of the indigenous people: how they were used for food or tools.

Slowly getting closer to Darwin we followed Victoria River for a long while. A majestic river in a megestic landscape. We saw a kangaroo drinking the water, and got a glimpse of our first huge salty (saltwater crocodile, that can easily reach 4m’s)- actually very close to the drinking kangaroo- so we hung around for a while, awaiting some action- but it didn’t arrive.

We stayed the night over at the caravan park at the Victoria River Crossing roadhouse (motel/gas station/ pub/ restaurant). At night we had a free concert there from a oldies-singing-guitar cowboy. Just great. And while drinking a beer we met a couple of construction workers (drunk) busy constructing the new bridge there. A big group of them had been camping out there for a couple of months, working 7-7day/week trying to get a couple of bridges constructed before the arrival of the “wet” (season). They had gotten half a day off, that Sunday, and were all celebrating in the roadhouse… there were not enough women there it seemed, but enough beers for sure!

Near Katherine (Northern Territory’s 3rd largest town after Darwin and Alice Springs) we stayed at a national park where we swom in a nother big waterfall-pool called Edith Falls. There was a nice campsite that we decided to spent the night at, and there is nothing better, I can tell you, then to dive into a fresh natural swimmingpool (still had to watch out for snakes and the occasional croc, but we’re getting used to that now) after a day of driving trough the heat. At the pool we got talking to Gary- an older guy that looked a bit like a rockstar. Check the pictures. He knew a lot about snakes and stuff because he had been collecting them for a long time in his life. He joined us for dinner, shared some beers with us and we spent the night talking about mainly music. Turned out he loved music as much as we did and he had a laptop full of the stuff with him. The best thing was: a very nice bottle of wine. Gary rocked!

The next day we went one a canoo (kayak actually) trip at Katherine gorge. That was nice, but we’d expected a bit more crocodiles (however sweetwater ones, but still, we just got a partial glimpse of one of them). The landscape was awesome. Clouds (first ones in more than a week) and the resulting changing of the sunlight added a bit more drama.

The last two days we spent in Kakadu National Park, the biggest in Australia, west of Darwin. We saw many big crocodiles there, and finally some aboriginal rock art! They had drawn fish and other animals (hunting trophies) in x-ray, examining their internal organs and skeleton. Very cool were the drawings of white men: actually drawn in white, with their hand in their pockets and with wooden shoes! Also many portrayed the stories that they passed on from adult to children for many generations, while they lived among the rock-shelters for many thousands of years.

The best part was the view from on top of these rocks. Mark and I spent at least an hour, watching the wetlands, just silently watching.taking it all in. Overwhelming.

This is the most northern part of Australia one can get to without a 4wd. It is close to Arnhemland, the biggest aboriginal land, where they still live like they have done for thousands of years. It was stunningly beautiful. Just incredible. As some of the picture may show. So many shades of green, as far as I could see. What I life I’ve got! What a lucky bastard I am to be able to come here and see this…

PICTURES

from Perth to Darwin-1

Hello everybody.

It is quite difficult to make time to tell you about my last 3,5 weeks. I am now in Darwin, and since it is nice and warm here (read: too hot for me!) the town is full of backpackers. Everybody wants to use internet so it's busy everywhere. I will probably write this blogpost from Darwin, Cairns and Townsville- where I will probably once you read this. I am flying to Cairns tomorrow (1 september) and i will travel then to Townsville where I will meet Mark and Clarissa (my cousin and his girlfriend) and my uncle and aunt! Oh yes, Leanne, my friend from Maastricht, will also be there.. great!

START
So, where to start? Well, last time I mentioned that Mark and I were travelling to Perth by bus. We actually ended up staying in Freemantle, a small little town just outside of Perth with a bit of a bohemian-flavour to it. Actually, there is a very nice little museum there with the wreckage of 4 Dutch VOC (east indies company) schips, among them the Batavia- it sunk not far from Perth. Really cool was the collection of old maps on which Australia was named "new holland".

TRANSPORT
I was thinking about buying some kind of vehicle (car/van) to travel north, but that turned out to be such a hussle (paperwork, looking for a vehicle, checking it mechanically, etc.) that Mark and me decided to rent a campervan. We made some serious budget-calculations and in the end it proved to be not only a nicer option to travel than bus+hostells, but also a cheaper option. So, we picked our little van [the flowrider] up on the morning of 7 august and headed off north.

For me it was the first time driving on the left side of the road, and in a car with the steeringwheel on the right side... quiet an experience: putting on the window-wipers when you want to use the turning-blinkers or slamming your arm really hard into the door on your right when you want to change gears... By the way, I had to do all the driving (at least some 5000km we calculated) because Mark's driverslicence had expired a while ago!

SICK
In Freemantle I had cought a small cold, since everybody in the hostells was having some form of sneez (or "the sniffies") it was just a matter of time before you catch it yourself in one of the dormrooms. So, for a couple of days I had a small fever and sore thoath and running nose. When we left with the van this was still the case, that is why you can see me in the first pictures still with my jacket and sweater and even scarf!

PINNACLE DESERT
The first thing we went to see was the Pinnacles Desert. We had seen many pictures of it and expected huge rockformations, but they turned out to be more of a human scale. It was however quite a magical place. And although it seems very sunny, the first week driving daytime temperatures were not higher then maybe 20c. The first nights each of us actually slept in 2 sleepingbags!

KALBARRI
The next day we drove to Kalbarri, a small seaside village in the Kalbarri National Park. The coastline featured many interesting CLIFFS and sealife (dolphins, dudongs, whales and sharks). Inland the park had a couple of beautifull gorges. We decided to do an 8km walk in one of the gorges, but we could only reach it by driving trough the desert for 1 hour on a sandy dirtroad. About half way we were stopped by a tourgroup (tourists) taking pictures of an ECHYDNA. This is a sort of ant-eating "stekelvarken" that is actually closely related to a Platypus (vogelbekdier). It had crossed the dirtroad just before the bus of tourist had arrived but was now really scared and digging itself into the sand. The tour guide told people to stand back so the Echydna would come out again but some people just kept on going to close so we all just gave up after a while and continued our journey (some people just blow it for everybody).

The gorge was really in the middle of the desert. So nice, barren desert landscape for miles and miles in all directions, and then there is suddenly this green artery with different plants, annimals and landscape... really great. It was very calm there aswell; not mny tourist did the 8km WALK, so we had the 'path' just for ourselves. Path was however quite a big word... there were just some peggs every couple of hundred meters, and the route in between you just had to find yourself. Some parts of the path involved CLIMBING over the rocks along the river.. really cool. And (we guess because it was so calm) we have come across quite a few KANGAROOS... very beautifull big wild animals.

KANGAROOS
On the way out of the park, on the sandy dirtroad, we almost hit a couple of Kangaroos aswell... these silly fellas all just pop up when the sun goes down and all just try to commit suicide! They really jump towards the car when you pass... really strange, they seem curious and not aware that it is actually dangerous for them. But luckily I didnt hit them.

STROMATALITES
The next day we continued our trip up north. I was starting to feel better and also the temperatures were rising. We were going to two BAYS called "sharkbay national park". I think we were about 800km north of Perth now. And highways in this part of Australia (actually all roads between Perth and Darwin) are just 1 lane roads (one up and one down), which makes travelling not very fast. Also we had to keep an eye on our fuel-budget so we didnt drive faster than 100km/hour. In the south of one of the two bays we visited a magical place. In the shallow waters Stromatalites live: these are the most ancient LIFEFORMS on the earth. It's single-cellular life, that builds up into rocky formations. They have been arround for 2,5 billion years (earth is about 4,5billion years old) and were responsible for building up most of the oxygen in the atmosphere so that more complex life-forms could emerge (1 to 1,5 billion years later). I had read about these lifeforms in a book by Fridjoff Capra called 'web of life' and here at Sharkbay is one of only 2 places in the world where these lifeforms still exist. And for most it doesnt look very special, "just some rocks".

But the place itself was very MAGIC! It was warm and very silent.. the water was very clear and shallow, and the clouds in the sky seemed so low we could almost touch them... it seemed like i was dreaming... the light was so soft, the sounds of the sea seemed very far away or almost fake, everything seemed to pass in slowmotion. Amazing.

SHARKBAY
We stayed in Denham, a small touristy village in the national park where we saw a very nice sundown on the beach where two girls were taking a brave bath in the sea (sharks-stingers-jellyfish-coldwater). Next day we spent doing laundry, shopping and driving around a bit. Denham was not a very spectacular place, although we visited a nice blue LAGOON a bit inland from Denham that was stunningly beautifull. A little sign there said: "hotspring" so we set out to go find it. While walking around the circular lagoon we thought several times of diving in, figuring that the lagoon being locked off from the sea couldnt be housing in dangerous things from the sea. But when we got to 1/3 of the roundtrip we read a little sign saying: "do not swim, dangerous Stonefish inhabit these waters". Thank god we didnt go in! These are very well camouflaged fish nasty fish that have a couple of spikes on their back that simply kill...

CAMPING
The next morning we had a chat with the two brave girls who turned out to be French and German. They were doing the same trip as us in the same timespan, so we figured we'd meet them again later (and we would).

After that we drove north and planned to stay on a FREE CAMPSITE along the highway that evening. Since distances are so big between villaes in Westarn Australia, along the highway rest-area's are provided where you can camp one night for free. It was beautifully located near a (now dry) riverbed. Here very rudimentary toilets are provided, however a shower is not.

Mark went to look for firewood, but put on gloves, which seemed very wise with all the spiders and snakes in this country. Soon thereafter a caravan parked, a door opened, trhee little children jumped out and starting playing everywhere: in the bushes, in the dry-riverbed, even along the little remaining pools in the riverbed (crocodiles?)... haha.. Mark looked rather silly with his gloves on!

We build a nice campfire there and started cooking. Soon thereafter two other guys (german and irish, our age) arrived with a campervan. We chatted a bit and the invited us to come sit at their table (which was lit by a nice bug-repelling candle) to eat our dinner. So we did and chatted a bit. Later on, one of them tried to blow out the candle, which didnt work, so the German guy said: I`ll do it, blew very hard, and before I knew it I was fully covered in red candle-wax, even in my hair and eyes. It was spilled over my favorite jeans and t-shit.. sucker! So stupid. I have never heard any "sorry" for that. It sucked, blew my evening. I have carried the jeans around till now (i am writing this in Townsville) to take it to a dry-cleaner, but just found out that I have lost the jeans somewhere (left it in a hostell somewhere I guess)... FUCK! Probably better to have gotten rid of this bad-luck item, but I really regret to have lost this nice jeans... stupid German 'dude'!

The freecampsite was great however, so we decided to do this more often (without anoying visitors).

CORAL BAY
The next day we drove on to Coral Bay. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (steenbokskeerkring), so we were finally really getting north and into warmer weather. Coral Bay was again a touristy village in the middle of nowhere, on the Southern tip of Ningaloo Reef National Park, which is famous for it`s abundant sealife. The village comprises not much more than a little harbour, two caravan parks, a backpackers (hostell) and a hotel-com-pub-com-restaurant-com-bottleshop.

Immediately we went to hire some snorkeling gear. Coral Bay is a small bay protected from the sea by a large coral-reef. This means relatively safe SNORKELING since most sharks, stingers (rays), jelly fish etc. stay outside in the ocean. The people renting us the snorkeling gear were very nice so we chatted a bit and found out that they also offered outer-reef tours to go see sharks, the outer reef, dolphins, turtles, Whales and swim with Manta Rays on a small boat. It immediately felt right so we booked a tour (about 100euro for half a day). But first we went for some snorkeling on our own.

As soon as I put my head under, I couldnt believe what I was seeing! It is an entirely different planet there... unbelievable. SO many fish! In all colours and shapes, big and small.. amazing. And the CORAL, like big surrealalist forrests, going on for miles! Greenish, purple-ish, brownish, reddish, blue-ish, big leaves, small leaves, spikes, sponges, sea-cewcumbers, stars, etc. Just simply amazing! The water was however quite cold (20c), so we had to go back to the beach every 45min to dry and warm-up again. Late in the afternoon, just before sunset, just before getting out of the water I encountered a beautifull little ray (rog in Dutch)... about 80cm wide, gliding through the water, with a very long, whip-like tail. And just a bit further a white one, hoovering over the sand on the bottom. And when I got out, and walked trough the shallow water, another white one flashed by, gliding over the white-sand. Such amazing creatures (however, these can also be quite dangerous, especially when stepped on they can strike you with their sting- these actually killed Steve Erwin, the Crocodile Hunter).

BOAT
The next morning we went on the boat-trip. It was really great: just 9 people on the boat, a very enthausiastic and smart crew (an older skipper and a young girl). We were supposed to go from 9 'till 14hrs, but arrived back ashore around 1630h. Really, we hit the jackpot it seems.

On the tour we saw some sharks (smaller ones), more and bigger corals and fish, followed a mother-humbackwhale with her calf and a young feemale humpbackwhale for 1,5 hours, saw the mother feed the calf (from afar), the calf going crazy which meant; jumping out of the water and splashing like a dolphin about 20 times, and even the big mama do it 3 times, some more sharks and coral-reef snorkeling and the hightlight of the day: a big manta-ray.

We were going quite close to the beach with th eboat for an hour, and just when I thought we wouldn't find a Manta today, the guide-girl told us to put on our gear and stand on the steel-rack on the back of the boat and prepare to glide in, as quitely as possible. When we did it, I looked down and immediately saw a huge black SHADOW appearing in the sandy but quite clear water. It was about 3 meters deep here, and the big Manta-Ray appeared just under me... so amazing!! I could see every little detail.. her eyes, her guils (kiewen), the accompanying fish that clean here parasites, just everything! SO AMAZING! She glided so quitely trough the water, slowly plapping her wings like a giant bird... slowly filtering the seawater trough her mouths and guils to extract the plankton from the water. While we swam along, just 2-2,5m above her, she made a big very slow gliding turn, and came back... we swam along again. The beautifull animal was swimming towards the beach, back and forth, since the waves of the shore mixed the plankton very well... at least 15minutes the 3,5m wide MANTA wasn't bothered by us and just kept on swimming up and down. It absolutely blew my mind. Such an amazing experience. But then, as quick as it had come, it turned around and took of. Swoosh, gone. So incredibly fast as it could move! A-MA-ZING!!

This is why I came to Australia.. what an experience. I`ll for shure never ever forget that.


PS1 PICTURES you can find in the 'my photos' link on the right side
PS2 REMAINING STORY belonging to the rest of pictures will follow