Snorkeling!

Day 38: The Great Barrier Reef

After the 10-hour overnight bus ride, we arrived in Cairns at around 6am, walked to our hotel, dropped off our luggage, and headed over to the marina to catch our cruise to the Great Barrier Reef.

The cruise took us out into the open ocean, where we suited up in our snorkeling gear and jumped into the water to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. The waves were quite strong, making the water fairly cloudy and also making it difficult for us to see much, but we did see some of the coral and some cool fish, and Gaurav saw a turtle! Rachna had a bit of a hard time with the strong waves, but we did manage to snorkel for some time. We swam back to the boat, and Rachna felt a little nauseous because of the rough waves, but we had some lunch and she felt better after some time.

The cruise operators told us that when the tides begin to subside, sand islands called cays begin to appear throughout the ocean! So basically there are these sand “dunes” that breach the water when it gets low enough. The cruise then took us out to another area on the reef, where we were taken to two cays and we basically “walked on the ocean”! It was so cool to walk from sand dune to sand dune in the middle of the ocean and to be surrounded by water everywhere with no land in sight! It was like we had discovered an island and were the first to set foot on it! Then we snorkeled some more, and saw some interesting creatures and huge corals.

The ride back to the mainland was quite rough and wet, but we made it! We didn’t see as much as we had hoped to see on the reef, but it was still a cool experience!

We walked around town a bit in the evening, had a bite to eat, prepared for our early flight tomorrow morning, and passed out!

Fish on the coral reef

Cays in the middle of the ocean (can you spot the two of them?)

 Gaurav carrying Rachna over the threshold (on the cay)

The cruise that might have been

Day 37: Daydreaming

We got up early this morning for our cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, got our shuttle to the marina, and hopped onto our boat for our first destination: Daydream Island. We arrived on the island, and walked over to see the Living Reef – a coral reef that winds through the resort that makes up this island. The reef was pretty cool, with some interesting creatures (rays, sharks, starfish) swimming around in it.

We then strolled around the entire island, walked on the small coral beach, followed a short trail through the forest (where Gaurav finally got his wish of seeing a snake!), and realized we had just got caught in another tourist trap. The running joke between us was that it was called Daydream Island because you arrived there and daydreamed about being on a better island! There was basically nothing there but the resort! Sigh.

So we went over to the restaurant where we were to have lunch (included in our package) and got a call informing us that the rest of our cruise was cancelled due to rough waters! That meant we weren’t going to be able to see the main thing there was to see in the islands: Whitehaven Beach. Double sigh.

We had lunch, came to terms with our disappointment, and got on the boat that came to bring us back to Airlie Beach. The good news is they provided a full refund, so we basically got a short cruise, visited an island (albeit boring), and had lunch for free. Oh well.

We got the shuttle back to our hotel, but since we had checked out, we passed the time sitting by the pool surfing the net. Then we took our stuff to town, grabbed a quick dinner, and got on our overnight bus to Cairns.

 Mermaid statues on Daydream Island

Happy Canada Day!

Day 36: Airlie Beach

We really wanted to take these few days here to recharge, so we didn’t do much this morning. We tried to think of what we wanted to do, made some lists, did some research online, made some necessary calls, had leftovers for lunch (leftovers are so underrated!), and then set off on our day of booking important pending things.

We booked a cruise for tomorrow around the islands here, booked our overnight bus to our next location, booked a cruise for the following morning as well, our hotel for that night, and our hotel for our next few nights.

One of the bars in town was having Canada Day celebrations, so we had a “poutine” (they tried their best), and then picked up a couple of things to make dinner, and went back up to our room! Dinner and some TV, and that’s about it!

Happy Canada Day!

The island life

Day 35: The Whitsundays

We woke up this morning and called up some places to book a hotel for the next two nights. Luckily, we found a place with self-contained apartments, and they also arranged our pickup from the airport – one less thing for us to worry about! So we dropped our car at the airport and caught our flight over to Hamilton Island, then grabbed the ferry to Shute Harbour and the bus to Airlie Beach to our home for the next two nights.

Interesting fact: the 34 islands that make up the Whitsunday Islands are actually the tips of a drowned mountain range! So eons ago, we would have had to walk up the entire mountain to arrive at the spot we were standing on, and the water would not have been here! It’s so fascinating to think how landscapes have changed over millions of years and how things must have looked at another time – and how they will change and look in the future. Who knows what islands our future generations will stand on that were once mountains to us!

When we arrived at our place, they told us that because it was our honeymoon, they had upgraded us to a nicer apartment, and kept a bottle of champagne in our fridge! We have come across so many nice people on our travels, and it is so wonderful that people just want to be nice and do nice things expecting nothing in return. It really rekindles your belief in the good in people, after always hearing about the bad on TV or in the news. 

So the apartment was huge, and the view of the marina from the balcony and bedroom was beautiful! We were so happy to have a place to call home for two nights, where we could also cook dinner and just relax! We didn’t do much – just walked down the very steep hill into town, grabbed something small to eat, went grocery shopping for some dinner stuff, and walked back up the very steep hill to the room! It was so nice to make our own delicious pasta dinner with loads of garlic, and do nothing (and think about nothing too)! We need days like these to recharge our batteries after all this go-go-go! No plans for tomorrow either! 

 View of the marina from our room!

Rachna's birthday

Day 34: Wollongong

Today is Rachna’s birthday, and what better way to start the day than in a quiet, spiritual place.

We woke up before 5am, showered, and under the guise of silence and darkness, went over to the temple for the morning drumming and chanting. There were only two other people there, besides the monks, and we waited outside of the temple until it was time to go in.

There can be no apt description for the beauty that resides in that temple (and pictures are not allowed), but we will do our bit to describe it. As you enter the large doors, you first see five massive Buddha statues sitting high at the back of the temple all in different coloured robes with different hand gestures. Their overwhelming presence makes it take a few minutes to then notice the 10,000 Buddha statues that line every single inch of the four walls of the temple, floor to ceiling, everywhere. Each statue was about 5 inches tall, each housed in a little individual coves with a small light above each one. The only word to explain this is “omnipresence”. The intricate cream-coloured Buddhas all around, with intermittent pillars of larger coloured Buddhas can awe even the most stoic of people.

We entered into the temple and were invited to sit while we listened to the melodic drumming of the huge drums outside of the temple doors. Then, the monks entered into the temple in single file and assumed their positions. This is when they began singing and chanting, their prayers consuming the entire temple, their voices whirling around us, their melody surrounding us as the sun rose behind us. It was mesmerizing and was one of the most beautiful ways to start off our day (and Rachna’s birthday).

After the prayers, the monks filed out, and we left the temple to eat breakfast with some of them. Then, we went back to the lodge to sleep a little more! When we got up, we walked through the temple grounds and visited the various shrines and the pagoda, and rang the gratitude bell to send blessings and prayers to our family. Soon, though, tourists began arriving and it all started to feel a little commercial. We were so happy we had the chance to share in the true spirit of the temple earlier in the morning, and it almost felt as if it had all been a dream.

We then made our way to a Hindu temple close by, but it was closed, so we appreciated the carvings and architecture from outside before heading back to Sydney for the night. We arrived in Sydney, checked into our hotel, grabbed a small bite, and walked around town for a bit.

In the evening, we met up with one of Rachna’s friends, Jill, and her husband and little baby for dinner. Jill and I (Rachna) volunteered together in Bangalore, and hadn’t seen each other in close to 7 years, and it was really nice to see how far we have come since then. We had a yummy Thai dinner, with drinks and great conversation – a perfect start to a new year! Thanks Jill and Danesh!

Afterwards, we went back to our hotel, handled some things on the internet, and prepared for tomorrow’s flight out!

Wollongong temple from afar

Gratitude bell and pagoda

Hindu temple from the outside

 Great time with an old friend

Goodbye, Tassie

Day 33: Travel day

Although we’ve woken up in Launceston twice now, we simply haven’t had the time to explore anything but our warm bed and a restaurant so far. Unfortunately, today was our flight out – our final goodbye to Tasmania. With the best of intentions, we hoped to make it to one last hike today before our flight – a last hurrah – but sleeping sounded like a far finer option, and it’s the one that won us out in the end.

When we got up, we packed up, did some online stuff, and then headed out to town for breakfast. We had some awesome sandwiches (we really have to point out the good food we have once in a while, since it doesn’t happen often), and then made our way to the airport, checked in, and stared out the window at the beautiful scenery here one last time.

One wonderful thing we noticed at the small airports in Australia and New Zealand is that people can still go through security and walk their loved ones to the gate – like old times. It’s so nice that thee are still some places in the world where people’s innate goodness is trusted. That’s not to say there probably aren’t a lot of problems here – we wouldn’t know about the inner workings unless we lived here – but it still made us happy to see that.

So off to Sydney to pick up a rental car, have a little late lunch, and drive on to Wollongong, since we didn’t get to see it when we were here last. We arrived at the Buddhist Temple in the evening, checked into our room at the temple lodge, and grabbed some interesting books to read from the lounge library.

The energy here is quiet and peaceful, and even though there was a television in our room, we had no desire to turn it on. We spent the evening reading and then went to bed early for a very early rise tomorrow.

 Farewell, Tasmania

The scenic way to Wineglass Bay

Day 32: Freycinet

This morning we got a bit of a late start because we were so tired from the last couple of days. We checked out of our hotel and started on our scenic drive to the east coast, where we drove south along the coast to another national park, Freycinet. The drive was beautiful (as all our drives have been so far) and we drove through many different landscaped before doing a final drive by the ocean to our destination.

We arrived at Wineglass Bay in the afternoon and quickly started on the 2.5-hour hike. The beginning of the hike was mostly uphill, and our legs were not too thrilled with us! The hike up the mountain brought us to a lookout point overlooking Coles Bay below. Then we continued walking to the lookout point we had been waiting to see – Wineglass Bay Lookout. When we reached there, it was closed for repairs! Undeterred, and determined to see the view one way or another, we climbed up the huge steep rocks on the other side of the lookout and made our way to the top to see the beautiful view of Wineglass Bay and the beach. We seem to be gaining confidence in our strength and abilities to climb and trek! Then, we headed back on the track down to the beach, which was empty except for us, and spent some time by the water. We even built a little “rock stack” with seashells on the boulders near the water before getting back on the track to make it back to our car before dark. The walk back was tougher and mostly uphill, but we made it!

Then, we drove back to Launceston in the dark, once again trying to avoid the many wild animals that hopped onto the road throughout our drive. There was a lot of roadkill, but thankfully none of it was due to us (though we came really close a couple of times)!

We got a room at the same hotel we had stayed at last night (they had free internet – a real luxury for us!), and went to town for some dinner before coming back to start booking some pending things for the next few days and then passing out again out of sheer exhaustion! No complaints, though! We love being tired from trekking and using our bodies to their full potential every day.  We are learning a lot about ourselves and what we truly love. We are hoping that when we get home, we will continue to appreciate nature and not be distracted by the monotony of work, television, and city nightlife. There are far too many beautiful gems of nature we have to yet to discover. This is the beginning of a lifelong journey.

(self-discovered) Wineglass Bay Lookout

 Wineglass Bay