Uluru and the Whitsundays

We are of course home from our 2 months in Australia safe and sound and slightly more tanned, but before I do any broad recap of the adventure I figure I’ll carry on from where I left off and mention the last couple weeks of the trip.

Immediately after our Great Barrier Reef, as in 6am the next morning, we were on a plane from Cairns to Uluru. Or is it Ayers Rock? The airport is called Ayers Rock, but the National Park is Uluru, and the inconsistencies go on as such. It’s a funny thing that in this enormous country of stolen/conquered aboriginal land a rock in the absolute middle of the desert is where they’re making their effort, I don’t think there’s a big push to change Sydney’s name. This half assed initiative is prevalent at Uluru, I mean they ‘ask’ you not to climb it, but there’s a handrail and a sign pointing you to the top.

Uluru is such an Australian icon that I really wanted to include it on our trip, but when we boarded the plane with entirely bucket listing retirees it became clear that few others in their 20’s justified the costs. After flying over thousands of kilometers of barren outback two things dawned on me. First, that I couldn't be happier that we weren’t driving, and second, that we were landing in a storm centralized precisely over the rock. We landed under the clouds and felt cold for the very first time on the trip, not what I was expecting from the desert. We drove out to Kata Tjuta, which is another group of large rock formations nearby, and did a couple short hikes until the rain started.

They say less than 1% of visitors to Uluru see it in the rain and if you do you should feel quite lucky. I can tell you that as we sat in the car at the sunset viewpoint for Uluru and watched a grey rock get greyer that’s not what I was feeling. We went back to the resort, which is the only accommodation available, and consists of varied levels of luxury from camping (us) to five star. All owned and operated by the same company. It’s a strange and forced desert oasis, and pretty boring. I woke up around 4am the next morning to a sky full of stars and proceeded to drag Gen back to Uluru to take some photos of the stars and then sunrise. We rented a car so we wouldn’t be tied to the tour buses and that was easily the best decision we made about Uluru, a necessary luxury. I got a few photos I liked, but I have a lot to learn about night photography, though not as much as most. The tour buses arrived shortly before sunrise and with them dozens of people using their flashes to try to illuminate a rock that’s a kilometer away, ensuring that their photos were utter shite as well as mine.

While I don’t think we were lucky to have rain the first day, I consider myself lucky we got sun on the second. Watching sunrise over Uluru was pretty spectacular, and the rest of the day was spent wandering around the base of the rock. There were several caves and watering holes and I managed to overhear a few aboriginal tidbits from other people’s tours about hidden meanings and cave drawings and hunting techniques. The texture of the rock as well as the sheer size were really interesting to see up close. Despite missing out on the colours of sunset, I think Uluru was worth it. It was far from a highlight of the trip, but it was something I found interesting the see up close, as well as the outback landscape in general. I think I’d have regret not going, but I would never try to convince someone who was on the fence. It’s a long way to go for a rock.

When we were driving up the coast our plan was to spend several days in Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands but we were caught in the middle of the exceedingly busy Easter to Anzac Day holiday week and nearly every excursion was booked solid. We were lucky enough that we needed to pass back through the area on our way down from Cairns to Brisbane in another couple weeks, but it did put a bit of a time crunch into the last leg of the trip and made for a couple long stretches of driving to get where we needed to be. After landing in Cairns we drove a couple hours and spent the night near Mission Beach, which was to be one last chance to see the elusive cassowary. Cassowaries are a very rare and bizarre bird, about 5 feet tall, flightless, with a blue horn on their head and a red scrotum dangling from their necks. They have a couple very sharp talons and a tendency to be aggressive and possibly torso slashy, they are actually the world’s most dangerous bird. While I knew next to nothing about them previously, I can imagine given their looks and elusiveness they’re at the top of a lot of birders lists. There were signs all throughout the Daintree Rainforest near Cape Tribulation warning of recent crossings and to drive slowly. Getting hit by cars is understandably a problem for big dumb birds. We weren’t lucky enough to see one up there so I thought we’d have another go at Mission Beach before we were out of their range for good.

 We stopped at a rainforest park that had several bush walks to try our luck. About 100m in we came across a slightly terrifying spider about the size of my hand and sitting at exactly face height across the path. That was enough for Gen and she headed back to the safety of the van, I ducked under this Australian freak and pushed a little further. After the third one I decided my luck was gonna run out and I’d have one on my face, presumably they were full of venom too. So despite all the signs and stories we were unable to spot a Cassowary. I think people spend entire trips camped out waiting, and I highly question just how ‘recent’ those crossing signs really were. At least we saw one at a nature reserve, I actually got to feed it some grapes. They really are the strangest things.

We spent two nights in Airlie Beach on the way up, and did the only day trip we could get on in such short notice. It was a diving/snorkeling trip that went to a spectacular reef but not Whitehaven Beach so it was a less popular trip. We also booked a sailing trip for on our way down to include the main stops so this was a perfect way to get on (and in) the water in the meantime time. The diving was incredible and a taste of what we were to enjoy quite a bit of around the Whitsundays and our Port Douglas trip to the reef.

Our sailing trip was relatively easy to choose despite the many options, once you decide you don’t want a cheap and raucous party boat or a super exclusive luxury yacht there’s actually not a ton to choose from. We got a 2 night trip on a boat that sleeps 12, but actually only had 2 other couples and 2 crew, which was really lucky. Of 8 people on the boat 4 were from France, I guess to serve as some reminder that we were soon leaving the comforts of Australia for our very foreign home. The funniest part is they were relieved we were not French Canadians, poor Quebecois really are on their own in the world.

The skipper was a funny guy, middle aged stereotypical Aussie, sort of care free beach bum type but also quite opinionated. They’re an interesting bunch. We got along with everyone which was nice, the price point helped bring together like minded people. It was great to chat over drinks under the stars on the deck of the boat and then be up early to sail to the next spot in the beautiful Whitsundays.

We snorkeled at a bunch of different spots over the 3 days, though my camera crapped out once it got especially memorable. We spent about an hour just following a couple turtles around one spot, which is such an amazing experience. Afterwards our skipper told us about how a 4 metre tiger shark had bitten a turtle in half there while a group was snorkeling nearby about a month ago. But those sharks never mistake people for turtles, only the ones that eat seals down south do that, so no worries. The next spot was full of huge tuna like fish about 4 feet long darting all around, as well as 2 foot round bat fish and the really colourful and giant maori wrasse, which are also about 4 feet long and have fat tattooed faces. Our skipper brought them all to a frenzy at the boat with bread and chicken scraps and then told us to jump in. I was the first one in and it was intense, these fish had no issues bumping into me and he just kept throwing food nearby. It was actually really cool. After a couple minutes everyone else joined in. Here's a google image of a wrasse.

We also spent a morning at the very famous Whitehaven Beach. There’s a reason it’s so well known, it’s ridiculously beautiful with the purest white sand and clear water. Adequately describing a beach that nice is beyond my abilities so you’ll just have to trust me. We also saw a dugong in the bay next to the beach, which was something I didn't expect we’d be so lucky to see. Another one of the skipper’s tricks to entertain us was hand feeding the eagles from the nearby trees. He’d call to the birds who would come dive bomb us and then catch a chicken scrap out of the air. They were huge and it was awesome to see them so close.

Other than that it was a lot of cruising between the islands in the perfectly calm and blue water enjoying gorgeous sunsets and sunrises. We were so lucky to have a half full boat and beautiful weather. The food was also some of the best we had on the whole trip. The sail back was actually quite windy, adding some excitement. Apparently we were only 1 knot shy of gale force winds, so that’s something. Surprisingly we each got to have a go at the helm in those conditions which was good fun.

After the Whitsundays we headed straight back to Brisbane for the last few days to stay with Maddie and Josh again and see the city properly. We went for dinner and drinks on the river one night, the area was really nice with lots of bustling restaurants, and there’s really no bad waterfront in Australia. We also got to briefly meet up with a college friend of ours, Corby, who moved down here for a guy and to have herself a little Australian baby. It’s quite amazing to see where people’s lives have taken them over the years. We’re getting so old.

Unfortunately since we were at the end of our trip I don’t think we were the best company, our energy levels were winding down. Maddie was really sweet and planned a lovely day for us wandering the shops downtown and riding the free ferry along the river through downtown, which was really great, but by around 2pm we had barged our way back to her couch to watch movies for the duration of our final day in Australia. I think if we had another month or 2 we’d have been fine, but since we knew it was the end I think we just needed to wind down before the epic travel ahead.