Have an Aussie Christmas!

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia

We had heard that the best time to see Uluru was at sunrise, so we woke up at 4:30am (it was actually 3:30am, somewhere along the way we forgot to set our clocks back an hour, oops!) and drove an hour to the park. Even with the time lapse we weren't the first ones there. Uluru turned beautiful shades of orange and red as the sun rose, but we were surprised at the number of tour buses that spilled people out that early!

We did a short hike, saw some aboriginal cave paintings, and visited the cultural center to brush up on our history of the native people. A little bit disappointed with Uluru, we drive 40 km to Kata Tjuta, a cluster of enormous rocks, where we took an amazing 4.7 km hike through the Valley of the Winds.

The next day we drove to Alice Springs, with aboriginal art galleries galore, so we picked out a few small paintings that we liked, and will love to see in our home someday. We spent the night in Alice Springs, then spent the following two days driving over 2,000 km to Townsville, on the east coast again, with a stopover in Mt. Isa town. Along the way, we met a friendly local, John, who offered us some beers in exchange for some conversation (being in the Outback, we think we were the highlight of his day!). Once in Townsville, the plan had been to drive north to Cairns, but after a long, sleepless, humid, mozzie-infested night in our campervan, and hearing that Cairns would be worse, we decided to go south instead. Not only that, but you can't swim in the ocean up there because of the deadly stings of the irukandji and box jellyfish! So far this has been our first decision to not go somewhere we had planned. In Townsville, we saw how locals get to swim in the ocean - stinger net enclosures:

We made a short trip south, buying a bed-size mosquito net along the way, to Bowling Green Bay National Park and camped at Alligator Creek - no, no alligator sightings, just a great swimming hole and wallabies! We definitely liked this spot.

After we took the picture of this wallaby, a little one popped its head out of this mama's pouch and said hello!

Leaving, we scored a huge bag of local mangoes for just $5. We got to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, and stayed at the Flametree Holiday Park (here we met Paul the Possum and Betty the Bat). We found a last minute backpackers bargain that evening, and the next morning we were on a boat headed to Knuckle Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef!

The pontoon that Cruise Whitsundays had set up near the reef was awesome! We took a 30-minute intro scuba dive lesson (we are definitely getting certified!), snorkeled, stuffed ourselves with their buffet lunch, cruised on their semi-submersible, and felt like kids again on the waterslide.

We had a day to recover and do errands, then it was back on the water on a sailboat to cruise the Whitsundays. Aboard the catamaran Camira, we snorkeled, lounged on beautiful Whitehaven Beach, and ate another great bbq lunch. Most of all, we just enjoyed being on the sailboat, sailing through some of the 74 Whitsunday Islands.

The next morning we headed toward Noosa, where we had decided to splurge for Christmas and book two nights in a self-contained hotel room. We spent Christmas Day taking a 6.9 km hike in Noosa National Park, and relaxing at Tea Tree Bay beach. The weather has been hot, the ocean water is warm, and it was an unusual way to spend our Christmas, but wonderful nonetheless. We leave here today, but we both wouldn't mind staying here another week.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends back home!
We miss you and wish you a Happy New Year!