SE Asia... Oceania... and Beyond

Sawadee!

To some of you this may come as a bolt from the blue, to others maybe not. For those of you who are not connecting the dots, what I am trying to say is… “Sawadee from Koh Samui, Thailand!” Yes from Thailand, not New York. I voluntarily missed my flight home when I disembarked the plane in Singapore during my connection and bought a flight to Thailand.

Ok… surprised or not it is time for me to continue my journey and blog. Here is the update and pictures I promised from OZ.

A 30 minute ferry ride from Hervey Bay brought me to Fraser Island where I enjoyed all of the unique flora and fauna amid the tropical beaches, wetlands, rainforests, arid deserts, pristine creeks, and implausibly clear fresh water lakes. Amongst all of this vegetation I found myself surrounded by over 325 species of birds, several species of spiders, insects, lizards, wallabies, possums, turtles, dolphins, sharks, stingrays, fresh water eels, flying foxes, echidnas and eastern Australia's purest population of dingo. Yes, this little island has it all, which is hard to believe seeing that it is an island completely composed of sand and absolutely no soil. In point of fact, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and the lone place in the world where rainforest grows in sand. Pretty impressive I must say. It was a great escape from Sydney and my first time camping on this trip. I also enjoyed my first savor of Kangaroo meat (mmmm… yummy). All things considered, it is hard to explain the true beauty of Fraser Island. All I can say is that it is something one should experience for themselves.

After 2 days on Fraser Island I caught a 12 hour night bus to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Fortunately for me I was able to get a good solid nine hours of sleep on the bus. Unfortunately for me when I arrived in Airlie Beach the weather was awful. But as the unlucky as this was, in a way it was a blessing in disguise. The worst weather I have seen in a long time provided some of the most incredible sailing conditions. The “perma-grin” smile on the captain’s face said it all… full sails, big waves, and tremendous splashes all made for brilliant fun as we sailed among the GBR at an average tilt of 40 degrees. Over the next couple days and nights we sailed, snorkeled, fished and island hopped through the Whitsunday Islands. We all saw some incredible fish, a lot of turtles, and many more unspoiled beaches. It was such an enjoyable time and a wonderful alternative to going to the movies on a rainy day.

Disembarking on the final day was sad, but it was time for me to head back to Sydney for one last night before it was off to Thailand. All in all, great fun Australia was. I barely scratched the surface of the colossal island, but I know I will be back in the future to enjoy much more of the many offerings it possesses.

Some numbers
Trip Country Count: 7 (excluding US/Germany)
Trip Continent Count: 2 (exlcluding NA and Europe)
Life Country Count: 26 (167 remaining)
Life Continent Count: 6 (only Antartica remains)

G'day Mates!

Tim

Many, Many Pics from Oz

Darling Harbour, Sydney

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Fraser Island Shipwreck

Fraser Island Cliff

Indian Head, Lagoon, Fraser Island

Fraser Island Lizard

Fraser Island Spider

Fraser Island Dingo

Birrabeen Lake, Fraser Island

Relaxing at Birrabeen Lake, Fraser, Island

White Sand Beach, Whitsundays (cloudy day)

Snorkeling Lagoon in the Great Barrier Reef

Beautiful Fish from the same lagoon (trust me there were much bigger ones, but this was my favorite)

Sailing the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsundays

Kangaroo's, not to far from Airlie Beach

Where will I go next????