QLD - Airlie Beach

Airlie beach is one of the most popular areas of Queensland because of its proximity to the reef and the Whitsunday Islands.

We had aimed at upgrading here after our day at Magnetic Island but once again fell short on how far we were from Airlies and didn't have enough daylight hours to get there. So ended up camping in a small town called Bowen. There was not much to do here and we ended up having something to eat at the only pub which was a TAB pub (gambling pub like a bookies with the focus on horses and pokies (slots)) and with Ev being the only girl there, we felt a little out of place ;)

Next morning we finally made it to Airlies - we have been so looking forward to having a bed, with pillows - what luxury!!

View from Balcony

After checking out the tourist offices we managed to get a 1 bed apartment at the Whitsundays Terraces and we decided to stay here for 3 nights, which made us book our tours wisely. There was no way we were going to get stooped again and made sure that we were going to see some living reef this time! After checking into our massive room with two balconies, we spent the afternoon bikini shopping (to no avail) and bumped into the cop couple from Mission Beach who were doing a sailing trip. We arranged to meet them for a beer when they got back, but unfortunately we never made it as we were too exhausted from our fun trips around the islands...

Friendly Cookatoo

QLD - Magnetic Island (Townsville)

We caught the early (8:30) ferry over to Maggie, and had a great day over here.

To be honest, not a great deal to do over here expect lie on the beach. We spent quite a bit of time just waiting for buses (it's a long walk between beaches) and headed for the fort walk before the real heat of the day. This was quite an interesting walk as we never really appricated that Austraila did much in the wars, but this island was one of the defences against attacks from Japan. There were old barracks, ammunition storage units and radio control units which were made from fake rock - a great disguise from the air. Not much remains of these now, and a couple of the intact units house tiny bentwing bats. The summit of the island has the old artilary lookouts to spot incoming planes, and there's some great views from up here.

On our way back, we tried to spot the resident Koalas, but Evelyn thinks they got scared away by Marc's great fashion sense - as it was so hot, Marc had rolled up his boardies so high that it looked like he was wearing hot pants! We then waited for the bus and already there was one guy who attempted to walk between beaches, but found it a bit tough going in the heat ;)

We headed to Horseshoe Bay which is the epicentre of the island (it had a bar, cafe, and restuarant with air con). However, the beach was pretty crappy so we headed to the locals beach, Alma Bay. This beach has no stinger nets, but the locals use this beach all year round and have no worries. This beach was much nicer, and we went for a swim and snorkel, seeing a few fish and sea slugs.

QLD - Mission Beach to Townsville

After Mission Beach we drove to Murray Falls where we had some brekkie at one of the picnic tables before Marc braved the river water and did some rock sliding - it looked pretty cool to do but Evelyn decided to be chief photographer instead of going in the cold water ;)

Next stop - Wallaman Falls - the road up to the falls was so steep and windy that you had to leave your stomach behind. So once we finally got to the top we hoped that the falls would be spectacular - as this is Auz's highest falls drop at 300m - unfortunately this was not the case as it's dry season (and there's a drought), the falls was a mere trickle that ended up being nothing but mist as the bottom. The track that takes you down to the base was also closed due to the bridge collapsing.

After this slightly tedious drive, we headed back to the Bruce Highway and continued to Townsville. It was so hot we had stop for mango ice cream at the renowned Frosty Mango, before heading to crystal creek. There's a big one and a little one - we like it large so headed to big crystal creek first, but got a bit side tracked by paradise waterhole (which we thought was the creek). This was a beautiful pool which was really calm and great for swimming and dipping on a hot day like today. The brave could do rock jumping...

Then we headed to little creek which was, well, a little creek with a little water fall, under a cute little bridge. This is where we realised we hadnt quite made it to big creek. Still, we were happy with what we'd seen so headed up to McCellands Lookout which was up another one of these windy, stomach churning roads. There were some great views from the top...

Next stop Townsville - we ended up at the worst campsite in the world which was grotty and full of perme residents (i.e. they live here) so we made sure all the valuables were locked up safe ;)

Townsville itself is an old navy port, with not really much else to brag about. Everything was shut by 4:30 when we arrived and the restaurants/bars shut at 9pm. We headed to the first restaurant as recommended by our trusty lonely planet (travellers bible), only to be turned away because they already had a table of 10 people!!! We headed to the bar, and was asked to join in a game of poker, before heading to the bar restaurant. We were just in time, with the kitchen closing as we sat down... Glad we made it as the food was great!!

Next day we packed up quick smart, with Marc getting lucky as the bird pooed on Evelyn ;)

QLD - Mission Beach

We’ve finally arrived at Mission Beach – and the first thing Marc wants to do is kayak across to an island and back - some 4 km out to sea!! Once again, Evelyn has to talk some sense into Marc and convince him to do the paddle around the bay instead, much more doable since we have never canoed before…

So we got all suited up for our 1 hour paddle and Marc looked ridiculously funny wearing lycra long pants over his shorts (needed against the stingers if we fall out). We paddled out and came across our first turtle - he appeared very friendly and didn't dive or hide, but just floated around for us to take a few pics. Spurred on by our success, we paddled on to Elephant rocks where all the turtles supposedly hang out. We were a bit concerned about banking on the rocks themselves as the tide was quite strong, and we didn't manage to see anything until we moved away from the rocks. Needless to say this one was playing games, and when we got close he dove, and when he resurfaced he was quite far away again ;(

On our way back, Evelyn spotted some stingrays in the shallows, and when also back at our beach we found our friendly turtle again, in almost the same place as before. We then realised that it wasn't moving and much to our dismay, wasn't friendly, but in actual fact dead!! So our only photos of a turtle are those of a dead turtle ;(

Once back on dry land we discovered that we were out at sea for 2 hours!! No wonder why Ev was feeling a little nauseous!

Whilst eating our hotdogs for lunch, we were entertained by some macho boys trying to climb a coconut tree for nuts. It took them about 10 minutes to finally get something. What made it even more hilarious was when Marc got up he found a freshly fallen coconut in the arch of a tree nearby, without so much as breaking a sweat :D As Marc had found one, Evelyn felt like she too needed to get her hands on one... and found one the same way as Marc.

We then found out that there was a coconut opener (much like a can opener) a little further down the beach. So off we went... When we finally found it, we could barely reach it due to the mound of discarded coconut shells. Once we scrambled to the top we managed to work it and crack the shell open. Unfortunately we did such a cracking job that the milk leaked out ;( we took a bit more care with the other one, and peeled it perfectly ;) we enjoyed the coconut of the leaky one, and decided to save the other one for later (though we forgot about it, and when we remembered it had gone off ;( )

After all that hard work we decided to go for a swim in the enclosed netted area - lycra suits no where to be seen thankfully :) But after a few sightings of blue bottles that had got through the net, we decided to call it a day...

When we arrived at the campsite we asked directions to the nearest bottle store - Marc in desperate need for some beer. The owner of the campsite asked us nicely to get him some beers too and gave us directions to the DRIVE THROUGH bottle store - yep!! It's drive through. The shop has a driveway, you get out, find your beer, then hop back in your car. Its not a drive through in the traditional sense, but still pretty convenient (we've since seen drive through dry-cleaning and drive through photo-developing!!).

We had to pick up a case of Tooheys New stubbies, which baffled us slightly, but we cracked it!! Case = 24, stubbies = bottles ;) We had a little joke with the campsite dude by short changing him, and though he didnt quite get it, he invited us to a BBQ that evening. In the end, most of the campsite turned up and it was a strange old night. This guy was a retired cop, and a couple from England were also cops, so we ended chatting about murderers and the cops were exchanging horror stories about Fred West & Lyndy Chamberline to name a few!! Sweet dreams for all that night ;)

QLD - Atherton & Waterfall Circuit

Once leaving the camping area we stopped off at a few more rain forest walks. All of these were lovely and at one stop we just couldn’t help but sit down on a bench for about 10 minutes just listening to the birds chirping in the trees (almost deafening). We recorded the noise, and when we played it back, the birds started up again thinking that we were calling them ;)

We then decided to have lunch, and we were so lucky that at the bench we picked we heard some rustling in the bushes. So we stopped to have a closer look and discovered that there was a Cassowary bird with it’s two chicks!! This bird is almost like an Ostrich but it has blue and red colouring on its head and neck. It is also a very rare bird to see (not to mention with chicks) and is on the endangered species list. This is one of the only places in the world to see these birds, and many people come here just to see them and go away empty handed.

After this sighting we headed off, obviously having to stop off and have some home made ice-cream on the way, and trying the weird and wonderful flavours such as passion fruit, aniseed, black capote…

Once back over the Daintree river we headed on through the mountains and stopped off in Atherton to see a 500 year old fig tree. Fig trees are amazing; they start off just being a seed placed amongst the branches of a rival species. Given time the seed then grows into a climber that ends up wrapping itself around the non-fig tree and feeds off it. Once it’s done with the first tree it spreads itself to another and another as the trees fall over and die, and ends up having a curtain look to it…

We also stopped off at Lake Eacham, which is a very beautiful lake where you can watch the turtles and fish swimming. You can see that this place is the local hang out after school, with the kids swimming and diving into the lake and just enjoying the summer. It was full of chavs though ;)

Our visit to the Red Cedar tree was a bit disappointing, as the recent cyclone had blown it over - although we could still see how huge it was.

Once again Marc waking Evelyn up the next morning, this time to some wallabies bouncing around by the river just outside our tent, real nice surprise. It’s like every morning there is something new to be wowed by…

Our journey today took us to the Innot Hot Springs, where we took a dip in the pools and tested the water from the local spring river - we were amazed to find the river being really hot as the spring it originates from is 76 degrees celsius!!

After “cooling” down at the hot springs we drove on to see some waterfalls, our favourite one was Millaa Millaa, which has a 12 meter drop into a pool, with time catching up with us, we so badly wanted to go for a swim in it as it looked so inviting but we must press on – there were two more waterfalls to see in the area and the sun was beginning to set.

Tonight we ended up camping along the motorway at August Moons – a typical truckers stopover as it was too late to reach our original destination being Mission Beach!!

QLD - Cape Tribulation

Originally, we hadn’t planned to head north from Cairns, but quite a few people told us how beautiful Cape Tribulation is – it’s one of the only places in the world where the rain forest meets the ocean – so we rejigged the schedule and headed on up…

First stop – we just couldn’t resist taking a picture of Yorkeys Knob ;) This was en route to Port Douglas, where we stopped for lunch and a swim. Now this was a nice place. You can see the golden hue coming off this place and the new super apartments being built. It’s a lot less touristy here, and consists of just one road lined with nice looking cafes and bars. The beach (known as 4 mile beach) had a stinger pool so we could “safely” swim in a cordoned off area without the risks (though some small bluebottle jellyfish do get through). The water here was fabulous, so clear and warm. The life savers sign quoted the water temperature at 32 degrees :-D



We then caught the car ferry across the Daintree River, looking for the big "Saltie" crocodiles that are known to live here (there are boat tours to see the crocs, but we decided to save our $’s). We didn’t spot any so continued our drive through dense rain forest - it’s just so beautiful here and everywhere you look is just green. We stopped off to see some views of Thornton’s Peak (yes that’s correct, there must have been a famous Thornton out there!). And Thornton’s beach is undoubtedly the best beach in the whole of Australia ;)



We camped at none other than the “Cape Tribulation Camping Ground”, the only one up here - it’s in the middle of rain forest and right next to the beach. This was an amazing spot. The receptionist said we could swim at the beach as there were no stingers (yet!!), and that we could walk up the beach to the river, but just to watch out for the resident croc up there. We decided against doing either of these (valuing our safety too highly) and got chatting to some other travellers whilst playing a few games of pool (all outdoors). After dinner we spotted a bandicoot looking for scraps!



The next morning, at 5:30am, Ev got woken up by a chorus of birds… and Marc! Marc wanted to go for a walk… and as he asked so nicely, off we went through the little bit of trees that lined the camping ground and went for a walk along the beach. This turned out to be a great idea as the sun was just beginning to rise and it was just fabulous.



We tried to find some coconuts so we could have a bush breakie, but couldn’t find any that the birds hadn’t gotten to first. So we ended up going on a walk through the rain forest and mangroves (mangroves are areas of rain forest in tidal areas).



So back to the campsite just as everyone else was rising at about 7:30am, and we’d already seen the sun rise on the beach, looked for coconuts and been on a great walk through the rain forest. We could have quite easily have stayed here for another few days, just to relax, do nothing, and enjoy the serenity…

QLD - Scuba (Cairns)

Well, we cracked, and got caught in the tourist net, and sucked into doing one of the visits to the reef. We weren’t entirely sure if this was a good idea, as the reef isn’t supposed to be very good here, but it’s why people come to Cairns so it must be good, right? Also, there was a good offer where we got a free intro-dive (20 min accompanied scuba dive), which is something we were keen on doing, so we booked our first day on the reef. Marc got good value for money, whilst Ev didn’t get quite as much time in the water as she’d have liked…

So we headed out to sea at 9am, and got to our first dive site about 11am. The two-hour ride wasn’t too good, and a few people were a bit green at this stage. This wasn’t helped by the scuba tuition that we’d had during the ride, which was inside, reading off a flip chart for an hour, whilst the boat was rocking around. Not an ideal combo!! Still, this is pretty essential as they tell you how to breathe under water, what to do if the mouth piece falls out or you get water in your mask, and how to “equalise” the pressure in your ears as you go down so your ear drums don’t implode (the pressure eases as you come up, so its not a problem then).



Lucky for us, we were the first group to go on the dive, so we could get into the water, and hopefully alleviate some queasiness!! We donned our wetsuits, and got into the water. The water wasn’t cold so probably didn’t need wetsuits, but as its coming into stinger season (stingers are nasty man-o-war type jellyfish who can kill if they sting you – they come down the Oz coast with the warm waters in the summer) so it’s better to be safe.



Our guide was a bit moody and not very sympathetic or patient with learner divers. Obviously, we haven’t done this before, and with a mouthpiece in, we can’t speak, and ask her what she’s trying to communicate. She got a bit stroppy with all of us at some stage, which tarnished the experience slightly. Still, as we went down, equalizing every meter or so, as you feel the pressure mount on your ears and chest, you begin to see life under water.

It was an amazing experience, and you have to concentrate on your breathing all the time, which is really weird as you do it so naturally above the water.

Once we got down to about 10 meters we managed to land on the sand and some of us managed to avoid damaging the reef – which was pretty much damaged already, as there was hardly any colour down here. We then got a visit from the “in-water” photographer who kindly gave us a gooey, slimy sea cucumber to hold.



Then out came the Auzzie flag and then we were moved over to a rock for another snap – it was only later when looking at the pictures that we found out that there was a little orange clown fish, more famously known as “Nemo”, just behind the rock!



Once all this was finished we then got the sign that we needed to resurface, and before we knew it we were bobbing up and down on the surface again.

Back on the boat we managed to escape our wetsuits, which felt just too tight and poor Ev got a revisit from her free Spag Bol…

After Ev’s episode we managed to get back in the water for some snorkeling – hoping that this would make her feel better, Ev joined Marc and we managed to have a reasonably good time and saw loads of fish, some coloured coral, and some parrot fish that you could actually hear crunching away at the coral! Funny how we managed to see more here than down below!



But just as we were starting to feel better Ev swallowed a huge gulp of sea water which just made her sick again and she then decided to call it a day and sit out front on the bow of the boat – where conveniently enough all the sickies were hanging out.

All in all, the overall experience was great but it also made us come to the decision of not paying a fortune to spend 5 days in order to get our PADI qualifications.



Once we were off the boat we got cleaned up and decided to try and get some dinner (paid for, not free spag bol ;) – this did us a world of good. Feeling much better Evelyn then convinced Marc to come with her to the night market and get a really cheap ($10 for 40 mins) Chinese body massage. This was just amazing after all the stress our bodies had to endure during the day.



We nicely rounded off our Cairns visit with some gourmet ice-cream, watching the flying-foxes amongst the trees on the espe.

QLD - Kurunda (Cairns)

After some umming and ahhing, we decided to take a day trip to Kuranda rain forest. It turned out that this wasn’t the best day to do this trip, as it was Melbourne Cup day. The Melbourne Cup is a horse race, much the same as the Grand national in the UK, except its always mid-week and the Auzzies use it as an excuse to have the arvo off work and go down the pub;) So, unfortunately, we missed this part of Australian culture ;)



To start the journey, we took a cable car over the rain forest. This goes pretty high, and every now and again jolts, which gave Evelyn heart palpitations every few minutes or so. We shared our first car with another couple, and this old guy was more petrified than Evelyn ;)



It was a beautiful ride to our first stop. We got some great views of Cairns bay, the rain forest on the side of the mountain, and there was a deafening noise from the sound of the cicadas in the trees (cricket type things). It was also cool to see the rain forest canopies from above, and we caught a glimpse of a few of the birds we couldn't see from the forest floor.



We had 3 interchanges on the rise, where we could get out and look around the rain forest and take a few snaps of a pretty dam, which leads into a waterfall. The rain forest itself, wasn’t really as we expected it to be as it was very dry, and not really much moisture or humidity in the air. It is coming to the end of the dry season, and into the wet, and it would be interesting to see the forest again in a month or so when its wet, just to see the difference. We’re happy with the sunshine right now though ;)

The final leg of our ride, took us over a river and into Kurunda. Our leaflet told us that crocs could be spotted in this river, but we didn’t see any. We took a little walk along the river after lunch, and again saw nothing (not that we were hoping to) so not too sure there are any around ;)



Kuranda itself, seems to be a town made purely for tourists, with loads of arts and craft shops, market stalls, mango wine, gourmet ice cream (which we both spilt down our t-shirts;), koala wildlife park, creepy crawly zoo, and this really amazing art shop, with excellent photos of the area. We didn’t do the koalas or creepies, as they were quite expensive.

As it turned out the highlight of the Kuranda, was the least advertised thing, and we found it purely by accident after our river/rain forest walk. We stumbled upon a flying fox (fruit bat) sanctuary, which was really cool. The lady running the place does so off her own back, and rescues injured bats, and cares for the babies. We got to see these bats really close, and the babies were really cute (well as cute as bats can be – and Ev said it had the face of a baby pig – much to the dislike of the owner) We found out that these bats have better eyesight than humans and can see in colour too, which we later thought was quite amusing as we saw some bats caught between power lines, so they’re not that clever ;)





Our trip back to Cairns was by steam train, so we got another perspective of the rain forest. It was a nice ride; we saw some good views of the valleys, waterfalls, and the dam. The excitement of the day was all too much for Marc though as he fell asleep on the train home ;)

Queensland - Cairns

We’re here for 5 days, and as we discovered, Cairns is a tourist Mecca. We had to wait 2 days before meeting anyone vaguely close to resembling an Auzzie. Despite being developed purely for tourists, Cairns is a good place to get acquainted with Queensland, as you can quite easily pass away weeks just chilling and relaxing.

Cairns consists of 3, maybe 4 blocks, of solid shops, bars, restaurants and of course, tourist offices trying to sell scuba dives on the Great Barrier Reef. There is a beach, but it’s not great, and with the dangers of stingers and sharks, there is a pool right on the beach. So, during the day, people either hang out here or go for a snorkel/scuba. At night, the espe (esplanade = promenade) comes alive, and there’s a bubbly atmos about the place.



Our hostel, Caravella 149, is a decent place, though not mega clean, and our room was awfully hot, so we’ll be sleeping in our silk sleeping bags here!! One bonus of being here is that you get a free “dinner” at the Woolshed, a backpacker’s bar. The bar is what you’d expect of a backpackers bar, a bit smelly, dark, and dinghy. We got seats out side (fresh air) and then got our free meals – a choice of chilli con carne or spag bol. At the hostel, we asked what was the best meal, and they said an upgrade (you can exchange the free meal for something off the main menu at a discounted price). We understood what they meant, when our meals came out – they tasted ok, but consisted of about 2 mouthfuls!!

Afterwards we headed off to a bar or two and had a few drinks. Before this though, we made a few phone calls home – It’s Carrie’s birthday today, so called to wish Happy Birthday and get some gos from home. Ev also called Ouma as we missed her at the end of our SA leg. Its good to hear from the family as we don’t get to call home as much as we would like ;(

On our way home, Marc needed a toilet stop, so nipped into a bar quick. This was a bit freaky though, as the urinal face the restaurant, and are glass!!! So whilst you pee, you can watch everyone having a meal and/or beer. To start, you don’t know for certain if this is one-way or two-way glass, so you’re not entirely sure if they’re watching you back!!! Weird!! We have our theories as to why they do this, and number one is so that you can check you’re missus isn’t chatting up the waiter whilst you’re gone ;)

We did various days out around Cairns, one being a trip out to Kurunda, and another being spent at the botanical gardens, which was a nice walk, seeing orchids, vines, bamboo and other exotic plants. We also caught a glimpse of the magnificent Ulysses butterfly, which is huge and a beautiful combination of blue and black, and is pretty rare. We also went on the rain forest walk, spotting a few tortoises and keeping our eyes open for crocs whilst having lunch. We weren’t the only things to have lunch though, as we got severely choued on by midges ;) We didn’t see any crocs, though we did see a massive Iguana climbing a tree, which was cool.

Cairns is a nice city, but a bit touristy for us. We loved the views along the Espe, where you can look across the ocean as the sunsets and see the mountains of rain forest, and as you walk the Espe to find somewhere for dinner, you can see flying foxes in the trees. 5 days here is more than enough, so its time to get moving and do more exploring of the
Sunshine State, Queensland.

Uluru - Sunset

After our walk, we were a bit tired, and it was so hot, that we couldn't do much else but sit by the pool (in the shade;). Evelyn found a nice big wasps nest in the toilets - these wasps are black and about twice the size of UK wasps. Nasty little buggers!!

When it got cool enough to emerge from the shade we went for a walk to one of the lookouts to have one final view of the rocks at sunset.



We were lucky enough to be the only ones there... or so we thought as just before the sun went down a group of travel workers came and joined us.



The views we got that evening were just as great as the evening before and once the show had finished we decided it best to get going as it was a long walk back to the bus stop (the view point was by the workers camp and the buses didn't come near here). We ended up making our own tracks through the bush (as it was dark and we couldn't see the proper track) and just kept heading for the lights - thankfully we didn't come across any snakes or other nasties.



The next morning we chatted to some locals and they weren't too thrilled to hear we climbed the rock. This gave them a chance to explain a bit more about the significance of the rock to aboriginals, and why they don't like us climbing it. This was the first time we had heard any real reasons why the rock is sacred to them, and we explained this to him. Hopefully, by the time we left he hadn't cursed us!!

Uluru - The Sunrise

Waking at 4:30 was a bit tricky after the indulgence of the night before, but we managed it. It was still pitch black, and we got an amazing view of the Milky Way in all its glory and were lucky enough to spot a couple of shooting stars.

As it turned out, we needn't have got up so early as our bus was late. We were a bit panicky as we arrived dead on time, but waited at the wrong bus stop, and seeing lots of buses come and go, we thought we'd missed it. However, due to "technical problems" the bus arrived about 30mins late. We were a bit upset about this, as the sky was getting light and we were missing some of the colour change on the rock. Our guide didn't seem to appreciate that this was a once in a life time experience for all of us!!

We arrived about 15mins before the main event and it was pretty awesome to see this amazing natural wonder up so close, and see it go through a series of colour changes. Of course, it doesnt really change colour, just reflects the light in different ways depending on the height of the sun, and the amount of light...

After the sunrise, we got the opportunity to climb the rock. The Aboriginals ask you not to, as it's sacred and against their religion, but quite a few people advised us to do it, and as it was open, we thought we would.

The rock is only open for maybe a third of the year as it gets quite dangerous when the winds pick up, and when the temperature soars to over 36 degrees (quite often). In fact, when we got back down, the climb was shut for high winds, and man, was it windy up there...

The climb itself is pretty difficult. You have to follow a chain up the side of the rock and pull yourself up. Its steep, and as we're mega unfit, we needed to stop every couple of mins or so to catch our breath and give our calf's time to recover. There was the odd 60 year old man who cruised passed us without breaking sweat ;) You wonder how the aboriginals climb without the chains...

When you reach the top of the chains, you then go free style and have to make your own way. You go around a corner, and think you're at the top, and almost get blown over by the wind. Similar to the night before, if you stop and listen to the nothing, it is pretty awe inspiring, especially with the views. You can understand how this place gets its spiritual links.

Alas, this is about half way to the summit, and you have to climb over mounds and crevasses, following the little white lines on the floor. The rock at this point is shaped almost like waves, the way it rises and drops, and you wonder how nature managed to create such a thing.

Reaching the summit is amazing - the wind howls in your ears, and you can see for miles, and there is nothing apart from bush/scrub land and Kata Tjula. Up here you realise how special this place is.

It turned out that we were lucky with the rain, as this created little puddles on the top of the rock, and these puddles had life in!!! These things were shield shrimps, and they only live for a couple of days, i.e. until the puddles dry up. In this time they lay eggs, so that the next time it rains, the species can be reborn.

Coming back down was also tough, and the wind had picked up, and probably a bit dangerous, which is why they shut it. At the chain, we had to climb down backwards, as this was far easier, and it was a bit like abseiling - it still hurt the calf's ;)

When we got down we realised how high the rock really is, and also how lucky we were to climb when we did. Besides the wind, the climb area was now in full sunlight and very hot, whilst we were lucky to climb in the shade.

We decided that the climb wasn't enough exercise, and walked around part of the base. We latched onto a couple of tour groups, to earwig some info about the rock and aboriginals;) We saw some of the Abo. rock art, a serene waterfall, and several chambers where ceremonies are still held. We also saw some weird owl type things.

We didn't feel like doing the circuit around the whole rock, and this takes about 4 hours, so we headed over to the info centre to learn a bit about the rock, and its significance to the aboriginals. They have various stories about snakes carving the land during Dreamtime, which create these spiritual sites. There are also stories of tribes coming together at the rock.