Sunshine state Queensland

Our first accommodation

So on to the warm north.... It's much greener here. Our new accommodation is with Steve and his dog Sam. Sami is super cute, but quite old, limps a bit, is almost deaf, and has only one eye... he unfortunately lost an eye while playing a few years ago. Steve says this happens quite often🤔. This Airbnb was fantastic:

private pool - of course with a crocodile fence

cozy outdoor area with a chill couch

bikes available for free

other roommates in the house

huge BBQ grill

The lengthy car search

Upon arriving in the warmth, we started the car search. It wasn't as easy as we thought, mainly because backpackers are quite unreliable. One person actually doesn't want to sell his car yet. The other one wrote that he would sell his car in Cairns, but he's actually 100km away in a place where there is no bus. He doesn't know how he will sell his car if the buyer (who doesn't have a car yet) can't come to him, but he also doesn't feel like coming to Cairns.

After a long search, we finally found a car. However, it did not have a Roadworthy Certificate (RWC), which is required for selling a car...the sellers hadn't thought about that...so we had to wait again...and here in Queensland, the RWC is stricter, so the owners had to go back to the workshop.

Diving at the Reef

We were impatient because we wanted to get going. But we made good use of the waiting time: among other things, we went diving at the Great Barrier Reef. We were taken to the reef by boat with other divers and snorkelers.

Some members of the group were unhappy with the lunch on board...the promised 'super delicious' pizza was vegan and gluten-free...there were no fries as promised...

Caro was concerned about the jellyfish and crocodiles in the water here. You are not allowed to swim on the beach because the jellyfish here can kill you in 90 seconds. You won't even make it to the shore. The other major danger at the beach is saltwater crocodiles. There are no jellyfish in the reef, only near the shore. Interestingly, there are also no crocodiles in the reef, but they can easily move between the Philippines and the Australian coast.

If you want to know more, read here:

https://www.australien-panorama.de/fakten/ausfauna_gefahr_sonstige.html

We saw amazing corals, 2 meters tall - and for that size, they need several hundred years to grow. 

In the first dive, we saw several clownfish (Nemo, you know). We also saw a real SHARK !!!!! Well... it was only 1.20m long... and okay, it was sleeping... Okay, yeah, and it quickly swam away when it saw us  Anyway! We technically swam with a shark 😁. We also saw a stingray.

In the next dive, there was a huge turtle. Estimated to be as big as the shark. We disturbed it during breakfast =).

There were so many colorful small and large fish and corals, but also sections of corals that didn't look so good anymore. 

Here is the current article from Tagesschau:

https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/great-barrier-reef-135.html

Cute turtle.

 Two clownfish.

Exploring the Rainforest

Since the car was delayed, we also took a tour of the Daintree Rainforest. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015 and is the largest continuous rainforest in Australia.

To be honest, we imagined the rainforest differently, somehow bigger with huge old trees. But no, the trees were rather small, 4-5 meters high, with narrow trunks. It can't be because the trees didn't have time to grow. Because the Daintree Rainforest is at least 100 million years old, making it the oldest remaining tropical rainforest in the world. It's probably because almost everything here tries to KILL each other (well, or displace, but killing sounds more dramatic). Parasitic vines that climb up trees to reach the light, strangler trees whose seeds are brought by birds to the crowns of other trees, where they grow towards the light and slowly strangle the host tree with their sprawling roots. This leads to frequent generation changes.
Oh yeah, and there were spiders too:

We also took a boat ride on the Daintree River. In total, we saw 3 large crocodiles. Keep your arms and elbows inside the boat - I think that's self-explanatory =)

We also went swimming at Mossman Gorge and on the beach at Cape Tribulation - beautiful beach, but swimming is prohibited here.