blog part 2

Google only allows an upload of 1 GB photos per blogger account, which is why i had to create a second and new account, for the rest of my journey:

http://mattystravelblog2.blogspot.com

whitsunday islands 10.11.2012-12.11.2012

From the 10th to the 12th of November i went on a boat trip to the Whitsunday islands. The name of our sailing boat was : "the broom stick" . This trip was quite expensive: about 420 Australian dollars ...
I*ve had similar trips in asia, which were as beautiful as this one, but didnt even cost 10% of this ...
However the trip was very nice.
What annoyed me a bit is that they wanted extra 3$ for a can of coke or other softdrinks and chocolate. Well its okay if they don*t want to give tons of softdrinks away for free,
but for the price, which i paid for this boat trip 1-2 free soft drinks per day should have been included.

On our first day we sailed from Airlie Beach to the islands and went snorqling at some of the reefs, which was really nice :) . On the boat i met 2 german girls, and one of them helped me to put in my contact lenses.
It was the first time that i would wear them. Unfortunately my left eye didn*t want to accept the contact lense, so i went snorqling with just one lense, which was nevertheless better than without any lenses at all.
In the evening we went to a nice spot where we could see the sunset ... which was legen .... wait for it ... wait for it ...dary!!

another sailing boat at the whitsundays

our sailing boat "the broom stick"

sunset at the whitsunday islands

On the second day of our sailing trip we sailed to an island which was marked as "the whitsunday islands national park". We stopped at this island and made a small trek through the island (not long ... just about 10 minutes) to the most beautiful beach in the world ... ( or at least the most beautiful beach which i had ever seen). The sand at this beach was so white and fine grained ... and the water so beautiful blue ... you can see in the pictures :)

the "broom stick" on our way to the national park

the back of the "broom stick" on our way to the national park

the island with the national park

the entry to the national park

national park island ... photo taken from the entry point

the national parks beach as seen from the look out point

the national parks beach

me at the national parks beach

me jumping at the national parks beach

the national parks beach

the national parks beach

After we had visited this beautiful beach on that national park we went sailing again, and snorqling and so on which we also did on our third day. During our boat trip the captain of our boat always called an eagle and fed it with fish. This was quite spectacular.

"the broom stick" - again

me and some other people while we were sailing :)

the eagle

the eagle 2

Airlie Beach - 9.11.2012

 On the 8th of November at about 16:20 i jumped on a bus which should bring me to Airlie Beach.
I drove the whole night in this bus and arrived on the next day at about 10 am in Airlie Beach. The more i travel through Australia a realize how much space there is. While in Germany space is rare and many people are sitting on a heap here everything seems endless.

picture taken from the bus on my way to Airlie Beach from the country side

When i arrived in Airlie Beach there was beautiful weather. I really liked this village from the first moment.
The beach and everything looks beautiful. Unfortunately as people told me it s not possible to swim everywhere you want, because of the dangerous jelly fishes. If you want to swim you have to go to special areas called lagoons.

the beach of Airlie Beach 1

the beach of Airlie Beach 2

One of the lagoons at Airlie Beach

Noosa 4.11.2012 - 8.11.2012

The Australia Zoo

On the 5th of November i went on a one day trip to the Australia Zoo. The admission for the zoo is quite exspensive it*s about 50 Australian Dollars i think. For students it might be a bit cheaper. At the travel agency they told me that this zoo is unique in the world, because you can interact with the animals like for example hold a koala in your arms or something like that. But now that i visited this zoo i must say that i would have expected more for this amount of money. In my opinion it*s more or less just a regular zoo. I*ve  been to zoos which are similar to this and only cost half of the price.
If you want to hold a coala in your arms this is only possible if you let a picture taken of you and the koala. And for that i would have had to pay 25$ or something like that.

At the zoo they told me that most of the koalas sleep about 20 hours a day. I didn*t know that. I always thought that they would climb around all day and eat. But obviously as you see in the picture they sleep most of the time. They also told me that koalas cannot see further than a distance of about 1 meter but instead have very good ears.

one of the koalas sleeping in its tree

sleeping koala

 The animal i had been looking forward to the most was the cangaroo. Because i think i have never seen one in real life before.  They are really interesting creatures i think. But in this zoo all the cangaroos where just lying around on the ground all day and doing nothing. None of them was walking or jumping around. I think one of the reasons for that is that they are caught in this cage all day. And all the time - like every 5 minutes - people are walking over to them and feed them with feed which you can buy  at the zoo. This is even less encouraging for them because then they dont even have to stand up in order to eat something. In the nature they would have to search for something to eat, and here they just wait until someone walks over to them and holds his hand in front of their mouths.

cangaroos lying on the ground

cangaroo lying on the ground 1

  

cangaroo lying on the ground 2

me and one of the cangaroos

The largest compound in this zoo obviously i guess had the zebras and the giraffes.

giraffs and zebras

Noosa Everglades 

From the 6th to the 8th of November i went on  a canoeing trip through the Noosa Everglades. We started our trip early in the morning i think at about 8 am. There a private bus picked us up and brought us to the harbour. From there a  motor boat brought us to the starting point where we should start our trip. At about 9 am i think we arrived at this point where our trip should start. We were a group of about 17 people. First of all we had to load our canoes with all the food and equipement like tents cooking pots, frying pans, drinking water and so on.

the start point

Then our trip started and we had to paddle upstream with our canoes in the direction of our camping spot. One of the first things we passed was a beautiful lake with water lilies, which we had to cross.

a lake with water lilies

After crossing this lake of water lilies we had to paddle further upstream. At the travel agency they had told me that the everglades were unique in a way that it was one of the places in the world were the water was like mirror, and you could see all the reflections in the water. You can see yourself on the pictures down below.

we paddling the river  upstream with our canoe

reflections on the everglades river while paddling upstream to the camp

reflections on the everglades river while paddling upstream to the camp

After about 1-2 hours i think we arrived at our camping spot where we had to build up our tents.

the boardwalk at our camping spot

the boardwalk at our camping spot 2

 

sign with instructions how to use the camping spot

the camping spot before we built up our tents

the everglades river as seen from the camping spot

the everglades river as seen from the camping spot 2

After we had built up our tents and had something to eat, i went on a small trek for 1-2 hours with some people of my group through the forest. 

the forrest near our camp

me in the forest near our camp

On our way through this forest we found a toad which was somehow flat. Probably it had been hit by a bigger vehicle. At the same day in the night i found one of its siblings in the darkness. It was not moving at all probably because it was afraid of me.

a flat toad

a flat toad 2

a toad in the darkness

In the evening before i went to sleep i took this picture of the noosa river.

the everglades river in the evening

Most of the time at this camp we were only eating and drinking, which was nice, but i had not brought a lot of things to eat because i had thought that i would have to do longer treks with all my food and walk long distances carrying all my food. So i only had some small packages of noodles with me. If i had to do this same trip again i would definetely bring a lot more of things to eat. Because all the food was only transported on the canoes, and i didn*t have to carry it around over long distances as i had expected. And yes there was enough spaces on the canoes to transport the food.

On the second day (the 7th of November ) we paddled further upstream to the beginning of a path which should bring us to a sand dune somewhere in the forest. At the beginning of this path there was a sign which said that you might get hurt or even die if you walk this way, as shown in the picture down below.

me at the beginning of the path to the sand dune

We nevertheless walked all the way which was about 12 km there and back. On the way at some points you could already see the sand dune far away. You could also see a bit of the everglades forest but the trees were hiding the landscape. But from the sand dune as shown later we had a beautiful view over the whole area of the everglades.

the way to the sand dune

After walking about 6 kms uphill we finally reached our destination: the sand dune. Which was simply a big bunch of sand in the middle of the forest. The special thing about it is that from this dune you could see all the area of the everglades.

my group mates walking on the sand dune

the sand dune and the everglades in the background

me at the sand dune and everglades in background

me jumping on the sand dune

the sand dune and the everglades

me at the sand dune with everglades in background