The west coast

Look what we found on our way home from the beach

Scarborough

Swimming with dolphins

Rockingham at dawn

Cottesloe beach

Perth Station

Okidoki. That was our week in Perth. The west coast was very different, needless to say. Flying from Sydney to Perth (almost four hours) is like flying from Stockholm to Gibraltar, in terms of distance! The weather Gods were good to us and even though we went from the 36 C in Cairns to 30 C in Perth we felt a bit chilly at first. Talk about being spoiled.

The highlight in Perth was definitely the dolphin dive. We went down to Rockingham and out to sea to swim with wild dolphins. Very fascinating indeed. We heard them talk under the surface and, even more exciting, we felt the buzz of their sonar.

Oh, and we popped in at IKEA in Scarborough for some meatballs. Its quite interesting how a furniture warehouse can make you feel like you were at home...

Now we are back with Jenny and Anders in Sydney, charging our batteries for the 38 days in New Zealand to come! Departure on Monday morning, 09:30 local time.

The Great Barrier Reef

The shallow waters of the Great Barrier Reef

Where the water breaks is where the Australian continental plate ends

Jack Cousteau

Poseidon - our dive boat

Early hours in the Port Douglas marina

On our way from Cairns to Port Douglas

We went up to Port Douglas, approximately one hour north of Cairns, which is our most northern point during our time in Australia. Port Douglas offers better access what is considered to be the best parts of the reef, namely the Agincourt Ribbon reefs. We had a full day out on the sea, with three different reef locations. We only used snorkel gear since most of the attractions are found at 1-5 metres depth. Lots of beautiful creatures and 29 C degree water. No turtles but many sharks. The visibility must have been 20 metres and it is a shame we did not have an underwater camera!

Magnetic Island

Bush breakfast at the Koala sanctuary

Magnetic Island, off the coast of Townsville, was given its name by discoverer James Cook when he noted that his compass was behaving in a strange way when he approached the island.

We spend a total of two days in the island, checking out the koalas, snakes, crocodiles, and wild birds.

Sailing in the Whitsundays

Almost a week ago, we departed from Airlie Beach for three days of sailing in the Whitsundays. We hopped on the 80 year old ketch Ron of Argyll, together with nine other passengers. This sailing is usually the highligt for Australia travellers. Well, we agree. The weather didn't really permit us to visit all the places we would have wished to see in the island group (consisting of 74 islands) but we saw the most important sight of them all: Whiteheaven Beach, voted one of the top 10 beaches in the world.

Fraser Island

Lake Wabby

The world's second most poisonous snake - the Brown Snake

Indian Head

The Maheno shipwreck (sank in 1937)

Dingo on the beach

Lake McKenzie

Team B: Henning, Gary, Paul, Florian, Becky, Vicky, and Melissa

Fraser Island is the world's biggest sand island and it is truly unique. We went on a 3day2night self-guided tour with 9 other people in a 4x4, and need we say we had a laugh?! The views were amazing. We saw Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, Indian Head ... Lots of dingos roaming our camp sites and a brown snake that we really underestimated. Luckily it did not get us. No time to write much now either but we believe the photos, once again, speak for themselves.