Two Tall Travelers

It is a thing of man to always compare the new with something already experienced.

Are you a fan of aquarii? (that must be the plural form for aquarium acc. to Latin..) You know, I am not at all a fan when it comes to a glass container sitting in the middle of a room with some bubbles, fish, some grass and rocks in them (and anything else people fancy putting in there). But now it is a different story when you can actually swim in it! I think I must have swam in the best aquarium in the world. The Great Barrier Reef. I spent about 2 solid hours snorkeling, one hour diving in the great miracle of beauty. So there I was, swimming with a stunning variety of fish, a shark, some turtles amidst the most colourful corals. If I was a great writer I would go on describing those impressions. Since I am not you will have to imagine it!

Fire again?
Monday around 4:00am. A rude awakening. What disturbed my sleep was some strange sound like something being blown with force. Maybe it resembled the sound of a hot-air balloon when it blows the hot flame in the balloon. When I opened my eyes I just saw white. The dorm room with 7 beds was covered in white and the white stuff was still floating in the  air. The girls began to cough. I was simply annoyed. Turned around and stuck my face in my pillow. A few seconds later I actually woke up and realized that we needed to get out of that room. The 6 girls and myself were found outside the  room a bit later discussing what happened. One of the girls looked like Snow-white. I mean she was white from top to bottom.
Somebody had broken our back door open and with a powder fire-extinguisher sprayed our room. Funny? Not really. More like a high school prank. The next room had experienced the same but they were not that badly affected so they went back to sleep. After a while the fire fighters came (I remembered Aaron and my tour of Jeremy’s fire station and the little video we made) and told us that it was simply baking powder with some additive. All ok.
Great. The girls went back to bed after we all cleaned mattresses and sheets and I stayed outside with my mattress, hopped in my sleeping bag and slept till the sun came out. Just makes life a little more interesting doesn’t it? Arrg.

This week I took a trip to Fraser Island. This place is a miracle in itself - the world’s largest sand island, that is, ALL ground is sand (?!) but the most beautiful vegetation is found all over the island. From thick bush to crystal-clear drinking-quality fresh water lakes to high sand dunes and pine trees, all is found there. You can only drive in a 4×4 on the island, and even then you sometimes get bogged down. I travelled in a Land Cruiser with 7 Finnish folks and 2 Irish girls. We did not have a good start because it poured down the entire day so we had to set up our tents in the rain and come to terms with a wet habitat for the night. The Irish cooked a lovely dinner, in the rain but under a tarp that I had put up in the trees with all my military experience (You would have thought the 5 guys from Finland who all had spent a year in the military would have helped or contributed their knowledge. Nope. Not that first night anyway. It was quite a funny site though, everybody was soaked and after our dinner we just had a good laugh about it over some beers.
Thank God (!) the rain ceased the next day and both day 2 and 3 were dry and partly sunny. From “Indian Head” a lookout point over the sea on the North tip of the island I spotted several sharks, a huge turtle, manta-rays and stingrays. Beautiful. Day three we mostly spent at the gorgeous lake McKenzie. Volleyball on the white sandy beach, swimming and drinking that beautiful water, just chilling on the shore… good times. At the end of the 3 days I had sand in every pocket, backpack, ears and everywhere else just like that white powder a few days before! Good times!

If you have been keeping up with the news you might have heard that there are two tall cyclones around and about the East coast of Australia. This makes travelling a bit more difficult. Greyhound buses for instance don’t guarantee that you will get to a destination because there are serious floods. So far I don’t see much of it, Aaron might be experience more of the rain since he is furhter North. So keep us in  prayer!

I have left my wonderful family in Avalon and am now in PortMcquarie trying to sort out the rest of my trip and surfing

I was hiking up to a lighthouse with my brother Martin today and something reminded me of the Grand Canyon hike Aaron and I did. So here is a little memory of that hike…