May 19-23: Fraser Island Adventures

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It is a 4-wheel-driving paradise, with a 75 mile sand beach, and incredible tracks through the deep forests. It was the last real adventure for Peaches the Pajero - my last shot at doing any real damage - after this it will be mostly highway driving.

You hop on a 30 minute ferry and presto, you're adventuring around the island. As a rookie 4 wheel driver, I took it pretty easy.

The island has several noteable features. My favorite was the wreck of the SS Maheno. It was a turn of the century luxury liner that was washed ashored during a cyclone in 1935 while it was being towed to Japan to be sold as scrap. The other is a bold population of dingoes. Usually a small and timid scavenger dog, the Fraser Island dingoes have grown accustomed to human contact. My buddy Ashley and his crew had their campsite raided on the first night, and lost all of their meat for the trip.

This marks an inflection point in my trip. From here I'll be doubling back over ground I've covered before. It officially marks the completion of my "lap" of Australia. I have a month left until my return trip to Canada, and I have to start thinking about things like selling my truck, getting a job, and sorting out what I want to do with my life. It is bittersweet. The past 5 months have been such an incredible adventure - I'm looking forward to seeing everyone from back home... and to my next adventure :)

May 14-18: The Whitsunday Islands

The Whitsunday Islands are a chain of islands of the coast of eastern Australia which sit between the middle section of the Great Barrier Reef and the mainland. It is a very popular tourist spot, as sailing ships leave Airlie Beach out to tour the marine-life rich waters and unspoiled beaches.

I did a 2 day, 2 night tour on a boat called Wings 2, a giant catamaran. It looks like a pretty serious sailing maching, with all the obligatory ropes and pulleys. But in the 2 days, we sort of just drove around as the sailing conditions weren't really windy enough to move the huge boat.

Whitehaven beach is particularily spectacular, as the fine white sand swirls in the shallows to make swirling shapes. We caught it on a cloudy day. It is often named one of the top ten beaches in the world.

May 12-13: Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest

Just north of Cairns is a World Heritage Site called the Daintree Rainforest. It is a quick 2 hour drive. My dinner team and I took an afternoon to wander through the forest and to check out the beautiful beach. Beaches in the area are heavily signed to warn people against crocodiles and jellyfish.

May 9-11: Scuba Diving at the Great Barrier Reef

I have spent the last 3 days on a purpose built scuba diving boat cruising around selected sites diving the Great Barrier Reef. We did 11 dives in total, including 2 night dives. The second night dive was probably the most interesting. The captain was feeding the sharks off the end of the boat prior to our dive. When we came up we had reef sharks cruising by to check us out. I had an AMAZING time, and met some great people.

The last dive site we visited was easily the most spectacular I've ever seen, and I can't wait to get back in the water again. The photos don't really do it justice... they never really do...

Starting tomorrow, after roughly 2 months of driving in all three of the other directions, I'm finally headed south again - on the way to the Whitsunday islands.

May 5-8: Hello Cairns!

Hello Cairns! I made it! I'm offically back on the east coast of Australia, ready to act like a tourist. I'm super pumped because a couple of the girls from the Uluru tour are also in town, which means I'll have a couple of people to hang out with... Monique and Jente are Dutch teenage backpackers - working their way across Australia in the year between high school and university. I decided to bunk in at their hostel which (not surprisingly) is filled with teenagers from all over the world. It is difficult to describe feeling both young and old simultaneouly. I'm enjoying this colorful and unexpected flashback to my past.

Monique and Jente and I have had a blast working as a dinner team - pooling funds to buy groceries and make dinners together. Our dinner team made a quick day trip out to Cape Tribulation, part of the Daintree rainforest. With lush vegetation and mangrove swamps, it is spectaularily different than every other part of Australia I've seen so far. But stay off the beaches... there are crocodiles nearby!

Tomorrow I'm headed on a 3-day diving tour of the Great Barrier Reef. I'm trying hard not to contain my excitement - this is one of the big reasons I decided to come to Australia.

As I'm laying in a hammock on the coast in the Australian tropics, I'm starting to yearn for the predictability of sleeping in my own bed. After 4 months and a half months away from home, I'm starting getting used to the idea of heading back.

For those of you who are moms (most especially mine),
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

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May 2-4: The road to Cairns

Between Darwin and Cairns is another 2500km of road. It is largely uninterupted highway driving, save for a big corrugated stretch of dirt track that tests your suspension and loosens your fillings all at the same time. I'm excited to report that once complete, I will only have another 3000km or so to go before I'm back in Sydney... To date, I've driven more than 25,000km in Australia.

Apr 28-May 2: Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks

Just outside of Darwin are two of the Northern Territories most prolific parks.

I toured around Litchfield with Kaitlin whom I'd met on the Uluru tour and her friend Micah. Each wandering around with our giant cameras, we popped in to visit breath-taking waterfalls, and perfect naturally formed swimming holes.

After dropping them off in Darwin, I made my way through Kakadu park. Like Litchfield, it has some remarkable natural features, but the park is defined by the spectacular native art on the rock walls. It would have been easy to spend a week exploring all of the amazing walking trails.

One of the incredible rock photos below is a guy named Narbulwinjbulwinj who eats women after attacking them with a yam. Yep... a yam.

Apr 22-27: Alice Springs and Uluru

I decided to make a quick trip down to see Uluru - formerly known as Ayer's Rock - a bourneheart stone in the red centre of Australia. It is a place of much cultural significance for the aboriginal people.

As opposed to the self-guided adventure I've been leading to date, I decided it would be fun to try to take the train there and join a tour... stopping for a quick helicopter tour of the Catherine gorge en route. For three days and two nights we visited the area around Uluru and did some hiking through King's Canyon. Save for the series of bedbug bites I picked up at the hostel in Alice Springs, this was a great way to get to know the outback and to meet some new people.

I rode the train back to Darwin with Joseph, a German guy who tests the steering in new Audi cars (this is a true story: he test drives cool cars for a living). Where did I go wrong? Maybe it is time for a career change...

Apr 19-21: Welcome to Darwin!

Following my overly adventurous trip down the Gibb road, I was happy to hit paved highways again. I forged ahead to Darwin, in an effort to catch up with my Irish buddy Fergal for beers. After a week or so of social starvation, it was great to see a familiar face and enjoy a multi-party conversation.

My first order of business was to go see a crocodile jumping tour. Based on their stubby little legs, I hadn't imagined that crocodile were much good at jumping. The tour was about an hour long. You float up and down the Adelaide river and a guide hangs a giant pork chop out over the water. Next thing you know, a saltwater crocodile makes his (or her) way out next to the boat, and gets into position to leap for the pork chop. It has a bit of a circus feel to it... but it is impressive to see these fellas in their natural habitat.