G'day again Mates,

Giving you one last shout (not a round of beers, see issue 2) from the land of Oz.  Tomorrow it's off to the next new land to explore, New Zealand.  Hard to believe it's been a little more than 4 weeks since starting this Australian backpacking adventure.  Time certainly has flown by.  Although we weren't able to hit Ayer's Rock or the West coast, the 4 week tour of the East Coast was a blast, and I think we got a taste of some of the most impressive spots on the World's biggest island.  As I sit here in a little sidewalk internet cafe in Cairns (pronounced 'cans', besides dropping the endings of words it seems they skip a few letters here and there too), I thought it would be a good time to bring you up to date on the last few adventures of the trip, and to share a few more observations, rants, and ravings about this fine land and it's people...

Since my last update, we've gone walkabout through a tropical rainforest in Mission Beach, scuba dived and snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, and spent 3 amazing and relaxing days in Cape Tribulation.  To coin a popular British line, it's been a brilliant week.

The diving adventure definitely goes in the highlight film for the trip.  We signed up for an all-day charter on Reef Magic, a 65 foot dive boat (35 or so of us) from Cairnes.  It took about an hour to motor out to the Tedson/Canyons reef.  After a few little safety talks about diving and a quick quiz on the scuba equipment (clear your mask underwater, replace your breathing apparatus, that kind of thing), I was scuba diving, immersed in the most amazing explosion of color I've ever seen.  Tropical fish and coral formations of all sizes, colors, and shapes.  Even saw a morray eel and a huge TT fish (about 6 feet long).  The dive lasted about 1/2 hour and considering it was an 'intro' dive since I'm not officially a certified diver, I don't think I would have gotten better if I was certified.  I got to do a second dive in the afternoon that was even better.  Got to dive for 40 minutes, down under the down under to over 30 feet.   The rest of the day was spent snorkeling among the reef, or relaxing on the boat.  An amazing day.

The final great excursion of our pilgrimage north was a trip to Cape Tribulation.  This is a place about 2 hours north of Cairnes.  It's truly a tropical paradise.  Cape Trib is the only place on Earth where a rainforest comes right down to the ocean.   There's no electricity (although the resorts do have generated electricity) and the roads aren't sealed (paved).  Beaches are nestled in little coves, protected by rolling mangrove-covered hills.  It was completely relaxing, beautiful, the perfect ending to my Oz experience.   The 3 days in Cape Trib included a visit to Mossman Gorge, Harley's Crocodile Farm, a guided rainforest walk, and a non-guided walk through a crock-infested river.

So those are the trip highlights from the last legs, now for a few Oz-ervations I haven't had a chance to include yet...

As you probably know, they drive on the other side of the road here.  Not that interesting in itself, but the funny part is that they walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk too.  But many of the tourists don't.  So you get on a busy sidewalk and it's sheer chaos.  Funny in general but can be frustrating when you've got a 40 pound backpack on and you're hungry for a kabab (the local snack of choice here).

Australians don't use the term 'bathroom'.  Here's it's called a toilet.  As an American, I'm almost uncomfortable with the term, but since you gotta go, 'toilet' has become part of the lexicon.  And most public Men's rooms have the long troth urinals, ala the old Fenway Park days.  Not good cocktail party conversation I suppose, but the way I see it, no one can get too much World bathroom trivia.

I know the Bali nightclub explosion hasn't gotten much press back home, but here it's huge news.  The number of Australians killed or injured, when you consider that only 18 million people live in this whole country, approaches the scale of our 9/11 for them.  The fact that the bombing took place one week after the end of their football/rugby season when many teams escape to Bali to celebrate the end of the season only heightened the anger people feel.  The headlines of those missing or killed brings back horrible memories of the days and weeks that followed 9/11.  This past Sunday was declared a national day of mourning, flags were at half-staff, a telethon was held to raise money for the victims, and candlelight vigils were held throughout the country.  Not that there's anything good about such an atrocity, but from the locals we've talked politics with before and after Bali, the anti-Bush/anti-American sentiment toward our tough stand on Iraq and terrorism has definitely softened here as a result.

Bill Bryson's book 'In a Sunburnt Country' is named 'Down Under' here.  I think you can figure out why.

Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter guy) is considered kindof a joke to the locals.

Cricket, Rugby, and Australian Rules Football (AFL) are huge sports here.  Cricket games are boring beyond belief and can go on for 3 days.  It's the only sport that has meal breaks.  And although AFL and Rugby have a lot of different rules, both are brutal sports.  Consider our football games, but without all the pads and the breaks between each play.  It amazes me that players aren't hauled off in stretchers every 10 minutes.

They really do say 'No Worries' and 'G'day' and 'mate' here.  A lot.

New Wildlife sightings since Issue 2:
Crocodiles = 3 (in the wild), many at Hartley's Crock Farm, Forest Dragons = 1, Cassowaries = 0 (3 at Harley's though), scrub turkeys = heaps.

Well, that will do it for now.  Not sure what the internet access situation will be in New Zealand, but I hope to drop you a note or 2 from Kiwi-land in a week or 2.  Until then, I hope you're well and that you're having a fine Fall.

Cheers!

Jim