On Holiday, or Travelling?

Travelling around New Zealand and Australia has definitely been an enlightening experience.  Most of my Canadian friends (including myself up until this point) hadn't done much 'travelling' in the truest sense... the ones who did do some 'travelling' usually did it as side trips from their teaching English somewhere in Asia -- I'm not sure if I can think of anyone who up and took a year off to travel around the world.

One interesting thing that I came to realize on the Whitsunday being people use the terms 'on holiday' and 'travelling' differently.  I was chatting with a British bloke named Danny when he said 'Oh, I'm not travelling, I'm just here on holiday...'.  That got me thinking -- what is the difference between being on holiday and travelling?  Aren't they the same thing?

So this got me thinking -- how does one differentiate between being 'on holiday' and 'travelling'?  And which camp would Astrid & I be considered in?  Lets look at some criteria:

Duration:

I'm going to say that a 'holiday' would max out at 4 weeks (Brits are known to take 4 weeks off concurrently and refer to it as 'annual leave')... of course no one in Canada could do this since hardly anyone gets 4 weeks (except my friends mom, who apparently gets 6 or 7 weeks holiday working for the Canada Post, but I'm sure that took a few decades to earn).  Travelling typically denotes a longer period of time.  Travelling is often for a year, but I reckon anything over 6 weeks would firmly put you in the travelling camp.

Destination:

Holidays are typically a single-destination event, whereas travelling often means seeing multiple countries... or in the case of big countries like Canada, US, or Australia, seeing many different cities in those areas.  Holidays are often a single flight out, single flight back affair, whereas travelling often involves multiple legs -- culminating with the 'Round the World' (RTW) ticket many airlines offer and the preferred choice of proper travellers on a gap year.

Laundry:

To me, being on holiday is meant to be relaxing and a bit more luxurious.  This also means a lack of chores (cooking, cleaning, and laundry).  Travellers pack light and doing laundry in hostels or campgrounds becomes pretty normal.

Financial Situation:

People on holiday plan, save, and really enjoy themselves while away -- staying in proper hotels and having some excellent meals.  People travelling, due to duration (see above) are much more financially constrained.  This means staying in Hostels instead of hotels, cooking your own meals somewhat regularly, and eating out on the cheap when not cooking.  It seems almost everyone travelling is perpetually broke (yet they still seem to fork out for cool excursions such as sky diving).  To this end, many travellers end up working as part of their tour.

Job:

Being on holiday typically means on holiday from your job.  When you are on holiday, you are still getting paid.  When you return, you go back to your job full of excitement and tell everyone about your trip and show off the photos.  Travelling on the other hand often means no job existed (just graduated) or quitting your job (see financial situation above) and having to find a new one whenever you return home.  Since there is no job waiting, this also aids in extending the duration of one's travels.

So, before analyzing any of the above, I would have said that Astrid and I were 'travelling'.  But we're definitely more 'soft core' compared to most of our fellow travellers we have met on our journey.  Analyzing the above criteria renders the following for us:

Duration -- 74 days -- travelling

Destination -- 2 countries and multiple destinations  -- travelling (scraping by)

Laundry -- yes, many times -- travelling

Financial Situation -- no, we're just 'borrowing' from our house down payment :)  -- holiday

Job -- we've got ones to go back to -- holiday

So there we have it folks... it looks like we squeak by with a narrow margin of 3-2 in favour of 'travelling'!

But it'll be good to be home nonetheless :)

Syd.

Living on a Dive Boat

To be honest, I was a little scared of heading out to sea for 3 days of diving.  After our Port Douglas day diving trip, I began to feel ill and developed a fever... most likely from ingesting way too much sea water while snorkeling in the big waves on the reef.  It was too late to cancel the trip, nor did we really want to cancel the biggest excursion of our entire holiday.  So I spent the entire day before in bed, taking some paracetemol (what they call acetaminophen everywhere else in the world), vitamin C, and lots of water.

The trip ended up being amazing.  The first day was a bit rough as I was still recovering, but the rest was smooth.  Consecutive diving lets you get into a rhythm so it just becomes clockwork for you to suit up and jump in for yet another dive.  I would compare doing a 3 day live-aboard dive trip to staying in a ski resort for about a week doing 5 consecutive days of skiing (or snowboarding).  Its just so much better than doing a single day trip.  Like on the 4th day of skiing/snowboarding, by about the 6th dive you are totally in the zone and feel you could just continue diving/skiing everyday, forever.  And like week-long ski trips, this dive trip allowed Astrid & I to become much better divers.

A few people onboard were doing their Advanced Open Water course, something I've always wanted to upgrade to.  At only $100 AUS, I was actually planning to do it this trip but given the cold I got just beforehand, I opted to not push it and hoped I would just be able to dive at all, and not feel worse over the course of the trip.

The food onboard was also super healthy and tasty... probably the best we've eaten since in Australia.  And going 4 days without alcohol must be a record on our holiday and I'm sure was a welcome break for my kidneys and liver :)

Diving in the GBR is fantastic... I'm sure it won't be a question of _if_ we come back, but more of a _when_ we'll be back. 

Till next time...

Syd.

Scuba Freaks

One of the key highlights of Australia is the Great Barrier Reef (aka GBR).  A natural wonder of the world, and the only living organism to be seen from space.  We knew we were going to scuba dive this phenomenon, but we didn't anticipate how much we would dive!

As mentioned in my previous post we went diving in Port Douglas as a result of winning the cane toad race.  This dive boat took us to the outer reef  - only 1.5 hour ride on a massive catamaran from town.  Port Douglas is famous for being the closest town to the reef (closer than Cairns).  We didn't have our camera this day so you'll have to take our word for it (well, we brought the camera, but forgot it's battery back in our room). (Though we got this 'shot' of the boat :)):

The diving here was great!  We didn't go down too deep (only about 60 feet) and ascended to the more shallow part of the reef on the way through the dives.  The colours of the coral in the GBR are phenomenal.  Greens, purples, and blues could be seen everywhere.  My favourite was the blue staghorn coral as it is a bright baby blue with darker tips.  There are also loads of fish eating off the reef - you can even hear the parrotfish biting at the coral - its like a cacophony of scratching all around you when you are in the midst of a large feeding session.  when we came up there was a massive maori wrasse under the boat that was just as big as me!  He likes to hang out and get his photo taken, like the one below:

After we completed each dive that day we also went out snorkelling as the reef was so shallow and bright with colours near the surface, we just didn't want to miss out.  It was tough snorkelling though as there was a massive current and the waves kept pushing water into our snorkels.  Diving was much more pleasurable.  I'm glad we did the one day as it prepared us for the big kahuna GBR dive trip.

Two days later we went on a 3 day live aboard dive trip from Cairns to see a different part of the outer reef.  It was basically 4 dives per day with very early morning wake ups.  You start to feel woozy from all of the compressed oxygen in your system, but the dives make it worth it.  The great thing about diving the reef is how shallow it is.  So that means less equalizing and decompression and other potentially scary diving stuff. 

The boat trip was run by Pro-Dive and it is a well run operation.  Basically all day you dive, then eat, then dive, then eat.  There are 33 people sleeping in cabins on the big dive vessel (called scubapro) and 6 crew.  We did 11 dives in 3 days, which included 2 freaky but relaxing night dives.  When we jumped in the water for each night dive there were sharks circling the boat but thankfully they scattered when we jumped in (they don' like our noisy bubbles).  Those divers out there will know what the symbol Syd is doing means :)

It seemed insane, but the schedule was so well planned that it all happened naturally.  The boat itself was very cool, with cabins on 3 different levels and lots of toilets... quite an upgrade compared to the close quarters of the backpacker-focused Whitsunday sailboats where there was only 1 shower for 26 people.

This is the first time that Syd and I were sent on our own to dive and navigate ourselves (without a guide).  Though we did have some help from our supervisor (Arek) who did a picture map with compass directions and funny story before each dive (above).  It was a bit scary at first but eventually it was nice to have the freedom and comfort of just each other to dive with.  We rented a digital camera for the trip so that we could get some choice shots.

We especially loved the parrot fish.

The funky and beautiful coral formations, including this one which was 15 feet high and looked like a mushroom (which served as a great reference point -- 300 degrees back to the boat!):

The hawks bill turtles (often eating off the reef)

The clown fish were adorable but so hard to find

And the multitude of spotted stingrays.

I also enjoyed taking shots like this:

In my ignorance I laid down beside a dangerous fish called the Titan Triggerfish (who was actually guarding its nest in the sand).  I just thought it was a strange looking fish.  Thankfully it didn't attack or I would have had a nice chunk out of my side from its sharp teeth!

Astrid.

How a Toad Changed our Holiday

So, our first night in Port Douglas started out normal enough.  We walked around the town, enjoyed happy hour from 5-6 and played some euchre for a while.  Then, we felt a bit peckish so we went to a bar called the Iron Bar and sat at a tractor table.  I tried kangaroo loin and it was delicious.  So overall, pretty normal right?

Well, then this guy comes up to our table and asks us to watch a comedy show about cane toads and human jockeys that race them (for $5).  So we thought, sure, lets partake.  Firstly, the man had to explain that the cane toads are misunderstood, and that their poison venom is inside the pockets of their cheeks and this is only released when under intense squeezing or biting.  Thus, he said as long as we didn't bite the toads heads then we would be safe!

 

In the first two rounds, people were selected randomly to race toads from their ticket numbers.  They each had to kiss the toad and place it in the bucket to start the race.  I think they do this so that people get comfortable with touching the thing.  The toads had cool names like Jerry Springer (everyone is to say Jerry, Jerry!), fat bastard (man he was a fat frog!), ozzy ozzy (to bring out the ozzy cheer of oy oy oy!), gay freddo (named after the chocolate bar - he had a pink harness), and my personal female favourite - camel toad ;-).  Once the man said go and lifted the bucket, every jockey had to focus their new years paper noise maker at their toad's butt to try and get it off the table. Once off the table the toad was free to be grabbed by the jockey and placed in the winning bucket.   This is harder than it seems because once the toads have freedom they can hop pretty darn fast! 

For the final round they replaced the two toads that were poor performers and added two new toads and auctioned off the lot.  Gay Freddo was doing pretty well so he garnered $25 in the auction, followed by Fat Bastard at $20.  I thought I would get in the game and bid on Camel Toad (who came in 6th and 2nd in the last two races) for a mere $10.  What a steal!  From then on, the thoughts in our heads went like this.

Astrid:  Oh my god.  Did my bid just win?  Yikes, now I actually have to race this thing in front of all these people...I can do this, its just a toad right? I watched other people do it?  Though I talked to a woman in the bathroom from a previous round and she was right grossed out...hmm..here we go, I'm being called up to get camel toad.  Its not so bad its just her and one other toad left in the bucket. Just grab it, say woo hoo, and put in other bucket. Done.  Oops, I need to kiss the darn thing, so I picked her up again and did so.  Must have helped because now she's raring to go.  Let's look around at the competition.  Mostly old bittys...I can take them down.  I think the prize is good, and even if it sucks, its all about winning right?  I'm not competitive at all, nope.  Its down to camel toad and I to make this happen.  And we're off.  She's already heading for the table. One quick little push from my noisemaker and she's at the edge.  She jumped! What do I do? Oh ye, grab her and place in the bucket.  No more jumps for you my friend, you're mine.  And in the bucket you go.  How did I do?  Oh my god!  I won? Syd, I won?  That's awesome! ;o)

Camel Toad:  Frick, I have to race again?  Why can't they put me back in the wild so I can continue to populate thousands of babies?  This is such a bore. Oh, here comes my new jockey.  She seems kinda cute, and certainly on the ball...maybe we can take this one home.  Oh, there we go, into the bucket with the other loser toads.  Oops, she's picking me up again, time to get my juices moving and my legs warmed up. That kiss helped, thanks lass. Okay, here goes, maybe if I'm the first to jump out the bucket I'll have a head start.  Here we go!  You leave my butt alone, I can find my way on my own thank you very much.  There's the edge!  I'm going for it! Yay! Freedom!  Or not, that lass grabbed me already, damn she's fast. Doh.

So that's how it all played out.  I ended up winning a full day snorkel trip ($165 value) on a ship called HABA, and bragging rights for the rest of the night.  Sweet eh?  We then changed our itin for the next day in Port Douglas and got up early to get on the boat!  We used the certificate and upgraded me to diving for $60 and Syd paid for his own dive trip.  If it hadn't been for that great toad, we would have just lazed around the entire day and missed 2 brilliant dives on the Great Barrier Reef.  Thanks Camel Toad. ;o)

Astrid.

Sleeping in the Rainforest

It seems ages ago when we stepped into the travel agent's place across the street from our hostel in St. Kilda's.  It was there that we laid out our Oz itinerary and booked the majority of our tours and accommodation.  One portion of the journey I had previously never heard of:  a 2 day/1-night Cape Tribulation trip.  Part of the reason we decided to keep it in the itin was that it was a good way to provide a free transfer North of Cairns so we could spend a couple of nights in Port Douglas, which we heard fantastic things about.

Cape Tribulation is a couple of hours North of Cairns -- its a proper rainforest and each day it rained a few times, turning into a serious downpour, but only lasting 10-15 mins or so.  And about an hour later, the concrete walkways were already dry again due to the humidity. 

We did a tour up there that included a river cruise where we saw 2 baby crocs and a heron.  Then we did a couple nature walks in the Daintree Rainforest.

We stayed in a cool hostel called the Cape Trib Beach House which was a series of different cabin accommodations right within the rainforest!  Here's a shot of our cabin -- it had 3 rooms plus a kitchen/common area, but the other rooms were empty so it was all ours :)

Behind us is the actual 'Cape' that the area is named after.  We took a walk down there behind our hostel to check out the lookout, another beach, and see some cool wildlife.

 

Swimming in the rain in the rainforest was a cool experience.

Spiders here are everywhere!  And they are ginormous (like Dan & Sue's clock!).  Here's a shot of me holding a big female:

Just kidding -- I'm not holding her -- no way!  Spiders are actually pretty difficult to photograph so in this one I simply had my hand behind her web.  Apparently this spiders' webs is one of the strongest and the army is starting to use it in materials due to its strength to weight ratio.

Our beach house had a cool tented area where the bistro (great food!) and pool were located.  They also had a wicked selection of games, and Astrid & I had a couple of good matches of Yahtzee!

This is the access to the beach from the bistro area. 

Artistic rainforest walk shot. ;o)

Lastly, here's a shot of a large Lace Monitor that we saw on our walk.  He waddled around us for quite a while before venturing back into the brush.

  

Overall a very cool place to chill out and a great experience.

Syd.

Sailing the Coral Sea

 

There were 3 main activities I was looking forward to in Australia:  Surfing, Sailing, and Diving.  The other day we returned from our 2-day/2-night sailing trip in the Whitsunday's, thereby accomplishing 2 of the 3 aforementioned activities.  The sailing really lived up to its high expectations -- it was a really great trip.  We were on the ship BroomStick, with a fantastic crew (especially the Skipper, Mick... how Ozzie of a name is that?!?!) and a great group of passengers.

This trip is best told with pictures, so here's a bunch!

 

 

Our footprints on Whitehaven beach...

 

Here's a shot when we got the boat right on up her side, 45 degrees and were flying through the water.  The low side of the boat has the railings almost in the water!

 

Our Jet Ski Safari

For my birthday pressie Syd booked us in an 'eco-jet ski safari' where we got to play in the waves on new fabulous jet skis and tour with them down a tidal river.

We left from a beautiful eco resort (where they served us a sweet steak sandwich for lunch) for our jet ski adventure with just us and a guide (and his mate). 

We had to wear stinger suits to protect our skin from any jellyfish, but they were lycra bodysuits (tight) that made me feel like I should be in flashdance.  Surprisingly they were quite comfortable. ;o)

I have never been on a jet ski before so I wanted to be the first to drive (below).  That is mini Ben Lomond behind us.  I made Syd sit behind me (put him in the passenger seat for once) and we jetted off through the waves. It was scary at first but I got the hang of it and was soon at top speed bouncing through the waves.  We caught some serious air on some of the big waves. woo hoo!The next part of the trip Syd drove but it was more tame. We travelled down a calm river and were on the lookout for marine life (sharks, crocs, dolphins, etc) and birdlife.  We didn't see any marine life other than a few jumping fish, but we did see some cool crabs (two types) and massive sea eagles searching for their prey.  It was a chill afternoon on the river and the Syd had the reins on the way back and we hit MORE air. 

They bought us free beer for my bday and we had a swim in the warm saltwater eternity pool before watching the sun go down at the resort.

On the drive back we saw many cane toads crossing the road, saw a roo (with a joey!) in the bush, and a dingo, and lastly these 2 wallabies right beside the road!  Sweet.

What a fun day out in the Aussie wilderness. Thanks honey!