More of Sydney and start of the Great Barrier Reef

So it turns out the Sydney Aiport isn't open 24 hours a day. Our flight left from Sydney on Monday morning at 7:00 AM, so we thought it would be much easier to check in late Sunday night and just crash in the airport before our flight on Monday morning. Shortly after our arrival we were quietly escorted by the Security at the airport, and rather then spending $100 for a hotel room we shacked up at the McDonald's right by the airport and just went on ZERO sleep. But we did get some double cheese's to help out. Before we left Sydney though we got to go to the Olympic Park where the 2000 summer games were held, went out with some of our new found friends at our Hostel, walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, took some great pictures of the city, and went to the Australia vs. Netherlands Soccer match. The Dutch were ranked 3rd in the world I think at the time.

The day we went to the soccer match the temperature was only in the upper 50's and raining. It actually cleared up a little bit right as the game was about to start, but it was really incredible to be around that atmosphere of an international soccer match. The Aussie's were definitely outmatched, and Jonathon will be the first to agree, but the game ended in a 0-0 draw, so it wasn't the most exciting for the fans either. We also went to Bondi Beach one afternoon, which is a world famous beach for it's surfing and scenery. Despite the not so warm weather it was beautiful there, and fun to just watch the Pacific Ocean for a couple of hours.

We then flew into Townsville as it was much cheaper then to go all the way to Cairns. We rented a car and began heading up the Coast towards Cairns where the main attraction is for the Great Barrier Reef. A little over an hour into the drive on Monday we stopped at Wallaman Waterfall and did some hiking around Australia's tallest waterfall. It is almost 300 meters tall (just shy of 1,000 feet for you Americans) and we hiked all the way down to the bottom and climbed around the rock formations down there. This part of Queensland is in the dry season and they haven't had rain in a couple of months so the stream wasn't particularly strong, but it was so much fun to hike there and see the nature. We then drove further north to Mission Beach where we ate some dinner and stayed the night virtually right on the beach. I don't think I have to say it, but we were VERY tired from the McDonald's/Airport/Airplane sleeping the night and morning before and only getting maybe an hour of sleep, so we crashed fairly early that night.

Jonathon and I did wake up early the next morning and got a couple hours of beach time in before continuing north. The weather was in the upper 80's and the Australian sun is a little bit more intense then the sun in other parts of the world I've been to. We saw two groups of skydivers land on the Beach from 14,000 feet right by us. We decided to keep heading north and are now staying the next several nights in Cairns. We found a great deal at a Hostel in town where we are staying for only $17 a night including a free dinner each night from a local Pub (drinks not included) and it offers great views.



We ended up booking a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef on a Sailboat for this Friday. We are also going to spend a full day or more in the Daintree National Forest, some time on the Palm Cove Beach, and Port Douglas Beach (Google pictures there and you might be jealous!!!) After a couple more days on the Great Barrier Reef we're going to be flying to Darwin, Australia to spend a few days around the Australian wildlife before heading into Indonesia and spending about a month in SE Asia.

I'll be sure to include a lot of pictures of our trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel, and describe that. My camera is waterproof so hopefully I'll be able to get some great shots of the Coral as well as colorful fish/water/islands.