Sabbath 2.0 Canadian Edition

Okay so I have had a bit of a break for some reading and educational stuff, as well as some family time.  Now I am doing some camping in Canada and the US.  We just spent the last week in Lake Superior Provincial park at Agawa Bay (many of my Aussie friends will recognize this spot from their Canadian travels!).  Here are a few pictures from our time there and our Canada Day fun...

The whole McCarthy/Robinson family...

All the Nieces and Nephews...

Note the O'Reilly's mug (Thanks Jill and Joe!)

A dead tree sunset...

My humble camping abode (seems all the nieces and nephews want to spend a night in Auntie's trailer - it is impacting my sleep!)

Farewell Australia

Well my time here is almost over only a few hours left!  Hard to believe, I have had such a wonderful time, made amazing new friends and shared laughter and good times with old friends.  I have done so many amazing things and seen so much of the country, yet there is so much more to see!  I guess I will just have to come back.

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who journeyed with me...Janice, Mandy, Peter, Pia, John, Leanne, Colin, Rosie, John, Judy, Darrel, Deb, Cookie, Joan, Jill, Joe, Linda, Peter, Alan, Georgie and all the other amazing Australians who were so welcoming and easy going.  Thank you all for the amazing hospitality and I only hope I can offer the same if you ever venture to my corner of Canada (Brandon is surprisingly warm in January, I promise (-;).  I am not looking forward to the journey home, but I am looking forward to a beautiful Canadian summer!

Great Barrier Reef

Today was my one full day in Cairns, oh there is so much to do here, I guess I will have to come back!  Since I had to choose something I decided to spend the day at the reef, we left Port Douglas this morning and journeyed to the Outer Great Barrier reef and specifically the Agincourt reef.  Here we had a chance to snorkel, scuba, or stay dry and go on a semi-sub or helicopter ride.  I chose to snorkel and tried scuba diving for the first time - I loved the scuba diving so much I went twice!  I saw all kinds of fish, Trumpet fish, Clown fish (also known as Nemo), Maori Wrasse, Lion fish, Red bass, Angel fish, Giant clams, and a bunch of fish I can't name as well as all kinds of coral...all of which you will have to imagine or look up online because my camera is not waterproof!  Here are a few photos of the day...

Leaving Port Douglas...

Arriving at the reef...

Snorkelling...

Arriving back safe and sound, but very tired and exhilarated...

Now back to Melbourne and on to Ballarat (much colder down south - hope I can handle the cold :-)

Feeding Wild Dolphins...

The other amazing thing I got to do at Tangalooma was feed wild dolphins!  It was absolutely amazing, the come right up to the beach, play around for a little while and put on their own little show with no prompting then line up mostly in twos to be fed, here are a few shots before the feeding...

And here are a few of my feeding experience...I still can't quite believe I got to do that!

Tobogganing on Tangalooma

Went to Moreton Island for a day trip today, one of the largest sand islands near Brisbane.  Part of the trip was sand tobogganing!  It was a lot of fun, you have to be careful to do it correctly or you end up eating a lot of sand...I slid down three times and managed not to eat sand, I did end up with a fair amount in my shorts pocket!  Don't have pictures of my slide down as I was busy, but here I am with my "sand toboggan".

This is the hill we had to climb - the view from the bottom and from the top, I have to say I was very proud of myself for going up, and down again three times it was not an easy climb and doubly hard in sand (just for perspective those are buses at the bottom!

 We also got a chance to see some wild Kookaburras feeding, or waiting to feed I should say...

Deep Sea Fishing

I am spending a few days on the Gold Coast with Peter and Linda Berg, south of Brisbane.  Peter took me out deep sea fishing and I actually caught something!  We had beautiful warm weather with only small swells it was amazing.  I caught what is called a Sergeant Baker which is not good for eating as well as a Teraglin which is.  Apparently it isn't an easy fish to catch so despite its size I was quite proud of myself...

I will admit it wasn't huge but it was great fun and good eating... (thankfully Peter cleaned and cooked it for me :-)

O'Reilly's...

Just arrived back in Lawnton after a great, relaxing trip to O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park, in the southern part of Queensland and overlooking the Great Divide.  O'Reilly's has an amazing history and is not easy to get to, trust me when I say the Gravol came in handy!  The road up is very twisty and switches back on itself with narrow spots where only one car can fit; however the views and the hospitality were well worth the trip!

The road in...

The view from my balcony...

Sunset from my balcony...

We went on a 4WD excursion to Luke's bluff, some of the views...

We were also serenaded by our tour guides, Michael O'Reilly and Glen Trelfo

I hiked down to Moran Falls...

There are tons of birds, here are just a few...

This is a Tawny Frogmouth...(not so sure where its head is)

One even came to visit me as I relaxed on my balcony...

Another sunset, it's a hard life...