Queensland

Some of the highlights of our Queensland trip: we went zip-lining in the Daintree Rain Forest, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, saw some platypus, and visited a crocodile farm.  

Zip lining was fun because we got to effortlessly glide around the forest and they even let us go upside down at one point.  I thought it was funny that they didn't call us by our usual name, but gave us code names: I was 'Sponge Bob' and Jeff was 'Papa Smurf.'

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef was cool too because the colors of the coral were really diverse and not ones you would expect really, like lime green, electric blue, or deep purple. And we swam with lots of sea turtles, so close we could have touched them if we wanted to.  There were all kinds of crazy fish that we saw (my favorite is the parrot fish).  Some fish were so big, I mistook them at first for sharks.

At the crocodile farm we got to watch crocs being fed, eat some croc ourselves, and we also got to hold a baby croc.  I would describe the whole experience as creepy and fun at the same time.

We went on a platypus search.  They are really shy animals and hard to spot, but it’s worth the effort because they are so cute. 

We also stopped by Brisbane for a few days to enjoy some civilization in the city.

a platypus 

We feel very lucky to wake up to this view from our tent in the morning

  

We saw lots of nice tropical waterfalls

We liked the beaches too

We went 'jungle surfing' as they called it (zip lining through the canopy of the rainforest).   

We loved how the mountains and the forest were so close to the beach.

There was this really crowded pond of crocs that was just so creepy to look at.  The area was just crawling with these killers!  The odd thing was that the fence really didn't seem that heavy duty.

This guy was like the crocodile hunter, he was getting so close to these ill tempered crocs and trying to get them to jump up for their food.

We got to hold baby crocodiles and this one was so strong, it almost got away from me.

Northern Territory

There were lots of beautiful swimming holes and tropical water falls in the national parks, but we had to be careful of the crocs!

We saw lots of crocodiles on a river boat tour, little and BIG.

There were two male crocodiles that were about 16 feet long.

We hiked to some ancient Aboriginal cave paintings that were really interesting to see.

Camel Rides on the Beach

We had to do this because we thought, when else in our lives will we be able to ride a camel on the beach?   

Our camel’s name was Basil and he was the tallest camel they had

camel footprints

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Gorgeous Gorges

We have seen quite a few gorges in the Outback at various national parks.  Our favorite ones were in Karijini National Park.  These pics have not been photo-shopped, they are just that amazing!  The colors were just unbelievable.  We had so much fun swimming in the water holes and climbing the rocks- it was like being kids again.

Jeff jumping across the creek

playing around :)

a unique water fall

rock climbing, trying not to fall in the water

Swimming with the Whale Sharks

We had the amazing opportunity to go swimming with these behemoth creatures in the open sea, and we never thought anything like that would be possible, but it is! The way it worked was a spotter plane flew around looking for whale sharks swimming near the surface of the water and then as soon as they spotted one, our boat took us over to that area and we jumped in with our snorkel gear and caught up to it so we could swim alongside them as they cruise around.  They are not the kind of shark that eats people, so we weren’t in danger.  We did spot some tiger sharks from the boat, but we didn’t try to swim with them :)

having some fun with the whale shark statue

this one is opening its mouth to feed

Road Trip Across Australia

Things that we have seen either on the side of the road or in the road during our road trip through the Outback:

wallabies

kangaroos

emus

dingos

wild pigs

wild horses

wild camels

cows, sheep, & goats

We came across a flock of about 20 cockatoos flying right in front of our car so close that we had to put on the brakes or we would have hit them.  At one of the national parks we camped at, we counted over 60 kangaroos either in the road or on the side of the road in just a 20 mile drive.

We’ve had some interesting animal encounters.  A confused stray or wild bull, (we didn’t really know) ran through our campsite which was out in the middle of nowhere.  And the same that same night, some kangaroos decided to mate in right front of our tent.

Our progress so far

This was an amazing beach on the Ningaloo Reef that also had great snorkeling

We thought this river was so cool because it was really really orange. 

a beautiful wild horse we saw in a national park

wild pigs on the side of the road

We got to watch what they call staircase to the moon, it's sort of like a sunrise but for the moon because when it comes up the reflection on the mud flats create that effect.  It's pretty cool. 

Jeff took a stab at climbing a huge boab tree