I'm Sailing Away....Tomorrow

So we've covered a lot of km since I last updated (probably about 1200).  We spent last Thursday hiking in the Australian Jungle in Springwood National Park about a 1.5hr drive from Surfer's Paradise. 

Mom did a great job driving on the narrow windy roads along the sides of mountains through the rainforest (while Josie did a good job not hyperventilating riding shotgun). 

We visited the natural bridge and had our first rainforest experience...anyone know what the birds that sound like lasers are called? 

Then we started what we thought was a 300m walk to see a 100m drop waterfall, but turned out to be a 4km walk down a bazillion stairs (luckily down the stairs and not up....). 

The Purling Falls were breathtaking and I can only imagine what they would have looked like with more water flowing....the rainy season wasn't very rainy this year so things are pretty dry. 

We also saw a goanna lizard from really close up, but that was the only wildlife we saw other than birds.

Friday morning we left Surfer's Paradise (with a tear in our eyes) and made our way to the Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter.  After paying the $53 entrance fee (Crikey that's expensive!!) we got to see all the wildlife we didn't in the bush....found out there were a lot of poisonous snakes living here and were pretty glad we hadn't encountered any of them.  Got to pet and feed a kangaroo (they don't slobber at all unlike the animals I fed at the PG petting zoo this summer with Laura, Owen and Megan). 

Also got to pet a sleeping koala which was pretty cool.

After 2 hours out in the sun at the zoo we drove off to Maroochydore where we were supposed to drop off Josie's extra bag at the YWAM base to be stored for the rest of our trip.  After an hour of being lost, some time on the wrong side of the road, some shouting, and 3 different sets of directions we finally got a map which led us to a place which was not the base so we've still got the extra bag.  Stayed in an 8 bed dorm at a backpacker that night all on top bunks which wasn't a change for me, but I don't think mom was a fan of it.

We left Maroochydore early the next morning to drive to Airlie Beach....gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and our dreams of sailing and snorkelling....

14 hours later we found ourselves lost again in Airlie Beach (a feat we thought would be impossible because it is really not very big at all) driving around the same roundabout I swear about 20 times!!  We found our hostel and slept really well that night.

Yesterday Josie and I booked our sailing trips and we leave for 2.5 days 3 nights on the Emperor's Wings tomorrow afternoon.  VERY EXCITED!!  We are trying to convince Mom to stay somewhere nicer than the backpacker while we're gone, but she's just so thrifty I'm not sure it's working....I think we've convinced her that she can't come back in the car to Brisbane until she's gone to Whitehaven Beach though so hopefully she will have fun without us around (tough job I know...).

Anyway here are a couple highlights from those few days:

-feeling Purling Falls pour over top of us

-hearing a croc snap its jaws mere meters away from us!
-road trip ice cream stops
-seeing the millions of stars as we drove through the country at night
-getting an adaptor to listen to our ipods in the car
-sunsets
-Josie buying another Australian bikini
-takeout Thai food....mmmm cashew chicken stirfry!

And some of the low lights...

-running over some sort of furry creature (a possum perhaps?)
-all the dead 'roos along the road in various stages of decomposition
-being in the car for an entire gorgeous blue sky day

-finding our car covered in ants gorging themselves on all the dead insects stuck to it from driving in the dark