Saturday, August 29, 2009

Crocs, cane, and coconuts... and the Barrier Reef

The last two weeks have flown by and we are now in our last 6 days. The trip north has been really great. Deb made it about 2/3 of the way north with us before falling in love with some dude at a bar and deciding to stay in Airlie Beach. Turns out the the guy was actually a loser and she left there a day later. Laura was a trooper and came all the way up to Cairns and parted ways with us last Tuesday. A few of the places we stopped off at on our journey up north was Magnetic Island and the table lands above Cairns. Magnetic Island is just off the coast of Townsville (400 km south of Cairns) and takes about 40 minutes by ferry to get there. On the island there are walking trails where you can see Koala in the wild. We saw a few of them while we were out there. It was day time so they were just slumped over sleeping in the trees. The beaches were all super nice with not many people on them. In the table lands above Cairns we swam in an extinct volcano and also saw about three other falls on our way to Cairns. It isn't the rainy season so most of the falls are more streams than rivers right now. Since we were at the best part of the Barrier Reef in Cairns, we treated ourselves to a nice day on the reef snorkeling and sailing. Since neither of us had an underwater camera we hired one out and ended up with about three hundred more pictures for the day. We make sure and get our moneys worth. We got to see all kinds of stuff out on the reef including giant clams and also some sea turtles plus millions of other fish. Plus there was even sightings of a great white (Matt without his shirt on). Since then we took our travels even more north up to Cape Tribulation. Up there we saw some crocs in the wild. They don’t allow people to camp up there so we ended up pulling off the road and finding this sweet nook that landed us pretty well in the middle of the jungle. The mosquito’s were super bad so we closed the van doors and popped on a DVD. About half way through the movie we were still getting eaten alive by mosquito’s so we turned on the light to see what window was left open. Turns out, a GIANT spider made its way into the van and was just chillin on the ceiling above us. Talk about a quick evacuation. Matt took care of him with an empty water bottle… after taking pictures of course. No one messes with Matt and his water bottle. Traveling south we have been hitting up all kinds of national parks. We have found some of the coolest waterfalls and swimming holes. I think we even tracked down a few of the places that Dustin and I swam as kids. We’ll be posting a lot of these pictures on facebook when we get back so these are just a taste of what is to come. Other then that the weather couldn’t be better. Sunny and warm every day and not overbearing. Honestly we couldn't have planned a better trip than we have had. Most everything has been played by ear but has fallen perfectly into place as if it were planned. We have been driving through Sugar Cane and Coconut country so we have been living it up with fresh sugar cane and coconuts during our trip. Matt is working on making himself a Coconut bra with the empty shells. It has been simply paradise… in fact just this morning we swam in a water hole called paradise…. Imagine that!!
Now we are g
oing to try and play a little game for those that do log into our blog and give us comments.
The game is called…
“What happened to Nathans Eyelid?”
Was it…

A) He found out the hard way not to cut chili peppers and then rub his eye?
B) A random spider bit him on the eyelid during the night?
C) Matt was jealous of Nates tan body and punched him in the face?
D) Got Sugar Cane juice in my eye and had an allergic reaction.?
E) Awaking to take a pee in the dark, he hit his face on the rear hatch of the mini van?

A couple of quick shout outs. First up, JC has waited a long time for a shout out. Here you go buddy, Enjoy that!

Next is Maralyn, diggin the Pink Floyd tribute van…



Leave us Heterosexual Comments!! Good luck coming up with something non gay Dustin. And for the record, we have our own hammocks!

10 comments:

  1. Drake picks 'B'... a spider bit ya. I am loving the pictures and adventures---definitely a trip you'll never forget and never regret, even if you do end up living on the streets and eating ramen for the next few months...

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  2. I pick "E"...all thought I'm not sure why. You guys sound like you've has a blast. Love your blog and pics. Can't wait to see more Matt.
    Nate you should be a writer you are funny.
    Take care boys!!

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  3. I think a spider bit my typing finger.

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  4. Dude, you shouldn't have hit your eye on the van like that. Just pee in a bottle inside the van. That is what Harry and Lloyd would have done. I want to comment on how stellar your beards are looking. Especially underwater, Matt's beard has become its own life form and he probably has endangered species now growing in there. By the way, I got ur message and it is just me coming up to hike the caves. Will talk to you more when you get back to town. Laters!

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  5. I'm going with C. Red heads hate those of us who have amazingly tan bodies

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  6. Raquel is going with sugar cane in the eye. Final answer. By the way, who is JC? Surely you don't mean me with that shout out...and you expect heterosexual comments???

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  7. I'm going to go with F) While sleeping in the same hammock again, Matt's Red beard rubbed up on Nate's eye and caused some imflamation.
    What is it with backpackers and creepy beards. Do razors really take up THAT much space? Glad you guys are having fun. Except for the eye thing, I'm still jealous!!

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  8. When you sleep head to foot you should EXPECT a kick in the eye!

    Just Kidding!

    I am REALLY going to guess that you had an allergic reaction to the sugar cane, (hence the name of your blog entry) and because I would hope that an experienced chef like yourself would know better than to rub your eye with chilies.
    Also Nathan, where is MY shout out? (I'm feeling a little left out) I was thinking maybe I'd get one wit the birds (ya know b/c of Jafar and Maggie), but NO...."HELLO"????

    By the way, I need flight info for Friday? As your shuttle driver I need to know where I am picking you guys up at and what time. I do need to make a trip to Oakland airport that night at 8pm, I know you fly into S.F. but if we have to I can try to combine the trips. Let me know.

    And Matt, I have never seen a white wetsuit before, oh wait... that's not a wet.. never mind!
    and FYI you shouldn't let sea slugs crawl on your face like that!

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  9. i'm gonna have to go with 'f' too.

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