Friday Nov 12th, Day 5 of the road trip. We leave Townsville in heavy rain and hope to leave the bad weather behind. We are near Ayr, almost 100km south of Townsville when the rain stops for the first time. It doesn’t stay dry for long though and when we reach Airlie Beach it’s raining cats and dogs again.

Airlie Beach is the main starting point for tours to the famous Whitsunday Islands. That group of islands has beaches that are said to be among the most beautiful worldwide. I was eager to go there but the weather kind of killed the mood.

With the weather being totally unsuitable for camping we decided to check into a hostel for a couple of nights. Two guys from the share house in Cairns, Pete and Meri, work in a hostel near town and organised some beds in a dorm for us.

The weather remained unstable and we spent our time with cleaning and drying the gear or going fishing at the nearby marina.

The forecast promised better conditions for Sunday and thus we booked a Whitsunday tour for that day. While still in Germany I planned to do a sailing trip around the islands but those trips are unfortunately not compatible with my current budget.

Instead we went for an ocean rafting day trip. The company running these trips bought a couple of rescue vessels and

It was about time to pay the Great Barrier Reef another visit. My friend is a certified open water diver as well and we booked a three dives trip with Tusa. They’re a little more expensive than Divers Den where I did my course but they provide better equipment as well. Especially wet suits are a critical point for me as it’s hard to find one that fits me.

We left Cairns aboard Tusa 5 on Saturday last week at 8am sharp. After the usual introduction by the crew we had a bumpy ride to the reef. The wind was blowing at almost 30 knots and the crew was handing out sick bags to the needing.

After about 90 minutes we arrived at Saxon reef. Not 15 minutes later we were in our gear and in the water. Like the last time it was absolutely stunning. This time we brought a camera and got some really nice pictures.

The dive site was called “Magic Wall”, probably because of the coral structure that formed a wall easily 10m high. It looked like

There is a beautiful piece of earth called Atherton Tablelands just half a hour south of Cairns. I planned on going there for some time and for Sunday I got a couple of mates together and rented a car. Renting the car was quite cheap, my old boss gave me a discount and thus it was just $30 for the car instead of $55.

We planned on starting at 7:30 but changed our plans on short notice. Warm temperatures, stuffy bedrooms and partying neighbours don’t contribute to a good nights sleep.

We, that is Hiroko from Tokyo, my housemate Chris and Nico from the hostel. Both of them from France.

When we left Cairns at 8:30 the sun was already shining bright and it promised to become a warm day. We made our first stop on the road to Yungaburra and got a first impression of what the tablelands look like.

On our way farther into the tablelands we came across the Cathedral Fig Tree. That thing is about 500 years old and