Cairns, Australia (Feb 14 - 22)

Traveling to Cairns was not in our plans until quite recently. We had been snorkeling in the Philippines with a group of tourists and one of them, a fellow from Spain with experience diving all over the world,  commented that nothing could compare with a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). With only a 1.5 hour flight between the Gold Coast and Cairns, we decided to add this to our travels.

A view of the Great Barrier Reef from our airplane window

Public Swimming Lagoon in Cairns

On Feb 16, we joined a group of about 60 others for a day-long trip to the outer reef. What a day it was! There are numerous reef tour companies that take you out to islands near to the reef or to the area they call the "outer reef" which is the closest to the actual reef. Realizing that this was likely a once-in-a-lifetime trip, we took the outer reef tour and are so glad we did. The trip was like being at an aquarium and admiring numerous multicolor fish of all shapes and sizes, except this time there was no glass wall between us and the fish. We saw sharks, sea turtles, Nemo fish, and many other fish that we have no idea what they are called.

Boarding the Silverswift boat for a day at the GBR

For the 2 weeks prior to our arrival in Cairns, they had heavy rains every day so we felt fortunate to go out on a day that was mostly overcast with some sunny periods. We were told that on bright sunny days, the color of the coral is much more vibrant, yet we still got to see some pretty amazing colors in the coral. We decided not to buy (or rent) an underwater camera as we saw some photos others had taken that looked very grainy, so unfortunately we have no underwater photos to show.

Wearing our wetsuits (here called Stinger suits to protect from jellyfish) and ready to go snorkeling

(Photo of a photo that we purchased!)

We spent one day exploring the Atherton Tablelands, an area elevated above Cairns that has many waterfalls, hiking trails, crater lakes, farmland and unique-looking fig trees. We swam in one of the pools during a heavy downpour but with the high humidity and hot temperatures, you don't even feel cold. Sugarcane was the main crop grown around here and all the fields seemed to be linked to railway tracks, presumably the method used to ship the sugar cane.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of the landscaping in this front yard!

Sugarcane fields

Walking trails in the Atherton Tablelands

Josephine Falls

Elinjaa Falls

Swimming at the Millaa Millaa Falls

Curtain Fig Tree - fascinating how this developed

I (Dan) spent another day exploring on my own, taking a trip north to Port Douglas, the Mossman Gorge and the Daintree Rainforest area. This area offered hiking trails through rain forests, lookouts and another beautiful drive along the coast.

Creek in the Mossman Gorge

Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas

While we enjoyed exploring Cairns, the mosquitoes enjoyed eating us, particularly me (Dan). I am covered in bites and the red welts stay with me for days. This and the high humidity actually discouraged us from being outside even more. The place we stayed at backed onto the rainforest (increasing the prevalence of mosquitoes) so we did not even use the swimming pool. The owner of the property told us the other day that her daughter has dengue fever from a mosquito bite so we are hoping we get out of here dengue free!

On a side note - we've really enjoyed having our own suite and a TV to  watch the Olympics - especially the hockey!! Yeah Canada!!

Our next destination is Melbourne where we plan to meet up with a childhood friend of our daughter's from Canada (also a friend of ours) and then spend a few days with Olive's sister who lives an hour out of Melbourne.

Morning from rainy Cairns!

What did we expect - we're in the rainforest!! I (Olive) thought I'd add an "extra" blog post, in case our previous posts have given you the impression that all we do is travel and have fun. While we have done a lot of that in the past five months, we've also been doing a fair bit of work. Dan has been kept quite busy planning next steps - where do we go next, what do we see, how do we get there, where do we stay, etc etc. I, on the other hand, have been freed up from the work of surviving to focus on my research. I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to sit down and write until I can't any longer, without having to take time out to do laundry, make lunch, clean the house, etc. I managed to conduct numerous interviews, thanks to Skype, and acquire all the documents I needed to write much of my thesis. I generally work most mornings into the afternoon, unless we've planned a day outing or are flying out in the morning. Another project we are involved in is supporting our daughter Christina's work to improve infection control processes in African hospitals. We've completed all the required paperwork for our Grand Challenges Grant application and are hoping for a positive outcome. We are also engaged in assisting Christina in her preparation for her upcoming return to the Republic of the Congo, to provide education sessions for staff at four hospitals there. We've had a number of people step forward to offer translation services (teaching materials all need to be translated into French) when our translator suddenly dropped the work. All these things continue to bring us a sense of purpose, joy in life, and energy, to continue exploring this wonderful world we live in. While we regularly try to touch base with our family back home via FaceTime and Skype, this weekend we look forward to seeing some of them in person. We fly to Melbourne on Saturday morning to spend time with very good friends of Christina's as well as my sister Vi and her husband Peter.

Wishing you all well,
Olive (and Dan)

Goodbye Asia, Hello Oceania, Gold Coast, Australia (Feb 5 - 14)

We left Hua Hin, Thailand at 3:00 AM on Feb 4 heading to Bangkok to catch our flight to Malaysia and then on to Australia. We did not intend to leave that early. Unfortunately, some Thais decided to express their disagreement with the elections held two days earlier by blocking the highway so we had to take a series of backroads thus the longer-than-normal time needed for our journey. It all worked out in the end and gratefully we made our flight on time.

We arrived at the Gold Coast airport early in the morning of Feb 5 and checked in, through an Airbnb arrangement, with an Aussie family (Sean & Kim & kids) in their home in the community of Tugun. Tugun was a good place to be based as it was approximately midway between numerous beaches to the north (the most famous being Surfers Paradise) as well as another famous beach to the south at Byron Bay.

Sean & Kim & girls who we stayed with on the Gold Coast

In our travels so far, we have seen many beautiful beaches, however the beaches here are even more amazing. It seems like you can go to the ocean anywhere along the Gold or Sunshine Coast of Australia and find fine white sandy beaches for as far as the eye can see. While the beaches we've seen previously have had relatively calm waters, the waves all along the coast here were more suitable for  surfers and boogie boarders. We were able to spend a couple of days playing in the water with boogie boards and watching the surfers. The water temperature on one of those days out was 24 C!

Beach at Byron Bay

Beach at Surfers Paradise

Waiting for the next good wave

Catching a wave that brought me right to the shore

One day we visited a local wildlife park (Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary) where we were able to see the Lorikeet feeding, a twice-daily event where dozens of wild lorikeets flock to the park to feed on honey water (how do they know when it is exactly 8 am or 4 pm?). We also saw tasmanian devils, wallabies, many koalas, pelicans, cockatoos, dingoes, wombats, freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, cassowaries, emus and of course lots of kangaroos. A number of these animals were included in shows or you could hold or pet them. We were amazed that we could be in such close proximity, especially to the kangaroos, koalas and snakes. One of the shows also demonstrated sheep shearing.

Feeding wild lorikeets

Pelicans waiting for feeding time

Ibis - one of these stole Olive's fish & chips lunch when she turned her head for 5 seconds

Kangaroos trying to read my brochure!

A saltwater crocodile named "Brutus"

Tree kangaroo

The Gold Coast has numerous national parks each offering well designed walking and hiking trails (hand rails, good signage, paved trails and stairs), lookouts, lighthouses, waterfalls and ocean views. We visited several of these parks and were delighted to spot colorful birds and butterflies, see wild wallabies, encounter a snake that was at least 6' long, dodge numerous lizards, and hike through tropical rain forests.

Narrowly missed driving over this snake

Now I can say that I have seen the "best of all lookout"!

The lookout was pretty nice

For the last 2 days in the GC, we moved to another Airbnb and stayed with a young couple named Samantha and John. Fortunately both places had cable TV so I was able to catch a number of Olympic events including the women's hockey game between Canada and the US. Clearly Australian TV has not broadcast ice hockey games before as they constantly cut out for commercials while the play was going on and the announcer certainly was not familiar with the rules or the players.

With Samantha, John and Franji, our 2nd house stay on the GC

Other memorable items from our time in Australia so far ... renting a car and figuring out again how to drive on the left side of the road (steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle) and not activate the wipers when I meant to activate the signal light, also remembering again who has the right of way at the round-abouts which are so prevalent here. We have enjoyed the wide variety of melodious birds and we have really enjoyed our visits with the Aussie families that we were able to stay with.

Next on our plans, flying to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef.

Hua Hin, Thailand (Jan 26 - Feb 4)

From Jan 26 - Feb 4, we had a stretch of 9 days that we had left unplanned so decided fairly last minute to return to Thailand to stay at the Juniper Tree Dolphin Bay Guesthouse,  about a 3.5 hour drive south of Bangkok near the town of Hua Hin. The area has beach resorts and is a popular weekend getaway spot for many in Bangkok. We previously stayed at the original Juniper Tree Guesthouse 24 years ago when we were returning from an assignment in Pakistan/Afghanistan. That location is no longer used and a new property was purchased several years ago where they built a beautiful new guesthouse, including two main buildings for lodging, office space and meeting rooms, 7 cottages and a swimming pool. It is an ideal place for international workers to visit and refresh. All meals were provided, laundry was done for us, and there were plenty of activities to keep visitors busy.

We found it so restful and once again a great place for Olive to focus on her writing. We also enjoyed sharing mealtimes with people who are working in China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Germany and Thailand. One family will stick out in our memory - they have 12 children, 7 of whom are adopted from China. We were amazed at how well all the children interacted with each other.

We swam a lot in the pool and in the ocean, read, solved Sudoku puzzles, and watched movies. It sometimes seems strange to be in a resort area with many activities to do, yet our focus here was to have Olive make greater headway in her writing, which she did.

We had a room on the 3rd floor at the far end of the building

The view from our balcony

Olive taking a break from her writing

Beach directly across the road from the Juniper Tree

7-legged octopus some of the kids found near the shore

Spotted at an eatery just down the road from the Juniper Tree

Small aviary at the JT

From here we flew back to Malaysia and then caught a connecting flight to the Gold Coast in Australia, where we plan to stay until Feb 14.