Hello All, Chag Sameach from Down Under. Wanted to give an
update on my vacation last week and my Pesach adventures this week. Early last
Sunday, I flew out to a beautiful, touristy city on the Northeastern coast of
Australia called Cairns (pronounced Cans). It was a really nice place and my
hostel was on the main Esplanade. Since it’s on the coast, the city overlooks
the ocean but since there’s no place to go swimming on it, there is a large
pool that is open to the public. I was in Cairns by myself which was kind of
lonely but I got to choose my own activities and stuff. On Monday, I went on a boat trip to the Great
Barrier Reef. It was a large boat with a lot of people that was rocking from
side to side the whole two hours to the Reef.
We made a couple of stops where we got to go snorkeling which was really
beautiful. I decided not to go scuba diving because it was too expensive and
the snorkeling was definitely good enough. I had bought a waterproof case for
my camera so that I could take underwater pictures and some of them came out
really well. It was a long day mainly because I was fighting nausea the whole
time but the snorkeling was really amazing.
On Tuesday morning, I left Cairns on an overnight trip to an
area called Cape Tribulation. We stopped at a few viewpoints along the way and
then in a wildlife sanctuary with kangaroos, koalas, tropical birds, and
crocodiles. There were a lot of baby kangaroos that we could hand-feed which
was really awesome. We continued on to Cape Tribulation which is in the middle
of the Daintree rainforest. We also stopped along the way for a boat trip along
the Daintree River where we got to see some wild crocodiles. I got to my hostel
which was in the middle of the rainforest. The area is totally isolated and
each accommodation site is separated by about a mile and the only way to get
anywhere is by a narrow dirt road. It was also after 4pm so I couldn’t go on
any activities either and I was stuck at my hostel. I killed the time by
sitting on the beach and reading in the restaurant at the hostel. The next
morning, I went on Jungle surfing which was basically zip-lining a bunch of
times from tree-to-tree high in the rainforest. It was cool but not as exciting
as it may sound. I went for a hike along the beach and the cape to kill more
time before my ride came to take me back to Cairns late in the afternoon.
On Thursday, I went on a trip to go sea kayaking around
Fitzroy Island. We took a speed boat out to the island which took about 45
minutes and was really fun. The trip was advertised as being around a
beautiful, natural, isolated island, but the first things we saw when we got
there was a big construction site and an enormous cargo ship taking garbage off
the island. It was nature at its finest. The sea kayaking was really nice and
beautiful though and we stopped in a place where we could go snorkeling. The
water there was not as clean as the first day but it was still nice. I also saw
a huge sea turtle that was swimming along the surface and came right by my
kayak. It started pouring though on the way to the lunch spot and the guides
had to call of the trip a bit early. Nobody seemed to mind because we were all
exhausted and we each got a $30 discount. On the way back, the boat was full of
the sea kayakers and a group of construction workers heading back to Cairns. There
was already something wrong with the four engines on the boat and they were
really struggling with the full boat. We were going really slowly for a while
and we weren’t 100% sure that the engines would get us all the way back. The
driver even had to turn them off a couple of times to try and re-energize them.
It was quite unnerving but we eventually made it back.
I spent a couple of nights in Cairns at the small casino
there and I even won the last night. The other nights I went to the movies. So
it was a bit lonely at times but I really enjoyed the vacation. The area was
beautiful and it was great to get out of Sydney.
I was at my friends in Bondi for the first days of Yom Tov.
We went to different families around the area for Seders and meals which were
all really nice but we calculated at the end that we had literally walked over
18 miles over the three days. It was really tough to be away from my family
over Pesach and I really appreciate now the convenience of being at the hotel.
After Yom Tov, I went back to my place but I didn’t last very long due to the lack
of food. So now I’m back in Bondi for the rest of the holiday so that I can
avoid starvation. Hope you’re all enjoying Pesach in your respective places and
I’ll talk to you soon.
