Michael Chmilar's Travels

Tag: Queensland

  • East Coast

    East Coast

    I’ve spent the last few days travelling from Sydney to Brisbane, and past. I am surprised at how developed the whole coast is. There are many, many beach resorts north of Sydney, and north and south of Brisbane. However, I am not a “beach person”, so, after seeing a couple of beaches, I am ready…

  • Tablelands

    Tablelands

    Yesterday, I took a full-day tour of the Tablelands. This includes a lot of rainforest, sugarcane farms, dairies, a waterfall, a lake (in a volcano cone), and a crazy Spaniard’s castle. The group was rather unsociable. There was a family of four from Northern England who communicated to each in an unintelligible mumble, two Australian…

  • Great Barrier Reef

    Great Barrier Reef

    Today, I snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef. There are countless tour operators running boats to the reef. I went with SilverSwift. They have a fast boat, and maximum of 70 people. Today, we had 52. It takes 1:15 to get out to the reef. The water was choppy. Five or six people were puking!…

  • Turtle Tours

    Turtle Tours

    I wanted an easy but interesting day to follow my travel day to Cairns, so I went with Turtle Tours for a look at some places near Cairns. Pickup at 10:00am, finish around 4:00pm. We visited a nice swimming hole and a lake. We also went to see a couple of beaches, but the water…

  • G’Day, Cairns

    G’Day, Cairns

    After a grueling pair of flights, I am in Cairns, Australia! I was dreading the Shanghai to Cairns flight. I was in economy class, and the ten hour flight left at 9:00pm. Fortunately, in the 2-4-2 seating arrangement, I had two seats to myself, and the seat in front was also unoccupied! I was able…