10/10 Cairns, Melbourne

English breakfast and fruitcake in Cairns next to the backpacker. Then the shuttle took me to the airport. On the way I said hello to the "raw prawn" restaurant, which is probably the best restaurant in Australia. We just passed it with the shuttle. Out of 3 evenings I ate there 3 times. Excellent seafood and fish never disappoint. On the airport I bought a dictionary of the aussie slang; a small pocket book which I read on the flight to Melbourne. Occasionally I laughed out loudly seeing the most visible aussie expressions.
"Due to the high density of flies that inhabit every nook and cranny of the entire continent, Australians have developed a highly efficient method of speaking that involves opening the mouth just enough to speak the words while minimising the risk of flies intruding into the mouth cavity. The result is the peculiar Australian accent called 'strine'. Australians love colloquialisms and word plays. The results are often very funny, picturesque and invariably robust. Appreciating Australian slang leads to a better understanding of the Australian personality and the Australian sense of humor. It requires a healthy tolerance, a creative mind and a sense of the absurd." (Down Under - Slang Dictionary)
In Melbourne I took the airport shuttle to the city and from there I took the free courtesy bus to Richmond which is quite close to the city and the St. Kilda as well. I stay here in a backpacker which is really cool. I had dinner in St. Kilda in an Italian restaurant.

Some highlights of the pocketbook:

fossil: old person
bee's knees: the greatest
blue arsed fly: very busy
blue heeler: policeman
cake-hole: mouth
chew and spew: take-away food
duck's dinner: drinking without eating
hit frog and toad: depart
ace: excellent

And the winners are:
acting/going the raw prawn: pretending to be ignorant
be able to eat the crutch out of a low-flying duck: very hungry
/Thanks, Ben/

Can't write here the better ones...!

9/10, Cairns Rain Forests

After an excellent hazelnut-cake and tea for breakfast in a cafe I took the skyrail from Cairns station. The Skyrail is a cable car which took me just a few meters above the most beautiful rainforest. This is exactly the end of the dry period of the year, so no rain, just the green forest. It takes about 1.5 hours to get to the final destination: Kuranda. There are two stops where I got off for a short rainforest walk, which were guided by rangers. Kuranda is a small village in the mountains. I saw a wildlife park there including one of the biggest butterfly sanctuary of the World, koalas and birds. Obviously this small creatures didn't pose themselves well to the camera, they cannot say cheese and cannot smile... There are some huge ones, others have very special patterns on their wings. The village is full of galleries of beautiful aboriginal art. The way back I did with the historical scenic rail.

8/10, Cairns, Great Barrier Reef

Today I took a boat to the Great Barrier Reef which is the biggest and the most beautiful reefs in the World. Indeed. The boot took us about 40km to the outer reef, where we had scuba diving in two locations. Tons of fish of all kinds around us and beautiful corals. Mostly we moved between 8 and 12 meter depth, which enabled us to be underwater for 30-40 minutes in both dive. The corals twinkled with all colors of the rainbow, with small colorful fish in between them. No pictures from underwater, you must believe me that part of the story :)
Some pictures from the boat:







There is a huge saltwater swimming pool on the seashore, at least 200 meter long. Some pictures:

Some more pictures of the Outback

Uluru at sunset:


The Kata-Tjuta (Olgas):

Pictures from the Outback

Kings Canyon:

Uluru:
Uluru:

7/10 Uluru, Cairns

The alarm rang at 4:30, no, not by mistake, I really had to get up for the Uluru sunrise view. The shuttle took me from the Outback Pioneer hostel where I stayed. [a simple backpacker accommodation for a 4-star hotel price.] We got quite close to the huge red rock and located very well. Around 5:30, just before sunrise the rock began to change colors: from black went to gray, and then it slowly became red. Indeed was worth the early alarm.
Flight to Cairns, still on the ground, standard security blah-blah...
"In case of loss of pressure in the cabin, the oxygen masks will drop..."
The flight attendee demonstrated how to put on the mask, when dozens of peanuts cashews and other kinds of nuts fell out of the demonstration mask covering our heads, laps, and the entire aisle. Obviously everybody laughed including the poor flight attendee who was unable to finish the security instructions.
Cairns is a nice tropical town with a wonderful seashore.
Tomorrow I'm heading to the Great Barrier Reef.

4-6/10 - The Outback

Oh the Outback!
Central Australia, big big desert, some people, wild.
Kangaroos, blue-tongue lizards, strange animals, red sand, red rock, strange people, great fun.
1st day: Palm Valley
2nd day: Kings Canyon
3rd day: Uluru: the great red rock.

No mobile coverage, no internet connection up until now.
Pictures to come in the next days, no card reader/usb here.
Today I saw the sunset over the Ayers Rock, tomorrow at 5am sunrise from a different lookout.
Amazing.
Afternoon I have a flight to Cairns, I'll try to upload pics from there.