It’s pronounced ‘Cans’

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Because when you pronounce the “R” in “Cairns” the locals genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about.

Seriously people, it’s a word.  In our common language.  You can look it up.

Who uses a silent “R”!?!?!

Cairns fishThey have this giant outside pool right next to the ocean that anyone can use and the fish sculptures are a symbol of the city.

Oh, and just in case you’re asking. “Guys? Why do they have a giant public pool right next to the ocean?  Can’t people just swim in the ocean?”

Why yes, yes they could.  Right up to the moment where the giant crocodiles that are all over the place ate them.

Which would of course lead you to then ask “Guys, didn’t you just go diving in that water?”

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Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia

Found Nemo

Life Achievement Unlocked-

Found Nemo!

We all knew the Nemo reference had to be made right?

We took a 3 day, 2 night “sleep on the reef” excursion.

And this time we rented an underwater camera to make sure we caught everything.

Especially the sea turtle…

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The Great Australian Overland Excursion

Enroute Cairns, Queensland, Australia

3 people

1 frigging huge campah

5 days

1786 miles

1 vast barren wasteland that inspired the Mad max movies

Some dinosaurs

(…because everything is better with dinosaurs…)
(…because everything is better with dinosaurs…)

And let’s not forget it’s us right?  So…a boat.  There needs to be a boat.

Grumpy boatAnd this is how all that turned out…

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FAUX-luru

Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia

OK so you finally figure out where the heck Uluru/Ayers rock is and you at long last secure some decent wheels to get you there…

…Then you dive for 6 HOURS until you see this

And you’re all –

Life achievement unlocked –

Uluru!

But you’d be wrong

because once again Australia lied to us

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Outback campervan relocation

Enroute Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia

Like we said, Uluru (AKA – Ayer’s Rock) is not IN Alice Springs.

It’s 287 miles away.

Alice to Uluru

Then there’s the whole bit of us then needing to immediately backtrack that whole route in order to make the 1786 mile drive from Uluru to Cairns.

Uluru to CairnsThrough, might we remind you, that whole “barren wasteland where nobody lives except freaking feral camels” part of the country.

(gonna say that twice – FERAL.  CAMELS.)

And us with a car that went and got itself all kablooied up all the way back in Adelaide.

So there we were, middle of the desert, no car, no transit system that links to Alice to Uluru to Cairns and on a short time table.

It’s moments like these that Greg loves being married to Tiffany.

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Sailing Around the World: Is It Safe?

Is it safe?

Throughout our journey, many of our friends and family members have been concerned about how dangerous it can be to travel.  Obviously we all know that some things are inherently safe like staying at an all inclusive resort and never leaving the property.

You can stay in your shell like this hermit crab in Fakarava.

And some things are inherently unsafe (think standing on a dark street corner in Tijuana) when it comes to traveling.

One can presume that it only gets worse when the sun goes down. petracross

Sailing can be safe, as long as you’re smart.

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Doin’ the Didge

Alice Springs, NT, AU

Alice Springs is an odd place

We’re uh…we’re not sure they’re kidding…

So we set out to explore the many different facets of this little big town in the dead center of nowhere.

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3 shirts for 3 years

Well we were gonna lead into this entry with some intro along the lines of “we have changed appearances several times over the years, and so has our blog.”

Then Greg put together a collage of pictures of us and he realized something…

When you wear the same 3 blue t-shirts for 3 years straight, well, it makes your “appearance” about as consistent as humanly possible.

Stuff the witty intro then!

Hey everyone, we’re changing up the blog!

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Heroes of the skies

Alice Springs, NT, AU

There was one thing the camels, or the train that replaced the camels, couldn’t help us with.

Something that was a serious point of consideration for us when we decided to come out into the pretty much completely uninhabited ‘Red Centre’ of a country that takes a sense of personal pride from the fact that a swift and painful demise is never more than a few feet away even in the most urbanized of areas…

…oh lets not forget the ever present and very real threat of detesticulation

And that thought was “Ok, so what happens if we’re a few thousand miles from the nearest hospital…

(because here, that actually happens somewhat often)

…and we end up getting detesticulated?  What do we do!?!

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Human Detesticulation and Baby Kangaroos

Alice Springs, NT, AU

One of our favorite stops in Alice Springs was the Kangaroo rescue center

kinda obvious why…

Where we learned more about the complicated relationship the people of Australia have with their semi-official national ambassador…

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