I was lucky to find a beautiful hostel at a nice lake and did some sightseeing there. They have some gigantic fig trees there. A fig tree is a parasite which starts growing at the top of another tree. it develops roots which go down to the ground. the fig is getting stronger and stronger and is strangulating the host tree until it dies. until then it has developed so many roots that it does not need the host tree.
It was raining so much that i was happy to have a car. At the end i went off the car wearing only a trouser and left my towel in the car. the rain and the temperature was quite warm, so no problem.
at late evening i was at a round lake, which was a former vulcano crater. i was swimming there alone, everyone else was gone, the rain just stopped.was quite impressive, but also a little scary.
They have funny animals here, a relict of the prehistoric called platypus (schnabeltier), which lives in the lakes and rivers and tree-kangaroos:
Then I decided to do spend my last days here in Queensland to do a dive at a wreck called SS Yongala. This should be one of the best dive sites, if have asked several people and everyone said, this is a must-dive if i could do it. It is a passenger ship 110m long and is now a gorgous artificial reef with much big fish. It was raining raining raining on my drive south to Townsville.
The closest site to go to the wreck was a city 80km south of Townsville called Ayr. I couldn't drive there because all roads have been flooded. So i stayed at motel a little outside Townsville on a hill to be safe not to be flooded also. At night the sky was totally dark then a monsoon storm started with very heavy rain and thunder.
when i woke up the next day, the motel had no power.
I tried to drive again south but the roads are still flooded, so i went into Townsville and spend the day visiting a museum with artefacts of the wreck and went to the local aquarium which is really big with a quite authentic reef. i recognized many fish there which i have seen at my dive trip a few days ago. i found a company which goes to the wreck from townsville and i was really happy because the next day was my last chance to do the dive. it takes much longer, more than 3h oneway and was also more expensive.
i had to get up very early the next day and went to the meeting point. at the proposed time, only another passenger was there. 30mins later the crew arrived....
then we went on the boat and had a heavy ride with some strong waves. some people got seasick, i took my tablets and survived.
after a 3h long journey we arrived at the dive site. everyone went in the water and got back on the boat without diving... it was chaotic there was a very strong current and the visibility was very poor. the crew explained these conditions with the strong rains which pressed out the water from the land. after 1h we went in again, i had problems holding the rope and was feeling very uncomfortable so decided not to dive. Some went down and came back after only 25mins. then surprisingly the dive captain asked who wants to do a second dive and some said that the want to do it. so we waited 1h and these guys went down the second time. I said to the dive captain that i think it is not safe to dive with these conditions. They had also newbies onboard with no experience, but he ignored my comment...
luckily everyone came back on the boat and we drove back another 3hours with more people getting seasick. in total my day started on 5.15h and i got back at my motel at 19.30h
I think they only dived because of the money. if they had to cancel the trip they must give everyone a refund. I learned my lesson, no more day trips and ask about the conditions in front ...
Today I drove back to Cairns, will spend the night here and tomorrow fly back to Melbourne to recover and organize a few things for new zealand which is my next stop. i will fly there on Tuesday.
