After an overnight flight from Bali, we arrived quite sleepy to Melbourne where we were able to meet up with a friend of mine from my prior company who just happened to be in town on the same day. Then we had a few days exploring Melbourne with our friend who lives here we had met in Africa before flying to Cairns. Here we had a snorkeling adventure to the Great Barrier Reef and even found a turtle!
Melbourne Meetups
We arrived in Melbourne after an overnight from Bali. Now, I’m no stranger to overnight flights in economy but I really need to stop doing these when there’s no significant time change. It’s one thing when you leave Minnesota at about 10pm and arrive at 7am after an 8 hour flight. You can usually get a few hours of sleep between the meal services. This was only 6 hours so there was only 2 hours between the meal services so we didn’t get much sleep.
We arrived and got through customs but since it was maybe 6am we knew it would be awhile before we could get into a hotel room, so we found the rideshare pickup point in Melbourne and then went to a coffee shop that was outside security for some caffeine and second breakfast and to wait awhile so we could hopefully check in at the hotel.
We took a rideshare to our hotel in the heart of the city, I did like this method they had, you didn’t have to wait for a specific car, instead you went to a certain lane and got the next car for whatever category you requested. Then you have a PIN to connect your request to that driver and away you went! It was still morning when we arrived at the hotel but they were full the night before and we couldn’t check in yet. Thankfully it was only an hour or so of working/napping in the lobby before we were able to get into a room!
Dropping our bags in the room, we promptly crawled into bed for a few more hours of sleep. After a refreshing shower it was time for the happy hour in the hotel’s lounge where we were meeting up with a friend of mine, we’ll call him B. We used to work together but also when I was first getting into running he was a great resource and was the first to congratulate me at the finish line of my first marathon over 10 years ago!
He was on a golfing trip with a group from the Midwest visiting Tasmania and South Australia. They were towards the end of their trip and while we were aware we were going to overlap, we didn’t check in until both of our trips were fully finalized. Not only did he have a free day in the city of Melbourne the day we arrived, but they were staying in the same hotel! Absolutely crazy!!
It was fun catching up with him and meeting a few of his new friends at the lounge. For dinner we all went together to a nearby pub where we had our first taste of sticky date pudding – so delicious! I had heard of sticky toffee pudding in the UK thanks to Great British Bake Off, but for those who haven’t, it’s more of a cake than what I grew up with as pudding. I highly recommend you try it if you make it to Australia!
Soon it was time to say goodbye until we’re back in Minnesota for the summer. The following morning we had another meetup with our friend A we had met in Africa on our Overlanding journey. She is originally from Poland but had moved around with her husband, eventually landing in Melbourne, Australia. Today was a day to catch-up, enjoy some coffee and then dim-sum at a cute restaurant near our hotel.
A few days later we headed out to the Dandenong Ranges where A picked us up from the train station, and we headed to the botanical gardens. It was a fun walk and she knew so many of the flowers, like these that are known as kangaroo paws!
We caught a glimpse of a bandicoot which Mr. Wander was excited to see, although he said it looked a bit different than Crash Bandicoot he used to play on the Playstation growing up. They had some fun regions of the park and even a little hill you could walk up to get a bit of a view and a few water features.
Needing some sustenance we found a little tea shop where we got some caffeine, salad, and dessert. It was getting foggy in these mountains which made the outside of the shop look a bit ominous.
Next we headed to a walk that is one of her favorites through Eucalyptus trees in the hopes we might find a koala, but instead found several kukaburras. They are so loud! We weren’t able to get too close and Mr. Wander hadn’t brought his big camera so I don’t have one for you, but I would encourage you to look up the sound of their call! I had no idea just how loud they would be though, no wonder that song I learned as a kid talked about them “laughing”. We enjoyed the cool misty view in the trees, it was so mysterious!
It was such a lovely day together talking about travels and our lives basically all day. A if you’re reading this I look forward to our next meeting!
The rest of our time in Melbourne we were booking some of our next segments in Sydney and beyond but we also wandered around the Downtown area to find the Fairy Tree and AC/DC lane!
Cairns, Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef
When it was time to leave Melbourne we had an easy midday flight which is always my preference, use the time between hotel check-out and check-in to travel. Those that have limited vacation time this might sound odd as you can always drop off your luggage and explore, but if you have the time, it makes it much nicer to just make that a travel day and you have so much less stress!
One thing that doesn’t make your travel day less stressful is leaving your backpack (with your passport, laptop, and medication) in the rideshare when you arrive at your hotel. Thankfully in true Australian fashion, the driver was so nice and came back with the backpack once we got connected and he finished his next ride.
After that we were so ready for a drink in the lounge! We headed up and made that our dinner since it had enough goodies. Our seats were on the top level patio and it was nice to watch the sunset over the harbor, and watching the fox eared bats come out in the evening. If you remember awhile back we saw bat eared foxes when we were in the Okovango Delta in Botswana! We both found the symmetry of these animals highly amusing.
We tried to book a tour into the rainforest which is a popular trip in Cairns but it didn’t work out last minute. The other tour we were more interested in anyway which was a snorkeling trip out to see the Great barrier reef! Mr. Wander has been wanting to do scuba diving for awhile but being asthmatic I am a bit nervous so we compromised to do snorkeling in a better situation than our last experience in Thailand back in 2024. These masks actually fit our faces and other than Mr. Wander’s mustache, kept our masks much drier.
We had maybe an hour or so to get out to our first spot but it was a nice morning and they had given us pastries and tea/coffee before we left.
While those who were trying their discovery dives jumped in, everyone else got the option to jump in the glass bottom boat for a little overview of the reef condition, the ecosystem, and some of the species of fishes. Then it was time to suit up and jump in the water!
In the first area it was relatively calm, and we chose to use lifejackets so we could lie flatter easier while watching the animals. Sometimes the guides that were in the water with us would go down and disturb the water near this area of reefs and suddenly one part would close! They said they would do that for us so we could see the giant clam close, but I had NO idea just how large these actually are. The opening was as long as my leg, or more! It was very impressive.
It did take a bit to get used to breathing through the snorkel, almost like a straw at first but staying calm I got used to it, and they had taught us the trick for clearing the pipe of water that sometimes gets splashed in. I am very glad we tried this since I am more interested in trying scuba diving as I have heard breathing feels more natural than with a snorkel.
Towards the end of this first swim we saw a turtle! I was enjoying watching him, although he was watching us as well. We definitely felt special since not everyone got to see him as right then they called us back to the main boat for a distance snorkel. They took many of us out into the glass bottom boat that wanted to go, and just as we were jumping in the water someone said they saw a shark! I wasn’t on the right side of the boat to catch sight of it but apparently it was a reef shark that are generally pretty startled by humans and had already swam away.
Then we all jumped in and followed the guides along a route back to the main boat. I think they had us with a current so it wasn’t too difficult to make our way there. We hopped back into the main boat and they served us a lunch as they moved us to the new location.
Here Mr. Wander decided to not get into the water since the mustache was giving him more issues after the distance swim. I stayed out a little bit but my camera died and it was such a strong current and waves it was just a bunch of hard swimming. I decided to call it early and come back to Mr. Wander and enjoy a post swim beer.
Most people came back pretty quickly since it was more difficult and then they passed around some fruit and cake for everyone. Everything we had borrowed, our life vests, masks, and reef guards were hung up, the crew got everything ready and we all settled in for the long ride back.
That evening we replenished with some tasty cocktails, pizza and a few cheesy rolls for dinner after a long day out on the water!
Next Time
Time to start our next road trip! We picked up our next mystery car and headed South and soon saw our first koala in the wild! As we make our way we visit a few of the big items of Australia and for the second time in six months we cross the Tropic of Capricorn by land. Until next week, Cheers!
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