Waving a fond and rather sad farewell to South America, James and I set off for the next stage of our adventure. This next stage really will be pretty adventurous, we’re off to Papua New Guinea, a country where a good proportion of the population was only discovered in the 1930s, and cannibalism was still occasionally practiced up until about 50 years ago.
Which is great and all, but after all of our intrepidness in South America, we were feeling a little adventured out and in need of some good old fashioned civilization. Coffee. Cocktails. Those little luxuries that make the world go round (well, our world anyway). Fortunately, it’s pretty much impossible to connect from Easter Island through to Papua New Guinea without routing via Australia, so civilization was to be had a-plenty. Maybe even enough to last us through our next big adventuring phase. Maybe….
First stop, Sydney. We’ve both visited the city before and love it, especially the main harbour area. However, this time round, Sydney served a far more important function for us. Yep, time to re-stock on toiletries and the all important suntan lotion! Also a chance to FINALLY get my hands on a shiny new Kindle after James accidentally broke my last one in Uyuni (since when, I’ve been relying on his iTouch to read with – which is fine other than the fact the battery lasts less time than my reading activity does!). Also a chance for us to indulge in some good food (sushi!! I’d almost forgotten about sushi!!) and try not to weep at the insanely high prices (Aussie dollar at an all time high) then work it all off again in a properly equipped gym. We even managed to pack in a couple of fantastic cocktails, including this cheeky little number served with its own side dish of saffron infused apricots. NYC bartenders, watch your back!
In short, indulgence of the highest degree.
Next stop, Cairns. This is where most of the flights to PNG leave from and so we figured we’d spend a day or two here and wrap in a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Rude not to, really.
What did we make of the Reef? Well, mixed impressions really. You have to bear in mind that we are both incredibly spoilt when it comes to snorkeling, particularly after our recent trip to the Galapagos. Mere amazing reef and fish life no longer suffice to get the Lucy/James swimometer racing – to really get us excited we need a few rare sea mammals floating around the place also. The Great Barrier Reef is – well – a great reef, with coral quite unlike anything I’ve seen before. But the fish are less spectacular than those elsewhere, and the conditions were pretty awful – cold and windy enough to make the sea choppy and snorkeling a little saltwater-filled.
Definitely worth seeing and lots of fun, but not a trip highlight.
Which perhaps more than anything else in this trip spells out to me just how incredibly lucky we are to be doing this utterly amazing journey.