The "I Am Away From The Office" Office Blog: The Sugar Cane Train

April 10

Well for the last 2 days we have been seeing a lot of asphalt. We started in Cairns (where we discovered the radio had stopped working) and headed inland and had a look at the sugar cane fields of Queensland. They are really cool, but the best part by far is the sugar cane train. Up here there are all these miniature railway lines running along the edges of the fields and beside the roads. If you follow these rails they will eventually lead to the sugar factory. Some of these rails even run down the center of the road as it passes through some of the towns, something I found really cool. When they harvest the sugar cane they load it onto these small rails and push them to the factory. I thought this was really cool, the southern part of Queensland has abandoned the miniature rail lines for trucks, but in the North they are still used and maintained. Unfortunately they weren't harvesting the sugar cane right now, so we didn't get to witness any of it, something I would have loved to see. We continued on to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Islands is an amazing island formation within the Great Barrier Reef. Usually you go sailing and then go snorkeling and diving on the reef all at the same time, but the west coast has kind of ruined us. Let me explain the west coast had all the features that the East coast is offering, but cheaper. Ningaloo was free, shark bay had similar beaches to the Whitsunday’s, but the Whitsunday’s have massive resorts on the islands, ruining their natural splendor, and we have already been diving for the last 3 days, so I need a little rest from that. The sailing sounds fun, until I heard that they shove 22 people plus 8 crew onto a little sailing boat for 2 days, with nothing to do but sit on a crowded boat. I really want to sail, but not like this, and I am not sure how excited I would be to sit on another beach, or snorkel some more on the reef. I can honestly say I am ready to go home now, I am thinking about simply selling the car as soon as I can and then sitting down in a small hostel and having a nice relaxing time until my plane leaves. Maybe make some friends while I wait. Am thinking of huddling down in Byron Bay for a couple of weeks if I can sell the car early. Anyway earlier today we found Sarina in Queensland and I took some pictures to prove it.

It feels so weird to be back on the East Coast, back in traffic, and towns, and well people. We haven't had this since we left Adelaide, 3 months ago. Cairns was still really small and now that we are heading south into the major population zone it feels weird. I have seen more cars in 3 minutes than we saw all day driving to Exmouth, I feel like the lost sheep in the woods. Well not much else to say right now, heading south down the East coast, and that is about all for now. Well except for these cool signs on the road.