Cairns: Coral Reefs and Crocodiles!

Emily did a great job researching places to go in Cairns!

Saturday,  June 4    A day in Brisbane After Melbourne we spent a nice day in Brisbane (pronounced "Brizben"), just doing nothing, well, except laundry.    Brisbane had a really nice boat taxi system called City Cat.  For the price of a bus ticket we were able to get on by the Marriott and get off near Emily's apartment in St. Lucia. It was a wonderful ride.
This park in Brisbane is filled with rock climbers..find the ropes!
Cairns: tourism at its finest   Saturday night we took the Airport train to the domestic terminal for our trip to Cairns (pronounced "cans") .  I rented another car and we drove down to the city.   Cairns was full of people for an iron man triathlon competition running on Sunday.   Winter is their season--it is their dry season--and the 75 to 80 degree days are nice.  Plus the stingers are not on the beaches.
	The Cairns Boardwalk (notice the mudflat to the right)
Along the Esplanade
Swimming! You can't swim at the beach at Cairns (it is actually a mud flat with stingers and Crocodiles), so they constructed this really nice public pool on the Esplanade which looks out on the ocean.

Sunday, June 5

You can't get there from here.

On Sunday after church we wanted to make our way to Port Douglas and started our drive up the Captain Cook highway past some of Australia's nicest beaches north of the city.

St. Monica's Notice the images in the stain glass windows. This church  had the entire story of creation in it's windows.

Trinity Beach
We stopped at Trinity Beach for a walk along the coast. As you can't swim at Cairns, Trinity is a very popular day trip.  Although there are stingers in the summer (see sign below), in the winter months it is very pleasant.  Another nice beach (said to be Australia's finest), is Palm Grove , a little further north.  These photos are from Trinity.

Every beach had these warning signs..
Continuing  our trip we were stopped by some nice officials and found out that the road was closed for the day due to the triathlon. We could not go to Port Douglas from there ("no rush").

Kurunda National Park
Yes, we could go inland through the rainforest, but the typical 45 minute drive would take 3 or 4 hours.  Instead we decided to drive up to Kurunda National Park and took a ride on an Army Duck.

Find the lizard!
That night we watched the late finishers roll in (every one was cheered by the crowd)and saw the ending fireworks.  A nice day.
	The last triathlon finishers

I realized we didn't need the car in Cairns and returned it before the first day was over.   I can't tell you how relieved I was to know I didn't need to worry any more about driving on the left. 



 Monday, June 6
Great Barrier Reef
   The main reason people go to Cairns is to snorkel or dive in the Great Barrier Reef.  I will say it was beyond expectations.  We boarded at 8:00 a.m. for our trip out to Hastings Reef.

Getting instructions from the owner on how NOT to wear flippers

The green is Hastings Reef

There are dozens of tour companies with prices ranging from $124 to $500 for the day.  Some take you to very elaborate pontoons (QuickSilver--click on the link) with restaurants, submarines, and other events.   Others, such as the one we did, Reef Experience, are family owned and take you to their favorite spots.  Not only are they usually more economical, but they are more flexible and personal in their approach.   We thoroughly enjoyed our tour, which came with free transfers from and to our hotel, a marine biologist talk, a free introductory dive, free wet suits and snorkeling gear, morning tea, lunch, two reef locations at the outer reef (you want to go to the outer reef), and afternoon wine and cheese.  For $169 it was a great deal.  This seems expensive until you research and find that others start at $200 and want $99.00 for the dive, and ask you to pay for your transfers...or meals, or the wet suit, or whatever.  Other less expensive excursions  take you to the closer islands, which are fine for swimming and having fun, but don't offer quite as nice snorkeling experiences.

The coral was amazingly beautiful, the fish were brilliant in color, and yes I saw a shark and also clown fishes (Finding Nemo) and GIANT clams.  Emily saw turtles.  We also really enjoyed the red and blue parrot fish who would make chopping noises which echoed through the water as they ate the hard coral.  These are photos Emily took underwater.
	Floating in the wetsuit
Emily geared up(taken by boat photographer)
Giant Clam	Shark!
One of the reefs was a turtle breeding ground
Turtle

  What I really liked about the wet suit is that it floated.  You didn't have to even know how to swim, you just floated along the top looking down to this paradise in the sea.  

Tuesday, June 7

Daintree Rainforest, River, and Crocodiles!   Tuesday we took a tour to the Daintree Rainforest.  I am not sure I would do it again. The reason I wouldn't do it again is not because of the tour itself.  They did their job well, told us the history of the area, and scheduled our day so we got to see everything, but they just didn't stop enough to let us take pictures, and never let us stay at the places as long as we wanted.  But on the plus side, we could just relax and enjoy, which we did.	Our tour bus
Palm Grove Beach in the morning light	Palm Grove
Traveling north on Captain Cook highway to Daintree	Daintree National Forest
Sugar Cain (through the tour bus window)

We went by the Daintree Tea Company where they were harvesting tea.  I had to take the picture out of the bus as it was moving.

	Harvesting Tea
Daintree Discovery Center We stopped at the Daintree Discovery Center after going across the ferry--for a total of 50 minutes--and although we had a nice guided tour, I would have really liked to stay longer.   This center actually brings you up above the tree tops, with three different levels of platforms for viewing the different activities of the forest.
	Looking at the tops of the trees from the highest platform
Cape Tribulation Cape Tribulation was nice--but unfortunately, no swimming!   I really liked the Mangroves.  They were filming something to do with Kayaks there.
Orange footed Scrub fowls..scratching for food
Wait, is that Peter?	Hole in coconut from Giant White-tailed Rat
We stopped at a really nice place in Daintree for Lunch.
	I got a photo of these fish with MY camera!
At the Daintree Ice Cream company, I got to take some photos, but the 10 minute stop was not quite enough time to truly enjoy this unique ice cream stop.
Daintree Ferry  The ferry was definitely designed as "no rush".
Ferry guided by cabels on either side	These Jucy Rentals advertise everything AND the kitchen sink
Daintree River Cruise   At the Daintree river the crocs were out, sunning on their croc pads.
	Don't try to find the crocodile here.  This is a photo of a Heron.
Mossman Gorge Mossman Gorge, just north of Port Douglas is a popular swimming hole for the locals as the water is too cold for crocodiles.

All in all, it was a good day and a fine ending for our trip.

Wednesday, June 8

We returned Wednesday, which we spent catching up on email, and just relaxing in Brisbane.

Central Station, Brisbane

To celebrate our trip, Emily treated me to a drink at her favorite nightspot in Brisbane, Cloudlands, which was on Ann Street just as you enter Fortitude Valley, a five minute walk from the hotel.:

It was a nice time.  A special time.

Thursday,  June 9...Home!

On Thursday I left Brisbane on Qantas flight 15 at 10:00 a.m.  for a 12 1/2 hour flight to LA, and then connecting flights home. I arrived back in NH at 2:30 a.m., 30 hours later.    Home!

Until next time...

Well, that's it. Thank you for joining me on a my journey to see wonderful cities with the friendliest people on the planet, beautiful beaches, rainforests, koalas, kangaroos, exotic birds,  colorful fish, crocodiles...  and of course.. my daughter. 

I hope I succeeded in at least giving you a taste of the Australian culture.....

Until next time,

"No worries, mate!" 

--Mike