Cairns 'Great Barrier Reef'

Cairns is a tropical city and you feel the difference. The mid day heat is stifling due to the humidity. We walked to the botanical gardens and took some great pictures of 'the tanks' which were old WW11 fuel holding tanks that have been transformed into multi-media galleries and a very rainforest type botanical garden. Lot's of wonderful things to photograph.

This is crocodile country and you're reminded of it at every turn, but ask a resident and they're aware of the warnings but have never heard of an attack. No one swims at the beach this time of year. From November until around April it's too dangerous to swim because of all the poisonous jelly fish (and crocodiles). they net off a small area in some resort towns to allow people to swim. Or, in Cairns they built a lovely municipal infinity pool for the residents to cool off.

The market has lots of Chinese vendors selling all things from the far east. Lot's of eastern massage therapists offering a 45 minute massage for $15. The catch is they then sell you some traditional Chinese medicine patches for you back. They sell they for $5 and then try to sell they for you take with you. Both Mike and I ended up coming out with our backs plastered with patches. You shower them off in the morning. They actually worked! We could both stand up straight the next day. The dampness seems to bother both of us.

We decided to take a trip out on the Great Barrier Reef with one of the tour boats. These tour operators are amazing. They pick you up at the pier in Cairns and take you out to their boat that stays out on the reef. We read reports of a possible cyclone in the area, but they we're all pretty nonchalant about it saying it was at least 4-5 days off and likely some overly cautious weather reporter in Melbourne. So off we went to for our 'reef adventure'. The reef is the only thing visible on earth from the moon. It's about 90 minutes off shore by catamaran This translates to 20-40 miles off shore depending on your departure point.

The hotel boat is just anchored on open water above the cays. The first location we snorkeled had an incredible array of colorful fish, coral, turtles and reef sharks. They have a chef on board who cooks all the meals and the big draw is the diving masters and teachers. Tourism is slow this year and many of the tour operators are struggling for business. It's quite an expensive operation due to the large staff to guest ratios. The diving staff were wonderful. 'Lovely Laura' was a great instructor who took me out for my first scuba dive. The chef was from Washington state, the purser was a Kiwi, there were Canadians, Germans, Austrians and Dutch crew. They allow young people to work for a year in Australia o a work visa. This attracts a lot of young people from around the world. They seem to be really enjoying the experience. The work is very demanding, but they seem to love it.

We met a very nice couple from Seattle who were just beginning their holiday (Don and Philippa). They were going on to cruise from Sydney around New Zealand. Unfortunately the Coral sea got very rough and poor Philippa was sick going out and coming in as well as for the first afternoon on the cay. They had a hot tub at the front of the boat to use after a snorkel. The ship was rolling back and forth so much I hoisted one leg up and fell over on the deck almost knocking myself unconscious. Great way to start the trip with Don (who spent 29 yrs in the US coastguard asking me if I knew my name and where I was. Sprawled out on the deck between the ropes and the barrels, I felt like a beached whale. Fortunately, only my pride was hurt and I survived the incident with a bruised elbow.

After the first dive or snorkel, we cruised to another sand bar and small island on the reef that gave us some protection from the rolling sea for the night. The snorkeling was great off the boat or we would take a glass bottom boat to another cay. I didn't really get a sense of the size of the reef until I took the dive. Most of the guests were divers. Many from Holland, Germany or the US. The divers are real enthusiasts. They must get in so many hours to get their dive certificates. There were also a number of young people working for the cruise company as 'hosties' for free in exchange for room an board and diving. They all seemed to love the night dive.

Mike wanted to try scuba diving too and talked me into it (after my fall out of the hot tub I thought it wasn't a good idea to try anything that required any kind of coordination or physical ability). Unfortunately, he got disqualified due to his sinus cold and the medication recommended to him at the local pharmacy. By then lovely 'Laura' had my name on the roster to go and refused to let me chicken out. Without Laura I would not have tried the dive, she was a great instructor reassuring me and taking me around by the arm showing me the terrific sights below. It was spectacular diving off the reef. The magnitude to more obvious when you dive and the underwater creatures that swim below the surface are revealed. I was down about 10.5 meters for approximately 30 minutes. While it was crazy rough on the surface for snorkeling that morning, it was very serene for the dive. Don kept regaling me with reminders and scenes from the movies 'Open Water' and 'Open Water 2' just to get me really worked up before the dive, but all went well and I received my dive certificate. We spent a great two days on the reef and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

When we returned to Cairns we rented a car and took the coast road to Port Douglas. More on that journey later.