Cairns, Australia (Feb 14 - 22)

Traveling to Cairns was not in our plans until quite recently. We had been snorkeling in the Philippines with a group of tourists and one of them, a fellow from Spain with experience diving all over the world,  commented that nothing could compare with a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). With only a 1.5 hour flight between the Gold Coast and Cairns, we decided to add this to our travels.

A view of the Great Barrier Reef from our airplane window

Public Swimming Lagoon in Cairns

On Feb 16, we joined a group of about 60 others for a day-long trip to the outer reef. What a day it was! There are numerous reef tour companies that take you out to islands near to the reef or to the area they call the "outer reef" which is the closest to the actual reef. Realizing that this was likely a once-in-a-lifetime trip, we took the outer reef tour and are so glad we did. The trip was like being at an aquarium and admiring numerous multicolor fish of all shapes and sizes, except this time there was no glass wall between us and the fish. We saw sharks, sea turtles, Nemo fish, and many other fish that we have no idea what they are called.

Boarding the Silverswift boat for a day at the GBR

For the 2 weeks prior to our arrival in Cairns, they had heavy rains every day so we felt fortunate to go out on a day that was mostly overcast with some sunny periods. We were told that on bright sunny days, the color of the coral is much more vibrant, yet we still got to see some pretty amazing colors in the coral. We decided not to buy (or rent) an underwater camera as we saw some photos others had taken that looked very grainy, so unfortunately we have no underwater photos to show.

Wearing our wetsuits (here called Stinger suits to protect from jellyfish) and ready to go snorkeling

(Photo of a photo that we purchased!)

We spent one day exploring the Atherton Tablelands, an area elevated above Cairns that has many waterfalls, hiking trails, crater lakes, farmland and unique-looking fig trees. We swam in one of the pools during a heavy downpour but with the high humidity and hot temperatures, you don't even feel cold. Sugarcane was the main crop grown around here and all the fields seemed to be linked to railway tracks, presumably the method used to ship the sugar cane.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of the landscaping in this front yard!

Sugarcane fields

Walking trails in the Atherton Tablelands

Josephine Falls

Elinjaa Falls

Swimming at the Millaa Millaa Falls

Curtain Fig Tree - fascinating how this developed

I (Dan) spent another day exploring on my own, taking a trip north to Port Douglas, the Mossman Gorge and the Daintree Rainforest area. This area offered hiking trails through rain forests, lookouts and another beautiful drive along the coast.

Creek in the Mossman Gorge

Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas

While we enjoyed exploring Cairns, the mosquitoes enjoyed eating us, particularly me (Dan). I am covered in bites and the red welts stay with me for days. This and the high humidity actually discouraged us from being outside even more. The place we stayed at backed onto the rainforest (increasing the prevalence of mosquitoes) so we did not even use the swimming pool. The owner of the property told us the other day that her daughter has dengue fever from a mosquito bite so we are hoping we get out of here dengue free!

On a side note - we've really enjoyed having our own suite and a TV to  watch the Olympics - especially the hockey!! Yeah Canada!!

Our next destination is Melbourne where we plan to meet up with a childhood friend of our daughter's from Canada (also a friend of ours) and then spend a few days with Olive's sister who lives an hour out of Melbourne.