Blogs from Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 11

We left Bob and Lyn's / Alex and Shirley's spoilt and rejuvenated but ready to see some more of Australias' sites. We flew to Cairns and arrived to a slightly warmer, stickier climate. The hostel we had booked into was at the back of cairns town but only a 10 minute walk to the 'lagoon', a huge swimming pool sculpted to look like a beach on the sea front. The bay area itself is one large mudflat so tourists swarm to the lagoon seeking a sunbathing environment. The pool was beautiful but sadly the weather was never quite good enough to entise us in. Uncharacteristic bad weather haunted us for our 4 or so days in Cairns. The city itself was not what we expected - much smaller with no real industry or business to speak ... read more

Hi all, Yeah you guessed it, Great Barrier Reef time! We travelled up to Cairns on the Business Class Tilt Train on Friday/Saturday and after a few hiccups (a two hour delay when the train wouldn't move and a derailment further up the line forcing us to do the last 5 hours by coach) we finally arrived on Saturday night. Went to explore Cairns on Sunday - there's a really nice lagoon here with a beach as you can't swim in the sea because of crocs (argh!) and we had a swim even though it was raining. It is hot rain though - so humid here it's nice for a bit of water! Monday we went on our Great Barrier Reef cruise - had to get a coach up to Port Douglas then got the 'Wavedancer' ... read more

O jee, ik loop wat achter en na zoveel stops weet ik niet zo precies meer te vertellen waar en hoe we geweest zijn, daarvoor mijn excuses. Mijn geheugen laat me in ieder geval niet in de steek van de hoeveelheid bier, als hamburgers invloed hadden op ons geheugen was niet niet in staat om verder te komen dan "hallo iedereen, fijn dat jullie een bezoek brengen aan ons blog" Middels de Lonely Planet, het uitstekende oriënterend vermogen van Anka en Elise, de rijvaardigheid van Jan die als een cowboy op zijn beste paard heeft laten zien alles de baas te kunnen... zijn wij terecht gekomen op Magnetic Island. Magnetic Island is een eiland anders dan Frasier Island, Magnetic Island heeft geasfalteerde wegen en ligt slechts veertig minuten varen uit de kust van Townsville, een korte ... read more

Am Donnerstag mussten wir uns früh aus dem Bett quälen, um pünktlich halb 8 am Reef Terminal zu sein. Nachdem wir unsere Boarding-Pässe (ja, dort geht es zu wie am Flughafen) abgeholt hatten, konnten wir zu unserem Katamaran „Passions of Paradise“ gehen. Als sich das Boot dann kurz nach acht gefüllt hatte, ging es endlich los - leider mit leichtem Nieselregen. Nach 2 Stunden erstaunlich ruhiger Fahrt hatten sich die Wolken verzogen und wir kamen am ersten Schnorchelspot an. Die Michaelmas Cay hat eine kleine Insel, auf der tausende Vögel ihr Zuhause haben. Die Korallen konnten wir aus nächster Nähe betrachten, da gerade Ebbe war. Ein kleiner Riff-Hai (ca. 1,5 m) schwamm unter uns entlang und wir kamen riesigen Muscheln beängstigend Nahe. Nach mehr als einer Stunde im Wasser (mit Wetsuit, damit wir nicht frieren) haben ... read more

So a drive to Brisbane and a night in a very nice hotel near the airport started to make things look like our luck was on the up, until I then lost my phone! We dropped the car off to the airport on Wednesday night which saved us 80 bucks so got a taxi to the airport Thursday morning. The fight to Cairns was just over two hours and we arrived mid afternoon and again jumped into a taxi to our hotel, this time a Comfort Inn. Our dinning that evening was spent at Outback Jacks and although a little expensive we all left with bloated bellys. Today was Friday 13th, what could go wrong? We had booked a day trip on the Great Barrier Reef on Osprey V a dive/snorkel boat and awoke at 6.30 ... read more