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Finding Nemo
Well second day in Cairns and wow…did we find nemo and much more! Firstly we drove up past more sugar cane and banana plantations from Mission Beach one sunny morning (we really can’t get by without air con from this point). The scenery is beautiful through the tablelands from Mission Beach to Cairns (and beyond) with mountainous rainforest following the route north. When we arrived in Cairns we thought it was beautiful, a city where visitors can actually do things, not like many other cities which are great to live in but not so picturesque for tourists. We decided to change our accommodation in Cairns from a backpackers right on the Esplanade to a caravan park a few km’s out. Good decision! We have free wireless, tv, air-con and a pool for $49 a night which is pretty good. Bad news is the kitchen isn’t well equipped. Make that completely unequipped. There are no cups, plates, utensils, ovens, jugs or even stove tops! What do we do?! We found a microwave so our dinners are microwaveable from now on and breakfast and lunch is raw/ready to eat!
Our highlight so far was our trip to the Great Barrier
Matt and his pal
Look at its gentle touch! Reef which Matt has been looking forward to the most since we came to Australia. So it was finally time for him to get what he came for. We had researched all the trips for a few weeks and found the cheapest trip to the outer reef to be $60 for a day trip including 5 hours snorkel time, bbq lunch, snorkels, wetsuits etc (the next cheapest was $150 so good deal)! I was pretty hesitant about going but decided I would go and just spectate (thought I was scared of fish). But when we arrived at the first snorkeling destination at Hastings Reef (2 and a half hour journey) I realized there was no way I was staying in the boat. So I jumped in and loved it straight away! The reef blew us away, so many colours, fish and other fun things! We snorkeled for a couple of hours, in which time Matt found a 2 metre shark and thousands of fish and coral varieties. The next destination was Breaking Patches which is random segments of reef next to a sandy cay, which is notorious for it’s turtles (!). We didn’t think we would be so lucky to
see any but after about 5 minutes of swimming around we found two who loved to mingle and play with us! Apparently you can’t touch the turtles when they come up to the surface for air because they will become frightened and may go back down without their air, therefore dying. But we found that the turtles loved touching us and would stroke us on the heads, awesome feeling! We were very fortunate on the day we were here that the weather was so hot and sunny which made swimming very easy. And being so far offshore we didn’t have to worry about the deadly stingers, so we could wear whatever. After the snorkels Matt couldn’t stop smiling and thinks he wants to work here at the reef, um maybe not a good idea after all that time at uni….
The next few days we spent doing the rainforest trails, seeing as we decided to stay the week in Cairns at the caravan park (one free night) and have some free time. The weather has been great this week, slightly too warm though so we loved some time up in the hills. Firstly we went to Kuranda, the home
of the skyrail gondolas (with outlooks to Cairns and reef), Kuranda markets, Barron Gorge waterfall and the train ride from Cairns. Barron Gorge was stunning, but very popular with a large dam that they let out twice a day for the train ride passengers. I also went to a butterfly sanctuary where they have beautiful, colourful butterflies. The following day we drove north to Port Douglas on the Captain Cook Highway through beautiful beaches like Clifton, Palm Cove and Ellis all with clear water and the rainforest fringing the sand. Port Douglas is a nice, very upper-class place with many resorts and palm trees (quite similar to Noosa). The beach is a nice 4 mile stretch with a stinger net enclosure. We bought some custard apples and ate them on the beach under the palm trees, trying to get cool. Next stop was the Daintree Rainforest which is very beautiful, extensive and popular. We went to Mossman Gorge at the southern sector of the Daintree and joined about 50 other cars (midweek, low season) in the carpark. The water was so clear and one of the few places around the area where swimmers aren’t at risk from the big crocs!
The large boulders were very beautiful and the water as cold as NZ!
We also did a trip to the Atherton Tableland (tablelands west of Cairns) where we did the ‘waterfall circuit’ (where there are at least 13 falls), visited two massive fig trees (one of which is the most visited tree in the world…how bizarre), lakes and volcanic plugs. The most beautiful waterfall was Millaa Millaa Falls, which has featured in many movies, but unfortunately for us a bus of Japanese tourists pulled up before us! At this stage in the trip Matt is really craving fast food, so I told him if we saw a KFC on the way home from the falls we should go…he was so excited to eat it all that he even swallowed bones from the chicken! But we looked on the net for prices for KFC in Asia and looks like you can get a chicken burger combo for $2.80 in Singapore (KFC is so expensive in OZ)! I guess we all crave different things! But life in the big, dry country is now over and the next leg of our journey in Asia begins…can’t wait!
(First stop Singapore, then Kuala Lumpur
and the rest of western Malaysia).
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Ngaire
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Swimming with the Turtles
You are sooo lucky to swim with those turtles, everyone here is envious, fancy being stroked by one, how fabulous. Good on you Jane, Matt won't be able to keep you out of the water now! Love to you both from the team. xxx