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Published: June 18th 2011
Our first taste of the Wet Tropics of Queensland
We took a 2,5h flight from Brisbane to Cairns and this is when it hit us .... wow this place is huge!!! On the map this route is just a tiny bit of Australia and yet the distance between these two towns is like from London to Krakow in Poland!!! The minute we exited the plane we knew we were in a different and more tropical climate- it was hot and humid.
The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area lies between Townsville and Cooktown on the north-east coast of Queensland and covers an area of 894k hectares. This is where the rainforest meets the ocean and this is the place we read about so much that it has built this incredible excitment in us to see it;-). We had 4 days planned to go around when driving the campervan.
Coming back to Cairns - the airport is rather small and to get to Cairns centre you can use the CoachTrans service (18$ return/person) or you choose one of the hotels listed on the shiny lighten up board, call them up for free and they will pick you up for free as well.
green turtle
at one point it was just centimeters away from us and we followed it for few minutes when swimming;-)There is a big variety of hotels/hostels on that board - from 5star resort to the popular backpackers hostel so plenty of choice to save some money ;-) We called our hotel and 10 min later we were on our way to The Colonial Club Resort (booked beforehand). We should have made a better choice to be honest. As the amazing as it was it was located 8km away from the town centre;-( When I had checked Lonely Planet map before It seemed like a walking distance. They do provide a shuttle bus to the centre though so we had no problems with getting there in the end. Coming back was set at 10pm which gave us this lack of freedom that we hate so much. Obviously we could have spent 20$ on a taxi back but we ended up choosing 4$ ride in the end for obvious reasons ;-). However the backpackers place in the centre, just opposite the lagoon looked like a great choice I must say.
Anyhow we checked in and took the bus to the centre to explore a bit. It was already dark. I forgot to mention about this tiny obstacle every single day....
such short days giving you time from 8-17 only to do everything you like to do. It definitely would be a kind of a problem later on when we finally hit the road with our rented campervan. So we walked around, looking at these incredibly wide and spread streets of Cairns and we felt it is a truly resort-type of place. Beautiful white buildings, palm trees, salt water lagoon for public use just in front of the ocean, public BBQs, restaurants and bars and loads of young people everywhere ;-) This means Party Place ;-) There is not much to do really in the town itself but you have a wide choice of the reef excursions, diving lessons and partying in the evening ;-) Cairns give you plenty of options to dine out as well. We followed the crowds as usually as this happens to be proved method of finding good and tasty food and we ended up in one of the food courts inside of the Night Markets. You can choose in a variety of Asian food over there for 10-15$ depending how big the plate that you choose is;-) No wonder it was so popular with backpackers hahhaha
Nevertheless we really enjoyed it and we could say we even had too much food that night ;-)
Next day early in the morning we had a pick up arranged to take us to the port for our day out at the reef - Michaelmas Cay ;-) We boarded the Ocean Spirit catamaran boat together with other 40 people and we headed to the reef. It was quite cloudy at that point and we were worried that the water would not be clear but were quickly calm down by the crew. Apparently the weather is usually completely different at the reef as it is 40km away from the coast. It made total sense as the day before I could actually see the clear water from the airplane window and Cairns itself was partially clouded. There are big mountains alongside the coast covered with tropical forest so they constantly attract clouds to collect water.
We were heading into the ocean against the tide so you can imagine how bumpy the ride was .... There was only maybe 5 people, including myself, that would not have used brown bag, one after another, to provide good food for the fish aboard
hahha Initially we decided to sit at the front of the boat (sailors would probably throw some actual name of that front at me now) and water was pouring over us every time the catamaran went down on the big wave ;-) That did not help Tomek with being sick at all so we moved to the back where he could join the club of 'people with brown bags' ;-) I went into the lounge to listen to a marine biologist presentation where other 4 people who have not been sick joined me ;-) When we finally got to the reef, firstly we could watch the crew feeding some fish. Many types of big fish seemed to be very accustomed to the daily food provided for the entertainment of tourists and performed their parts very well ;-) Secondly, we had an option to either go snorkelling or take the semi-sub boat to see some deeper parts of the reef. Tomek was initially up for it but then we were advised that the semi-sub makes you sick even more so he gave up. So again, I and the same 4 people as before we went under water in a very claustrophobic
glass boat ;-) What a view it was!!! It was beautiful despite the fact that a lot of corals were destroyed or tuned around by the February's Cyclone Yasi. The marine biologist told us that the damage is smaller than they expected and the nature is handling it very well - so good news ;-) Apparently, only 70%!o(MISSING)f the corals need to be alive so that other new corals could attach to the dead ones and grow. Nature must have been going through this cycle for millions of years and it survived. When we were in the boat funny thing happened. We run out of fuel hahha As long as were moving the ride was smooth but the minute we stopped the semi-sub was swinging from one side to another with the water current making us all - 'the tough people' - a little bit of sick as well ;-) It was solved quite quickly so we moved ahead admiring massive colourful fish such as:
Harl Tusskfish, Parrot Fish, Clown Fish, Moorish Idol, Giant Clams and Green Turtles ;-)
After the semi-sum they served lunch!!!! Are you kidding me I thought with my stomach being upside-down at this
time!!!! We could in fact have gone snorkelling but we would not have made it back on time before the lunch finished. Tomek recovered by the time I finished the semi-sub tour and he enjoyed the sea food buffet a lot. As far as I was concerned...well...biscuits and tea did well for me ;-) After lunch we finally made it to the cay itself and we had around 2,5h of snorkelling fun ;-) I guess the highlight must have been swimming with the giant green turtle and being so close (not more than 1m) from sting array and giant clams.
Underwater pictures: courtesy of Ocean Spirit photographer (our underwater camera cover started to leak so we could not use it).
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Theroadiscalling
Nate and J
Love your photos
Hi guys! The Barrier reef looks amazing! Your pictures from the snorkel trip are beautiful! What are great memory to have. We just spent a week in the Perhentians and saw many similar things but no underwater photos to remember our time! Take care. Nate and Jessie