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Published: April 15th 2008
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Nicky: Hello all!! well after the excitement of last weekend we have had a great week travelling through the Tablelands, which is an area west of cairns. Considering we have never done this whole travelling thing before I think we have done really well at timing our arrival in Cairns. We had just enough time to book a trip to the great barrier reef to do some snorkelling. I think it is one of my favourite things we have done on this trip so far. We went on a boat (another boat trip I can add to my growing list - I was starting to think I had conquered my fear but this one wasnt as successfull as the last few and I felt a bit rough again!!) to a place called Green Island. It is about an hour off the coast of Cairns and basically just a sand block in the ocean. We hired snorkel equipment from the boat and set off for the beach. I was amazed at the life going on beneath the water. Walking from the boat to the beach along the jetty the water was an amazing torquoise colour but I could not see any fish.
As soon as I put my face under the water - mask and snorkel and all - below the surface I was met with whole schools of fish of every colour. Just a short swim out from the shore and there were hundreds of fish in so many amazing colours!! We also went on a glass bottom boat to give us (well, me) a chance to get a bit further out and see some bigger more colourful species. Within minutes we could see real coral and amazingly we saw a sea turtle just nestled in among the coral as well. After lunch we went back out on the beach and did a bit more snorkelling. I was struggling a bit with getting water in my goggles, which kept going up my nose, so I didnt seem to get very far but I did make friends with a stunning florescent pink and yellow fish which kept kissing my feet!!! It was such an exciting thing to do!!! We are now in Cairns, having dropped our little van back - sob!!! I have enjoyed Australia so much, it has the most relaxed lifestyle in warm weather with amazing scenery, I can absolutely
understand why people come out here for holidays and never make it home. It has definately gone to the top of my places to come back to list.
PS Thank you so much for the messages of congratulations - I still can't believe we are engaged!!! If I wasnt looking forward to getting home before and seeing everyone I am doubly excited now. (Thats not to say I am not enjoying the trip but you know what I mean!!!) speak soon xxxxx
Neil:
Hey everybody! I've just corrected Nicky's spelling of goggles - she "had water in her googles" - sounds fun!
So, since our last blog we left our special beach and travelled north before heading inland to visit the Tablelands - so called because you climb quite high and then it's a huge expanse of level land, all lush and green, bursting with waterfalls and creeks. It's also a lot cooler and sometimes wetter which is much nicer for camping. After a day of seeing 3 really amazing waterfalls we camped at a free capsite that was part of a 2nd world war memorial park. The park ranger was a complete nutter, accompanied by
a great dane that was bigger than me (obviously).!! I assume that he averages social contact with about 3 people per decade and therefore wanted to chat for ages. It was very clear that he hated all peoples from nations outside of Australia - including New Zealand where he was born! He was telling us about some girls whose van got stuck in the mud - "They were bloody Krauts or pommes or sambladdythiyng...". He also told us many a story from the days he was in the army and how he took huge pleasure from casually saying "G'day to the bloody pomme big brass. Who'd they think they were coming to our side of the world thinking they could run it like the british army!"
We left and headed up to Cape Tribulation stopping overnight at a small town called Mossman where I was able to have a beer in one of the locals. Most of the campsites are out of town so when there is one near a bar I like to pop in! Ordering a beer in Oz is so hard. They should offer training courses to tourists. Each state is different for a start which confuses the matter hugely. Firstly you have to choose which beer - VB, XXXX Gold, XXXX Bitter (cold bitter, not like Brit Bitter), Tooheys, Haans..... the list goes on. Then the hard bit, as you have to communicate which size; a pot, schooner, a pint, a tinnie, a middy, a seven, a pony, a handle........
Cape Tribulation was stunning and it was named by Captain Cook after he grounded his ship on the shores. It's real rain forest area and full of wierd and wonderful plants and animals. In a car park outside a convenicnce store a massive monitor lizard crawled past at aroung 5 foot in length. There are some huge butterlies the size of jumbo jets, coloured like the rainbow.
As impressive as all this was, taking a trip out to Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef was beyond belief and my limited grasp of the english Language has no words to convey what it was like. Green Island has been formed by the sea depositing decayed reef in the same place over many, many years. Then a load of birds found it and pooed all over it (the flying type) which made trees grow. Nicky had never snorkelled before but she did really well - she managed to get all the way to the front of the beach where the water started. All joking aside, the great thing about the island is that the fish come right up to the beach, so you only have to go a few feet in before you see some amazing aquatic life. The clearness of the water meant you could see along way ahead and down from where you were swimming and some of the fish I saw were so colourful! I saw a sting ray and a fish just like Nemo!!. I was a little concerned that by snorkelling we might miss what the divers experiece, but I was so blown away by what we did see that I don't think we missed much.
I've babbled on enough now - as you can probably tell we're enjoying our experience and really appreciate how lucky we are to do this trip. I'll miss Australia and was very sad to see our little van go back to the rental company (7,100 km later) but i can't wait for New Zealand. Bye for now!
PS (Life as an engaged man is going very well)
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