Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2008
Sat
So we arrived in Cairns in the very early hours of Sat 11th. Sal had an interesting flight!! She sat next to the nightmare passenger. Talked all the way on a night flight and drank copious amounts of alcohol……no amount of hinting would stop him gassing away at Sal. He told he only had 6 months to live so she felt obliged to listen!
Precarious bus transfer along steep coastal roads to Port Douglas - ensured that we felt both queasy and exhausted when we arrived at our base for next few days!
Spent the afternoon at the beach and exploring the town. We love Port Douglas!!!
The waves were choppier than expected and I lost my shorts on one occasion - thankfully no-one cared!
Sun
Up early next morning for snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. When you get onto the boat and they insist that all passengers take sea-sickness tablets - why did we not get off?!!!!! Denial!!! Looked a bit rough in the bay but out on the open ocean was for me a living hell!!!! I looked to Sal for reassurance and frankly she looked worse!!! 1 hour and 50 min later - we arrived at planned destination on the reef. We had a quick lesson in how to snorkel (breathe through nose and keep tube out of water - sounds easy I know!) and how to use those flippers. We then had fashion choice of a sting suit (as almost jellyfish season) or wetsuit buoyant suits. I opted for former - Sal for latter. I looked like a high-speed ice skater.
It looked a bit choppy but as soon as you put your face under the water - it was literally another world. Awesome and well worth the travel hell to get there!!! We had a marine biologist on board who made sure we did not miss anything. Impossible to describe the number, size and types of fish. I fell in love with a sea-cucumber!! Sal found Nemo!
Thai take-away (Sal’s rating - 5 yum stars) and early night due to exhaustion.
Mon
Rest day next you would think - no! Picked up at 8am for ‘Tony’s Tropical Tours’. Trip into World Heritage Rainforest. Guess what? It rained. Lots! And All day!! Great though. We saw endangered Cassowary (largest land bird in Aus) with 2 chicks. Very special as only 1000 remain!! Tom - special wildlife report for you! Crocs big ones and snakes. Rest of wildlife seemed to sensibly stay out of the rain. This was a very special way to celebrate our first CP anniversary!! Poor Sal!!!
Tues
Rest day at last!! Rain continued and we enjoyed chilling in Port Douglas! Sal’s food report. We went to a restaurant called Gone Bananas (because the guy who had previously owned it - had!). Sals’s stars….3.5 stars. But 5 for tequila sunrises!
Weds
Sal decided we had not seen enough wildlife for her liking (!) so we went to a wildlife sanctuary en-route to our next stop Cairns. Amazing. I want a job there (and they are hiring!!). I fell in love with a wallaby and got in character of a koala all day. I.e. Dopey!!!
Thursday
No not a rest day! More wildlife spotting. (I am going to have to control Sal making me do all this!) This time a different part of the rainforest and in the afternoon and all night. Weather amazing- and we saw so many species we had never seen before. Musky rat kangaroo, tree kangaroo, loads of species of possums, huntsman spiders, frogs and the best …the platypus!!! Very, very special!! A very good day in my life!! Sleep at 1am…….
Friday
Sal said I was allowed day off wildlife spotting…so we walked down to the shops and found 100’s of spectacled flying foxes (fruit bats - but as big as a dog!!!) just hanging in the trees near our hotel. Then as if it could not get better…a lovely lady came by from bat rescue checking no babies had fallen from their mothers prematurely - and she had a 10 day old bat baby she was nursing….How awesome…….Spending rest of day chilling by pool. Have we mentioned it is very hot at 30C.
Off to Sydney tomorrow for next part of our adventure……
We are working on getting the photos on - but is a slow process!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0467s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jane
non-member comment
Wow
Sounds amazing,jealous of all wild animals you are seeing! continue having great time,xxxx