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Published: November 5th 2006
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We have finally made it to Cairns. We have done the whole of the East Coast (well all the good places anyway). Starting in Sydney - Coffs Harbour - Byron Bay - Hervey Bay - Fraser Island - Airlie Beach - The Whitsundays - Now Cairns. Yay! We are here to see the wonderous rainforest and the GREAT BARRIER REEF. What we have only dreamed of. An exciting place, still no signs of the mobile yet though!The hostel is called Dreamtime, clean and nice pool, quite tropical. We met a great Irish lady on the coach and just so happen to be in the same hostel. We got her to book on our reef tour on Friday and we went out for breakfast with her. Edel and she is 37, really sweet lady, think she enjoyed the company and we had a unforgettable day on the reef.
But before we talk about the reef, we did a trip to the rainforest and the village of Kuranda on our first day in Cairns. After the 12 hour bus journey we were tired but booked on this trip as we couldnt not see the rainforest in Cairns. And although very tired we
had such a good time. We got the sky rail up to Kuranda (very high heights but so amazing) over the top of the rainforest, with two stops on the way, with ranger tours of the rain forest, who showed us the types of trees and berrys and animals found in the rainforest as we walked through. Was really fascinating and interesting, see pics of the red berrys that make you go blind if eaten! and the heart shaped leaves that if touched, create a burning sensation so painful that your skin feels like its peeling off, and the only way to stop it is by waxing the hairs out! aaarrrrrggghhhh! They were some lovely types of fern trees and seeeing the canapes of the tops of the trees was wonderful. There was also an information centre with touch screens where you could learn more about the climate and animals. Once in the town of Kuranda, it was bigger that imagined, great market stalls and friendly people. We has a good look around before getting on our pre booked Kuranda Scenis Railway Train Home! Real old fashioned steam train, used by thousands of tourists each year. A half our journey
up by the sky rail, and 2 hours on the way back by the train, but truley fascinating, through the mountains, to see Barron Falls, a great waterfall, many bridges and tunnels and narration the whole way down, see the picturs we took. Really great day out.
Now for the GREAT BARRIER REEF experience. Started at 8.30am and the Marina, our first sailing boat trip, we even got a chance to steer....interesting! bloody hard though! We bought along Edel! First stop was some pre intro snorkelling, but only Amanda did this as Steve was in training for his first Scuba Dive! He was so nervous as he got all geared up...see pics..was hilarious!, after an hour he was ready and off he went. He saw so much down there, all colours of coral and fish, and even NEMO! he came up and couldnt stop raving about it! So guess what, he decided to do anothert one that same day! He got the bug! And a few hours later he was back in there. But this time he saw the most amazing and scary thing, something that he will never forget........the second dive he swam with 3 sharks, luckily the
great barrier reef has no dangerous sharks unless provoked. Unfortuntely he got so snap happy down there with the underwater camera , that by the time he saw the good stuff, Nemo and the sharks he ran out of film..Amanda was not happy! But hapy that he had such a fulfilling experience, very jealous just not guts! and way to scared! He now wants to become PADI qualified! After the dive was the true snorkelling on the reef, take dot a tiny sand island. This day we will treasure forever, the colours of the fish, the huge types and Amanda was happy as soon as she saw Nemo, as if her trip was complete! The most amaxing were the giant clams, they sense your hand movements as soon as you go near and they clam up. Hope the photos are good when we get them printed, obviously cant put them on the blog as it was an underwater camera.
So folks you will have to wait for the pics and come round and see them once developed. But this day was so memorable and we cant wait to tell you in person about the spectacular GREAT BARRIER REEF!
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kieran
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YID ARMY!!
hey steve hey amanda, sorry havent left ya a message have been following ur trip tho just real jealous all i wanted to say was: steve :YID ARMY!!! amanda look after him who knows what could happen after that result! love u both take care see u soon x x x x