Australia - Part 2 (Magnetic Island/Cape Tribulation/Great Barrier Reef)

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The East coast of Australia is probably best known for the Great Barrier Reef and it didn’t let us down. We managed to get Beccy booked on to the same Open Water Dive Course I did seven years ago which meant I was home alone for a couple of days whilst she was stuck in a classroom studying. Naturally I did the man thing - nothing much, although I did go fishing and caught a tiddler. The third and fourth day I joined Beccy aboard the Kangaroo Explorer (dive boat) where we did six dives. Beccy is now officially an Open Water Diver (hurrah) and I managed to get my advanced qualification. The Great Barrier Reef really is stunning and the night dive we did was one of the best experiences of our life. The photos say it all and there’s also a video which I had no idea my dive buddy, AJ from the US, was filming. It shows a very non-buoyant Buddha impersonation.

Magnetic Island was, once again, also awesome. We had intended to stay just one night but in the end stayed three. We explored just about every bay, walking track and town on the island which in total is probably about the size of Grimsby (that is all it has in common). Most of the beaches are left deserted by the backpackers with no transport which meant we usually had a beach to ourselves (Florence Bay was our favourite). The island is also home to the largest number of wild koalas in Northern Australia and it wasn’t long before we became acquainted with a few of little fellas when out trekking. Climbing some of the mountainous peaks provided us with great uninterrupted views across all four sides of the island. It was a shame to leave in the end but the prospect of diving on the Barrier Reef was enticing enough.

Before we made it to the reef we stopped off at Cape Tribulation. Two hours north of Cairns, Cape Tribulation is a tropical rainforest (apparently the oldest in the world) right on the coast. There are some species of trees that are over three million years old and with over 300 different types of tree to look at there was plenty to keep us busy. We trekked, sun bathed on the adjoining beaches, took lots of photographs, caught toads and generally where amazed by the surroundings. It was one of our favourite places (yet again), but probably because it was so different to anything else we have done.

It feels like we have already covered another country as we have done so much but in fact we have only done the East Coast. Next stop is sunrise at Ayers Rock and then we fly across to the south-west to Perth.

Andy & Beccy

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Photos

Great Barrier Reef
I'm about to hand Beccy over to the underwater fashion police

Great Barrier Reef
Sunrise at 5.30am (just before our first dive)

Great Barrier Reef
View of the reef from our boat

Great Barrier Reef
Andy diving

Great Barrier Reef
Who says romance is dead once you get married

Great Barrier Reef
View of our boat after we had surfaced from our dive

Cape Tribulation
The famous 'Cassowary'

Cape Tribulation
We rolled back the years and went toad catching...

Cape Tribulation
What a catch!

Comments

[alan]

Please ...
The video is so funny! "Pease don't let the sharks get me!" Well done to you both on your diving achievements. A great blog.

[zoe]

glad to see u went diving...well done beccy for open water...i also did mine when were in thailand but so well worth it! and also do u remember that story i told u bout my family goin on a safari n walking through a forest thing where i scared my self silly almost leaning on a massive dragon lizard....this was cape tribualtion! so glad u enjoyin urselfs! keep up the blog! xxx