Last Thursday, September 20th

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We are a little behind on the blogging. So will just talk about Cairns! Our hotel grounds are very much like our Bali hotel all those years ago! And the foliage is just like Hawaii. Hibiscus flowers and hedges blooming, even some Plumaria trees. The big difference is the beach! It is muddy, not sandy! But the cruise ships come in here too!

Our first day, we were up bright and early for our first included breakfast of the trip, juice, cereal (Dad liked the Weet-a-bix (Maria have you got any left?), fruit, yogurt, toast of many varieties and peanut butter, strawberry or apricot jam or their Vegemite. (Mary and Brian, we heeded your warning!). The bus picked us up at 8:00 for the ride to Port Douglas. Stopped to pick up others at Trinity Bay – a very nice resort area with white sandy beach. Past lots of cane fields. Some had been cut and some are still young crops. Port Douglas is where we got on the boat with 448 other people to go The Great Barrier Reef. It was 90 minutes from shore. The tides were low, so some of the reef was above the water. The colours of blue are magnificent. People of all ages, and lots to do, snorkeling, scuba diving (they would give you a lesson!) underwater submarine type of boat, or donning submersible suits, or a helicopter ride ($149 pp for a 10 minute ride) It was fun watching them take off from their little platform. The coral and the fish are just spectacular. Lots of clown fish, and other blue fish schools. Nicole, you wouldn’t want to leave! We didn’t see any sharks or turtles, which they said they often do. Australians must be very honest. Everyone just leaves all their stuff on the tables and everything seems to be just fine. The lady sitting behind us realized she didn’t have her wallet when she went to buy a drink. She didn’t seem very upset and off she went to the office and sure enough someone had turned it in! The weather was sunny and hot and they were a few red looking people around when we go back to shore. Back to the hotel about 6:00. Then off to find reasonably priced supper. It seemed we had to walk forever before we came to any restaurants. Settled on Vietnamese. Was sort of like the Rice or Noodle bowls we get at home but the noodles were different and lots of veggies!! And then the long walk back to the hotel. Looking forward to a free day tomorrow!

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Photos

Coral Reef
taken from the submarine boat

Comments

[Shelley]

beautiful!
Wow! That would have been a great day--how did Papa do with the boat ride? Would I have been leaning over the rail, or do you think I would have been ok? Sounds like the people are extremely friendly.