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Published: July 11th 2011
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Blog Eight - Daintree Rainforest & Dive the Great Barrier Reef
The final chapter ----
Our last phase took us up to the World Heritage Site of the Daintree Rainforest. We spent one night in Kuranda, visiting Margie's brother and sister-in-law, on their tropical property. Late into the evening we went wallabie spotting, and caught a glimpse two Bandicoots. Travelling up to the very north of Queensland we spent our last couple of nights camping at Cape Tribulation, deep within the Daintree Rainforest, where the rainforest meets the reef. Most of the time we hiked through "the oldest primary rainforest on earth". The hikes rambled through the rainforest and out onto the foreshore. Absolute beauty in gorgeous weather!!! Our one "tourist" thing we did was to take a river cruise, searching for crocodiles. We were rewarded with several up close and personal sightings-- from 3 week old hatchlings to 30 year old males. Glad we did it!
After saying "good-bye" to our home (the campervan) for 3 months, we spent a day being tourists in Cairns, before boarding our Liveaboard Dive boat for our last hurrah - Minke Whale / Great Barrier Reef diving.
At 6:00 p.m. we boarded
the SpoilSport, the ledgendary Mike Ball dive boat, with much anticipation. We motored all night through some very rough seas and yes, 25-30 knot winds, to our initial dive site. Although we've been diving in healthier coral, the Great Barrier Reef had much to offer. The mixture of cute, little reef fish along with very large palagic fish made for a unique experience. We saw many barracuda, some eels, quite a few sharks, a huge eagle ray, and swam with giant potato cod (of which were very friendly and hung around us). But the highlight occurred the second day with the spoting of several minkes. The Minke Whale portion of the trip is regulated to protect the whales, and gain data to use to continue the researcher's knowlege of the whale-- still, very little known about them. We threw on our snorkle gear, jumped in, and held onto lines that drifted off the stern of the boat. The whales would begin by cruising by and slowly more of them would return to check us out. They were curious, graceful, docile creatures that were definitely as interested in us as we were in them. Some even came within a couple of
feet from us. Phenomenal!!! Pass after pass, different whales (at least 7), different postures and approaches--sometimes two or three at the same time. They appeared to be posing, and photos we did take. Two hours later we emerged, in awe of what we were able to experience. We hope the whales had a bit of good fun too. Everyone's photos were donated to the researchers of Minke Whales for continued data collection. Another once in a lifetime experience for us!!!
It's hard to imagine that our three-and-a-half month journey has come to a close. We've had "a trip of a lifetime" and an adventure that has imprinted memories to last us forever. Australia is definately a country we fell in love with and hope to return to. Although we will miss our travelling life, we also miss our friends and family and are anxious to see everyone. We will be home on Wedneday, July 13th.
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