Carins Days 1 2 and 3.

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We had some time in the morning to hang out and shop.. in the limited shopping... of Alice Springs and said goodbye to those not coming onto the East Coast. We were driven to the airport where it was more goodbyes and then we flew to cairns. I cant remember what airline took us there but we were all seated together at he back of the plane. I can't remember how long the flight is but I think only 2-3 hours.

Shaz and Phil, our east coast tour guide and driver, picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel. We had a meeting regarding optionals on the east coast and then went to dinner in town. We didn't have a late night in town.

Carins full day 1 - Sun 21.10.07

1st optional tour in Cairns - Trip to Barrier reef

We took a Quicksilver cruise to the barrier reef. It took about 1.5 hours to get to our destination on the boat. The boat - a catamaran - took us to a pontoon out in the reef which had all the snorkel gear, a submerged boat, and an underwater viewing tunnel. We got on board the pontoon around 11:30 lunch was served at 12:00. If was a buffet lunch with bread, salad, chicken, ham, corned beef etc. We had lunch and put on our Lycra skin suits- very attractive. I had a look at the tunnel underground and then hit the water with the snorkel. So pretty. Fish, coral etc. I didn't find Nemo. Others did. There were lots of large gray fish, a really pretty parrot fish, coral and lots of other little things. No reef sharks though I think they do appear from time to time. Majority of us snorkeled for a bit and then got some more food. After lunch i got in the submerged boat. It was good to see it from all the ways you could. After that we all changed, showered and went back to the hotel.

Most of us got taxis into Carins and went to the night markets. We shopped at the markets and went back to hotel around 11:30.

Cairns Full Day Day 2

Todays optional I did white water rafting. We left the hotel 6:20am. It was about a 2 hour drive. We stopped first at the shop to hire wetsuits and reef shoes then got back into the bus and traveled to the top of the river. It was an awesome awesome day. We got divided into the boats and were on our way. We all had to jump overboard where there were no rapids and travel downstream to practice swimming and climbing into boat. I was suprised how strong the current was but it was all good. One of the rapids we had to tip the boat up and then jump across the other side so we didnt tip. Another we had to paddle really hard at a rock and hit it at the right angle to bump off. Lots of rafts usually tip there. We hit wrong and we started to tip but grabbed onto another rock, climbed out, lifted the raft over and then jumped into it again from the rock. There was a part that we swam down. You swam from the left and you had to swim hard to the right into the rapids and then lie on your back in the braced position and float down. Has to hold breath ages. We all pretty much swollowed water and got scratches. We then had to swim hard to the left again back out of the rapids. It was hard to stay in the right position. Got bumped around but fun. Another part you get to swim/drop down a small waterfall. There was also a rock you got to climb up and jump in.

Tonight we had dinner at the infamous WoolShed. After dinner everyone climbes onto the table and dance. It was really fun. One of the girl fell off the table but not badly. It was 2 drinks for price of one till 11. Can't complain. They had a Mr and Mrs Backpacker competition so they were dancing on the table and stripping down.

I do not have my barrier reef pictures on my computer as they are printed from an underwater disposable camera but really the pictures do not do the reef justice so I haven't scanned them into this blog.

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