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Published: February 8th 2010
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Feb 2nd - Feb 5th We couldn't really leave Australia without coming face to face with a shark and finally got to do this on our snorkelling trip out to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns. It was pretty scary yet strangely serene to watch a real live shark glide past. To be fair it was only a black tip reef shark not a man-eating great white but it was still a
SHARK! During our morning snorkel the water was a bit rough and Simon nearly drowned, or so he claims, honestly he is such a drama queen at times. Once I'd fixed his snorkel so it was facing out of the water and not into it he was fine. So, on the morning snorkel we saw lots of pretty fish but no sharks. Then after lunch the crew threw prawns into the water and five sharks came up to the surface to eat them. That was pretty awesome to watch. Then we had to get in the water on the other side of the boat so we knew we would be in shark-infested waters! Maybe we can both be a bit dramatic... On previous snorkels I have always
been slightly on edge expecting a shark to just pop up in front of my mask and startle me but because I knew we were likely to see one now I was prepared. So I put my face under the water and watched the shark swim by. Simon was a lot more excited than me though (obviously the Whitsunday shark 'attack' didn't scar him) and exclaimed "there's a really big fu**ing shark over here!" It was about 10ft long according to Simon but I wussed out and couldn't look figuring if I can't see it it's not there.
We hired an underwater digital camera from a shop in Cairns which was the best $45 we've spent. It's such a good idea to hire these out because we'd been using disposal cameras before but you never know what you've taken pics of and inevitably they come out all dark and blurry and cost $25 just for the camera. We took over 100 shots and were given them all on a CD. If only they hired out underwater cameras when we went swimming with the dolphins.... So we actually have a picture of the shark. It's hard to see how big
it is though because there's nothing else in the shot to scale it against.
Also on our snorkelling trip we got dropped at Green Island which is a white sandy beach-lined island with lots of greenery in the middle. Basically it's like paradise (albeit with a resort in the middle of it) and we managed to walk around the whole island in about 20 minutes before doing a spot of sunbathing.
Cairns was our last stop in Australia and we really loved the city. It was quite compact with a huge free swimming lagoon down by the water with plenty of space for lazing around. There are also loads of free BBQs around which are really popular. BBQing and picnicing is a serious business over here - people bring down gazebos, pots and pans and all manner of fancy equipment to spend an evening by the beach.
We stayed at a lovely hostel called Dreamtime Travellers Rest (in our own room again) and really enjoyed having air con at last (this had been lacking at Mission Beach) as it was at least 30 degrees every day. We treated ourselves to some meat including pork sausages (for some
reason beef sausages and chicken sausages are really popular here - a
chicken sausage?!) and enjoyed a meat fest BBQ one evening.
For some reason I managed to catch a cold while in Cairns, no mean feat considering I can't remember the last time I felt cold, so we didn't do much else other than the snorkel trip.
We are in Sydney right now - we flew back from Cairns on Saturday straight into the rain. We caught up with some friends from the African trip yesterday and this afternoon head to the airport for a flight to Bangkok. It's a tough life!
We are sad to leave Australia as we have had some amazing times here, met some super people and created memories to last a lifetime. But we have new memories to make and are excited about exploring Thailand and SE Asia and looking forward to the next set of adventures on our travels.
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