Cairns - Reefs and Tropical Rainforest

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It is a bit hotter up here in Cairns, hopefully a taste of things to come in Thailand. We booked on to a dive with Tusa on the reef and headed out on Wednesday. We did our dives on Saxon's Reef, our first on a site called Twin Peaks and our second on Reef Magic. Our first dive was with a guide, Willy, and we saw some sea cucumbers, lionfish, reef sharks and some coral, of course. There were signs of damage from the cyclone that went through there in 1998, a lot of the coral is just growing back. Pete and I did our second dive alone. It was a good experience for us and we saw lots and lots of really nicely coloured fish and some nice coral like staghorn, bubble and mushroom leather. Tusa were probably one of the the more expensive dive companies to go with but they made the dive really enjoyable, they had a good fast boat, friendly staff on board and good food. A really enjoyable day and now all that I have to do is try to stop using my air so quickly so that I can stay down longer...!

For our last day in Cairns we got the skyrail up to Kuranda over Tropical rainforest. The skyrail is simply gondolas that climb up over the tree canopy. We got to stop along the way at Red Peak and Barron Falls. At Red Peak an interesting guide showed us some of the plants of the rainforest and a pretty big spider. The spider, a Golden Orb was a female, the males were much more tiny and there were a few on the edge of her web. At Barron Falls we could look out at the falls and the hydroelectric dam. Kuranda is pretty touristy but we did a jungle walk which was nice. We got the scenic train back and vowed never again to take another scenic train journey anywhere...! They are so SLOW and boring too.

We are really excited about heading to Tokyo tomorrow, Buddha can meet some of his big brothers and sisters.

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Photos

The reef from the air
Taking off from Cairns, we got some great photos of the Great Barrier Reef

Another picture from the air
This shows the scale of the reef more clearly

Titan Trigger Fish
Huge fish, they can be pretty aggressive at times, one of our dive guides was actually afraid of them!

Skyrail
View of the gondolas over the rainforrest

Golden Orb Spider
At Red Peak

Barron Falls
A hydroelectric dam is powered by these falls

Pretty flower
In the gardens of Kuranda Railway station

Kuranda Railway
The very very slow scenic train