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Published: January 23rd 2009
The Great Barrier Reef. One of the biggest eco-systems in the world. And who went Scuba diving on it? We did! Woo! We arrived at the docks and after some confusion over where the boat actually was,we were on board and away. The tour we booked was $115 with an introductory dive included but we got upgraded to a $185 tour where the dive was an extra $100! Woo to a saving of $170! YAY!! The weather was good, a bit cloudy but warm, and the clouds cleared away later on anyway. The first thing we did once got to the reef was to go on the semi-submersible boat, for an underwater tour of the reef. I did take some photos but the glass made them a bit dodgy, so i won't post them. But we saw a turtle!! And some sting rays!!The guide said it was rare to see sting rays because they usually disappear quite quickly when they feel the vibrations but they stuck around for us. Then came the Scuba diving. We got suited up and were told to sit on the edge of the boat and just roll forward into the water. After going through a few
Annie!
practice techniques we were off. The reef itself was beautiful, really colourful. The dive didn't last very long though and soon we were back on board eating our lunch. Then we went snorkelling. In a way, that was better than the dive. You could see the colours better. Then back on board for the homeward sail and some live music. Van Morrison, brown eyed girl sung, not quite to the right tune seems very popular, and you can never sing along...
The next day we went to Cape Tribulation. On the way we stopped at Mossman gorge, where we walked along the boardwalk to a swing bridge. It was a very nice day but it was fun and the rain held off for the most part. Then we went to daintree zoo to see some crocs. There was also a wallaby and a cassowary along with various other types of bird. Over the Daintree river, we went on a guided walk of the rainforest. Th rainforest in Australia is somewhere between 120 and 140 million years old. To put that in perspective, the Amazon is only 65 million years old. We were in the oldest
rainforest in the world. Scientist estimate
Annie at the second bar
that in a hectare of rainforest there are more varieties of plants than that of the whole of North America, and the majority of insect life that lives there hasn't been identified yet. Pretty amazing.
The tour that we booked we decided to split up, so instead of doing the day tour we would stay in Cape Trib a few days and then continue the rest of the tour on the way back. Our hostel was amazing! Little cabins set into the rainforest and right on the beach. Really nice. The next day was raining, but what more can you expect in the rainforest? We booked to go on a kayaking tour in the afternoon, wet weather activities and all that. Annie felt the need to remind me that we might die... tis the season...Box jellyfish season, crocodile mating season, sting ray season...just general 'don't fall in the water or you'll die' season. Because the weather was bad we didn't see any more turtles but we did see some sea eagles, one sat on a tree and the other flying around. Mount Sorrow looked quite
Fish face
I look like a fish with my eyes so wide!pretty in the cloud... The reason for all the depressing names is that when
Fish face
I look like a fish with my eyes so wide!
Captain Cook sailed round this part of the coast, his ship had a big hole in it, so he was just having a big moan really.
Jungle surfing! Basically a rope course 20 meters off the floor in the trees of the rainforest. It was so much fun! The helmets we got had different names on them, Annie was spiderman and i was Batman. The last part of the course was the best, where you could go along up - side - down. Awesome! On the tour back to Cairns we went on a river cruise to see some wild Crocs. We saw two big males and one of the women on our boat spotted a baby on the bank. It took a while for the rest of us to spot it but we did eventually.
Its bloody hot btw. It's difficult to sleep at night coz although our new hostel in cairns is much nicer than the other, it doesn't have air conditioning, just a couple of fans.
We had to be up at 3am to catch our flight back down to Brisbane and in two days we'll be off to Singapore.
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Jane
non-member comment
busy, busy
how could you fit all that in since your last blog????