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After a lengthy time in Brisbane it was time to say goodbye to my Family in Brisbane who had put up with us and our “Pommy ways”. We flew to Airlie Beach, North Queensland where we had booked a 4 day cruise of the Whitsunday Islands on an ‘old skool' tall ship, The Coral Trekker. The excitement of the all inclusive trip was soon put on pause as we still had a night in Airlie Beach to contend with... in the tent!
We seemed to be the only people at the port waiting for the Coral Trekker; nobody else even knew about a ship with that name and neither did anybody in the tourist info shops the night before. We were starting to get a bit worried as we waited by the red post box for a taxi at the port as instructed. Anyway a taxi did finally arrive 15 minutes late which took us to the proper harbour where the ‘ships’ were and not the tin hulled day tripper boats were. Panic over, No dramas!
The reason why nobody knew anything about the ship was that it was just re-starting following a takeover and we were the first
commercial trip. All in all there were 4 couples and 5 crew, 2 of the couples were French and the other 2 were retirees from Kent and were quite well spoken... Time for a beer or five and before we knew it I was exchanging views on Lib-Dem foreign policy and the lack of backbone in Nick Clegg (conceding the tuition fee rise) with the couple from Kent. It turns out that the old girl is actually a politician and won her seat in the local constabulary down south, they were extremely nice people!
We made good progress on day one and moored around the back of Hook island for a spot of snorkelling, the highlight was a Giant Travelly (a bit like a big Tuna) which came smashing into a ball of small silver fish, it was like a flash and then gone. As the sun came down it started to get cold in the water which was a nice 27 degrees, and dinner was about to be served. The after dinner conversation was instigated by the old dear from Kent, she posed the question “who votes?”. When the French contingent said they couldn’t be bothered she nearly
leapt out of her seat.
Now as beaches go this one really is one of the best we’re ever likely to see. Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is a tidal river mouth with shallow sand banks that move with the tide, it’s different every time you look at it. The sand is almost 90% silica, which means there is not much rocks and shells in there leaving it extremely white (sunglasses were a definite requirement!). We were one of the first groups to get there that day as we anchored just on the other side of the bay, the beach side is strictly forbidden to boats. When we got down to the water we found there was literally hundreds of little Sting Rays basking in the sun, some of them would swim up to within 3 meters then glide away.
The other days on the tallship were filled with further snorkelling, a dive, island tours and some PROPER sailing. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip and well worth it.
After the trip on Coral Trekker we jumped into a hire car and headed to Tully which is 2 hours south of Cairns, one of Nat’s football pals
moved here 7 years ago. Its banana country up here but Sugar Cane is also a big provider of jobs for the locals. In 2010 a huge cyclone blew in from the Pacific Ocean, the storm was over 500 miles wide and the eye, which passed over Tully was 8 miles wide. In Tully there are almost 3000 people and in the school there were 3000 body bags waiting for the aftermath. In the end due mainly to the calmness in the eye of the storm only one person lost their life but the damage is still there to be seen. Miraculously Nat’s mate’s house was almost untouched; when the eye passed over for about 30 minutes they went outside and could see the stars... After the storm the price of Bananas went up to $14 per Kilo!
Daintree National Park was 4 hours north of Tully and is famously where the rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef. We clearly could not do the place justice with only half a day, in the rain, again. Up this far north the crocodiles are rampant and every river or stream we went passed Nat thought she was David Attenborough and wanted
to get out for some ‘Crock Spotting’. In the end all we saw were warning signs and a few logs in the water’s edge which had us excited for a minute or so.
The prices of the sparse accommodation in the rainforest drove us to get the tent out again unexpectedly. Thoughts of bird eating spiders and snakes that eat cows were suddenly creeping in as darkness fell and the heavens opened... well it is a rainforest I suppose. We must have had nearly 3 hours sleep when the alarm went off; we still had a 90 minute drive south to Port Douglas and had to take the tent down in the rain which had still failed to relent.
Port Douglas, was the starting point for the scuba diving trip out on the Great Barrier Reef, Agincourt Ribbon Reef to be precise, right out on the continental shelf. The benefit here is that as the reef drops off in to the abyss, all sorts of marine life come to feed in the nutrient packed water or so the Poseidon dive boat rep told us anyway! We had a snorkel to get warmed up then 2 dives during the
day. The water was chest deep over the reef and within 5 minutes there was a White Tip Reef Shark swimming right passed us which I managed to get a snap of luckily. The Giant Clams, Clown Fish, Loggerhead Turtle, Coral of Crazy colours, it was like another world the pictures don’t really do it justice.
Next stop Fiji or Waya island in the Yasawa group to be exact......
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