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Published: November 28th 2005
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Stinger Net at Palm Cove
A nice beach North of Cairns. Pity about the stingers! We arrived in Cairns at 4.30am on a very sunny morning, and tried very hard to catch a few hours sleep on the benches at the airport until 8.30 when we could get a complimentary bus to our guesthouse. Lisa's luggage had been left in Perth so we couldn't do much that morning until her backpack was delivered later. We were pretty shattered after only 2 hours sleep so we didn't do much on our first day. We stayed at Tropic Days, a guesthouse owned by an Australian and his Irish wife. It was a lovely Queensland style house with very clean rooms and a good atmosphere. On the first night the owner's three daughters entertained all the lodgers with Irish dancing before all the guests took part in a quiz night.
Next morning after a good night's sleep we ventured in to town. Cairns town itself is not much to look at and seems to exist solely for tourism. The streets are lined with tour operators, dive schools, cafes and restaurants. The sea is pretty brown on the shoreline due to the mangroves so there is a man made salt lagoon just next to the beach, where we took
Swim if you dare
The sign says it all... And they say diving is dangerous? a well deserved swim and tried to cool down in the 32 degree heat. We decided we would definitely need to book ourselves on a dive trip, so we handed over the credit card with trepidation and booked ourselves on to a boat for 3 days, 2 nights on the outer reef with a company called Pro Dive. We are so glad we did it! What an amazing experience. We left at 6am on the first day and boarded a really smart boat - air conditioned cabins, and great food from our German chef Eva. You won't believe it but the dive master was a South African! He ran a tight ship but was very organised and managed to get 32 divers and snorkelers in and out of the water with great efficiency.
The diving was amazing, although very tiring. We did 4 dives each on the first and second day and 3 on the last day, a total of 11 dives. It was the first time we had dived on our own without a dive master, and needless to say we got pretty lost underwater on our second dive. After a small panic session we eventually found the
Our fancy dive boat
Our home for 3 days - Scubapro 1. Only costs a couple of million dollars or so... boat. Lisa was pretty scared after that, so Keith had to give Lisa a navigation lesson with the compass and things improved from there. The reef goes on and on for what seems forever and it is so easy to get lost looking at all the coral pinnacles. We saw so much sea life and each dive was different. On one of the days the visibility was up to 25 meters! Sharks, turtles, millions of reef fish, sting rays, you name it. Lisa did her first night dive and nearly freaked when Keith shone his torch and there was a shark about 2 metres away from us! It seemed like all we did was dive and then eat and dive and eat for 3 days. But it is something we will never forget. We are hoping to get some pics from the other divers who had cameras underwater, as it is hard to describe the beauty and colour of the the reef and all the sea life.
Dennis the dive master rapped on our cabin doors early each morning before 6am for the first dive, and heaven help you if you took your time to wake up! There were
Keith on his night dive
All geared up and ready to enter the darkness beyond and face the sharks! clear blue skies every day and on the last day a pod of dolphins played and jumped in the wake of our boat. To say we were exhausted by the end of the third day, is probably an understatement, but we will never forget the trip.
Following the dive trip we took a bus to Port Douglas and spent 3 days there. The coastal drive from Cairns was really scenic. Port Douglas is a posh resort town and is perched between a river, a port and a picturesque 4 mile beach lined with palm trees and made up of powdery white sand. Unfortunately stinger season is here so you are only allowed to swim in the stinger nets, which is a large enclosure, supposedly able to keep the jellyfish out. We walked along the beach - 4 miles each way - it is actually only 3.8 miles. This was in attempt to shed some of the rolls that we have gained since arriving in Oz.
Lisa couldn't resist the ice cream parlour in town which had 42 flavours of ice cream to choose from, 23 of which are fat free! We were also told that John Travolta was
Lisa looking the part
Trying not to show how cold she is on the last dive of the trip in town so Lisa tried very hard to find him, but we couldn't get anywhere near the Sheraton, which has the biggest swimming pool in the Southern Hemisphere. We went out to the local bar - the Central Hotel - and they had Muso night where anyone could sing and play a musical instrument. Needless to say we saw some strange acts, some of whom really couldn't sing very well!
We couldn't afford any of the restaurants so we made do with sipping iced coffee from one of the many cafes whilst doing a little people watching. It was great to have a few days to relax, but a pity that the backpackers we stayed in was so noisy. There were 18 Irish students camping in the garden so you can imagine the noise!
We would definitely like to go back to Queensland sometime as there is so much we wanted to see. We didn't make it as far as Cape Tribulation as our budget was already stretched after the dive trip and we didn't have much time left. We would also like to visit the Whitsunday Islands and Fraser Island next time around. Yesterday we flew from
Relaxing on the boat
Trying not to bake in the sun, like the rest of the passengers on board. Cairns to Sydney and have a few days here before our trip to Melbourne.
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Doods
Madeleine Ballantyne Smith
Time for
........a haircut , Keith! Almost didnt recognise you!.........and Lisa, eat some more ice cream for me..skip the bubblegum flavour, oh, and the wasabi flavour!!