Following two days in the Port Douglas
area where we had a good time with our Cottonwood friends (Lorne &
Sharon) exploring the Daintree Rainforest and the Mossman Gorge, we
drove south to Cairns where we had booked our Great Barrier Reef
tour. The company we chose used a catamaran that held 30 passengers
which was our preference rather than the larger boats that resulted
in more people being in the water. Following the 50 km trip to the
Outer Reef we spent over 4 hours snorkeling at two different reef
spots (Michaelmas Cay and Hastings Reef). We had a glorious time. It
was a beautiful sunny day with very little wind, providing ideal
conditions. The varied types and colours of the coral made for
spectacular viewing, superior to anything we had ever seen before.
There were also lots of tropical fish (big & small), some large
sea turtles and our favourite, the giant clams.....they were 5 feet
long with a sandy tone on the outside but with bright vibrant colours
(purple, green, blue) when opened up which most of them were. The
starfish were also colourful. But the brilliant coral was the overall
highlight of our excursion. The fun-loving staff on the boat, who were also very safety conscious, took some underwater photos for the group and then posted them on the web for us to retrieve which was a nice feature. We will go back out to the GBR for
another visit during our travels down the coast.
Yesterday we did a short rainforest
walk to see the Babinda Boulders, large granite rocks smoothed over
by the rapidly moving water. Then we did another walk to the
Josephine Falls where there was a swimming hole at the bottom of the
falls. After watching the younger crowd going down a 20 foot rock
water slide into the pool and not harming their bodies, I even gave
it a go myself (several times). It was a lot of fun and refreshing on
another 30C day. Our favourite water hole so far, especially with the
waterfall in the background and some nice smooth rocks to relax on.
Today we will continue driving slowly
down the coast with a planned stop at Wallaman Falls where we will
hike out to the longest single-drop falls in Australia (300 metres).
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| In our fashionable stinger suits (jellyfish protection) |
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| The amazing coral |
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| Our snorkel group with our guide (follow the tube) |
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| More lovely coral |
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| One of the sea turtles we saw |
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| Giant clam but mostly closed.......we saw many more that were more open and colourful |
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| Josephine Falls (background) and water slide into the swimming hole |
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