Australia 2016: Cairns Australia (Great Barrier Reef)

AUSTRALIA 2016

We made it to Australia on Sunday (Denver time) but in Australia it was Monday the 15th. The flights went well and on time, it was really hard trying to sleep during that 14 hour flight over..even tho the airline fed us dinner at midnight just after leaving San Francisco, then we slept or tried to watch a movie, then they fed us breakfast about 6 hours later, then a few hours later we finally arrived in Sydney. We went through customs, without a hitch, and got our bags, and made our way to a different area of the Sydney airport to catch our Qantas airline flight to Cairns. It was a 4 hour wait, then our flight to Cairns was a 3 hour flight. Got a taxi to our hotel, our bags were delivered to our room, and we took off on foot to the nearest grocery store to get a few things for easy breakfasts. It was sooo hot. The temperatures the whole week we were there was 102 - 104 degrees. That is 39 - 40 degrees Celsius. Hot and humid for sure.

CAIRNS (pronounced Cans)

The boardwalk along the ocean across the street from the Double Tree Hotel which is where we stayed.

A little information for you about Australia. Australia consists of 6 states and 2 territories. Cairns (pronounced CANS) which was our first destination, which is in Queensland and is about in the middle of the length of the Great Barrier Reef. We spent every single day of the five days we were there doing something despite the heat. On that little walk to the grocery store on our arrival in Cairns we walked by the Cairns library and looked up to see a bat fly by, heading to a tree that was already loaded with bats! This was at 4 pm in the afternoon, not even nighttime. Outside that library is a 'Nursery' tree for their young and an informational board with the description of what they are and why they are there. Creepy for sure! Once we got back to our hotel room, after our dinner, while standing on the balcony looking out at the ocean, thousands of bats cruised right by ....and they weren't small...Some were huge, they are called 'flying foxes'. We noticed because the majority of them flew by our hotel every night at sunset. It is quite a show. The sky is FILLED with bats flying out to a nearby island to eat fruit...but on their journey they land in the trees near the hotels by the boardwalk on their way. They make a mess of sidewalks. Those bat flights happened every single night we were there.

Every single speck in the sky is a bat, they are forming up to fly out to the islands.

We spent one day on a combo tour to Kuranda, Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, the Skyrail and returned via Train.
The Aboriginal Cultural center was a presentation about the indigenous rainforest people, their dance, demonstrations of their hunting and weapons, a didgeridoo show and Boomerang and spear throwing, which we got to participate. Gene did really good on the boomerang, I did better with the spear throwing. They had painted faces and wore authentic costumes and acted out their 'circle of life', and the differences between their two cultures. An amazing traditional presentation.

The guy on the far right is playing a didgeridoo.

Then we walked to the SkyRail Rainforest cableway, a long gondola ride over the rainforest to Kuranda Village, in the World Heritage Rainforest.

Kuranda is a small laid back village
with artisans and crafters selling their goods, there are souvenir shops, restaurants, a butterfly pavilion and Koala bear exhibit. Gene and I had lunch at the Rainforest Restaurant where I had a big Greek salad for lunch, Gene had
kangaroo, Crocodile, maybe some Emu, with mashed potatoes. He could barely cut it, let alone chew it.

He got through it, but he wasn't impressed! (picture didn't turn out well)

Kangaroo hide

Real Crocodile belts $250.00 Australian dollars. Anything made out of crocodile was real expensive.

Crocodile hat, hat band and teeth.......price??? $1000.00 (Australian dollars-about $700.00 US dollars)

Nope ...he wouldn't buy it, but at least he got to try one on.

Real Crocodile surrounded by bottle openers made with front feet of Kangaroos

We then rode the Cairns-Kuranda Railway back to Cairns,

it took about 1 hour 45 minutes. The railway was constructed between 1882 and 1891 and even today is considered quite an engineering feat. There are 15 hand-made tunnels and 37 bridges. Along the way were several waterfalls...just outside of Cairns we spotted some wildlife...some wallabies, which are members of the Kangaroo family, but smaller than Kangaroos. Didn't have time to snap any pictures.

On our next day of adventure, we spent a whole day out on the Great Barrier Reef.

Its an hour boat ride out to the one reef they chose for us to snorkel. There were 75 of us on the boat, some did scuba diving, some did snorkeling, some did the glass bottom boat. Gene and I started out doing the snorkeling. Because of jellyfish that sting, we were all required to wear 'sting' suits.

Our boat "the Ocean Freedom"

They were really comfortable, made of some type of mesh fabric, and very stretchy...which was good!! Gene and I did not stay together, he is very good at diving and snorkeling, and can stay out there and wonder around for hours! I went with one of the instructors off the boat, who helped me and another woman get out to the reef so we could see the beautiful coral and some colorful fish, since I just can't snorkel if my feet aren't on the ground!! I would have rather 'walked' out from the beach...lol I just can't 'jump' off the boat with those long fins on my feet! But I held on to the round life saver ring and she pulled us through the water with our faces and masks in the water as we went.... to get out to the reef. Was so glad I did it. There were two areas where they anchored to snorkel, so Gene went again in the afternoon on the second stop, I did the glass bottom boat.

Small Stingray

The colors of the water around where we snorkeled were just amazing, so many different variations of aqua... some areas of just white sand below the water, and lots of reef where the vibrant of colors of reef and colorful fish live. Gene took his camera for pictures, but underwater pictures just don't do the reef justice.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet, it is so large it can even be seen from outer space. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. Great Barrier Reef has over 900 islands, over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays. It is over 1300 miles long.

The next day we took a 6 passenger airplane ride for a 90 minute flight over the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree forest, and Green Island.

Green Island-a popular snorkeling area

No air conditioning...but sometimes we could feel a slight breeze. Seeing the Great Barrier Reef from the air was pretty spectacular. Here is a picture of the Batt Reef, the reef that the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin died on in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming an underwater documentary film. This reef is where a lot of stingrays are found, some dangerous. Its a reef that has several feet of sand on top of it, so from the air it looks like the water is shallow there.

The pilot got fairly close to the water so we could look for stingrays, he saw some and so did Gene, but I didn't, and the only thing I see in this picture that I took is the wheel of the airplane. lol

The Daintree Forest is also awesome from a plane. Dense with lots and lots of trees. This photo shows the beginning of the forest where it meets the Coral Sea.