Ah, a wonderful day in Cairns. Lorne has been "bitten" by a new bug - a desire to go on another hot air balloon ride, while I've "suffered" a relapse - I longing to go scuba diving and snorkelling more. I'm sure Lorne initially decided to tag along on the balloon ride out of fear that I'd do something silly and hurt myself, but once we were up in the air, floating along so silently, he was hooked. Next time he'll bring a hat, though. His head got rather hot when they needed to ignite the burners and raise the balloon.

We also learned an important factor in going for a hot air balloon - choose a location where the scenery promises to be beautiful. Don't get me wrong - Australian farms are lovely, but I wouldn't pay to float over them again. The standout factors on the flight were i) a young man popped the big question on our flight (she said yes); ii) we saw a few kangaroos (very briefly), and iii) the touch down was a bit interesting. Our pilot advised us that "steering" a hot air balloon is not an exact science, and being able to land in a specific field is not predictable. Well, we ended up landing in a rather small pasture (complete with 30 cm high termite mounds but no cattle), after clipping some trees on the edge of the pasture. No one on board was injured that I know of (there were 16 of us on board), so all eventually went well (although the recovery team took about 20 minutes to arrive).

Inspite of the delay at the ballooning site, we made it back to the hotel with enough time to have breakfast and join the rest of the group for a day out on the Great Barrier Reef (our 5th World Heritage Listed site thus far, the others being Port Arther, the western portion of the Gordon River in Tasmania, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) in the Northern Territory).

Just as was pointed out in Hawaii, there are a LOT less fish along the reef now than there used to be years ago. Lorne has watched several TV shows covering the Reef, and there were a lot more fish in those shows. I know that in normal wild settings (including fishing spots) it's wrong to expect to see wildlife at any particular location. However, there is a little bit of food given to the fish at the various spots that are designated tourist locations, so I expect the fish population to be higher there.

I went on a guided scuba tour, which brought back many fond memories of our trip to Barbados. Maybe one day I might just get my Scuba certificate so that I can free dive . . .

Lorne enjoyed the snorkeling while I was on my dive. However, he was shivering like a leaf when I came back from the dive - he'd been out in the sun too much yesterday without a hat, and that exposure combined with the sun and water today was a bit too much. He was much better after he had some lunch, but he didn't go back out into the water (he didn't have a wet suit on either, which I did - which made a huge difference).

I don't have the names for the fish and coral pictures that I'll upload - that will have to be added at a later date . . .

Hello to all

Brenda and Lorne