Cairns and the magic of the reef!

Once the work had finished it was time for some more adventure! We decided to fly south and then work our way down the coast making stops along the way taking in all the amazing sights and areas of pure paradise along the way.

We arrived in Cairns on Wednesday 28th Jan, late afternoon. I was full of excitement, which I tend to be anytime I board a plane!! It signals the beginning of a new adventure!! I love flying, good job really! But the take off and landing are so much fun, the rest is pretty dull and boring!

But here we were, ready to explore the rainforest and dive the reef!! Why wouldnt you be excited! We arrived on a bright sunshiny day, it was fantastic! Blue skies and a pool in the hostel! Cant ask for much more.

We gat to work immediately organising trips into the rainforest and to the reef. I didnt want to wait around I had planned to pack each day with as much activities as possible. Thursday we headed out for the day in the rainforest, Kuranda. Magic! A skyrail (cable car) above the rainforest canopy which gave way to the most stunning and spectacular views! Riding high above th erainforest you were able to take in the vastness of this area! It was a great trip with muliple stops along the way which gave you the opportunity to wonder in the forest itself. A true natural wonder. This environment fascinates me, all the different wildlife from plants to birds. The noises within the expanse of the trees, everywhere you look there is something of interest! I had an amazing time here. Back on the skyrail, up above the are you had just explored was fantastic! We reached Kuranda exciyted about what we had just seen. Kuranda is a small village in the heart of the Rainforest. It offers plenty for the tourists with its small shops filled with Australian souvenirs! A small market and plenty of cafes... This wasnt the reason I was there so I took off on a jungle walk! I felt like a true explorer keep to discover new places and creatures (new to me at least). I know I probably sound rather geeky but I just loved every minute of this adventure in an environment which was new to me! All the bright colours of the birds, plants and animals were fascinating and gave way to such beautiful surroundings!

We made our return trip to Cairns on the scenic railway! Another exciting journey! I again loved this and thought it was fantastic! A relaxing journey through the rainforest floor and out into the countryside to Cairns! Theis finished the day off nicely... Once back at the hostel the only thing left to do was jump into the pool and relax for thre evening!

Friday, another exciting day ahead! A trip to the Great Barrier Reef! WOW! A must see in Cairns. Reef Magic were our tour guides and the whole day was indeed magic! The opportunity to scube dive and snorkel at the reef thats enough to get anybody giddy! What a fantastic place, what an incredible environment! The colours, the fish, the corals! WOW! A chance to adorn the very fetching lycra suit! I have to say I looked rather good! Ha! Diving was amazing! Its such a strange sensation, once you are under the water breathing with your tank attached, it feels so natural! Like you were made to be down in the deep! Out of the water, as you can imagine, the tank is the heaviest thing in th e world, once under everything becomes weightless and you feel you could swim around all day! The noises are strange underwater and not being able to talk really fustrated me in the end! As Steve has recently told me, "I caould talk a glass eye to sleep!" Not to sure how to take that but anyway the lack opf speech wsa most difficult!

Exploring the reef once the lesson was over, well it was amazing! To get so close to the coral and see all the different colours and the little fish hiding in amongest it all was incredible! Then there were the really big fish! The size that could quite happily swollow you whole! Awesome!

After the fantastic experience of diving it was straight into the sea again for 5 hours of snorkelling! Amazing!!! And the best part of the day had to be when I found Nemo!!! A whole family infact, ver yexciting.. I got so excited when I entered the water that I used up all the photos from my water proof camera within a minute! What an idiot! I dread to think what rubbish I captured! It also meant that I missed out on a photgraph of Nemo! Gutted!

Once the day was over it was time to... jump into the pool again at the hostel! A great couple of days!

We had planned to leave on the saturday and head to Townsville.. That was all planned before the flooding of course! We tried to leave on the saturday but were unable to, we tried to leave on the sunday but were unable to.. This went on for 4 days! A cylone dotted in the middle added to our problems! There was no way out of Cairns and we have heward within the last week that the raods only just opened this week! We had no other option than to fly out, especially when we heard there was another cyclone forming and on its way!

A flight to Rockhampton was booked...

Rockhamptom turned out to be somewhat of a dump so we stayed one evening and then left the next day on the bus and headed to Hervey Bay!