Hello everyone,

After an 11 hour bus journey up the coast from Airlie Beach, we arrived in Cairns. The scenery was nice but did get a bit monotonous after a few hours! We checked into our hostel which turned out to be a nice little place in a quiet part of the city. After the long journey we were grateful for a bed to sleep in ready for our trip the next day.

In the morning we took the hostel minibus down to the marina where we checked in for our trip to the barrier reef. We booked with a company called Passions of Paradise which turned out to be very good. We boarded the big catamaran and sailed out towards the reef in the glorious sunshine. It took a few hours to get out to the part of the reef where we would be snorkelling so we relaxed on the boat and collected our gear. We had the option of wearing a 'sperm suit' which is an unflattering full-body latex suit to protect from jellyfish. We decided to go for it! Our first stop was Michaelmas Cay which is a tiny sand island which has been designated as a bird reserve. We were taken to it by a smaller boat and got into the water there after looking at the birds. It did smell a bit though! We swam between the Cay and the boat admiring the fish and the coral below. It really is amazing! The best bit was seeing a turtle swimming along. The people on the boat said that they do see the same turtles there, I think the one we saw was called 'stumpy' due to its missing leg. We also saw some squid (which look very strange when they're swimming!), a ray and some star fish amongst many other interesting creatures. Nearer to the boat, some of the crew dropped some food into the water which attracted some big fish, some of which had big pointy teeth! On the journey to the next snorkelling point we had lunch on the boat which was delicious. The next stop was quite different as it was a piece of the reef out in the open sea. We jumped in the water with our sexy suits on again and enjoyed the rest of our time there. Back on the boat we chatted to an Aussie couple who were  doing the trip as part of their honeymoon and had only been married for a few weeks. It turned out that the man had just dropped his wedding ring onto the reef when we had been out snorkelling and lost it (whoops!!). You could tell he was upset about it, though his wife was pretty understanding about it! On the journey back we listened to one of the crew talking about the marine life that we'd seen on the reef which was really interesting. It was also funny to listen to him having digs at the Kiwi woman next to us!

After a fantastic day but tiring day we headed back to the hostel. That evening we ventured into the town and used some vouchers we found for a meal and some drinks in a pub. We couldn't believe how quiet Cairns was, it had more of a town feel really. It's a lovely city though with a nice waterfront and is surrounded by mountains. I'd imagine it would get a bit too hot in the summer though.

Lots of love,

Jo and Ryan