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We were up bright and early on the day of our trip to the outer great barrier reef; there was no way that ship was sailing without us! Most of the crew were taking part in Movember and had outrageous moustachios so Jak felt right at home as soon as he stepped on board :-)
It took 90 bumpy minutes for us to reach the Norman Reef. During this time we were both kitted out for our introductory scuba dive and given a talk on how to use the equipment and generally avoid dying. Jak was fairly confident as it was his second dive and he's a bit of a water baby but I was petrified. I was right to be scared, I suck at diving. We practiced a few exercises hanging off the side of the boat then the instructor gradually deflated our jackets so that we sank down into the sea. When you get a little way down you have to pop your ears by pinching your nose and blowing to stop the pressure on your sinuses becoming too painful. This has to be repeated every metre or so. I was pinching and blowing so hard I broke a small vein and got a nosebleed but my ears remained obstinately un-popped and hurt like hell for 90% of my dive :-( The instructor clearly thought I was a hopeless case and led me round by the hand for most of the 30 minutes we were under water, pointing out particularly interesting coral and Nemos. It was pretty, and it was cool to sit on the sandy sea bed, 12 metres below the surface, but I've got to say I was slightly relieved when it was all over and my head was above water again.
Now the snorkelling, on the other hand, was AMAZING. There was SO much pink and blue coral (and orange and green and yellow and purple and brown coral...), absolutely tonnes of the stuff reaching all the way from the sea bed to the surface, and heaps of parrot fish, maori wrasse, angel fish, clown fish etc etc darting in and out of it. We even saw two white tipped reef sharks lazily swimming along beneath us. Plus, perhaps most importantly, snorkelling doesn't feel like someone is drilling a hole into your ear!! We were snorkelling for around two hours and I could have gone for longer. It was probably long enough for Jak though; he kept holding his breath and diving down to get a closer look at things, which meant that he swallowed a lot of salt water and felt decidedly sick by the time we clambered back onto the boat.
The next day we were up early again as we'd booked a day trip to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest. We stopped off at the Mossman Gorge first of all for a quick but bloody freezing swim in the crystal clear waters. I stupidly dropped my denim shorts in the river and spent the rest of the day walking around in my bikini bottoms with my cheeks hanging out waiting for the shorts to dry. Everyone else on the bus must have thought I was a right exhibitionist.
Afterwards we stopped off in the Daintree for a guided boardwalk where the tour leader pointed out forest dragons, crabs, golden globe spiders and various other insects among the trees that we would have just walked straight past had he not been with us. Around midday we arrived at beautiful Cape Tribulation and had a picnic on the beach, which looked like something straight out of a postcard.
On our way back we visited the Daintree Ice Cream Company and sampled their ice creams of the day, all made from fresh fruit: wattleseed, jakfruit, black sapote and coconut flavour. Jak took it upon himself to assume all credit for the yumminess of the jakfruit ice cream, even though it was the first time he'd ever heard of the fruit.
When we reached the crocodile-infested Daintree River we jumped on an hour long crocodile-spotting cruise. Unfortunately the 70-odd crocodiles who live in that stretch of the river were being very shy and, although we saw snakes and sun birds, we only got a quick glimpse of a baby crocodile's tail through some bushes. I'm not entirely sure it wasn't a log but the guide assured us it was most definitely a crocodile. Apparently in the Northern Territory they feed the crocodiles to make them approach the boat and snap at everyone but it's illegal to feed crocs in Queensland so the chances of seeing them are slimmer :-( It makes sense as there are less fatalities in Queensland but it was still a little disappointing. We made it back into Cairns about 7pm that night and collapsed into bed not long after.
Yesterday we had a lazy day lying by the pool. In the evening we went out for dinner. A lot of restaurants in Cairns give you 20-30% off the bill if you are seated before 6.30pm so we could actually afford to eat out somewhere nice. Jak had lamb cutlets with mint jelly, corn on the cob, squash and mash and I had a supreme wood-fired pizza. It made a nice change from tomato pasta and things on toast :-)
This morning we flew to Alice Springs (somehow ending up with the extra leg room seats!) so right now we are smack bang in the middle of Australia. Tomorrow we are heading off on a three day camping safari to Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock. Very excited, again!
- comments
Kevan Hi there. Sounds wonderful. Have scanned and sent through stuff to Jak from the Halifax. xx
Katy Nic you do make me laugh. sounds amazing