We have been very grateful to arrive in the tropical oasis of Cairns. “Oasis” in so far as we are now living in a cabin with air con, separate beds and an ensuite loo. This plus internet access has made us feel human again. We spent two days doing very little except laundry, food shopping and sitting about although Tiger did make us play on something called a jumping pillow yesterday which was quite an experience. We also hired a two man go-cart to tour the site. Oliver made the children drive him round in it whilst he stood up looking like a WW2 general. I have captured this on video and will post. We have seen a gecko chase and eat a moth on our window and found a mantis on the lawn outside our cabin. The geckos squeal at night – it is very odd. Oliver has developed a kind of OCD madness about shutting the mosquito screens before we turn any lights on. This does not seemed to have stopped a cockroach invasion. Yesterday we had the largest cockroach I have ever seen on our wall. We called him “Tony the Roach” (to be said in an Italian Mafia style voice).
We have now also been on some day trips. On Sunday we all went rafting on the Barron river – see the photos and video of Tiger paddling like crazy. Yesterday Angus and I went scuba diving in the barrier reef. There are not many photos of that – quite difficult to capture although we have bought some professional photos of us with a massive parrot fish which we have on CD but cannot post at the moment. The scuba diving was fantastic but the trip out was quite rough and Angus managed some multi-coloured vomit on the trip out and I felt very queasy after both dives. The absolute highlight for us both was seeing a turtle really close to us on the reef. Our second dive was out on a boat in choppy seas with a strong current right out on a reef wall which the guide said was a tough dive for beginners. I have to admit to being petrified and quite exhausted afterwards. We met Oliver and Tiger on return to Cairns and went out for a Mexican meal which I tried to enjoy but frankly I could not stop the restaurant from moving up and down!
Today Tiger and I went off to a rainforest habitat sanctuary whilst the boys went fishing. The sanctuary was in Port Douglas further up the coast on a very picturesque coastal road. Tiger had her photo taken cuddling a koala, she handled a water python and we went on a VIP behind the scenes tour where we got to see the animals they were caring for including a swamp wallaby, tree kangaroos and where they prepared all the food. We got to feed more roos and we had lunch with all the birds in a special enclosure. We then spent some time at the end of the day in Port Douglas doing some girly shopping. All in all a very good day out for us. I was hoping the boys had had a successful day too but apparently they caught nothing. Oh dear.
Tomorrow we are off to the Daintree tropical rainforest!