Cairns, Great Barrier Reef and Cape Tribulation & Port Douglas

After I left Alice Springs I flew into Cairns - from the dessert to the coast! Cairns is a pretty small city and I was only there a day and a half but it seemed quite laid back - plenty of pubs and of course the main attraction up here is access to the Great Barrier Reef.

All the cities I have been to in Australia have lovely parks in the city centres and are clean - I think partly this is due to the provisions made for young people to have areas for skateboarding etc. These lads were happy to show me their moves when I asked if I could take some photo's :-)

The Pelicans (or are they storks??) at the lagoon area in the city centre.

As you can't swim in the actual water they have a man made lagoon right next to it for the shoppers to cool off after some xmas shopping.

What can I say he just insisted in jumping into my photo!!!! Anyway girls one thing I can say about Australia is the talent is far better than the UK - sorry boys but it is true :-)

So I went diving off the Great Barrier Reef and got to play with my new underwater camera - I love diving there is so much life under the water and the colours are amazing - and now it is even more fun as I can take some photo's to share with you all (or bore you with!!).

This is a Queensland Gropper - there was a pair of them waiting for us to take their photo's - surprised they don't have an agent - but aren't they huge!!

Catherine - my diving 'buddy' for the day - when you go down to dive you always get (or should always get) a diving buddy who double checks your equipment and you keep an eye on each other under water in case either of you get into any problems as in a group the guide may not always notice right away.

A giant clam.

I have no idea what most of the things are that I see underwater but it amazes me how much activity there is and it is great watching the behaviour of the fish etc. Some fish like these one's always seem to be in pairs - maybe they are like penguins and mate for life??

The corals are amazing colours - and there is always some activity going on around them.

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I FOUND NEMO.......well maybe his cousins!!!

This cuttle fish is laying eggs deep in the coral to stop other fish eating them.

Some sting rays - these sit at the bottom on the sand and blend into the surroundings and they are relatively small compared to some that are out here .....

And a shark - I think it was a white tip reef shark - I can't remember for certain and I haven't brought my dive log to the Internet cafe - will give myself a slap and do better next time! But how cool is it??

Getting back onto the boat.

On the boat coming into Port Douglas.

Port Douglas is a small town that doesn't have too much in it - pretty relaxed and the locals are friendly. It is one of the main ports for boats going out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Moonlight at Port Douglas.

I couldn't take a photo of a heart shaped moon again if I waited a month of Sundays - those who know my ability on a PC will know that I have not yet learnt to use photo shop so it is as it appeared on the camera!!!

Next day I did a tour up to Cape Tribulation passing through some lovely scenery on the way.

I went for a boat trip along the Daintree River to look for crocodiles.

But this was the only one I saw :-(

A hairy plant!!!

No idea what type of plant this is but just looks like a big umbrella....

Bees on the honeycomb in the rainforrest.

And finally we reach Cape Tribulation where the rainforrest and beach meet. Though some lovely scenery on this trip in retrospect the one day trip was not long enough as all the stops were pretty hurried with no real time spent anywhere.

With warning signs like these who would be brave enough to go in the water??? Yet there are still plenty who do!!!!

One of the swimming gorges on the road to Cape Tribulation.

Snapper Island - because it looks like a crocodile!!

There's more keeping going..................................

Aver Beach, SS Yongala, Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands

I got off my overnight bus at Ayr (on the East Coast of Australia not the one in Ayrshire@!)and was picked up from the guys at the dive centre and taken to the best hostel ever in Aver Beach. Had a day to kill before going diving so went for a walk around the town - which pretty much consisted of two streets of houses, small chip shop and big beach!!

Was warned it was not safe to swim due to the stingers (horrible jelly fish that give quite nasty if not deadly stings!!) so entertained myself watching the kite surfers!! Pretty impressive moves though.....

Some pretty patterns left on the sand by the waves or fish or something.....

There was a fantastic thunder and lightning storm that evening - these 2 photo's are the same spot seconds apart.....

I had been told that one of the best dives in Australia and certainly the best wreck dive was the SS Yongala on the East coast - so of course I had to try it out. Here we are just getting ready to go in the water. The SS Yongala disappeared during a cyclone in 1911 and no survivors were found - the wreck was only discovered in 1958 and is now a World Heritage site as well as a grave to those whose bodies are still on it.

Going into the water.....

Unfortunately there was really strong tides and due to the storm the night before so the visibility on the dive was not very good. It was a real battle to hold onto the line till we descended far enough to get out of the strong current. You could still see that there were lots of beautiful coral and loads of fish it was hard to stay in one place long enough to have a proper look - the people who went the day before us got much better conditions so I will just need to come back!!

I did manage to see a few turtles though - this one got up quite close and was swimming right underneath me.

These two little yellow fish were so cute they followed us along the line.

This was the hole into the engine room on the boat.

Though not too clear you could see that there were loads of coral and fish now living around the boat.

The dive masters and Misato.

The boat.

Towing the diving boat back onto the beach.

Misato and Bridget who were also diving at the SS Yongala.

The sunset at Aver Beach on the 2nd night (no more storms!!)

Misato and I both headed to Airlie beach after our dive to pick up different trips to Whitsunday Islands.

The New Horizon - the sail boat that I went on for 2 days to sail around the Whitsunday Islands.

Jack and Chom Poo Moo - think we could "Jack & Rose" a run for their money???? (The Titanic for you non Movie lovers!!)

It was the first time I have ever slept on a boat - it was ok apart from the snorers!! Shame I couldn't afford a private charter that would have been good!!

To get to the snorkelling points/beach we had to get dropped off from the small dinghy's.

Whitehaven Beach from the lookout point - this has to be the most stunning beach I have seen - the photo's don't go anywhere doing it justice.

Me snorkeling in the Whitsunday Islands - this was a great place to snorkel I saw loads of stuff.

The corals at this snorkelling spot were beautiful - colourful and a wide variety.

A blue clam - sure that's not it's technical name but you know what I mean.

Swimming lessons.....

I suddenly saw a school of fish change directions and swim towards me and then saw what I thought might have been a shark - wasn't sure though as it was gone so quickly but when I checked my photo's it was a Black Tip Reef shark - how exciting as I was the only one on the boat to see one :-)

I got very excited when I saw a little yellow box fish again - I loved these when I saw one in Malaysia so was chuffed to get a photo of one - they are definetely one of the cutes fish I have seen so far.

Lots of colourful fish - no idea what most of them are but it is so cool to swim/dive around all these fish.

The view from the porthole in the loo!!

Ryan got locked under deck (not sure of the correct sailing terminology here!!) and we told him that it was like Titanic when the 3rd class passengers were not being allowed up to deck to get onto the lifeboats :-)

Amanda insisted on getting her photo taken in the porthole as well so poor Chom Poo Moo got dragged in as well - mmmmm - maybe it was actually the other way around!!

There was lots of time on the boat just to chill out and chat.

This photo of this huge fish was actually taken from the boat - shows how big it is and how clear the water is!!

Thomas our mad captain explains the course we took on the chart (definetely not a map!!).

Chom Poo Moo got very excited when the wind picked up enough that we did actually get to put up the sails.


and still more............................