Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

Tropical Queensland- it hits you as soon as you step outside the airplane. Lush sticky heat. Dense green.

Our hostel was called Travellers Oasis and it was fabulous. Our room had a balcony overlooking a quiet residential street. Sitting out there at the end of the day, we were able to watch the flying foxes begin their evening forays for food. These bats have a wing span of over 2 feet so were very dramatic to track against the sunset. We’ve always preferred hostels over hotels because we can prepare meals; eating out regularly soon loses its charm and is far too expensive, especially in Australia. In addition, wandering the aisles of foreign grocery stores is inevitably an intriguing and curious cross-cultural experience.

We were here in 1997 when we spent 10 weeks in Australia with the kids. The Great Barrier Reef was a highlight of that trip so we decided to return to the site of some of our best snorkelling ever. We booked two one-day snorkelling/ diving tours to the outer reef – one out of Cairns and one further to the north out of Port Douglas. Both of the boats we were on were very fast catamarans that still took an hour and a half to reach the first dive site, 35 km off shore. The further out you go the clearer the water and the bigger the fish. On both days we stopped for an hour to an hour and a half at each of three different reefs.

Our snorkelling experiences were fabulous. We had to wear full lycra body suits to protect against the small blue bottle jellyfish that were in abundance. I did wind up getting a nasty sting on the back of my arm from another type of jelly fish that left me with welts for two days. It would have been much worse without the suit. The water was wonderfully warm at 28 Celsius. But the sea was very rough and we were tossed around quite a bit. The water is shallow over the reef so snorkelers can get up close to the diverse and abundant species of fish, coral and other marine life. We rented an underwater camera for our second trip out and had lots of fun trying to photograph everything in sight.

I decided to do an introductory dive on the first day. (Barney can’t dive because of his asthma. It’s very mild but it’s still a no go.) I had done one dive over 20 years ago. My nervousness was a real challenge then and proved to be again. I don’t know what there is to be nervous about. I’m a good swimmer and not afraid of sea creatures, but still the idea of being underwater has always made me squirm. But the exhaustive pre-dive briefing and surface training I received made me confident that I was in good hands. The three other beginner divers in my group were 20-somethings from China who spoke marginal English but thankfully did well with the underwater hand signals. The dive lasted over half an hour and we went to a depth of 9 metres. I was childishly thrilled when my instructor told me I did very well. I also knew Brodie (currently in Honduras doing her Master Divers certification) would be delighted that I had succeeded.

Four nights in Cairns and we were sadly but excitedly off again. Changing planes in Darwin we heard several announcements for Air North flights. We’re now in Broome in the northern part of Western Australia getting ready for our 12-day trip into the outback of the Kimberleys.

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef