After a short flight, we landed at Cairns airport mid-morning, and we quickly set about acquiring transportation. We soon had a compact little car that we set off to Port Douglaas in. Thankfully, the roads weren't to crowded which gave me a chance to get reacquainted with a manual transmission and, more importantly, get use to driving on the wrong side of the road, sorry in-laws ;-). Soon enough though we found ourself driving along the coast through a beautiful rainforest.
After checking into our hotel in Port Douglas, we headed into to town to grab a bite. Port Douglas turned out to be a beautiful little town with many nice restaurants and shops, and on this particular day, the markets were on. Tracy decided a little shopping was in order, and she found her heart's desire in the first stall we encountered. A local man named Armin was selling these carved coconuts, which Tracy decided would be a great way to mark our fifth anniversary (we were still looking for some wood artwork we both liked). Undissuaded by the price or my reservations, Tracy quickly acquired the dearest carving the man was willing to part with. Upon our return to our hotel, we enjoyed a nice jog on the beach before heading back into town for dinner. By the time we were ready to call it a night, we both agreed Port Douglas was a fantastic town and definitely raised our opinion of Australia.
The next morning we headed straight for Daintree National Park, the heart of the rainforest here. We spent some time in the local discovery center which had a ton of platforms and walkways that allowed us to explore the various levels. We also explored up to Cape Tribulation, so named by Captain Cook. This area was truly beautiful, and we really wished we had more time to spend here. We almost went back the following day, but after deciding some relaxation was in order instead, we spent most of the day by the pool enjoying boat drinks.
We awoke early the next morning to check out of our hotel and get ready for our trip to the great barrier reef. The shuttle picked us up and we were on our boat, the Poseidon, by 9 am. While checking out the upper deck on the way out to the reef, we saw a whale breaching in the distance. Tracy and I, much to our delight, were grouped with the more experienced divers, and after a short refresher, we started throwing on our gear. During our first dive, we saw a variety of different fish and sea cucumbers, but the highlight was definitely the leopard shark we found lying on the bottom. He was easily six feet. Unfortunately, Tracy got a bloody nose on the first dive, which left her freaked out a bit. Our dive master instructed us that she was fine however, and she was able to continue the day with no troubles. On the second dive, we saw a white tip shark and a giant clam. Finally, we ran into a sea turtle and a blue spotted sting ray.
Upon returning to Port Douglas, we had to set off to Cairns where we got a room on the esplanade, watched some massive bats flying around (they are in every town here) and enjoyed a kebob before settling into bed.
3 comments:
Sorry to hear that it was a big change but you are now finding places that agree with you. piccies look good, presume the carving you managed to get was in the pics, if so looks good. Hope you enjoyed your scuba diving. Water looked good. Have you found a pearl. Love you loads
this is a test
I am relly enjoying your Blogging. You two are having a great time, even when things aren't going as well as possible.
You pictures are teriffic and we just love it.
We all went to McKinney, TX last week for Scotty's 40th birthday. Well it was another great party with the fighting Birminghams.
The last Monday, the US House of Representives sent W's bailout bill down the hatch and supposedly the world went to hell. Somehow the sun still came up the next morning and it now looks like the US Senate will pass the first acceptable version of the original bill. Hopefully that will end this BS.
We hope your trip keeps on being great and wish you all the best.
Love Reed and Carol
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