More of the Australian adventures. Sydney was just the first 2 days.
From Sydney I caught a plane and headed up to Cairns airport in Queensland. You’ll notice, I have a few flights internal to Australia. That’s because Australia is as big as the continental United States. I would not have been able to see everything I did if I didn’t fly between places.
Cairns wasn’t my final destination in Queensland. I was headed up to Port Douglas. So after the flight I had another hour or so car ride to my hotel. Not a wasted ride though. The route we took is one of the top 10 most scenic drives in Australia.
My hotel was just a block or so from the beach and once I got settled I went and had a look. I even ate dinner at a surf club and had a lovely view of the ocean between the foliage. Not a bad start to my stay there. Port Douglas was my base for seeing the Great Barrier Reef and the tropical rain forest. Both busy days.
First up was the reef. What I didn’t know or realize is that the reef is made up of a bunch of smaller reefs. The one we went to is called Agincourt II. One thing you should know, is though I wanted to see it, I no longer snorkel. It will be very extreme circumstances that get me to do that again. Still I was going all that way and the reef is endangered so I wanted to see it. Fortunately, the tour I took had a platform with an underwater viewing area as well as a semi-submersible that took a bit of a tour of the reef away from the platform. That’s how I got my reef pictures.
We got really lucky on the reef. The trip out was smooth. The water was calm, clear, and glassy. And it was that way most of the time we were out there. The waves started picking up about a half hour before we were ready to leave so it was quite a pleasant visit. The ride back got really rough. Really rough. Several people got ill. Fortunately, I did not. I was able to use something I learned from a cruise I took many years ago. As long as I didn’t try to focus on anything, I was fine. That said, it was really rough and had it lasted too much longer even that might not have helped.
The next day was the rain forest. This consisted of a sky-rail ride up to a town called Kuranda and then a bus trip from there to a place called Rainforestation. I enjoyed the visit in the town but felt like it was too short. I would have liked a little more time to wander around. Still I managed to spend enough time there to spend some money. I got a belt, because I had neglected to pack one, some jewelry, and a box didgeridoo. Then off I went to see the rain forest and the mini zoo there. I was the only one scheduled for the zoo tour at that particular time, or at least the only one who showed up, so I got a personal tour. That was great. I saw a variety of creatures, including a crocodile, koala, and kangaroo.
I kept thinking that I’d get a little laundry in before it got really necessary but at the end of both of those days I was too beat to actually do it. I was already falling asleep by 8:00 pm both nights. A good thing because my pickup for the airport the day after the rain forest was for stupid early in the morning, and it was another hour drive back to Cairns to catch the plane to the next location.
There’s more to come. Enjoy the pictures of Queensland
Beach in Port Douglas Queensland 
Coral on the Great Barrier Reef 
A fish and some coral 
More fish and coral 
Coral 
On my way to the rain forest 
View from the sky rail on the way to the rain forest 
Our Duck Boat puttered through that little lake 
Fun lizard hanging out 
Sleepy Kangaroo 
Crocodile nap 
A Koala and her little one