Simply Spectacular

G'Day,

If it's Tuesday, I must be in Adelaide. Arrived this morning. And I woke up way too early to catch the flight here from Cairns. Tonight will be an early night.

After Brisbane, I spent several days in Cairns. Cairns itself is not so interesting, but it's a place from which you can do many things: Kuranda, Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation, just to name a few places.

Too me, the Great Barrier Reef was the best thing I saw during my stay in Cairns. And that's not to say that the rest of the sites were disappointing. The Reef is incredibly beautiful.

I joined an all day dive and snork cruise out to three sites in the Reef. It was a spectacular day, which Uncle Fluffy (our marine biology specialist and snorkel supervisor) explained is rare in the winter. Once it becomes winter, the winds pick up (20+ knots), and the sites diving and snorkeling sites are limited, assuming we survive the boat ride. But that day the winds were calm, which meant we were able to visit three prime summer dive and snorkel sites.

We spent an hour at each site. The water was a beautiful shades of blue and not too cold. Uncle Fluffy snorkeled with us and made sure we saw gorgeous coral reefs and various rare fish and animal life. I saw two white tipped sharks (these are vegetarians), several gigantic clams, a lion fish, and Nemo (the orange and white clown fish). And the coral was simply amazing. The shapes and colors!!!! I was simply content to swim and look at the pretty fish and coral. Three hours of snorkeling is exhausting. And I don't think I missed anything by not diving. The reefs were close to the surface.

My next favorite place was Paronella Park. The history of the place is incredible. Paronella Park with created on a piece of land purchased by a Catalonian Spaniard at the beginning of the 1900s. He was a baker in Spain who decided to come to Australia to make his fortune as so many people did at that time. He was fortunate enough to save enough money over 11 years to purchase a large piece of land that had a small waterfall. Unfortunately, his fiancee, whom he left 11 years earlier, chose not to wait for him and married another man. So he married her sister and brought her to Australia. He then built a house in which the lived, and a spanish mansion and resort park for people in the area to enjoy. He build his house, the mansion, the fountains, the tables -- almost every structure on the premises himself, using stones from the river below and cement. He carried rocks and water up a whole lot of steps (that he also built). There were tennis courts, a bowling green, a ballroom, a refreshment stand, and a lovers' walk. He and a few friends built this incredible resort.

Over the years the place was distroyed by natural disasters and a fire. The current owners have been slowly rennovating the place. So what you see are ruins of the splendor that used to exist. Crumbling, moss covered structures. And even in this state it's a tranquil and inspiring place to visit.

The rest of my time was spent on various tours visiting different portions of the rain forest covered area. The area is green and peaceful. I also took a boat ride where I saw three large people eating crocodiles in the wild. Fortunately, it is winter, and crocs don't eat in the winter because they don't digest food when it's cold outside. Phew! These were big SOB's.

The drive up to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation, also the coastal road is gorgeous. Spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean with sandy, rocky or tree lined coasts. On one drive up the coast, we passed the scene of an accident. Turns out a tourist fell down the cliff after he got out his car to take photos of the coast line. He didn't get hurt.

I also had a chance to see several demonstrations of local aboriginal dancing, dirigidoo playing, spear and boomerang throwing. The dancing is very energetic; I got tired just watching them. I tried my hand at throwing a boomerang. It's harder than it looks, but not impossible. My boomerang partially returned to me. Passed on the spear throwing and the digeridoo.

We also visited another native animal park. There were koalas, crocodiles, lots of colorful birds, a pair of black swans, and two huge pelicans. We were able to walk among the kangaroos. I saw several kangaroos with joeys. They are adorable! I was able to hold a koala. They are so sweek and soft, although their claws tickle and prick a bit.

And that summarizes Cairns. Cairns is my favorite set of experiences thus far in Australia.

cheers,
Stacey