Onto Cairns. Finally the tropics, some sun without it being so humid you sweat when you walk out the door and some time to work on my non existent tan. Plus some really cool days out.

We arrived in Cairns last Monday morning, spent the afternoon chilling out and by evening had found a number of tours and trip and planned the next eight days!

On Tuesday Kat, Naomi and I went for a plane ride over the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing. We took off and flew for about fifteen minutes over deep blue water until we reached the outer reef. Approaching the reef the water became shallower and greener and was dotted with bits of reef. Around the reef the sea was a myriad of different greens, blues, yellows, oranges, and browns it looked amazing. As the coral rose close to the surface the occasional wave broke sending white foam shooting across the surface until it melted away back into the deep blue ocean. Lager parts of the reef cast a massive line across the ocean looking as though I would imagine the edge of the earth to look shortly before you dropped off. The scene below me was so spectacular I cannot find the words to adequately describe it, so instead I’m going to leave the describing to some of my photographs, which also don’t do it justice. The only way to really appreciate it is to see it for yourself.

The following day was spent lazing beside the Cairns lagoon – or swimming pool – before going discovering some Aboriginal culture that evening. We went to a place called Tjapukal, which promised to give us an insight into aboriginal culture, it was a good evening with a fantastic spread off food but I don’t feel as though I came away having learnt a lot.

The show began with us being shown into a room with aboriginal art on the walls and artifacts in glass cabinets. All had explanations but I didn’t have chance to work my way around the room before the lights dimmed and the audience was introduced the Gadja and Quinkin both aboriginal spirits. They informed us that: “In the dreamtime, the time before the time the oldest man can remember, Rainforest people walked the land – Tjapukai land,” and some other stuff which has since slipped my memory!

We were lead though this room outside and given a pair of sticks along the way. Rhythmically banging the sticks everyone formed a circle around four aboriginal guys on a raised platform. We were told to chant as the aboriginals rubbed sticks together making fire. Once this ceremony was over we were taken into the restaurant given an amazing buffet and watched some traditional aboriginal dancing. All very good but not very informative.

The following day we were up early for a day at the Rainforest Habitat. This wildlife sanctuary recreated many habitats where native Australian animals, are found and allows you to get up close and personal with many of them. Our first stop of the day was the Koalas, Emily had been soooooooooooooooo excited about seeing them that as soon as she was able to get near one and stroke it her: “Eyes were watering!” It was pretty amazing being that close to an animal that, living in England, is only normally seen in cuddly toy form! Their fur was incredibly soft and there were surprisingly happy to sit on a branch and be touched.

During the day we also managed to hand feed the Kangaroos, Wallaby’s and some random looking birds. We accompanied one of the park rangers on a feeding tour of the wetlands habitat. Many of the birds were so tame he was able to coax them onto his finger allowing us some good pictures! We also had lunch with the Lorikeets, some very pretty parrot like birds who were well accustomed to sitting on shoulders and looking pretty. One of them came on the bird feeding tour with us spending the whole time perched on the shoulder of various different people!

All in all and amazing day, more photos can be found here.

That was Cairns in a nutshell.

Once again I’m behind with blogging and trying to catch up as quickly as possible! We’ve moved all the way down to the Whitsunday coast and Airlie beach. Tomorrow I’m off to spend the night on a deserted island that’s only allows four people on at any one time!!! I can’t wait!!!

* Posted by j150vsc on 15/10/2007.