Cairns

Day 1 - Arrived early evening so headed pretty much straight out in search of food. While we were in Cairns, having no other free time apart from in the evenings, we had a mooch through the night markets. The walk back to the hotel was lovely... along the promenade where there were lots of pelicans.

Day 2 - and our 1st full day in Cairns, and straight off to the Great Barrier Reef on Ocean Spirit. We went to a little Island; Michaelmas bay, that on one side was a bird sanctuary, nothing but sand and sea. Amazing. We were allowed to go straight off and snorkle so thats what we did. It took a while to get used to the snorkle equipment and was very funny to see nickers trying to walk down the beach with flippers on!! but after a short while, we were both off exploring. So many different types of coral and the colours of the fish were amazing. There was a photographer swimming round taking snaps, and it was shortly after she came and took my photo that I saw a reef shark... I have never swam so fast! It was only when we were ordering photos afterwards, that I saw the photographer had taken its picture... and it probably wouldn't have hurt me! Lunch was good... hot and cold buffet. Then after lunch we headed out in a semi sub to explore the deeper parts of the corals, where we saw turtles. That was brilliant. On return we only had about 3/4 hour for a final swim, so we made the most of it... whereupon I saw a stingray! and once again I headed for shore PDQ!!! On our way back to Cairns they put on some live entertainment, sparkling wine... and we saw whales. They were amazing. A brilliant way to end a brilliant day.

Day 3 - Cape tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest. Yet another early start! We headed off along the coastal road, through Port Douglas and to Habitat, a wildlife park. Here we had tea and coffee, and lots of cakes. I even tried a custard apple, although it had a very strange texture. I also got to feed wallabies and kangaroos again. Soooo cute! I even touched a snake... yuck! Nickers couldn't quite bring herself to do it. We saw a Kassawary bird... endangered and dangerous to humans. We also saw kookabourras at close range. We then had a walk in the rainforest at Mossmans gorge. It was beautiful, and the drive there took us past lots of banana and sugar cane plantations. Next stop lunch... where rainforest meets sea and the beach was just out of this world. There were coconuts everywhere. Lunch was good too! After lunch we went on our river cruise. That was cool, we saw wild crocs, a tree snake, a tree frog, amongst heabs of birds. A very exciting day, followed by a long drive back.