The Great Barrier Reef! Off we flew into the sunset for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Our flight left Sunday evening from Alice Springs and in just two short hours, we were landing at Cairns (pronounced CANS) in tropical north Queensland. We bundled ourselves and luggage into a rental car (tight fit!), picked up a few groceries and navigated our way to the condo we had rented for the week.
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| Waiting at the Alice Airport for our flight... |
It ended up being a wonderful headquarters for our stay! The resort was called Coral Sands and was in a little suburb named Trinity Beach. Our condo was on the third floor with balconies overlooking the beach right across the street. It was fairly humid and the only air-con was in the bedrooms, so the windows stayed open all week to catch the breeze.
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| Beautiful view from our balcony at Coral Sands |
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| Trent getting breakfast at The Beach Shack |
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| Cutie Beaux the first morning |
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| Rough life, gotta wear shades to breakfast... |
Monday we stayed at the condo, walked the beach and played in the resort pool. It was a bit overcast, but very fun and pretty.
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| Coral Sands common area, view from our balcony |
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| Coral Sands Resort pool...all to ourselves! |
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| Coral Sands Resort water feature view |
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| Trinity Beach looking south |
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| Trinity Beach looking north |
Tuesday we were up and at 'em, heading north to Port Douglas for our Barrier Reef excursion. We boarded the Wavedancer around 9:30 am and the large sailing catamaran headed out to sea!
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| Jones, Pa, Beaux, and Jax waiting for permission to come aboard |
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| The Wavedancer - our ocean catamaran |
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| Inside the cabin of the Wavedancer |
We arrived at Low Isles around 11 am. Sun was spotty throughout the day, but when it was out, the water was a beautiful blue. We all wore stinger suits for snorkeling, which are just hooded-lycra bodysuits to protect against the dangerous jellyfish. June is technically out of stinger season, but the marine biologist recommended everyone wear them just in case.
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| Almost to Low Isles, Beaux in foreground |
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| Small shark and a couple tropical fish |
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| Sea turtle |
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| Parrotfish |
We saw sharks, sea turtles, and dori fish swimming in the water before we ever even got off the boat! A smaller shuttle boat took us over to the island where we could snorkel and explore at will. They provided noodles to help us float while looking at all the creatures. I have to say, we actually didn't much like the snorkeling -- Apparently we were there during low tide, so couldn't swim OVER the coral, but were supposed to stay in the "channels" and look from the sides. They kinda freaked the kids out about the coral with their speech, and Beaux had a bit of a panic attack after looking down in the water and it was all around her. She tackled Trent into the coral with screaming, hyperventilating, etc. until she had Jax scared she was being attacked by something. Trent got those two back on the island, and wild horses weren't dragging them back into the sea. Jones and I went back out and saw some fun coral (lots of kinds, brain coral and spaghetti coral being my favorites), pretty fish, sea cucumbers, and clams. The water was fairly cloudy so a few times we found ourselves on top of the coral swimming as horizontally as possible trying to back up and off. It was all just a bit too much pressure. Both of us were freezing and done after that, so I went on shore to try to give Trent a turn snorkeling, but he said it was very cloudy and he didn't see much. The low tide was quite the downer -- literally, ha ha. But, from the beach we saw six lemon sharks with their dorsal fins out of the water swimming away from Low Isles, clownfish popping in and out of anenomes, clams, and sea cucumbers. We got to take an island tour checking out the lighthouse, caretakers' residence, and the place where Steve Irwin was pronounced deceased.
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| Clownfish, anenomes, and coral at low tide |
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| Low Isles lighthouse |
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| Marine biologist explaining about reef conservation and dangerous shells |
They also had glass-bottom boat tours from the island and we floated over sea turtles napping on soft, wavy coral.
Strangest of all, we observed a man from a nearby anchored yacht get his little motor-raft stuck on the reef due to the lowering water level. The island caretaker and the marine biologist from our tour were IRATE at the damage he was doing to the coral reef, just raking his motor blades over it, walking on it, dragging his boat off, not listening to their advice about deeper channels...They said the man would be getting a hefty fine! Yikes. Anyway, it was a fun day with boats and beaches and sea creatures! The tour company fed us lunch as well as morning and afternoon teas, and we were back in Port Douglas by 4:30 pm. The ride back from the island was really pleasant, sitting on the deck of the boat and listening to a little concert by one of the employees who sang and played guitar. He even did Sitting on the Dock of the Bay...so crazy to hear Australians singing American songs! We stayed in Port Douglas at the marina for dinner at Hog's Breath Cafe watching the sun set behind the boats. The drive back to Trinity Beach was beautiful with the full-moon shining on the water of the Coral Sea (Pacific Ocean really) on our left all the way there.
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| Moonlight on the water - from our balcony |
Wednesday was Hartley's Crocodile Adventures!
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| "Freshie" Much smaller than the "Salties" and they don't eat people! |
They run a really great program with excellent talks where the keepers are in the pens with the saltwater crocs, freshwater crocs, snakes and koalas. They also have cassowaries, kangaroos, wallabies, lizards, and birds in exhibits.
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| Frill-necked lizard - wouldn't wake up to show us his frill! |
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| Emu |
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Inland Taipan - deadliest on the planet, and of course
it lives in our neck of the woods! |
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| Beautiful cassowary face |
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| Black swan relaxing |
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| Black-necked storks not relaxing |
The food at the cafe was incredibly good for "zoo food" and we got to eat at a table overlooking the croc lagoon. Can't say that every day! We loved our boat ride out into the lagoon -- it was very creepy watching those stealthy salties silently gliding in the water toward your boat! But there were high walls on our pontoon, and they just knew our tour guide would tempt them to jump out of the water with chicken parts on a pole.
Hartley's also raises crocs on a "farm" to sell for meat and leather; the idea being conservation of the wild ones. Also a super day, but I am happy to live in Central Australia with no man-eating crocs or sharks!
Thursday was our ropes course day in Cairns at ZOOM. The kids were really looking forward to this! In the top of a building is a glass dome that houses all kinds of animal exhibits as well as a very cool rope course.
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| View of the Cairns Wharf behind the fam, just outside the Zoom entrance |
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| Jonesy Deac |
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| Jaxy Brown |
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| Suzie-Q |
We all had helmets and were harnessed into the system that we just followed round and round and higher and higher. On the Mid ZOOM, we had to walk across moving barrels, rope bridges, balance beams, tops of posts, crawl through tunnels...you get the idea. Also we did the Dome Climb, which was walking around the outside of the glass dome on top of the building, but still roped off, of course!
Unfortunately, the High ZOOM was closed for maintenance, so we had to come back Friday to finish that. Left with extra time Thursday, we walked along the Cairns Esplanade. The kids found a fun place called The Fig Tree Playground, where all the play equipment is built right into an enormous series of fig trees.
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| Jonesy running at the Fig Tree playground |
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| Aussie flag flying from a ship at dock |
There was a cute cafe that served breakfast all day, so we had it for lunch on the wharf. Walking on down the Esplanade, we found a free, beautiful (but crowded) pool that is called The Lagoon, with sand into it on one side and very large swimming area. It looks out over these mud flats that I can only assume is the ocean when the tide is in. It was much too cold for Trent and I to swim in, but the kids had a ball in the water.
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| The edge of the pool looks out over the ocean...lowish tide at this picture |
Then, we headed home to some dinner and hanging out in the condo. We really love making our own food mostly, and just going out to eat when it is convenient.
Friday was the finale at the High ZOOM, and it was much higher and had the extra thrills of ziplines! The biggest excitement was the last event -- ziplining over the saltwater crocodile's tank! We barely survived...
The rest of Friday was swimming in the resort pool, then the beach, then the resort pool, then pizza and a movie to finish out our great week in Trinity Beach and surrounding area.
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| Diving for 20 cent coins (we don't have quarters!!) |
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| How do you get these things open?! |
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| Still trying.. |
Saturday morning we packed up, cleaned out and headed for home...tired but so grateful for the experience and joyful to have made so many memories together!
Hope you enjoyed the trip and photos! Love to you all,
Hilary
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| I mean, how great is this view from our apartment??!! |
