Hello to all! I have been saving my days off of teaching in Australia in order to use them all at once and travel. Last Wednesday night (November 23rd) I left for my vacation to Cairns. I had an amazing time and never spent Thanksgiving this way before. Cairns is in northern part of Australia and is very warm year round. Most people travel here because the Great Barrier Reef is so close. Even though I mention hot weather and water you do not want to go on the beaches because they are basically mudflats. Crocodiles and thousands of species of mud-dwelling creatures live in these muddy tidal swamps which means you don't want to be close to them, however there was plenty to do and time to get a tan.
On Thursday, I traveled a little north to Port Douglas to spend the day on the beach. Port Douglas was a small town with a couple streets of shops, restaurants, Marina, a beach, and lots of jelly fish. In the months of mid-October until April the jelly fish come to the shores of Northern Australia. Swimming is still possible because their are protective stinger nets installed in designated areas. It was great to lay in the sun under palm trees on in 32 degrees Celsius weather (94 F). My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a delicious pizza from an Italian restaurant which I ate outside over looking the ocean.
Friday morning, I woke up at 5:30am to call home an wish everyone a a Happy Thanksgiving Day. This trip was pretty much planned so I wouldn't get home sick over Thanksgiving and it did help. There was a 16 hour time difference so I had to call home before I went on a four-wheel-drive tour of the Daintree Rain-forest, Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge, and a river cruise to find crocodiles. It was very neat to be in such seclusion and to become overcome by nature that had been growing for thousands of years. The best part of the entire day was stopping for a bar-b-que lunch next to a stream that flowed down from the mountains. The water was clear and cool which felt great to jump in because it was so humid. The tour guy informed us that there were fish and turtles in the water, however the larger ones swam off as we jumped in. After we ate the tour guide brought our scraps to the stream to feed to the fish, turtles, and EAL'S! He said that if he would have mentioned the Eal's, then no one would have went swimming... no kidding. Well the Eal's swam off just as fast as the fish did when we jumped in because it took them about 10 minutes to reappear in the water. I still get the chills when I think about that part of the trip.
Saturday morning I was at the Pier at 7:30am to head to the Great Barrier Reef. This was the day that I have been looking forward to all year. I went with a smaller company called SeaStar, which had the funniest crew on board. It is a smaller boat, so there were only about 15 people aboard for the day. It took about three hours to actually get out onto the reef, but once we were there I went scuba diving and snorkeling. We went to two different areas and they were both AMAZING! There was so much coral, colorful fish, and things to see every where. I couldn't believe how many different things were underwater in that little area. I had to buy a book after wards because I didn't know what half of things were that I saw. After this experience in Australia Finding Nemo makes so much more sense. The animals Aussie language, the colors, the animals, and their habitat. The Skipper on the boat kept singing Toby Keith's song "I'm Proud to be an American" and quoting Top Gun all day which kept the time driving back and fourth to the reef interesting.
On Sunday I relaxed at the Lagoon which is a giant salt water pool that is right next to the mudflats and pier in Cairns. Since swimming in the ocean is frowned upon (for good reason) the pool and park area offer a great opportunity to still be outside next to the water. The UV was set at Extreme most of my time there so I wore tons of sunscreen and a hat to keep of getting burnt... and it worked.
Stay warm, stay safe, and I'll be home for the holidays!
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