Cape Tribulation And The Great Barrier Reef

At the weekend, I finally made my way to the top of the East coast, and my final destination in Australia - Cairns.

Was nice to be back in a town again after spending so long in tiny little seaside villages. The heat was however absolutly unbearable - its not so much the temperature, it gets up to the mid 30's in the Mediterranean in the Summer - its the humidity - at 85% it just makes everything you do seem like such an effort!

As again, you cannot swim in the sea in Cairns, there is a really lovely offshore lagoon. On Sunday lunchtime I spent a little time there, before I got fed up with the heat and went to find the nearest cinema....God bless Nicole and Hugh! Had wanted to see Austrlai for ages, wanted to fit it in while I was over here, and escpaing to the air con of the cinema seemed like the perfect idea. I really loved the film, its absolutly stunningly shot, and really shows off Australia. I love Lurhman and his style anyways, but I think youd be hard pressed not to find something in the film to enjoy. Kidman is stunning as ever - and looks absolutly beautiful throughout. I laughed, I cried - and the performance by the little boiy should definately win him an oscar!

Monday I headed up on an overnight trip to Cape Tribulation (so called by Cook as their ship was starmnded there and they disnt have a very nice time!!) a few hours north of Cairns. We made a few stops of the way up,including a cruis on the Diantree river. We didn't see any crockodiles tho - much to my dissapointment! The afternoon was spent on a very long walk through the rainforest and along the beach. It really is a totally stunning part of the world.

On Tuesday we made several stops on the way back down to Cairns, we swam in the river in Mossman Gorge, and spent the afternoon in Port Douglas. A really very very beautiful, relaxed little village. I wish I could ahve stayed there longer. We tried to catch some wallabies on the way back, but they didnt seem to want to be seen (this seemed to be a recurring theme of the trip..) But we did pick some Mangoes...

Wedneday was another early start, and I spent the day out diving and snokelling on the reef. As an novice diver, I just did a short 10 minute introductory dive - which really was enough to get the feel of it. Th reef is stunning - swimming with fish that size, them seemingly completly oblivious to you is really something quite unique. My photography skills were put to the test with an underwater camera - I'm sure these worse than average pictures will end up on facebook soon...

So now its on to Hong Kong for a quick few days beofre finally heading home.....

Rich
xxx