Cairns, QLD Australia

We are way behind on the blog, as I’m writing the first Australia post from the airport leaving Australia. Whoops.

We continued our journey of sweating around the world by flying to Cairns in northern Australia, which is a great base for exploring the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our hostel with a rhubarb dessert we found that reminded Jon-David of his grandma. Hi Karen!!

We checked into one of the nicer hostels we’ve stayed at, with three kitchens and a pool. We did have to pay for AC, which we were quite willing to do. Our first day we just ran some errands and did a desperately needed load of laundry.

One of our major bucket list items was to see the Great Barrier Reef, and since we came halfway around the world we wanted to do it justice. Back in July, we booked an overnight sailboat tour of the reef, which left in the morning and returned the next day around 5pm. There were only 8 other people and 3 crew members, and we had a small private cabin. The boat was honestly nicer than expected, with hot showers and a nice deck and kitchen.

Unfortunately the sail was damaged and waiting for repair so they had to use the backup motor, but it was still significantly quieter and more relaxing than the massive day tour boats. The captain knew the reef extremely well, and we ended up visiting 6 different areas of the reef for snorkeling or diving and he could tell us exactly where to swim for the best views.

Excited to go snorkel after waking up on the boat for sunrise

At night the stars were stunning in the pitch black. The crew prepared delicious meals for us in the little kitchen, and I actually slept great on the boat (Jon-David had more trouble). One guy was very seasick the entire time, so we were happy to have prepared with seasickness pills before we departed.

I chose to only snorkel, but Jon-David also got to do two intro dives which he enjoyed. We saw sharks, stingrays, tons of fish, and coral structures the size of 3 story buildings. At one point we spotted a turtle, and I was the only one ready to jump in. When I did, the turtle swam up to me, less than a foot from my face, which was incredible.

The water was so blue, and in the distance you can see the light green of the reef

Jon-David coming up from his first scuba dive

This was one of the best experiences I’ve had, and instead of scratching it off my bucket list I would love to go back for a 2 or 3 night trip. Or maybe take up sailing.

Swimming near the seat turtle, which you can see just under the water surface in front of me

Once we made it back, we had a few more nights to explore the area but first I had to cross a hurdle I had been dreading: driving on the left. We picked up the rental car and for the first time ever I took out the extra insurance, which was great because I rashed the wheels trying to parallel park on the other side within 30 minutes.

To get used to driving we took a small road trip up the coast, and went to the rainforest to do a crocodile tour. The Daintree rainforest is the oldest continuous rainforest in the world at over 100 million years, and it’s a great place to see wildlife. On the tour we saw one baby and one full sized crocodile, but we were hoping for some more so we swung by a crocodile viewing spot marked on the road.

At first it seemed like there was nothing, but then a suspicious log appeared going upstream. We watched for a while as a large crocodile worked his way up the river and under the bridge we were on.

The last day we drove around to some more rainforest spots and saw the countryside. We made a failed attempt to locate a platypus, but otherwise just enjoyed the area and I got some more driving practice, since next I would have to pick up a car in Sydney.