Finding Nemo in Cairns
We were both very excited about moving onto Australia and we were looking forward to a few more familiarities too. Even so, our stay in Cairns got off to a pretty slow start.Our flight from Singapore left late in the evening, which was great from the point of view of seeing more of our final Asian destination, but it also meant quite a sleepless night; not only did we lose 2 hours from the change in time-zones, we also had to vacate the plane for a quarantine check in Darwin at 4am Australia time (2:00 Singapore time). The flight wasn't without event either - we had the inevitable crying baby two rows in front, and, following what seemed like a pretty last minute descent, Emily was sick on our way into Darwin. Yuck.
When we arrived in Cairns we were completely exhausted, but after a much needed rest we mustered up the energy to explore the town a little. We wandered through the harbour and spent a few hours sitting on the seafront by the giant swimming lagoon (you can't swim in the sea in the north without a stinger suit because of the box-jellyfish that live in the coastal waters, so they build these giant public swimming areas). From here we very much enjoyed being in Oz.
Thinking that the tiredness was out of our systems, for our first full day we had planned a visit to the botanical gardens, seeing as they were free and there was not that much else open on a Sunday. Instead, however, we accidentally slept until 1pm! The day soon became a write-off, especially once we realised that it was going to rain all day.
We did make it to the botanical gardens on our second day after getting only slightly lost on the way. We enjoyed walking around the grounds and had a Subway-sponsored picnic. From the gardens we followed a boardwalk through a nearby section of rainforest where we got stranded for 15 minutes under a thunderstorm. The walk took us through to Saltwater Creek which consisted of two large, potentially crocodile infested lakes. An 8ft croc lunged out of the water at Emily, but luckily I was nearby and I wrestled it back into the water. Parts of this paragraph may be exaggerated/untrue.
The main reason that we visited Cairns was to access the Great Barrier Reef. However there were so many seemingly identical options that choosing which one to go on was more difficult than it sounds. In the end, we took the advice of our very helpful hostel staff and opted for a slightly more expensive trip, which we have since discovered (having talked to quite a few people about their Reef experience) was definitely a good call.
Our boat was a large Catamaran with sails and a large sun-deck. Unfortunately, on the way out the weather wasn't right for sailing, or anything else either, with rain, overcast skies and low visibility. As we motored over the very rough sea several people were sea-sick, and many more looked as though they might be. I think I might have been one of the latter, but with the help of travel sickness pills I managed to keep my stomach down.
It took about 3 hours to reach our destination, a tiny isolated sand island. The island is National Park because it is an important breeding site for sea birds. It is therefore mostly restricted, but there was a small section of the beach that we were able to snorkel off.
We had two snorkelling sessions, one either side of lunch - both were excellent. It surprised us just how many fish were down there, swimming among us. We saw so much including a 'Nemo' family, all sorts of colourful coral, and a ray. Emily claims that she saw a sea turtle too. I'm too jealous to believe her. It was such an incredible experience - I think we could have watched that small section of the reef for days. Our trip got even better on the way back to Cairns as we were able to sail all the way home.
We wanted to know more about the reef and about what we'd seen so that evening we went to 'Reef Teach', a fun two hour lecture all about the reef. Presented by a softly spoken Irish man, the lecture was very enjoyable and we learnt some interesting facts. For example, we discovered that in Finding Nemo, rather than become depressed about his late wife and worry about the effect of her death on Nemo, Marlon should actually have undertaken a gender change, thereby becoming Nemo's mother. This was a great way to conclude our brilliant reef experience, and we got free coffee and biscuits!
Chris
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