Heading to Melbourne

We have checked out of our apartment and are currently sitting in the Qantas club lounge at the airport in Cairns. We almost didn't get in as the lady at the desk said we had the wrong card for entrance. We explained that our credit card entitles us to entrance at all American Airlines Admirals Clubs as well as the clubs of all airlines in the One World Alliance, of which Qantas is a member. Our card wasn't in her book, so she said she couldn't let us in. We held firm, and she finally relented and said she would make an exception. The Qantas club in Sydney let us right in with no questions asked. We are flying on Qantas, for crying out loud!

It is raining here today, so we picked a good time to leave. The weather will be much cooler in Melbourne as we are traveling south. I hope it will be less humid. Cairns definitely feels very tropical. My final thoughts on this city - again the people are very friendly, many things and activities are free, and the townspeople are very much aware that the tourists are the bread and butter of their community, so they endeavor to ensure you are having a good time. You can have a laid-back urban experience, visit the rainforest or explore the Reef all in the same day. The biggest surprise was that things are nearly as expensive here as they are in Sydney. Let's see what Melbourne brings.

Cairns May 5-6

We got back to the apartment too late for me to write a post last night, so I'll combine yesterday with today's activities. First off, yesterday morning our AirBNB host offered us an upgrade to a one bedroom apartment. We had been staying in a studio, and it was a little cramped for two people. Even though it was a hassle to move, we jumped on the opportunity to have a unit with a kitchen and in-unit laundry facilities. I'm doing laundry as I type this since we are leaving in the morning. We are in a corner apartment on the 10th floor, and this place is nice!

After our move, we went for lunch while we waited to hear from a man that Jim Sinatra (Jim's professor when he was at Iowa State) had put us in contact with. Also a landscape architecture graduate, Lachy was going to spend Friday afternoon with us. When he said he was taking us to a local watering hole, we thought he meant a bar. But then he told us to bring our swimmers, so we realized he literally meant a watering hole.

Lachy arrived around 2:00, and first took us to see the Cairns Botanic Garden. It also has no admission fee to get in. I am amazed by how much is free here. It was quite lovely, though we did move rather quickly through it. Next we stopped at a local indoor market, and it was fun to see the different fruits and vegetables that are sold here. From there we went to his house, where we met his wife (who is French) and his two boys. Oh, and their beautiful dog, Maggie. Below is a picture of the view across the road from them. The crop that looks like brown mounds towards the front is peanuts, and beyond those are sugar cane.

 

After a refreshing drink of homemade lemonade (with lemons picked fresh from the orchard next door), we piled in two cars to go to the watering hole, which ended up to be a creek. We drove up a tractor path and got out of the cars, and all I could think of were the different spiders and snakes that could kill me. Due to the recent rain, the creek was high, and we had to walk through two streams to get to the actual creek. Luckily I had brought my water shoes along, as had Jim. The water was cold, so Lachy was the only one brave enough to go for a swim. The rest of us had light refreshments on a blanket. As it grew dark, we made our way cautiously across the two rocky streams to the cars. We ended the evening with dinner at a restaurant in Cairns. They are a wonderful family, and we are so grateful we had the chance to get to know them.

At 7:30 this morning the Skyrail bus picked us up outside our apartment to take us to the Freshwater Railway Station to catch the Kuranda Scenic Railway Train. Construction of the railway began in 1886, but passenger service didn't begin until 1891. Fifteen hand-dug tunnels and 37 bridges were built to climb from sea level to 328 meters up the Macalister Range. After a 1.5 hour ride, the Railway ends at the village of Kuranda, a touristy small village. We had an hour to kill before boarding our next form of transportation, the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway.

We opted for the gondola with the glass bottom, which ended up to be a bit scary for me. It didn't help that the winds had picked up, so the car was swaying more than normal. We had the car to ourselves, although it holds 5.  The cableway travels over the Macalister Range, the rain forest and Barron Gorge. It also takes about 1.5 hours to get back down to sea level. It can carry 600 passengers per hour in each direction, though it was not very busy today.  While we had been warned that today's activities were a tad touristy, we thought the excursions were well worth the time we spent there. And a nice way to wrap up our time in the Cairns area. Tomorrow we are off to Melbourne, where Jim and Curtis Sinatra will meet us at the airport.

The Great Barrier Reef

Today was one of the days we most looked forward to on this trip - seeing the Great Barrier Reef. We booked an excursion with Tusa 6 after looking at many options. They came recommended by the tourist information center as well as over 1,100 reviews on TripAdvisor that rated the company as 4.5 out of 5 stars. That is pretty impressive. While the boat can legally hold 120 passengers, they never take out more than 60. That is still a large group, but we appreciated the fact that a larger boat would be a little more stable on the ocean, and they have access to 16 different reef locations so they can choose the ones that are most suitable for that day's weather forecast. The other companies only have two spots they can ever go to, regardless of the weather.

We left our apartment at 7:30 to walk to the pier as boarding began at 7:40 and the boat was to depart at 8. As it ended up, there were only 56 on board, including the 8 crew members. Nearly half the group was diving while the rest of us just intended to snorkel. Tea, coffee and danishes were available first thing. It took 90 minutes to get us to Hastings, the first reef location. On the way there a
beautiful rainbow appeared, which morphed into a double rainbow.

We all donned wetsuits as it is the end of jellyfish season. Wetsuits are like Spanx on steroids. They are incredibly difficult to get on, even when dry. I was surprised to see that the suit ended right above the knees as that left our lower legs exposed. We were given the option of using a full life jacket or a swimming noodle in the water. We like the snorkeling life vests as you can adjust the amount of air in the vest if you want to drop down more in the water. As they didn't have that kind, we opted to use the noodles. They worked surpringly well. 

We had two hours to swim before lunch was served, and we found out that is a long time in the water. We took a break about halfway through. We both agreed that it was the best coral we had ever seen. All colors of the rainbow were present in either the coral or the fish, and the blue of the water was unlike any I had seen. Jim has an underwater camera, albeit an old one so the technology is not as good as the new ones. Below are some of him pictures.

Because we were not allowed into the lounge area in our wetsuits, that meant we had to get them back off before lunch. Jim didn't get on the boat until awhile after me, so I had some complete stranger help me get the top part off, praying that my swimsuit stayed in place while he assisted me.

Following lunch we took off for the next spot, which was Michaelmus reef. That meant the very wet wetsuit had to be put back on. Jim headed out before me as I wanted to take some pictures, so I struggled to do it on my own. After about dislocating my shoulder, I went to zip it up only to find that I had put it on inside out! Now I had to ask a different complete stranger to help me get the darn thing back off. By the time I was finally in the suit again, I told the man they would probably be calling everyone back to the boat. Anyway, I got into the water eventually, and it was pretty rough. The strong waves would keep carrying me back to the boat, so I didn't venture off too far. Due to the waves, the water was not as clear as our first location so that was a little disappointing. I don't think anyone stayed in the water for the full time period. It was challenging just trying to get out of the water onto the back steps of the boat. Once again I got out before Jim, so this time a nice young woman from Germany helped me with the top part of the wetsuit. I certainly had a lot of people getting me dressed and undressed today!

On the journey back it was quite a wild ride due to the waves. I'm so thankful we are not prone to seasickness, because some people had a rough go of it. We were able to enjoy the afternoon refreshment, unlike some. The boat got us back in port by 4:00. One more item off our bucket list!

Cairns

Yesterday was a travel day, so I didn't write a post. Plus I picked up a bug the day before yesterday that stayed with me through this morning, so I wasn't up to writing. Yesterday's experience at the Sydney airport is worth mentioning. We were dropped off by a taxi at the domestic Qantas terminal, our scheduled airline to Cairns. As in America, we approached a self-service check-in kiosk to get our printed boarding passes and tags for the bags we would be checking. But there the similarity to flying back home ends. We proceeded to a self-check baggage monitor, where a machine scanned each boarding pass, asked us to place our bag on a scale to be weighed, and then to lay the bag flat so the conveyor could read the baggage tag we had secured at the other kiosk. After that, the conveyor took the bag away. No one asked to see our identification at all.

Next we went to security, and again no one checked for ID or even to see if we had a boarding pass for a flight. No need to take off your coat, your shoes, no liquids needed to come out of carry on luggage, and there was no X-ray machine that we had to walk through. The carry on bags were screened, however. I didn't know whether to be impressed or appalled! Certainly a terrorist could walk right into this airport and onto a plane. 

As Admirals Club members with America Airlines, we are allowed to use the clubs of One World Alliance airlines, so we went to the Qantas Club to wait until it was time to board our flight. When I asked the lady at the counter about the whole ID thing, she said, "God forbid we should ask an Aussie to show an ID!" Obviously they haven't had the terrorist attacks like we have in the US to warrant the extreme measures travelers in the states have to go through.

The Qantas flight was great, with the seats in the "cattle call section" as we like to call it seeming more comfortable and a bit larger than American Airlines seats. Plus we got a meal, which doesn't happen on a three hour flight back home. Not that I ate it. In fact, the smell of food was not a good thing for me. Thank goodness for the hot tea on board! The next surprise came after we landed. While the front of the plane was being emptied, they opened a back door for those of us in the cheap seats. We had to walk down an outside flight of steps and across the tarmac to the terminal, but there was sunshine and palm trees, so who cares?

There was free wifi at the Cains airport, which was great as it enabled me to let our AirBNB host know we were on our way. By taxi it took us less than fifteen minutes to get to our scheduled meeting place. Our accommodations here are right on the Esplanade, the boardwalk that runs along the water, so there are many places to eat and shop within walking distance. A view of the water and the harbour from the balcony is a bonus. The unit is only a studio, but we have a decent sized refrigerator so we can keep beverages and food cold. 

Today we have been checking out the town, starting with breakfast next door overlooking the Esplanade. As we walked afterwards we came across the swimming pool pictured below. There is not a swimming beach in Cairns, so the city built the next best thing - it is free and open to the public, as is the town's free wifi! We found Woolworths, which is a major grocery store not to be confused with our old five and dime stores. We were able to pick up some items for lunch, and a light breakfast for the morning. It is sunny with a nice breeze, and in the low 80's. As more of that is predicted for tomorrow, we booked our excursion to the outer barrier reef leaving at 8:00 a.m. We can't wait!