Finally Another Post!

Tuesday, October 6. After checking out of our hotel, Keith and I wandered around town for a bit and then headed over to the Alice Springs Cultural Precinct which houses several museums. At the Museum of Central Australia we saw fragments of the meteorite that had caused the Henbury Meteorite Craters (which we visited a few days before) and saw the early geographical development of Australia. At the Central Australian Aviation Museum we heard about the early development of aviation in the region and that without aviation, it would have been nearly impossible to develop central Australia given its size and remoteness. As a side note, since central Australia is so vast and so remote in order get medical attention to the people this area they have something called the Royal Flying Doctors. They also have something called the School of the Air which apparently educates 140 children over 1.3 million sq. km. After the Cultural Precinct we grabbed some lunch at Subway and headed to the airport. Another side note – at Subway they have the “foot long” subs. Keith and I find this ironic since Australia is on the metric system. We then hopped on a plane for a 2 hour flight to Cairns. Both Keith and I were happy to be leaving desert and heading for the coast! We landed in Cairns to nice warm weather. The hotel shuttle picked us up and brought us to where we would be staying – the Cairns Colonial Club Resort. It was 9:00 pm or so by the time we got to our room. The Resort was fabulous – set on 11 acres of tropical forest – we even had a gecko in our room. Keith and I had a cocktail to celebrate and called it a night (or so we thought). As we laid in bed the amount of noise coming from all of the critters from outside was a bit overwhelming. Fortunately we discovered that a window was open. We closed it and although you could still hear the critters outside we were able to fall asleep.

Wednesday, October 7. The Resort was about 5km from the CBD (central business district) of Cairns, so we hopped on the shuttle bus in the morning to go check out the town. Keith and I wandered around town, checking out the esplanade, the marina, the shopping and the casino. Our priority for the day was nailing down a snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef. After grabbing some lunch, we hit tourist information and booked ourselves a trip for the next day. We decided to have a little alone time in the afternoon. I hit the mall in search of a bathing suit and then lounged about by the esplanade where there is a huge public lagoon for everyone to swim/play in. Keith and I headed back to the Resort, grabbed some dinner and called it a night. Some thoughts on Cairns – Cairns, being right on the coast is a lovely place, though a city nonetheless. It caters to the tourists, so it has shop after shop after shop of the same souvenirs. It was nice to be in such a busy place after being in the desert. By the marina there is higher-end shopping - even a Louis Vuitton! There is a great boardwalk along the ocean – the esplanade which is a wonderful place to stroll. On the down side, they often burn the brush up in the mountains to prevent larger forest fires. This causes the skyline to be foggy and there is often a smell of smoke in the area.

Thursday, October 8. Keith and I were up bright and early to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef We were on board the boat, Silverstreak, by 8:15am along with 65 or so other passengers. It was about 1 hour and 10 minutes to our first stop on the Great Barrier Reef - a spot called Flynn's Reef. Heading out the Great Barrier Reef I couldn't imagine what it would look like as there was just deep ocean all around us. As we drew a little closer, I could see waves breaking. Finally as we arrived, we saw clear aqua water (as opposed to deep blue) and you could easily see the reef from the boat – it was super exciting! After suiting up in full-on smurf suits (because of all of the poisonous jelly-fish, you can rent full lycra suits which covers your entire body including your head and hands and so by the time you put on your flippers, snorkel and mask, there almost no skin showing), Keith and were off to snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. It did not disappoint! The colors of all of the coral and fish were unbelievable – and they were everywhere you looked! After about an hour at Flynn's Reef, we then got back on the boat and headed to our second site – a different spot on Flynn's Reef. Back in the water we went. The second site wasn't quite as exciting, but we did get to see some sea turtles from the boat. We had a surprisingly delicious lunch and we were off to our third and final site – Thetford Reef. The third site was fabulous as well as we got to see bright blue star fish, sea cucumbers and giant clams. All and all snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef was spectacular and it has even inspired me to try scuba diving. We got back into Cairns around 4:30 pm and we decided the next thing we needed to do was to nail down a sail among the Whitsunday Islands. After a visit to the tourist center and a few phone calls, we managed to book at two day, two night sail on a luxury catamaran with three other couples. We depart on Sunday and will be under sail in time for Keith's birthday on Monday. We're both super excited!! We picked p our rental car (which we'll have for the next 17 days as we drive from Cairns to Sydney – roughly 2,500 km), grabbed dinner by the pool back at the Resort, did some laundry and called it a night.

Friday, October 9. On the road again.... We headed out of Cairns around 9:30 am, headed for Townsville – the halfway point between Cairns and Airlie Beach (the departure point for the Whitsundays). We stopped for a few hours at Mission Beach. Mission Beach was a quiet little area with just a handful of shops and a long beautiful almost deserted beach. We arrived in Townsville around 5:00 pm and checked into our hotel for the evening. We then went and wandered around the city. They have a nice path along the ocean called the Strand with restaurants. Townsville was nice clean ocean-side town that wasn't quite as touristy as Cairns. Keith checked out the local casino and won some money for dinner. We grabbed a delicious dinner along the Strand. I headed back to the hotel to spend some time on the computer while Keith went back to the Casino to play in a Texas Hold'em tournament (where he won $100).

Saturday, October 10. After grabbing a huge breakfast in Townsville we were on the road again, heading to Airlie Beach. Though there wasn't much to see/do between Townsville and Airlie it was a very scenic drive nonetheless. We arrived in Airlie around 3:00 pm, picked up our boarding passes for our sail the next day and checked into our hotel – a fabulous place with a balcony overlooking the pool and ocean. We then went to wander around the town. Like Cairns, there is a large public lagoon for people to swim and lounge about; however unlike Cairns, Airlie is more of a small town with one main road. I think so far, it's my favorite town. It's not nearly as big as Cairns or Townsville but it's bigger than Mission Beach and has enough shops, restaurants and nightlife to keep it fun and interesting. And of course, it's right on the ocean – which is always a bonus. We headed back to the hotel to have some wine and appetizers and shower before dinner. While we were sitting on our balcony enjoying our wine, Keith managed to lure some cockatoos to the ledge. There we were able to hand feed them some chips and nuts. It was pretty cool! After showering, we headed back to town for a delicious steak dinner, hit the penny slots (where Keith won $80) and hit a couple of the bars where they had great live music.