Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, and around

I headed to Cairns next (pronounced ‘Cans’, as in ‘beer cans’ is what I was told after being laughed at by the airport security man). I didn’t spend much time in town, but it seemed like a comfortable, easy-going town, with boulevards lined with trees, and trees filled with large, swooping bats that made me think that Dracula was going to appear before me at any moment.

My main reason for being there was to dive the Great Barrier Reef. It had been awhile since I’d done any tropical diving, so I was a bit nervous for my three day liveaboard. Luckily, I had no reason to be–it was a fantastic trip. A smaller boat took me to my home for the next three days, Reef Encounter, a dive boat that moves around the outer reef.

Our days on board were simple, thanks to the great crew. We got an early wake up call for the 6:30 am dive (best of the day), then spent the rest of the day eating, diving, and lazing about. Good food, good weather, good company–really couldn’t ask for more. My biggest complaint was the coffee–all instant (for understandable reasons), but seeing as how Australia has such a vibrant coffee culture, I had hoped for better 😉 But anyways, I love diving. On a good dive, you can enter a kind of meditative state that makes the underwater world that much more amazing. I sadly left my Go Pro at home (don’t worry, it’s on its way), so no underwater pictures at the moment, but I should be getting a few from others soon.

You never know what you’re going to see during a dive… All of my dives were great, but in terms of seeing the “checklist” sights, one early morning dive covered pretty much all of them–a green sea turtle, a blue-spotted stingray, a cuttlefish, a moray eel, a few reef sharks… Another highlight was hanging out under the boat after a night dive and watching the sharks circling the boat above us.

I spent the next three days off of the boat feeling like I was still on the boat (the world is still swaying a bit, four days later). While on board, I chatted with some other divers who were from the area around Cairns and they suggested driving out into the Atherton Tablelands, so I rented a car and found a couple of other travellers to join.

The Tablelands are seriously gorgeous. You climb the winding roads up into the hills to find farmland, rainforests, and charming little towns.

We started with a trip to some waterfalls, the most famous being Millaa Millaa Falls (the backdrop for a Herbal Essences commercial–it was filled with girls from a tour group doing the mermaid hair flip).

Another highlight was the curtain fig tree–one of those random road trip stops that ends up being really amazing.

We spent the late afternoon by a lake where we ran into some other travellers who I met in Cairns, so the group of us went to a pub. We then drove up to Port Douglas and spent the night there.

The next day, we drove up to the Daintree Rainforest.

Gah, it’s lovely here. We walked through the malgroves and onto the beach, catching sight of some pretty crazy bugs on the way (the spider below was almost the size of my hand!).

We arrived back in Cairns in the evening, and I applauded myself for successfully navigating the winding roads while driving on the wrong side.