Australian Holiday - From Cairns Home - 3 Nov 2006

Brian upheld his perfect record of timely wakeup calls at 4:30 AM. We showered, finished packing, had some breakfast, sadly said goodbye to Sarah, and headed for the airport and our 6:50 AM flight to Sydney. Brian dropped us off at the international terminal where we said our farewell. This was hard, but eased by the knowledge that Brian and Sarah will be back in the States for Christmas.

It took us 36 hours to make our way from Cairns to Sydney to Los Angeles to Indianapolis to Detroit to Grand Rapids: 25 hours flying time and 11 hours in airports. Our flight out of Sydney was late due to a labor dispute (the ground crew wouldn’t deliver the 747 to the gate), and we thought we would miss our flight out of LAX. However, we collected our bags, hoofed it from the international terminal to the Northwest departure terminal, and cleared check in and security with about five minutes to spare.

We arrived in Grand Rapids at 12:30 AM (about an hour late) and Steve picked us up. It was great to get home again, where Tom, Suz, Steve, Kate, John, Danny and Liz had survived our two week absence with no problem. We were very grateful for God’s care of us and our kids as we enjoyed this wonderful trip.

Recovery from jet lag and travel fatigue was not easy, but as I (Dan) write this on December 3, 2006, we are about back to normal.

Thanks to Brian and Sarah for being such excellent hosts. Seeing Australia was great, but sharing it with them made it pure delight.

Australian Holiday - Great Barrier Reef - 2 Nov 2006

We rolled out of bed early on Dan and Rhonda’s last day in Australia, very excited about spending the day at the Great Barrier Reef! After a quick breakfast in our apartment we headed up the winding coastal highway (poor Sarah) for Port Douglas and arrived at the marina before 8 AM. We found the Poseidon, a 75 ft catamaran that tours the reef daily, and got settled in. On the 90 minute trip to the first reef site, Sarah and Rhonda went through the snorkeling orientation while Brian and Dan took the introductory scuba diving course. The scuba training emphasized equalizing body cavity pressures (mouth, lungs and ear) with increasing water pressure as you descend. The Eustachian tubes can be a bugger to keep clear, and differential pressure across the ear drum is particularly painful.

Brian Starts the Descent

We visited three sites on the reef. At the first, Brian and Dan scuba dived while Sarah and Rhonda snorkeled; at the second we all snorkeled together; and at the third Brian and Dan scuba dived, Rhonda snorkeled, and Sarah stayed on the Poseidon, bravely fighting off sea sickness by nibbling crackers. We were amazed as we lowered our masks into the water and entered the marine world, with its profusion of shapes and colors of coral and fish. The Great Barrier Reef is actually made up of thousands of individual reefs, where the coral has grown to the surface. The sites we visited were along the perimeter of these reefs, where cliffs of coral descend 10 or 15 meters to beds of white sand, which is actually made up coral broken to bits by storms. The dive sites were on the outer reef near the brink of the continental shelf, where the ocean depths plunge to many thousands of feet. The introductory scuba dives were escorted, with three or four divers per instructor, and marine biologists accompanied the snorkelers, explaining the wonders of the reef features and creatures. A six-foot shark swam below Rhonda, but the rest of us did not see any large creatures.

Rhonda and a Sea Cucumber

Clown Fish

Dan in the Deep

Big Clam

A woman on our tour broke her upper arm while stepping off the Poseidon’s rear platform into the water. Before long, a helicopter appeared, landing on a floating helipad anchored about ¼ mile from our dive site. The crew took her to the helipad in a motorized raft, and she was soon off to the Cairns hospital. The crew handled the situation very smoothly with little or no disturbance to the other passengers.

The Poseidon crew served us a fine lunch between the second and third dives and had snacks and drinks available throughout the day. We slathered up with sun screen at the beginning of the day, but missed a few spots such as the back of Rhonda’s and Sarah’s legs and Dan’s chest. The sun has lots of power that close to the equator.

After returning to Port Douglas, we drove back to the Roydon for showers, then to Cairns for great Chinese food at the Golden Boat. We returned to the apartment after supper, where Dan and Rhonda packed up and we all applied aloe vera to our sunburned places – then to bed in preparation for Dan and Rhonda’s early departure.

Australian Holiday - Rain Forest Tour & Cairns Waterfront - 1 Nov 2006

We breakfasted on cereal and toast at the apartment, then drove to Caravonica (between Trinity Beach and Cairns) to catch the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway at 10 AM. The cableway trip from Caravonica to Kuranda took about two hours, including stops at Red Peak and Barron Falls Stations. The gondola gave us great views of the rainforest canopy, which supports ferns, orchids and a fascinating array of fruits and flowers living in the tree tops. At Red Peak Station, wooden walkways allow a close-up view of the rainforest under the canopy and the ranger explained the trees, plants and animals living there.
At the Barron Falls Station, we walked to three different lookouts providing views of the Barron River gorge and falls.
We ate lunch and shopped in Kuranda for a couple of hours (looked at about 3,000 T-shirts and bought some more souvenirs), then took the Kuranda Scenic Railway back to Cairns. The railway skirts the southern rim of the Barron River gorge, which widens to a valley as it approaches Cairns, providing spectacular views along the way.

From the train station we took a bus to retrieve the car in Carvonica and drove back to Cairns for a tour of the city. We parked by the public pool on the waterfront, a kind of man-made lagoon, and walked out on the wharf to view the yachts docked at the Marlin Marina. Brian, as a naval architect, appreciated several specimens, especially the Kokomo, a 170 foot fast cruising sloop launched just over a year ago. Very sweet!
We drove back to Trinity Beach and had an excellent Italian dinner at L’unico, with children at nearby tables providing entertainment; then back to the Roydon for a few more rounds of Greed before bed.