Well, we left St. Louis on 11/13 and arrived in Australia on 11/15, but 11/14 went by pretty fast. We landed in Brisbane, then took a three hour flight to Cairns (pronounced Cans) where we met Jim Eldridge, our tour guide and joined the herd of other tourists on the bus.
We checked into the Pullman International Hotel. We managed to stay up all afternoon and walked to dinner at the Boat Shed before going back to the hotel and crashing for the night.
We had to meet Jim at 7:40 Thursday morning to head for the Great Barrier Reef. It was an 90 minute bus ride, then a 90 minute (fast) boat ride to the reef. Our boat docked at a huge two story floating platform where all activities originated. There were helicopter rides, scuba tours, snorkeling tours, individual snorkeling, a restaurant and other stuff I've forgotten already.
We had to meet Jim at 7:40 Thursday morning to head for the Great Barrier Reef. It was an 90 minute bus ride, then a 90 minute (fast) boat ride to the reef. Our boat docked at a huge two story floating platform where all activities originated. There were helicopter rides, scuba tours, snorkeling tours, individual snorkeling, a restaurant and other stuff I've forgotten already.
We took a ride along the reef in a semi submersible boat where we could see the fish and the reef through the glass walls. We went down into the underwater viewing platform for more of the same. Marsha doesn't like to snorkel, so I did that by myself. They had Lycra suits to wear to guard against stinging jelly fish in the water. Now I can say I snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. After the boat ride and bus ride back to the hotel, we hit the sack without dinner and didn't stir until 6 am Friday!
Friday, we went to Hartley's Crocodile Farm and saw a lot of crocks, koalas and wallabies. We had a light lunch there and were back at the hotel in the early afternoon. We walked through the casino across the street and headed down the street on the other side. We checked out the large public pool near the beach before stopping at a didgeridoo shop where I took a short lesson in playing the didgeridoo. I did quite well, actually!
Then it was on down the street where we came upon the Rattle-N-Hum bar. Someone had told us about the place, so we just had to check it out. A beer turned into two, then a pizza for dinner. The toilets there were shaped differently than any I'd seen before. After dinner, we stopped at Baskin Robbins for dessert on our way back to the hotel.
NOTE: Dates are wrong on a few of these pics, but they are in chronological order.
NOTE: Dates are wrong on a few of these pics, but they are in chronological order.
1 comment:
Hey, we brought a didgeridoo back! You can play it next time your are in Carefree!
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