Cairns

July 25, 2017

Cairns

We just left after 10 days in Cairns, Australia (part of Far North Queensland) where we got to explore the rainforest and Great Barrier Reef!

Sinead has a few ex-coworkers from Shark Dive Xtreme who live up there now including her friend Rhiannon, who now works at a wildlife zoo, who hooked us up with backstage cuddles with crocodiles, pythons, monkeys (cotton-top tamarins), baby kangaroos, and most importantly for me: koalas (you have to when in Australia, obviously). The koalas were super chill...until one peed on me. The monkeys were fascinating and had such intense eye-contact that I felt like they were really understanding my every thought and move.

Rhiannon (6 months pregnant) giving us the all access pass to animals

A day trip took us inland from Cairns to the Atherton Tablelands. I saw my first kangaroo roadkill - a true sign of being in the outback. We saw rock wallabies in their natural habitat including mama wallabies with baby joeys in their pouches! At first you just saw a big belly with lots of movement and then a tiny little head would poke its way out and look up at you. This was a major highlight for me! There was also a bouldering/hiking path leading to another private swimming hole (Sinead's highlight) with real dinosaur footprints along the way.

Rock wallabies with a baby joey popping out to say hi!

Crazy ~~cat~~ wallaby lady

Feeding the wallabies

Rock climbing hand holds for part of the trek

I spy a wallaby checking out Sinead

Dinosaur footprints

Swimming hole at the end of the trek

Waterfall at the swimming hole

Further down the drive we got to see a platypus swimming along a creek. It was extremely random but cool.

Because Sinead is still working full time while we are on this trip, we took a weekend vacation from our vacation where we went off the grid and she got a break from her computer. We drove up to Daintree and Cape Tribulation along the northern coast.

Giant Golden Orb spiders 6 inches long

This region is also full of giant fig trees that are known for strangling other trees and making cool formations.

500 year old "Cathedral" fig tree

Hollowed out from strangling another tree until it died

Such perfect spirals

Can you tell I was really into these trees?

At Mossman Gorge we got to walk through the thick Daintree Rainforest to come across another incredible swimming hole - these "wild swimming" locations are plentiful throughout Australia and are a new obsession for both me and Sinead.

There were other great boardwalk walks through the rainforest filled with unique birds and trees. We didn't come across any cassowaries (giant dinosaur/ostrich-like birds known in the area) which is good because Sinead is weirded out by them. The rainforest lived up to its name it and was pouring throughout our first day.

"Bubble crabs" make cool designs all over the beach

I ate my first kangaroo burger. It's a little gamey but actually pretty good lean meat.

We stayed on a really cute fruit farm and enjoyed the kookaburras from our porch.

The next day the rain cleared to blue skies and we got to enjoy the huge stretches of abandoned beach along the Great Barrier Reef where it meets the rainforest. You can't swim in the waters because they are infested with crocodiles, but they were dreamy to walk and lounge on. Easily some of the prettiest beaches I've been to, especially because no one else was around.

And, of course, we went to more swimming holes.

We stayed at another great AirBnB in Trinity Beach, half an hour north of Cairns. It was a great working hub for Sinead while I took a 4 day long SCUBA course to get officially open water certified.

I got to dive the Great Barrier Reef! My SCUBA course brought me out to the outer reef 2 days in a row. The first day the visibility wasn't great and the tide was low so a lot of the reef couldn't even be snorkeled because it was too shallow. The borders were mostly dead and it was sad to see the coral so un-colorful with giant coral graveyards scattered around. There were still tons of fish around so I was both amazed and slightly disappointed at the same time. The second day Sinead came on the boat with me (there were 170 people on the boat each day!) and went snorkeling / free diving while I dove and then we snorkeled together. The conditions were much better and the reefs looked more colorful and alive. We saw a couple white tip reef sharks so we are now 3/3 for swimming with sharks at our destinations (Hawaii, Sydney, and Cairns)!

Nemo!

Giant clams!

Colorful corals

Sinead's moody shot

Brain coral really looking like a brain

My personal marine biologist teaching me interesting facts about each of the fish.

Free diving the reef

Sinead in her natural habitat

White tip reef shark

Sadly, there are long stretches of coral graveyards where the reef is most definitely dying. Since Sinead worked here 6 years ago, the colors have bleached dramatically.

Oh, and then there were even more swimming holes.