Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

On Tuesday we were scheduled to fly from Sydney to Cairns, a small city in northern Queensland.  Queensland is a massive state bordering New South Wales to the north and extending up Cape York nearly to Papua New Guinea.  Brisbane, the state's largest city, and Gold Coast, a strip of hotels and sand not unlike Fort Lauderdale, are both in the far south of Queensland.  Over 1,000 miles north lies Cairns, a town of people.  Most visitors arrange tours to the Great Barrier reef in Cairns.  Other attractions include jungle trekking and adventure tours such as white water rafting, zip-lining, and skydiving.

Queensland stretches over 1,000 miles from Brisbane up to Cape York.
South of Queensland lies New South Wales, home to Sydney.

With only 142,000 residents Cairns still ranks as Australia's 14th most
populous 'city' (see wiki)

The flight to Cairns cost me 10,000 Avios airline miles plus $26 in fees.  Not bad!  We left Sydney at 1:30 pm and arrived at 3:30; Cairns is one hour behind Sydney, so the trip actually took three hours.  The Quantas flight served a meal - nothing special but better than US flights.  The security at the Sydney domestic terminal didn't even check my ID; pretty laid back!

We took a free shuttle from the airport to Gilligan's Hostel, located downtown in the CBD (yes even Cairns technically has a CBD).  I've never seen a bigger hostel!  The place has only four floors, but over 30 six, eight, and ten bed dorms on each.  Next door is a bar and nightclub (pool included), plus a travel agency shares space in the lobby.

Gilligan's is a massive hostel in central Cairns; complete
with bar, pool, club, and travel booking service.

Sam chilling at the bar poolside.

Tuesday evening I took a run along the Esplanade, the road parallel to the beach, with a boardwalk and running/cycling path.  There was a nice community pool but not much of a beach.  The Esplanade wasn't much either - I ran the length of it and back - and I'm not a great runner; it was only a few kms long.  The city center is only a couple major roads, which makes it easy to find your way around town.  On the downside, it also means there really isn't much to do in town either.  The CBD does have bars, shops, and travel agents, but on Tuesday night we only had a couple drinks at Gilligan's.

The Cairns lagoon has sand along the banks but the floor changes to concrete towards the middle

Wednesday and Thursday weren't eventful.  We booked a tour to the Great Barrier Reef for Friday, walked around town, and stocked up on cheap booze.  Wednesday night was goon and beer at the hostel and drinks at Gilligan's bar.  We went exploring for another watering hole at midnight and the town was empty.  Well save for McDonald's - and of course we had to stop (I almost never eat it back home, but it does make for good late night drinking food).

On Thursday it must have rained for 10 hours.  Good think we didn't book any tours!  We stayed in at the hostel and watched the Iowa-Tennessee NCAA tournament bracket online, filled out our brackets, and I updated my blog.  In the evening I also went for a run - the rain died down temporarily and then I got soaked.

Let the madness begin!  I really need to get back to the States
for the 2015 tourney; I've been in Asia the past two years and
now Oz; shitty times to watch games and little coverage.

Pick-up for our Great Barrier Reef tour was at 7:45 on Friday morning, but we didn't actually leave the harbour until 9 am.  Then we had another 90 minutes of waiting on the boat.  There were probably 75 tourists on the boat, 90% of them backpackers.  Sam brought cards so at least we had some entertainment along the way.  Once we arrived at the reef it wasn't long until we were our in the water and ready to explore.

The tour company provided us with snorkel gear, flippers, and a wet suit - jellyfish season had ended, but better to be safe than sorry.  I'm not a great swimmer but even for me staying afloat while snorkeling isn't that hard.  Mike and I snorkeled together in Thailand last year, so I knew what to expect.  The fins made it even easier to get around this time.  Some of the group went diving, but most just snorkeled.  I'm not sure if the dive was much better.  The water is pretty shallow, so I doubt the divers saw much more than us.  Diving is also more expensive, plus the thought of it freaks me out a bit - all the more reason to stick on the surface.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, stretches for over 1,400 miles, and can be seen from outer space (gotta love wiki)!   I was amazed to see such shallow reefs so far from the shore.  During our second snorkeling session the waves were breaking nearby.  There were drop-offs, but I could see more than enough on the sections of reef only a few meters below.  The corals weren't actually that colorful - kind of a downer - but we did see tons of sea life.  The best fish had to be the dogfish (Southern Mandarin Dogfish), so named because it will swim up to people and say hello; you can even pet it on the mouth (but not its gills, which could damage them).

The Great Barrier Reef stretches along much of Queensland's eastern coast

Most of the reef was quiet shallow, easily seen from the surface.

The gregarious dogfish!

We had about an hour at the first site, took a break for lunch, and then snorkeled a second time.  It was meant to be a different spot, but was only a few hundred meters away.  The tour ad made it seem like we'd visit two different sections of the reef (which is massive).  Even so the second time round had great views.  I also took along a floatie tube, which made it easier to just hang out and enjoy the reef.  By the time we finished at the second stop it was already mid afternoon and time to head back to Cairns.  The weather was quite strange - we had sun out on the reef, but back in town Cairns was still wet.

During the second round of snorkeling Sam forgot to reapply sunscreen on his shaved head.  It actually made it easy to spot him in the water if I wanted to stick together, but the sun really did a number on his head. By the evening it had started to bubble.  Despite constantly applying aloe vera and lotion, it will probably peel. Looks like he'll be wearing a hat for awhile.  Ouch.