Australia - Part 4 - Queensland and The Great barrier Reef

 We arrived at Melbourne airport and spotted the lead singer of UB40, Ali Cambell, we chatted for a few minute and told him how much we had enjoyed the previous night's show .

We then boarded  our flight to Cairns, Queensland which took around 3 hours. We were greeted at the airport by our driver and headed towards our base in the town of Port Douglas, where we booked in to the Cher du Monde.

We went for a walk around the town and were hit by the high temps and humidity.

We returned to the hotel for a cooling dip in the pool.

The following day we walked down to the local jetty to go on the Poseidon boat trip out to the Great Barrie Reef. Once at the reef we had a very interesting talk by a Marine Biologist  about life on the reef. 

Rob did the safety briefing, suited up and jumped in, he dove down to the Agincourt reef that was amass of colourful fish.

On Rob's second dive, his dive buddy, Paul, pointed upward where there were several white tip and Reef sharks swimming just above them. After the dives, Rob returned to the boat for lunch, Mandy and Rob then dressed in "Smurf suits" (these were protective suits against Stingers) and spent a wonderful time snorkelling above the reef.

The Following day we walked over to the local market at ANZAC park, we then hopped on a steam train for the short ride between Port Douglas and St Crispin's station and stopped off at the Hog's breath cafe for a coffee. In the afternoon we walked over to the "Courthouse" for a beer and to listen to some live music.

The next day we joined Tony's tropical tours, we drove to Mossman gorge where Tony told all about the local animals and fauna. We drove on to Daintree where we boarded a small ferry with Bruce to look for salt water crocodiles, without luck.

Tony drove us to a look out in the forest to see views of the Daintree river estuary, we then moved onto Cape Tribulation, where the rain forest meets the Barrier reef. Rob managed a quick dip in the Daintree River.

Next stop was the Noah Valley, where we put on water proof ponchos and hiked deeper into the forest, where we saw various trees, plants, spiders and Lizards.

We even managed a quick glimpse of the endangered, Cassowary.

The Next day we rented a car and stopped off at Palm cove before touring the "Tablelands" and the surrounding area.

Australia – Part 3 – Melbourne.

 In Melbourne we took a stroll along the Yarra river before deciding on jumping on a pleasure boat for a tour of the river up to Williamstown.

The following day we had breakfast at "Speedie Nick's" before heading over to the Observation deck at the Rialto tower, which has superb views of the City.

In the evening we walked over to the famous Flander's station and dropped in to the Waterside hotel for a drink.

The following day we hopped on a local tram to see the Melbourne Cricket ground, we took the tour of this impressive stadium.

We jumped on another tram and head of St Kilda beach, we had lunch there and hit the beach, as we were walking to get the tram back to Melbourne we noticed that the reggie band, UB40, were playing at the local theater, so we nipped in , bought a couple of tickets and enjoyed a great show.