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Nats, Jo, Han & Heidi - Travels 2007/08
Gooday Sheilas!!
So we landed in Cairns - and its raining. Oh its raining like its never been before!! What a surprise as if the rest of the trip has not been wet enough - the bloody rain follows us!! So landing in Oz was not the glorious sunny place we imagined it to be!! We got to Gilligans at 10am and were told that we couldnt check in until 2pm - so we wasted 4 hours wondering around like homeless people with no money and looking like drowned rats! Not impressed!! So the first impressions of Cairns are not good - but we were optimistic!! We checked into Gilligans and the place was really really nice!! We had a four bed dorm it was really spacious and we had a balcony and a really nice shower - that made up for the fact that we had been rained on for the last 4 hours!! Nice big shared kitchens so we headed to Woolies for some food and made pasta and garlic bread!! All Woolie's home brand of course!!
So Thursday was the big day when we went to go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef!! It was fantastic!! We set off on the boat at 7.30am - we were still in a daze and didnt know what day it was after having got up at that time!! It took 2 hours to get to the first spot - the water was quite choppy but so clear, never seen anything like it!! Jo and Nat did a full scuba dive - but Han and Heidi wimped out and chose just to do the snorkelling!! Jo and Nats went diving 10m down and actually went to the bottom of the sea and touched clams and all creepy crawly things like that that lurk down there!! They were off like two fish we didnt see them for dust!!
Anyway we got in the water - and we havent snorkelled before so it took a bit of getting used to!! We did look absolute stunners though let me tell you!! We had a stinger suits on that were made from lycra - and well we will let you look at the pics - and everyone looks so attractive with a snorkel on!! But we eventually realised we were not on a fashion parade and got in the water!! The coral is so beautiful and so many colours of it!! There were GIANT clams at the bottom of the ocean!! Han was swimming along on her own and a couple of other people were near her - and she saw a shark!! A hammerhead shark!! It was So cool!! It was about 2m long - it just swam right past them and carried on on its merry way didnt even bat an eyelid!! Han was well impressed as they were the only ones that saw it and apparantly not many groups have seen them lately!!
Then we went to another point which was an island called Michalmas Cay - they teathered the boat about 150m away from the beach - and there were HUGE fish swimming by the boat - not scared of humans at all - they were the size of sharks but not sharks and there were some huge angel fish like the size of dinner plates!! We then got taken over to the beach which had hundreds of thousands of birds on it - this is where they breed and they are protected - i have never seen so many birds in one place - then we chilled on the beach a bit - heidi had a crab right next to her foot which she nearly stood on as it was white and i didnt see it - see the pics!! We have a few pics taken underwater- you will see how attractive we look!! Some people saw a giant turlte which we wanted to see but we didnt get chance - they were there though!! The colours of the fish were amazing - there were some that we turquoise and purple and some zebra fish and some little Nemo fish!! And some piranas!! Only small ones though!! So we snorkelled there for a few hours and then we got back on the boat and the big fish were still there and there were about 20 of them - so the crew did a fish feed - this is why they must have been hanging around coz they knew they were going to get food!! The ironic thing is - she was feeding them raw fish!! But they can swim so fast - the big grey ones ones can cover 40 times their own body length in one second!! how mad is that!! They were going crazy for the food and jumping out of the water and darting all over the place!! It was good to watch!!
So that we pretty much Cairns - we stayed for 4 nights and chilled out, sat by the pool, went to the cinema, and went to a bar called the Woolshed where they let you dance on tables and all sorts - its madness!!
So next stop Airlie Beach where we hope that the weather will improve and we can sail the Whitsunday Islands!!
Chow for now
The Girls
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