Tropical North Queensland
With a beer here at the table, and soft Pacific breezes coming off the
ocean, I'm so chilled out that even writing HTML is a chore. Here's
the view as I post this sunny Tuesday morning in Queensland, halfway
between Cairns (pronounced like the things tuna comes in: "cans") and
Port Douglas. Towering date and coconut palms are all around, and the
sounds of the ocean breaking on the black rocks and sand is
calming.
Charles and I travelled on Sunday afternoon from Sydney to Cairns for a stay at the Turtle Cove Resort. Its nestled on the coast between a world heritage rain forest and the Pacific ocean, has a private sandy beach, and feels quite secluded, especially as it's off season here. Even the off season is beautiful.
We've got an oceanfront room, and our luck with the weather has held out. The sky is crystal clear, the temperatures are balmy, and the tropical environment hardly feels like what one would expect of Australia, but as its 3 hours by plane from Sydney, completely understandable. Getting out of the city afforded us a view of the night sky and the southern cross for the first time. I was able to identify a few constellations, and the brightness of the milky way on a moonless sky left me astounded last night. Its a beautiful coast, and a fantastic place to enjoy it from.
Monday we woke early to see the sun rise from our room:
We had an agenda aside from the sunrise though. The resort has a relationship with Haba Dive, a tour operator in Port Douglas, so that guests can do tours of the Great Barrier Reef, and the bus to the dock to catch their express catamaran to the reef was at 7:45am. We had no intention of missing it. Chaz and I are both certified divers, but the last time either of us dove was over a decade ago. During the bumpy 90 minute ride out to the reef, we got a refresher in the equipment and the dive procedures and hand signals that were were going to use on the dive. Haba took us to the Opal Reef, which is the green area in the navigation map below. They have a mooring a the edge of the coral that they back the boat up to, and let the divers and snorkelers at it.
The water temperature is in the 70s, so wetsuits were in order for all, and us 'intro' divers were the first in. They had us go in, and get used to the equipment holding onto the mooring. They had us practice clearing our masks and our regulators, and they were quite the patient bunch with squirmy and nervous newcomers as well as people that had dived before. Of course the water was quite frigid, and the first time salt water got in my regulator, I had quite a retching fit trying to get rid of it. The feeling is horrid, but once I was past it, the reef and corals were there to be enjoyed. I think I was second in, and didn't have any problems getting down closer to corals around the boat as the other divers were joining us. The water was pretty clear, and there was an abundance of aquatic life around us from the first moment. A parrot fish came by picking off bits of something off the mooring line, and other fish were schooling in the shade of the boat. Charles got in and had some issues with buoyancy to begin with, but soon overcame that, and our dive leader took us on a tour around the corals at the edge of the reef.
It really had been years since I'd dove, but floating along and feeling the currents and seeing the fish was thrilling. We swam along with brightly colored tropicals, above blue branching corals and countless anemonies. We'd go by large boulder-like corals that had blue creatures, what Charles called "Christmas Tree Corals" waving from their pores, and as we'd get close, they'd pull into their little retreats. The dive leader, Oskar, pointed out a couple of giant clams, and gave us a hands-on experience with a couple of the creatures of the deep. One of the creatures was some sort of spiny brown anemonie, that he picked up off the corals. He indicated for us to stroke first one side of its branches, then the other. As I stroked it the second time, the little feller grabbed back like a cat's tounge, and I about jumped out of my wetsuit. The other creature was far more disgusting. He picked up a sea cucumber off the floor of the ocean, and showed off its mouth and its underside. About the time the photographer came along, he started passing the thing around. It felt like 100s of little suckers pulling on my skin as it tried to move in my hand. Yuk.
After our dive, we had plenty of time to snorkel around the reef, and that was great fun as well. They gave us a small lunch as they moved the boat to another part of the reef for our second dive. We had some issues starting the second dive, and Charles and I got out of the water before the rest of the divers. I was lucky enough though that Oskar was wiling to take me and another diver down around the boat again, for what was my best dive. I saw a sleeping white-tipped shark, a sea turle of about 5 feet in length, and an enormous grouper, in addition to the assortment of schooling fish and clams and amazing corals. It was just like a documentary on TV, with fish and creatures coming up and by, hardly bothered by us being there. We're gong to have to book some more diving trips to get back in the water more. The trip back was smooth, and we rode by a lighthouse on a coral cay, and into the dock after a long day. We had a terrific dinner and slept very, very well that night.
Tuesday we have some hot-stone massages planned, as well as some beach time in the sun. This is quite the respite from Texas and the world.
Charles and I travelled on Sunday afternoon from Sydney to Cairns for a stay at the Turtle Cove Resort. Its nestled on the coast between a world heritage rain forest and the Pacific ocean, has a private sandy beach, and feels quite secluded, especially as it's off season here. Even the off season is beautiful.
We've got an oceanfront room, and our luck with the weather has held out. The sky is crystal clear, the temperatures are balmy, and the tropical environment hardly feels like what one would expect of Australia, but as its 3 hours by plane from Sydney, completely understandable. Getting out of the city afforded us a view of the night sky and the southern cross for the first time. I was able to identify a few constellations, and the brightness of the milky way on a moonless sky left me astounded last night. Its a beautiful coast, and a fantastic place to enjoy it from.
Monday we woke early to see the sun rise from our room:
We had an agenda aside from the sunrise though. The resort has a relationship with Haba Dive, a tour operator in Port Douglas, so that guests can do tours of the Great Barrier Reef, and the bus to the dock to catch their express catamaran to the reef was at 7:45am. We had no intention of missing it. Chaz and I are both certified divers, but the last time either of us dove was over a decade ago. During the bumpy 90 minute ride out to the reef, we got a refresher in the equipment and the dive procedures and hand signals that were were going to use on the dive. Haba took us to the Opal Reef, which is the green area in the navigation map below. They have a mooring a the edge of the coral that they back the boat up to, and let the divers and snorkelers at it.
The water temperature is in the 70s, so wetsuits were in order for all, and us 'intro' divers were the first in. They had us go in, and get used to the equipment holding onto the mooring. They had us practice clearing our masks and our regulators, and they were quite the patient bunch with squirmy and nervous newcomers as well as people that had dived before. Of course the water was quite frigid, and the first time salt water got in my regulator, I had quite a retching fit trying to get rid of it. The feeling is horrid, but once I was past it, the reef and corals were there to be enjoyed. I think I was second in, and didn't have any problems getting down closer to corals around the boat as the other divers were joining us. The water was pretty clear, and there was an abundance of aquatic life around us from the first moment. A parrot fish came by picking off bits of something off the mooring line, and other fish were schooling in the shade of the boat. Charles got in and had some issues with buoyancy to begin with, but soon overcame that, and our dive leader took us on a tour around the corals at the edge of the reef.
It really had been years since I'd dove, but floating along and feeling the currents and seeing the fish was thrilling. We swam along with brightly colored tropicals, above blue branching corals and countless anemonies. We'd go by large boulder-like corals that had blue creatures, what Charles called "Christmas Tree Corals" waving from their pores, and as we'd get close, they'd pull into their little retreats. The dive leader, Oskar, pointed out a couple of giant clams, and gave us a hands-on experience with a couple of the creatures of the deep. One of the creatures was some sort of spiny brown anemonie, that he picked up off the corals. He indicated for us to stroke first one side of its branches, then the other. As I stroked it the second time, the little feller grabbed back like a cat's tounge, and I about jumped out of my wetsuit. The other creature was far more disgusting. He picked up a sea cucumber off the floor of the ocean, and showed off its mouth and its underside. About the time the photographer came along, he started passing the thing around. It felt like 100s of little suckers pulling on my skin as it tried to move in my hand. Yuk.
After our dive, we had plenty of time to snorkel around the reef, and that was great fun as well. They gave us a small lunch as they moved the boat to another part of the reef for our second dive. We had some issues starting the second dive, and Charles and I got out of the water before the rest of the divers. I was lucky enough though that Oskar was wiling to take me and another diver down around the boat again, for what was my best dive. I saw a sleeping white-tipped shark, a sea turle of about 5 feet in length, and an enormous grouper, in addition to the assortment of schooling fish and clams and amazing corals. It was just like a documentary on TV, with fish and creatures coming up and by, hardly bothered by us being there. We're gong to have to book some more diving trips to get back in the water more. The trip back was smooth, and we rode by a lighthouse on a coral cay, and into the dock after a long day. We had a terrific dinner and slept very, very well that night.
Tuesday we have some hot-stone massages planned, as well as some beach time in the sun. This is quite the respite from Texas and the world.
Wow, those underwater pics are amazing. We were up in mid queensland (gold coast) last week for vacation. Too bad paths couldn't cross this time :(
Yeah.. sorry about that. Am in Melb. now, and weather is still mostly cooperating. I'll get the rest of the pics in the gallery when I get back to TX. Oi!
Jealousy reigns supreme in the Monkey world.