Oaks Piemonde Cairns

... been in a cloud before!) then the instructor pointed out a circular rainbow next to us - we were inside the rainbow, never being inside one of them before either!

Next we took a Helicopter ride (a wedding pressie from Chris' Aunty) out to Hastings reef - one of the many reefs within the Great Barrier reef. We sat in the front with the pilot so we had a great view to the front and sides with Faithless - Insomnia and Weapons of Mass Destruction - banging ...

... still got a cup of tea and cake even thou we were only in the air for an hour, not a bad service.
When we arrived in Cairns it was slightly overcast but you could feel the humidity. We caught a bus to our hostel, which we felt was in the middle of no where, but it’s actually not. It is however something that Bob Marley would have put together, bright colours, hippy looking, loads of palm trees and chilled out. It even has a swimming pool, if you can call it that.
We went for a ...

Today I spent the day exploring Cairns. Pronounced Cannes. No one seems to know why? I went for a long walk to the marina then continued up the coast about 7 miles. The temperature was about 80 degrees and landscaping was very similar to what you would find in Hawaii. There is no real beach here where you can swim and where there is sand you see warning signs of crocodiles.

... of the boys saw a snake.... Aron the dutch guy was funny... walked it barefoot and tried about 3 different berries (slightly dangerous!) - and the views when we got to the top were pretty spectacular.... looking out over the rainforest, beach and the barrier reef.....

After a quick swim in a watering hole to remove all traces of sweat, off we headed in the camper van... that night we camped (illegally - how exciting!) next to a beach somewhere near Port Douglas ...

... br>
Highlight so far was a trip to the Great Barrier Reef on a yacht called Ocean Free. The colour of the water is indescribable, I've never seen sea water so green before! Absolutely stunning. The yacht was not big, so there were 18 guests and three crew, meaning it felt quite intimate and we all had a great time together. Did some snorkelling on the reef, saw a couple of reef sharks (the crew assured ...

... to go on a city tour which started at the very civilised time of mid-day, there were only about 5 people on a mini bus so every one got to speak to each other and the guide was very cherry and knowledgeable. We started with a tour of the city including the marina and the docks, which are still very active as many commodities such as petrol are still shipped in and all the sugar, now the biggest cash crop, of the area is shipped out from here. We went on to visit the ...

... So I focused on goal # 1.
2 days with theorical learning and practice in a pool and 3 days diving on a boat. I probably spent as much as my last month in Laos/Vietnam but I thought it was good to learn from competent people and learning to dive on the Great Bareer is a once in a life opportunity.

Diving is quite different from my favorite sport.. skydiving.
It's all about controlling your breath which determines your position in ...

... are in the Cairns Holiday Park, which is just a couple of kms from the front so it is really convenient and the amenities are fabulously clean.  Our actual site is good and Steve could drive into it easily for a change.  We are right by the laundry and amenities so even better.

We have already had a browse around the esplanade and marina and we have to say that although there are posters up about taking care to keep mosquitos at bay, (ie spray inside the van ...

... fringes of my flashlight beam i'd see a shark swim just below me or just next to me. crazy! the next night it was just jen, my dive buddy and i so we chose to swim a bit more slowly around the reef and we noticed right away that there were thousands of little eyes staring back at us... cleaner shrimps! heaps of them! we almost mistook a giant marble ray for a rock until we saw that it had a tail! it was peacefully ...

... the 'Mount Sorrow walk'. It's a difficult walk, up the mountain through the rainforest, and you must sign in and sign out at the start and finish of you walk so that they know that they don't need to start looking for you. We made it up to the top, although we expected to see more wildlife on the way. But all we saw was lots of green and trees. 6 Hours later we made our way back to Cairns again and that was the end of our very nice trip together. Veronika, have a safe journey ...