Cairns ist eine coole Stadt. Warm, schönes Stadtzentrum und eine 4800m2 Laguna zum Baden mit Palmen, Gras, Sand und freie moderne BBQ-Möglichkeiten. Schön genug, dass man hier endlich Urlaub vom Urlaub machen kann :-) Melly zumindest. Ecki zog es gleich weg auf einen 4 day trip zum Great Barrier Reef zum Tauchen. Am Freitag 17 Uhr war Check-In. ...

Our final day in Cairns... we hired a rental car and decided to venture up to Cape Tirbulation. The rental was nothing more than a tiny white go-kart ~ Toyota Yaris... Julie had fun driving this car through the winding roads along the coast. The coast line headed up and around the mountains, the scenery is beyond description Enroute to Cape Trib...

For our first day in Cairns we headed off to the Crystal cascades which is about 20k north of the city. This was a lovely waterfall and only a 1k walk and we did this at about 10:00 therefore you wouldn't believe the amount we were sweating, oh my god it's quite disgusting how much washing we're having to do at the moment! Anyway the waterfalls ...

Hello kids! Finally we arrived in Cairns!! A big city but quite nice! We spent a night there, and the following morning we took a ferry for 2 hours to get to the Great Barrier Reef! I was impressed to see the reef, so far from the coast. We jumped on the Kangaroo explorer, our catamaran boat for 3 days! We got our cabin, and our schedule. After ...

Today we headed out to Kuranda Village. It became known for being a "hippy" retreat where people living the bohemian lifestyle would sell their handmade arts and crafts to continue doing what they were doing. We were up early to catch the bus out of Cairns to Skyrail Cableway. We rode in a gondola that carried us above the canopy of the rainfore...

Been much much happier this last week you'll be glad to hear, and I'm glad I had that relaxation time cos I've been pretty busy. I had one day in Cairns just mooching about and seeing the city before I started off on the trips I had planned. Its a nice city, really small, with good shops, and loads of photographic galleries which I had a good lo...

Open water diving course with Pro Dive. Two days on shore tuition followed by three days/two nights out on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef!

There are certain "must see's and do's" in the world. For example, it would be unthinkable to visit France and not see the Eiffle Tower, or Egypt and miss the great pyramids or Nashville and miss Graceland or Turkey and not spend some time in a prison...well, maybe you could skip that last one. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is definatly on...

It's raining in Cairns, perhaps not too surprisingly given that it is the tropical wet season and we are well into the tropics here. But fortunately it is neither as hot nor as humid as I had feared, and it was sunny yesterday when I arrived...! 26 hours is a long time to be on a train; I didn't get a sleeper but managed to sleep reasonably neve...

We flew from Sydney to Cairns on Virgin Blue, an airline much like West Jet, in Canada. The flight was good, with a great crew and reasonably priced snacks, and the flight was cheap too, only $100 AUD one way, including taxes. Too bad airfare in Canada can't be a cheap! Anyhow, we caught a cab from the airport and quickly got to our guesthouse, ...