Cairns, Cape Tribulation and The Great Barrier Reef

Hi everyone!! Well our time in Cairns has come to an end. We were here for a total of 10 days and it rained every single day!! Both Nate and I were getting antsy to get out of here so we booked a tour up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest.

The tour left on Thursday and we made some stops along the way at look-out points, a crocodile cruise on the river and a walk through the oldest living rainforest in the world - The Daintree Rainforest. We arrived in Cape Tribulation shortly after noon, settled into our accommodation and then headed out for a day of adventure.

We were warned before heading out not to cross any waters unless there was a bridge because they are infested with crocodiles!! So I made sure Nathan kept his distance from all bodies of water!! We walked to the beach and felt like we were in an episode of 'Lost'. There were mountains of green all around us and palms trees galore. It was gorgeous!! Everything just seemed so untouched from humans which made it that much better!!

On Friday we had booked a day out to the Great Barrier Reef for snorkelling and our first ever Scuba Dive out at Mackay Reef!! We departed early morning only to find it raining and windy. The swells were massive. I had prepared myself for the ocean by buying a couple remedies for seasickness and was praying that they'd work!! We headed out and I was fine but I swear I though the boat was going to flip over a couple times. Our divemaster, Brooke, began to prep us for the dive and as I was watching her and reading over some of basic skills... I completely lost all my bearing and bolted to the back of the boat to once again be sick. Ugh!! I was hoping that wouldn't happen. I was definitely not the first to get sick on this ride as 3 others visited the back of the boat with me!! Even Nathan said he almost lost his breakfast a couple times!! I was fine for the rest of the ride though - so lucky for me!!

Since I missed most of the prep I wasn't able to participate in the first dive. There would be 2 all together. So Nathan decided to wait for me and we went snorkelling for what seemed like hours!! We swam with a turtle, saw a huge Maori Wrasse and numerous other tropical fish and rays. The coral was so much more vibrant and colorful than the Ningaloo Reef on the West Coast. After lunch and a quick run-through of all the fish and coral we were looking at, Nathan and I were suited up for our dive. We were the only 2 people who wanted to go diving so it was just us and our divemaster!! It was amazing and such a feeling to be able to breath underwater and not worry about rising to the surface. Our dive lasted 30 minutes and we became familiar with all sorts of things you can't see at the top of the surface by just snorkelling. Even Nemo and his friends came out to say hi!! I'm hooked for sure and definitely will take up the opportunity to do it again as we head down the East Coast.

Well, we're back here in Cairns now and leave for Mission Beach tomorrow. We are going White Water Rafting on the Tully River on Tuesday and we hear they have the best rapids in Australia!! From there we leave for Airlie Beach where we'll leave for 3 days on "The Southern Cross" racing yacht as we sail around the Whitsunday Islands. So make sure to keep checking the blog because we'll have a lot of stories to tell this leg of the trip.

See you soon!!

E&N

PS - Check out all the new video's and pictures we added!!