Townsville, Cairns, Port Douglas (Great Barrier Reef Area)

We flew from Sydney to Cairns and lost another hour, but gained a totally different area of Australia.  It has rained in the area lately so everything is lush and green.  We rented a car and it's very different at first driving on the opposite side of the road, but we've finally mastered it and have had no problems.  The drive to Townsville was about 4 hours and just beautiful mountains and forests.  Stopped in a little town called Tully and they are called the Green Town, thus the frog.

Spent a day on Magnetic Island, where we relaxed at the beach and wandered on hiking trails.  It is jelly fish season so they have to partition off swimming spots.  Townsville is fairly small, but has nice beaches and a great little center town area with nice restaurants. 

After a few days in Townsville, we headed to Port Douglas for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef.  We had made reservations for a tour, but when we arrived, the waters were so rough that their little boat couldn't take us so we scheduled on a bigger boat.  The waves were rough and we had to ride out 1 1/2 hours before we could start snorkeling.  Not a pleasant ride for me as I have a weak stomach.  We stopped at 3 different sites to snorkel, each one having a different kind of reef and fish.  We had divers on board our ship as well and one of the reefs had a really friendly enormous fish that went up to the divers.  I took an underwater camera and hope that I got it on film.    Since the jellies are out, we had to wear lycra suits to avoid being stung.




Greg having fun



Greg ready to dive in

This was one of the more shallow reefs and you can see the coral splotches as well as the blueness of the water.  This was on a somewhat cloudy day and it was still really blue.  We managed to get sunburned even after lathering up and wearing the suits.

A day in the Daintree Rainforest was next and really beautful although it rained off and on and I didn't take pictures for fear of ruining the camera.  We're here for a few more days and then off to Ayers Rock.