Great Barrier Reef

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The trip to Australia was long as we expected (28hours total), made longer by an extended wait in Vancouver. I had two upgrade certificates and tried to get Jennifer and Stephen upgraded to business class in Edmonton and Vancouver but was unsuccessful. In Honolulu, however, I was successful and for the longest leg of the flight (10 hours) Jennifer and Stephen had the comfort of the business class seats, which they put to good use. (see pic)

"Someone" misplaced the car rental confirmation for our vehicle in Cairns, so Jennifer watched the baggage and Jan, Stephen and I lined up at different car rental firm counters to find out who had our reservation. The fourth of five car rental firms was the charm and we got the keys to "Big White", our Mitsubishu 4x4 (for luggage room not offroading, which is not allowed).

We were told that the drive to our hotel was only five minutes. Yeah, right. It is very disorienting to drive from the right side of the vehicle and takes a lot of concentration to drive on the left side of the road, especially when making turns and going around traffic circles. Driving alone takes full concentration, never mind trying to figure out directions. With 28 hours of travel just completed everyone was a little punchy. So, when each time I tried to signal and I turned on the windshield wipers instead it was cause for laughter. About the fifth time, all three of my passengers were in hysterics, tears running down their cheeks, gasping for air. Needless to say, the navigation guidance I received was inadequate. So, our trip was extended and we got a somewhat unplanned tour of parts of Cairns. The navigation guidance I received at the first traffic circle was disputed by two passengers, so I went completely around, and a then bit more, confusing the locals. Another challenge of driving from the right is that the passengers on the left continually shout, "you are too close to the line on the left." This can be somewhat frustrating, and some drivers might be moved to shout back and in rare cases even use profanity! We arrived at the Cairns Colonial Club about a half hour after leaving the airport, unharmed and the vehicle intact, but frazzled.

The next day, Jan, Jennifer and Stephen went to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkling and I stayed back to go driving and become more comfortable because Cairns is the smallest city we will be visiting and I needed to prepare myself to drive with confidence in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia's three largest cities.

At the reef they were required to wear wet suits as a precaution against the possibility of jellyfish, who might sting them, which can be quite serious. (see pic of Jennifer) All three snorklers had put on waterproof sunscreen but had neglected the top of their feet and all three got burned during the instruction lecture on board the boat. (see pic) The snokling was terrific. The water was 27 degrees and there was a magnificient array of coral in a rainbow of muted colours except the blue coral that was quite bright. All saw numerous brilliantly coloured fish and Jennifer and Jan swam with a sea turtle for a while and stephen followed a reef shark, until he questioned his own sanity, something he'd be wise to do more often. They snokled at three different locations and had a really lovely lunch (much better than expectations). The trip to and from the reef was a bit rough and Jennifer and Janet had to take seasickness pills, Stephen had no problem.

Meanwhile, I found driving after a full nights sleep, and without the laughter, tears and shouts much easier. South of Cairns is the small village of Edmonton and further south is the larger centre of Innifail. I had the trick of driving here once I realized it was really just like driving on a one way street and turning onto another one way street as long as you remembered to stay on the left. My improved confidence allowed me to drive for the rest of our visit in Cairns without further incident except for the occassional caution that I was too close to the line on the left.

We enjoyed two meals in downtown Cairns, fresh tiger shrimp (see pic), Cairns is home to the largest shrimp fleet in Australia, and reef fish and chips one night. We all missed seafood cocktail sauce with the peel and eat shrimp and the reef fish were too fishy for all but Larry. (He'll eat anything.) The next night Stephen had Kangaroo cooked rare, Jan and I had a Queensland T-bone steak, Jennifer had a salad with grilled chicken. Jan tasted Stephen's Kangaroo and said it had a distinctive but not unpleasant sweet taste (hurray, I'll have to try some, NOT) and it definitely "didn't taste like chicken." Stephen enjoyed it and said he'd order it again. The steaks were good but not as flavorful as Alberta beef.

In the evening as the sun began to set, the birds sang boisterously, ignoring the singing of the other birds and seemed to try to sing loudly enough to drown out their competitors, not unlike a large playschool group with each child trying to get attention.