Well, not very deep, actually! This is me togged up ready to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Yes, I've reached the Eastern coast of Australia; I'm in Cairns. This is tourist city - reminiscent of Queenstown in New Zealand, in that every other shop is an activity centre, exhorting you to go on this trip or that... I've spent three days on organised tours - the first being in three parts: a 7km cable-car ride skimming tropical rainforest to a village nestling in the trees, with a VERY tempting zoo (2nd pic) which I managed to resist(!); a visit to an aboriginal cultural park - both interesting and fun, I now know about their 'Dreamtime' stories, how to make naturally toxic fruit edible (don't try this at home), how to make and play a didgeridoo, and, despite detailed instructions, am rubbish at throwing a boomerang - it nosedives into the ground every time; and back on a scenic train ride. The next day I set sail on a catamaran with 84 others, comprising mainly blonde skinny twenty-year-olds (hate 'em!). The experience of snorkeling on the Reef was quite amazing as you might imagine - the colours of the coral and the close proximity of the fish were out of this world. I loved the sights, but not the snorkel - not my 'thing', I'm afraid. So I've ticked that off my list, and don't need to do it again! After a day 'off', mooching around Cairns, I embarked on a 4WD trip north to Cape Tribulation. This included another boat cruise looking for crocodiles. Our guide on this occasion kindly manoeuvred the boat close to the bank to point out a 'lovely, big' tree snake. He told us that he would bring it aboard so that we could all drape it around ourselves. I was preparing to abandon ship in favour of swimming with the crocs when he laughed at his little joke. What a wheeze, I was very amused...
Today I've taken a bus trip a few kms north of Cairns to a beach resort called Trinity Beach (pictured). This is a bit upmarket, so I met some people my age for a change, and enjoyed some lovely chats. There is no swimming in the sea at the moment, because of the 'stingers' - jellyfish who can inflict such damage that you are either in agony for 12 days, or you die, apparently. There are containers of vinegar on the beaches as a first aid measure, although the recommended first treatment is to get a friend to pee on you. Guess I'm in trouble there! So they have an area in the sea enclosed by nets, within which you can safely bathe. It was a lovely hot day, so I strolled on the sand, out of reach of poisonous tentacles, sunbathed a bit and swam. It felt like I was on holiday!! It seems strange that people can only swim in the sea in winter here. Summer = bad (too hot and humid, too many crocs and stingers); winter = good. Very odd.
I'm meeting more Aussies here - people come up from Sydney and Melbourne to get away from the cold weather. Their speech reminds me curiously of the Guernsey lingo - they end every sentence with 'eh' for emphasis. Also a bit like the Irish 'so you will' or 'so it is' e.g. "you'll need a ticket, eh (so you will)" or "it's a lovely day, eh". Please excuse my muddled uses of ' and " - my brain's taking a break...
So I've enjoyed Cairns, but it's time to move on. I'm hoping it will stay warm for my next few days, but as I head towards Sydney the thermometer will drop. But looking on the bright side, this will make my departure from Oz less sad as I head for the sunny skies of the USA in June... Cheers for now!
-----------------------------------------
Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email
Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam
No comments:
Post a Comment