The Traveling Martens

Above, on and below the Barrier Reef

Another couple thousand miles in the air yesterday morning on a flight up to Cairns, Australia, on the northeast coast. We're closer to the equator again, so it's warmer up here than in Sydney, back to the heat that Stacy loves. We had about half an hour to drop our bags off at the hostel, and then straight back to the airport. We jumped right into things here, taking an amazing helicopter ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. The land here along the coast is hilly, with the rainforest and mountains starting right at the edge of the water. The hills continue out into the water, so there are lots of islands and shallow spots for miles out. The Barrier Reef is actually made up of dozens of shallow, coral islands out in the water. The helicopter was the best way to see all the different colors (colours here) and different depths of the water. We could see 50 feet down in places. There are unhinhabited islands, some sandy, some overgrown with tropical forest. As we flew towards Hastings Reef a few miles out, which we were going to dive in, the pilot did a sharp bank and flew the coptor in a few sideways circles, so we could get a good close-up view of the reef, with giant sea turtles and stingrays swimming over the shallow plateau of the reef. We have so many pictures, we'll have to make everyone a DVD when we get home!

Our helicoptor flew in, and we landed on a small, floating platform out in the ocean. It wasn't even big enough for the helicoptor, the tail stuck out over the water, but the pilot made it look easy. From there, we took a dinghy to the dive yacht a few yards away where we would spend the afternoon. To snorkel, we left the back of the yacht, and swam a few yards over to the edge of the reef. The plateau at the top of the reef was under only 5 or 6 feet of water, so the sun made our underwater view bright, and we saw starfish, different colored fish than we've seen before, sea slugs, and in the slightly deeper water we saw giant clams, the size of a mini Cooper car. The clams would open and shut rhythmically; one of the guides told us we could stick our hand in there, but we didn't test that. We also came face to face with many Parrot fish and other fish which were much bigger than we are; thankfully, no sharks though!

The yacht dropped us off at the pier, and we walked home after eating a great Turkish kabob dinner. The town of Cairns here is beautiful, it is a small town stuck right between the edge of the water and the mountains and rain forest. Our walk home was great, there is a park alongside the water and there appears to be people out 24 hours a day. Early night again, as we have an extra early morning for another big adventure....

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 4:12 AM