The Traveling Martens

The trials and tribulations...

Captain Cook was the first Caucasion to discover Australia in the 1770's. It was this area that he saw, after having the unfortunate luck of running his ship aground on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast. This would be easy to do, even today, as there are thousands of underwater mountain tops and islands that make up the Barrier Reef. Cook brought his ship to the shore for repairs, and tried his best to explore the area. He named this bay, the place we were staying, Cape Tribulation, and that summed up his idea of the place. He named the mountain above it Mount Sorrow. No other explorer came to Australia for a hundred years afterward, as Cook's journal described it as an impenetrable jungle, good for nothing except danger.

We however, had a great night's sleep, and walked down the short path to see the sunrise break through parts of the clouds. After breakfast, we went about 10 minutes south on the beach, took off our shoes, and walked into the water to catch the catamaran which would take us out to the reef for the day. An hour's journey in the boat took us out to Undine reef and Sandy Cay. When we got there at high tide, there was just a small sandy beach, about 10 feet by 30 feet, and we could see all the turquoise shades of the reef just under the water around it. The beach was a habitat area for sea turtles and birds. We quickly grabbed our snorkeling gear and were exploring the reef. Every reef is different, but this one probably had the most diversity of anyplace we've been. There is less polution and very little human contact in this part of the world, and the reef looked amazing in the bright sun. We saw lots of bright blue starfish, which were a foot across, schools of tropical fish, and lots of both hard and soft corals. There were more giant clams, opening and shutting. Parts of the reef were like trees, nearly touching the surface, with 10 feet of clear water and a sandy bottom beneath us. We were swimming between a couple pieces of coral when it happened- we saw a frickin' shark!!! It was a white-tipped reef shark, about 4 or 5 feet long swimming across the water in front of us. We froze, holding our breath, and watched it casually swim side to side across the reef, about 10 feet away. No worries mate, this shark was harmless, it typically eats wounded fish in the reef. It's mouth was only about the size of your fist, but it was a shocking thing to see. The vision of the shark in front of us will be forever etched in our memory. Mel even had an underwater camera on his arm, but didn't dare budge while the shark was around.

Back on the boat for lunch on the sundeck, we watched the tide go out and the top of the reef rise out of the water. The Sandy Cay grew to about three times its former size. Turtles and fish swam by as the receding water pushed them out of the top part of the reef. What appeared to be geysers shooting up out of the reef were actually the giant clams expelling water close to the surface. The different shades of green and blue in every direction were amazing.

Mel went back out to the reef for another dive in the afternoon, while Stacy and some of the boat crew did dives and flips off the sundeck on top of the boat into the light green ocean. This was one of our most amazing days of the whole trip, but unfortunately, we had to go back to shore at some point. We were dropped off at the same beach, and walked up the path to catch the small bus ride for Cairns.

Again driving on the dirt road out of the rainforest, we felt like we were leaving one of the most remote places on earth. We also felt like the bus driver was driving too fast for the wet roads, and we both put on our seat belts. We crossed the river on the barge and continued south. Before the story continues, we are both completely safe, although we feel some grey hairs coming on. It's not a great road to begin with, narrow with lots of turns, and the 3 hour drive should be a 4 or 5 hour drive in the rain. The driver acted more like it was a sports car on dry pavement though, and as a car slowed to make a turn in front of us, the driver (who was following too close and too fast) slammed on his brakes and we started skidding. This happened entering a round-about, and the bus slammed through the center curbs on the round-about and wiped out all the highway signs in the center. Luckily, we came to a stop on the other side without hitting any cars, and no damage to the bus except the smashed windshield from hitting the signs.

So to put things in perspective, we've traveled through Asia, flown sideways in a helicoptor above the reef, and came face to face with a shark. And the most dangerous thing we've done was to ride in an automobile. Please be careful on the roads.

We spent the night at the same hostel in Cairns as we were at earlier in the week, and then flew back to Sydney this morning (Friday). While we stayed in the business district in downtown Sydney last weekend, we are staying at Hotel 59 in the Kings Cross area for the rest of our trip.

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 11:31 PM