Anniversary Blog 17 - The Great Barrier Reef
We flew through Brisbane to get to Cairns up in Northeast Australia. Honestly, I didn’t know much about this region, and we’re south of the equator, so it’s always amazing that the further north you go the more you get rainforests and other tropic biomes. Completely throws off my Northern Hemisphere brain.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Harborside (now just Cairns Harborside Hotel) It was a nice spot near the water with good views of the area. No complaints.
The first night we got into town we hit Ochre, a restaurant in Cairns known for its unique and exotic menu. Here, we have the opportunity to taste authentic Australian cuisine. I finally got my hands on some kangaroo meat. It was very tender and delicious to my surprise. I also tried emu wontons and smoked crocodile. It had been a while (South America) since we ate some regionally unique food. Everything up til now on our Oceania adventure was pretty familiar to our American palettes, so this was a real treat.
The next day we used as a chill day and got a lot of planning for our future adventures going. It was Saint Patrick’s Day (funny to see how reserved other countries are when they celebrate, because we go nuts over here in the States). We stopped by a couple of local pubs as we explored and enjoyed some green beers and live music. I love using times like this to just take in the local culture and do some solid people watching.
Day three had us taking a day trip with The Adventure Company up to the Queensland Wetlands (UNESCO World Heritage Site), a haven for birdwatchers and nature lovers. The wetlands are teeming with diverse wildlife and we caught site of plenty of birds and reptiles. It sucks sometimes when you do these day trips, because you realize that all your stops could be half a day to multiple days all by themselves and you’re left wanting more.
We stopped in Daintree Rainforest (also a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Mossman Gorge for some very cool views. When you’re riding around on these kinds of trips you always meet some new people. This time we met up with Anya from Poland and Bobby from Washington, DC.
The Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas was an interesting experience. They had big open areas where they housed some pretty cool birds, reptiles, wallabys, kangaroos, and more. You were able to feed the animals and learn about them. Anne even got to feed some small kangaroos.
A kind of interesting take for a “zoo”, it was nice to be in an open air area with the animals instead of having to view them behind a gate. I’m always down to support places that are big on conservation.
We then took a boat and did a little croc spotting along one of the rivers with our guide Nick and driver Daniel. I learned one of my favorite facts: when you see mangroves, and there are random yellow leaves among all the green ones, that’s on purpose. It’s called the Sacrificial Leaf and the tree sends all the salt that it sucks up with the water and deposits it into that leaf while feeding healthy water and nutrients to the green leaves. Once that leaf is loaded up it falls off, saving its brethren, and another leaf is chosen.
We then headed back to Cairns and grabbed dinner at Cock and Bull. It’s a local pub with a fun atmosphere, and we had some more kangaroo and crocodile. It was interesting to sample the difference between a more upscale experience in Ochre and a more laid back day to day spot like Cock and Bull. You could tell this was a spot that a lot of locals hit all the time for dinner and a good time.
The next morning, we woke up early and headed down to the harbor to hop on the Silver Swift. This high-speed catamaran was our ride to the outer Great Barrier Reef! As we rode out we were treated to videos about the Reef and conservation efforts. We also explored the ship and laid around out on the deck as we took in the views of the Pacific Ocean.We met a couple of cool guys, Stephen from Canada and Stan from Germany. It was exciting to move away from the mainland and see the water get bluer and bluer.
As we arrived at our destination, we picked out our gear and plunged right from the boat into the middle of the ocean to take in the reef. There were some people who actually went scuba diving far below us, but we snorkeled. The guides on the ship were great and pointed out different sea life and coral, and acted as life guards as well, so we never felt uninformed or unsafe.
We had a lot of time to explore all around the boat. There were so many fishes. I found a new hobby chasing them around the reefs. Felt like a sea lion or something on the hunt. The coral was really exciting as well, tons of different colors and types.
It is criminal that The Great Barrier Reef isn’t a New World Wonder of Nature, but it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so put it on the board! We didn’t have any run-ins with sharks or anything, but it was great just hanging out and exploring and chilling on the boat and taking in all this nature. There are certain times where you feel really in tune with nature, sitting in the forest, overlooking a valley from the top of a mountain, stuff like that. Sitting in the middle of an ocean with no land in sight is one of those times.
The Great Barrier Reef was one of my most exciting experiences to date. I had never been in water so clean and clear, and it was great to see such diverse sea life. The reefs were pretty cool, but it was heartbreaking to see the early signs of bleaching setting in. It was even more heartbreaking to see the oil rigs on the horizon as we rode back to Cairns.
On our final day we finalized some of our plans for our next stop and checked out the movie Logan. Later in the day we hopped on our Philippine Air flight, and after a long mid morning layover in Manilla, we departed for our next adventure in the Land of the Rising Sun.
There are so many different jerky’s around the world, but the Roo jerky was one of my favorites!
