After spending 5 or 6 hours in the Brisbane airport, Deanna and I flew another 2-1/2 hours up to Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef, the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. Not only can it be seen /from space, but we can take pictures from the plane window!
The first night in Australia was in Cairns. Beautiful place! We were treated to a rainbow.
The next morning, we sailed with Rum Runner.
Half the folks were from Michigan, and they weren't all in one group! The other half of us spent the evening looking at the sky and not finding the Southern Cross (clouds), and talking about words in different languages. Did you know that the moon waxes and wanes from left to right in the southern hemisphere, instead of from right to left as we are so used to? And that "waxes and wanes" is a really odd English phrase to explain?
Deanna and I snorkeled up where the light was dancing across the neon colors. Everyone looked for Nemo, and everybody saw him except me. Deanna wore the only set of prescription goggles. The best was hovering in schools of tiny fish - bright blue, shiny yellow, or sort of clear. We saw turtles. Deanna and I saw a shark, just to show up the scuba divers, who were looking for sharks with no luck. As we sped back to Australia, a pod of dolphins rode our bow wave. :) The food on board was great, too!
We flew back to Brisbane that night.
The bad news is that we didn't have underwater cameras, so you'll have to surf the web to see it up close. The good news is that it is absolutely awe-inspiring. We snorkeled for 2 days, spending the night out on the sailboat. Deanna got so burned, even with multiple layers of SPF 50 and wearing a wetsuit. Yet she barely peeled at all. We think it was a reaction between medicine and sun.
Public pool in Cairns
At the pool overlooking the ocean
Who knew Scottsdale was a sister city?
Sunset brought out a huge flock of bats!
The next morning, we sailed with Rum Runner.
Our Great Barrier Reef group. Deanna and I have the hats.
Half the folks were from Michigan, and they weren't all in one group! The other half of us spent the evening looking at the sky and not finding the Southern Cross (clouds), and talking about words in different languages. Did you know that the moon waxes and wanes from left to right in the southern hemisphere, instead of from right to left as we are so used to? And that "waxes and wanes" is a really odd English phrase to explain?
Deanna and I snorkeled up where the light was dancing across the neon colors. Everyone looked for Nemo, and everybody saw him except me. Deanna wore the only set of prescription goggles. The best was hovering in schools of tiny fish - bright blue, shiny yellow, or sort of clear. We saw turtles. Deanna and I saw a shark, just to show up the scuba divers, who were looking for sharks with no luck. As we sped back to Australia, a pod of dolphins rode our bow wave. :) The food on board was great, too!
We flew back to Brisbane that night.
Comments
Post a Comment