Cairns

Ahhh back to Australia... it really felt great to step off the plane to a happy faced Australian Sheila welcoming me to the country and MEANING it ;0) I love Aussies! Don't get me wrong, people are very polite in Asia and VERY friendly in Thailand... but it's just not the same super open, happy, laid back feeling you immediately get from Assies... nice ;0)

I got to Cairns before noon, so I had time to walk into town along a really great Esplande... it used to be a beach but they dredged it so much so ships could get in (especially during WWII) that its all turned to a big mud flat... the good thing about that is that when the tide is out its FULL of crabs...

Even if you did want to take a swim (which you can't because it Box Jellyfish season [one sting can KILL you]) I think this sign would pretty much kill any notion:

I had a great big Aussie breakfast (lots of ham-like bacon, eggs, toast) walked around the town center and the back to the hotel to catch my Rainforest Tour! Our first stop was actually within the city limits to let us practice using binoculars (the 2 Hungarian guys with us needed it) - we had some great Agile Wallabies to focus on.

Then we were off - the scenery along with way was brillant.

This plant's called a 'wait a while' - because it has these huge thorns all over it that it uses to cling onto trees and literally climb up them to the very top (they also grab onto your clothes and slow you down if you're walking through the jungle ;0) - the 3rd pic is another plant with even bigger spines on it...

And these giant fig trees grown down around other poor trees (to capture the sunlight at the top) and eventually encase it and kill it... it was enourmous... it goes Way up from here..

Alos lots of animal along the way of course (you've gotta love a tour guide who is so into his job he picks stuff up for you ;0) These are a skink and a green tree frog...

I almost stepped on this poor turtle..

Then after checking out this Water Dragon I took a very refreshing swim with the guide and found something on my own attached to my leg ;0)

Just down the road I finally saw my 1st Platypus in the wild!!! It was so fun to watch them swimming around (they're underwater most of the time hunting for food - makes it fun to spot them coming up)....

Once the sun went down we got out the spotlights and started seeing the real action... that ant is huge and it's dwarfed by that spider...

That 'cricket' is as big as your fist and that little snake probably kill with a bite...

This was a Chameleon Lizard... very cool looking (it stand super still and twitches its big tail.. which looks a LOT like a snake to scare off predators... Thats a cycade (sp ?) on the right.. they make LOTS of noise... can almost drown everything else out...

There are some cute things around too of course... this is a possum.. saw 3 or 4 of them WAY up in very tall trees... couldn't find any Tree Kangaroos but everything else was fantastic...

And if that wasn't enough for me the next day I got to go dive the Great Barrier Reef... woohooo!

These pictures are all stolen off the web (I didnt' want to spend the $60 to rent an underwater camer and besides I was too distracted by all the cool stuff!)

These are some of the more interesting thigns I saw (but I saw LOTS of fish off all types and colors.. it was so cool - especially when the guide threw food every once in a while and you're surroudned by a column of big, little, huge fish...

There were Giant Clams (we touched the outside to watch it close it's mouth) and Giant Sea Cucumbers (these are as long as your arm and all over the bottom)

These crazy unicorn fish were fun to watch - these Trigger Fish were fun too - they really beautiful and really big - unfortunately they're also really aggresive and have big teeth... they came right at me... bit me on the fin mostly, but one got uncomfortably close to my face one time... I left them alone ;0)

I also left the White-Tipped Reef Shark alone under his rock... wow they are big (I still can't believe how calm I stayed)...

What an experience!!!

That night I had some really good seafood dinner (including something called a 'bug' which is like a cross betwen shrimp and lobster.. yummmm then headed off to a really fun bar in town until the wee hours... now I'm going to dive in the pool and sip on something cool (its HOT here right now... I can't believe I'll be in snow soon ;0( ... before heading off back to Sydney...