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Part of the reason we came this far north into Queensland and to Cairns was to see the Great Barrier Reef. One of the Seven Wonders of the World (hmmm... I wonder if I need a 7 Wonders Tour?), it's pretty, watery, and likely going to have people running around in their bathers -- perfect.
| 6:46am | The alarm went off. And here I thought we were on vacation. |
| 7:24am | After the humans and I were ready, we made our way to the same dining area as last night's dinner, but for breakfast. It wasn't too bad, all things considered, just a bit on the pricey side. (But maybe not; I am traveling with a couple of cheap-skates). |
| 7:48am | The bus to the Quicksilver Great Barrier Reef trip is already outside; Rachel approached, and the bloke told her we could finish our breakfast, as he's early (due at 7:55am). |
| 7:56am | Of course, by the time we got there, we were a full minute late, and now he's a bit irritated with us. Super. |
| 8:07am | We're still wandering about picking people up. Contest: Find everything wrong with this picture? (The sign near the pole, if you can't quite see it.) |
| 8:22am | Driving by sugar cane fields, the now seemingly less irritated driver was explaining to us that when the cane fields have the light gray bit of fluff at the top, they're ready for harvest. Machines will strip the cane out of the fields (no more burning it out), and chop it into 6-inch lengths ("bullets"), then ship it to Cairns to be crushed and exported. Of course, no picture, since with the coach being right next to the fields, and us clocking away at 100 km/h (62 MPH or so), they turned out blurry. |
| Contest Answers: | Answers to the quiz above aren't too plentiful. (a) the school crossing guard is helping the little old lady across the street, (b) the "Children Crossing" sign is facing the wrong direction of traffic, (c) the lady crossing the street appears to be younger than the crossing guard. |
| 8:51am | Whilst stopped for road work, we got to take a (non-blurry) picture of the Coral Sea out to the right of the bus. |
| 9:25am | We arrived in Port Douglas, which was a ghost town dwindling down to a population of nothing before a guy came in, saw it was a lovely place, and built a very posh luxury resort. Today, the population is about 3,000, built almost entirely on tourism. |
| 9:41am | Responding to the all-call for boarding, we headed out to our catamaran, and settled in on Level 2 (it's a three-level vessel). |
| 9:56am | Just minutes before casting off, I gave the place a wander. Now, maybe I sound a bit like Rose from Titanic, but I only see two 25-person lifeboat canisters. They're far more than 50 aboard today. (Heck, there's at least 25 people just in the crew and supporting folks for the trip.) |
| 10:08am | Boat bubbles. (Not a life-altered photo by any means; I was bored.) For those of you who keep track of such things, the manufacturers of the ship at least thought about the toilets -- there were two toilets for men, five for women. Thus, I didn't see a line to get into the womens' restroom like I usually do virtually everywhere else. |
| 10:47am | Water water everywhere, so why not have a drink? (Yes, still bored, but there is actually free ice water down below, and sodas are only AU$1.50, which is well within reasonable limits of elsewhere we've seen throughout Australia -- how non-tourist trap-like is that?) |
| 11:44am | And we're there. Yes, it took nearly two hours to get there, but through Rachel's talking to strangers, we learned we are 38 nautical miles from Port Douglas. (The guy wasn't sure of the math, but guessed that was about 70 kilometers, which would be 43 miles.) |
| 11:47am | We attacked the time we had here (now until the 3pm departure) in three phases:
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| 11:54am Phase 1 | Lunch consisted of a bunch of stuff Tubby wouldn't eat. (Y'know, it makes you wonder; if Tubby is such a fussy eater, how did he become tubby? Never thought about it before.) Rachel ate like a normal human, and Tubby had white rice and rolls. (Which is dangerously reminiscent of his cruise with Megan and I back in November 2001 on the Viking Serenade... man, and they say elephants have good memories -- go me!) |
| 12:18pm | Whilst waiting in queue for both the observation deck and the submarine, I did snap a few pictures.
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| 12:21pm Phase 2 | The platform had an underwater observation deck, so I made Tubby take me there. Further, there was a semi-submerged boat that did 30 minute circles from the platform out to where the barrier dropped off at the outer barrier reef, and the depths of 8-12 meters (26-40 feet) fell off to 200 meters (650 feet), and rapidly to three times that depth. |
| Oops, sorry... I guess you'd then want to see those few underwater pictures I took of the Great Barrier Reef. So there it is. | |
| 1:16pm Phase 3 | The humans wouldn't let me in the water, which only begins to explain the gap in narrative, instant photo availability, and dare I say it, photo quality. Basically, it came down to a problem of water. Most ducks love it. I'm not as keen. Tubby has dragged his feet for several years on the fabrication of a "duck diving dome" that I designed, complete with an air supply (to prevent crushing when descending) and pressure release values (for ascending). And maybe a place to put my camera. |
| 1:37pm | As I wandered the ship, bored and annoyed, I elected to whine to one of the countless crew members. Troy explained I could have been hooked to a diving helmet, but admitted I'd still get wet, as it's open on the bottom. Helpful was he, but unsuccessful in improving my mood. |
| 2:19pm | The humans emerged, wet, but covered in the lycra funny suits they paid good money (AU$5) to rent. |
| 2:43pm | They dried off, Rachel had an ice cream, and we headed upstairs to get underway. |
| 2:56pm | Before we get underway, though, they apparently think it's a good idea to count how many people are on board before leaving the reef, since leaving people behind isn't good for business. It took two tries to clear the count (sounds like a jail, huh?), but between counts, I grabbed a picture of Alan and Duncan (left to right); Alan is also our not now nearly as irritated as earlier coach driver from this morning. |
| 3:06pm | And we're off, due into Port Douglas a bit after 4:30pm, or so we're told. |
| 3:44pm | I think we're being followed. |
| 4:01pm | The boat following us must have figured we found him out, so he decided to pass us -- on the right hand side, no less. |
| 4:16pm | We passed this lighthouse on one end of a horseshoe-shaped island. I forget the name of the place, but did discover the ocean spray coming to the top deck where we were perched leaves a slightly salty after-taste on my feathers. (I like the taste of salt, by the way, so if you'll excuse me...) |
| 4:37pm | No longer tasting salty, we find ourselves within spitting distance of the port. |
| 4:46pm | We're safely back on shore, and reminded that the coaches leave at 4:55pm. So much for a dock-side ice cream for me. |
| 4:51pm | Coach 1, bound for Cairns, and driven by Alan once again. Goodie. |
| 5:11pm | By and large, I couldn't take many pictures. One worked out, but most were about this good. |
| 5:28pm | I guess sunset is officially upon us, so this is my last attempt at photography today. And good news -- it's not of yet another sunset. |
| 6:11pm | Back at the hotel, and in the room minutes later. And it's dark outside. Maybe a float in the pool would be a good thing. |
| 6:19pm | Well, so much for that. The pool is rather tepid, and the bubbles in the spa area (under a dome, very cool), so we opted to visit the sauna and spa centre. That was short-lived in that the spa already had two girls in it, and we all feared Tubby would vapor-lock. We returned to the room. |
| 6:37pm | I started updating today's activities as Rachel checked on the spa, and returned to signal it's empty. We all headed down and hopped in... and in that moment realized the difference between "spa" and "hot tub." Apparently, spa means bubbles and jets; hot tubs actually put heated water into the equation. (The temperature was probably 70 degrees, or 21°C -- too cool for our collective tastes.) |
| 6:42pm | Yup, back in the room. |
| 8:22pm | The rumbling we're experiencing isn't the Thunder Down Under, but instead tummies... so we headed back to the restaurant again tonight. |
| 8:28pm | As the official interpreter for Scotland (and Tubby), Rachel managed to get Tubby's rather unique request to come to light. (Basically, the AU$14-22 menu wasn't doing it for him, last night's burger ran on the blah side, so he went with the tried-and-true "grilled cheese.") |
| 8:46pm | The aforementioned toasted bread with melted cheese arrived, and it not only was to his liking, but was also affordably priced, described as a "one toast" on the receipt ("tax invoice") and rang up at AU$4 and change... he's a cheap date. |
| 9:41pm | After taking a walk through the dessert menu and selecting items (yup, Rachel had something fancy, Tubby had to back-pedal to plain vanilla ice cream after a fright with how the cheesecake was described as being prepared). |
| 9:53pm | Hoping for no internet access problems, I begin posting today's updates. |
| 10:12pm | And, I'm done, and it's to be an early night to sleep for all of us. The alarm is set for 3:50am, with the official wake-up call at 4am, which is also when the porter types will collect our luggage. I don't remember exactly when we leave for the airport, but I think we're set to be there by 5am. Good times right up to the last minute, eh? |