The Other Side of the World Day 3–Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef

Since we lost a day of our lives in transit for this vacation, so too will this blog.  Despite the fact that this is our second day in Cairns and our first full day of officially vacationing, I consider it the third day of the trip (our itinerary calls it day 4…confused yet?  So am I).

Due to the travel/time-zone induced exhaustion, the previous night’s bedtime was around 8PM local time, so day 3 began early.  I awoke after 9+ hours of sleep at 5:15.  It was not only early, but also bright since the sun begins rising in the early hours as well.  To take advantage of the sunlight, I went for a jog along the esplanade (boardwalk).  Cairns has a fair bit of coast line and have built a boardwalk path that spans 5k+ through an area of shops as well as a park and some beach shore.  Because of this, I was able to stay along the shore for the entire out and back run…and I was not the only one.  It was the most pedestrian traffic I had seen pre-7AM anywhere.  Mostly there were people walking in groups, but there were other runners (and occasional cyclists on the adjacent path) as well as others just enjoying an early morning in the park.  I thoroughly enjoyed the activity, especially after being cramped in travel for the past few days.

Returning to the hotel, I found Susan had awakened early as well, so I cleaned up and we headed to the local McDonald’s to take advantage of the free wireless internet, which seems to be a rare commodity.  I normally avoid anything familiar while on vacation (and McDonald’s in general for that matter), but the free internet makes the arches look might appealing for morning coffee trips during this vacation.  We attempted to order coffee, though not really understanding the language of java around here yet (options include long black, flat, short white, etc…) made it more difficult, then got our online errands completed.

After McD’s it was back to the hotel to have the breakfast buffet and regroup with the family for the walk to the marina.  Today’s planned activity was a boat trip to Green Island, a protected coral island that is actually a part of the Great Barrier Reef.  Part of the island has a resort built on it, although done tastefully to not take away from the natural lushness of the island rainforest.  The other portion is a small national park.  Surrounding the island is a portion of the barrier reef.  At the marina, we selected a few of the scheduled activities for the island and got our boarding passes before stepping foot onto the Reef Rocket for our 45 minute ride to
the island.

The reef rockest

Ready to snorkle.. almost

Upon arrival, we headed into the resort area quickly, then made our way to the beach and donned the snorkel gear.  Included with our snorkel, mask, and fins was a pretty awesome lycra body suit called a stinger suit.  Apparently stinger is the local name for jellyfish.   Although we weren’t terribly worried about stingers since stings are rare at Green Island, we wanted the suits for their sun protection along with their obvious style.  Snorkeling could be done on multiple beaches of the island, but we selected the one recommended by our boat guides and waded into the ocean.  Susan, always the photographer, donned a disposable waterproof camera, so we have some solid photos of our findings.  We were able to develop and then take pictures of the pictures, so the quality of these pictures isn’t great but you get the idea.  Among the highlights was a variety of colorful corals and fish, sea cucumbers, and a few sea turtles that evaded me, but Susan managed to spot multiple times and almost lured close enough to touch once.  The variety and size of the fish encountered, particularly so close to the shore was impressive. 

Susan’s best friend, the sea turtle (note there is no zoom on an underwater camera  --  he was just that close)

Us in our stinger suits

Some of the coral at the Great Barrier Reef

A fish staring at us

Our snorkeling was ended when it was time to board the semi-submarine (a boat with an underwater viewing chamber below) for a scheduled tour.  The loop here was brief, but informative with a good guide and a variety of larger fish we hadn’t encountered previously.  It also included a fish feeding that drew out additional species (but no sharks).

A sampling of what we could see out of the semi-sub

In the semi-sub

The remainder of the day at Green Island included lunch, walking the nature trail through the national park, exploring what we could see of the resort, and playing on the beach a bit.  A leisurely paced cruise back to Cairns brought us ashore around 5PM, worn out from the day in the sun.

After some much needed clean-up and recharging at the hotel.  Susan and I ventured out for our own dinner date.  After wandering the main drag some, we felt Indian calling to us…or so we thought as we selected the restaurant.  We had been discussing wanting to experience some foods more in line with Australian tastes, or something more exotic than we could get at home.  Turns out, the Indian restaurant offered a tasting plate of 3 native Australian animals (kangaroo, crocodile, and emu), and although we know Australians don’t actually eat these animals regularly if at all…we decided to split the tasting plate along with some naan, of course.

          
On the plate:  kangaroo (top), crocodile (yellow), emu (bottom)
Susan and I with our Aussie meat (right picture)

The meal was a little odd considering it was a meat plate and some bread, but it worked for us.  All the meats were a little dry and chewy, which either speaks to the consistency of the meat or the quality of the cooking.  Emu was probably my favorite since it seemed to have a higher level of fattiness than the others.  Either way, I can see why none of these animals are farmed for meat like chickens, cows, etc…

Post dinner, we did a little light shopping in the area near the Night Market, which is an indoor “mall” of vendor booths that’s open from 4-11PM daily.  The shops in the general area keep longer hours as well, so the scene was pretty busy as we checked out the wares, some of which were quite…unique.  As we shopped we worked our way back to the hotel for another early night.

Tomorrow we head inland to check out the rainforest, and (Susan can) hopefully cuddle with koalas.