Cairns 2003 Trip Debrief.

The top ten headed up north to Sunny Cairns in mid July. Having all flown in on different flights we caught up at the Balinese Hotel (modest but the swimming pool was not quite the size advertised in the brochure, however a spa size pool was quite adequate). We were on holidays and a dip in the pool just has to be done.

Our first night was a walk about in Cairns with a pizza/Kebab dinner (classy stuff), followed by ice creammmmmmmmmmm!

For most of us after a few drinks the night was quite young. As for Scotty, lets just say he makes the most of his time. Being in Cairns is like visiting another country which is inhabited with tourists from all over the world. Everybody with broken English as the spoken language (a bit of a heaven for young single men like Scotty).

Up bright and early we were picked up by bus and driven to the ship (the Spirit of Freedom). Gorgeous, the best live aboard I have been on! Really nicely decked out, with lots of room for 25 guests plus eight crew. On our way out to the Coral Sea we stopped off for a quickie at the Great Barrier Reef. A good warm up for what was about to come. Unfortunately and unusually for this time of year the weather was against us we were informed that we may not be able to go out to the Coral Sea after all.

We had a very rolely poley night and yes we finally were able to jump into the Coral Sea. The water clarity was 10 times that of the Barrier Reef, this is what we came for. We did eight dives over two days in the Coral Sea. Some of the luckier ones had an interaction with a friendly Manta Ray and managed to get some great photo's. My personal highlight was the shark diving. Again having already done many shark dives, this one stood out as a lot of places need to shark feed to grab the attention of the sharks. We just dropped down along a coral encrusted wall into the ink blue Abyss with 30 or 40 sharks circling below in their natural and uninterrupted environment. I had to remember to breath slower as I was a bit excited and wanted to stay down as long as possible.

Our staying the Coral sea was cut short for the weather was against us and we had to over night sail towards the Ribbon Reefs on the Northern part of the Barrier Reef. Here we dived on reefs 9 and 8 and a half. The highlight here other than rocks coral and fish was our time with the Minkie whales who decided to drop in on our lunch break. A few of us jumped in and snorkelled but most missed out because the tummy was to grumbly.

Back home and back to the Balinese. Our next adventure was white water rafting. Our group was divided in to two. Myself (Gypsy), Steven, Scotty, Melissa, Lara and Beck in the not so unco crew and Ziggy, Pauline, Adrian, Mark an Lara in the really unco crew.

You know they thought they looked the goods, you could tell. So off they went and we followed, Oh a good 5 minutes later.  It was not long before in the distance we could see a bunch of people with there boat half stuck up a rock frantically trying to get free (LOSERS). So on we went, eventually we had to stop to play rescue crew because there were a couple of paddles floating down the river towards us. You guessed it (the unco crew), we were embarrassed to have lunch with them afterwards.

Another night out in Cairns and another 4am home coming to Scotty. On our final day we took the sky rail up to Kanandra. What a great day! Nice easy weather leisurely short walks through the rain forest and a couple of hours stop over in the markets at Kanandra. We even managed a pub crawl through the two local pubs on our way back to the train. As complete mature adults we played hold our breath through the tunnels (as you do) with Adrian taking out the honours there. Loads of photo op's.

Our last night for most of us and we headed out for a really nice Seafood buffet meal some cocktails and champagne, finished off with some holiday cards. Thanks to every body for coming along. I hope your trip felt as relaxing and enjoyable as mine.

PS. Watch out for my trip to Western Australia with Whale Sharks, Dolphins and Huge Navy ship wrecks next year!