The Geeky Brit

Although we were originally scheduled to go on the Wooroonran Safari this day, we had to switch days and visit the Great Barrier Reef, thatmagnificent natural wonder of the world, a day early.
We were both extremely excited about this trip, so it was not too much of a problem.
We were picked up from our hotel very early, and transported to Port Douglas, where we boarded our Catamaran to take the 2 hour trip to the Reef. Along the way we had the usual safety talks, but for the most part we were just able to enjoy views as the coast of Australia drifted over the horizon.

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I was expecting this aboriginal experience to be similar to a Hawaiian Luau. In some ways I was not too far off the mark. On arrival we immediately sat down for lunch, which was very good and we got to try even more varieties of kangeroo meat).
After we had stuffed ourselves (trust me I always make the most of all you can eat buffets), we were taken to an outside auditorium where we were witnessed a dance show. The dancing was mostly traditional with didgeridoo playing and chanting, but they finished with a CD they had released which basically was a modern pop song. It felt a little surreal. We were then taken to see a further didgeridoo demonstration, and a talk about the rainforest “tucker” or food.

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After the big city of Sydney I was not quite sure what to expect from Cairns. I have always assumed it to be one of Australia’s biggest cities. Which in my mind puts it in the same category as Fresno, CA or Little Rock, AR.
Cairns, according to my guide book, has a population of 98,210; Slightly bigger than my home town of Merced.

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We left the lovely Grace Hotel fairly early in the morning, heading to the airport using the same limo service we had before. This time however, the driver was different. He hardly said a word to us on the way to the airport, in fact the more I think about it, I can’t remember him saying anything at all. He also had an interesting driving style. We entertained ourselves by counting the number of red lights we zoomed past, and the number of pedestrians that fell over as they jumped back onto the sidewalk.

Once we had arrived at the airport, we left him with a nod of thanks, and entered. My lovely wife and I are both used to flying, and consider ourselves pretty experienced when it comes to security measures at airports. However, nothing had prepared us for Sydney airport.

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