Day 146 of international places giving smiles -Remembering Cairns, Kuranda and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia

17th Jan 10 We arrive at Cairns and soon get the feeling of a relaxed ambience like Goa. We walk up to ‘The Lagoon’ on Cairns Esplanade to marvel at the fish sculpture on the Esplanade where any member of the public can go for a swim. After admiring the sunset from there we take a long walk at the Cairns pier. By night; the lights come up and the casino’s dome can be seen in the background. We saw many bare bodied male tourists enjoying the light hearted environment of the place, even husband decided to do something he had never done in his life…walk bare chested in the city centre!

In the next morning we are ready to visit the Tjabukai Aborginee Park. We get a feel of life in the rain forests. We see a lot of locals in aborginee attire, listen to their history and wonder at how they adjusted to modern civilization. We try our hand at throwing spears.
And then we go for a breadthtaking ride up the hill on the cable car. Our first stop is for a superb view at the Barren falls. We stand amidst the trees and see miles and miles of greenery from the top. We finally reach the Kurunda village on the high mountains. We walk around the main street of this hill station and have an old fashioned picnic lunch under a tree.

We return to the cute railway station of Kurande and enjoyt the scenery amidst the winding mountains.
In the evening we had a taste of authentic Aussie hospitality in Cairns with 3 generation ladies who had travelled earlier with us. These were the liveliest friends we made during our Europe tour.

On the next day we find ourselves n the cruise ship going to the Great outer barrier reef, about which I had read so much since my school days. We picked up some more passengers from the neighbouring green Island and soon raced through the windy open seas and sky.

In the middle of the ocean we were transferred to a submarine kind of vessel. It had glass windows, so when it took us underwater we felt as if we were travelling along with the variety of fish and corals and other aquatic plants!

After that we had to get ready for an unbelievable snorkelling experience….i was terrified to get in to the middle of the vast ocean. Just realized how insignificant humans are as compared to the nature, now I know why it is called the ‘mighty ocean’…while the rest of the family happily went below the water to look and touch the under water corals and marine life I had difficulty and fear in trying to understand how to do it.The vast ocean intimidated me…spent more than an hour trying to learn how to snorkel underwater. I must have managed just a few minutes breathing underwater when suddenly I realized I was left all by myself in the middle of the water.

Was relieved when we finally got out of our snorkeling costumes, into our normal clothes. We really deserved the buffet lunch on board the cruise ship and was exhausted by the time we reached our hotel room.

So which place made you smile today?

Be grateful for the places that make you smile!