{"id":14566,"date":"2018-11-09T18:08:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T23:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14566"},"modified":"2018-11-19T02:05:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T07:05:34","slug":"cairns-australia-the-great-barrier-reef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14566","title":{"rendered":"Cairns Australia & The Great Barrier Reef"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday – November 9, 2018<\/p>\n

It took us all day yesterday to fly from Darwin to Cairns, normally a two hour flight. \u00a0There was a screwup in the planning somewhere and we had to fly from Darwin to Brisbane (4 hour flight) then wait two hours for a flight to Cairns (2 hour flight). \u00a0We arrived in Cairns at ten o\u2019clock at night and checked in at the Shangri-La Hotel. \u00a0It was a fabulous hotel: right on the water, tropical garden outside our sliding door, large modern beachy room.<\/p>\n

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Cairns is the Aussie city which is the gateway to the famous Great Barrier Reef. \u00a0It\u2019s sub-tropical, warm and humid: known as the place where the rainforest meets the ocean. \u00a0Our group rallied out to the harbor to ride a large catamaran out to the reef.<\/p>\n

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The overcast sky cleared after the 90 minute ride out to ‘the middle of nowhere’ in the Pacific Ocean. The catamaran tied up to a large well-equipped floating raft which belonged to the Sunlover company.<\/p>\n

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Interior of the raft:<\/p>\n

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Sunlover had everything for snorkeling, diving, glass-bottom boating, swimming, changing rooms, showers, lunch facilities, and enjoying a day out on the reef. There was even a masseuse:<\/p>\n

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The black suit on the man in the photo above was called a \u201cstinger suit.\u201d \u00a0It was necessary for anyone who entered the water because of the small jellyfish that lived around the reef. The jellyfish are little but give a nasty sting to swimmers.<\/p>\n

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Jeff and I didn\u2019t go snorkeling but we enjoyed the glass-bottom boat. \u00a0A couple of my photos of the Great BarrierReef:<\/p>\n

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The catamaran tied to the raft:<\/p>\n

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Life guards on duty:<\/p>\n

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About three o\u2019clock, the staff began to pack everything up and we all boarded the catamaran for a bumpy 90 minute ride back to Cairns. \u00a0Jeff and I had an enjoyable day on the raft and we mentally checked off the Great Barrier Reef on our \u201cBucket Lists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinner and entertainment was at the Tjapukai Cultural Park – An Aboriginal Tourist Attraction. \u00a0It was advertised on-line as one of the most authentic tourist attractions. \u00a0I hope the local Aboriginal community is benefiting. \u00a0The large hall displayed contemporary art. \u00a0This is a photo of my favorite work. \u00a0I like the handprints.<\/p>\n

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A young man gave a Didgeridoo performance and explanation of the sounds. \u00a0He also demonstrated how to play the unusual instrument. (Ignore the blue light) \u00a0Canap\u00e9s were served within or juice. \u00a0One was emu, another was beetroot andcucumber. \u00a0They were a modern take on the Aboriginal diet.<\/p>\n

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Afterwards, everyone was invited outside to participate in a language, dance and music performance. \u00a0Two spectators were invited on the primitive stage to learn how to light a fire – with much effort.<\/p>\n

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At the end, everyone went into the dining room for a sumptuous dinner of a variety of vegetables, crocodile ribs, and kangaroo meat, as well as beef and chicken. \u00a0Everything was tasty. \u00a0The crocodile was covered in bar-b-que sauce and the kangaroo in another sauce so, frankly, it was difficult to taste the exotic meats. \u00a0Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable and very different evening. \u00a0I had a great time! \u00a0What a day!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday – November 9, 2018 It took us all day yesterday to fly from Darwin to Cairns, normally a two hour flight. \u00a0There was a screwup in the planning somewhere and we had to fly from Darwin to Brisbane (4 hour flight) then wait two hours for a flight to Cairns (2 hour flight). \u00a0We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14580,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14566\/revisions\/14580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}