Port Douglas - Great Barrier Reef & Daintree Rainforest

I can't believe it is October already. From what I hear from my family, fall has arrived. Leaves turning, corn coming out of the field, and COLLEGE FOOTBALL! GO HAWKS!!!! The opposite is happening here. The children had a 2 week break before term 4 starts (October 8) and the temperature is rising. This will be the last term of the year for them. One of the things that Dan promised was that if we were lucky enough to be here for one year, then we were going to make the most of it. So on Thursday the 20th of September, we were on the plane up to Cairns. Actually we stayed at Port Douglas, but who needs to get technical. Port Douglas is an area of Australia where two magnificent natural areas come together - the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.

I will try and make this as short as possible. However the 5 days that we were up there were packed with things to do. On Friday we went snorkeling in the GREAT BARRIER REEF. I wish that all of you could experience this 8th wonder of the world. After an hour and a half ride out to the outer ribbon reef we had all the instructions we needed and we were ready to snorkel. I was a little nervous, but it all came very natural for all of us, except our sweet little Paige. She was clinging to dear life on a bodyboard and noodle. Dan and I took turns enjoying the reef and pulling Paige along with us. Christian on the other hand...we could barely keep up with him. He was diving under and swimming like a champ. I don't know if he enjoyed it as much as we did. We had 3 dives that day at different spots. It was educational seeing all the fish and different coral. We saw clams as big as our arms extended, maybe bigger. My favorite memory will be the beautiful fish and on the last dive - a SHARK. Yep, I saw a shark. I had to look a couple of times. At first, I thought it was a big fish then with the next look, oh my god I was yelling for Dan to come and see. With all the flippers and snorkel, he was nowhere to be found. Did I mention the shark was pretty far away? That is why I was calm.

Saturday, we went to the Daintree Rainforest. This is on the world heritage listing so they can't develop anything in it. We did a lot of hiking this day on trails and looking at REALLY big trees. Dan did some reading before we went and there is a bird that only lives in Australian rainforest call the Cassowary. It is similar to our Ostrich or an Emu. The kids weren't as excited about this day as they can only stand to look at so many trees before they become bored. One of the last things we did that day before we went back to the apartment was go to Mossman Gorge. Wow the beauty of the rocks combined with rainforest...Breath taking. I must be getting older now that I enjoy looking at scenery. Dan and I put our feet in the freezing water but Christian was all the way in.

Sunday we went done towards Cairns and took a different look at the rainforest going over the top on a Skyrail. It really gives you a different perspective on how high the trees are when you're riding over the top of them. The rail stopped a couple of times and we looked at the forest and waterfalls. We spent a couple of hours looking around a small town on the top of the mountain. We went to a butterfly sanctuary. The kids loved having butterflies land on them as I snapped a million pictures trying to get the perfect one. We boarded a train and headed back down the mountain and on the way we saw more waterfalls. I just don't get tired of looking at it.

I know we said we were there for 5 days...Thursday was a travel day and so was Monday. We walked around all over the town of Port Douglas, walked on the beach and hiked on a small trail. Overall this was such a fun trip. Great bonding time for our family. The kids swam every night after we finished our day trips in the saltwater pool at the hotel. We also consistently met up with other families that were staying at the same place with their families for holidays. This gave Christian and Paige some friends to swim with each day. We went to bed early and rose early everyday that we were there. There is one more memorable part to our trip. One night, Dan and I were sitting watching tv and we had a little gecko run down the wall and go under the couch. Needless to say I had to put shoes on to go anywhere and slept with pillows shoved up against the door. Yuck. This is just a "lucky" part of being in Australia. These little lizards are everywhere and the locals say that we will see a lot more of them as it gets warmer.

Australian Education
Now that summer is approaching we have blue frill lizards and small little geckos. You will find geckos hiding out on the top of the ceiling out side on our porch. They can get into any little opening. I have a towel shoved up under the garage door and make sure doors are shut at all times. The lizards are found out basking in the sun. I am always on the hunt when we are at the park or at the zoo. Those little suckers will run out from under the bush. From what I heard, they are more afraid of me. I truly find that hard to believe. I'm sure this will only get worse as the summer goes on. Enjoy the slide shows of our trip below.