And finally the Great Barrier Reef!!! 22 - 24 July

Two very happy, excited ninja, dancing, snorkellers ready for the reef!

We left the Daintree for our shortest move yet, all of 30km (although you do have to wait for the ferry across the river).  But saying that it seemed a much greater move in time and connections, as we felt like we were returning from the lost island of Daintree to the mainland and main life of Australia today.  There are two reasons we didn’t move far – first we had unfinished business in this area that we didn’t want to have to cross the Daintree every day and secondly all the van parks in Port Douglas were booked out.  It is PEAK season up here in far north Queensland.  The latter wasn’t a major issue we just stayed in a van park north of Port Douglas on a lovely tropical beach (with crocodile warnings).  We left the Daintree on a cool rainy morning (pretty much like every morning) we arrived at Wonga beach to full sun and about 28 degrees.  After a shop at nearby Mossman we were back to the van park and into the pool!

We had three things we wanted to do here: visit the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat, finally get to the reef and visit the famous Mossman Gorge.

Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat

This is a pretty cool ‘zoo’ which does have many of its animals wandering amongst the humans in open area enclosures.  We have now seen a ‘zoo’ or two but still thoroughly enjoyed this one with its emphasis on FNQ environments and wildlife.  The tours which are included in the ticket price were great, the boys as usual could be found less than a step from the guide lapping up every word and asking a million questions.  For me the highlight of the visit was the chance to see black neck cranes incubating eggs – even more special we got to see the change over from female to male minding the eggs and the rather cool ‘dance’ they did as part of this ritual.

The Great Barrier Reef!

The largest reef in the world, visible from space, stretching approximately 2300km and we have been driving alongside it since 1770.  We have had this on our must see list, the kids have been anticipating this trip, as you may remember we started them practicing their snorkelling as far back in southern Queensland.  We decided to do more kids oriented trip so choose Quiksilver to the outer reef as they have a pontoon, underwater viewing area and glass bottomed boat.  This is not a trip I would have done by myself, but kids aren’t able to snorkel for hours nonstop and this was a really great way to experience the reef.  But key to a great reef trip is great weather.  We had actually swapped the Daintree and the Reef in our itinerary with the hope that we could get a good day and boy did we – “best weather in weeks” they said on the boat PHEW.

The day was FANTASTIC, it started with the weather and just got better.  Usually there are no stingers in the water this time of year, but with weather all topsy turvy up here they were still being sited so we did go for the figure flattering (well for the boys anyway) stinger suits.  The boys loved the trip out – this boat goes fast.  Fortunately we didn’t have a problem with seasickness (a touch from Mr L but only at the end, but David had taken preventative tablets).  Once we got to the reef, their excitement could barely be contained, they were literally dancing over the decks and couldn’t wait to get in the water.  Once in they were stupendous.  For those who have done it, snorkelling the reef can be a bit intimidating, the bottom is a long way down, the wind is blowing little waves in your face constantly and there is nothing to hold onto.  The boys both took some time adjusting, but by the end of our day they were snorkelling like junior pros, dashing off through the water to look at this fish and then that.  I had long anticipated taking my family to the reef (having been quite a bit myself over many years) and this trip fulfilled those expectations and then some!!!!!  What an amazing opportunity to share one of the most unreal experiences with your child at your side and them just beaming with happiness, excitement and pride.  

We used our new toy (the GoPro) with mixed success, but this was much more our lack of understanding how to best use it.  I think you will see more and more cool GoPro shots as we get better, but even so we managed a few cool images of this amazing day.

 

Mossman Gorge and then inland

Well we had finished with the coast, having travelled alongside it (on and off) since Merimbula we now started our journey west.  But on our way to the Atherton tablelands we had one final stop the last part of the Daintree we would see and possibly the most well known, the superb Mossman Gorge.

You can swim there and we had taken our bathers, but all the rain had meant that the river was running too fast so no swimming that day.  This didn’t matter - the walks, the rainforest, the scenery were just totally magnificent.  Even our 7 year old boys were awestruck with the beauty (well for parts of the walks anyway, then they discussed one of their electronic games).  After the walk we went back to the information centre (an aboriginal run enterprise) for a light lunch before we started driving up the hills and away from the sea.

I will leave you with our best photos that still do not show just how beautiful Mossman Gorge is.