Reef Encounter...

Awesome!
Not the best word but the closest we could think of to describe Queensland! From reefs to rainforests, scuba diving to sky diving, sailing to surfing, sand safaris to skyrails - we've done it all!

Certified...
Our budget blowing adventure started in Cairns with Steve's 4 day open water dive course, which meant Ali was left to her own devices for the first 2 days...no worries though as she soon found the local shopping mall, nail bar and lagoon ;-)

A tough life we know, but Steve's course meant spending 2 days/1 night at the outer Great Barrier Reef onboard the 'Kangaroo Explorer' - a really nice dive boat - in order to complete his four open water dives (Ali went along too).

Before heading out, we attended the 'Reef Teach' lecture which turned out to be one of the best things we've done so far! Highly entertaining, this mad Irish man told you everything you needed to know to get the best out of the reef - including which fish change colour when scared, which are transexual and which breath through their bum's!

Our first site - '360 Brigs Reef' - was fantastic. The tide was out so the coral was really close to the surface and the sunlight bounced off the top making the colours really vivid. The experience was made all the better having been to 'Reef Teach' as we knew what the purple coral was, which were 'Angel', 'Butterfly' or 'Parrot' fish, why the 'Starfish' were bright blue and where to look for 'Nemo'!

Next up was 'Turtle Bay' where Steve got to scratch their shells on the seabed! We also saw 'Giant Clams', 'Puffer Fish', 'Sea Cucumbers' and giant 'Wrasse' fish at the next site, not to mention breathing coral and fish turning from blue to green when flicked!

Day 2 started with Steve's 8am final open water qualifying dive at 'Manta Ray Bay', which was filmed (it was also his dive buddy's 100th dive which had to be done naked so there were some interesting shots...!) and ended with a fully qualified dive at 'West Timor', including a few reef tunnels.

Certifiable...
For a different reef perspective, Ali decided to strap herself to a strange man, fly over rainforest and reef up to 14,000ft and throw herself out of a perfectly good plane - freefalling for 60 seconds before parachuting onto Cairns esplanade...wicked! Steve (having stubbed his toe getting off the dive boat) didn't join her...

Shhhhh....
Adrenelin rushed out, we headed through the rainforest to 'Kuranda' via the original express train which, despite being 100 years old, gave SE Trains a run for its money!! A mellow mountain town stuck in it's hippy days, we chilled amongst the koalas, roos, freshwater crocs and fruitbats at various sanctuaries before catching the 'world famous'(?!) skytrain through the treetops back to Cairns.

Everything in Australia's out to get you...
Continuing our nature trek, we headed out to 'Cape Tribulation' - where the world's oldest rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef (the only place where two World Heritage Sites meet) - via 'Mossman Gorge' and 'Daintree'. Martin, our Bolton tour guide, was very reassuring with his Peter Kay style quotes: "don't worry about the crocs getting into the boat, it's the boat sinking you should worry about''; ''go anywhere near the water and there's a 99% chance you'll be taken''; or ''that's a stinging tree - touch it and the agonising pain'll be with you for 8 years''! Still he kept us entertained with tales of backpackers eaten by crocs, stung by box jellyfish, bitten by spiders, strangled by pythons, disembowelled by cassowaries and poisoned by rainforest fruit - all within the vicinity..

Scared back to the beach, we stayed a couple of days in Port Douglas (where Steve Irwin was sadly killed earlier in the week). A lovely, but exclusive yachting resort, we were inspired to make Airlie Beach (gateway to the 'Whitsunday Islands' our next port of call.

(In)Competent Crew
All aboard for the 'performance sailing trip of a lifetime' ...not entirely sure why that appealed, but before we knew it we were signed up for a 5 day/4 night sailing course on board the 'Eureka II' - a 60' racing boat designed for the toughest of races. Sailing straight out into 35 knot winds (almost galeforce), 4m high waves and constant spray, we soon realised this wasn't going to be easy!!! It was a great experience though, plus we got to see a couple of very rare 'sea spouts' (water tornadoes).

Fortunately, after a couple of days the wind died down and gave way to some perfect sailing weather. Meaning that we not only got to finish our course by putting everything we'd learnt into practice, but we also got to see the wonderful 'Whitehaven Beach', sea eagles performing for food scraps, a few humpback whales on their way home to the Antarctic and lots of turtles swimming around the boat.

We're both now qualified sailing crew - something to fall back on when our funds run dry

to be continued ...