Port Douglas, Australia

It was pouring rain when we arrived in Cairns, Australia. Enroute to Port Douglas, we saw a lot of flooded areas and although we paralleled the coast for a good part of the hour’s drive, it was hard to see the ocean because of the rain and mist. We checked in at Pullman Port Douglas Sea Temple Resort and were delighted to find that rather than a hotel room, we had a two bedroom, two bath condo with a washer and dryer and an outdoor jacuzzi on a covered roof top patio. Despite the rain, we enjoyed the jacuzzi while we washed a week’s worth of dirty clothes. That night we had a delicious seafood buffet on the hotel veranda and a visit by a special Australian celebrity.

The next morning, we were up early as we had gained 3 hrs from Samoa to Australia. We took a short walk outside the hotel property through the forest to see the beach. The rain had stopped although it was still overcast. This area has issues with jellyfish during the rainy season. We saw first aid stations along the beach with vinegar for jellyfish stings – vinegar helps alleviate pain and prevent further venom release from stings.

After our walk, we drove to the marina in Port Douglas, to board our boat for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef. It was disappointing that we could not get ‘resort certified’ to dive, but we were assured that the snorkeling would be every bit as good since we were going to be on top of the reef. It took about 90 mins for us to reach our snorkeling spot – a place called Izzy’s Wall. The boat anchored to the reef and when we jumped in the water, we saw that we were near a large coral wall. We could swim over the top of the reef to see the coral and reef fish or along the wall to look down into the ocean so deep that you could not see the bottom. As we snorkeled, the sun came out, further improving visibility and enhancing the colors. Snorkeling was great – in addition to many different types of coral and reef fish, we saw parrot fish with their fused beaks, clownfish, angel fish, a sea turtle who was just as inquisitive about us as we about him, two reef sharks, one about 2.5 feet long and the other about 4 feet and beautiful blue starfish. Our equipment was excellent so we stayed in the water for over an hour – we also had light weight Lycra suits with hands and hoods to keep us warm and protect against jellyfish stings.

Our final destination in Australia was to a Rainforest Wildlife Habitat that we visited enroute to the airport the next day. We saw many of the animals and birds indigenous to this beautiful land.

Our time in Australia was short. As we flew away, we could easily identify this continent’s Natural Wonder of the World.