Cairns
Cairns, our primary focus was to swim in the world famous Great Barrier Reef. When we reached there we were surprised with the tropical weather and see the surroundings of the city. There are so many sugar cane farms along the road and the rain forest.
Interesting places to visit
- The Great Barrier Reef
- Daintree rain forest and Treks
- Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and Kuranda Scenic Railway with Kuranda
- Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
- Hamilton Island
- Whitehaven Beach
- Trinity beach
- Cairns zoo
- Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures
Day 1 :
We took flight from Sydney to Cairns. One observation is unfortunately all the flights in Australia starts early in the morning between cities. You can either book a shuttle or rent a car from airport to hotel. We ended up doing both due to some confusion, but settled with car at the end. Dropped of our bags at hotel and started to drive.
Drive from Cairns to Port Douglus, Palm Cove, and Daintree National park
Weather and drive was perfect in July. There are roundabouts that are new in driving compared to US. For exit or continuing on the same road pay little attention near the roundabouts. There are so many banyan trees in the surroundings with plenty of bats.
Port Douglas , we stopped near the Four Mile Beach and had a tasty lunch with ocean view.
In most of the restaurants you order food near the counter and pay the money there and relax at the table assigned. This seems like very effective way and convenient way for both customer and owner. There is no need wait for bill after finishing lunch/dinner, just walk away from there. For restaurants, order is all taken at the counter, so restaurant has only servers.
After a good walk and lunch we started drive to Daintree national park and Mossman Gorge.
For Mossman Gorge we can’t drive the cars to the Mossman Gorge entrance. We need to park our cars at the visitor center and buy a bus ticket. There are frequent buses and bus will take visitors to the entrance. About 10 mins drive from visitor center in bus. We did see some people walking to the entrance. Seems like Aboriginal people in the village doesn’t like too much traffic from cars, so they are running buses.
Ended the day with a walk near by areas. We stayed in hotel Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort, 122 Lake St, Cairns. Cairns aquarium is right next door, Esplanade Lagoon is behind and port from where reef cruises start is 5 mins walk . We enjoyed the location and recommend this to friends for the convenience.
Day 2: Great Barrier Reef – Day trip
Swimming in Great Barrier Reef is every one’s dream and you get to do that in one day in the trip. I spent lot of time on what to do and which option to pick. There are so many factors come in to picture to plan that one day. Traveling with family/alone, kids age, swimming abilities of individuals, activities interested like snorkeling, snuba, scuba diving or helicopter ride etc., what do you want to do and which tour/trip will offer these…
There are multiple companies that offer Great barrier reef trips to different islands. These trips cover some of the islands close by and 1 or 2 outer reefs. Some of the reefs are Moore, Milne, Flynn, Miliin, and islands Fitzroy, Green island, Michaelmans Cay and Hastings are covered by most of the tours.
- Reef Pontoon trip – Reef Magic cruise, QuickSilver cruise
- Snorkel, Diving trip to outer reef – Passions of paradise
- Island and Scuba trip
There are various day trips and half day trips offered to Green Island. We avoided that as it is always crowded with many tourists.
We finally went with Reef Magic cruise. Their pontoon is located approximately 45 kms from Cairns and it is a private platform located in the outer reef. The pontoon option gives many options for tourists (either beginners/experts swimmers). There is also Marine experts that offer to take on a snorkeling tour around the Reef. If you are a good swimmer, there is a tour to go other side of the reef. Diving, Glass bottom boat, semi sub marine are also available in this location. You can do what ever activities suits for you and interested. Also, whole day you will get stay in the outer reef.
One small thing that you need to be prepared if you are taking the boat ride to the Pontoon. Boat ride depends on the waves and weather on that day. Rough waves cause sea sickness for many people. Once you are on Pontoon it is fine and also reverse direction is never a problem.
Once the boat goes to pantoon, you will get the wet suite and based on the activities, you can participate in those. We got the first scuba diving instructions in the boat and ear popping trick. It was an awesome day at pantoon. We did snorkeling tour with the marine scientist. She took us snorkeling explaining the reef. First scuba was fun with the expert help and guidance. Swimming to the other side of the Outer reef needs good swimming skills and should be able to do an hour swimming.
The blue fish is called Wally and it is friendly and swims around the reef and poses to pictures. We enjoyed the colors of the reef, saw Turtles, Nemo (Clown fish), Angel fish, parrot fish, school of fish, Giant Clams (that closes when touched), sea cucumber and many more. Coral is beautiful.
Day 3: Kuranda
Kuranda is a quiet mountain village and you can reach via the Kuranda Scenic Railway Skyrail or Cableway. Cable way is a series of 3 different cable cars. It is recommended to take skyrail while going to the village and cable way down. There are Koala sanctuary, Butterfly garden, Bird Sanctuary and rainforest ATV/Quad bike ride on the top of the village. There are some hikes also in the rain forest.
We spent whole day hiking, shopping, eating and watching the show.
This dance group has done a dance which includes different animals like Kangaroo, Owl, Cassowary, and Snake . A story behind each animal and a dance involving that animal movements.
Few Tips :
1. Do you need rental car in Cairns?
For both reef excursion and Kuranda, you don’t need car if you book the tours. Probably rest of the days, you can rent a car. It will be a beautiful drive in Cairns.
2. Karunda Cable car and Skyrail
This is good mix of fun as you get to see water falls, take a train ride, cable car and hike in the rain forest.
3. ATV ride at Kuranda
You need to either reserve the ATV tour before or get to the ATV booking center right away once you get out from either train or cable car in the morning. This needs more time and you need to plan.
4. What is the best way to book Kuranda trip.
You can drive your car, but fun is in the train ride and cable car. Almost all the tours are same price and starts very early. If you want you can book the tickets from Kuranda skyrail web site for to and fro tickets. That gives you flexibility to explore on your own.
Travel Date : July, 2019
