australia
° Brisbane ° Cairns ° Great Barrier Reef ° Port Douglas
Australia is huge and greatly vacant: it is one of the world’s most urbanised countries, with about 70 per cent of the population living in the 10 largest cities. It is written that its biggest attraction is its natural beauty, and I would have agreed prior to visiting Australia. Now that I've been there, I'd say that in additional to its beauty and extraordinary beaches, the people are amazingly friendly and the beer plentiful. Absolutely fabulous place to visit, dive, swim, just hang out. . .
Brisbane
Wonderful sophisticated town, great accommodations, excellent day trips from the city. The 'roo on the top left was enroute to Queen Street Mall, just a few blocks from our hotel (the Hotel Mercure, which you can book through the link on the right if you are interested in visiting Brisbane). Brisbane was an "accidental" stop for us. We didn't have time to get to Sydney, so started the our journey from Brisbane. We were delighted with this city.
Cairns
Cairns is a "small large town" on the East Coast of Australia. In addition to good shopping at the Marketplace, it has excellent and relatively inexpensive tours to diving areas of the Great Barrier Reef, such as Green Island. Options were viewing coral reefs and tropical fish from a "semi-submarine," or a glass-bottom boat, or snorkel from the beach to the reefs (which is what we did). When we were there in 2003, one of America's Naval Pacific Fleet ships was in port and the fine young men and women were on our dive trip. They were all well-mannered and delightful company during a day-long trip.
We also joined a day-trip to the Cairns Zoo, which is considered the premier wildlife park in Queensland. It the closest we've ever been to "exotic" animals. We hand-fed kangaroos and this is one of the few places in Australia that you can hold a koala and have your photo taken. We missed the Night Zoo, which includes an Aussie BBQ featuring steak and seafood.
Great Barrier Reef
If you fill the Grand Canyon in Arizona with 80+° turquoise water and populate it with vibrantly colored tropical fish darting around you, you will have the Great Barrier Reef. We were in the area of the Reef out of Cairns . . . it is so vast, and visibility so excellent that it is eerie to swim in. Even though the reef is suffering due to environmental concerns, if you have previously not seen this world wonder, it is still amazing.
Port Douglas
Oddly, Port Douglas grew as a result of Australia's gold discoveries in the late 1800s. It does not resemble any American West Gold Rush towns, but it is more like a tropical port for pleasure boats with a lovely downtown area that is a perfect size for an afternoon stroll and shopping. When we visited Port Douglas during the month of May, the weather was sublime, not too humid, just lovely. We've heard that humidity during an Australian summer is brutal.
We toured the Rainforest Habitat, which features an enclosed aviary allowing where we strolled within feet of hundreds of different species of birds . . . close to kangaroos, cassowaries, koalas and some crocodiles.
Reading departure signs in some big airport