The Great Barrier Reef

To celebrate our five year anniversary Sarah and I took a long weekend to visit Far North Queensland (FNQ), specifically Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). We are very fortunate here in Queensland that intrastate travel is good to go. In fact, the Brisbane to Cairns air route is the busiest in Australia right now, normally Sydney to Melbourne hold this honour.

We departed on a Friday after work, arrived in Cairns that evening. Queensland is a surprisingly large state. A 2 1/2 hour flight from the bottom of QLD got us 3/4 of the way to the top of QLD. About an hour out a Brisbane, we started to see signs of the GBR.

Not great picture of the Reef

About to Land in Cairns

Once in Cairns, we checked into our hotel for the night and the next morning at 0745 boarded the Sailing Vessel Coral Sea Dreaming. Our accommodations for the next two days. Shortly after boarding, we were sailing (really motoring) out of Cairns Marina.

View from the Pacific Hotel

The Coral Sea Dreaming

Leaving Cairns in our wake

We motored for about 3 hours before we arrived at Hastings Reef on the Outer Great Barrier Reef. This was the site of our first two dives. On the way out we went through a basic/refresher course on diving. Once moored we quickly got geared up and were in the water. Our first dive about at 40 minutes exploring the Reef. It was pretty amazing, we have no pictures. Neither of us was confident enough in our diving skills to rent and take a camera. Luckily our Captain (Claire) did take some on deck and underwater pictures. Follow the link to our trip on the Coral Sea Dreaming's Facebook page. If it does not work, leave a comment below and we will figure it out.

After the first dive, the crew quickly repositioned the boat to another part of Hastings Reef and we dove again. More great dive and sightseeing below water. After that a short motor to Michaelmas Cay for our overnight mooring and a night dive.

Michaelmas Cay

Another of the Cay with some boat

Evening on the Cay

The Cay was a seabird sanctuary, off limits to people. The birds made quite the racket, after the sunset we could hear them flying around the boat late into the night.

Picture of Claire taking a picture of Sarah
(See FB for the other picture)

Sunset on the Cay

Rough Life!

Rough Life 2!

On Sunday we awoke for a cloud covered sunrise, then quickly in the water for two more dives. The first dive on Sunday morning was the best of the trip. The visibility was great and the coral and sea life was outstanding. Even after each diving, I struggled to describe what I had seen. There was just so much to take in.

Shortly after getting back from our last dive we slipped our mooring and headed back for Cairns. Three or so hours later we were back on dry land and trying to figure out our next move. Also, getting some Aloe cause we got a bit of sun on the trip back to Cairns.

Free Rider!

We eventually got to our hotel for the next two night in a small beach town of Palm Cove. On the recommendation of friends, we stayed at The Reef House. When we arrived the hotel had treated us to a nice Appetizer platter and some bubbly to help us celebrated our anniversary.

Palm Cove is a great little beach town. We had a very relaxing time. To include a very nice massage gifted to us for our anniversary. Not something we would normally do, but a nice treat. OUr two days were spent relaxing, walking and eating. The end of our time in FNQ came to an end far too quickly.