Whilst they were wondering around with Alex and reading about these strange highly improbable methods of getting your message across, I was outside on the deck, doing it the original and my personal favourite way, chatting to the volunteers. They told me about Cyclone Yasi and the devastation it caused to their small community early last year. Many people have had to move away as the prawn farms were damaged and closed and jobs were lost, and some people are only just moving back into their repaired homes now, after fourteen months. Sadly, it all sounded a bit familiar.
The people have not forgotten the cyclone which damaged not only homes, nerves and the economy, but also the native flora and fauna. Before the cyclone you could not see the sea from this stretch of road, but all the trees were ripped from their roots, parts of the road came up too.
There is even a cafe in Cardwell called Yasi Cafe - but I'm not sure I can imagine anyone opening a 'Bar 6.3' in the newly rebuilt Christchurch!
Naomi had a lovely time drawing her dream house in the sand...
...and Benny as usual, was up to his Man vs Wild survival antics.
Next, on to Tully, officially the wettest place in Australia. In 1950, Tully had a total of 7.9 meters of rain, and this claim to fame has been remembered and recorded in the form of a climb-able model Gumboot, complete with local green tree frog (frog is not to scale - I hope). We put $2 in the box as a donation to climb up. Benny said, 'I don't think that $2 was very good value for that view', so we climbed up again to get our money's worth.
Then finally to Cairns for our reef encounter. We joined an organized day tour which took us an hour and a half out to the Reef, onto a specially designed pontoon, where you could swim, snorkel, dive and even walk down with specially designed underwater helmets on!
More stinger suits, complete with hoods and mittens and flippers this time, Benny 'Frogman' Skinner was taking no chances!
We saw some amazing and beautifully coloured fish, swimming so close to us and around us, just going about their business, feeding on the coral, chatting, going shopping, eating each other etc, seeming completely unperturbed by the lycra clad invaders bobbing and flipping all around them. Naomi loved it, I can't believe that her first snorkelling experience was on the Great Barrier Reef. I must admit I was a little disappointed with the coral though, I think all the picture postcards have been digitally enhanced, or they were taken in 1978, before hundreds of people started accidentally standing on it every day.
It was pretty busy, the sea was alive with the sound of pink and green flippers.
We took a few photos with our cheapy Kodak underwater camera. We haven't had the film developed yet, so in the interests of convenience, I have found some lovely online images to show you and I am pretty confident this is what our photos will turn out like;)
And lastly, Naomi and I got up close with 'Wally', the local friendly 'Fishius Massivus' (okay, I can't remember his real name) who even poses for the camera!
Great Barrier Reef, tick! Amazing!
Love
Est xxx
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