Darwin again (for Mar. 10)

Today was a very leisurely day with little travel and lots of swimming. We first stopped at a roadside interpretive centre for termite mounds. One type is called “magnetic” because the termites shape it like an aircraft wing and orient it north/south. Because of this, one side faces the sun in the morning, one side face it in the afternoon, but, in the middle of the day the leading edge shades the rest. In this way they maintain a relatively constant temperature. There was also a huge cathedral mound, 5 metres tall and estimated to be about 50 years old.



Next stop, Wangi Falls. We couldn’t swim here because it is possible for crocs to reach here in “the wet,” but it is a popular swimming spot in” the dry.” We did a very nice walk across the top and down the other side through monsoon forest (like rain forest) at the bottom and savanna at the top. As we climbed up, there was also a clear definition of monsoon forest on our left and savanna to our right where it was less influenced by the falls and creek.








Our next stop was at Tollmer Falls. We couldn’t swim there because of a roosting area for some protected bats, but it was a pretty view.








Next stop, Florence Falls, where we did a walk along the creek before taking a long swim in a very pretty rockhole. This place wasn’t as secluded as Moline Falls, but was every bit as pretty. And, once again, the water temperature was just right. Apparently this is a very busy spot during “the dry” with people from Darwin because you have to get up to these mountain polls to be safe from crocs.


From there we hiked up to a lookout over the falls.












Then it was just a short drive to Buley Rockholes, a series of small falls into small pools that lies above Florence Falls. We hung out there relaxing with lots of other people until it was time to head home. Also keeping us company was a 4-5 foot Michell’s Water Monitor, a harmless insect eater which is about half body and half tail.





We got back to the hotel about 5:30 in time to take a picture of the harbour from our balcony.

Adelaide River (for Mar. 9)

We awoke to light rain. We had thin to heavy overcast all day, threatening rain showers, but we only had a couple of light showers.

I began my day with a trip to the toilet where I found a one inch frog (not including legs) on top of the toilet tank and a six inch lizard (nose to tail) on the wall (he scurried behind the tank). I thought that is no big deal and opened the toilet lid to find a three inch frog in there! I decided to use the other stall. There was another small frog in the shower and another three inch one on the sink when I went to shave. Talk about getting close to nature!


In the morning, we took a cruise up Katherine Gorge on the Katherine River. There are 13 sections split by sets of rapids. At the height of “the wet” they use a jet boat to travel over the rapids up to the 4th or 5th gorge. During “the dry” they have 50 passenger cruise boats stationed in each section and you walk around each set of rapids to the next boat. In our case the water was not high enough for the speed boat and it had not been high enough to get the cruise boats beyond the second rapids, so that is as far as we got.



At the cruise dock area, I hiked to the lookout with some of the others while Celeste and some others took in the Visitor Centre. Once again, the heat and humidity ensured a wet and stinky t-shirt. There are thousands of bats here of two varieties, a larger one and a smaller one. They hang like fruit from the trees around the boat landing.






After lunch our time was limited because all the others had booked only 3 days of the 4 day tour. They all had to make connections to go home or to carry on their holiday. With the little time remaining, we voted to take in an authentic outback pub 15 km off the beaten track. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there was no one else around, but apparently they are pretty busy on the weekends with hunters, amateur prospectors, and city people looking for a rustic diversion. They claimed to have a museum, but it was really a collection of old junk buried under dust and cobwebs. There were a couple of interesting items, but the main attraction was the atmosphere.


From there we dropped off the others at the town of Adelaide River where another bus was waiting for them. We went on to Mount Bundy Station, a former cattle station homestead now operating as a campground. Our tour operator had another setup like the previous two, but it looked like they were the only ones using it, at least at this time of year. They had warned us that it was pretty rustic, but it was very similar to the others except that it did not have a reception area, bar, and restaurant, which we didn’t use in the other places anyway.

Nearby was a forest of Cathedral termite mounds.


Normally on these tours, the guide organizes the tour members to share cooking and cleanup duties. With two extra guides, our duties had been pretty light until now. But with three guides and two tourists, they left us completely at leisure for a walk around the area. Just before supper, Ros’s partner showed up to surprise her. He had been away for 2-3 weeks and was on his way back to Darwin. She wasn’t expecting to see him until next day. We had a pleasant evening of visiting and story telling.

Katherine (for Mar. 8)

It was tough sleeping last night. 28 degrees at 2 AM. 27 degrees at 6 AM. Very high humidity and no breeze. We slept in puddles of sweat. There were a few mosquitoes around at dawn, but not too bad. We were up early to eat and break camp for the 50 km drive to Yellow Water for a 9 AM cruise of the Alligator River floodplain. All our sweat-soaked clothes are just as wet as when we took them off last night.

Wow! There is a lot of water out there. Part of our boat cruise was over top of the dry season walking trail. The level varies about 5 metres from wet to dry, but the area covered varies exponentially. From a narrow river, the watercourse expands into a veritable inland sea. It is miles across for 100 miles from the ocean. The plants have adapted to live part of the year submerged and part totally dry and many of them float, never actually taking root. There are gazillions of birds out there. One of them is the Magpie Goose, a black and white goose that sits in trees. Another is this guy and his 4 chicks that they call the Jesus Bird. He has toes as long as his legs and runs along on top of floating vegetation. The day is pretty sunny through broken cloud and very warm and humid again. Fortunately, there is a hint of breeze on the water.














This was probably our last chance to see crocs in the wild. Although we are continually warned to stay away from the water, there is so much water that they are spread out over hundreds of square miles instead of being concentrated in rivers and billabongs (sloughs).
The water is so brown from the high runoff that there could be one right under your nose without you seeing it. They like to hang out near the shore and grab prey when it comes to drink.

From the cruise we went to a little known swimming spot at the foot of Moline Falls. What an idyllic spot. Shaded by the rocks and trees, the water is just the perfect temperature and we were totally on our own.

From there we exited Kakadu for lunch at its southern border. While some of the gang was setting up lunch in one of the picnic shelters, one of the guides spotted 4-5 Brown Snakes, apparently very poisonous. We moved to the other shelter.

After Yellow Water we were mostly in savanna as we gained some altitude through rolling hills. We started to get a little rain that intensified into fairly steady moderate rain for much of the afternoon. We stopped at Edith Falls for a swim and some pictures, but the views weren’t great in the rain. We went on to the town of Katherine and set up camp for the night.

Jabiru (for Mar. 7)

We were picked up at our hotel at 7:30. There were 12 of us, plus 3 guides in a 21 passenger bus, so there was lots of room and it was quite comfortable. The guides were all around 30, plus or minus. Ros was the head honcho. She has 8.5 years experience as a guide. She has also guided in the Red Centre region (around Uluru) and the Kimberleys in Western Australia. She has been in this area for 2.5 years and we were to learn that she was very knowledgeable about the history, culture, flora, and fauna of the region. She and her partner have 4 camels. They are moving to the desert of the Red Centre where their camels will be more at home and where they will do guided camel tours for another company.

The other two guides, Steve and Greg, were trainees on a familiarization trip. They were not as expert as Ros on the local details, but they knew a lot and brought a wealth of other knowledge and great, fun-loving attitudes that kept things light and lively.

The first passenger we met was Norm from Calgary. He was pretty obviously retired, so I asked him how long and where he had worked. He said 5 years and at Moore Corporation (a business forms company). I asked if he knew Neil Schiissler. Of course, he had worked with Neil. Small world. We later met his wife Marie. Another pair was Pat and Julie, a mother and daughter combo from Kent, England. Pat was 50ish and Julie was a 25ish horsewoman show jumper who is getting married in May 2007. Another pair was Lisa and Renee, two 25-30 year olds from Minnesota. The other 4 were the Schwarz family (no relation), Holgar, Tina, Katrina (about 13), and Kristien (about 10) from Denmark.. The parents spoke very good English. Katherine had recently started taking it in school and Kristien had not started taking it yet. Apparently they have a lot of Danish tourists here ever since Prince Frederick started dating an Australian girl after the 2000 Olympics and married her about a year ago.

We left in a steady light rain with a forecast high of 29 and sunny. Sure enough, the rain soon stopped and the sky began to clear. It was mostly sunny through broken cloud for the rest of the day. The temperature where we were was more than 29 as the thermometer on my clock still said 30 degrees at 10 pm. And, of course, the humidity was high, making us perspire at the slightest exertion and perspire heavily on more challenging walks.

Our first stop was at the Fogg Dam. It was an earthen embankment about 4-6 feet high with a road on top that had been constructed many years ago to hold water for a failed rice plantation. The wetland it created is full of lilies and other water plants and all kinds of waterfowl. As we drove back across to our start point, we both noticed some bubbles near the base of the embankment that looked suspiciously like the bubbles the crocs made at the Australia Zoo, but there was no way of knowing for sure.

From the dam we drove to an interpretive centre that explained the history and ecology of the flood plain of the Adelaide River and more about the failed attempt to grow rice in the area. Then, a short stop by the roadside to check out some Cathedral termite mounds. Next stop – Mamukala wetlands, where a boardwalk led to an interpretive display. This is a large slough/small lake that dries to a hard pan of mud in the dry season. The interpretive display showed the variations in flora and fauna between the seasons and how the aboriginal people found different food sources at different times of year. Then on to Jabiru for lunch at the place that would be our camp for the night. There is a large cooking and dining tent and a dozen or so two person tents furnished with two single beds each and a night table. Our site lies within a larger commercial resort with camping and cabin facilities.



After lunch we went to the Bowali Visitor Centre, the main one for the park. It had a lot of info on the ecology as well as the relationship of the aboriginals with the land. Very good. Next, we were supposed to go to Ubirr to see some rock art, but the road was closed due to flooding, so we went to another site at Nourlangie Rock instead for some climbing walks to some art sites and lookouts. We then made a short stop at Nawurlandja Lookout for a look back at Nourlangie Rock and the escarpment in the distance.




Finally, we returned to the campsite. There we found a family of Curlews, mother, dad, and chick, had staked out the campfire ring. They weren’t too happy about our arrival, but eventually left. We picked the Curlew tent, thinking that would be a pretty good omen. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the flies and mosquitoes are not too bad at all. While our guides prepared supper, the whole gang of tourists retreated to the pool for a very refreshing dip.



Ros (the guide) used two expressions that captured the landscape I have described many times previously – savanna and open forest. Both describe the thin forest in a sea of grass that we have seen so often. We saw lots of it today. Leaving Darwin, there were quite a few mango orchards and some cattle grazing. Farther out, we ran into the flood plain of the Adelaide River. The river itself is about 50 metres across, but the flood plain extends for a kilometer or more on either side. At the height of the wet season, it can be a lake many miles long. Farther east we got out of the very flat flood plain and into slightly higher, but still pretty flat savanna. This is the home of the Cathedral termites who feed on the abundant grass that is 4 to 8 feet tall. Then, another flood plain, this time of the Mary River, then more savanna as we entered Kakadu, another flood plain of the Alligator River, and more savanna to Jabiru. East of Jabiru is the Arnhem Escarpment and some isolated outlying remnants of its former line. The escarpment is a cliff varying from 100 feet to 1,000 feet high running southwest from the coast.

They don’t have the same four seasons here that we do. They have “the wet” and “the dry” and two shoulder seasons. We are near the end of “the wet.” And boy, is it wet! Most dirt roads and some paved roads are closed because they are too wet or under water - in some cases several feet of water. Because the land is basically flat, there is a lot of standing water just about everywhere and all the creeks and streams are very full.

Darwin (for Mar. 6)

Packing up this morning, Celeste realized that her purse was missing. She knew right away where it was. She had placed it in the room safe when we went for tour of the Olgas (March 3) because we wanted to use her backpack to carry our water and she didn’t want to drag her purse along. With the confusion of a hurried move after our late return, we forgot about it. A few phone calls cancelled her credit cards and located the purse. They will mail it tonight to the hotel, which we will return to in a few days. Whew!

Today was a travel day. We departed Alice Springs at 11:30, landed Darwin at 1:30, and were in our hotel before 2:30. We left Alice with clear skies and a forecast high of 35 degrees. The terrain appeared to be pretty much the same as we have seen the last few days. Within half an hour we ran into an undercast of thin cirrus cloud. From there on we were always over some kind of cloud that varied from thin to thick and undercast to broken. As a result I was not able to observe much terrain the rest of the way. Approaching Darwin, we broke out over thick forest with patches of row crops and orchards. It was 25 degrees and raining steadily at the airport, but, by the time we were settled into our room, the rain had let up to a light drizzle, so we went for a walk. By the time we returned just before 5:30, the sky was getting brighter although it was still very humid. Looks like tomorrow could be a nice day.

Our hotel is on the Esplanade, the main street along the shore, lined with hotels. As usual, there is a park along the shore. We took a path down to the shore that was like walking through the jungle with ferns and vines everywhere. The rocks on the shore were very colourful. I guess the combination of saltwater and erosion and sun causes all the different minerals to display different colours. No two were alike and they were all as beautiful as rocks can be.

The whole country of Australia is very proud of its war record. In WWI they had a nation building experience at Gallipoli similar to Canada’s experience at Ypres. Because of their geographical position in the world, they have a large interest in Southeast Asia and distinguished themselves in Vietnam. But their biggest patriotism is focused on WWII. They were on the front lines as the Japanese bombed Darwin in 1942 killing 252 people in one raid. There were 64 raids on Darwin in total and they dropped twice as many bombs here as they did on Pearl Harbour. That experience is very prominent in the monuments and tourist attractions in the city.

The other hike

My hike to the King’s Creek wasn’t nearly as cool as Glenn’s hike. As I didn’t want to do a lot of climbing and risk buggering up my knee again I went on the hike with the other ‘seniors’. Our walk was a gentle stroll along the dry creek bed to a lookout and back. The scenery was really quite beautiful. Along the way our tour guide talked about the vegetation and how the plants are specially adapted to the desert climate. He also showed us which plants and bugs the Aboriginal people would eat. That part was kind of cool.

Alice Springs (for Mar. 5)

We had three choices for today. First, the moderately strenuous, 6 km, 3.5 hour Kings Canyon rim walk. Second, the easy, 1 km, 1 hour Kings Canyon creek walk. Third, sleep in. As tempting as sleeping in was, we chose the walks. We were up before 5:30. Me for the 6:15 pickup for the long walk; Celeste because my alarm woke her.

My crew drove in the dark, arriving at the canyon at first light. The first stretch was a climb of about 200 metres vertically at a 45 degree angle. That was the hard part, although there were some smaller challenges later on. The terrain and vegetation were very interesting. The canyon is the eroded remains of sandstone formed from dunes, as evidenced by the layers being put down at different angles. The vegetation is more of the uniquely adapted desert plants that we have seen for the last couple of days. The adaptations they have made for drought and fire are quite amazing. At the half way point we descended into a deep gully that had trapped quite a lot of water where many people from other hikes were swimming. After climbing back out, we finished with more interesting formations around the canyon rim.


Celeste’s group left at 8 for a walk along the dry creek bed of the creek. I will let her tell her story, but she finished up about the same time as our group and we bussed back to the hotel for a shower before hitting the road at 11. We stopped a short distance down the highway at a touristy stop that served camel burgers. Pretty good. I’m not sure how I would describe it, but it wasn’t much different from beef. From there we set out for Alice Springs, arriving in our hotel room at 6:30. Again, the terrain was pretty similar, except for some ranges of rocky hills. This riding the bus is a lot more relaxing than driving. And I find that I am able to read a lot more too! The price you pay is being stuck with someone else’s timetable.

We drove through several of Australia’s famous “cattle stations” but only saw a few cattle. These ranches are typically more than one million acres, and I can see why. There sure isn’t a lot of feed out there. And they have developed an easy and efficient roundup method. They set up corals with water troughs and in and out turnstile type gates. The cattle become habituated to the water trough. When they want to round them up, they just lock the out gate and come back every few days with a cattle truck.

Heat and Flies

Crikey, it’s hot here in the desert – close to 40 degrees hot! But it’s a dry heat – and with a little wind is much more tolerable than the humid heat of Cairns.

Another thing – the blowflies can drive you mad! They don’t bite but they constantly buzz and swarm and dive bomb at your face. Arghhhh! We bought fly netting that fits over the entire head and neck that they conveniently sell at all the tourist stores. It works but it’s hard to see clearly and you look like a dorky tourist. Don’t know how the locals get used to these little buggers.

Kings Canyon (for Mar. 4)

Boy, that was a short night! Our pickup was at 5:30 AM from the other hotel. We set the alarm for 4 so we would have time to eat, shower, check out, check our bags, and walk across the resort in the dark. I woke up at 3 and couldn’t go back to sleep because I was afraid the alarm wouldn’t go off or I wouldn’t hear it. Meanwhile, Celesete wasn’t having a very good time of it. She had a bad headache and hardly slept at all, tossing and turning all night. She finally started to get back to normal by 4:30 and we made it to our pickup on time.


When we got to the east side of Uluru, the scene was much like the west side the night before. There were buses, cars, and people everywhere. The sky was almost totally clear, so we got the full performance. It is a very photogenic rock, with its changing, but mostly red colour and the changing shadows of its eroded face. And the view is different from every vantage point.


After the sunrise, we took a couple of guided walks around points of interest hearing more about the mythology and geology. It is very interesting to view close up and see all the eroded imperfections that are not evident from a distance. The erosive power of water has created many interesting effects.
Then it was back to the hotel for lunch and the pickup for our next stop, Kings Canyon. It was about a 5 hour ride including 3 short stops for a leg stretch. The terrain was gently rolling sand and dunes until we hit the rocky hills near the canyon. The vegetation was pretty much the same as around Uluru. We did our usual exploratory walk around and went for a swim before settling down for today’s blog. Lights out at 10.

Yulara (for Mar. 3)

We started the day with a tour around the resort on the resort shuttle with a stop at the resort that we were originally booked into and that we had visited last night. We wanted to see what it looked like in the daylight. Then we went to the Visitor Center where they had an excellent museum type of area. They had dioramas of the desert wildlife, explanations of the geology, and displays about the history and culture of the area. Very good!


From there we grabbed lunch and went to wait for our tour. Today’s trip was to Kata Tjuta or the Olgas. This is a cluster of dome shaped mountains west of Ayers Rock. It and Uluru were formed by runoff from ancient mountains. Kata Tjuta is a conglomerate of stones and sand and mud from nearer the old mountains. Uluru is sandstone from further downstream that was folded millions of years ago so that its layers are now almost vertical. We viewed Kata Tjuta from a couple of lookouts before taking a hike up Walpa Gorge between two of the domes. Regrettably, the day was pretty cloudy and the pictures don’t seem to adequately capture the colour or the scale of the experience.


From there we went to a viewing area for sunset at Uluru. There were about 20 buses there and each one had a complimentary spread laid out. We had wine, cheese, crackers, cut up vegetables, and dip. It was quite a carnival type of atmosphere as people who had been on the bus together all day started making acquaintances and striking up conversation. And, although there are still quite a few Japanese here, there are less than Cairns and there don’t seem to be any other Orientals or Indians. Our bus had a lot of Canadians and Germans and quite a few Aussies. We met a couple from Ottawa. He works for Nortel.


On our way to the viewing site, we came across a herd of about 20 wild camels. Our driver said it was fairly rare given the size of the desert, the bush and sand dunes, the number of camels, and the number of roads.









Uluru is famous for the changing colours as it captures the sun’s last rays of the day. Although it was a pretty cloudy day, we did get a few rays of sunshine that lit the rock up nicely, but far from the full show. At 7:30 we headed back to the resort for an early night prior to tomorrow’s 5:35 AM pickup for Uluru sunrise. Or so we thought.

When we got back to our room there was a message that our room was now available at the original resort or we could stay where we were for an upcharge of $60. The upgraded room we were in wasn’t too fancy, so we weren’t sure what we were getting into, but there is no way we were going to pay and extra $60 on principle, so we moved over. The new place is not the Ritz. It isn’t a dump, but it is pretty basic – like no bathroom in the room! Oh well, it is only one night. We hurriedly threw our stuff together for the transfer, had a quick swim, blogged today’s excitement, and hit the sack a little after 10.

Yulara (for Mar. 2)

We took a cab to the airport and departed about 10 AM. We gained half an hour entering a new time zone, arriving about 12:15. The hotel we were booked into was doing some renovations, so we were upgraded to another in the same resort complex. We were all settled in by 1:30 and set out on a brief tour of the facilities to get the lay of the land and returned to our room for some planning. Our first scheduled tour isn’t until 2:45 tomorrow afternoon, so we have to decide what to do with ourselves.

Leaving Cairns, we flew over the Atherton Tablelands, which I described the day we arrived in Cairns by car. After that, I only saw one small patch of cultivated land the whole way here. There may have been some cattle grazing, but I can’t say for sure. After the tableland, you could see a dappling of dark green trees and bushes on a background of light green grass or red and sand coloured earth. Farther west, the trees and bushes ran out. But farther west again, when the grass had also run out, you could see that the dessert had its own green vegetation against the red and sand background. On landing, it was much like Arizona. The plants were different, but there was plenty of life in this dessert too. We overflew several rivers – of sand - with some potholes of water. It seems like most of the rivers in this part of the country are dry most of the time, but flood for a few days after a rainstorm.

The town here is called Yulara or Ayers Rock Resort. It is over 40 degrees here, but it doesn’t feel as hot as Cairns did with the high humidity. We have gone from stifling heat to searing heat. They have the most annoying little black flies here. They don’t bite, but they love buzzing around your head and landing on your face. All the stores are doing a booming business in mosquito nets that you put over your head.

Celeste felt a headache coming on, so she rested for a bit while I read all the resort info and started today’s blog. Later we did another repacking job. The next leg of our trip is by bus. They limit you to one suitcase up to 50 pounds and one carry-on. Our previous efforts were aimed at this target, but the airline labeled my bag as 26 kilos, about 57 pounds, so we tried to transfer some weight to Celeste’s bag. We also decided to mail some of our gifts home to make a little more room in our suitcases. They say it should take 2-3 weeks, so they may arrive before we do. Tom, please do whatever is necessary when they arrive and we will square up on our return. Ideally, they arrive late enough that we can pick them up after our return.


Celeste still wasn’t feeling great, so I went out and took a few pictures of the resort and of Uluru (Ayers Rock) from a viewpoint on the resort. On my return, we had a bite to eat and checked out some of the souvenir shops in the resort’s shopping area, then set out on the resort shuttle to check out the night spot that our bus driver had suggested. We arrived after 8 and the entertainer was singing and playing guitar. He was pretty loud and not that good, so we found a quieter corner and had a beer. Clearly, this is the place where the action is because all the young people are staying in backpacker/hostel/dormitory style accommodation here. By about 8:30 we old folks had had enough action for one night, so we hopped the bus back to our hotel and squeezed in a late night swim. It was still pretty warm, so I took along my clock that measures temperature. It read 33 degrees after 9 pm and it had been dark since 7:30. That cool dip sure was refreshing! And the flies hide out as soon as it gets dark. A little more blogging and we were off to bed.

Cairns, Day 4, Green Island (Mar.1)

We walked to the Reef Fleet Terminal, arriving about 8:15 for our 9 AM departure. It was like a busy airport terminal. There must have been well over 20 boats of various shapes and sizes for different cruises operated by different companies.








Our cruise left at 9 and arrived at Green Island, a few miles off the coast, an hour and a quarter later. Green Island is a coral island that has collected enough sand over the millennia to make an island capable of growing plants. It is still surrounded by coral, but is covered in rainforest. It has a dock that serves numerous arrivals and departures during the course of the day.







Our first scheduled activity was a cruise in the semi-submersible at 11:15. By the time we walked to the beach and returned to the dock, there wasn’t a lot of time, but I figured I would get my feet wet, so to speak, with snorkeling. We had landed at an unusually high tide, so there wasn’t much beach. Celeste came in for a quick swim while I snorkeled. This is something I had always told myself I would do and it was everything I had hoped for. The colours of some corals and the fish are very vibrant. And it is remarkable how many fish are gathered in the same place. It is like swimming in an aquarium.


We raced back to the semi-sub for our half hour ride. We saw a sea turtle and many new varieties of fish, mostly larger than the ones I had seen just off the beach because the boat was farther off shore. After this ride, we ate our buffet lunch on the cruise boat and waited for our next activity, the half hour glass bottomed boat ride, at 1:15.






This boat covered much the same area as the semi-sub and we saw much the same fish, but this ride offered the added excitement of a feeding frenzy as they tossed some food over the side.

With our scheduled activities complete, we headed back to the beach for more swimming and snorkeling. When I floated over the coral this time, it was very different. Before, I had floated well above the action. Now, with the tide out the water was 3 to 4 feet lower and I was so close to the coral that I was afraid of bumping into it. And the fish were so close that it seemed you could reach out and touch them. I resisted the temptation, heeding the warnings about toxins and venoms from corals and fish, and the pleas to leave the area pristine.

After snorkeling for a while, I had to come back to the beach before venturing out again. My thighs got tired from the unusual activity of kicking those flippers, but the things that really tired out were my ankles from the unaccustomed flexing.

The cruise left for Cairns at 3:45 and we were back ashore at 5. We walked back to the hotel because I had to do some banking before I had to return the wireless modem before 6, then we went out for a bite to eat and returned to do today’s blog and pictures.

Are there ever a lot of Asian tourists here – Orientals (Japan, China, Korea) and Indians. On our cruise yesterday I am sure the Orientals alone significantly outnumbered the Caucasians. The Indians were in addition to that. We have been noticing this all along, but maybe the attraction of the Reef skewed the numbers more than normal.

Catching Up

For those of you who can’t get through the day without an update from us, our apologies for being out of touch for so long. We were going to post on March 6, but the hotel wanted outrageous rates, we had quite a lot to do, and we were a little tight for time. I tried to leave a message like this, but we couldn't get onto any Internet sites, even though we could receive and send email. Strange. So we left on the 7th for our 4 day camping trip. Details below.