Saturday, July 21st

Yesterday, we took a catamaran out to the Great Barrier Reef - a 1 1/2 hour boat ride from Cairns.  The winds were quite high making the boat ride extremely rocky (20 to 25 knots).  Many people were sea sick - luckily we weren't, but it was not a comfortable ride by any means.  Linda and I snorkeled which was the most unbelievable experience I have ever had.  I have never seen such brilliant colors and so much of them.  The reef is home to over 400 different kinds of coral and many fish.

Today, we traveled by train to Karunda, which is on top of a mountains in a rainforest.  We went on army ducks (amphibious vehicles) through part of the rainforest and watched a dance performance by an indigenous group (can't remember the name) and had a didigeroo, boomerang and spear demonstration.  Then we travelled on cable car over the canapy of the rainforest.  A beautiful day - I even got to hold a koala bear!  They are much smaller than I imagined and they don't even look real.  Another great day.  Tomorrow we travel to Brisbane and I will blog more then.

Army Duck that we traveled through part of the rainforest

A Wallabee

                                                

Snakehead