We arrived in Australia on 25th Oct, landing in Sydney at around nine in the morning local time. Our flight to Cairns did not leave until 6:30 that evening so we had time to look around the City. Our taxi dropped us by the Circular Quay, which is right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. From there we took the tourist bus around the city which gave us a good insight into things to see and do; as a result we went to the aquarium.

Our hotel in Cairns was the Righa Colonial Club Resort (the link for this Hotel no longer works, so I assume that they have closed or changed hands). It was some distance from the sea, but had several pools and provided a free bus service to the town centre and beach. The first day was a lazy day, but we got up at 4:30am on the morning of the second day for a dawn flight in a hot air balloon. This is an experience that is hard to describe and is to be recommended. Day 3 took us on a tour to Cape Tribulation, which is in the Daintree National Park. The park is mostly tropical rain forest but the eastern boundary is the Coral Sea, with beaches that have to be seen to be believed. One small fly in the ointment is the estuarine crocodiles that are to be found on the coast. Taking account of the dangers from stinging jellyfish, swimming in the sea was not recommended! Day 4 we went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. This was a day trip from Cairns to an area of the outer reef called Thetford Reef. We had two 30 minute dives and spent the rest of the time schnorkelling. Another experience to be recommended!

On Day 5 we moved up the coast about 40-50 miles to Port Douglas. When our travel agents offered this itinery, we questioned why we were moving to a place so close to Cairns and they said that 'Cairns was a good place to use as a base and Port Douglas was a nice place to stay'. We found that this was very true.

Cairns is a busy town (by North Queensland standards), with a modern shopping mall, lots of entertainment and lots of tourists. Port Douglas is located in a very attractive area, with a nice beach and a peaceful atmosphere. One day, we were in the bank changing money; I couldn't help but notice that the staff greeted nearly all the customers by their first name!

While we were at Port Douglas, we had a pretty lazy time, although we did go out to the reef again, this time to Opal Reef for schnorkelling only. We also took a train ride to Karunda, and old mining town in the mountains. Our Hotel was the Rydges Reef Resort (the link for this Hotel is also broken) and was pretty self-contained. Its layout was very similar to the Colonial Club at Cairns, with lots of paths winding through the gardens between the pools. On the first evening there, we were exploring the grounds and I managed to step on something rubbery that was stretched across the path. Judging its length from the width of the path it was about 4ft long and 2" in diameter. We never did find out what kind of snake it was, but the Receptionist looked pretty shocked when I described it. This was apparently a rare event, (they would say that wouldn't they), but we didn't see much more wildlife other than geckos and the stay was very relaxing. On 4th Nov, we flew out of Cairns to Brisbane, and then on to Fiji.

Our picture collection from Australia can be seen in the Australia Gallery.