Cairns, Queensland, Australia - Mar 12, 2020

Cairns, where the lush rain forests run all the way down to the sea and the jewel-toned fishes and the giant, coral-encrusted clams populate the incredible Great Barrier Reef. The area around Cairns was first discovered by, yes you guessed it, Captain James Cook on June 10, 1770. On this day which fell on the Trinity Sunday, led Cook to name the inlet Trinity Bay. One hundred years later in 1876 the discovery of gold fields led to the establishment of a settlement which became Cairns. Today, the city of Cairns offer the atmosphere of a big city with all the friendliness and natural wonders you would expect from a small Australian town.

The to do list here is vast and wide, the Cairns Museum is the perfect place to begin and learn about the city’s early history and ties to the Aboriginal people. On the outlaying areas there are spectacular natural wonders, towards the interior one will find the Daintree Rainforest, with can be visited by taking a sky rail, while out to sea you have the magnificent Great Barrier Reef. The recommendation on visiting the Daintree Rainforest would be to do it in a loop. Take the train up to the village of Kuranda, great artist village with nice cafes, then take the sky rail back, this gondola ride stops at two platforms to give you an opportunity to walk in the tree tops. There is also a fabulous Aboriginal centre at the end. If you are into scuba, snorkelling, fishing etc, then head out to the Great Barrier Reef with one of the many companies, like Quicksilver.

For us this day was a bit of a bust, we signed up for HAL EXC excursion to Green Island which offers a unique opportunity for a combined reef and rain forest experience. We had the promise of good snorkelling, Glass bottom boat opportunity as well as eco trails, beautiful beaches, a crocodile adventure park, and the use of a hotel pool with a lunch included. All sounded good up front, this island looks incredible in pictures and as it did in the presentation. As mentioned this tour was a bust right out of the gate, somewhere out there, there was a cyclone brewing and I think it hit the island the same time we did. With the catamaran banging against the pier and the horizontal rain coming down in what you would call a gale, they told us to disembark the vessel, “What, really, you want us to leave now”, yes, everyone for Green Island must disembark. I’m thinking, what about safety , there are two people on our tour with walkers. Easter island tendering was a cake walk compared to this. Not the up and down motion but the way the ramp was sliding back and forth on the pier, you don’t get out of the way in a hurry and you will loose your ankles. So taking over 20 minutes for people to get off was in some part entertaining as their ponchos were rattling over their heads in the wind and rain and then scary hoping they can see their feet to be able to quickly get out of the way. The crew on board although soaked right through and then some did a good job in getting everyone safely ashore to the pier. From here we were herded to an awning shelter before walking the additional 150 yards along the pier to the island - yes the wind and the rain are still hitting us like little bullets. Standing under a tree, we are informed that the glass bottom boat ride is cancelled and that snorkelling is not recommended - hmmm, this is why we are here. Everyone just wanted to go back, but there was an alternative offered which seemed pretty weak considering that maybe only half the people were paying attention or able to, many were have problems with their water logged hearing aids at this time. So we could have our lunch and head back on the 2:30 boat. As we couldn’t go back immediately we stayed in the restaurant until the boat arrived. So yeah, a bust. back in town they offered a shuttle back to the ship but we had to wait in the rain for everyone or walk the 10 minutes back to the ship - we beat the shuttle back by walking. Jan was chilled and jumped into a hot bath where I had to blow off some steam and took a quick walk into town to pick up a few things and take a few pics. Nice sail away as we were able to witness some 100,000 fruit bats make their nightly trek over to the mangroves, this was incredible. For the tour we are expecting a full refund for this tour that should not have happened. 

Okay, as I am writing this, this just in our cabin, a letter from shore excursions, bottom line they are offering us a 50% refund. Hmmm, really, they are going to charge us over $200 for an adventure that should not have happened. We will see. I was in the midst of writing a letter using the navigator app on board and after some 45 minutes on composition as I scrolled to review, it disappeared, just like that - great, I am know livid. Jumped up and presented myself and our case to both the Excursion Desk and the Guest Relations Manager. I will let you know how this gets resolved within the next 24 hours. Some pics of the day, some will be posted separately from the GoPro, I could only take a few pics from the island using my main camera, hard to take any pics with that much rain coming down, it was better with the GoPro but still very hard to keep the lens dry. Hope you enjoy…

Quote of the day - “There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.” - Alexander Graham Bell