Day 3

Woke up early this morning, again, Sunday and decided to walk to Church at St Monica’s for 6:30 AM Mass. Church was very modest although very big, with stained glass around the entire church depicting what appeared to be Cairns. It showed water, mountains, rainforest, and animals from the area. The Priest was funny, as he gave his sermon you thought you were sitting at a table having a conversation, and not having someone preaching to you.

Back to hotel for breakfast, then a bit of a wait until bus arrived for trip to the rainforest which was about 20 miles or so from where we were in downtown Cairns.

We started at the base of the “Great Dividing Range” which stretches almost 2200 miles down the eastern coastline of Australia. At its highest point it is only about 7000′, not high compared to some of the ranges in the US.

We started by taking the Rainforest Cableway from the base, stopping twice to change gondolas and have an opportunity to walk around at each level taking in the scenery. As we climbed from the base to stop one, you could look back and see all the way to the coastline, pictures will follow. The second trip took us further up the mountain as we traveled above the canopy of the Karunda Rainforest. The sites were amazing and although we did not see much below the canopy, you could hear the birds loud and clear.

The final leg, took us further up the mountain towards the town of Karunda, and across the canyons formed by the Barron River. There was one point as we reached the summit and crossed over the River Gorge that we had to have been 1000 to 1500′ above the river. Pictures to follow.

After making our way to the top, our bus met us and took us the sort 2 miles to the town of Karunda, where we had a couple of hours to grab lunch and visit the small town.

One thing we have noticed is how friendly the Australian people are, difficult to say anything without getting into a conversation about a variety of topics.

Upon returning to the hotel after a day of viewing the sites we decided to relax for an hour or so before taking to the city streets to look for another interesting place to have dinner. Sorry to say, we are still not adjusted to the time and ended up falling asleep for several hours before getting up at 7:00 PM!! After getting cleaned upwelling walked to the Marina to “Dundee’s” sat outside on the Boardwalk and had another great dinner. Mary opted for a lite dinner and ordered Tapas, while I ordered the local fish I have seen everywhere, Baramundi, it is a very light whitefish, very good.

Tomorrow we head out by catamaran to Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef, which is included with our tour. Mary an I have opted to take an additional Catamaran that will take us another 15 mikes or so to the edge of the Reef, where we will snorkel from a large floating platform.

So far the weather has been absolutely perfect, and based on what we have been seeing in daily paper should continue until we leave on Tuesday for Ayers Rock outside Alice Springs.

Just a footnote, it is currently 10:30 PM on Sunday here, making it 8:30 Sunday morning in Cincinnati.

Until tomorrow,