Yongala
We travel overnight, waking at 6.30am at the Yongala wreck site. Time for our first dive! Wow - what a way to start the day, giant trevally, batfish, Maori wrasse and Spanish mackerel all swimming through thousands of small fish.
Singers of the Great Barrier Reef
Wheeler Reef
Paronella Park
A 90 minute drive from Cairns we reach the turnoff to Paronella Park. It’s off the beaten track but driving through lush tropical bush and sugar cane fields along the back roads makes a change. We turn into the car park where an attendant, resplendent in Aussie slouch hat, directs us to a shady spot.
Undara Facts
Undara Lava Lodge
Breakfast at Undara
Undara Volcano
Undara's Lunar Landscape
Reef Platform
Reef Sleep
Heart Reef
Kuranda Scenic Rail
Cane Cutters' Cottage
The light outside begins to fade, the sun casting long shadows and beams of light through the gum trees. Rainbow lorikeets swoop through the branches calling and the occasional squawk of a cockatoo clashes with their screeches. The bugs and frogs begin their nightly songs and dark shapes flit silently through the trees.
Kuranda Sky Rail
After visiting Kuranda we return to Cairns on the sky rail and have a gondola to ourselves. Up and over the treetops, we slowly move above the rain forest. The 25-km trip is a great way to travel, as long as you don’t have a fear of heights. Colourful parrots dart between the trees, their squawks easily heard above the almost-indiscernible hum of the cables above the gondola.
Kuranda Butterfly House
Kuranda Rain Forest Town
Lake Barrine
Capricorn Coast Facts
Heron Island
Lady Elliot Island
Wolf Rock
Nemo's Great Barrier Reef
Mooloolaba Underwater World
Diving the Brisbane
Below the surface the mast, the highest point of the former Royal Australian Navy ship Brisbane is surrounded by sun rays. We slip into the water and drop through the fish schools over her to the deck. The Brisbane’s new life is far removed from her former one, guarding Australia’s coast. She has become a man-made reef a few kilometres off Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Thursday Island
Japanese Divers
Sunken treasure features in Thursday Island's history as pearls from black and gold-lipped oysters were discovered by Japanese pirate, Yamada Nagamasa in the early 1600s. Two hundred years later Japanese divers became the key to finding the pearl shells, dressed in ancient helmet diver's gear working underwater for long hours.
Fishing at Weipa
Cape York Facts
Best time to travel to Cape York is during the dry season from June to October. During the wet season the road is impassable and takes some time to dry out and become navigable. Four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended and a good knowledge of the area is required as there are few road signs. Most hire cars are not permitted further north than Cooktown.
Cape York
Waterfalls at Cape York
Weipa
The small Cape York town of Weipa was built around one of the largest bauxite mines in the world. We join a bus tour to watch the extraction of the orange ore. Hard hats and safety glasses are mandatory as we watch massive scrapers loading 150-tonne trucks with the bauxite that becomes aluminium after processing.
Comalco's setup is environmentally-friendly with mined areas being replanted – they're just three metres lower than before being mined. Wildlife channels are left for birds and animals to move between the bush areas.
Four wheel drive
Lakefield National Park
Cooktown
Crocodiles
“Don't worry, it's only a freshie.” The whispered words didn't lessen our adrenaline levels as we crouched down watching from the river's edge. Sunning itself on the riverbank was an animal from the age of the dinosaurs, a freshwater crocodile, the smaller relative of the dreaded “saltie,” the saltwater or estuarine crocodile.
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