I arrived in Cairns ten days after I started my journey. In Cairns I had two free days to explore the area and a day of diving and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef again!. I took advantage of my free days to catch up with the sleep i’ve lost with two previous night buses. Once recovered, I went to explore the city.

Cairns from the marina

Cairns botanic gardens

Waterfront in Cairns during low tide

A banyan tree in the middle of the city

Cairns is primarily a hub for tourists (Great Barrier Reef on one side, rainforests and waterfalls of the other ), and with the many inscriptions in Chinese and Japanese in most stores, I trust that many of these tourists come from Asia. Information points for tourists and travel agencies for backpackers were abundant in the city center. And like any good Australian city, Cairns has its lagoon to cool off during these hot days of winter (between 20 and 25°C).

Cairns Lagoon

Third day in Cairns, I had to get up early to board the Passion of Paradise, a giant catamaran that would take us to the Great Barrier Reef. That morning we stop around a tiny island called Michaelmas Cay. I started with 30 minutes of diving with the group of beginners (so 5 meters maximum depth), we saw several large turtles (one I could touch) and a huge sea cucumber. I also get to see clown fishes, much smaller (1 cm) than I thought. After diving, I took a snorkel and joined the rest of the people floating around the island.

Passions of Paradise

In the afternoon, we stopped for diving for certain people, and only snorkeling for me this time. I saw pretty much the same thing. And because we were in the open sea, waves made me and the fishes move back several meters every time, not really easy for swimming.
In comparison, I’d say there are more things to see underwater in Cairns in the Whitsunday Islands.

Fish circling the boat at Michaelmas Cay

Tour: http://www.peterpans.com.au/backpacking-holidays-australia/1-day-great-barrier-reef
Backpacker: Nomads Esplanade

My morning snorkeling saw two jellyfishes that I wisely avoided. A member of the group was stung on the face by a jellyfish and boy did i felt his pain. The crew quickly poured a lot vinegar onto the wound (the jellyfish can be deadly in Australia but not those found in winter).

One of the cranks for the sails

Another boat on the way home

Then we returned to the marina. After finishing the packet of pasta I had left at the backpacker, I went to the lagoon and I found a group of English girls who were from my group in Fraser Island and in my backpacker in 1770 (the backpackers’ world in Australia seemed rather small, doesn’t it?). Later that evening, I met the other French from my school doing similar trip but in reverse order.
Late that night, I took the night bus to Cairns.

Information board on the danger of local jellyfish

Early in the morning we sailed to Tongue Bay in order to reach Lookout Beach. Once the anchor was lowered in Tongue Bay, we were taken to the island with the dinghy, and I was the first of the day to land on the island.

Our boat in Tongue Bay

From the beach I followed the trail to the look out to see the beautiful landscape.

View of Whitehaven Beach from Hill Inlet Lookout

Once the photos were taken, I went to the beach known for its amazing white sand. On the beach, many small blue crabs were running in all directions and ended up buried in the sand. The morning was unfortunately cloudy with some rain but after a while the sun came out.

Blue crab

Lookout Beach

After a few hours on the beach, everyone returned to the boat where lunch awaited us. In the afternoon, the boat sailed towards a protected cove for snorkeling and diving. I was the only one on the boat to go diving, and it was also my first diving experience. They took me away to another boat with other divers from various boats, I have been asked about my health and they made me sign a waiver in case I remained underwater forever. The handling of the respirator is complex but not difficult and I managed breathing with the mouth piece. As this is the first time I’m trying diving, the maximum was 5 meters deep. As the first diving experience, the Great Barrier Reef was a wonderful place to start with, with plenty colorful fishes and corals. After diving, I joined the others who were snorkeling. Finally I saw a lot more interesting stuffs while snorkeling than diving, including a small clown fish I immediately named Nemo (really smaller than in the movie). After snorkeling, the boat took us to a beach with coarse sand for cocktails accompanied by two rainbows in the sky. Then back onto the boat for sunset.

Double rainbow

The day before  I arrived in Airlie Beach with the night bus, I have been to the cruise company to confirm my booking. The procedure was done directly on a computer in a pre-filled form. I just had to indicate the amount of alcohol I wanted to buy, I took a goon ( really cheap local wine but not really good), and validated the whole.

On the day of the cruise, I checked out of the backpacker, deposited my big backpack in the local agency of Peter Pan and went to the marina to board the magnificent ship on which we will sail for 3 days. 30 people were part of the cruise, mostly young Europeans include 8 French people and a family from Perth.

The marina

Since the boat is not directly in the Marina, we took a dinghy to reach the boat. In order to adhere to the speed limit and maneuverability, the ship was leaving port marina using its motors.
Once off, the sails were unfurled, the crew made us share the cranks handled by two people at once. The sailboat was gaining momentum really quickly and tilted to 45 °. Pretty impressive at first! After few hours sailing, we stopped in the passage of Hook for the night.

Sails out

While leaving Airlie Beach

Inside of the boat

Tour: http://www.peterpans.com.au/backpacking-holidays-australia/maxi-racing-yachts-2-day-2-night-whitsundays-sailing