11/13
We stayed in a rambunctious hostel (I think it was called Calypso) in Cairns but they had a travel guy there that would have made the place a bargain at twice the price. He helped us book an overnight on the Great Barrier Reef (our travel agent in the states said there was no way we could afford to do that) and he even refunded our hostel for the days we would be on the overnight. Anyway, kudos to Calypso, they were great.
Our first full day in Cairns we went to Tjapukai, an aboriginal cultural park. We watched an aboriginal dance with music by didgeridoo. We were also taught how to throw boomerangs and spears. It was pretty awesome.
We took the Skyrail to Kuranda. The Skyrail cable car was outstanding and we were fortunate in that it had rained the day before so waterfalls were flowing and the greenery was beautiful. In Kuranda, we went to the butterfly sanctuary.
The next day we went out with Billy Tea Bush Safari. We must have done their Daintree rain forest 1 day tour. We went out in their truck through the rain forest to have a snack, then on to the boat trip down the river. We saw crocodiles, snakes and mangrove trees from the boat. At the animal preserve we fed kangaroos, and at Cape Tribulation we saw a box jellyfish.
The travel guy at Calypso said we had to do Uncle Brian’s waterfall tour, so that’s what we did the day after Daintree. The waterfall tour was incredible! The sights were amazing and the natural water slides were great. This tour was easily the most fun you can have on a bus. We even saw two platypus! (yes, I had to look it up)
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Scientists generally use “platypuses” or simply “platypus“. Colloquially, the term “platypi” is also used for the plural, although this is technically incorrect and a form of pseudo-Latin; the correct Greek plural would be “platypodes”.
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Platypus – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus
Then on to the Coral Sea Dreaming for our live-aboard for the next two days. The live-aboard was less expensive than our hostel stay in Cairns. Of course, we had to sleep on the dining room table but it was awesome. Plus, we went to snorkel, not to sleep on tables! We tried scuba here and it was ok. Jenn didn’t care for it at all and used up most of her air in just a few minutes underwater.
The day after we got back from the live-aboard we flew to Lady Elliot Island.