caymaniac
Contributor
Day 1, fly 24 hrs to Cairns,arrive at Tradewinds.
Day2, jet lag, relax.
Day3, tour Cairns on foot.
Day4, Kurunda via skyrail. Kurunda is a rainforest village, bird aviary and area to feed kangaroos & wallabies. On the way down and over the rainforest mountains we got out to take short hikes and see waterfalls.Went to Tjapukai(Jab-a-guy), to see aboriginal performance.
Day5, "wait-a-while tour", see birds, go in rain-forest to see big trees, cutain figs and strangler figs. Identify Stinging nettles and other plants, see the Platyus, after dark we shine lights up to the canopy and find tree kangaroos, lemoroids and bushy tailed possums, 4 kinds of frogs, 4 kinds of lizards.
Day6, go to the beaches, relax at Palm Cove, and yes these are toppless beaches.
Day7, up to Port Douglas, Habitat park.
Day8, board "Diversity" left dock at 5pm, arrive at Osprey reef at 6am,
Day9, first dive at 7am. There are so many kinds of fish and coral that we've never seen before. Over 100 miles off shore, pristine conditions, calm and 4 dives a day! Sharks on every dive, White tips, grey whalers, and Silver tips, anenome/clowns,clown trigger unicorn fish, anthias, fusslliers, Regal angels, moorish idols, lionfish, butterflys, bird wrasse, humphead wrasse, buffalo parrot, triggerfish, boxfish, firegobbies, sweetlips, soft coral, tridacna clams, seastars. This is dive1, oh happiness! After last dive of the day, the crew of 5 and the divers 6, celebrate my wifes&my anniversary w/ballonns and champagne.
Day9, Shark feed at North Hornon Osprey, big tuna heads lowered on chains to 50ft. where we observed. There were 30 to 40 sharks plus big 400lb potato groupers fighting for the tuna. Night dive reveals feather stars and crinoids.
Day10, do deep dive to 112ft on Osprey 8 miles south to Shark reef, seldom dived but possible with calm conditions. Thousands of fussilliers, silver tip sharks, table corals and strong currents, so many types offish it's hard to remember what we saw. Move to area near Lizard Island for night dive, take a snorkel and find the coral in amazing colors, deep channel cuts with the coral rising near the surface at three ft. nite dive.
Day11, dive at Cod Hole, big Potato Cod in the hundreds of pound range gather - half a dozen. Our boat answers a Mayday call from a sailboat stuck on the reef. Dive at Sharkalley, sleeping white tips, soft coral, big groupers. We head out
for more Ribbons, on the way with the calm conditions we see dophins that ride off our bow, and whales. We stop the boat and throww out lines to snorkel with the whales. Minke whales are about 20-25ft. long, they swim underneath us and look up at us. Go to "Steves Bommie", the coral is not as good here but the fish life is really good, schools of Jacks and fuslliers, anthias, clowns (3 kinds), and when I return to the boat, a Minke whale swims under me. At sunset we see the Green Flash. Nite dive at Turtle Reef, lots of crinoids and feather stars, a turttle hunting sharks, a couple of big Stonefish.
Day12, go north up the Ribbons for the last two dives, then in to Port Douglas. We stay at the Raddison treetops in the rainforest.
Day13, go on a tour down the Daintree river, spot crocs and snakes in the trees.
Day14, back to Cairns for a few days before we head to Hawaii for 9 nites.
[attachment contents reposted here]
Day2, jet lag, relax.
Day3, tour Cairns on foot.
Day4, Kurunda via skyrail. Kurunda is a rainforest village, bird aviary and area to feed kangaroos & wallabies. On the way down and over the rainforest mountains we got out to take short hikes and see waterfalls.Went to Tjapukai(Jab-a-guy), to see aboriginal performance.
Day5, "wait-a-while tour", see birds, go in rain-forest to see big trees, cutain figs and strangler figs. Identify Stinging nettles and other plants, see the Platyus, after dark we shine lights up to the canopy and find tree kangaroos, lemoroids and bushy tailed possums, 4 kinds of frogs, 4 kinds of lizards.
Day6, go to the beaches, relax at Palm Cove, and yes these are toppless beaches.
Day7, up to Port Douglas, Habitat park.
Day8, board "Diversity" left dock at 5pm, arrive at Osprey reef at 6am,
Day9, first dive at 7am. There are so many kinds of fish and coral that we've never seen before. Over 100 miles off shore, pristine conditions, calm and 4 dives a day! Sharks on every dive, White tips, grey whalers, and Silver tips, anenome/clowns,clown trigger unicorn fish, anthias, fusslliers, Regal angels, moorish idols, lionfish, butterflys, bird wrasse, humphead wrasse, buffalo parrot, triggerfish, boxfish, firegobbies, sweetlips, soft coral, tridacna clams, seastars. This is dive1, oh happiness! After last dive of the day, the crew of 5 and the divers 6, celebrate my wifes&my anniversary w/ballonns and champagne.
Day9, Shark feed at North Hornon Osprey, big tuna heads lowered on chains to 50ft. where we observed. There were 30 to 40 sharks plus big 400lb potato groupers fighting for the tuna. Night dive reveals feather stars and crinoids.
Day10, do deep dive to 112ft on Osprey 8 miles south to Shark reef, seldom dived but possible with calm conditions. Thousands of fussilliers, silver tip sharks, table corals and strong currents, so many types offish it's hard to remember what we saw. Move to area near Lizard Island for night dive, take a snorkel and find the coral in amazing colors, deep channel cuts with the coral rising near the surface at three ft. nite dive.
Day11, dive at Cod Hole, big Potato Cod in the hundreds of pound range gather - half a dozen. Our boat answers a Mayday call from a sailboat stuck on the reef. Dive at Sharkalley, sleeping white tips, soft coral, big groupers. We head out
for more Ribbons, on the way with the calm conditions we see dophins that ride off our bow, and whales. We stop the boat and throww out lines to snorkel with the whales. Minke whales are about 20-25ft. long, they swim underneath us and look up at us. Go to "Steves Bommie", the coral is not as good here but the fish life is really good, schools of Jacks and fuslliers, anthias, clowns (3 kinds), and when I return to the boat, a Minke whale swims under me. At sunset we see the Green Flash. Nite dive at Turtle Reef, lots of crinoids and feather stars, a turttle hunting sharks, a couple of big Stonefish.
Day12, go north up the Ribbons for the last two dives, then in to Port Douglas. We stay at the Raddison treetops in the rainforest.
Day13, go on a tour down the Daintree river, spot crocs and snakes in the trees.
Day14, back to Cairns for a few days before we head to Hawaii for 9 nites.
[attachment contents reposted here]
gle: and see you in Cairns soon.
