When Roger told me we were coming to Australia to include Sydney and Melbourne technical universities on his sabbatical stops, I replied, “Not unless we can visit the Great Barrier Reef.” He explained that this was a 3 hour plane trip from Sydney,–to which I answered that we were traveling 20 hours from the East Coast of the US, so what was another 3 hours?

And so, here at the end of this Australian adventure, we have spent 3 + days in Cairns in Northern Queensland. Tomorrow is the solstice and we are only a few days off the Equator—so, it’s HOT. But Cairns and this whole coastal area is gorgeous. A beautiful coast, surrounded by mountains and rain forest. It’s totally a tourist resort, a lovely one—since they put in an airport about 30 years ago, the place has exploded. People come here from all over Australia and the Pacific countries. We have considered this holiday time, so have spent our time on various “adventure” tours.

Day 1: We did the reef, choosing one of the cruise operations where a fast catamaran takes you out to the outer reef. They have permanent platforms built for divers, snorkelers, and just visitors. We were outfitted with jellyfish suits, fins, and snorkel equipment. Spent the morning exploring the reef surrounding the platform. After lunch, a guide (Eric) took us by boat out to a deeper reef wall and we spent our hours drifting over the reef along an underwater cliff that plunged deep into the sea. This is a great place for fish to feed so you are constantly in schools of bright tropical fish. I was taking photos, so I rolled back the mitts to the suit to have the freedom of my hands. In the soupy waters, filled with yummy little things for the fish, I suddenly thought my hands were on fire! Stupid me. It was those microscopic jellyfish and, boy, do they hurt! I quickly covered up my hands and was really grateful for the suit over the rest of my body. Nonetheless, it was a super day and one I’ve always longed to do.

Day 2: We took the Kuranda Scenic Railway up the mountains into the rainforest to the village of Kuranda. This entire coastal area is mountainous and practically impenetrable rain forest and back in the 19^th century, even more so. However, there was a major gold strike up in the mountains in 1873 and, of course, thousands of men rushed it. The area was so forbidding that some people starved and help couldn’t get to them. So in 1887 they began building a narrow gauge railway up the mountain. As a feat of engineering, it’s pretty phenomenal, especially for those times—37 kilometers of track laid by hand with all the tunnels and cuttings dug by hand, bridges thrown over gorges, etc. The trip takes about an hour and a half, with a couple of lookout stops. The village of Kuranda is an old indigenous community. Lots of tourist stuff. We choose to do a short trip via Duck boat through the rainforest and on to the Barron River, and some indigenous presentations of dance, music, and weaponry. At the end of the day, we returned to the flatlands far below via the Skyrail over the rainforest. It’s interesting to see the canopy of the forest, but—omg—it’s just green, green, green out to every horizon.

Day 3: We took a tour up to the Daintree Rainforest, which is considered the oldest rainforest on the planet. Our guide, Finn, showed up with an all-terrain vehicle that was kind of a cross between a tourbus and a hummer. Very comfortable, but also he was able to go on unpaved tracks deep into the forest. He was our best guide yet, very experienced and  talking us through everything from sugarcane fields, to small towns, to coasts, to walks through the forest, to a freshwater pool deep in the national park where we could swim. We toured to Cape Tribulation (where Captain Cook wrecked and was trapped inside the reef in the 1780s) and beyond. Finn even cooked our lunch! So we saw hours and hours of terrain and got a little acquainted with the territory. A long, brilliant day.

Yes. I know there’re too many photographs! But this is the end of the trip and you can skip if you want.