Cairns & the Great Barrier Reef

More photos from Cairns:
https://plus.sandbox.google.com/u/1/photos/103620108216329120374/albums/5970373582324646993

Welcome to Australia and the southern hemisphere!

It was easy enough getting here from Japan. There is a direct flight from Osaka to Cairns on a low-cost airline. In just 8 hours, we went from fall to spring, and in Cairns, spring felt a lot more like summer.

We spent 4 days in the region. Our favorite parts were snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, exploring the beaches and rainforests of Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation, and exotic fruit tasting at a family-run orchard. And our least favorites? Getting sunburned while snorkeling and enduring hundreds of bug bites even with the constant application of bug spray.

We landed in this tropical paradise! The boardwalk in Cairns. 

We didn't spend too much time in the city of Cairns itself, but it seemed like a pretty livable city, with a great beachfront and modern apartments buildings. 

One of the snorkeling sites in the Outer Great Barrier Reef. The reefs were pretty shallow in most places, so you get a close up look at all the features. 

We took the Calypso Snorkeling boat out for an action-packed day on the Outer Great Barrier Reef. We visited three different sites in day, spending about an hour snorkeling at each location. The reef formations and variety of ocean life we saw were quiet impressive, and the water was perfectly warm for swimming.

The marina at Port Douglas, where we boarded our boat. 

Beautiful secluded beach, Cape Tribulation

Just on the other side of the beaches is a lush rainforest with great walking trails. Here, you can appreciate the diversity of plant life, as I've never seen most of these plants native to the region. One great find was the Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm. A small number of visitors each day participate in a tasting of ten in season fruits - all are tropical, delicious, and not in your local grocery store. The issue is that these fruits are not produced in large enough quantities and are not easy enough to transport and store to make them commercially viable. Custard apple (my favorite from the tasting), for example, turns into mush when it's transported (similar to what avocado does when it over-ripens but at a much faster rate). At its peak, though, it is super sweet and creamy, just like a custard dessert!

One of the several rain forest boardwalks in the Daintree Forest

Our basket of fruits for tasting

Next up, we're going to another iconic Australian destination - Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Outback.