Day 117
On our first stop in Asia, we visited the world-renowned Komodo dragon. It was quite a treat to see them even though we were only there a few hours.
They are large creatures and can grow upto ten feet long and typically weigh 150 pounds!
Some photos from our visit below.
Day 116
We spent the last couple of days in Australia snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef (off Cairns in Northeastern Australia) and visiting Thursday Island in the Torres Straits.
Stormy weather in Cairns with the choppiest seas thus far made for a rough snorkeling experience - from all accounts the worst time to visit the Great Barrier Reef!
We'd come this far, and decided to go for it. Off we went from Cairns on a catamaran to a spot in the Coral Sea to snorkel. This was only my second time snorkeling, and the first time in the calm waters of the Carribean was a disaster. This time, with a little help from the expert guides, I managed!
The water was murkier than we would've liked, but we were able to see very nice coral and fish. The Great Barrier Reef stretches for about 1400 miles along the Queensland coast, and get this - it is the only structure comprising living creatures that is visible from space! It encompasses 2900 separate reefs, 600 islands and 300 cays. It's huge, and harbors a wide variety of marine life. We caught but a glimpse of this vast wonder, but it will have to do for now!
Unfortunately, we didn't get snorkeling pictures.
The Torres Straits are a group of islands that stretch from northern Australia to Papua New Guinea. We visited Thursday Island - a quaint and very small island with gorgeous views and an intriguing cultural center showing the history, art and culture of the Straits.
Thursday Island was once known for a thriving pearl fishing industry. Divers came from as far away as India and Malaysia to harvest pearls.
We "tendered' in to this port, and had to be called back by the captain because of increasingly bad weather. The ride back was rough, but not as bad as the last tender in which had 15 foot swells bopping the tender up and down over the waves!
Above 2 photos in the port area. That's our ship right by a brewery where we had a bite to eat and of course, sampled the beer.
Day 112
Did you know that the Whitsunday Islands are named after the day (a Sunday) on which they were first discovered? Captain James Cook discovered the passage he named Whitsunday Passage on Whit Sunday, June 3, 1770. (Not sure how and when they became the Islands, though).
Whit Sunday, of course(!), is the day of the year on which the Christian Church celebrates the visitation of the Holy Spirits upon the Apostles during Pentecost.
The Whitsunday Islands are a group of more than 200 islands in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
We spent a few hours in and about Airlie Beach, Queensland, a popular holiday destination in the Whitsundays. Again, the impossibly blue waters and creamy sands were inviting... but we did a quick tour of the area around it instead.
Like in much of Australia, the pandemic had decimated a big chunk of the tourist industry. Tour guides were hard to find. We had a school bus driver masquerading as a tour guide.
He drove us to Prosperine, a little rural town about 20 minutes from Airlie beach, with a sugar processing past. We stopped at a museum that depicted the town's history, and decorated local heroes.
A handful of photos from Airlie Beach and Prosperine below.
