Where the heck are we now?: Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef

After our restful week at the beach we flew to the Tropical North area of Australia which seems to be an odd thing as my experience is the further you go north the colder it gets but here in Australia it is the opposite as the further you go north the hotter it gets!

We flew into Cairns and got our first glance of the Great Barrier Reef...

And it was a beautiful sight shimmering in the sunlight!

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest and longest coral reef, stretching for 2300 Kms. It is comprised of 3000 separate reefs and some 900 continental islands. It’s is one of the world’s great natural wonders, a World Heritage Area and the only living organism that can be spotted from space.

We stayed in the small resort town of Port Douglas so we could visit the reef from there. The town is very upscale with luxury accommodations...

We had a very cute little apartment...

It is very tropical...

With beautiful landscaping everywhere...

It has one Main Street filled with shops catering to the tourists who visit in the hundreds of thousands each year...

Lots of great restaurants and cafes...

Market days...

Food trucks...

The Church by the Sea with an awesome view...

A large marina...

Four Mile Beach...

And a place to send postcards to our grandchildren...

It was really a cool little town where we could have spent a lot more days than we did. However our main thing to do here was visit the Reef so we took a day long tour to one of the outer reefs...

It was a beautiful morning on the water when we left Port Douglas...

The water turned turquoise as we passed the reefs...

We took over an hour to reach the platform this particular company has moored just off the reef...

There was an underwater viewing platform where we could see some of the activity on the reef, the pictures are very blue because of the tint on the windows...

There were millions of rain fish and we saw this turtle swimming by...

I don’t think Don was too impressed...

However we both enjoyed our trip in the semi submersible sub where we had a close up look at the reef...

The semi submersible...

Inside...

As we were gliding around and over the reef it was a very surreal and beautiful experience, the few pictures really don’t capture the experience but does show the variety of coral there...

Sadly however much of the Reef has bleached out because of warming water temperatures, we saw very little color, but some blue tips which the guide told us was evidence of regeneration...