Early the next morning we headed off to the Airport because I had booked my most extravagant excursion yet. I remember agonizing over the expense, but in the end my Dad’s advice that “You’re already half way around the world, take advantage of the opportunities that presents” won out.
So I flew 600 miles up the eastern Australian coast to the tourist hub of Cairns, Queensland. And then we were ported further north to Palm Cove where the Hotel Grand Chancellor would be our base. Palm cove was a nice, as in up-scale and artificial, town with plenty of shopping, restaurants, and beaches on the Coral Sea. I walked the town, had dinner with a few of the group, and passed the evening doing activities like *checks notes* climbing palm trees on the golf course.
In the morning from Port Douglas we boarded a high-speed catamaran which took us out to a snorkel platform on the Great Barrier Reef. This was a great experience, although I think it was my first time snorkeling when there was anything interesting to see. (the murky waters in the Chesapeake Bay are not as rewarding). So much corral and marine life to see, but also a bit tiring to keep in position with the wind. There were glass bottom boat ride and other diversions aboard the platform while we rested between swims.
Upon our return to the hotel in Palm Cove a few enterprising members of the group arranged a mini-bus to take us into downtown Cairns to see the night-life scene. Unfortunately no photographic evidence remains of that evening, however I do have a specific recollection of a men’s room urinal that is a 2 way mirror into the seating area. That may seem peculiar, but it’s enough to identify that I was at “Rattle N Hum” that night. We raged into the wee-hours, I recall swimming in the Coral Sea and skinny-dipping in the hotel pool before it was over. As a result… all three of us sharing a room that night overslept and missed the bus ride into Australian outback portion of the excursion. Instead we had some breakfast and headed up to Port Douglas for a bit of a beach day on our own. The main group would return in the evening and we made sure to be on-time for the final day which included our return flight to Brisbane.
The final day began with a train ride, and I actually had no idea where it went until I started geo-tagging my photos. Turns out we rode away from downtown Cairns and the airport up into the hills to an attraction called Rainforestation Nature Park. We enjoyed duck-boat rides and native hunting demonstrations; they let us try throwing boomerangs and it is not easy. It was a very pleasant experience and we were very happy to be back with the main group. No issues flying back to Brisbane, recognizing more and more people along the way, and the S.S. Universe Explorer was back at sea!
The next port of call for Semester at Sea is
Auckland, New Zealand