We first glimpsed the atolls from five miles high: Turquoise patches stitched onto a green sheet, and the even darker green of the rain forest and mangrove swamps.
Cairns is a thriving city with a population of about 145 000, spread out without congestion across a strip of plain between dense tropical forest and the Pacific Coast of Australia's Queensland state. It boasts an international airport, and so is ideal as the first or last port-of-call for the visitor to Australia. And though it does not itself have a beach, there are numerous sandy stretches to the north, many with the forest reaching almost to the water’s edge.
During our stay, we compromised as regards meals. Our hotel served a breakfast buffet that would keep us going throughout most of the day. Evenings saw us heading elsewhere, not to save money, but to experience something of the uniqueness of the town. Darkness falls early in the tropics, but with the dusk, comes the cosmopolitan bustle of the night market. Sushi bars, pizza parlours, Chinese take-aways, Thai restaurants, whatever your taste in food, Cairns has it. Sometimes these different cuisines can all be found under the same roof. And the malls would satisfy even the most incurable shopping addict. Prices are reasonable, and genuine bargains abundant. Our schedule gave us only a few days here, so we were eager to explore as much as we could in the short time at our disposal.
The beaches of Port Douglas, about 30 miles north, gave us a few hours of sunbathing. This is a much quieter place than Cairns, though in its own laid-back way more attractive. Despite its almost sleepy atmosphere, it has activities to suit the more energetic traveller. These include golf and sailing, and it is a better centre for the exploration of the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation regions. On our way back, we visited the Hartley Creek Crocodile Farm, where these reptiles are bred for food and for their skins. Their captive wild relatives are used for neither; a few very large individuals were on display, having been brought here from estuaries and beaches where they posed a threat to humans.
Another day saw us take the Skyrail to the town of Kuranda. This is a spectacular 4½-mile cable car ride through dense rain forest canopy, much of it more than a hundred feet above the forest floor. We took full advantage of our stops at the two stations on the way to explore tracks through the lush environment, and gaze across the gorge and waterfalls of the Barron River.
Kuranda itself is a hill village of around 3000 inhabitants, completely surrounded by jungle. It consists almost entirely of an series of shops selling either opal jewellery or aboriginal art, punctuated by the occasional café. Though very much a tourist village, it had about it an extremely pleasant and relaxed atmosphere, and dispersed its tourists to the extent that it appeared almost deserted.
The return trip through the Barron Gorge was by Kuranda Scenic Railway. This was built originally to service the mining camps of the Atherton Tableland, and the old-style carriages and stations retain something of their early romance. The wild-west-film spectacle of trestle bridge, waterfall and tree-covered canyon, that characterised most of the journey, eventually gave way to flatland and sugar cane plantation before we arrived back in Cairns.
But it was those green patches out to sea that proved most insistent of a visit. We had been advised not to go to the popular Green Island, which was beginning to suffer from the effects of too many tourists, so we opted for an alternative: a fast catamaran took us first out to Fitzroy Island, a Robinson Crusoe-type retreat about an hour’s journey from Cairns. A further 45 minutes brought us to a pontoon anchored at Moore Reef. The sea was a little rough on the outward trip, but the shallow waters of the reef showed hardly a ripple. We had also left behind the rain clouds that remained hanging over the mountains beyond Cairns. The sun shone without hindrance.
I had never snorkelled before, but from the first five seconds, it was magic. The water was clear, and warmer than a swimming pool. All the superlatives I had heard about the coral colours of the Great Barrier Reef and its fishes were true. I had bought a disposable waterproof camera in Cairns, and I clicked away with it like a lunatic. After an hour, I returned to the pontoon for a buffet meal, included in the cost of the trip, then re-entered the water for another hour. This time, I hovered over the reef’s edge, where the cliffs appeared bottomless, and the fish were even more abundant and profligate in their colours. Three shimmering cuttlefish swam just beneath me, while more circumspect creatures peered out of small caves. While I was in the water, Therese, who does not swim, was enjoying the same sights through the floor of a glass-bottom boat.
Because of its latitude in tropical North Queensland, Cairns does suffer from some monsoon weather, but its year round heat means that many Australians choose it for their winter holidays. Its proximity to a wide variety of natural attractions, and their ease of access give it the edge over other towns on the east coast. Had we more time, we could perhaps have gone white-water rafting, or canoeing, or possibly have learned to scuba dive. We might do these on our next visit.
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