Whitsunday Islands and Cairns

The second port of call on our cruise was the beautiful resort area called the Whitsunday Islands which is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. They were formed by the tops of ancient mountains, now below sea level, resulting in a perfect area for sailing. We booked on the 60 foot Sailing Ship the Banjo Paterson, for a leisurely 2 hour tour through the islands

Some of the smaller islands have pine trees and almost make you think of the Muskokas, other than the colour of the water, which are many different shades of turquoise. The port we anchored next to is on Hamilton Island and it has a big Yacht club with many power boats and sailboats for the members to tour on.

Hamilton Island was bought for $220 million by the man that sold the wine company named Rosemount and he has added a number of exclusive resort villas frequented by guests like Bill Gates, John Travolta and Kate Hudson. Here is a picture of one the hotel pools (this is the small one, the one next to it is really huge) looking back over the bay.

The third port of call was at Yorkey’s Knob next to Cairns and we decided to head up the mountain on the “Skyrail” into the tropical rainforest town of Kuranda. You get a great view, dangling high above the treetops, back towards Yorkey’s Knob and of the town below. On the right side of this picture you can see a part of a square brown man-made lake which has wakeboard ramps and jumps. It has a big tow rope going around the outside of lake (like you would see on a bunny ski hill) with a number of handles dangling down, that the skiers grab onto. No boats required!

At the top of the hill you can stop for a guided tour of the rainforest to hear about the many types of hanging and climbing vines and thousands of different species of trees. Other residents include huge Goliath Butterflies, Pythons, Wild Boars and this 6 inch spider with inch long red fangs.

One interesting plant is the Strangler Fig, whose fruit is eaten by the Flying Fox bats and the seeds are deposited on the top of an unsuspecting tree. Over the next ten to fifteen years the fig encircles the tree completely, eventually killing off the host. Here is a picture of the strangler fig after the host tree has died and been eaten by bugs. Some of the trees were so big that the aboriginals would hide inside them during cyclones.

We had lunch and toured around the craft shops of Kuranda which also has a butterfly farm, Koala park and a snake zoo. For some reason Jude was happy to hold a Koala but had no interest in doing the same with a 10 foot python, I can’t imagine why. On the way back down the mountainside we travelled on the Kuranda Scenic Railway which was like going back in time a hundred years.

The railway also stopped at several scenic spots including these magnificent waterfalls.

In between ports the cruise ship is usually out to sea for a day or so which makes for a relaxing trip but I didn’t think pictures of us going to meal after meal would be very interesting, although we are enjoying it. Next we are off to Papua New Guinea, our only non Australian stop, which I’m sure will be very interesting


So we are halfway through our trip and we have now covered 23,000 Km!