Great Barrier Reef Diving - Port Douglas

Port Douglas

I have choosen to do another two dives on the Great Barrier Reef. I was picked up with all of my luggage by BTS in the morning at my hostel in Carins and was dropped of at another hostel in Port Douglas to enjoy the rest of the day chilling in Port Douglas. Transport with BTS worked out perfect. Alltough it wasn´t that cheap. Before being kicked off the bus, the driver made a little sightseeing tour through the town. Lovely little town with basically all you need for a holiday.

 Port Douglas Beach

 Port Douglas

Diving from Port Douglas

The next day I boarded on Calypso Ten, an awesome experience, as we made three stops on the reef with visibility from 12 to 30 m. I´ve done two dives and one snorkelling trip, last one I did take the photos. The boat is quite big and considering there where not a lot of people on board, we were able to choose the sunbeds or inside seating like we wanted at any time.

 Port Douglas - Calyso coming in the day before

 On board Calypso

 #CalypsoPortDouglas

 Our diveinstructor for todays dives, he gave us a good time. We were 3-4 people going with him. Usually the would take up to 8 divers in peak season.

 Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

  Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

 Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

 Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

  Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

  Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

  Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

  Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

  Parrot Fish - Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

 Lots of Clownsfish - Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

 Lots of Clownsfish - Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef

 ... of course you guess who that is

A day in the Rainforest - Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail

Cairns offers a lot of opportunities to get active. Within a day you can visit the Rainforest in Kuranda by car, bus, skyrail or railway. Whatever you prefer.


Kuranda Scenic Railway

 #KurandaScenicRailway

 Look from the railway

Stop at Barron Falls

 

 #KurandaScenicRailway

Trails

If you are into walks you should go by car, because beside the walks surrounding Kuranda and walking to the Barron Falls you will not able to reach them.

I went up with the railway, so I surrounded Kuranda and walked back to the Falls lookout. I´d now recommend you to leave the train earlier at the station and walk Barron Falls Road up to Kuranda or rent a bycyle in Kuranda, as you walk just along the road and the same road back (1.5-2 hrs return). The walk is still quite nice, not a lot of cars and before the lookout itself is a little canopy walk which is lovely and worth the walk.

 Jim Rum Walk

 Wild ananas beside Barron Falls Road

 Barron Falls Road 

#CanaopyBarronFallsLookout

 #CanaopyBarronFallsLookout

Markets

The rest of my day I spent at the original markets, enjoying an awesome french crepe.

 Kuranda

 #KurandaOriginalMarket

Skyrail

I personally enjoyed the skyrail more than the train journey. Alltough you have to wait for the bus to get picked up to go back to Cairns, as the Skyrail ends near freshwater.

 Barron Falls Lookout - Stop at Skyrail

 #KurandaSykrail

Skyrail cabin for my own:)

Do a little workout on Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is good to catch up on your fitness level.


Hiking

Magnetic Island has a lot of signed hikes. Landscape there is not stunning and not changing a lot, but some of the lookouts are worth it and of course the beaches are. Starting at 8.30 am I did have a look at all those lovely lonely beaches called Balding Bay, Radical Bay, Florence Bay, Arthur Bay and finally Geoffrey Bay. Arriving in Arthur Bay at 11 am I had a stop to swim and relax for midday. Take plenty of water and food with you, there is no shop on the way. I had 2 litres in my backpack and I wished I had more by midday. Unfortunately, starting at Radical Bay you have to follow the unsealed road, there is no path til you arrive to the Forts walk. On the other side of the street the paths to Arcadia and Nelly Bay start. There are just a few cars driving down and back, but it gets pretty hot.

I arrived at Geoffrey Bay at around 1 o´clock for a warm bath and had a look at the wild wallabies at the end of the beach in the north before I took a single ride on the bus home. I just wanna make known that the next day locals advised me to do not to swim without a stinger suit as it is marine stinger season at the end of November.

 #BaldingBay

 #BaldingBay

 #BaldingBay

 #BaldingBay

 #RadicalBay

  #RadicalBay

  Lookout before Arthur Bay

If you just want to do a little walk head for the "Giants of the Islands" walk, which starts from the unsealed road down from the Forts walk to all the beaches and takes not half an hour at all.

#GiantOfTheIslandsWalk

 Way to Arcadia

Lookout before Arcadia

If you are not into walking more or less 10 kilometres you can do the forts walk, which was quite nice as koalas can be seen in their natural environment from the path. If you are more into a great lookout head to Picnic pay for the "Rapt in Raptors" walk (1.2 km, 1hr) with its beautiful lookout. I did both of them seperately. The last one in combination with the snorkeling spot and another visit by the wallabies.

 #RaptInRaptorsWalk, Picnic Bay

View to Nelly Bay

Snorkelling

There is a great snorkelspot in Geoffrey Bay, where a wreck can be seen as long as the water visibility would allow it. YHA rents full snorkeling gear for AUD 20 or solely stinger suit for AUD 5 a day. Obviously a lot of the backpackers hat packages from travel agencies where renting was already included. Check out the tide at the hostel or at seabreeze.com.au. Unfortunately the visibility was bad the day we had choosen. I really enjoyed that someone did mark the wreck and  clams

My tip: Go for the wreck. In the shallow water stinger rays can be found.

 Card of the snorkeling spots

 Cauliflower coral in Nelly Bay

 Cauliflower coral in Nelly Bay

 Nelly Bay

There are a lot of big clams at both spots. However this was at  Nelly Bay.

 Geoffrey Bay, wreck

 Brain Coral Geoffrey Bay, wreck

  Geoffrey Bay, wreck

  Geoffrey Bay, stinger ray

How to get to Magnetic Island?

I stayed at Bungalow Bay Koala in Horseshoe Bay for 3 nights. If you come with the Greyhound Bus it will stop directly at the Sealink Terminal in Townsville from where you can embark the ferry. Simply book there. Don´t take the Ferry-Bus combination if you are not into using the bus all day. A single ticket to the YHA Bungalow Bay Koala will be cheaper. You can pay when entering the bus. The Bus-Ferry connection on the Island is pretty good. Buses leave around every hour, all day long. There is no student discount for abroad students, but the adult ticket (full price) is just AUD 7.

The ferry takes 20 minutes to arrive at Nelly Beach, from where one bus leaves to Picnic Bay and the other one goes to Horseshoe Bay. Most of the time you can´t miss the hostel as every for tourists interessting spot is announced by the bus drivers.

 

 BBQ at HorseshoeBay