Several years ago I viewed a mini-series based on Neville Shute's romantic drama "A Town Like Alice". The story takes place at a variety of locales in Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia. My sister Dorothy and I enjoyed visiting the towns and areas described in the story.
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The Barron River Valley, Cairns, Queensland |
Cairns is one of the largest cities on The Great Barrier Reef and is a good jumping off point for seeing northern Queensland. From Cairns, my sister and I were able to arrange excursions for diving the reef, hiking the rain forest and wildlife viewing on the table lands. There are several tour companies in Cairns and their prices for excursions are reasonable.
Although Cairns has no beach, there are several north of the city that can easily be reached by bus. Palm Cove on Trinity Bay is one beach I can recommend. During the summer and fall there is a problem with the box jelly fish here. However, they do put up a net to protect swimmers.
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Palm Cove Beach |
We rented an efficiency hotel room in Cairns at the Lake Central Hotel. It was very economical, close to the city center and pier and allowed us to fix many of our own meals. Fresh fish and produce is readily available. Check out the farmers market at Rusty's Bazaar. I suggest loading up here on fresh produce if you plan to head inland, the food there is not as fresh and pretty picked over.
We snorkeled and scuba dove on the outer barrier reef at Hastings Reef and Breaking Patches. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing near 25 knots which caused large sea swells. This made the snorkeling difficult. The tour operator, Compass, also offered a glass bottom boat tour while we made the two stops. Despite the rough sea, we managed to see giant clams, leopard sea cucumbers, yellow fin damsel fish, striped wrasse, gray wrasse, reef shark, brain coral, staghorn coral and clown fish. The Kodak disposable underwater camera worked great here.
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| Giant Clam | Young Sea Perch with Staghorn Coral | Reef Shark | Brain Coral |
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