Cairns and the Reef

Add it to your bucket list: dive the Great Barrier Reef. I came to Australia via Cairns 2 days ago. Yesterday I just walked around the entire city. There are some very beautiful parts, and some that look like the run down, rubbish filled places you can find in most cities. I found a few walking paths. One was through the botanical gardens, and the other was along a nice river. Only after I started walking the path by the river did I see the signs warning of crocs.

I then thought of how I could easily disappear, some hungry croc's lunch, and no one would ever know what happened to me. It was at this time I decided the walking path next to the river was not that cool, and turned around.

The hostel I'm staying at is a bit of a party place. I'm too old for that and don't appreciate being woken up by super drunk people. The pub connected to the hostel, however, does attract some locals, so I was able to talk to them. Somehow I just couldn't have a conversation with the guy who was talking about how old and wise he was at 24. I managed to keep my mouth shut, but had a good internal chuckle. I'm hoping I wasn't like that when I travelled throughout Europe.
Today I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It is not cheap by any sense of the word, but worth it in every way. I was able to go on 3 dives throughout the day. I opted for the guided dives, since it had been several years since I dove. I got to see rays, a lot of fish, but no sharks or turtles. What fascinated me the most, though, were the wide variety of sea cucumbers and sea worms. Very cool. I'm also very thankful I don't get sea sick, as it was a rough ride out to the reef, and several people got sick on the way. There's no way I can actually describe it, so just put it on your list to do sometime.