Oz: The Great Barrier Reef

Cairns was the base from which we visited the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest structure made of living organisms, in this case, coral polyps.  We enjoyed the trip to one of the reefs - it was indeed an eyeopener, but it was only a minute fraction of the massive reef structure.  We were no where near to experiencing the magnitude of the GBR, considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  In that sense, it wasn't the most satisfactory experience even though we thoroughly enjoyed the outing on the catamaran Quick Silver.  

Cairns waterfront

Downtown Cairns

City Library

The "bat" tree - a huge Banyan tree on the library grounds

Port of departure for the GBR

Catamaran that took us out to the reef

The platform from which we "did" the reef - you can see the different shades in the water because of the reef

Below are photos of coral taken from the tourist "submarine" - now I wish I could scuba dive...

The trip back to port

Late afternoon on the Coral Sea