And here sits Cairns, with its access to the world's largest coral reef system and the oldest rainforest on the planet... Striking sun and brooding skies, the muddy foreshore with squawking seabirds... I weather a storm, I amble tipsy an esplanade, I wait for my ride to its wilder nearby... Here glides the waterways where the saltwater crocodiles are... where a perfect apex predator waits, for everything, anything that moves, the flesh of fish, turtle, snake, bird, boar, human... We spot a few resting near the mangroves, where they've seen us before we've seen them... Here rambles the Daintree Rainforest... survivor of continental drift, older than the Amazon, a tropical bowl of biodiversity upon biodiversity... And Cape Tribulation, that remote splendid headland, where Cook ran aground and scribbled the words: "...here begun all our troubles". Green Island, surrounded by the great yet fragile coral reef and all its works... A short but nauseating ferry ride from Cairns... I snorkel among the marine life, I bask on the hot sands, I try to forget about my puking seasickness... But that was 2013 and now it's 2018 and I'm ready to brave the seas once more... I'm on a boat heading out to the Great Barrier Reef for three days and two nights of faraway scuba diving... I hope I'll see extraordinary, even fantastical things in its wondrous ocean.
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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