dwkennedy

After taking Ambien, it was really difficult to be awake at this point. This is the image of my plane as we crossed the Equator approaching the International Date Line. I fell back to sleep shortly after this picture.

Arriving at the airport in Brisbane for Immigration & Customs and a four hour layover for our flight to Cairns.

Looking into town from hotel balcony.

Looking towards the bay from hotel balcony.

This is a free public pool right next to the water. They didn't have a beach here in the city due to the fact that the 'beach' is basically mud.

There were a lot of people here and I'm guessing many were tourists.

In Australia kids in school wear uniforms as well as they are required to wear a hat whenever they are outside. Apparently they have a hole in the ozone above Australia and you burn quickly down there. I didn't notice.

Arriving at Green Island near the Great Barrier Reef.
More information HERE.

A Remora on the bottom of the glass bottom boat.

Fish. I've gone brain dead. Can't remember what these are.

Coral Reef 12-15 feet down.

Another view of the island. Only about 1 mile in diameter.

More of the coral.

More coral.

A Buff Banded Rail.

Doing my boardwalk interpretation.

View from the nature trail that goes around the island.

A humpback whale skull. It's huge.

The coral that forms the basis of the island.

Now I'm doing my letter 'K' in Australia. I made sure this was left not right as you can imagine how some people may view it.

Now I'm getting tired of my picture being taken.

A view of the beach looking across the ocean to the Austalian mainland.

An Egret, I think.

A fossilized sea cucumber.

Coral that has washed up on shore.

Tourists swimming & snorkeling in a "shark-free" area. Yeah, right.

Buff Banded Rail and her chick.

I think the sun finally got to me.

Sweet designed pavers on the approach to the center.

Here is the gentleman that painted my face.

Here is the result. Do I look like a warrior? Or the village idiot?

Aboriginy men get their didgeridoo on.
More info HERE

Visitors circle around the site chanting while one of our hosts makes fire by rubbing two sticks together. Nope, one of them wasn't a match, neither was the other one. It only took him about 5 minutes to get it going.

Fire, FIRE! heh heh heh

Another didge player.

7.5km of cable car goodness over the rainforest.
More info HERE

View from near the peak in the previous picture. The rain was headed our way. We actually made it to the end before the rain caught us.

This was our destination upon arrival at the top of Skyrail. Here we have what was described as an Australian Turkey. Unfortunately with the rain and being short on time, we didn't really get to do much exploring.
More info HERE

A young Wallaby. ( with evil eyes )

Fresh water crocs. CRIKEY!

Frillneck Lizard. I tried everything that I felt that I could get away with to get the lizard to flare out its neck. No luck. Just watch that insurance commercial with that gecko as he comes back from vacation to see one.

A Kangaroo just chillin'.

Sleeping Koala. I just don't see how that is comfortable.

They all seem to do it though. Maybe WE are the ones missing out.

Here is a female actually awake.

Aww! He was soft and cuddly. I want to hold him and squeeze him and call him George.

Adult Wallaby in the "petting" area.

There is a Wombat in the log. They are mainly nocturnal so we missed it.

Feeding an adult kangaroo. He didn't want to get too close so he grabbed my hand and pulled it closer. He needs a pedicure, manicure, kangacure, whatever.