Arriving in Cairns we went into hibernation for three days. We were so tired after the tour in the outback (did I mention the 5 hours sleep a night and unbearable heat?) and there was no point going out anyway as it was bucketing down for three days all day. Hello wet season!
Because we felt we had to do some activity and on day 4 the weather looked up, we booked a day tour on the Falla, a charming old sailing boat, to go out to the Great Barrier Reef.
Now, there’s a first time for everything. I had just hoped seasickness would not be one of those things. The waves were so high even I, who can read a book undisturbedly in any vehicle on a bumpy winding road, found myself hanging over the side of the boat. Bloody hell.
But then again snorkelling made up for a lot of the misery. I felt too queasy to scuba dive and the water was still choppy even at the reef, but we saw some amazing scenery down there!
Thanks to the extreme duty anti-seasickness pills my friend gave me the return trip was more bearable and I could even stomach the cakes, fruit, cheese and wine that were offered by Captain Doug. Yay, food!
Returning to – pfff – rain again in Cairns we got this sight as a bonus: 
