A day on the reef

Finally after living back in Cairns for the last ten(ish) months Sandy and I have made the effort to go on a reef trip.......why on earth did we wait???

Before boarding the crew take your photo, apparently this is so they know who is on board as there have been a case of people being left offshore (by other operators)

On board and ready to leave

My nephew, Rod, works for Reef Magic as their boss engineer so scored us some cheap tickets for a day trip which was going to include our first ever dive.  Sandy and I had both been a been afraid of trying to dive despite doing loads of snorkelling?

Still calm here

The trip out was a little rough and saw me, the self confessed sailing addict, feeling a little queazy but not nearly as bad as some of those around us, the sick bags we getting quite a workout.  It was a biggish high tide which allows the ocean swell to come over the top of the reef so it was a little rougher than normal.

The intent of the day is to tie the boat to a pontoon that is permanently moored out on Moore Reef.  Unfortunately when we arrived the swell caused the boat to surge against the pontoon with a quite a force and broke shackles and even a bollard off the boat.  A quite rethink saw us use another pontoon that was a little more sheltered so no great problem.

The pontoon we 'should' have used.

You can see the swell breaking on the reef but it wasn't breaking quite enough

The pontoon we couldn't use in the distance.

So stomach settled we got ourselves a wetsuit and jumped in the water for a snorkel.  Life is grand on the reef.  As the tide was on the way out the water smoothed and we had a great swim checking out the coral and fish.

Pontoon life

Our boat

After our snorkel and a spot of lunch we were called for our Introductory Dive.  This is were a dive instructor gives you a crash course in scuba gear and then escorts you under water for about 30minutes.  

The entrance to the dive platform

I absolutly loved it!!!!  It is an incredible feeling that made me regret not having done it before.  Kind of ironic that I grew up in Cairns and never went diving :)

Anyway off we went and Wally, a Giant Maori Wrasse, who normally frequents the original pontoon must have followed the boat over and came in time for use to have a pat.

Our very own 'ill tempered sea wrasse'

Swimming with the fish

He was a bloody big fish

We had a fantastic day and earnt a quiet beer for the trip home which thankfully was much smoother so there we no people throwing up all around us.

Reef Magic provided our magnificent experience today and we couldn't recommend them highly enough.

A morning ride in Cairns

Ever since Gary got back from the Tour de Timor (which he finished in the top half!) he's been badgering on about the next cycle tour.  So one night over a glass of wine we discussed our options.  It began with grandiose ideas of Sth America and which gradually scaled down to NZ, followed by Aust Alps and finally settling for a 3 day jaunt around the tablelands.  Perhaps the others may come to fruition one day but  with current restrictions we can only do with what we can!  So having decided on our mini tour this then prompted the need for a warm up to the mini tour, starting with a morning ride around the sights of Cairns.  We came up with a rough route based on one requirement, that it should include a stop at the French patisserie at some point.

In preparation the night before, I thought a piece of date slice and butter would be a nice treat along the way, so I got baking while Gary proceeded to load all four of his panniers with weighty odds and sods, mostly books and tea making facilities of course.  The books included a variety of subject matters which would find us well informed of solving mathematical problem or plane a door should the opportunity present itself along the way.

Come early morning we were off, minus the date slice, because, well, we had to have a bit while it was still warm from the oven and well we're just a couple of fat labs (labradors) and polished it off.  Needless to say we left without breakfast as we had plenty of fuel in the tank.

So our little trip took us out through the streets of Freshwater (spotted one or two Queenslanders Gary is going to buy for me!) and then headed out towards Crystal Cascades.  We then took a detour and found ourselves on a path meandering along Freshwater creek.

It was a glorious ride and after an hour or so we found a lovely spot to boil the billy for a cuppa.

From there it was back along the path, a little bush bashing, to pop out into a cane field and navigate our way back to the road.

We then headed up to Barron Gorge, via the very steep back streets of Redlynch which gave us a good workout to say the least.

By the time we were heading back from Barron Gorge, we had finally digested our date slice from the night before just in time to pull into the patisserie for a coffee and baguette.  Delicious, of course.  We then headed home, by this time a little hot and bothered, to come home and have a plunge in the pool!  All in all it was a lovely 3 hours or so tour of Cairns!

Sandy's Café Bike is complete

From this....

$5.00 from the dump shop

What started out as a 'Shop Bike' build quickly turned into quite a project but Sandy was determined to do it herself.  Having worked at Cyclezone in Darwin for sometime she had picked up a lot of knowledge of bikes but hadn't really got to swing too many spanners.

The disassembly begins

Sandy learnt about cup and cone bearings

Lose the derailleur components, they dont belong on a shop bike

A little bit of polishing was required

I dont think Sandy has seen a threaded headset before

Still polishing

Had to order a new seat post bolt

Still polishing

The mudguards look a bit past it and new ones only cost $40

Let the assembly begin

Expert supervision....note glass of wine

We were getting excited at this stage

Sturmey Archer bling

How could we not put Brooks saddle and bag on??

Leather grips

The masterpiece

An excellent result but we had a small problem.  The original intent was to create a shop bike.  You know the sort of dodgy looking bike you ride to the shop and not worry about it getting nicked because a) it costs bugger all and b) no one would want to nick it anyway.  To fix that I coined the new term 'Café Bike'.  The bike you ride to the café in your nice clothes and rest it near your table while you drink your coffee.

What has Sandy bought home from the dump shop?

What has Sandy bought home from the dump shop?

Stay tuned for updates

Fishing at Buffalo Creek

Turk and I decided to try our luck fishing up Buffalo Creek during the weekends super low tide in Darwin.

Casting for live bait was.......

....not very successful

There are no crocs here....honest!!!

So after calculating what time the low tide would be at Buff Creek we then waited three hours only flicking lures and all we caught was this little rock cod off a hand line :(

We had a great afternoon anyway climbing through the mangroves ankle deep in mud then being bitten by a gazillion mozzies because we were too lazy to walk back through the mud to get the insect repellant out of the car.

Copperlode Dam

I knew it wouldn't be long and we'd be back on the bikes for more adventures albeit little ones.

When we first arrived in Cairns we both talked about riding up to Copperlode Dam/Lake Morris. The road is a narrow winding road up the mountain directly behind Cairns to which at the end you are met with Cairns's water supply.

So last night we talked about it almost seriously so when I woke up this morning at 5am (for some reason) I waited until 5:45 and woke Sandy who was keen to go......sort of.

We pumped up the tyres and oiled the chains of our trusty touring bikes and set off.

It wasn't long and we were both wet with sweat

but the views were amazing

It was a fantastic ride with stunning views and incredible that we have this about 3km from our house.  All up we rode 40km in 2h 50min with a total elevation gain of 810m.  Not bad for a lazy Saturday morning.

Cairns shrinking as we started the climb

The best part about this ride is that unlike most roads in and around Cairns that are always packed with cars hell bent on trying to kill you, we only saw a few vehicles.  There was this one lady in a 4WD that kept driving past up then stopping, we'd ride past then a few minutes later she go past and stop not far ahead.  We shrugged our shoulders and thought she was just weird but it turns out that she was the support vehicle for her husband/boyfriend/partner who was riding up.......soft.

We past quite a few cyclists on road bikes, MTBs and some plain old city bikes.  The one thing all these people shared was big smiles and a bit of huffing and puffing.  It really is a great ride.

At the top there is a kiosk/cafe so after 1:45 to get to the top we indulged in a croissant and then headed back.

We arrived back and as I type this Sandy is having a bit of a rest in bed :)