Australia
If you are in a wheelchair, book your trip to the reef on a flat decked catamaran! The ride out is quite smooth and easy for the disabled and if you can't snorkel, the staff may be able to help you into a semi-submersible to view all the wonderful life on the reef. They helped me do it!
Also, the train to the Kuranda rainforest is completely wheelchair friendly, as is the cable car, if you want to try that on the way back!
Cairns travel info, hotels, hostels, or tourist info kiosks.
www.bluechairbook.com
North America's Disabled Adventurer.
On our final day in Australia, we drove on the left-hand side of the road down the Esplanade in Cairns, where local townspeople gathered at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, and read inscriptions, in English, recalling the heroic support of Australia’s small ships for the efforts of the allied navies in south-east Asia. For all its differences and extremes, Australia isn’t so far from home.
In Australia the star of the show is the Great Barrier Reef. The only living organism visible from space is in fact a collection of corals, living and growing in the shallow seas and forming hundreds of reefs which stretch 1,430 miles along the Queensland coast, home to thousands of fish and plants.
As a first-time snorkeller, I swam from pristine sandy beaches and from the dive platform of the Coral Princess into another world so beautiful it takes your breath away – especially when your snorkel’s on the wrong way round and you swallow half the Coral Sea! Unforgettable.
An outstanding memory from our trip to Australia was the view from the deck of our cruise ship, the Coral Princess, as she sailed south down the edge of the outer Great Barrier Reef with a line of white surf stretching in either direction as far as the eye could see, where the deep ocean waters break on the continental shelf.
Every now and again the surface was broken by a flying fish skittering across the waves.
A great place to see live entertainment. Most nights it's free to get in and the resident bands are really good.
Queensland's east coast has everything - arrive in Cairns, buy yourself a camper and travel from rainforest to the bush. See the wildlife and enjoy the nightlife of the coastal cities. Travellers are welcome, work is available and at the end you can flog the camper in Sydney or even Perth. See Australia as it is meant to be seen - by road.
Visit the Gumtree website for info on all this in every city.
Go and see Cairns in Australia and go on a tour of the Great Barrier Reef in a Quick Silver Boat. Also go in a glass bottomed boat as well.
From Amelia (age 11).
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