Cairns was my first stop in Australia. I reached Cairns at 6 am after a 5 hours flight from Bali. Cairns airport is a small airport situated at the outskirt of Cairns city. I booked the 45 minutes scenic Great Barrier Reef flight tour from Viator.com. There are lot of operators who provide this scenic flight tour and most of the tour operators are based out of Daintree Airfield. The airfield is situated around 5 km from the Cairns airport and the tour includes pick up from your hotel or Cairns airport.
Great Barrier Reef – We had our pick up at 8 am from the airport. After 20 minutes ride we reached the airfield. The airfield primarily caters to scenic flights, helicopters and private planes. We had a 30 minutes briefing about the tour and the flight safety. The tour also includes commentary about the Great Barrier Reef. It was a 5 seater plane and it was my first experience flying with a small plane. We had to use headphones in order to cancel all the noise out of the propeller engine. The plane was vibrating a lot compared to bigger planes and there was lot of noise even after wearing the headphones. After a short run we were able to take off and in no time we reached the sea. All of us had a window sheet for the tour. After 10 minutes flight we had our first sight of the Great Barrier Reef.
Great Barrier Reef is largest coral reef system in the world. It covers length of around 2300 kms. It is situated around the north-east part of Australia near the Queensland province. It can be seen from outer space and it is the biggest structure made by living organism. It is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Due to rise in sea temperature around the region corals are dying. Scientists predict that in 30 years time all the coral reefs will vanish completely. The view of the reefs were amazing from the flight. The reefs were huge and it was scattered everywhere. The depth of the water near the reef are in the region of 1 m to 10 m. Our pilot introduced us to several different kinds of prominent reefs such as Oyster reef, Arlington reef, Vlassof reef & Machaelas reef.
We flown over a beautiful island called Green Island situated near the coral reef. The plane was circling around the coral reefs so it doesn’t matter which side of the plane you are seating. During overcast conditions and rainy weather the tours are cancelled because you can’t have good sight of the reefs. The weather was perfect during our tour and we had a great sight of the reef. There are also boat tours available to green island and boat tours to coral reefs but i strongly recommend to take the scenic flight tour in order to experience the great barrier reef to the fullest. Our pilot was trying to spot some whales around the area but we were unsuccessful in spotting the whales. After 45 minutes flight we were back to the airfield.
Cairns Botanical Garden & Cairns City -Our tour operator recommended us to visit the Cairns Botanical garden situated near the Cairns city. It was just 10 minutes ride from Daintree airfield and our tour operators dropped me at the garden. It is a famous hiking spot in Cairns and there are three different trails to explore the area. I explored different sections of the botanical garden for an hour and then followed the easiest trail in order to reach the viewpoint. The view of the airport and the surrounding area was amazing from the top. I waited there for sometime in order to see take-off and landing of the planes and to be honest it was a great sight. You need a full day in order to hike along the most difficult section in the park. There are buses available from the botanical garden to Cairns city. I reached my hostel at Cairns city in 10 minutes. The city is not at all crowded and you won’t find that many high rise buildings around the region.
Most of the restaurants, pubs and bars are situated near the Cairns pier. I walked around the Cairns Esplanade during evening time. The view of the sunset was amazing from the esplanade area. There is also a swimming pool very close to the avenue. It is mostly used by people for jogging and cycling. All the day tours and water-sports tours activity around the region starts from the Cairns pier. It is a great hangout spot for locals and tourists. After a great meal at a nice restaurant I decided to call it a day.
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