Autumn Holiday - Week Two

The second week of our holiday, we headed south of Cairns to Mission Beach, where we caught a launch to Dunk Island. Cyclone Larry had passed right over this area, flattening homes, sugar cane fields, and banana crops and taking down road signs and telephone poles, as well as stripping trees of their limbs. Some of the hillsides looked as though a bomb had gone off.
In fact, Dunk Island Resort had been closed for four months while undergoing reconstruction and renovations, and reopening day was our first day at the resort. These two views are from the jetty. It is what welcomes you when you arrive. And after a week of long days of sightseeing, what a welcome sight it was! We did not realize until we left, too, just how lucky we were because one of the managers explained that of the 70 days prior to reopening, only 6 had not had rain. We had two weeks of gorgeous weather, which was a good thing because it's a tiny island focussed on outdoor activities and relaxation. We chose this as one of our destinations because it has a Kids' Club, and Hannah spent a lot of time there working toward achieving her six Dunk Island Ranger badges, including her Reef badge, where she learnt about the reef and then went fishing off the jetty one night, and her Snorkelling badge, where she had snorkelling lessons in the cascading pool.




That meant we had time to hike Mount Kootaloo and enjoy the view. At the lookout, you can see the small airstrip that services Dunk Island. By servicing, I refer primarily to the resort, as the island has a popultion of one - an artist who takes up permanent residence there. So important was this airstrip that it actually showed up on enemy maps not long after it was built in early WW II. The Japanese knew of it because it was so close to strategic points on the coast.

Having Hannah enjoying Kids' Club in the mornings or evenings also meant we had time to play some tennis and then enjoy dinner with just the two of us, soaking up sunset views such as these. We also met some wonderful people from Melbourne and Sydney, all of whom had children close to Hannah's age. She made many new friends in that week, and we all enjoyed drinks and live music in the bar after dinner each night.

Hannah's second wish in Australia (the first being to swim with dolphins) came true when she got to ride horseback along the beach. Normally an activity open only to those 11 years and older, Hannah was fortunate to get special permission to ride.

Of course, if croquet, archery, sailing, hiking, fishing, tennis, swimming, beachcombing, or soccer aren't your thing, you can always just relax on the beach and enjoy all the scenery of Brammo Bay. And with views such as these, what more could you ask for?

Because we had not had the best experience on our first trip out to the Great Barrier Reef, we decided to give it one more try. This time, we were farther south, with one tenth the people, and in open water in a horshoe-shaped reef right out near the outer edge. It was simply spectacular! We floated above gardens of coral teeming with colourful tropical fish, saw giant clams, swam among school of silver barracouda, watched sea anemones, held sea cucumbers, and enjoyed water so turquoise and clear you could see about 25 meters down. Dale received an early birthday present that day and took an introductory diving course and got to scuba dive with an instructor.