Chris & Sean Down Under: Cairns

From Uluru, we hopped a flight to the northeast coast of Australia to visit the popular tourist town of Cairns. Cairns is located in the warm tropical rainforest region of Australia, so the environment was the complete opposite of the desert scrubland that takes up must of Australia's Outback. Cairns is a major jumping-off point to see the rainforest and Great Barrier Reef.

The flight was uneventful, and allowed us the chance to try some Australian snack delicacies. We grabbed dinner at a pub and rose early the next morning to check out the town.

Breakfast occurred at the town's big open air market, where endless stalls offered all sorts of product not seen in the States, as well as prepared foods from all corners of the Earth.

Banana flowers and leaves.

Whole coconuts being split open.

Sticky rice stuffed with banana and steamed in a banana leaf.

Whatever this is.

After breakfast, we organized some activities at the tourist office, wandered around some more, and eventually grabbed lunch on a boat floating in the harbor. Seafood doesn't get much fresher than an actual boat loaded down with today's catch.

A big bowl of Tiger Prawns cooked right on the boat.

For dessert, we stopped by this little artisanal gelato shop that was apparently founded by a Scottish or Irish immigrant.

The next day we hopped aboard an historic train to take us up into the mountainous rainforest.

Many of the passenger cars are original to the train line and are over 100 years old.

The train wound its way up into the mountains through lovely scenery.

Upon reaching the small mountain town of Katoomba, we took some walks through the forest before catching a suspended cable car back down the mountain.

View from the cable car.

What the cable car looked like when it was originally used by miners in the area. It is obviously much safer and fully enclosed today, which is sort of boring.

You can see a large crocodile in this river.

A great view of the coast.

At the bottom of the mountain, we visited a cultural center run by the local aboriginal tribe. At 60,000 years old, the Aborigines are the oldest continually surviving culture in existence. While at the park, we attended a number of demonstrations and lectures, and we (sort of) learned how to throw boomerangs and spears.

The next morning, we boarded a sleek catamaran named the Silver Swift for a day of snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.

We had to wear lycra suits to protect against jellyfish stings. The deadliest jellyfish in the world are located in Australia. While it isn't jellyfish season, everyone on board opted for the suits just in case. In 1992, a man was swimming without protection, taunting his friends that it was fine. He then began to scream in a terrifying inhuman manner. He staggered ashore covered in horrible lashes where the Box Jellyfish's tentacles had just brushed against him. After collapsing in a quivering heap, emergency crews arrived, pumped him full of morphine, and carted him off to the hospital. Even after he was unconscious from the painkillers and sedation, he kept screaming.