Mission Beach

We've moved up North now to Mission Beach (about 2 hours South of Cairns). Mission Beach was in the path of Cyclone Larry about 6 weeks ago, and is still in recovery mode. Nonetheless we've found ourselves a great place to stay -www.licualalodge.com.au .

Since we've been here, we've visited a crocodile farm, walked through rainforest, seen some spectacular waterfalls, gone snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, been to the beach and we even had some time to relax by the pool.
Our highlight has been diving in the Reef. while we were down there we saw turtles, sharks, Clown Fish (think Finding Nemo), sea snakes, plenty of fish and of course enormous amounts of coral.

This photo is typical of what we saw but stolen from /www.reefteach.com.au since we didn't have an underwater camera.

It was Elena's first time snorkelling - and both our first time out on the Reef, so we've still got smiles from ear to ear. Seeing photos and videos is one thing, but there is nothing like being there - so close you can touch everything happening in front of you.

We got a shock the first time we saw the sharks down there, but they are of a type mostly harmless to humans.

The day before we also saw some spectacular waterfalls both at Milaa Milaa as well as Little Millstream. Our favorite was Little Millstream, being in the middle of a crater and a very typical Australian bush setting with lots of wildflowers.