Photos: The Great Barrier Reef

Have been talking with Simon about another possibility with the new money, that being him to sell his place and we combine our money to buy a one bedroom place in Cairns (far north Queensland) or some other cheap area. Have been looking online and apparently the bottom is falling out of tourism up there because of our strong Aussie dollar. Developers moved in and built all these places and now they can't sell them. Another option to consider. 

Anyway, I mentioned that I'd been up there a couple of times on holidays, and he found that hard to believe as I'm so settled at the moment where I am. So I went to the box of photos to see if I could find anything of up there. It's the first time in years I've looked in there as previously it's been too strong with memories and too painful to look at the photos. I just got some of the ones out of the trips up there, and spent some time this morning scanning a few into the PC.

This one is when My wife and I took a tourist flight in a little plane over the Great Barrier Reef (well a tiny bit of it). She was scared shitless poor thing, and we found out later that she was also pregnant with our daughter. So we were sort of all three of us in the plane back then. I was in the back seat with a camera, back in the days when it was just film not digital. It's not super spectacular, but it does show how the waves of the Pacific Ocean get subdued by the reef. Inside the reef the swell is barely existent on the beaches.

This one was over Green Island. We'd later go on a day trip out there on a boat. 

Here is on the highway between Cairns and Port Douglas. As I said, there's no waves to speak of inside the Reef.

Here's at Palm Cove, just north of Cairns.

We went on a day trip out to the reef on a boat. They had a glass viewing area that you could walk downstairs too on a platform out there. Snorkling there as well, but I'm just not that outdoorsy enough to do that. The photo of the top of the reef from the boat is interesting as it shows the waves breaking in the background.

And lastly here's a couple from the day trip out to Green Island, near Cairns; the one in the photo above I took from the plane. 

There's a lot more packed away, but that's all I felt like looking at so far. As I said, it's the first time in about 5 years I've even gone to that box of photos. The mental paralysis and pain made it impossible to view them. Being able to view even these few now, is another small step forward.