Yorkeys Knob - Whit Sunday Islands - Australia

This area is famous for the butterflies.

Friendly local Staff on the Shore side Boats which we used to supplement our own cruise Ships boating operation. A great success.

Our very own Deck CPO Andrew Hardcastle gives a friendly Wave - Andrew and I joined the sea at the same time and I also used to work with his lovely wife Karen - hello to Karen - I know you are a blog fan!

Arcadia's little ducklings are all ready to go!

This is the only time you want to see the falls with no boats! These are the steel ropes that lift and lower the boats.

Greetings from the Great Barrier Reef....!

Whitsundays

During the day of the 25th February we sailed through the azure blue waters of the Whitsunday Islands a truly stunning 1,400 mile passage of eco sensitive water where Arcadia needs to have the watchful eye of the Reef Pilot on the bridge to assist.

We passed sister ship Aurora during the morning, she was anchored off Hamilton Island and many of the crew and passengers wished her well as we passed.

Aurora at Anchor - best wishes to all our friends and colleagues on board. A special hello to my counterpart Mr Chris Bullen.

Yorkies

This is the only area in Australia where two UNESCO World Heritage sites exist next to each other: The Great Barrier Reef and of course Australia’s acclaimed tropical rain forest.

Yorkey’s Knob is a suburb of Cairns, about 13km (9miles) north of Cairns, the regional capital of Far North Queensland. James Cook visited here briefly in 1770 on his first voyage of Discovery, but Cairns was officially founded only in 1876 as a frontier town to support the gold rush. The main street of Cairns does rather remind you of an outback town that has just grown up a little.
Australia’s Tropical Rain forests cover approximately 900,000 square hectares and are internationally recognised as being one of the most ecologically fascinating natural areas in the world, as a matter of fact one of few remaining truly pristine tropical rain forest places on the planet. These forests contain an amazing array and diversity of flora and fauna.

Stretching for over 500 kilometres along Tropical North Queensland’s coastline, these rain forests are the oldest continually surviving rain forests on earth and once covered the entire Australian continent. Some of the trees found here are more than 3,000 years old. The tallest trees in the forest reach up to 60 meters.

If you would like to experience Australia’s rain forest but are not sure if you want to meander into it, then I recommend that you book on our tour that allows you to fly above it in Cairns: The Skyrail Rain forest Cable way is a world first in environmental tourism taking you on an amazing experience over Australia’s World Heritage listed Tropical Rain forest canopy and deep into the forest.

The Skyrail experience, spanning 7.5kms over pristine rain forest, allows you to explore the wonders of an ancient tropical rain forest and find out more about one of the most botanically fascinating and diverse areas on earth. Each of the Skyrail gondolas holds 6 people, making this a very private affair. We could relax, sit back and enjoy the ride up the mountain. The views over the canopy are incredible as you can imagine. One of the most impressive sights during the journey is the opportunity to step off the cable way and walk along the boardwalk to view the Barron River Falls, a postcard picture that seems near impossible to believe unless you’ve seen it with your own eyes.

In 1885 the explorer Archibald Meston described that the raging waters of Barron Falls "rush together like wild horses as they enter the straight in the dread finish of their last race ... (where) the currents of air created by the cataract waved the branches of the trees hundreds of feet overhead ...."

Then there is also the amazing Butterfly Sanctuary's that is home to over 1500 magnificent tropical butterflies, all local to the area, including the electric blue Ulysses butterfly which simply would not settle long enough for a snap picture. Here you will find some of the largest butterflies in Australia.

For more information about the tours we offer in this area - visit this website -

http://www.quicksilvergroup.com.au/

Well that's Good Bye to Australia for another time - I hope it is not 7 years until I return! What a blast it has been from Fremantle to here! The memories will last forever. Best wishes to all our new friends down under. God Bless Australia - a great country with wonderful people!

We are off to the Pacific Island of Guam now and how lovely to have four days at sea to look forward to. My diary is far from empty.........

All good wishes,

James.

In the words of the song 'I still call Australia home'