Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

Cairns. Now, if we thought Sydney was hot, Cairns (pronounced like a Texan saying 'Cans' with a blocked nose) was practically sizzling. We'd tried, in this trip, as much as possible, to book our stays near the city centres so we could minimise travel times. Cairns Central had a distinctly laid back, younger, student-town feel about it.

Even the bicycle stands are quite pretty

love this colourful sit-out

They look even better all lit up in the night

We didn't do much on the day we landed - we needed to reserve our energies for the next day. We were off to Daintree to check out the rain forests. Daintree is a full day affair from Cairns. We decided to visit Daintree with a company called Trek North and our Driver/ Guide/Chef all rolled into one was a brilliant chappie called Joe.
We made a stop at Port Douglas before we set off to explore the rainforests. Our first stop once in Daintree was for tea/ Coffee before we set off on the Daintree river cruise. Thanks to the full moon (the Super moon, to be precise), the river was pretty swollen and we warned not to expect any crock sightings (although we were assured that the river was teeming with them). However we lucked out, and we not only spotted a large one almost as soon as we set off, but also a really little one hanging on to a flimsy branch.

short sighting of a rather large female

Rather long sighting of a tiny little one hanging on for dear life

The hour -long cruise was quite informative, with our guide (not Joe, another chap, this one) telling us all about the diverse ecosystem, the mangroves, the croc and the flora and fauna around the river system.

Mangroves along the bank

All too soon, our hour was up and we were across the river, with Joe awaiting or arrival, so we could continue on.
We made small pitstops along the way for Cassowary signs,

 the Alexander Range Lookout,

however our main trip was to the Cape Tribulation forest walk. Along the walk, we spotted some interesting flora - the bossy baby's snagged her thumb in a wait-a-while, we spotted python basking in the sun and a bearded dragon waiting for his prey.

Beautiful patterns in nature

He didn't like that we interrupted his sun -bathing

The bearded dragon

We broke for lunch at the Daintree Entomological Museum - Its the largest collection of insects on Australia (and frankly creeped me out), but the grounds were lovely.

...this mask make entirely of insects. *shudder*

Joe had set up a barbecue (with vegetarian options for us lot) near a lovely spot which had a cold brook running alongside. while some of us were happy just to dip our feet in the water as fishes pecked at our toes, others (namely the kids and the baa-lamb) decided to do the proper thing and just swim around for a bit.

little fishes trying to give me a pedicure

and a cooling dunk for the more enthusiastic tourists

Our return saw us stop at the top of Cape Tribulation and make our way down to the beach (but not quite to the water) at the Coral Sea. Beautiful, quiet, calm and serene...

...filled with signs like these:

Well. We'd spotted a few Jackfruit trees on our way in, so while we travelled back out, Joe decided to stop at the place. These guys make ice creams from whatever fruit ripens and falls on that day.

What? I said it was good. Didn't say it was cheap. 

 I though the Aussie plum with Yellow Sapota combination was fabulous - tanginess of the Plum nicely balanced out by the sweetness of the Sapota. The Wattleseed tasted oddly like coffee flavour, and although the coconut wasn't bad, it wasn't a patch on the Tender Coconut ice cream from Natural's.

we all played a game of spot-the-spider withthis one...

I loved this visit, but I was really looking forward to our day tomorrow. Tomorrow, we were off we were about to visit the Great Barrier Reef (*fair warning: I have NO pictures of my deep-sea adventures. taking the camera aboard was NOT an option)!
The boat we'd booked ourselves on was a small, privately owned Pearl Lugger called the Falla. She's captained by the most entertaining Captain Doug and him and his crew are the most fabulous group of people you could ever ask for. You can see that they genuinely cared for the Reef and the marine life and they were really careful about making sure all of us had a healthy respect for the sea.

the crew of the Falla

Unfortunately, the supermoon was causing all sorts of problems when it came to snorkelling on the first site.

hello, supermoon

 The Currents we simply too strong and we were soon called in to set sail for calmer waters. We got to Apollo Reef where the currents were much more manageable. Child 1 and Child 2 who were rearing to go, jumped off to snorkel. (well, Child 1, actually. Captain Doug took Child 2 out on a glass-bottomed boat so she could view the reefs and fisheis. Lots of fishies.)I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the place was. Along with the usual culprits- the colourful clownfish, angel fish and other coral inhabitants, Child 1 and I followed a Giant Sea Turtle along the coral reefs. Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, a black-tipped shark swam really quickly under me and the Sea Turtle and quietly made its way into the murky depths. I was just sitting down for lunch on the boat (it was supposed to be on a sandbank, but hello, Supermoon, Goodbye, sandbank), on a total high from the turtle and shark spotting when Ranui (one of Doug's crew and a diver) said I needed to suit up for my first ever scuba dive.

Looking slightly worried as Ranui instructs me

 It sounded a bit complex at first, with the signs and the regulator and the ear popping and air levelling, but once we were in the water, it all seemed really easy (it was that or Ranui was a really good teacher). And then, there we were, exploring the reef, up close. Ranui made sure we were really careful so we didn't damage the reef with our fins and diving equipment, but we got close enough to really look at her beauty up close. From the soft corals, to the antlers to the glowing neon corals. We spotted a huge sea-cucumber, which shot out its tentacles to grab food just as we were passing, a giant clam, almost as huge as me and tiny invertebrates moving over the sea bed.
Then, a couple of somersaults in mid-sea and our dive was over far too quickly.

Much easier once we were in the water

The return trip proved to be quite and adventure by itself. A bit too adventurous for my liking. I had to put my head between my knees and doze off for fear of being sea-sick. The kids absolutely loved the rocking ride we were having. They were having the time of their lives. We did, however, lose the following to the sea: One of the baa-lamb's watershoes, child 2's sun glasses, baa-lamb's sungalsses, and very nearly Child 1.

 The next day was all about leisure and a walk down the waterfront promenade brought out the pelicans. good thing!

I love the flower in her hair

bird on a wire

The city also has the esplanade lagoon, which is absolutely fabulous for a good soak, especially towards the evening.

To top it all, you'd be in prime position to witness the bat- exodus as the night falls from the nearby Banyan trees. That sight is something else entirely.

The bats erupt in huge groups and this continues for a good 15 minutes

The evening is also when the street art and signage really come alive.

The beautiful coastline

With so much to see and do, and not entirely unpleasant weather, I can easily see myself settling into happy retirement at a place like this, living out the rest of my life as a beach bum. Now, if only I could convince the baa-lamb that heat is a good thing...

The Danube Delta

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Yeah, Dickens could very easily have been describing our trip to the Danube Delta. It was the May bank holiday weekend, and just like England, the weather was wonderfully sunny throughout the previous week, but come weekend, there seemed to be a thunderstorm in the offing.
Nevertheless, it takes stronger stuff than the presence of a few thunder clouds to throw us off our plans and we set off in the morning, stuffing the car boot with suitcases and miscellaneous junk.
It took us about five hours or so to reach our destination - the quaint village of Murighiol. Which is very close to the Delta but very, very far from anything else. Knowing the husband's penchant for looking up the places we visit on the net, doing his research and only then booking destinations, I was surprised to find his choice of accommodation. This wasn't the usual run of the mill service apartment. This was a proper family- run B & B (and by family run I mean we were literally living out of two spare rooms in the family house). Ah. Slightly surprised there. But the family were a very nice couple who between the two of then spoke exactly 3 words in English. Oh. Still, soldiering on, we decided we would make do with our smattering of Romanian and a whole lot of sign language and shrugs and grins.
On the bright side however, we discovered that the house owner himself was a boatman who would be happy to take us on the delta cruise. Perfect. We had just enough time to smother the kids with Mosquito cream and for me to grab my camera and off we went with our chappie in his boat.
The delta was beautiful, with the landscape and ecosystem changing every few kilometres.

The boatman told us he'd spotted a colony of Pelicans nesting that morning, so that's where we were headed. En route we spotted quite a few Cormorants:

The Cormorant in flight...

...cleaning its feathers...

...giving us the stink-eye

... and finally flying away in disgust.

Swans:

shy things

Poetry in motion... this is the same swan captured in flight...

 and Egrets:

Finally, we spot the Pelican Colony and the Boat explodes into a frenzy of frantic clicking (we had another family accompanying us for the delta ride). I have to shamefacedly admit that we kind of Papp-ed the Pelicans. They (the Pelicans) seemed to take all this in their stride as they were near a marshy piece of land where there was such an abundance of frogs that we couldn't hear ourselves talk over the croaky din. Yup. Pelicans are the 'Anything-for-free-food' sorts of the bird kingdom.

That's the 'watch out! Too close!!' look

'Yes, there's only so much we can take before we decide to take off until the blooming tourists disappear!'

We also spotted a few other birds, some of which I could capture, some I couldn't. 

The Mallard

Seagulls adding to the cacophony

That's either a Tern or a Kingfisher. Not sure. 

The common tern

The Ferruginous Duck (or geese, as the boatman called it)

The Delta also had a lot of local colour, with the fishermen, the unique modes of transport and quaint cabins

All in all, a most productive three hours, I'd say. The kids of course, were famished by the end of the ride and were classing everything we spotted purely as 'Can or can we not we eat this'. Once we got off the boat, we set off in search of dinner.  Dinner wasn't as easy as it sounded in this village at the back of beyond. For the vegetarians, we had the wonderful option of mamaliga (with or without the Smantana) and Potatoes in various forms. Still. We were hungry enough to gobble it all down and even ask for seconds.
Once we got back, exhaustion got the better of us and all of us crashed out - but not before Arun was invited to sample the Palinka personally brewed by our host. A mere sniff of which, Arun assures me would have been enough to knock out a bull elephant in his prime. After having about 3 sips of the stuff, Arun made his polite excuses and weaved his way back to our room. Thank God we weren't intending to drive out anywhere early next morning.
Morning arrived and we realised that we have seen all there is to see in this little town of Murighiol and we made a snap decision to depart a day early to Bucharest. The kids were reluctantly pried away from their new best friends the Guest House's two dogs, Teddy and Oli. Oli was, erm, how shall a put it... quite amorous towards all things living and non-living and making things quite annoying for Teddy and very amusing for the grown-ups.

Oli and Teddy

 En route we would cover the archaeological ruins of the Halmyris monastery and probably stop for lunch at Tulcea.
Halmyris, like all on-going archaeological digs didn't have much to offer in terms of the site, but had plenty of history, both Greek and Roman. 

Pickwick was quite intrigued to learn that some of these structures could date back to 600 BC

 Tulcea was a much bigger town which housed the Danube delta Museum and Aquarium and had the kids really excited for the first time in this trip (Well that and the dogs at our guest house was the highlight of the trip for the kids). You know what else was great about Tulcea? Food! Stone baked Pizzas and fresh brewed coffee and Ice-creams! Yay! (Now you know why we never have camping trips. Not enough ice-cream shops!)
We also stopped on the way at Enisala, which is the site of a medieval fortress. The elder child and the husband had great fun clambering up and down the ruins, nearly giving the Mother-in-law a cardiac arrest.

The fortress. We didn't exactly have the best weather.

The view from the fortress. Would have been splendid on a clear day

The landscape of this country never ceases to amaze me, and this time we came across miles and miles of mustard fields and meadows. Beautiful.

Well, we got back home in time for dinner. And just in time for the miserable weather. Bloody brilliant. But at least we weren't stuck with Mamaliga and potatoes. Gah!