When we leave Cairns in late September we intend to mooch our way down the east coast as far as Bundaberg before cutting inland again. My question is, where is the best place to visit the reef from? Virtually all the towns down the coast talk about reef access, which provides the best tour/cruise/experience???
We had a great day from Airlie, out on the big cat thing, scuba diving and submarine on their platform moored on the reef , back to hamilton island in the chopper and ferry back to airlie. A bit exy but we enjoyed every minute.
I liked Airlie too. Some great reef experiences. One we particularly enjoyed was an intro scuba course. Only needed no medical problems. e.g. breathing. Snorkelling is also good fun. Would try to do it at different places and see what you find.
The best.... tours of the reef are found in FN Qld. The higher up the coast you go the better the reef experience. Port Douglas is a great place to head to for a top experience as opposed to the most southern entrance being Bundy.
__________________
516 CDI 4x4 Mercedes Paradise Oasis Deluxe
I like living in the world of Theory, everything works here.
I went out twice on Reef Magic out of Cairns. They have a pontoon out on the reef from which you can take a helicopter flight, scub dive or snorkel, go for a cruise on the glass bottomed boat, where you sit in the glass hull and get a close up view of the fish and reef. The meal was great both times. I really enjoyed both trips. I thought the price was also reasonable. Another time I went out with a group from Hinchinbrook Marina near Cardwell. We went out to the island, but we didn't really do anything around the reef. The resort on the island was closed after TC Larry. Maybe out of Townsville is another option if you don't do Airlie.
__________________
20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
Thanks for all the advice folks, we have decided to head north to Port Douglas when we leave here and 'do' the reef from there, then go to Atherton in the highlands before coming back to the coast and heading south. Isn't it wonderful to have the time to just mooch around wherever suits and not have a timetable to stick to?
