Day 86: Rest day - A happy ride around Australia (second attempt) - CycleBlaze

May 7, 2021

Day 86: Rest day

This morning we drove 25kms south back to Cairns and hopped on our tour bus. The bus took us a further 45kms south to Deeral.

Then we climbed aboard our boat for the day.

The boat took us downstream along the Mulgrave River. There have been recent crocodile sightings in this river but we didn't see any today.

We continued heading east offshore for about 45 minutes and docked at the Frankland Islands. This will be our playground for the day.

The islands are very small and are a National Park. You could walk around the biggest island in 30 minutes.

One of the beaches. A perfect day.
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Looking back to our boat.
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We got into our snorkelling gear. I didn't have to wear a stinger suit because the stinger season ended on 1 May.

Serena still wore one to stop sunburn.

Excited about snorkelling!
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We were dropped off at one side of the island and then we drifted with gentle current along the island while watching all of the aquatic life.

Tiger cowrie snail.
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Tiger cowrie snail.

Octopus
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I watched the octopus crawl over some coral for 5 minutes. It kept changing its colour and shape to make it almost impossible to detect.

Giant clam. About 1 metre wide.
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Giant clam.

Blue sea star. About 40cm diameter.
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Blue sea star.

Spotted trigger fish.
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Spotted trigger fish.

Mangrove stingray. This stingray was in a small rockpool.
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Mangrove stingray.

Silver sweetlips and a blue streak cleaner fish.
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Sweetlip and cleaner fish.

This batfish was about 50cm long.
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I couldn't find a good match for the type of batfish in this pic.

Copperband butterflyfish.
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Copperband butterflyfish.

Green sea turtle.This chilled out turtle was relaxing on the sea floor giving me plenty of time to get a good pic.
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Green sea turtle.

Nudibranch. This little guy was only about 7cm long.
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Nudibranch

After the snorkel we had a nice lunch.

Then we walked around the island with a marine biologist Alee. She was very informative and she later identified all of the fish I photographed.

After the walk, it was time to hop back on the boat for our return journey.

We got back to Palm Cove at dinner time and went to the Choc Dee Thai restaurant. 

We had green chicken curry and lemongrass chicken.
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It was the best Thai I've eaten in many years. Maybe the best ever, and I've been to Thailand. 

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