We were thrilled this morning when we turned on the TV to the ship’s webcam channel and saw sun (sun!) reflecting on the water. Woo hoo! We quickly met up in the Horizon Court Buffet where we saw mostly sunny skies with just a hint of troublesome clouds on the horizon. After breakfast we went out on the Horizon Terrace (and I can’t wait until next cruise when our cabin is just one deck below that fantastic area) and placed a call to Daintree Aviation Services via Vonage (For 2.2 cents per minute to Australia! Get the app!!) to confirm our 12:40pm flight over the Great Barrier Reef. Everything was a go and we were told we’d be picked up near the Yorkey’s Knob Boat Club where the tenders come in at 11:40am.
The clouds grew a bit more troublesome as the morning went on, but compared to our recent weather the day looked good. We took a large ferry from shore over to Yorkey’s about 10am but were confused when we walked down the pier to see hundreds of passengers lined up already to go back to the ship. What was going on?
Well, it didn’t take long for us to find out that there had been a horrible accident on the single road leading from Yorkey’s Knob to the main road to Cairns. A tour bus coming to pick up passengers for excursions struck a car carrying two young adults in their mid-20s. The jaws of life were required to extricate the car’s occupants and we heard, alternately, that there was one fatality or two fatalities. It sounded dire. But the immediate result was that the excursions for 400 ship passengers were cancelled as the police had that whole intersection closed off.
It was quite an odd situation…2000 passengers invading this little village that were unable to go anywhere. The tiny grocery store was overrun with passengers buying ice cream and the coffee shop said they had 700 people queuing for a coffee. We phoned Daintree Aviation again and asked if they thought they’d be able to get through to pick us up and they seemed optimistic that an alternate route would soon open. We walked further into Yorkey’s to get away from the horrible congestion around the tender area (large tour buses unable to go anywhere, and all the passengers milling about without so much as a place to sit down). Finally at 11:30am we called Daintree Aviation yet again and told them exactly where we were and what we were wearing and within a few minutes their van arrived and picked us up.
The driver was able to tell us that, in fact, the passengers in the car were not immediately killed but were in critical condition. It seemed this was the biggest thing to happen in Yorkey’s in ages, and it was predicted that the police would have that area closed off most of the day for the investigation. Meanwhile, an alternate route had just been opened up.
Unwilling to think that bad start would be any predictor of the rest of the day (Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!), we rode the 20 minutes or so to the Cairns airport where, along with a couple from Spain, we received a preliminary informational briefing from our pilot, who looked all of about 18 years old. We were flying in a two-month old 8 passenger aircraft, but there would only be the four of us. We had to strap a life vest in a packet around our waists and wear it the entire flight, and our pilot, Charlie, told us what to do in the event we had to ditch. Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!
We walked out on the tarmac where our plane was waiting (right next to a couple of Royal Air Ambulance Corps planes) and I had more than a doubt about this whole adventure when I climbed up into the plane and took a seat. This had been G’s idea, not mine, and, because you know how I am about closed in spaces, I was pretty uncomfortable. But I put on my headphones and hoped for the best. What I got was way better than that.
As soon as the plane was airborne and all that blue ocean stretched out in front and on each side of us, I instantly relaxed. This felt open, not confining, and that made all the difference. It took us about 10 minutes of flight (with views of the tiny Golden Princess off to the north) before we reached the closest edges of the Great Barrier Reef and I was in heaven. I was reminded of Douglas Pearson’s 100 shades of blue, but add to that 100 shades of green and a few shades of tans and brown. The water was so clear that, from about 1300 feet altitude, we could actually see the larger sea life below us.
We flew over one significant island (Green Island, named for its verdant vegetation), and several that ranged from sand bars to tiny spits of sand One in particular was the site for weddings where the participants were helicoptered in, and sometimes the exchange of vows was followed up by a scuba dive. We could clearly see the edges of sections of coral, with sandy bottom ‘roads’ running between them. Honestly, it was the most beautiful natural thing I’d ever seen…with the possible exception of the view of Bora Bora, Taha’a, Huahine and Raiatea from Mount Tapioi in French Polynesia.
So beautiful, in fact, that I sat in the Horizon Court Buffet and used precious ship WiFi to upload five pics.
This is that tiny sand bar used for weddings.
Too soon it was over and we were turning back toward Cairns. Once at the airport, we decided to be driven directly back to Yorkey’s Knob instead of spending some time in Cairns, as we had originally intended. We didn’t know what was going on at the accident site and the last tender from shore was at 4:15pm. By the time we reached the site, one lane of traffic was open, though the bus and car involved in the wreck were still there. It was a very sobering sight after what we had just experienced.
We tendered back to the ship (these are long tenders) and grabbed a light lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet. I had to take care of some online business while I still had mobile internet but G went to a hot tub. We returned to the cabin at the same time, about 4:30pm and quickly got ready for the PES Lounge and dinner. It was Italian night, and we could smell the garlic before we even reached the Donatello Dining Room. Headwaiter Gabriel was making penne arrabbiata and he made some especially for me that fit my needs perfectly. He served it over a healthy serving of broccoli and I could live on that forever. We finished up with limoncello sorbet and it was the best of the many great meals we’ve had on the Golden Princess.
The Princess Theater entertainment tonight was Aussie Emma Kirk singing Adele’s songs in a show called the Adele Experience. What a voice she has! It was a great show…and I’m actually kind of glad we’ll hear it again in our cabin at 9:30pm during the second performance. ;-)
It was a wonderful day, getting a bird’s eye view of the planet’s largest living organism, followed by a wonderful dinner and a wonderful show. This one will be hard to top, but that won’t stop us from trying. These are early days, and there is a lot of cruising still ahead of us this season.
Life is good. :-)