Photo above shows the tail of a humpback whale that surfaced just behind Sundari this morning. We are in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef's whale season.

"Where the rainforest meets the reef" is one of those rather corny phrases used by the North Queensland tourist industry to promote their 'products'. It is almost correct, though, as there are pockets of coastal rainforest left standing between the Bloomfield River and Cardwell, although most of the rainforest that survived the settlers' axes are up on the higher or steeper parts of the Great Divide.

Where the rainforest is still in existence on the coast - around Mission Beach and the Daintree, it meets the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, not the reef, which is further offshore. Admittedly, the outer barrier reef is closer in the Cairns region than further south. To the North of Cairns, the barrier closes in an almost unbroken line (the Ribbon reefs) and there are hundreds of patch reefs to navigate between in the lagoon, as we know from traversing the area several times.



The rainforest, pictured here on the Daintree coast, meets the Great Barrier Reef lagoon north of Port Douglas.



The reef - here pictured by our drone at Green Island, is only 12 miles out from Cairns. That's Sundari, by the way, anchored all on its own right down there!

The whales, humpbacks anyway, have certainly reached this part of the lagoon on their winter vacation from Antarctica. We have seen quite a few on our latest trip out to the reef. One even surfaced just behind Sundari while getting ready to up anchor off Michaelmas Cay this morning!



Typical view of a humpback whale's humped back and small dorsal fin when it surfaces. This whale was seen near Oyster Reef yesterday

Since we arrived in Cairns, now just over three weeks ago, the trades have been blowing almost continuously at around 20 to 25 knots, typical of July and August, the mid-winter months. There have been only two gaps in the strong winds calm enough for us to visit the nearby cays and reefs and do some snorkelling and prepare ourselves for some diving. It's not much fun behind just a reef for protection, but when it does calm down, which it did do over the last three days, it can be quite magical.

Relatively close to Cairns are the reefs of Green Island, Arlington, Upolu, Oyster, Vlassof and Michaelmas. Green Island is the only vegetated cay anywhere near Cairns and is delightful, despite the hordes of day trippers that are ferried to the island every day. Upolu's cay disappeared courtesy of Cyclone Yasi in 2011, but Vlassof still has a scrap of sand remaining. Michaelmas has a larger sand cay which is a roosting site for thousands of sea birds, mainly brown boobies, terns and noddies. The cay is an amazing site in the day time and the birds don't seem to go to sleep very easily at night, either!

The coral we've seen was in much better shape than elsewhere close to the mainland coast, where bleaching, siltation and cyclone damage have taken a toll. In fact, the underwater scenery and diversity of marine life we saw this morning were the best since the atolls of French Polynesia!



Ready for an underwater excursion in the shallows near Michaelmas Cay!



Coral cover on one of Michaelmas Cay's large bommies.



Green Island is the only vegetated (with rainforest) coral cay near Cairns.



This white tipped reef shark appeared at a bommie near Green Island.



Moorish idol in one of Michaelmas Cay's coral gardens.



One of several giant clams in the shallow coral gardens at Michaelmas Cay.



Large shoals of friendly jacks near one of the bommies.



At times, it seemed that every stretch of sand on Michaelmas Cay was covered by noisy seabirds.

While the wind has been up, we have taken time to go exploring the hinterland. Although we've driven through the Atherton Tableland before and up as far as the Daintree ferry, this time we've had time to explore further. The Daintree national park is quite unique. There are many plants and animals that are found there and nowhere else, like Bennett's tree kangaroos. Like around Mission Bay and the coast just south of Innisfail, the Daintree is one of the only places on the east coast where cassowaries are still hanging on. Like the Daintree, the Tableland is like nowhere else in Oz, in many places more like New Zealand, with dairy farms, forest pockets everywhere and tree ferns. We've been to many of the little volcanic crater lakes and searched (in vain!) for Lumholtz tree kangaroos.



Creek running through thick coastal rainforest north of Cairns.



Female cassowary seen by the roadside near Etty Bay, just south of Innisfail.



Mount Hypipamee crater on the Atherton Tableland.



Many of the rainforest trees, like this one in the Daintree, have buttress roots.



A strangler fig near Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland.



Tree ferns, like these on the Atherton Tableland, always seem to prefer cooler climates. They look like their Gondwanan counterparts in NZ.

We've also caught up with our 90 year old friend Hazel Menehira and her partner, Hank West. It was Hazel's 90th birthday and a surprise party was organized by her son who lives in the Gold Coast. Relatives flew over from New Zealand and a Zoom session saw Hazel struck silent as her scattered whanau all over the world beamed in with smiles, waves and greetings.

We also met up with another old friend, Tim Montcrief from Tasmania, an ex Sail Indonesia rally participant, off with his partner, Dawn, on the long trip to Cape York at the tip of Australia.

We will set off for the outback while the wind continues to whistle and wait for it to abate before heading out to the reefs again! Sister Sue arrives at the end of August, so we will be in this area until then.