We arrived in Cairns, Australia this morning! This was the end of the North Tour and half of the people left to do other activities in Australia! I had a great time so far and I experienced many beautiful islands and reefs so far! The five of us that were left went on a small land tour before the Southern Tour Trip. They had to clean the boat and get ready for the next voyage. There was supposed to be twice the amount of people on board this time! Our first group ready to part ways! We had a fantastic time on the first trip!
We had a small bus taxi to take the five of us to an Aboriginal Heritage Park! This was a very interesting park that talked about and showed us Aboriginal Culture! There were many lectures and presentations that you could attend about spear/ boomerang throwing, food and medicine, history, and art! There were many other presentations to view as well! Between the lectures, I did some bird watching and looked for interesting trees and insects to take pictures of. You can talk with many Aboriginal people to about all kinds of topics! I got to play the didgeridoo and view a lot of the unique art they had displayed. Each piece of art they did show had a story!
After spending a few hours at the park, we had to return for the next voyage of our trip! We got to meet many new people on board, including new staff! Now we have two marine biologists and more cabin crew! There was another small lecture about safety and an overview about the ship! Our next stop was to go to Thetford Reef!! Some of the views before we depart for our next adventure!! Thetford Reef
This reef was another unique reef to encounter! We had to swim against a strong current, but the crew of the boat made sure to put rest floats for people in case they grew tired. This reef had a very large drop off with many large schools of fishing swimming around the reef. You could see small sharks and large wrasse species here! This reef did have some algae and broken hard coral from a recent storm disturbance, but the majority of the reef was very much alive! I loved to look in all of the crevices, because you get to see rare fish such as grouper, eel, squirrel fish, and other hidden species. Look for crevices within the coral to find sea anemones and clown/ anemone fish!! This reef had an extremely diverse amount of hard corals! The table corals were very large and impressive to look at! This reef had many schools of fish swimming around and there was always something to look at! There were many fish that I loved to view on this reef. I loved looking at all of the rabbitfish (foxface and masked), slingjaw wrasse, bullethead parrotfish, regal angelfish, orangespine unicornfish, and orange finned anemone fish. Coral damage on the left due to storms. Squirrel fish hiding in the crevices.
(On a side note, each reef stop we did take there would be two glass bottom boat tours. I highly recommend taking at least one trip at each reef. If you like to write down fish species or see new creatures, these tours were the best way to see everything. The marine biologists, including the boat driver, would point out many unique fish that you would never notice unless it was pointed out to you.) Glass bottom boat tours are a great way to view the reef!
In the evening, we got to stop at a private sand caye for wine, watching the sunset and socializing! I decided to walk along the beach to view the huge group of terns and black noddys that were resting on the other end of the island. There were very unique seashells and ocean debris on this island. There were tiny dried starfish, very colorful seashells, sand dollars, and pretty cowrie shells everywhere! I did notice there were ghost crabs all over the island as well!! The birds did not seem to mind the crabs. Most of the crabs were actually curious of me. When I was watching the birds and sitting perfectly still, I saw a few crabs walk from where the birds were to my location to get a good look at me. They immediately scuttled back to their homes when I decided to move. There was no sunset during this time, but I got to meet a lot of the new crew and talk about their backgrounds. Most of the crew had some background in education relating to the Great Barrier Reef. I learned about Australian Conservation and how people preserve land and protect animal species. When the glass bottom boat came to pick us up, no one wanted to leave, because the weather was perfect and the sights were beautiful!! Overall, a great start for the Southern Tour trip!
The holiday of a lifetime. The company is Alaksa-owned and thhat makes a big difference to the experineces you get i.e. meet genuine First Nations tribes people. The amount of wildlife was beyond my expectation, and seeing everything on sucha small, intimate boat made it even more spoecial and unique.
Liz O
2 days ago
Adventure Life covered all the details in planning our trip to Ireland. Any questions we had were answered immediately. Any trip glitches, which always happen when traveling, were resolved immediately. There were no worries, just fun!
Kathleen Weller
2 days ago
It was an outstanding, up-close, educational vacation of nature, culture, history, animals and geology! It was everything they promised! Binoculars were plentiful on the boat, but I'm glad I brought my own. Food was excellent. Rooms had black-out shades. Pack/wear multiple layers of clothing (I carried a small backpack when off the ship). Crew were delightful and very accommodating! Remember to jump FEET FIRST first when taking the optional polar plunge! Spend as much time outdoors as you are able and ENJOY!!!
Janet Dutton
1 week ago
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
1 week ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.