This was at the approximate half way point on the trip and we knew we would need a rest after of month of 1 and 2 day stays everywhere and a lot of running around. Check out the Almanac page to get an idea what had been involved to date. This was the longest single stop on the trip where we could rest and enjoy all the water sports the place was famous for. We even left a big bag checked at the Sydney airport with our colder weather stuff in it before even going to Melbourne and Brisbane.

A cyclone (Pacific hurricane) had hit this area a month earlier but everything was supposed to be back to normal. Another cyclone hit Northern Australia while we were down south but it was dying out over land. We flew to Townsville and found our connecting seaplane waiting for us and the other 5 people going over to Orpheus. It was a nine seater, a whole 50% larger than the plane we had taken to Milford Sound. However, it was a small operation as we found out when our pilot, Murray, recruited Larry and another man to load the baggage into the tail of the plane. It seemed fair to him since we had brought along the heavy bags!

We left Townville without incident and were happy to learn that seaplanes can take off on regular runways. We headed out to sea and the cloudbanks. This was not a good sign but we flew low enough so it was not a problem and 20 minutes later we landed on the water off Orpheus. A landing craft type boat came out to meet us at the seaplane float. The tides are quite high there and the float is well offshore. Several staff members came out and we were happy to find that we did not have to unload the bags onto the bobbing float. We rode into the dock and checked into our room in a nice beachfront bungalow.

After lunch, we decided to go snorkeling and one of the staff took us out to the giant clam beds to snorkel for an hour. These are huge clams that were over harvested and nearly disappeared in the 20^th century. The James Cook University has an outpost here and they have successfully restarted beds that are yielding large numbers of clams. These are relatively young ones as the clams can grow to be 100 years old but they were still quite large. The water was milky from the sand stirred up with the recent storms but it was interesting and we took a lot of underwater camera pictures, particularly after the sun came out. The coral was not very bright and paled in comparison to the coral in Fiji and Tahiti. However, the fish were great with many varieties and much larger fish than we had seen elsewhere. It was a good introduction to the area. We had a good dinner in the open-air restaurant and booked a reef trip for the next day. (Ed. Note: the best scanner we have is in the US - photos when we return!)

We awoke to overcast skies and light rain. The seas were choppy and the reef trip seemed in doubt. However, they decided to do it since the forecast for the next few days was not too good. We decided to take it in case it was canceled for the balance of our stay (they only go out every 2 or 3 days). We took along several underwater cameras.

The boat was a very nice 50-foot catamaran with several decks and could likely hold several dozen people. However, there was a crew of 3 and only 7 of us from the resort, 4 snorkelers and 3 divers. As we started out, the weather got rougher and even though we were a big boat, the thing pounded with each wave. The captain decided to head for a reef that was only an hour away. We all thought that that was a great idea and were actually surprised that he did not cancel the trip. It was a long ride and we were all happy when the captain shut down the engines and set anchor off an underwater coral formation. It was overcast and raining of course.

Everyone was anxious to get in the water where it would likely be smoother than staying on the ship, particularly for the divers who set up and left first. Gisele, Larry, and an Australian woman went snorkeling with the captain. He took us out to the reef and proceeded to give us a great tour. Every so often he would dive 10-20 feet down to the sea bottom or reef and bring up something for us to see. Brightly covered starfish, sea cucumbers, various shellfish, etc. He was quite informative and made it much more interesting. At one point we snorkeled over the divers who were below us. At that point Larry spotted a 4-5 foot gray shark swimming away from us on the bottom of the seabed by the edge of the coral underwater cliff. Since no one else saw the shark, he hopes the picture he took of it turns out so he gets some credibility back since no one really believed him. (Ed. Update: There really was a shark. When the photos came back in Hong Kong, Larry bought a portable scanner so that we could put up this photo.)

At some point the sun came out and the fish colors looked even brighter. The coral was not very bright as a combination of warmer water, visitng marine life, and bacteria had killed off a lot of it a few years ago. However, the fish made up for it and we hope that all the underwater camera pictures we took develop nicely. (Ed. Note: They did!) We went back for a great lunch with enough food to feed 20 people although Gisele was still suffering from the ride out and took a pass on most of the food. Not so Larry of the cast iron stomach.

After lunch we went off snorkeling again for another hour or so. We put on sunscreen but Larry still managed to get a medium level sunburn. We saw many schools of fish and varieties we had not seen before. We then set off for the Orpheus, tired but happy to have taken the trip. The ride back was smoother (Ed. Note: Dramamine made the ride LOTS better!) as we were going with the waves rather than fighting them.

The stay at Orpheus went downhill from there on. The rains arrived with a vengeance and the next three days were spent walking to the resort for meals and playing pool or board games. The rains were relentless and all water sports and tours were canceled for the balance of our stay. Thank goodness that the cook was great and we ate very well and drank a variety of good Australian wines. We now both need some exercise to work off all the eating at the island. The only good news it that we were happy that we had taken the reef trip and snorkeled up front or the whole stay would have been a literal washout.

One other point of interest - we celebrated Easter while at Orpheus. We learned that in Australia, the Easter Bunny has been replaced by the Easter Bilby. The Easter Bilby is a marsupial with big ears and great PR. The Easter Bilby delivered chocolate bilbys to all the resort guests. In our case, he delivered it right to Arnie who had it in his paws when we returned to our room from dinner.

We took advantage of the down time to do a major revamp on this website. We planned to update it on our return to Sydney for the overnight stay before we go to Hong Kong.

Our big concern after a less than stellar week was getting off the island. We watched others leave with trepidation as the seaplane bounced around in the waves. It was so bad the day before we were to leave that the quests were being taken off in a helicopter, as it was too rough for the seaplane. It did not make us feel any better when we heard that another cyclone was heading north of us for Indonesia.

We packed up and got ready to go. The ride in the landing craft to the airplane float was OK but that was only the beginning. The seas were so rough that the landing craft, the float, and the plane were all bouncing into each other. It was a challenge making our way into the plane and we were sure the staff was going to drop some bags in the water but all made it on board safe but wet (did we mention that it was raining?).

We had a full load with 9 of us and all our bags. To make it worse, we were flying to Cairns this time, which was over an hour away, not just the 20 minutes to Townsville.  The pilot told us to expect a rough takeoff and ride and an instrument landing in Cairns. Oh joy, and we did this to ourselves on purpose?

The takeoff was successful (of course it was, who wrote this, Arnie the only survivor?) but it was not a fun trip. We climbed through the clouds and found an open layer at 8200 feet (you know all this stuff when you sit behind the pilot and read the instruments along with him and follow him as he works though his laminated checklists - damn I wish I had not noticed that he bit his nails down to the quick). Gisele tried to snooze (unsuccessfully) and Larry was a good back seat pilot. He was somewhat concerned that the pilot and co-pilot's  (there was none but the instruments were there) altimeter had an 800 feet difference in measurement. We were sure glad that the pilot's measurement was the correct one!

We bounced along to the coastline and noted through the odd hole in the clouds that the seas were really rough now and covered with whitecaps. As promised it was an instrument landing and we did not break through the clouds until 1500 feet. By the way, you know all those announcements on planes about not using cell phones, don't believe it. Our pilot made a cell phone call while we were on an instrument approach into Cairns and we didn't crash. Of course maybe we were just lucky.

While we were all happy to survive, we found something new to complain about when they dumped all of us and our luggage at the general aviation terminal rather than the main terminal with no arrangements for transportation to the main terminal. It took over half and hour for a taxi to come over and pick us up. Not a good way for a high-end resort to end the trip.

Anyhow, we made it and got onto a real jet plane for the trip back to Sydney. It was smooth, above the weather and we had a movie to watch rather than the pilots' instruments and his white knuckles on the stick.

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