The ultimate Great Barrier Reef experience: looking a sea turtle in the eye:
The shells in this picture are the Giant Clams. The are the largest mollusks on Earth that can grow to more than a yard across. The ones you see here have been exposed by the low tide, but most of them live their 100-year lives fully underwater.
This is a small crown-of-thorns starfish. Its spikes are venomous, and it can grow to more than a foot in diameter. In large numbers, they are dangerous to the reef: they actually eat coral, faster than it can reproduce.
At the Cairns airport:
Cairns beach:
And warnings about the Cairns wildlife:
A few more marsupials around Cairns and Port Douglas:
Night visitor to our house:
Fruit bats, also known as flying foxes:
Parting shot - just a picture of the reef blue:
