Cairns

Holidays are for adventures. chasing the sun, embarking on adventures, and making memories. 🤙🌞.

A spontaneous holiday was booked to the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest most complex ecosystem in the world.

This was a meant to be trip, as accommodation, flights, and activities were booked within three hours.

As we left a rainy Brisbane, we headed north to the sunny Coral Coast of Queensland where the adventure started. Fortunate enough to have a friend who had a wheelchair accessible vehicle to transfer us to the hotel. This was a swifty smooth transition allowing for a quick hotel preparation for my medical equipment and dinner.

Waking up on Saturday to nice blue sky, we headed out for the Sunlover day trip (they accept the companion card) to the Great Barrier Reef. This is a heritage listed site that supports 600 types of coral and 1500 fish species.

They provided a manual wheelchair that I was able to transfer into for our day adventure. Unfortunately, they are unable to accommodate power wheelchairs.

This is a full day of activities starting with check-in at 8:45 am and arriving back at the Cairns marina at 5:30pm

Entering the boat, there is a dedicated wheelchair seating position for me, along with friends, family  and support workers to sit with me. After a safety briefing, we departed and I was able to have a quick nap, using the lifejacket as a pillow.

We arrived at the pontoon, the vibes were high for the 4 hours of fun of snorkelling, ocean views, a great atmosphere plus the delicious buffet lunch.

The staff were very supportive and helpful with transferring from the boat onto the pontoon along the gangways and steps.

Quick, safety briefing, life jacket, safety ring and full-face snorkel with a staff member we were snorkelling with schools of vibrant fish and the underwater paradise and breathtaking coral formations. What a great way to spend 20 minutes, checking out this great World Heritage area

Once back on the boat, we were able to rinse off and change clothes and then spend the afternoon relaxing.

Living by the motto of improvise, adapt and overcome we had extended the holiday due to unforeseen circumstances. As a result, we needed to fill two days’ worth of activities. And boy did we get up to some adventures? We hired a non-accessible car with a trusty sideboard, cushion, and I was able to borrow a manual wheelchair from my friend in town. And organise the trip to the Daintree and a crocodile tour. What we didn’t know was that the manual chair had a flat tyre, and this meant my support worker had a nice workout in the roasting heat of summer.

The adventures continued when the owner of the crocodile tour had to physically carry me between the car and the boat and vice versa.

I was able to sit on my cushion, and my support worker was supporting me on this adventurous tour.

I saw some very large crocodiles; unfortunately, the middle of summer is not the ideal time for crocodile sightseeing. Due to the heat, the prime time is in the cooler months, as they prefer sunbaking during this time.

We ended the trip with a visit to the aquarium, dinner and enjoyed some cocktails before returning to Brisbane..

Holidays are for adventures and learning.