Ok Ready? This was the adventure to end all! Hank and I chose to take the boat to explore the Great Barrier Reef and do some snorkeling. Mark and Robin hooked up with Linda and Burt, rented a car, drove on the wrong side of the street into the forest and waterfalls. We had such different experiences and would like to share.
Our trip to the reef took about 90 min. by jet shuttle boat to a large pontoon station that included covered patios, a kitchen that served lunch, all the snorkeling gear and plenty of aussie divers. Really cute aussie divers! Ok the girls were cute too. Anyway we suited up with fins, mask and lycra suits and plunged into the warm waters off the diving platform. Immediately I was awed by the reef, it’s closeness, the colorful and frisky fish, the dimensions and depths of the coral that one can only imagine. I was navigating around a couple of people when a lady waved me over to her. She was carrying a camera but I was so stunned by what she was doing that I almost stop breathing as I yelled a “WOW”. I watched in indescribable wonder as she played with Wally, a beautiful Maori Wrasse fish and she took these pictures while I played with him too. Hank was right behind me and got snapped as well. I am the one without the gloves.
How great are these pics!? We were so surprised and excited! Apparently Wally is the favorite of the pool and loves to be patted. He wandered around the platform later for more strokes.
After lunch I took the opportunity to take a longer dive to the outside of the reef wall. This tour was about 1 and 1/2 hours and included a guide around the reef and back to the pontoon. I thought I might get tired but the fins are a great help as is the life jacket. But really I was so totally engrossed in the picture laid out below me that I could barely think. All I kept saying to myself was OMG!!!! Again there are no words to properly describe this kind of panoramic treasure. We were so lucky that the sun came out which lets the coral show off its bright shades of blue, green and pink. We saw great schools of the blue fish that form a bigger fish to fool predators. And smaller silver ones with blue lines that changed color as they moved. A gorgeous black and white guy (like a cow’s color) swam by but the guide said he is a baby and will eventually turn grayish. We also spied some jellyfish but escaped any stings. There is a box jelly here that is deadly but not where we were thank god. In fact, the beaches at Cairns this time of year are closed due to those jellys and crocodiles. Hmmmm, that’s why I live in San Diego.
This was a pretty long day and we were exhausted but planned to meet M & R for dinner. It was raining kangaroos by then so we had an outback dinner (special for the night) on the ship which was excellent. The rain stopped and we ventured out to town for shopping and and a nightcap.
Hugs to all – more adventure in Brisbane! Marynn
Hello all – Below are the pictures of our adventuresome foursome Mark, Robin, Burt and Linda. We rented a car and drove to the rainforest. On the way we saw beaches just as beautiful as Hawaii. Soon, the rainforest was everywhere around us, green and very luscious. We went swimming in the cool (75 degree) river pool which was one of many in the area. There was an interesting tree which contained what we thought were bats but we read the sign below describing these odd creatures as baby foxes (like no fox I’ve ever seen!). We also saw several Kangaroo’s resting under a tree but were not quick enough to snap a photo. We had a really fun day sharing our adventure with friends.
XOXOXOXOXO Robin
