The Great Barrier Reef

16 Great Barrier Reef (Tue. Feb. 17)

Today we do not have to get up by 6:00 AM. Since we do not have to leave the hotel until 10:00AM, we get to sleep late. So we have the alarm set for 7:15AM. We're up, have breakfast and return to the room to retrieve our stuff for the boat ride and snorkeling expedition. The forecast for today: PERFECT!

We get on the boat, a large catamaran, and set out for our first stop: Green Island. Waves are from calm to about a one foot swell. It cannot get any better that that. (Especially since Carmen usually begins to feel sea sick if the swells are to large, but today everything looks good.) The information is, it will take 55 minutes to get to the Island. (And by the way when we get there the island is surrounded by reef. When we dock there is a Manta Ray, a number of large and small fish swimming around. Leaving, I spot a fish that looks suspiciously like a shark or shark shaped fish.)

We are now heading out to the platform from which we will take the semi-submerged submarine, snorkel, eat lunch, and any of the other activities available like scuba diving and a Scuby Doo (a bubble helmet with air tanks you ride like a scooter). After docking Carmen and I go straight to the submarine. Wow and Wow again! We only brought Carmen's camera and while we are traveling in the mini-sub we are passing the camera back and forth. The reef shots on this post are from the sub. And here is the happy couple now, still dry!

After the submarine ride, we eat lunch. It is good, but we do not stay long and off Carmen and I go to get set to snorkel. We already have our bathing suits on and we have our own snorkels and masks (mine has prescription lenses) so all we need to do is get a pair of fins. It takes us a couple of minutes to find a pair of fins that will fit Carmen's small feet, but we find a pair. The last pair in that size.

We get in the water and let me say right off the bat: OMG! We brought two underwater camera with us, we should have brought six! Two was not enough. (The underwater pictures in this posting are from our digital camera taken while inside the submarine. When we get the underwater film pictures back, I'll post a separate (maybe two) day for those pictures.) There are all kinds of fish, yellow, purple or blue (like I can tell), orange, a couple that look like leopards, long skinny fish (like a pipe fish), sergent fish, and a couple of large (one very colorful) fish. I think I got a picture of one of the large fish. I was able to "play" with the fish by making it think I had food. It would come up to me and by opening my hand and putting it on it's nose I was able to keep him close by.

The Coral! Wow! There are all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors. Some with blue, yellow, orange. I do not have enough film. Egads! I do swim down deep a number of times to get a picture of some fan coral and giant clams. I get one picture of a dead clam that is about five feet wide.

After taking all of the pictures we can (we have run out of film in the two cameras) and Carmen is back on the boat, I go back out to explore more. I have found what look like giant clam openings where the coral has grown around it. Very strange looking when the coral starts to open and close like it is breathing. It's alive!

I float around taking in all of the sights, including a couple of people (there must be one or two in every crowd) that stand on the coral because they are vertical and hot horizontal. Hope that the coral is not too badly damaged.

Before I know it we have to come in and we are heading back 30 minutes after that. Too bad, so sad. Our trip takes us back to Green Island to pick up returning passengers and then back to Cairns. As we come back in I get a picture of us (well actually we are not in the picture) riding off into the sunset. All I can say is that the trip was fantastic, even better that that.

By the time we get back we are pretty much beat and even though we do not have to have the bags out until 10:00 am, we go to bed early. Tomorrow we fly to Sydney. To bad we do not stay here for another day or two.

The underwater pictures provided in this blog are from our regular camera taken from the semi-sub and not while snorkeling. When the pictures from the underwater camera come back I'll post a number of pictures by themselves in a new post. Until then, stay above water, even though it's pretty underwater. G'day mate.