We got picked up around 6:45am from our hostel from a friendly gentleman with a big bus. We drove about an hour and half through rainforest and beaches, from Cairns to the marina at Port Douglas where our tour would leave from. He offered to take our bags to our hostel in Port Douglas, which was nice and unexpected.
We boarded around 8:30am and found a seat on the ship, which had two levels and could seat maybe seventy people or so, if I had to guess. A family of five sat by us, an American family from California who had moved to Sydney after the recession. Although I like Australia, I felt homesick at the thought of living there. I would definitely miss the states.
We ate a few of their complementary muffins and cookies and I decided to be cautious and take their motion sickness pill, which they said was just ginger? Well, I was glad I did because the ride out to the reef was pretty bumpy. We had to move around the ship sometimes and it was hard to keep our balance. One lady had a bag in her hand and was breathing deeply. Maybe she didn’t take the pill!
For those who don’t know, the Great Barrier Reef is anywhere from 20 to 40 miles away from the coast of Australia so, unfortunately, you have to take a tour to get to it, unless you have some ship or yacht of your own. The ride out took about an hour and half and we were headed to the very outer reef, where the reef meets up with the continental shelf and plunges into the ocean. I had heard that was the best place to see the reef was the outer edges so I paid a little extra for that.
On our way, we got outfitted with snorkel gear. They busted out some special fins for Nick and got him a prescription mask too, which was neat for him to be able to see while snorkeling for once. They offered the use of wetsuits – well, they were thinner than that but looked about the same – for $5 a piece and we decided to go with it. We looked pretty funny in our suits and I took some fun pictures of Nick in his, complete with the hood on.
We arrived at our destination and stood on the lower deck on the back. There is an area there that sits in the water a bit where we could get our gear on and go. And what is the first thing I see? A shark! Haha, yeah we really did see one swimming around the boat there but it was not too big, maybe four feet long. Nick, who has a little bit of shark anxiety, was all excited to see the shark and wanted to see more. Okay, buddy, so you don’t want to see them but you do. Hmmm…
So we plopped in and I was happy to find the water relatively warm, yay!
Well, we were pretty stunned by how beautiful everything was. Now, the fish were not incredibly abundant nor were they really much different than what I have seen in Hawaii. But the water was crystal clear, like swimming in an aquarium, and the coral was amazing. It was everywhere and it was so varied! You had tree-like oral and coral that looked like bushes that swayed in the current. There was the brain coral and rubbery coral that looked like thick yellow lettuce. There were coral plates that jutted out like rainforest mushrooms from the reef walls. And, of course, we had plenty of sea anenomies with their tendrils swaying in so many different colors. Everywhere there was color and texture and we thoroughly enjoyed our tour through the underwater garden!
I was doing a lot of filming, diving under the water to follow the fish and get a close look at the coral. There were groups of these little bright blue fish that I really liked. They would hang out over some tree-like coral and then go down into the branches when I got close, like that was their little hideout. We also ran into a huge fish, probably four feet long, that I chased a little bit. He was meandering at first but when I got closer he was very quick to swim away. I was surprised the big guy could swim so fast!
I must say that I was so glad I had rented that suit because there were so many jellyfish! They were not the typical ones, though I did see one or two like you see at an aquarium, but were more cone-shaped, about four inches long, and I didn’t see any tentacles on them. Nick thought maybe they didn’t sting but I could see the electric currents running through them! I would be swimming along doing my filming and almost run into one or have to swim around one. They were pretty abundant and made the experience a little nerve-wracking, even with the suit on. I still had my hands exposed and my ankles and face! Don’t hurt me, ah!
My mask was a little funky too. It pressed between my eyebrows pretty hard and if I loosened it then water would get in. So that was a bit of a nuisance, especially when diving and the pressure would make it even worse. One of the fins scraped skin off a toe too, so that hurt a little while snorkeling. The jellies, the mask, and my scrape were my only complaints though.
We went to another destination but had lunch before snorkeling again. It was pretty good with a lot of variety of meats and salads. They had whole prawns that freaked me out with their bulging eyes pleading not to be cooked alive and their long antennae and many little legs. Nick ate them anyway, the champ that he is. No, thanks.
Our second site was different because it was more of a wall that you could travel along. We went all along one wall and then went back to check out the other side. We saw another huge fish and I chased him for a good long while until he popped into a crevice to get away from me, which was about the only notable occurrance there. The wall was different but the other site had more coral.
We then went on to our last site which had a sandy area running through it. Before we went in, a guy on the boat held out some food in the water and a HUGE blue fish came right out to eat it. He was so close – right next to me - and so big. I wanted to swim with him but he was farther from the boat by the time I got in.
We went on a little tour with a guide from the ship. He shook a sea cucumber and it burst out a bunch of tentacles, completely bizarre and unexpected. He passed one around and we touched it. They are a bit harder than they look. He also swam down and put his hand in a giant clam – this thing was huge – and almost got it stuck in there. He had said he was going to make a giant clam shut its mouth but I didn’t think he would do it with his own body!
We explored the area some more and I was trying to get in as many pictures and videos as I could since this was our last site. Although the coral and fish and clams were all super cool, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t encounter something a little more substantial, like a manta ray or a turtle or something like that. We did see the big fish but I was hoping to see more than two. We’ve had lots of luck with the wildlife on land but with the marine life I suppose the coral is the best we can do, and that in itself was pretty neat.
I thought it was funny how much we enjoyed the reef and its wonders in comparison to the others. We were always the last ones back to the boat and a lot of the time we would look up and see only a few other snorkelers out, sometimes none, while a whole lot of other people were already back on the boat! What? Come on, people, this is the Great Barrier Reef! Come out here and soak it all in, sheesh!
Our boat ride back was not so fun. People were lounging around on the seats inside so we kind of lost our spot and had to go out back, which was fine since the breeze was nice anyway. I laid down on the deck to try and get a tan but ended up getting splashed all the time, which was funny at first but I gave it up after a while. Well, the splashes got worse and worse and that boat was really rockin! I was doing okay until I went inside to try and pass the time by reading. I read for about two minutes and started feeling the motion sickness coming on. Ugh, not so fun. So I went back outside to endure the rocking and reeling and splashing with Nick.
I was still a little sick when we docked around 4:30pm but it went away after a while. We were able to get a bus ride down the road to our hostel where our bags were waiting for us.
The hostel was very nice except for some confusion on our room. The lady was embarrassed that our four bed dorm hadn’t been cleaned. She offered us a seven bed dorm instead or she could just take twenty minutes to clean ours up. Gee, let me think… So she cleaned it up while I took a shower.
Wow, that felt good to soak in the hot water after all that exercise but I wasn’t prepared for the motion I still felt! Sometimes it felt like I was still rocking on the boat and I had to grab the walls of the shower to keep my balance! That was pretty weird and not so fun but kind of cool at the same time to see my brain messing me up.
Well, I had absolutely no energy after that. I was completely burned out and all I wanted to do was go to bed. But it was only 6pm and Nick was hungry. So I settled for a 15 minute nap and then we headed out to find some food.
We saw some bats on our walk around Port Douglas! They were pretty big, actually! I tried to get some pictures but it was just too dark. Nick even scared one out of a tree so I could film it but he didn’t show up at all. Oh well. We are always thrilled to see the wildlife here.
We ended up back at the docks where we found a restaurant called Hog’s Breath. Yeah, sounds appealing, doesn’t it? Well, it was alright with decent prices. I had tortellini and Nick had a burger and we shared a banana split afterward. I was pretty much falling asleep at the table though, especially since it took so long to seat us and serve us. We didn’t get back to the hostel until 9:30pm.
We were fortunate to end up having the dorm to ourselves and I was asleep by about 10:30pm. And I slept so soundly! Nick said he even got up in the night and came over to snuggle me and I didn’t respond at all. Yeah, I don’t doubt it. I was so tired from such a full day!
Pictures:
Enjoy your trip to the Great Barrier Reef! Click on a picture to take a closer look!
No comments:
Post a Comment