Great Barrier Reef

I'm finally back in Cairns after 3 days/2 nights on the Great Barrier Reef.
The boat was small and crowded; my room was on the other side of the wall where everyone congregated in the mornings and evenings (well, all the time as there was nowhere else to go) so getting to sleep was interesting.

Sandy and I were the oldest on the trip. The average age was about 29. It felt weird to be 40+ years older than Two couples were on their honeymoon. It was an interesting mix of people from Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland. There were a LOT of computer related divers, 3 teachers; 3 dental technicials/assistants, a med tech marine, a girl who'll be entering Sandhurst (like our West Point) who's already a dive master at 22, a stock trader...and others I can't remember.

The trip out to the reef was rough...at least 5 of the 36 of us got horribly seasick...This boat took us to the outer reefs, right near the continental shelf, so it was a 3 hour trip each way. Once we got there we went to our cabins, unpacked and got briefed on where we would be going that afternoon. The snorkeling throughout the trip was great. The first time out they gave me a snorkel that leaked and I kept getting water when I was trying to breathe.It freaked me out, and I took it as a horrible omen. Once we got that settled, things improved dramatically. The fish are amazing, and there were blue, purple, yellow, and green coral of kinds I'd never even heard of before. Taking pictures when you're snorkeling isn't as interesting as when you're diving right next to the fish...the water was so clear that what I was looking at was at least 20 feet down, sometimes more. Some of my pictures came out well at least.
Sandy rented a camera and took pictures diving, which I'm sure I'll get to see/share.

I had an interesting adventure the second day. Turns out that after we anchored and went into the water another boat from the same dive operation that looked exactly the same came there too. So when it was time to swim back to the boat, I got nearly to it, only to find out that it was the wrong boat. You can bet I was TIRED and embarassed. Anyhow, also turns out that 2 of the divers did the same thing so I didn't feel so bad.

The first day I went on 2 snorkeling trips. We moved to another reef the second day, and I went out on 3 trips.Again we moved to a new reef and went out again on the third day, when I snorkeled twice. Today there was a strong current so we kept reasonably close to the boat, but there was a LOT to see.I think that just today alone I saw at least 25 different kinds of fish. Besides fish and coral, I saw a LOT of sea cucumbers, a shark, and a medium sized turtle. It was really an amazing experience!

We rechecked into the Koala Beach Backpackers, and will stay tonight and the next. We're using tomorrow as a free day, so rest, hang out, whatever. Then we get onto the motor taxi (really a large passenger carrying speed boat) for the trip to Port Douglas, where we'll spend 2 days seeing the rainforest and visiting the village of Kuranda (traveling by a scenic train, and a gondola the other way). Port Douglass is less commercial than Cairns, which is modern and great, but geared to reef tourism. The government of Queensland allegedly spent millions of dollars to make parks, lovely open walking shopping streets, a pretty waterfront, a casino. What you can't imagine is the number of birds here...the noise in the evening and morning when they are getting ready to leave or return is the loudest I've ever heard. There are palm tree with the leaves sagging under the weight of the birds (they don't seem to like the other trees).

Port Douglass is smaller, more laid back, and supposedly very quaint. We come back to Cairns on Friday to fly to Sydney. We'll have to make reservations at the central hostel before we leave if we want to get a twin room...apparently they go fast.