Great Barrier Reef

So, usually I would go with Cairns Day 1. Guess what, forget day 1. Day 1, while enjoyable, is nothing comapared to Cairns Day 2, which was a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. I even rented an underwater camera to take photos of the event.

I had to be down at the wharf by 7:45 this morning. Trust me, I have never been more eager to jump out of bed at 6:30. Got down there with pleanty of time to spare, so I took in the early morning on the Pacific Ocean. In a word...it was nice. Calm breeze, some birds, yeah, it was nice.

Get on board the boat, fill out some forms that basically boil down to "Don't drown, and if you do we don't owe you money." Then, a few more talks from the crew about what we're doing on the day and then its off to the reef!

Now, if you look at a map, the GBR as I'm going to call it from now on, is right next to Australia. You wouldn't reckon it would take you that long to get out there, but it does. Two hours by boat. Most of that two hours was me thinking that maybe I should go get some of those ginger tablets. I soldiered on though, and once I went up to the sun deck, and looked at the horizon, the need for the tablets went away.

(I'm trusting all you extremely intelligent people in Internet land to figure out what ginger tablets are for)

After getting my fins on and mask situated, it was time to do some snorkeling. Of course, having never snorkled before, using the snorkel takes a little getting used to. You breathe out of your nose for so many years and then you can't. So, my first few minutes in the water were spent reminding myself to breather through the mouth, take deep breaths, and enjoy myself.


Once I did, I was able to see things like this...


Underwater photography is hard, and so some pictures of fish are kind of blurry. It does not take away from the awesomeness.

Here's a better looking fish.



You can watch shows about the GBR or see pictures, but one you're there, its just amazing.

And, I'd write more. But the day absolutely wiped me out. That and the potential already-gave-me-cancer sunburn I'm sporting on my back, I'm tired. I'll post more pics, probably when I get back to Canberra. Until then, here's a pitcure of a turtle. Everyone loves Turtles.



Till then,

Alan