THE Great Barrier Reef

Do you remember learning at school about this geographical wonder of the world? Have you ever seen pictures of the fish and coral taken underwater in the Great Barrier Reef? Well, all that became a reality for us this Saturday.
I researched extensively online to figure out which company to go with for our big adventurous day. I finally picked Silverswift. They picked us up at 7:20 am, drove us to Cairns’ marine terminal where we boarded the boat at 8:00 am and departed half an hour later. The boat could probably fit 120 people or so, but it had only 80.
Now, we new that morning that the winds have picked up during the night and that the ride won’t be that smooth after all. After an hour and a half boat ride, we reached our first snorkeling/diving site. Holy cow, the waters were so choppy! Every time the boat would tilt a little too much to the side, I would feel my stomach flip.
Speaking of stomachs….Nothing can tell ahead of time whether or not you’ll get seasick or not. You could be tall, young, bold and strong and still get seasick. I was one of the lucky people on board who survived with just minor feeling of nausea for some moments. I took a couple of those Thai “unknown” pills that we were got on our Phi Phi Island tour. Robert, on the other hand, was not so lucky. No, he didn’t need a bag, but he did have to stand towards the front of the boat constantly watching the horizon.
As soon the boat docked at the first reef, the action began. Everyone was trying to jump in the water as soon as possible because the water was much warmer than the windy conditions outside. I mean, it was FREEZING on the outside, and I was dreading being wet and frozen in the wind.
Once we got in the water, it felt really warm. I remember right away all the snorkeling skills I had learned in Thailand. But the view under water was so different from anything I had ever seen before. So many more fish! So many coral reefs! The clarity of the ocean was amazing, the colors of the fish were so vibrant, and it was amazing to get so close to nature.
We had a waterproof camera with us, but we won’t know if any pictures turned out until we get back to Japan and can develop them. Kind of wish we rented a digital camera for all our underwater shots, but maybe we’ll need to do it when Robert finally gets scuba dive certified.
These are some of the pictures that the company’s photographer took. Oh, we were having a fantastic time.

My favorite site where we stopped was the second stop. I felt much more comfortable at snorkeling by then and was able to see a lot of interesting underwater creatures. Somehow my swim skirt got stuck on a branch of coral, and that made me very nervous as I was scared to get scratched and start bleeding in the ocean. But it all turned out well.
At the third site, we got to see a reef shark, anemone with “Nemo”, barracuda and humpback fish. At each site we were able to stay in the water for about one hour.

Here are a few more pictures from the trip:

Those shallow spots are the reefs.

This is as close to the Great Barrier Reef’s edge as it gets.

We were exhausted by the end of the trip. I was able to fall asleep on the way back, and Robert stoically stood on the front of the boat using all his power not to throw up.

Shortly after our 5 pm naps (because we could), we went out to eat at a great Italian restaurant. I had a super yummy calzone that we cut in half and tried to arrange an onion and a carrot on top of it in the shape of a “ten”.

We have really enjoyed food here…Italian is still my favorite.

Good night for now. We have a great post coming up soon about our Sunday daytrip.  So tune in tomorrow, hopefully.