Traveling South Along the GBR!!

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We decided to fly north to Cairns, the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef. We left Sydney on December 2nd, at the airport Jason managed to sneak us into the Qantas club where we ate and drank like first class passengers….little did they know we had a coach ticket.
Our genius plan was to travel back to Sydney via Greyhound some 3,000 miles….or 4 million kilometers (still trying to figure out the metric system)…..seemed like a brilliant idea on paper. So far we have made it the Whitsunday Islands, still have 2,000 miles to go…..which equals 30 hours on a bus…..STUPID! But at least we saved $50 bucks each traveling this way.
Anyway, Cairns is very tropical and beautiful. We went sailing and snorkeling around the Great Barrier Reef. The sail boat dropped us off at what was described as a pristine, white sand island otherwise known as Bird Island. They were right about 1 thing; Bird Island did have pristine white sand beaches. However, they neglected to tell us one other fact about it - picture 1 million birds on an island the size of a soccer field, who have never left to use the restroom…….
We put on our flippers and goggles to prepare for our swim, as we were about to dive in a black tipped reef shark swam by. Luckily we saw some fatter snorkelers who looked more appetizing, so we proceeded to swim around the island for the next couple of hours. The reef was amazing….saw lots of fish, stingrays and other exotic sea creatures. Jason used his better judgment this time and decided to not to pet the stingrays.
One other observation, just as the birds have never left the island to use the restroom, I didn’t see any snorkelers get out of the ocean to use the restroom either….hmmmm.

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