The Reef

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One of the really big days of our trip has arrived - snorkelling and diving at the Great Barrier Reef! We've both been looking forward to this, but after my experience at the whale watching, I'm a little nervous... I do have a strong tendency to get sea sickness. At least this time, I am adequately prepared with some seasickness tablets. In the end... no worries! Despite relatively strong winds (20-25 knots), it is a beautiful sunny day, and the 2.5 hour trip out proves no problem. We first go to a Cay (a small sandy island). On the way, Eddie (who will be scuba diving) gets a briefing from the guide. It turns out that she is the only passenger who has her diving certification, so she will be going off with just the guide to explore the reef. Meanwhile, I will restrict myself to scuba (I've tried diving, and found it a little claustrophobic and generally uncomfortable).

So we get in... and it is really fantastic. Loads of beautiful fish, and the reef teach talk we went to a couple of days ago means that we can identify many of them and compare notes later. When Eddie has finished her dive, she joins in the snorkelling too. We have brought a casing for our camera to try to take some underwater photos, but that proves very difficult when it comes to it - it is very hard to see what you are actually taking a picture of. Still, some of them came out okay, as we hope you'll agree.

Then it's back to the boat for some lunch (which was lovely), following which they dispose of some left overs by chucking them overboard for the (bat + other) fish - which go mad for them! Then we have a short trip to another bit of reef. This time, there is no land to snorkel off; we instead are going straight from the boat. Again, a fantastic experience. Some high points for me were:

- a moment when all of the fish just fled in an instant, followed by a swift flash of something dark and large... maybe a shark! Not convinced it was, it was gone so quickly...
- seeing a trumpet fish pretending to be a barracuda. It was just hanging around them, trying to pretend it wasn't some alien from another world, but just another fish. I wasn't fooled...
- seeing a stringray.
- finding nemo (the clown fish).
- seeing a very large potato cod.

Then, alas, we were called back to the boat all too soon for the return journey. Half way through the journey, they asked us to come and pay. As I waited in the queue, the boat slowed down, coming more or less to a halt. Then I noticed a continuous bleeping alarm going off. Not your 'Abandon ship! Abandon ship!' type of alarm. More your 'Er... I don't want to alarm anyone, but I think maybe you ought to know...' type of alarm. Then there was some increased crew activity with people going down below in the direction where the alarm was coming from, speaking in hushed tones to each other, and looking slightly worried. Then I heard one saying to another 'it's all kind of sloshing around down there.' However, there was no announcement made. This is when I started fearing for our lives. Needlessly, as it turned out. After half an hour at a standstill, we got going again, still without any explanation. I decided I didn't want to know. Anyway, we made it back safely... and had a fantastic day!

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