A DAY ON THE REEF

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Today we were all sad to be leaving the apartment, but also excited to be starting our adventure together. We all wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef so decided to move to the campsite that we had stayed at before and check out the day trips. Arriving on site Gem looked a little apprehensive. She is not the best when it comes to bugs - but to be fair Kieran is not that much better,! The thought of sleeping in a tent was not filling them with joy. But give them credit, only once on a windy hill in Hastings have they been anywhere near a tent. This time they managed to put their tent up with only minor input from us. After setting up we cracked open a drink, Gemma’s idea being that she needed to be drunk to get through her first night in a tent. It started to rain but we were all cosy under the awning and we didn’t have far to go for the toilet as we had set up the toilet tent.

Unfortunately being drunk before bed did not have the desired effect for Gemma. Her and Kieran struggled to handle the humidity and spent half the night wandering the streets trying to keep cool. When we woke up they were not in the tent but after some searching we found them cooking down in the pool. Being very tired the rest of the day was spent laying around the pool. Andy, gem and Kieran all went shopping while I stayed on site so we didn’t have to pack everything away. They were gone longer than I expected and as I had nowhere to hide from the mid afternoon sun by the time they returned I was a rather painful shade of red. This was not an ideal situation as we had booked our reef trip and were due to spend the next day on a boat. An early night was in order as we would be picked up at 7.05am. Gemma and Kieran slept in Hilda in the hope that they could get some sleep before out trip. It worked much better for them. We had however made a slight oversight when purchasing the tent. We bought it easily big enough to accommodate the double air bed thinking this would be big enough for everyone. What we had not thought of when making the purchase was the sloping sides on a dome tent. This meant Andy had to sleep with his legs bent and his head pressed against the tent. I had some issues of my own. I found sleeping on a plastic airbed (even with the sheet) a little painful on my newly burned tender skin - ouch! None of this mattered when the alarm went off as we were excited about the day ahead.

The bus turned up on time. We were first on so we had to do the rounds picking everyone else up before it finally dropped us off at the jetty. We now realised that we had looked at so many leaflets that we couldn’t remember who we had booked with. We were faced with dozens of desks from different companies and could do nothing but stare at them blankly. Feeling rater foolish we stood about with bemused looks on our faces until someone asked if we needed any help. A little red faced we explained our predicament. She laughed. We told her as much as we knew about what our boat looked like, what we had paid and what it included. After asking a few questions she apologised and said she couldn’t help us and we were left to our own devises again. We looked around but could see no leafets that looked like ours. Then Andy spotted a couple who were holding leaflet that looked vaguely familiar. He asked them if he could have a look, but they did not understand English and clutched their leaflet close to their chest thinking he was trying to steal it. In the end out of desperation he prized it out of her grasp. “ this looks like our trip” he said, as they gave him a rather strange look. We gave the desk clerk our names and our credit card and booked ourselves on. We assume it was the right boat, but im sure they did not care once they took our money! We boarded the boat and were soon on our way. With all the stormy weather we had been having we kept our fingers crossed for a smooth trip. One and a half hours of choppy seas later we arrived at our first stop. We were now all dressed in our rather attractive stinger suits and feeling excited. Well all except for Kieran, who despite taking some tablets offered by the crew, was feeling decidedly ropy. Andy and I went to get in while gem stayed with Kieran hoping that his stomach would settle now we had stopped. Looking over the edge of the boat into the crystal clear waters we could see huge fish swimming up to the steps to meet us. Before the trip I was scared to go into the water because of the box jellyfish, but now I couldn’t wait to get in. As we dropped into the water and put our heads under brightly coloured fish swam right to us. As we swam further out the water was so deep that the bottom of the sea seamed to drop away from us leaving you looking at the darkness below. It really felt like you were flying. We snorkelled further out and were soon swimming over most beautiful coral in so may shapes sizes and colours it looked like another planet. I felt so lucky to be exploring it. After some time we headed back to find Gemma and Kieran who were just getting in. Kieran was still feeling peaky but was determined not to miss out. But after a short while bobbin up and down in the sea it became too much and he had to swim back the boat to be sick. We spent the next hour exploring. We saw sea cucumbers, cuttlefish and my breath was taken away as I looked in the direction Andy was pointing and saw a Reef shark swimming beneath us. Eventually we were called back to the boat for BBQ lunch while we moved on to our next stop. Andy and I were one of the first in the water this time. As we explored we found a giant sea clam about one meter across, a huge barracuda about the same length (well known on this reef and called Barry apparently), a massive Wrasse about the size of a dining table and fish of so many bright colours and strange shapes that they looked like they came right out of a child’s imagination. After quite some time Andy and Gem decided to go back to the boat but I was not going to miss a anything so a stayed out on my own until the very last minute. We then had quite a long journey home. I’m sure it felt even longer to poor Kieran who at this point could manage nothing more that sitting with his eyes closed. We really felt for him spending all day on a boat feeling sick. Sea sickness is the worst… its not like you can get off and go home.

Back on dry land he was soon starting to feel better, and hungry. He hadn’t been able to stomach the lunch provided. All day without food is tough for someone who normally needs feeding every few hours :o) Back on the campsite we got showered and walked in to town. Andy and I were still full from lunch so went for a wander around the night market while gem and Kieran ate what turned out to be the best pizza in Australia. Since arriving in Queensland Gemma had become fascinated by crocodiles and was desperate to see on e in the wild. Although we had looked in every river and sea we had come across we had yet to see one. It was totally unexpected then to find in the depths of the Cairns night market a solitary crocodile. He gave Andy quite a fright chasing him down the road. Later me, Andy and croc met up with Gemma and Kieran and went for a beer. I know it was low season but considering it was Christmas there were very few people about. After a quick beer in the Irish bar we wandered down to the pier for another. When we arrived they were just closing wow…..this town knows how to party! Realising we wouldn’t be getting another beer we strolled back along the seafront to our beds.

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