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Fourth of July! The winds out on Great Barrier Reef had swayed us into waiting until our last full day before booking a trip to the reef. The tour company that we chose was an outfit named Quicksilver. They have a pontoon built in a lagoon on the Outer Reef that basically resembled a floating two story building. It had a seating area on the top and the bottom deck was equipped with changing rooms, a restaurant, more seating, areas to get outfitted for snorkeling and a small loading area for a semi-submersible glass-bottomed boat that toured around the reef. There was also access to an underwater viewing area.
The boat ride was a bit choppy, but not too bad. Even at a relatively high speed, it still took us 90 minutes to reach the Outer Reef. This gives a you an idea of the scale of the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef is actually a network of nearly 3,000 coral reefs that stretches 2,300 kilometers off the shore of Australia. Our destination was the Agincourt Reef, about 40 kilometers off the nearest shoreline at Cape Tribulation. On the advice of crew members, we rented Lycra suits to protect against
jellyfish which although were not prevalent this time of year had been recently spotted. An added benefit of the full body suits was sun protection. Not only would we not have to apply sunscreen constantly, but the chemicals from the sunscreen wouldn't be deposited into the waters of the fragile reef.
After docking, we made our way to assemble our equipment. The Lycra suits were black. The ones depicted in the photo showing an example were blue. I had envisioned us looking like Blue Man Group wanabees or we were off to an Avatar convention. The black would have to do. After donning the Lycra suits, we put on floatation vests as we weren't sure how long we would be on the reef and wanted to focus more on viewing than swimming. I also grabbed a standard issue pool noodle to tow Theo around. All of us were extremely excited to get in the water. The fish were teaming around the entrance area. After a debriefing by one of the guides and a quick photo op, we were off. The boat and pontoon are docked at the "deep end" of this reef in about 25 feet of water. At
this depth, viewing for snorkeling isn't optimal but there were lots of larger fish in the water. The "warm up" or practice area for snorkelers was marked off in a 30 meter oval area right off the pontoon. Nearly all the snorkelers were in this area, so we opted to stay on the outside as we headed toward the shallow reef area. All of the kids were immediately off like experts. The bathtub practice with Theo really paid off, as he just watched wide-eyed the aquatic universe unfold.
We followed near the perimeter of the designated area and finally got into some shallow reef where the colors of the reef and species of fish increased multi-fold. The spectacular parrotfish, angelfish, triggerfish and too many others to name (or even remember!) were darting all about. Theo particularly got a kick out of watching the scuba divers below entice a Giant Clam into closing its huge shell. It was hard to step back and imagine the incredulity of snorkeling with the whole family on the GREAT BARRIER REEF! This was beyond epic. After about an hour, Theo was asking to head in, so we left the others to continue exploring and
we rode the current back in. The way out was against the current, and towing Theo around the reef was wearing on me a bit.
Theo and I got out and immediately boarded the semi-submersible. This was a bit like a floating submarine. The deck wasn't very usable space, more just a loading area. The underside of the boat was furnished with individual seats with glass viewing on either side. We both enjoyed the ride and saw several of the same species (only larger) and many others. We saw a full grown parrotfish, and I had no idea that they grew to such an enormous size, nearly a meter long. The parrotfish Suzy and I had previously seen feeding in large numbers in both Belize and Hawaii. In Belize you could hear them chomping on the dead reef that they eat to ingest the algae off of it. The reef is primarily comprised of ingested limestone eaten by the creatures that make up the reef. After the dead reef is eaten by the parrotfish, the limestone is expelled out its back end to create sand around the reefs. About 30% of the sand in the area is parrotfish poop! We finished the 25 minute ride right as the others were coming out of the water from snorkeling. We grabbed a quick lunch at the buffet and separated again.
Worn out from their long snorkeling excursion, Suzy took the three kids on the semi-submersible while I headed out to the shallow reef area. Without having Theo to tow and check on, I could relax and really take in the surroundings. The shallow reef was teaming with fish and at points was less than a meter deep. I worked to swim against the current to the far end of the area and then just drifted over the reef and take it all in. There were several fish that were 3-4 inches long and just seemed to glow they were such a bright blue. The impossibly vibrant colors of the parrotfish always are amazing. The Reef has 1,500 species of fish and it seemed that 100 must have been well represented.
Drifting slowly I stared deeply at each square meter of reef. Each one was a little underwater city busy with creatures in constant motion. The vividness is mind-boggling, the beauty is stunning and the purity is heart-warming. It is really something that is difficult to put into words (at least for this reporter). Knowing that my time on the reef was ending I reluctantly churned my flippers toward the pontoon. My senses on the brink of overload. My mind churning trying to comprehend the grandeur. My heart a bit saddened to be leaving. My soul enriched by the experience. I thought I had pushed the envelope a bit on the time. It seemed like I had been out there an hour, a day...a lifetime. I was shocked when I came back and saw that it was only 35 minutes. I had more lucid thoughts than I usually have in a month during the usual grind at home.
On the ride back some clouds settled in and the wind kicked up a bit. I decided to head to the top of the boat where few were braving the elements. I reflected on our journey. Five weeks digested on an amazing adventure. Seeing and doing things that many don't have the opportunity to do or just choose not to seize. There were 1,000 reasons not to take this trip, but at some point we pulled the trigger and made it happen. Both Suzy and I envisioned a dramatic change potentially happening to our family on this trip. At the end of the day, we still are who we were but we will always have this special time locked into our memories. Maybe the long-term benefits (or other effects) will reverberate over time or maybe we will just go back to the day-to-day normalcy of our lives and not be changed. I guess all families go through challenging times. With Geddy straddling the most difficult time between adolescence and manhood, Ivy on the brink of teen years and Theo still testing all reasonable bounds of limits to see if he can rule the world at five, we are definitely treading through a challenging patch. So what to do about it? We pushed all in and took it to the other side of the world.
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