Blogs from Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Been a while since I posted.....lots of planes and traveling in between blog posts...... I headed out of Canberra on Tuesday Feb 21st and flew into Brisbane...about an hour and a half flight.....short layover and then from Brisbane to Proserpine, another hour and a half......the heat was incredible.....weather from Canberra to the north of Australia is so different.....from our summer weather to intense heat and humidity.......good practice for Bali! Short bus trip from Proserpine into Airlie Beach. Typical summery type beach town......luv it so far.....my hotel is situated right across from the beach and the view is spectacular (score 1). Who wouldn't want to live here?????? Walked around town trying to decide amongst the dozens of tour places who/where to book the Great Barrier Reef Dive Trip.....I wanna get it just right.....as luck would have it ... read more

Checking in at Singapore airport gave us a little surprise that we weren’t prepared for ….TWO FLIGHTS! We did a changeover from Darwin to Cairns but it wasn’t too bad as we are ‘Frequent Flyers’ to Jetstar now so a blanket and some socks kept us cozy. We arrived in Cairns at 10am exhausted from the lack of sleep on the flights but we were soon on a comfy bed in a place called Dreamtime! A great place to stay if you are ever in Cairns, 10 minute walk to the lagoon and the supermarket is just across the road. The vibe in Dreamtime was really good, everyone was friendly and we met a lot of people in our time here. Due to a lack of sleep we were in bed by 9pm that night and ... read more

All I can say is today was AMAZING. One of the guys warned us that it wouldn't look as bright as you see in pictures due to the lack of red light or something but it was still breath takingly colourful. Hard to describe. We saw so many fish (although no Nemo fish, turtles or Reef Sharks, only disappointment) and corals that were just beautiful. We just snorkelled but because its so shallow your still in amongst it all. I tried to dive but due to my annoyingly "precious" ears I couldn't. The pressure was too bad, they wouldn't equalize/pop and I couldn't ignore it, felt like something might burst. So only slight gutting thing. Chloe couldn't dive either as she ticked that she's had asthma so atleast we were in the same boat. I really ... read more

On the 15th we took a ferry to the Great Barrier Reef. It took a long time to get to the reef because on the way we had to go via the Witsundays and pick up extra people from Hamilton Island. It took around 3 hours to get there. Lots of people got sick on the boat because it was soooo rocky I didn't though-we took travel sickness tablets. When we got there we arrived at a pontoon. It had a waterside that actually landed in the sea! First we went in the submarine. You could see all the coral and fish through the windows. Once we got out of the sub we had to get changed to go swimming in the reef. We had to wear a stinger suit to protect us from the ... read more

Last full day in Port Douglas today :( I've absolutely loved it here - what a great place.... Yesterday we went out to the great barrier reef and I went snorkling! Which is something of an achievement for me as a non-swimmer.. It was fantastic and I loved the snorkling - must learn to swim when I get home. Got a bit too much sun though, as the factor 30 kept waching off in the sea, so I'm a bit red today! I'm just on here while I'm waiting for a bus to pick us up to go to Kuranda. I am taking the sky train up the mountain (Vikki can't do that bit!) then exploring up there and taking atrain down again. Should be some fab views. Tomorrow we fly to Brisbane - last stop ... read more

Hey everyone! We are back from our trip to the outer reef...it was amazing! We snorkelled A LOT...and YES we got to see some sharks which was fun. The coral was so beautiful, tons and tons of colourful fish. We are off to the Daintree Rainforest today and tomorrow out to Agincourt Reef for more snorkelling. We will write more later today. Love John and Nan...... read more

Today was our last day on the boat and we had the opportunity to do 3 dives before we headed back to Cairns. But this meant we had to be up and in the water by 6:30 AM. Chester reluctantly got out of bed to Kirsten’s nagging. After last night’s panic attack, Chester was adamant that she wanted a guide. She insisted it was not because she did not trust Kirsten but she wanted 2 people to be there to save her. So our first dive with the guide was really nice. But there was nothing worse than putting on the cold wet suit at 6:30 AM. But it was worth it when we saw a reef shark, some sting rays and turtles and an angel fish. Kirsten let Chester suck from her tank for a ... read more