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Published: December 18th 2007
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Lapping it up on the reef
Me on the top deck of the boat, could get used to this lifestyle! Am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!
Today we are going via boat to the Great Barrier Reef - and I'm going to try diving again aswell!
We head out to the boat jetty for our 7.30am start (getting earlier again!) and get on board the Ocean Freedom boat. We paid a bit extra for this trip as there were cheaper ones available, but this boat has quite low numbers so the boat is more spread out and also the diving ratio is 2 people to 1 instructor which I like as am quite nervous!
We head out to the reef and at first we think that the water is not that clear and are worried that the visability will be poor.
However as we reach our first stop at the Upolu Cay it all suddenly becomes clear.
The cay is a little sand Island in the middle of the reef, apparently these happen when the sea need to 'dump' the sand somewhere so that's when these dunes form. In high tide they are completly covered by sea but when we arrive it's probably the size of our back yard
We get kitted up with snorkelling gear (we opt
The Cay
Our first stop for snorkel! for a stinger net aswell to protect us from those nasty jelly fiish - can never be too careful!) and then the little dingy boat takes us to the sand island so we can snorkel back.
The colours under the water are amazing - there are these bright purple star fish which I really want to take one but of course I can't! And we see Nemo and his friends, more commonly known as clown fish.
Just as we were about to head to the boat I noticed something swimming right near Diane and when I looked closer I found it was a turtle! It was swimming right underneath her and she hadn't even noticed it until I screamed for her attention then pointed it out to her! We tried to tough it's shell but it wanted to play so made us swim with it inside - I really like them now, their nippy little blighters!
There were also Rainbow fish and Giant clams - they are just amazing and give off this bright blue colouring on their edges. Such a shame we couldn't take any photo's - we got an underwater camera but the film didn't
work -boooo!
After that we had some lunch on board then it was off to our next site - the 'Wonder Wall' which is on the outer edge of the Upolu Reef - if you know where that is!
Here was where I did my dive and this time I loved every minute of it!
The coral didn't seem as colouful here but we did see a massive Mauri rass - it was about the same size as me, if not bigger! Apparently on some of the corals under the sea, big fish will go to get 'cleaned' by some of the little fish. They basically swim up, let the other little fish eat all the algea and plankton off them then swim off again, it's like the carwash on the movie 'A shark's Tale' - so funny!
Then after another quick snorkel it was back on the boat to make our way back to Cairns. Me and Di managed to nick the upper deck on the way back and had it all to ourselves. One of the crew Pete kept coming up to scive but kept bringing us fruit, cheese and biscuits and cake so
it was like waiter service - excellent!
When we finally got back (one of the gears on the boat had broke so it took 2 hours to return instead of one) we were so hot we decided to go for a dip in the Esplanade - it's so nice!
Jackie (the girl from yesterdays tour) wanted to meet up as she was here another night so after another quick bite to eat at the food market (5 dollars for a massive plate of chinese food - you can't beat that!) we met her at an Irish Bar called P.J's. It was really quiet so we decided to check out another well known bar - Gilligans -but after the day's excitment we decided to have an early night - only to discover it was already 1am!
We have to check out of our hostel tomorrow morning at 9.30am, then we have a free day before catching the night Greyhound bus to a place called Arliee Beach at 12.30 midnight - uhhhh!
The next stop is at the Whitsundays - a big group of islands. We are staying on a boat for 3 days to sail all around
them so should be good fun - you can even help out on the boat apparently aswell - oy oy sailor!
So even though we will be travelling on the bus for 12 hours to get to Arliee beach to meet our boat (we arrive at the beach at 12.00pm midday) at least it saves money on accommodation.
Thank goodness I've now learned how to sleep anyway - got a feeling my neck might be a bit creaky though, oh well!
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