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Published: December 9th 2009
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Snorkel time on the Great Barrier Reef
The stinger suit make me look like a Power Ranger I am now over in Queensland, East Coast Australia. After a fairly sleepless flight over from Perth we waited around for a few hours before we could check in at the hostel (to be fair we were 8 hours early!) Half hours of sleep here and there coupled with our first expensive breakfast in a long time, we finally checked in....and went straight to bed! We did however sort out quite a lot of stuff for the next few weeks of the trip. managed to sort out a day on the Great Barrier Reef (the next day) and some Whitsundays Sailing (just me though, Dan is sitting this one out). We stayed at Gilligans backpackers hostel in Cairns and it was failry cheap so no complaints there. Would recommend it but only for a few nights...the whole 'sleeping' thing didn't really happen as there was a nighhtclub in the hostel! We have started up a food bag as well which is the best idea ever. A funky little cool bag is now home to rediculous amounts of cereal, milk, noodles, soup and water. On our one free day in Cairns we sailed out to the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded the Passions of Paradise boat at 7.30am and set out of to sea. The captain gave full briefings on how to snorkel properly and also said a lot about the area and the wildlife. He also asked if there was anyone on board who didn't want to see a shark...a few people put there hands up...so he said "thats fine no worries, just come up the front before you jump of the boat and we'll put some black paint on your mask then you won't see one". Pretty funny/scary at the same time! I hired out a stinger suit as well because I wasn't to keen on taking the risk of getting stung. The boat was a massive catamaran and I though it was pretty impressive. Our first dive took us out to a small sand island that was home to thousands and thousands of birds. The sea was crystal clear and so so warm. We swam around for over an hour before we went in for lunch. So many fish were right up on the shore line and the coral was huge compared to the coral in Thailand. The deeper you got the bigger the fish got and they come right up to your mask and stare into it! After lunch we headed out to a reef in the middle of the ocean and couldn't sea much as some waves had picked up but as soon as we jumped in everything came to life under the water. There were big areas of reef streching all over the sea bed in loads of different shapes and colours. The ebst bit was the huge drops of the edge of it. I swam over it and looked down and you couldn't see the sea floor it was so deep. Loads more fish, smaller ones this time but super quick. So after to pretty good dive we sailed back (getting a bit wet in the process due to the building waves) and eventually got back into cairns at around 6pm. A great day out and if ever you are in this part of the world...head out to the Reef...I fully understand why it is a natural wonder of the world. Whilsh in Cairns we also checked out the 'Woolshed'. A world famous travellers bar that had nothing but backpackers in it! We caught the bus out of cairns on monday morning and headed down to Townsville and onto Magnetic Island. On the way we stopped at a Crocodile Farm. We saw 6m crocodiles, Kangaroos, dingos, Snakes and a Cassowary (the world's most dangerous bird). I was super impressed with the Crocs though...we saw the rangers feed these dinasoursa by going into their pens and playing with them! Crazy. I also held a baby Croc and a Python. The croc was fun and playful but the snake was giving me evils from the start! He didn't try anything on though which was a relief. Will get the photos up on facebook as and when i find some fast internet...things seem to have slowed up again out here. So now I am on Magnetic Island and enjoying some hot sun but the sea. The hostel is right on the beach and the sand comes right up to the room door. Really beautiful area. Off to Airlie beach tomorrow afternoon and sailing over the weekend.
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