Great Barrier Reef

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Today we awoke to torrential rains. Cains/Port Douglas is located on the edge of a rain forest, so it should not be surprising when there is rain. But, this is the only time in my life to see the Great Barrier Reef, and I was certainly disappointed to see the rain. But, rain or not, I was here to see, and hopefully snorkel at the the world’s largest living organism, and one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World.



We traveled on a relatively large large ship 40km out into the ocean. My concerns grew as I realized that the ship was packed, mostly due to the effect of tourists celebrating Chinese New Year which began a week before. Hardly a seat in the place. I could not imagine all of these people trying to snorkel. And, the areas to snorkel were only the size of a small house.



Fortunately for me, there was an option to pay for a small group snorkel with a guide. This I did and am very happy I chose to do that. The guide began by explaining that just beyond the Reef was the continental shelf, where the ocean floor dropped off 300 feet, then 3,000 feet and shortly thereafter a straight drop off to 10,000 feet deep.



Five of us, with the guide, went beyond the normal snorkel area and out over the reef. We learned of the various reef types and saw instances where the reef is dying. Beautiful fish were everywhere. So close you could reach out and touch them, although they all were faster than me. At one point, the guide caught a puffer fish and passed it around to us. It was a little larger than a softball and perfectly round with a mouth the size of a dime and two small fins. When I finally released it (I got to hold it last), the fins moved very fast in circular pattens and it swam back to the bottom. Too cool.



While the weather did not cooperate, and snorkeling was difficult due to high waves, this was really a special day.

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