DAY 57 - Saturday 22/11/08

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The big trip to the Great Barrier Reef!

The day started really badly (and not just because we got up at 7) with high winds and a really choppy sea!
We were even more apprehensive when told that all the staff on the boat were taking seasickness pills. We soon followed suit!
It turns out that the winds were just touching 30 knots and that they cancel if they reach 33.
As it turned out the 2.5 hour trip to the lagoon pontoon has nothing on crossing the English Channel.
Though this is where we decided to kick our budget into touch and we each paid $399 to fly the return leg!

The pontoon was cool, it had an underwater observation deck, two platforms for snorkling and best of all a water slide!
In all we snorkled three times on the reef for just under two hours.

Knuckle reef where we were based had a good variety of fish and coral
though I think to really get a feel for it, it has to be seen from above!

The flight back not only allowed us to see the reef on a larger scale, it also included a few other interesting sights. Firstly we saw Hardy Reef which includes an ancient river 80 meters deep.
This reef also features "Heart Reef", which is a naturally ocurring reef on the shape of a heart.
From here we flew over "Whitehaven Beach" which is even more impressive when viewed from above. The final leg of the 45 minute ride was heading back to Daydream island.
Though the flight also got more interesting when flying over the other islands.
It's amazing how much a four seater helicopter gets knocked about by the air coming off the miountains!

Our final night was spent at the resort "Casino Night" where we were trying to win some money off our bar bill! Alas not!

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