Broken the Great Barrier!!

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July 24th, 2011

The day couldn't have been any better, in the 70's bright partly sunny day and I am on the Great Barrier Reef.

Going to snorkeling in different locations at some of the fartherst points in the Outer Barrier Reef, next to the Continental Shelf. The boat is big, fast and well equipped. There are divers and snorkelers on board. We get morning tea, a big lunch, and afternoon tea. To rent a lycra body suit and the wet suit it is only $7.00 extra. The first real bargin since I've been here.

The water is awesome and the fish amazing. There are no words to describe and the pictures are only able to show a fraction of the real beauty of the ocean and the coral reefs. I saw 2 turtles and neither picture of them turned out. It's hard if you don't have the right lighting and it's hard to see what your shooting.

A pod of humpback whales are spotted but they are too far away to really see them. The water spouts were the only thing we could see.

A young women sat with me on the boat and we started talking. She was a nurse from Poland living and studying in Cairns. She was taking psychology as she was tired of nursing. She wanted out of Poland with all the cold weather. She could not believe that I went to visit Poland. She thought it was strange for someone to do that for no reason other than for tourism. She moved to Australia not knowing any english at all and found the people were so helpful as she studied English and since started unnie.

An amazing day! Enjoy the pictures!!!

For all of my OT friends:
Really curious thing happened to me on the reef.

I never get motion sickness or seasick. I have snorkled many many times and been diving x2 with no problems.

Today my clothing was different.

They gave me a lycra body suit with light compression that covered my entire body even a hood for my head and flap mittens for my fingers and also a wet suit to put over it that applies heavy pressure to the body this one was with short legs and arms.

I had 3 separate sites and each time after about 30-45 minutes I was beginning to feel like I was being squeezed and the pressure in my ears built up and I was getting slight motion sickness.

I am thinking that the mixed message of light and heavy compression was screwing with my brain. There is no reason for my ears to feel the pressure as if I were diving in 8 meters of water when I was only floating on the surface. And my entire body was feeling the pressure as well like never before and the motion sickness was unprecedented.

Interesting observation on mixed amount of pressure on body.

The day was just awesome and the little bit of nausea quickly faded after taking of the water gear. Took a bit of a walk around town before heading back to the hostel and chilling out for the rest of the evening.

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Comments

[Francine]

Bobbing along
Hi Angie. So glad you are seeing so much. I will have to lend you my seasick wrist bands. What a weird experience for YOU to be having. Pressure points etc. Interesting. Keep enjoying. Keep on blogging. x