What a surprise- it's a tropical downpour this morning. We haven't seen any of the blue skies in all the brochures yet!
Never mind, as we were snorkelling being in the rain doesn't really matter. We got to the marina in plenty of time and looking at some of the other boats we are really pleased that we had booked with one of the smaller companies/boats in Port Douglas. Our boat takes up to 48 people when some of the bigger ones can take nearly 200!
We left the harbour and as usual we had both taken a sea sickness tablet. Thank goodness. It was a good 1.75 hours to the reef and it was very rough on the way. There were a lot of green faces on the way and I could feel the tablet working and I'm sure I'd have succumbed if I hadn't have taken it.
At last we arrived at the first reef. The boat had good access to the water and it was so much warmer than in Exmouth although we had enjoyed blue skies there.
We had three snorkel trips in total and each one was excellent. The marine life is stunning and the number of fish species amazing. I saw starfish, pipe fish, barracuda, wrasse to name but a few. There was such a variety of corals and only a small amount had succumbed to bleaching.
In between snorkelling there were hot drinks and brownies to keep us going and a great spread for lunch. Our last snorkel of the day was on the tip of Opal Reef and on entering the water we got to meet Hamish - the three foot long tame wrasse. We weren't allowed to touch him as it would damage his skin but he was really inquisitive and came up to each of us as we got into the water. For the final trip we took Chris's underwater camera that he had lent us and took lots of pics and I hope I caught Hamish with Colin. Unfortunately it seems to have broken (which apparently it has done before with Chris) and we could not view the images we have taken and we also do not have the cable to download them! Fingers crossed all is well with the memory card and we can find somewhere to download them later.
Despite the fact that it was still raining even as we snorkelled, it was amazing to see the Barrier Reef and all the marine life. It is so different to Ningaloo so we are really glad that we had the opportunity to snorkel on both of them.
