What a better way to spend the day than on the Great Barrier Reef!
We were up early to pack our bags and then we headed out to the Marina to board our boat for our Great Barrier Reef Experience. Today was going to be another highlight and peak experience on this wonderful journey. We board a vessel called Reef Experience, which held about 80 people and had 2 decks. They served us a breakfast of fruit and egg sandwich and then we were off for about an hour ride to one of the great barrier reef spots. It is located in the "green" zone which is the highest environmental designation, meaning no touching, no taking of any part of the reef , no fishing and no polluting of any kind.
The boat went to an area of the reef where there were no people besides us and tied up to an anchor. They provided wetsuits, snorkeling gear, an underwater boat, a marine biologist, and SCUBA equipment. Well if you are in the GBR, you have to go Scuba Diving, so I did! It was fascinating!
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It is hard to describe the diversity of life that we saw. We were also told that we had one of the clearest viewing days they had in weeks. This is a completely different, and thriving universe here. We learned that the colour in the coral signified algae and therefore life and growth. Brown or beige coral was dead, but formed the foundation for new life. Some coral replicates quickly while others grow 2 cm a year. We saw coral that was 800 years old or older and still living - how incredible is that? The colors were purple, blue, pink, yellow - and the variety we saw included staghorn, brain, boulder and many many more. We saw turtles, sharks, parrot fish, angel fish, and hundreds more too numerous to detail of sizes ranging from minute to huge. The current was very strong in the afternoon and I was glad that I had opted to free snorkel in the roped off area as opposed to the hour long outer reef tour. I just didn't want to come out of the water it was so fascinating.
We had about 2 hours at this spot, then we got back on the boat and traveled for about another 45minutes to another location. During this time, they provided lunch, which was chicken and every type of salad you could think of! It was a great meal! I then went on the top deck, although you had to be careful because the sun was scorching and it was very easy to get burned. I met a girl from Sao Paulo, Brazil and a guy in the Coast Guard stationed in Alaska. We had a nice time talking while we sailed to another reef location. At the second location, I decided to snorkel. These reef location was called Breakers because the reef was broken into sections. I spent the whole 2 hours here exploring the reefs and being amazed by the huge varieties of fish and coral.
We headed back to shore where we had a full evening ashore planned. Carol and Jim had taken a suite at The Pullman for 3 days and had invited a group of us to the suite for cocktails, then out to dinner at the Raw Prawn. We raced around in a hurry to get the sea water out of our hair and walked to their hotel narrowly missing a very very heavy downpour that would have drowned us all. They do everything BIG in Australia. On the way over we saw a huge flock of fox bats. Apparently every day a pair of bats flies out from their nest at 3 pm. to scout out the fruit feeding areas, then they return to tell their flock. At 6 pm. the entire flock goes out to feed. Each bat has the face and ears of a little red fox and black wings - and they are the size of a good sized cat.
Carol and Jim's suite was fabulous and overlooked the harbour where our ship was docked and the rainforest.
At about 7 p.m. Jim asked us to step out on the balcony as we had seen this big flock of black bats - and we were all completely shocked to find these were the bats (late because of the rain??) flying out to eat for the evening. For 10 minutes they flew overhead by the hundreds, maybe thousands - right over our heads headed for the rainforest. The light was also amazing and we were witness to yet another great Australian performance .
Then we went to dinner at the Raw Prawn. They had been to this same restaurant 10 years earlier and raved about the menu. As I said this was an upper class tourist city and the place was jumping. Barry ordered a plate of emu, kangaroo, and crocodile. Most of us had the appetizer portion of prawns which were huge!
Then Brad treated us all to ice cream next door at Movenpick.
Then we were off to the night market. I don't know when I have laughed as hard as I did at this market. We decided to go have the $15 for 40 minute full body massage. We were all lined up with young men from Korea who began with foot and leg massages that hurt so much everyone was laughing and crying! Not sure how they make any money at this, but it did provide us with terrific entertainment.
Our ship had an all aboard for 3 a.m. as we had to sail out when the tides were right. We made it back after 11.
