Day 10 - Great Barrier Reef

Woke to find Cairns putting the 'rain' into 'rainforest' in a big way... so while waiting for the ferry to the GBR we stopped for a quick flat white.

Coffee in the rain

After 3/4 of an hour or so belting along on the fast catamaran ferry we came to Green Island, where we dropped off some passengers and picked up others. You can stay on the island as it's a sort of resort/nature reserve.

Approaching Green Island

Out on the reef the weather couldn't have been more different to that in Cairns. I was practically frothing at the mouth with needing to get into the water!

The pontoon on the GBR

After donning very fetching lycra UV/sting-proof suits we looked like a couple of highly unlikely Ninjas... We grabbed some snorkelling gear and headed for the sea.


Snorkelling didn't go well for Karen - her mask fogged up and the concept of being able to breathe whilst the relevant orifices are under water just wouldn't gel for her.

Finally, we gave up on that idea and she swam around without the snorkel but looked under the water using the mask and holding her breath. I was loving it...!

A swift plateful from the buffet then we were scheduled to go in the 'Scuba-doos' - which Karen had been very unsure about. She LOVED IT!!!

Scuba-doo ninjas!

We saw coral and sea-cucumbers (Karen wouldn't touch the one that looked like a large black turd but did stroke the one that looked dangerously spiny! I held it in my bare hand and you could feel all the tiny suckers underneath...

We also saw clams the size of a football, but I think Karen's favourite bit was having a picture with Wally, the hump-head wrasse!

Wally with Karen

He wanted them to get his 'good' side...

Does my head look small in this...?

K loved the whole experience and I left her chatting with some of the guys from the tour and I dived back in for some more snorkelling - AMAZING! I saw a huge clam - probably 1.5-2m across, so many different corals, loads of different fish and spotted a turtle and swam along no more than a metre from it for about 10 minutes. I practically had to be dragged out of the water and was one of the last people back on the boat.

Headed back to Cairns, where apparently it'd been raining all day.

Dramatic return to Cairns

What a fantastic day... evening meal at Outback Jack's, which was good but the service was true to form for Oz and slow and inattentive, yet somehow friendly.

Tomorrow we go up into the rainforest on the Kuranda Skyrail.