Anyway, the day started pretty early as we needed to get to the pier by 8am to leave. I got up early and did round 1 of sunscreen before heading off to breakfast. Once on board, the crew helped us get oriented and gave us lessons for being on the boat and snorkling. The crew was all very nice and helpful, and we were fortunate to have maybe 30-40 people, so there were plenty of crew to go around.
Here's the view leaving:
And here's me and Flat Stanley as we travel:
It took about 2 hours to get out to the first spot, and my new friend Erika (from Argentina and also traveling solo) and I were 2 of 3 in the last group for scuba, so we went out and did snorkling for nearly an hour before our turn. The reef was amazing, and the giant clams were HUGE. Really huge! We saw a ton of different fish, no stingers, no sharks, and one lone ray hiding in the sand in a ditch. There were all sorts of anemones of different colors and the coral was beautiful.
Dive site 1 (Oyster Reef):
After a while we needed to come in to set aside our lunch so we could go scuba diving. We got ourselves organized and made our way to the back of the boat where they put weight belts on us, sat us down to get the tank/vest on, had us test the mouthpiece, and got a photo of us. Then three of us plus Kyoko, our instructor, went to the side of the boat, practiced our lessons for equalizing our ears, getting water out of our mask, and water in the mouthpiece, and then we slowly started to go down. We kept our arms locked as we went around the reef, and it was just lovely. Much easier to breathe than the snorkle! And we finally found Nemo, got to touch a giant clam and watch it close, and touched the Nemo-home anemone, which sticks to your hand. That was all we touched, though, as we had firm instructions not to touch anything while scooting around on our own!
Snorkle gear:
It all went by so fast! But we had a great time and came back to the boat to scarf down our lunch. I was starting to feel a bit of motion sickness on the boat, but found that if I stayed above deck I was pretty good to go.
The boat then made its way to our second destination, where we did some more snorkling. I was pretty exhausted so I didn't stay out the full time, but it was still fun. And even when I came in, I could see some of the huge fish that came into the boat after the food the crew was throwing out (shrimp and such).
The boat photographer actually got some great photos of me, but they're on CD and right now I can't get that onto my netbook, so you'll just have to wait to see me underwater. But I still got plenty of amazing shots of the day.
And the ship's engineer took a liking to Flat Stanley, so he got us backstage passes to go up to the helm and take a photo!
I didn't actually take FS down underwater, but I did get some great shots of him!
On the way back to Cairns, we could see rain in the distance(next photo), but other than that and a few seconds of sprinkles, the weather was amazing the whole day.
Not only was it just a wonderful day, and a great crew and trip, but I felt very fortunate having met Erika in the first few minutes. She's finishing up 5 weeks in Oz, taking a break from a work visa in NZ. Lucky her! We had already spent much time talking when we found out we would be diving together (and when they said snorkling should be done with somebody else). Plus we have the same camera, so it was extra easy to take photos for each other! Here we are enjoying the celebratory champagne at the end of the day:
And that's about it for me today. Tomorrow I have another organized tour to Kuranda, the village in the rainforest. Apparently the rickety train to get there is one of the best parts, so that will be fun! But with today's events, I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment