Day 2 - The Great Barrier Reef!

Saturday, October 5th, 2013

Our first full day in North Queensland and we're booked to spend it on the Great Barrier Reef!!!  Being here again after 40 years is a dream come true for me and our day more than exceeded my expectations. 

                               

We rode up the coast by coach to Palm Cove to collect other reef visitors. Palm Cove is a gorgeous beach where we camped many times in 1973-74. There were no buildings whatsoever in those days and we were often the only people enjoying the beach - usually topless or nude! Palm Cove is now a community of luxury hotels, apartments and shops. 

Our coach continued the journey from Palm Cove to Port Douglas. There we boarded a Quicksilver aluminum catamaran and sailed for an hour and a half to Agincourt Reef on the outer perimeter of the Great Barrier. What a day! We sailed part of the reef in a semi-submersible glass-bottomed boat with an interpretive guide for our initial introduction to the corals and fish of the area. Following that we enjoyed a scrumptious buffet lunch before I wriggled into a Lycra wet suit as protection from stinging jellyfish which, as it turns out, aren't around for at least another week. I finally found that I was able to do some snorkelling after a few initial dips and bumps in my learning curve. What a thrill that experience was for me as I've never before been successful using snorkelling gear! And on the Great Barrier reef, of all places!!!:)

I completed my day on the reef by doing a helmet 'dive'. Not a dive at all, but a slow move 10.5 meters down to a platform while wearing a lead belt and 35 kg helmet. Once on the platform 3 of us (not Tina) were given a reef 'show' handling the various corals and sea life as well as touching fishes as they we're being enticed to circle us. My grin was ear to ear throughout the 30 minute underwater experience!

The pictures are taken as I'm just getting ready to don a helmet, just beginning to submerge and then, afterwards, very satisfied with my experience.  Tina is not at all fond of water so she was my official photographer.