the Reef!

Busker art from Cairns Busker Festival

All excited getting on the boat

Daniel in Captain position

Heading out to the reef

Killing time heading back from the reef

Common Noddies on Michelmas Cay

We’re all enjoying Cairns so far, especially since Peter and Jenny have joined us now. They made it in the end late on Thursday night and we met them at the caravan park mid morning on Friday, once they’d picked up their Maui. They’re still adjusting to driving something the size of a minibus but it seems pretty compact and comfy. Yesterday afternoon they recovered from flights while we rode our bikes along the esplanade for a look, managing to catch a busker which the kids enjoyed (Cairns Buskers’ Festival on at the moment), then went out for a very nice Vietnamese for dinner.

It was early to bed as we had an early start this morning for our day out on the reef. We were down at the reef terminal at 7.30am and piled onto our big catamaran with about 60 other people, couldn’t believe how many there were (considering there’s lots of tour operators), and had a great day. The wind was pretty big though which made the first snorkelling spot pretty difficult – we were very impressed that Conor even got in since the waves were smacking loudly up against the platform at the back of the boat where we had to get in from, but there were still some nice fish and coral to see. Most people didn’t last very long there and then we shivered a bit in the wind on the boat to get to the next stop, Michelmas Cay which was much better. It was snorkelling off an island so much more sheltered and easier to enter from the small beach rather than off the back of the boat. Both kids got in there for a while, and then hung out on the beach with the grandparents while Nick and I had a great snorkel together.

Apart from different types of wrasses, butterfly fish, clownfish, and loads of parrotfish, we also saw one or more big green turtles which were fantastic, so streamlined, smooth and , just beautiful to watch them swim and we were only about 1 to 1 ½ metres above them. The coral was pretty good although quite a lot was dead or bleached, and there was lots of my favourite, giant clams. Big big purple ones, green stripey lipped ones, brown stripey lipped ones, seemingly any colour, and even small ones that seemed to be embedded into the coral. We had a nice long snorkel there, then back on the boat for the trip back to Cairns. The only downside about the Great Barrier Reef I guess is that it’s so far off shore (a 2 hour trip) so the boat ride was pretty boring, and pretty miserable for Jenny unfortunately. We all took sea sickness tablets as a preventative because of the winds and choppy water (and glad we did), but they weren’t quite enough for her. She did get to see some coral/fish in the glass bottom boat though so not a complete loss of a day. We really enjoyed it anyway, not that often that you get the chance, and who knows how much longer it will be around for???