Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling

Today we had an another early start to our day. For the love of god, I can’t wait to sleep in tomorrow!

We headed out to the wharf to get on a catamaran to snorkel and do and intro to scuba! We were so excited for this. We were asked to fill out safety forms which makes sense, and on them they asked what medications we were on. I listed mine and so did Mary, they guide told us he was going to talk to a Dr. to make sure we would be ok to scuba with the meds we were taking. This is where it gets annoying, Mary went to talk to him and found him googling the side effects of the medications when scuba diving, not actually talking to a doctor. He decided that there was not conclusive evidence that would 100% say we shouldn’t scuba but since our life was in his hands he decided it wasn’t a good idea. I was really bummed but I totally understand where he is coming from, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to someone on my watch that could possibly harm them or worse. Although, if I had known this was going to be an issue I would of consulted a MD back home and maybe some PADI certified people back home as well to make sure I could or could not scuba. The other thing we realized after was that scuba in Australia is EXTREMELY regulated, even if you are certified, you have to do an intro dive with someone before you can go on your own. Interesting.

Anyhoo, after that let down we knew we could at least snorkel. We took the catamaran out for a 2 hours ride out to the outer reef where we got to hop in and snorkel around. So my overall thought about snorkeling on the great barrier reef is that it wasn’t as impressive as I was hoping. Our snorkeling in Fiji was way better. They did have much larger fish than I had ever seen and some new coral that I had not seen and giant clams (these things were massive) and a stingray that I had not seen anywhere else. But that was about it, the water was fairly cloudy and not much else new to see. Maybe I have been spoiled in the other locations that I have been to, or maybe there is much more to see in other locations and being able to scuba. We then headed off to our 2nd stop, which was considered a coral garden, this is where I saw the new stingray and a huge barracuda!!!! That thing scared the ever living shit out of me that I screamed through my snorkel lol! In between our 2 stops we had lunch, this was nothing to write home about lol. Meet was so so, pasta salad was icky and the potato salad was not good either, at least the bread was hahaha. They did serve us fruit, cheese and crackers with a glass of wine on the way back which was good. Over all this trip with the company Reef Day Trippers wasn’t all that great. Too much time on the boat where we were all trying to stay out of the sun because it was so damn hot, 2 hours out, 2 hours back….if it were cooler out it might have been ok OR if we had been able to actually sail it would have been better but I would not recommend them. The crew was nice so that was a plus.

Stingray Cairns

FIJI 612

FIJI 608

FIJI 638

FIJI 559

FIJI 543

FIJI 622

FIJI 571

FIJI 452

FIJI 463

FIJI 495

FIJI 523

FIJI 530

FIJI 532

FIJI 544

FIJI 449

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We made it back to the hotel and took a shower, and then headed out to an Italian restaurant and had a really good dinner. It is nice to chill out after a long day and just relax. We could finally head back to the hotel and sleep…and sleep in!!!! Mary was off to a crocodile park the next day around noon and I didn’t have any plans. YAY for sleep!

Till tomorrow

XO