Great Barrier Reef
From Cairns we took a short flight to Townsville where we joined our reef cruise on a 40 meter catamaran Coral Princess II and set off for an Island where we had our first snorkel off the beach.
Sue was very excited to see a huge stingray with blue spots. The weather had clouded over which was a bit disappointing but the sea was warm.
We were lucky that there were only 20 fellow cruisers on a boat with a capacity of 50 so we all got to know each other pretty well.
Next morning we suffered a rude awakening as the anchor was pulled up at 6am, no sleep for the snorkellers - it was clear we were there to snorkel whether we liked it or not and the regime was pretty strict. Our day was filled with lectures on Marine Biology and the reef, glass bottomed boat tours, snorkelling at various reefs and even cuddling some of the sea creatures from the deep (see picture!).
Unfortunately we picked the wrong time of year to do this as it was the rainy and jellyfish season, the seas were a bit rough and we had to wear Telly Tubbie suits against the jellyfish (see photo)
The first stop on day 2 was for a bbq breakfast at Pelorus Island which was interrupted by heavy rain. Appropriately we were taken on a tour of the rainforest. We stopped in the afternoon at Dunk Island which John had last visited 12 years ago and didn't recognise as the straw-thatched huts had been replaced by a multi-million $ resort.
The 3rd day was by far the best as we cruised to the Outer Barrier Reef and snorkelled over the most beautiful gardens of coral and thousands of fish of every hue.
Next stop Sydney and then our journey home via Bangkok, tonight we ate a supper of mudcrab under the stars and it's hard to think that this time next week we'll be back in sunny (?) Skipton.