The Great Barrier Reef

We woke up Monday and got ready for the snorkeling trip to the reef. The bus picked us up at our hostel at 8am or so and dropped us off at the marina. We found the boat we would be on, which was called Poseidon and apparently rated #1 snorkeling boat by the locals. We boarded and went to the top deck where we would be most of the trip, and had morning tea and muffins. We took off towards our first stop on the reef which took about an hour and a half to get to, but is suppose to be the best reef called Agincourt Reef. During the ride the staff passed out our scuba gear and taught us how to use everything. We also had to wear stinger suits, unfortunetly. Apparently three meters of stinger on you means a sudden and painful death, so I guess that's fair. We spent all morning picking out what bathing suits we would wear, only to learn it didn't matter because we would be covered head to toe literally in these stinger suits. And we were told later, that if we had come 3 days earlier we would have had to wear them! So we hopped in the water and started exploring our first reef spot. It was truly amazing, one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen! We were able to explore each spot for an hour so we had plenty of time to see everything and really enjoy it. Jes had a bit of trouble at the beginning with her mask collecting water, but the staff quickly realized and helped her fix it. Then we were off exploring. When it was time to move on we were able to take our suits off and dry off in the sun on the way to the next reef spot.

The second reef spot was my favorite! There was so much to see and it looked really different from the first spot. The fish were beautiful and unique and the coral was awesome. It's really hard to descibe because everything was so amazing and breath taking. Toward the end of the hour we saw a huge ray go by us. We think it was either a manta ray or a marble ray, whatever it was, it was awesome to see. Only a few people on our boat saw the ray but other people saw a reef shark! As soon as they saw the shark, we all got back in the boat and moved along to the last destination on the reef. We had lunch on the boat on the way to the last stop. We got back in the water to see the last part of the reef but didn't last too long. We went out with one of the staff on a tour around the reef, but were constantly being hit by these two little girls with their boogie boards and flippers. We were really exhausted and annoyed so we got back in the boat to dry off and lay out for the remaining time at the reef. On the boat ride back it started to rain, so we went inside to get some refreshments and get warm. We made friends with some of the staff, who invited us for drinks later at Court house, the favorite local bar. We accepted and went home to get showered and ready. Later that night, we met up with our friends from the boat and hung out for awhile. Most of them were not from Australia but had came to Port Douglas, fell in love with it, and decided to stay and start working. Years later, and they are still there. I could definitely see why since we had only been there 2 days and I was already in love with it and didn't want to leave. This was my favorite day in Australia so far. The reef was so spectatular, I'm not sure anything we do from now on could top that experience for me!