Four sharks and loads of jelly fish stings…….Apr 4, 2012
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| An early start for us today, leaving Cairns so we could get to Port Douglas in time to get on the boat to The Great Barrier Reef. We went with Quicksilver to the Agincourt reef for some snorkelling. It was a big boat with several hundred people on board but when we docked at the pontoon everyone just did there own thing so it wasn’t too busy. The weather was superb, very calm like a millpond and no clouds at all. The boat was all air conditioned so you didn’t get too fried before you got there. I opted to pay the additional $7 to wear an all in one stinger suit as it is the height of stinger season. Ray didn’t bother but he wore a long sleeved rashie borrowed from Justin. We chose to get straight in the water when we arrived and after queuing for my stinger suit and grabbing the snorkelling equipment we got in the sea. To begin with, I freaked out a bit cos this photographer kept coming up to photograph me under the water and stupid me, I kept smiling at him and ended up getting water up my nose. I tightened the mask and managed to sort myself out and soon Ray and I were snorkelling. They had a roped off area marked in yellow for people to start off in and for those that were not too confident. We soon swam through that and headed to the outer areas marked with white buoys. It was fantastic! Lots of people opted for buoyancy aids but to be honest we just floated in the sea and didn’t even need to swim. The current moved us around a bit and the rest of the time we mainly used our flippers. We saw loads of amazing fish and beautiful coral, all types and colours. I started to feel the jelly fish stinging me which was a bit alarming but I felt better with the suit on. Although, to be honest it didn’t stop the stings at all cos I’ve still got a lot of small red stings on me. I got stung on my lip and thought if that doesn’t react or bother me then I should be okay. It was a bit unpleasant but we just got on with it. You could see all the jelly fish hanging in the sea in front of you when you were swimming, quite near the surface. Some of the reef appears really close underwater and we had to be careful not to get too close to it. You find yourself in shoals of fish, swimming all around you or just in front of you, which is an amazing experience. We had borrowed an underwater camera so we took it in turns to take some photos. Some better than others, most likely with the sun behind us. We spent a good hour snorkelling and then headed in for some lunch on the pontoon. The spread was quite impressive with masses of fresh prawns and seafood pasta etc. Plus all the usual buffet style food; cold meats, cold pastas, potato salad, Greek salad, hot beef stew and curry with rice and pineapple and melon slices. You could keep on eating as much as you liked. We both had a couple of helpings and then decided to go in the submarine to see a bit more of the marine life. Somehow we got to be at the front of the sub and could see loads of fish and spot a few things before everyone else. Ray was good at that and spied a couple of turtles and some sharks. In total we saw 4 sharks, all fairly small reef sharks so nothing to worry about. It was an added extra as we didn’t know it was included in the cost of the day. Straight after, we headed back in the water for some more snorkelling. It was even better this time, minus the camera, as it was full, we headed in the opposite direction. There were less jelly fish in this area and we could just float about looking at everything under the water. They advise you to always have a ‘buddy’ with you (someone to snorkel with) so I had to keep checking where Ray was and join him, as he kept heading off on his own. We saw some beautiful fish, especially the parrot fish with all its colours. We spent another hour in the sea, floating about so it wasn’t too strenuous, then the boat sounded its horn and we had to head back in. We were quite a way out from the boat and ended up being some of the last back onboard. I remembered from scuba diving that you use your whole leg when using flippers and don’t bend your knees so I got back to the boat quite fast. Ray seemed to have his own agenda and ended up getting called in by the life guards. Back on board the boat we got changed and had a cup of tea then chilled out on the front of the boat, dozing on the deck. There was a P&O cruise ship, which I took a photo of for my sister, Lu, as she used to work on the P&O ships. It was called the Pacific Dawn and was touring around Australia, a lot of the passengers were on our reef boat. It took about 90 mins to get back to shore, then we went for some drinks before walking around Port Douglas. Neither of us felt hungry but we had to eat so we spent about an hour checking out the 20 or so restaurants before opting for fish. We both ordered barramundi; but I had mine in breadcrumbs with green beans, asparagus, 2 large fried potatoes, roasted capers and a sauce all stacked up. Ray had his pan seared with chips, salad and lovely homemade tartar sauce. After a sleepless night the day before we were both nodding off in our dinners so we headed back to the campsite and spent the first night in the 3rd of our wicked campervans. I slept so well, probably the best nights sleep I’ve had in Australia. It was very peaceful, no loud birds to keep us awake or wake us up at sunrise. |
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