The Great Barrier Reef - checking off Lana's #1 Bucket List
Item
It's another spectacular day in Cairns, and we're off at
0730 for The Great Barrier Reef. Our
driver takes us to the wharf (actually we should have walked the 1-1/2 blocks)
and we board the Ocean Freedom boat for the one and a half hour ride to The
Great Barrier Reef. As we boarded the
boat, Perry, the owner, chatted with us to see what we'd be interested in
doing. Once he learned that this was a
"bucket list trip" he couldn't do enough to help. Throughout the day, he kept checking in with
us to see to make sure that all was going well, however, ALL of the crew aboard
this boat were cheerful, helpful folks.
This is a "full-service"
tour so some folks will be scuba diving (many of them for the first
time), some snorkeling (us) and others riding the glass bottom boat. I decide to rent an underwater camera, and at
the end of the day, I'll have a memory stick of "Nikon moments" so I
put my own Nikon camera away.
We arrived on the reef, and the various colors of the water
should have been our first clue regarding the colors we'd see. We then gathered our gear and hopped into the
water. Immediately, Barry
(affectionately named by the crew) the "friendly" barracuda came over
to greet us. Okay, I'll admit that at
this point, I was questioning myself about this adventure. However, no one else was dashing back to the
boat, so......
Our guide, Scott Ramadan, was a delightful, genuinely caring
young man. He knew all of the best spots
to view star fish, stingrays, coral, turtles, caves, and an endless number of
fish. The quiet, underwater scenery was beyond anything I've ever witnessed! We snorkeled for a long time, but it seemed
like only minutes.
We took a short glass bottom boat cruise, but truthfully,
after snorkeling, we really wanted to be in the water, not on it; however,
while cruising along we learned SO many facts about The Great Barrier Reef and
its inhabitants. For instance, The Great
Barrier Reef is actually the size of Germany with over 19,000 total reefs.
On to our next stop, where we had another ADVENTURE! Everyone was snorkeling over a particularly
beautiful reef cave, when a white-tip reef shark swam out directly underneath
Rob. Now, I honestly tried to signal
(actually I started screaming until I realized how useless that was) to Rob,
but he didn't seem to notice. Then, the
shark's mate joined the first shark.
Once again, I'm questioning my reasoning for this Bucket List item, when
Scott assured me that these sharks are not interested in eating humans, and would
probably be frightened away from us soon, which is exactly was happened. Eventually, Rob did notice the sharks, and I
had located Nemo and Dori!
All too quickly, this once-in-a-lifetime trip was over. Our ride back to the wharf was more like a
speed boat race with water spraying everywhere, not a cloud in the sky, warm
sunshine on our skin, and a good exhaustion from an amazing outing. As we left the boat, every crew member was
lined up to shake our hands. Class!
After our clean up, we walked along the Esplanade, watched a
Holland America Cruise Ship depart, and enjoyed an awesome Italian dinner at
Marina Paradise! Today, was definitely a day
to always remember!
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