We (were) on a Boat! (Redux)

Today we snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef! We got up bright and early to pop on a boat at 7:30 to spend all day out on the reef. We have definitely been looking forward to this as the GBR is a) one of the wonders of the natural world, b) the only living thing that can be viewed from space and c) slowly dying due to increased water temperatures and pollution (BOO). All told we spent nearly 3 hours in the water, and it felt like no time at all. We saw incredible things. The coral was spectacular, there were an unbelievable number of fish (of all shapes, sizes and colors) and GIANT clams, I mean HUGE and beautiful, really colorful and intricate (although I learned later on the boat, the pretty colors/patterns on the clam are the other things that live on it). Around lunch time there were gorgeous black-tipped reef sharks in the water (not dangerous, although Mike was happy we were on the boat), ironically, our boat staff calls them reef chickens because they are pretty easy to scare off and there is a giant fish (that they call Darth, obvi) who is the real dominant fish in the area who we watched chase the sharks around.

After lunch we headed over to Green Island (anonymous cute little island on the reef), where we tried to walk around it. This is where trouble hit. The sand was uber hot, so we switched to walking at the edge of the water, but there were some mossy rocks there and poor Mike took a mega fall! Don’t worry, we think he’s ok, he took a bit of a chunk out of his foot, got some minor scrapes and we put him on some ibuprofen. On our way back to the boat we met some adorable Japanese ladies who noticed his injuries and plied us with wet wipes and band-aids (they were the cutest). But worry not, Mike was a trooper and wouldn’t let a little blood get in the way of his reef enjoyment, so after he was bandaged up we popped back in the water for another hour. We were the last people out for both lunch and to head home… but I can’t see why you wouldn’t be! As we were heading to the boat to leave and we were sucking up our last bit of the sights, I turned my head and was looking straight into a row of 5 cuttle fish! We had seen a couple over the course of the day (squid relative funny looking), and the funniest bit is that they a) don’t really seem to move a lot and b) have giant squid-y eyes so they totally look like they are staring at ya. So here I was staring at a row of them that were staring right back, I felt like I was at the OK Corral. It was an incredible day, even with the mishap (good thing we were just planning a hang out day tomorrow, now it’s a recovery day) then Tuesday it’s on to Melbourne where it will be about 10 degrees cooler, and we hear very SF-esque.