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.
Showing posts with label adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventures. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
We (were) on a boat!
And yes, we brought our flippy-floppies… well I did, Mike brought his Tevas. We have spent today on a bus from Airlie Beach to Cairns. A note on Australia: It’s effing huge! 3 days ago, we did an overnight bus from Rainbow Beach to Airlie Beach. I will say, neither has been unpleasant, but I am glad that after this we’re mostly flying from place to place in Australia, it’s just such a darn large country.
Also, a moment for a pet peeve. I hate paying for things that should be free. Wireless for instance… we’ve discussed that previously, but we have had significantly less access than we expected because they make you pay for wireless access everywhere (but apparently McDonald’s… where we might start hanging out). But here, they make you pay for little packets of sauce. I hate it, that .25 to .50 extra cents per package is just rude, those things cost nothing and food here is expensive! Don’t begrudge me that tiny packet of ketchup! It’s similar to how I felt about paying to use bathrooms in the Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium, etc.), I mean really, you don’t want me to pee on the street right? And making me pay only makes me messier in the bathroom…
On to the awesome! When we got in to Airlie Beach it was POURING. Parts of Queensland (the state we’ve been in since Brisbane) have been flooding since we got here, but other than raining while we fed the elephants, it really hasn’t so much effected us. It is the rainy season here, so we were hoping for the best and crossing our fingers. So after the rainy morning, we explored town, and decided whether we were going to spring to go on an overnight sail in the Whitsundays, or maybe just a day of snorkeling or something. By the end of the day we decided to go for it, just for a 2 day, 1 night and we would get a free night at the place we were staying when we got back. So a couple of mornings ago we got down to the marina bright and early where we boarded the Siska IV, a maxi racing boat built in the 70’s which has circumnavigated the world twice, had Prince Charles ‘on its crew’ once and at one point held about 20 race records (cool right?). We spent two days in GLORIOUS weather, cruising around the Whitsundays, the first day we hiked up to a little lookout and then spent time down at Whitehaven Beach (one of the top 10 beaches in the world). It was lovely, despite the fact that the whole time we were in the water you have to wear ‘stinger suits’ (pretty much wetsuits) because October thru May is jellyfish season and they have some really dangerous ones… Also, I got bitten by a fish! A biggish one! We were standing about knee deep in the water and there were a bunch of fish swimming around and people were talking about how cool it was that they let you get so close, and then splash! One jumped out of the water and full on bit me, I guess my fingers look like worms! Worry not, it didn’t hurt, but it was ridiculous! There were some lovely people on our boat including a Scottish couple who got married at a similar time to us, doing a similar trip! And these two lovely Scottish women who taught us a card game called Switch (which is essentially Uno with a couple extra rules, like Uno for grownups!). We stayed up late watching the sunset, and stars and moonrise, it was spectacular.
Day two was snorkel day! Our first snorkel location was awesome, tons of fish, beautiful coral, awesome big clams, huge Parrotfish (they eat the coral like it’s their job, which it is, but you can see and hear it). When we got back to the boat they told us to hop in the water because there were Batfish, we were like aight… I don’t know what a Batfish is, you know what it is? A HUGE FISH the size of most of my torso, probably around 15 lbs? And there were like 20 of them swimming right next to us, then they threw them bread from the boat and they went crazy, jumping out of the water, pushing for food, it was an intense and fabulous experience. We popped back on the boat and headed to a different location where the tide was a little high so we couldn’t see much, but just as we were giving up a couple brought everyone over to another spot because they thought they saw a cool ray, then Mike thought he saw a shark, then when it stopped moving and chilled out we realized it was the same thing! It was a shovel-nosed ray, essentially it looks like the head of a ray (a big triangle) and then a sort of sharky body with 3 fins, about 3 feet long. It was awesome. Then when we were taking the tender back to the boat, we saw a turtle and they let us jump out. I was probably about a foot away, and it let us swim with it for a while, it was spectacular. All told, the boat was totally worth it, gorgeous weather, fun experience, great snorkeling.
Also, a moment for a pet peeve. I hate paying for things that should be free. Wireless for instance… we’ve discussed that previously, but we have had significantly less access than we expected because they make you pay for wireless access everywhere (but apparently McDonald’s… where we might start hanging out). But here, they make you pay for little packets of sauce. I hate it, that .25 to .50 extra cents per package is just rude, those things cost nothing and food here is expensive! Don’t begrudge me that tiny packet of ketchup! It’s similar to how I felt about paying to use bathrooms in the Benelux (Netherlands, Belgium, etc.), I mean really, you don’t want me to pee on the street right? And making me pay only makes me messier in the bathroom…
On to the awesome! When we got in to Airlie Beach it was POURING. Parts of Queensland (the state we’ve been in since Brisbane) have been flooding since we got here, but other than raining while we fed the elephants, it really hasn’t so much effected us. It is the rainy season here, so we were hoping for the best and crossing our fingers. So after the rainy morning, we explored town, and decided whether we were going to spring to go on an overnight sail in the Whitsundays, or maybe just a day of snorkeling or something. By the end of the day we decided to go for it, just for a 2 day, 1 night and we would get a free night at the place we were staying when we got back. So a couple of mornings ago we got down to the marina bright and early where we boarded the Siska IV, a maxi racing boat built in the 70’s which has circumnavigated the world twice, had Prince Charles ‘on its crew’ once and at one point held about 20 race records (cool right?). We spent two days in GLORIOUS weather, cruising around the Whitsundays, the first day we hiked up to a little lookout and then spent time down at Whitehaven Beach (one of the top 10 beaches in the world). It was lovely, despite the fact that the whole time we were in the water you have to wear ‘stinger suits’ (pretty much wetsuits) because October thru May is jellyfish season and they have some really dangerous ones… Also, I got bitten by a fish! A biggish one! We were standing about knee deep in the water and there were a bunch of fish swimming around and people were talking about how cool it was that they let you get so close, and then splash! One jumped out of the water and full on bit me, I guess my fingers look like worms! Worry not, it didn’t hurt, but it was ridiculous! There were some lovely people on our boat including a Scottish couple who got married at a similar time to us, doing a similar trip! And these two lovely Scottish women who taught us a card game called Switch (which is essentially Uno with a couple extra rules, like Uno for grownups!). We stayed up late watching the sunset, and stars and moonrise, it was spectacular.
Day two was snorkel day! Our first snorkel location was awesome, tons of fish, beautiful coral, awesome big clams, huge Parrotfish (they eat the coral like it’s their job, which it is, but you can see and hear it). When we got back to the boat they told us to hop in the water because there were Batfish, we were like aight… I don’t know what a Batfish is, you know what it is? A HUGE FISH the size of most of my torso, probably around 15 lbs? And there were like 20 of them swimming right next to us, then they threw them bread from the boat and they went crazy, jumping out of the water, pushing for food, it was an intense and fabulous experience. We popped back on the boat and headed to a different location where the tide was a little high so we couldn’t see much, but just as we were giving up a couple brought everyone over to another spot because they thought they saw a cool ray, then Mike thought he saw a shark, then when it stopped moving and chilled out we realized it was the same thing! It was a shovel-nosed ray, essentially it looks like the head of a ray (a big triangle) and then a sort of sharky body with 3 fins, about 3 feet long. It was awesome. Then when we were taking the tender back to the boat, we saw a turtle and they let us jump out. I was probably about a foot away, and it let us swim with it for a while, it was spectacular. All told, the boat was totally worth it, gorgeous weather, fun experience, great snorkeling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
