A big day today - snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, a lifetime ambition for Ian. When we were originally due to visit back in 2018 we'd booked a 5 day cruise on a small vessel which involved visiting numerous spots on the GBR but 7 years on and we both felt we probably weren't up to that much activity. I wrote to the providers explaining we weren't confident swimmers and was told no problem but nevertheless I was very nervous so no photos on the way out.
I'd always imagined the GBR to be just offshore but in actual fact it ranges between 10 and 100 miles depending on which bit and it's going to take us about 90 mins to get to our first snorkelling reef.
We were one of the first to check in and board the vessel and were allocated a seat opposite a Chinese couple and he unfortunately had a constant sniff and was clearly suffering from a bad cold. We explained to the crew member we'd spoken to yesterday and he kindly gave us a different seat. The journey out to the reef was uneventful although looking back we did bounce around on the water a couple of times. The whole crew were very safety conscious and there were various briefings about what to do (distress wave vs OK wave) and not do (don't try to climb a ladder wearing flippers!) and then those diving we let off first. We squeezed ourselves into our stinger suits and headed to the back of the boat and it was carnage; there were so many people around.
I'd brought my little underwater camera along for the occasion. It's 8 years old now (Galapagos 2017) and probably quite basic but I couldn't really justify buying a new one just for this one trip. Obviously we all had life jackets on, plus there were numerous other buoyancy aids available.
I'd had to take my glasses off as they had affected the seal on the snorkel mask so I was pretty much blind but somehow I got into the water and tried to swim a little - it was horrible, so choppy and so many people. There were crew members in the water with life rings which you could hang on to and all kick and move together so I did that and managed to take this short video.
Then Ian's mask started to leak and so he headed back to the boat to try and sort it and I was worried so tried to follow him but I was just getting dragged around the side of the boat and I really began to panic. Fortunately one of the crew saw I was in difficulties and took my flippers off (actually I'm surprised I didn't kick her in the head) so I could haul myself up the ladder. I think we were in the water about 4 mins - it was dreadful. The captain asked us what the matter was and tried to blame our full face masks but mine had been fine; we tried to explain that we hadn't realised how choppy it would be and that it just wasn't for us. His response was "it's the Pacific Ocean, what do you expect" which rather closed the conversation as we weren't actually complaining and he approached us!
We got chatting to several other people, mainly females who had snorkelled around the world, and they too found it unbelievably choppy, unpleasant and downright difficult, which made us feel a whole lot better (still a waste of £300 though).
When everyone was back onboard they served a buffet lunch and although there was plenty to go round as usual is was not quite to our taste and neither of us dared trust the prawns. As we were heading to the second reef for more snorkelling the Captain came over for another chat and obviously realised he'd been a bit hard before and suggested that the water should be slightly calmer here and if we wanted to try again to wait until he told us and after everyone else had gone in. Somewhat reluctantly we agreed to give it another go and he arranged for a crew member to take us for a drag around on our own. Ian was able to at least see a bit this time although we still found it far too choppy and so after a few minutes I motioned to her to take us back. I'm very grateful to her but it just wasn't our thing.
But ....................... at the second reef they also offer at extra cost a trip in this semi-submersible for those that don't wish to snorkel, except it's "weather permitting" and today it didn't launch. Enough said!
After we'd dried off on our new microfibre towels (very good) we sat up on deck and enjoyed the sunshine.
The other optional extra is a helicopter flight over the reef and/or back to Cairns. You get taken off in this small dinghy thing and over to the helipad.
In one direction the weather and the sea look gorgeous.
But look the other way!
Heading back into Cairns
The marina looked rather lovely in the late afternoon sunshine.
Passing the lido once again.
The mud beach didn't look very inviting though.
We then had another amazing Spectacled Fruit Bat fly past; I don't think there were quite so many but I had a longer lens on my camera so could get a lovely clear shot.
