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The Great Barrier Reef
Hi all,
It was up early the next morning for my trip to the great barrier reef. I had boooked on a boat trip to go Snorkelling and Diving on the outer reef. I went with a company called Reef Quest on a huge Catamaran and as I wasn't a certified diver they put me in a group where we would have an instructor with us at all times which was reassuring.
Our instructor was from Fiji and he was hilarious and so chilled out - I can tell I am going to love the Fijian people when I get there. We had a talk on how to use the equipment and the hand signals to look out for. To start with we went snorkelling which was brilliant. The water was so clear and the reef was so close tot he surface that you didn't really need to go diving to see all the cool fish as they just swam around you. I have been snorkelling loads while I have been away but this was something else! I saw lits of unusual, brightly coloured fish and a huge Wrasse, he was about the same size as me (honestly) and he was just hanging out near a rock beneath me. After I had stared at the poor creature enough I started to swim out a bit further where the reef cleared a bit and there was a huge drop down, as I looked ahead of me there it was - a shark! I would have thought my first reaction would be to swim away, but no, I wanted to get closer so I kicked my fins will all my might but he was off into the distance. He was beautiful, absolutely amazing and not scary at all. I was gutted he had gone so I turned to try and find a turtle,they were my favourites but they have bumped off the top spot by sharks. Anyway, I was swimming along minding my own business when there he was again - this time swimming below me, I got a good look this time and he was fantastic. I think he was a white tip, or maybe a grey tip, I couldn't tell, but I knew there and then that I needed to see more sharks! He was gone again in no time, probably off to find luch - come to think of it - where's my lunch? In all the excitement I hadn't heard the announcement "grubs up", there was only me and the Koreans still in the water - and that was only because they can't understand English! The food was lovely and filled me right up so I went to sunbathe on the deck while my dinner settled. Then it was time to go diving. The diving was cool but I soon realised that I needed to do my open water course as they didn't really let us have a good look around and they made us do the basic skills which is fair enough but I had done them back in Bali. We swam around for a while and saw the same fish I had seen snorkelling and disappointingly, no sharks or turtles! Ah well, I least I know for sure now that I want to do my dive course - can't wait to get to Koh Tao!
I went for the afternoon snorkel at the next part of the reef ( wish I'd listened when they told us the name!). Again it was really cool, so clear and so much to see, definitley the best place so far for aquatic life. After my tring day I decided to sunbathe on the deck all the way home and read my book. Just as we were arriving at the marina the heavans opened and it pee'd it down! It was like clock work in Cains, come 4:30pm and it rains then for most of the evening. I decided to wait it out in the nearby shopping centre - window shopping though, my backpack is already near to bursting! When it didn't stop I decided to just go get wet, it wasn't that bad as it's so warm, it's actually quite refereshing. That evening we went for dinner at, yes you guessed it the Woolshed, well it's a free meal. After a couple of drinks I was ready for bed, I had another early start as I was heading to Cape Tribulation for a couple of days......
Lots of Love
JUles x x x
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