Australia Day 2 - Great Barrier Reef

Early in the morning we boarded a catamaran and bounced our way about an hour and half into the Coral Sea in search of the world’s largest living organism, the Great Barrier Reef.  The seas were a bit choppy and many of the passengers found the journey less than thrilling, spending most of their time below decks in the head.  Frank and I were spared the horrible queasiness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone and were ready to go on our guided snorkel tour as soon as we got to the pontoon boat that this particular company leaves out on their area of the reef.  The tour with a marine biologist guide lasted about 25 minutes and was incredibly informative.  With him as our passport, we were allowed to go outside the designated swimming area in search of turtles (we saw 2), giants clams (again, 2), sharks (none, thank God), clown fish like Nemo (1) (incidentally when advertising the paid snorkeling tour, the guide must have mentioned “a clown fish like Nemo” a half dozen times in hopes of getting stupid Americans whose only knowledge of the ocean comes from a Disney movie to sign up for his tour).  

After tour was over, Frank and I spent about another half hour or more in the water taking pictures of the coral and fish that we saw.  It was an amazing sight.  The colors were vibrant despite the overcast day and lack of sunshine.    After we were done swimming we had some lunch, which neither smelled or looked appetizing but it was nourishment.  We went in to both the semi-submerged submarine and the glass bottom both for another view of the coral.  Both of these were interesting but couldn’t compare with the experience of swimming through the coral on your own.  All total we were at the reef for 4 hours and it started to rain as we were leaving so I was glad it was time to go. 
The ride home was much less eventful for the motion sickness prone passengers.    While we ate dinner that night our pictures were downloaded and we browsed through them using the free WiFi at McDonald’s.  Australian hotels aren’t quite up on the free WiFi yet so it was close to $35/day for internet in our rooms at each hotel we stayed at!  Walking down to McDonald’s for a $1 sundae was a much better deal.  We wondered around the city looking for something we could turn into a Christmas ornament and found in the process that non-eating and non-souvenir establishments close around 5:30pm in Australia.  After our run that morning in the stifling humidity, over an hour of swimming, and a serious walk around the town, I was ready for my cozy bed!