Day 74 The Great Barrier Reef

Well we needed to be up relatively early as we have a boat trip booked for the Great Barrier Reef but possibly not quite as early as we actually were. No luck with the camera, looks like it is totally wrecked, I only hope that the photos on the internal card can be retrieved and that we can at least get a replacement when we get home. Doesn't help us now though, thank goodness we still have the Flip video. The bus picked us up outside the hotel at 8:40 and took us to the marina for a 9am sailing. We had heard that the day before yesterday there were only 6 people on this trip, however a good deal more than that today, but nothing like the number that could be aboard. We were all given our snorkel equipment, a cup of tea and a safety briefing and we were underway. We had to go 50 miles out to the edge of the Barrier Reef to Opal Reef but with our speedy catamaran we did the journey in around an hour and a half. Once at our first of three dive sites we all got kitted up into our lycra stinger suits, snorkels and flippers. The divers went off first followed by the snorkelers for the first 45min encounter with one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. It doesn't take much to realise why though with the myriad of corals, fish and other sea creatures including a resident large male Maori Wrasse that seemed to be present at each of the sites and liked to swim under the boat. At the second site some of the staff gave us a guided snorkel and showed us sea cucumbers, various samples of coral and giant clams and in the third, clown fish. We saw some beautiful angel fish and masses of different coloured and sized parrot fish to name but a few.They also provided us with a good lunch and goodly amounts of fruit and cake. All too soon we were on our way back to Port Douglas grateful for a wonderful day of sunshine after the rain we had had last night and this morning and even on the trip out. I think we are destined for having problems with cameras as the disposable camera we bought misted up with condensation so we are unsure until we get the film developed if we have any photos of today - unbelievable!!