Happy Easter everyone! Today was a free day. Caitlin, our amazing CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) arranged a snorkelling tour for whoever wanted. Since we couldn't find the croc we're going to challenge the jellyfish. A visit to Australia would not be complete without putting life and limb on the line and inviting some jellyfish and reef sharks to have a taste of Canadian blood. However, we had to wear stinger suits - a kind of wet suit but thinner that protects you from stings and very sexy to boot. So our risk of being stung was minimal.

We took a boat to McKay reef - one of the inner reefs forming part of the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is not one reef but a collection of almost 3,000 individual reefs of various sizes up to 100 square kilometres and at varying distances from the mainland. The captain of the boat was a clone of Captain Jack Sparrow. He was the spitting image of him and even had the dry wit and sarcastic demeanour of him. We liked him. On the way out to the reef Vic spotted some dolphins. My hero! So we headed over to see if they wanted to play. Unfortunately, they did not so we continued to the reef. It comprises 618 continental islands and over 350 coral islands. It extends 2,300 km's along the east coast of Australia from the tip of Cape York Peninsula to south of the Tropic of Capricorn. It covers 344,000 square kilometres it was named the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 1975.

Cape Tribulation is the only place in the world where you can visit 2 World Heritage sites within 20 minutes of each other - the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. I feel very lucky and grateful to have the opportunity to experience this.

We stopped at 2 places on the reef for an hour of snorkelling at each. At the first stop one of the crew dove in and brought in a jellyfish within seconds to show us that it was a non poisonous type. He then went on to explain what the poisonous ones look like. We got our safety lesson and donned our equipment and jumped in. The water was 29 degrees C. How beautiful and awe inspiring it is on a reef! No words can describe the colours of the fish and rays and the various types of coral. I saw at least 50 different types of fish and tons of different coral formations. And the highlight for me was swimming with a green sea turtle. I was disappointed, however, that I didn't see a clown fish. I swam with it for a few minutes until it increased its speed and left me behind. I also came face to face (literally) with a jellyfish. YUCK!!! I swam right into it with my face! Luckily it was the non poisonous type! Unfortunately, one of the ladies in the group did get stung on her hand (the only exposed part of her body besides her face) by an electric jellyfish. She said it was like an electric shock and her hand was itchy for about an hour but other than that there was no harm done.

Fun facts about turtles:
- turtles have been around over 200 million years and evolved before mammals, birds, snakes & lizards
- 6 of the 7 species of turtles can be found in Australian waters
- turtles have great eyesight and an excellent sense of smell even underwater. They can hear well for an underwater creature and have nerve endings in their shells
- turtles primarily feed on sea grass and jellyfish
- sea turtles traverse the globe crossing entire oceans in search of feeding and mating grounds
- turtles usually return to the same beach where they hatched to lay their eggs. It's unknown how they navigate the seas, seeming to know exactly how, when and where to go. I personally think they use GPS on their "shell" phones. :)

After 2 hours we had to come back. We had the afternoon free so we had lunch (we were famished) and went to the beach to taunt the croc. Still no sight of him. I searched for shells with one eye on the sea looking for the croc. The rest of the day was spent at the pool relaxing and chatting and reading in this tropical paradise. I thought this croc story was some conspiracy to keep people off the beach for some reason. There was no croc here.

We had to settle for seeing a big spider called a golden orb. The female is about the size of a hand and there are usually a couple of males close by that feed her while her eggs mature. Once she lays them she dies. The males are barely visible but despite their size they can look after her. The cycle of life is so apparent in the rainforest.

Vic and I went to the beach again late in the afternoon to search for the croc but, again, no luck. We even walked in the water which we were told not to do to see if we could lure him out of hiding. We finally gave up on seeing the monster.

We were having a pre dinner drink and a couple from our group came up and said the croc was eating a turtle at the beach so we hurried down and caught sight of him finally with his head 2 feet out of the water, snout in the air crunching the poor turtle. This thing was massive - at least 10 feet long. I had my phone with me but it was dark and the pictures did not come out well. I'm pissed needless to say.

After dinner we went to the beach to toast marshmallows. Some in our group had never had them before. Caitlin (our CEO) said burnt were best but I maintained toasted so the challenge was on. I spent a long time slaving over the fire toasting marshmallows. I felt like I was undergoing the ceremonial smoking in again to prove toasted were the best. Of course toasted won! Afterwards, Vic and I met some girls who were on an exchange program from Boston, going to university in Melbourne (pronounced Melbun). We had a great conversation about…pretty much everything. During our chat we saw the moon rise up from the horizon - a blazing red orange ball enthralling all of us.

The girls asked us if we were on Facebook. They wanted to follow us…so I guess us old folks still have it going on. I may go to see the sunrise in the morning at 5:45 so I may meet up again with them as they plan on going to the beach to watch it as well. The stars were again incredible. I can't explain how gorgeous the sky is. There are more stars than sky here instead of our smattering of stars with black in between as at home.

By the way, my first impressions were not correct - the Canadians are quite nice. I guess My mojo was screwed up down under here.