Port Douglas - 23rd September 2008

Port Douglas Car Kilometres: 179,472

Distance Travelled: 83km

Total Distance Travelled: 11,221km

Again it was a short drive down to Port Douglas. 85kms doesn't even warrant a driver change and we got there within an hour. Port Douglas is described as being a very chic little tourist down with hotels and bars to match the clientele. Unfortunately that didn't include 2 pommies on a tight budget. On our first trip into the main town we realised that without the Great Barrier Reef being just 'on the doorstep' we probably wouldn't have stayed there. This doesn't mean that the town wasn't friendly or pretty in many ways, but when we were charged $8 for two cans of coke we realised it may be aimed at a slightly higher financial bracket.

That taken into account (but not taken to heart), we set about our main task of being there. We thought it would be a simple one as well. How hard can it be to book a trip out to snorkel the reef, we thought? Well, what we found was a multitude of trips to a large number of different bits of the reef, not including a wide variety of prices. Throw into the mix a changing forecast ranging from 10-15 knots the next day to 25-30 a couple of days later. Our first afternoon was spent collecting brochures and trying to decide if a boat to a ribbon reef was better or worse than a pontoon moored at the Agincourt reefs, compounded by the fact that, according to the tourist office, all the trips were booked out for the next day.

After a quite lengthy discussion on the pro's and con's we decided that inaction was the best way forward. As the trips were booked for the Wednesday the earliest day we could book was Thursday. If we did nothing that afternoon we could go back to town in the morning by which time the three dayweather forecast would include Friday, confirming the best day for us to take the trip in the time we had at Port Douglas. The decision on which trip to take was left for the morning.

As agreed at the crack of dawn (or around midday), we got back into town to find that the weather would not get any better for Friday and that 25 knots was going to be the only option. So decision one was made. We would visit the Reef on Thursday. After all that hard work we sat down for the $4 cokes I mentioned earlier and set about our next task, the trip. We boiled it down to a few and headed to the offices to have a chat.Basically the two types of trip were a boat trip or a pontoon trip. Obviously you still have to go on a boat if you choose the pontoon trip, it's a touch hard to see the Great Barrier Reef if you don't, but there were a few differences in the two options. With a pontoon trip you get off the boat onto the fixed pontoon and snorkel from there. This gives the option of other activities (submersibles etc) and the chance to get off the boat for a few hours. The downside of this is that it is a big group (about 400 people) and it was designed for the age extremes, by this I mean kids and wombles, and it's a fixed position so the fish that don't want to be seen know where to avoid.The boat, on the other hand, is a smaller group (about 40) and goes to different sites but doesn't have any other activities and you stay on the boat itself for about 8 hours.

Still confused we decided to ask around and get a few opinions on the options. We went in to one shop where the girl told us, in full sincerity, that the Quiksilver Pontoon was overrated as the fish had all been scared away and the coral was damaged. At that point I asked her why the shop she was in was selling souvenirs for a rival tour. She looked slightly embarrassed while trying to explain that she did work for the other tour but was able to book us on any. We didn't stay long after that. In the end we had to make a decision and in true English fashion the weather swung it. We opted for the pontoon option as, despite the size of the group, if 25 - 30 knots was rough, it would be good to get off for a while and also if either of us didn't want to snorkel all afternoon there were other things to do.Decision made we when over to the Quiksilver office at the marina and booked our ticket for Thursday with a very helpful Russian girl. She found it amusing when I told her what the other office had said and was even more amused (or maybe confused) by my KGB T-shirt.

All the hard work done we headed back to the campsite and got things ready while our excitement steadily increased. Later in the evening we decided to go for a drink in town and opted for the walk in order to time our walk to the marina in the morning. We could have had a pick up from the campsite but we opted to walk and save ourselves $20 (although that wouldn't buy much here). 20 minutes later (as per the exact timing of a Cambodian-Chinese Tag Heuer), we arrived in town and opted for a drink in the Court House Hotel in the main street. To our surprise and pleasure the drinks were only $2 each. To top that they were playing a real soccer game on TV and Jemma found a stack of fresh newspaper to read. A couple of hours later after catching up on local news and seeing Adelaide United win, we headed back.

The Reef trip was amazing from start to finish.We arrived on time, in fact I think we were that exited that we even beat our time of the night before, and followed the crowds to the big silver Catamaran which was to be our transfer to the pontoon. The weather wasn't great and I was worried that the cloud may spoil the day as we all got on the boat like good sheep.It did say in the brochure that you got morning tea or coffee but as we got on the boat the stewardess informed us that we could get them from the bar we both got excited. We are not used to the tours and still treat anything 'free' as a bonus, both forgetting that we had already paid for it. The journey was a little bumpy, nothing like the Thailand-Koa Pagn Nyan trip, but there were still a few people being ill and the stewardesses were happily taking and removing the 'comfort bags'. I don't know if this is a genetic thing but on every boat trip we have done it is always the oriental people who get sick first. This was the same and by the time we made it to the pontoon we were both ready to get off the boat and get a bit of fresh air. This was more from the sounds and sights around us than feeling ill, as we had stocked up on sea sickness pills after the last time!

And there we were; on the Great Barrier Reef, only the small matter of getting kitted out with snorkel, masks and flippers between us and the water. Within a few minutes we were kitted out and, after a bit of laughing at how silly we both looked when attached to plastic goggles and a pipe, we hit the water. As we went in the water was a bit choppy so whenever we were on the surface we were being knocked around a bit. As soon as our heads were below the water level we stopped noticing that and were absorbed by the coral and fish everywhere below us. To be honest I have absolutely no idea what any of the fish or corals actually were but even with that lack of knowledge it was mind blowing. The coral stretched as far as we could see and there were hundreds of different fish from some around an inch big in schools of hundreds to a few 2 or 3 foot long ones. The coral stretched all around and went from being just below you to dropping off underwater coral cliffs to the sea floor about 10-15m below. The photos from my hired underwater camera don't do it any justice but for a 1st attempt at the underwater photography they weren't bad. As well as the coral and all different types of fish we saw huge clams and rays and I was strangely fascinated watching the divers walking along the sea floor and snorkelling through the bubbles.

We snorkelled in about 30 min sections and then had a few minutes out of the water before going back in. This lasted right until we had to leave and we never even made it on any of the submersibles or the underwater observatory, but we enjoyed being in the water so much as seeing it for real that it would have felt like wasting time to be anywhere else. The reason we stopped for a few minutes each time was that as the afternoon progressed the sea got choppier and you found yourself battling the waves and getting tired. By the end of the day the sun had gone and the waves were really getting going. This was the first time we decided that the pontoon was the right idea. The boat trip back was the second time we realised that 8 hours on a boat would not have been fun. People were ill on the way out and we now realise that was in winds of only about 20-25 knots. During the day this had risen and we now know that 25-30 knots is bumpy. Once again the stewardesses did a sterling fetching and carrying job with only a slight look on their faces to indicate what they were carrying. Luckily for us we both made it unscathed. We decided that Thailand was somewhere in the same level but that was for 5 hours. Being the hardened sea dogs we are now (!) 50 minutes was nothing.

On arriving back in Port Douglas, tired and still a bit soggy, we decide on a quick visit back to the Courthouse Hotel. We only intended to stay for one but we got chatting to a bloke and his wife from Noosa. About two hours and two beers later we headed home and got ready to move on once again.