Day 116 - The Great Barrier Reef - Thursday 9th February 2012

We woke up excited about today's trip of snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef; although Ad was a tad nervous as snorkelling goes against his 'no water above the nipples rule'!

We'd booked with Aristocrat and our ride picked us up outside our place and before we knew it we were boarding the boat. To our surprise it was busy - where had all the people come from? We'd spent days wandering Port Douglas without seeing more than 5 people and suddenly there were 50 people on our boat!

We sat and drank coffee and ate cakes whilst the captain went over the itinerary for the day - we were going to stop at 3 different sites all on the outer Agincourt ribbon reef and have some lunch in between. The Agincourt reef is known as one of the best as it's on the outer side of the reef where the reef drops off into the ocean and so the reef is in better condition.

We started our 1.5 hour trip out to our first stop; the views from the top deck were spectacular and as usual the vast and blue Australian sky didn't disappoint. Once at the reef we anchored up and got into our rather fetching all in one stinger suits, masks and flippers - scuba Steve eat your heart out!

The reef was out of this world and the fish plentiful. Ad and I took turns to hold the camera and take pictures whilst the dived down to the different levels of the reef and see the fish hiding. Ad's nipple rule was quite literally blown out of the water - he loved it! We saw so many colourful fish and corals we lost count and before we knew it the whistle was going to get back on the boat so we sullenly returned to the deck.

It wasn't long until we were at our next stop but before snorkelling lunch was served; we hurridly ate the food and jumped back into our suits ready to get back in the water. This time it was even better with even bigger fish swimming around. At one point we thought we saw a shark through the deeper channel of the water but after staring at it for a while we decided it actually might be a barracuda - oh well! Ad told me after that the Jaws theme tune was sounding in his head for the rest of the afternoon……..

Before the next stop we had a little lesson from one of the crew on the different types of fish. I wish I could tell you the names of the fish we saw but to be honest it went in one ear and out of the other as we were just really eager to get back in the water! The third stop was by far the best and was so far off the land that you could see the deep ocean waves crashing into the side of the end of the reef. One of the crew also did a little snorkelling tour in which he picked up certain bits of coral and passed them around for everyone to feel - we did this for a bit but got bored of the crowd and constant kicking of flippers so decided to go off on our own. Whilst we were making our way around the outside of the reef we noticed a little family of nemo's and his blue friend - sorry can't remember the actual names! They were so cute and every time we dived down to see them they would hide behind the coral and just stick their faces out. Check out the pictures!

The final whistle came to signal it was time to get out and go home - we were disappointed the day was over but we'd spent a total of 4 hours in the water so happily felt like we'd really got to experience what the Great Barrier Reef and its tenants had to offer!

We arrived home early evening and spent the evening chilling out and packing for the next day's flight to Alice Springs to venture into the outback of Australia!