Great Barrier Reef

Today is Saturday in Cairns and Friday back in the US. We are all up by 7 a.m. have out suits on lathered up with sun tan lotion and ready to head out to the Great Barrier to Scuba and snorkel. We all get on the boat and prepare for the 2 1/2 hour ride to the reef. After a quick introduction to the staff of the boat and general safety we are free to go to the front of the boat and hang out there. On the front there are these awesome nets that you can lay on and as the boat flies over the water. Everything is pretty calm at first but then the waves start to swell and soon laying in the net is like a freaking roller coaster! Amazing water is pouring over the bow and were getting swept around in the net. It is so fun! But soon it starts to rain too, and going about 50 mph in the rain hurts so we all head to the side and inside to get out of the way of the piercing rain.

After about a half hour of us cruising along those who want to scuba head in for a safety lesson. So I head in and listen then ride along on the inside where game are going on at all the tables. It was slow going to get to the Great Barrier and we were running behind. After about 2 hours we all went in to see the captain of the ship, where we learned that we were not going to go on the typical side that most people scuba on but the other side because the waves won't be as bad. Luckily, this is a place where only about 100 other people have dived before and the home of the giant clams that are about 2 feet big. But there will be no scuba diving because the water is so choppy. So we wait until the tide goes down and the sea to calm. During this time any one who wants to can go swimming in the water, however there are Blue Bottles in the water. These are a type of jelly fish that sting anything in its path so it best to wear a wet suit.

After a while of being bored some friends and I decide to jump in the water and swim around. Not even 30 seconds later I get stung by a Blue Bottle on my pinkies as I was trying to put on my gloves. I hop out and have one of the crew members take a look at it and make sure I don't have an allergic reaction to the then jump back in and swim around. The pain is like a bee sting that doesn't go away for about an hour. Fifteen minutes later I jump out and we go back in to talk with the Captain he gives us the go ahead and we all jump in the water to begin snorkeling. But I must mention that during this time the swells have only slightly gone down in size.

The coral was beautiful and the fish were very vibrant, there were Zebra fish and the large clams that are hardly ever seen it was a sight to see. But it was also very hard to see the coral because the water was moving around a lot and then while we were in the water a storm came and soon we were snorkeling in a cyclone, with rain. The captain had us all start to come in and let me tell you it was a lot easier to swim back than it was to swim out due to the currents. I got to the stairs and was one of the last people that got to get on because at that same moment one of the anchor lines broke and the boat started to drift so it was too dangerous for the rest of the people to come in. They all had to gather together out in the coral and wait until they threw a rope out to the air boat for people to get back to the boat. Finally, everyone was safe on board and happy that we got to go out as only 4/100 boats went out and we were one of them.

So the boat opened up the bar and everything was free! Win! So we all tipsily got off the boat thanked the crew for a great time and went back to the hotel for a great shower! That night the majority of us went out for a pub crawl where we stated at one bar and were driven around in a decked out double decker bus, it was a blast and some great memories were made there. At somewhere around 2:30 I left the pub crawls last stop at the casino across the street and went in to the hotel and crashed. I slept for about 4 hours and then woke up to go to breakfast because we all had flights out of Cairns to our respective cities. Which means I left for Sydney!