Great Barrier Reef day! The day started early as we had to check in for the boat at 7:30 am. I woke up with a slight cold so was questioning whether or not I should scuba while Grant’s leg was still looking rough (though finally on the mend). We both really wanted to see the reef so were hoping we could push through the day and enjoy the views! Once boarded, they gave us our goggles, fins, and stinger suits for snorkeling. The stinger suits were a full body wet suit with mitten like hands and head covering in case we ran into small jellyfish out in the water. 

Our seat mates for the boat journey throughout the day were Paul and Lisa from Austria. They were also traveling the world, but unlike us spending just a few days to a week in one place, they were traveling throughout the entirety of a country no matter how long it took. They said they spend about 20-30 days in most countries but had already been in Australia for 1.5 months visiting Melbourne, Sydney, and now Cairns before heading to Perth for the last portion. 

It is always interesting to hear the differences in lifestyles from people around the world. Lisa was in a way getting paid to do online schooling by the government while on this trip and that was a large portion of how they were funding their travels. Paul also noted on his travels to the US how “scary cops are in the US”. He noted that his dad got out of the car when stopped for speeding because that’s what they do in Austria and said that the cop yelled through the speaker to get back in to his vehicle. Good reminder to be friendly to tourists and visitors to our country as it’s probably very different from the culture they’re used to. 

After a 1.5 hour ride to our first reef stop, Saxon Reef, and safety briefing of snorkeling and scuba diving, it was time to head into the waters. The wife in me wanted Grant not to miss out on seeing the reef by snorkeling/scuba diving even though “medical Meghan” knew it wasn’t the right thing as we were risking further infection since some of his wounds had opened and the water was pretty warm….(exactly why you don’t treat your family!) 

Once we got our gear on, we hopped into the water and immediately saw a turtle! Grant spotted him first and was able to catch a video of him swimming before he went further down into the reef. It was absolutely incredible to see all the fish swimming in and out of the coral. I quickly became obsessed with the Parrotfish and tried to get as many videos as I could. It was my first time using a GoPro so I struggled for a while remembering to turn off the video before I came back to the surface. 

Near the end of our first hour of snorkeling, both of us were struggling with our goggles flooding with water. They called in our group for the introductory dive so it was perfect time to (hopefully) get things situated. We sat on the edge of the boat with our tanks on before one by one hopping in. When it was my turn to head under, I still struggled with my goggles flooding. The instructor helped me figure out how to clear them under water but I would mess up my breathing technique and freak out. After about the third time going back up to the surface, I tapped out and just headed back to snorkel. Grant was able to get his dive in and said he really enjoyed it! Though he did say after the first 10 minutes or so of being with the instructor, she kind of left them to their own devices for the last 15 minutes or so. I’d be interested in trying it again in a more controlled environment (and not the open ocean for my first time). 

Grant joined back up with me for the last 45 minutes we had to snorkel at this reef before heading back into the boat for lunch. The cruise company definitely had a system between their reef sites and organizing food on the boat. 

After a 45 minute ride to the next site, we hopped in and joined the snorkel tour given by the marine biologist. I switched to child size goggles (small head over here) and finally no more issues with water flooding inside! It was really cool to join the tour since he knew where to find certain things like getting to see Nemo (a clownfish) swimming through the anemone and learning about the different types of coral and fish we were seeing from under the surface. Though it was crazy to realize how many people didn’t know how to swim very well without running into people or swimming on top of them, or even knowing how to swim at all. 

Once the tour was over, we headed to explore the other parts of the reef we didn’t get to see on the tour for the last 45 minutes. We saw more parrot fish and I was able to spot a moray eel! I thought I was getting a video of it swimming away but turned out I was only doing a Timelapse of pictures. Again lack of experience with GoPros…

We had a 1.5 hour ride to Cairns so we enjoyed our complimentary glass of wine and the views as we headed back. We decided to rent the GoPro for another day as we were planning on heading to Green Island the next day to do another day of snorkeling! Since we were both exhausted from the day, we headed back to our place for a shower and grabbed some Asian food nearby.