Reef Magic

Saturday 29th August

Today was another reef adventure.
We caught a boat to the outer reef which was amazing.

The boat took us to a platform right next to the reef which was our base for the day and we could snorkel from there, go to the underwater viewing platform, on a semi submersible craft and a glass bottomed boat.

The journey out was pretty choppy and we all felt queasy so we were glad to arrive.

We all managed at least a couple of hours of snorkelling and saw loads of coral and fish. Toby was reluctant to go far from the platform in the morning but after lunch he came into his own. Jonathan and Peter saw a reef shark as well as the fish. After lunch the tide was further out and some of the coral was above the water line.

The journey back to Cairns was more gentle and we all felt fine. We went for a quick explore before returning to Palm Cove and what better to do than have a quick dip in the lagoon (open air public swimming pool)! The boys enjoyed the last hour of daylight having a play in the pool whilst we had a drink on the beach at the side. The lagoon is there as the sea is not a good place to play or swim in the summer due to 'marine stingers' (jellyfish). There are stinger stations with big bottles of vinegar to treat stings all along the coast.

Back home for dinner and bed, with a sought detour to get a close up of the field of kangaroos at dusk.

We're all exhausted and agreed the experience of today was one of the best of our lives. We took some pictures on the camera with an underwater case but just a few from the phone here.