Back to dry land

Alas, our adventure had to come to an end.

Time to get back to the boat.

It's been a long but wonderful day. Time to relax and enjoy the cruise back to Cairns.

The crew brought out a bunch of books and pamphlets which showed the various species of fish and coral. Everyone mobbed around it. They also told jokes and did card tricks.

This is me drying off my backside in the breeze. Oh, plus getting a sunburn where the sun shouldn't shine. It had me itching inappropriate parts for weeks afterward.

We had an awesome day out on the Great Barrier Reef!

Paradise Reef

After lunch, Captain Brett took us to our second destination: Paradise Reef. Unlike Michaelmas Cay, it was privately owned and there was no beach. In fact, the only markers at the surface were two buoys to moor the boat. You just jumped off the back and into the sea.

Like a herd of zebras

Lots of fishes

Coral that looked like fans

Swimming through a school of blue fish.

More blue fish.

Love the snout on the black one!

This coral was huge. It was like a shelf. I'm sure lots of fishes took refuge beneath it.

Wow, bright yellow.

Red fish

Out to sea

After everyone checked in (using their passenger number), the crew served a wonderful lunch. Everyone was excitedly talking about what they'd seen.

The scuba divers said they had seen a turtle during their dive. Then a turtle showed up at the surface. Can you see him out there?

The crew not only fed the humans, but also they fed the fish. There were lots of white ones (bat fish?), but the black ones were really fast and grabbed most of the grub.

Michaelmas Cay #2

More of Michaelmas Cay...

Lots of different coral.

The yellow "hair" would sway in the waves. Nice pattern on the fish, too.

Up close, this coral looked like leather.

Awesome fish.

No segregation here...

White with black stripes. Black with white tails.

This coral reminded me of the enormous marble stone we laid on at the Turkish Bath in Istanbul.

I think they called this one a bat fish. There were lots of them hanging around the boat.

Michaelmas Cay #1

I took a lot of photos underwater. I may as well have just held down the button. There was so much to see! I knew there was something interesting in front of me, and sometimes the camera caught it, and sometimes it didn't. I picked the best ones to display here. Enjoy!

I'm not going to have much to say in the captions. I mostly don't know what is in the picture. I encourage you to click on the photos to get a bigger picture. The interest is in the details.

You'll also notice that many of the pictures have a black "circle" around the edges. This is a side effect of the black ring on the waterproof pouch.

In the shallows...

Giant clam

There were lots of different kinds of coral. This one looked like a brain.

This coral looked like a pile of twigs, but it effloresced bright blue at the tips.

Black fish (top) and white fish with yellow tail (bottom).

I think these are called parrot fish. They were brightly colored. I assume they got the name because of their "beak".

Here's another parrot fish.

And a couple more parrot fish.

And one more.

There were many areas that were absolutely teeming with tiny blue fish and tiny yellow fish. The blue ones sparkled in the sunlight.

Day 8: Great Barrier Reef

Before I begin, let me just say that this day was the highlight of our trip. Luckily, I took a TON of pictures.

Here's our boat, "Passions of Paradise". Each passenger was assigned a number. There were 81 passengers total. Typically they only take 80 so they had to make an exception to let on passenger #81. So, it's a good thing we booked early.

I was passenger #1. Ma was passenger #2.

We had a great crew. As we motored into the Coral Sea, this crew member (Simon?) gave a scuba dive lesson in English. A different member of the crew gave the lesson in French.

Ma and I opted for snorkeling instead.

This same crew member did card tricks and magic on the way home. They all had a great sense of humor.

Speaking of sense of humor, this kid was hilarious. He gave the snorkel lesson.

Our first destination was Michaelmas Cay. It's a sand bar several miles out into the ocean. But it is surrounded by coral reefs. And inhabited by thousands of birds!

This was my first time snorkeling. Sexy, no? Around my neck was my best pre-trip purchase yet! It's a plastic pouch which enabled me to take digital photos underwater. How awesome is that!

Here's Ma's sexy snorkel gear shot.

The hardest part was getting off the beach. In flippers, and on sand, we did the best we could. Walking backwards was easier, but still pretty tough. Once you were out in the open water though, it was a piece of cake.

Cairns

This afternoon we flew to Cairns, a seaside town for the Great Barrier Reef.

The Uluru airport was small and quaint. If you panned from right to left, one wall was full of rental car agencies, straight ahead was a single baggage claim carousel, and to the left were two airline counters for check-in. This means you get only two choices for flying in and flying out. We flew in on Virgin Blue. We flew out on Qantas. The difference was noticeable. Then again, the price difference was noticeable, too.

Virgin Blue is definitely "no frills". No drinks. No peanuts. But I did get a kick out of watching the perky flight attendant Madelene describe the emergency procedures to the non-English-speaking couple sitting in the exit row. "You're going to push the door out and RUN," punctuating the actions with hand gestures.

Qantas, made famous by the movie "Rain Man", had a full meal service and a couple drink services on our brief flight. The tortellini was pretty good. Unfortunately, I was sitting next to Mr. Body Odor so I couldn't really enjoy myself.

We shared a taxi at the Cairns airport with three backpacking guys. One of them had been in front of us on the plane. He appreciated the way I pronounced the word "six" when I explained Sudoku to Ma.

We stayed at the Bay Village. It was a nice hotel but a little far from downtown. The location had its good and bad points. It was far enough not to be bothered by the nightly concerts on the pier, but it took about 30 minutes to walk there.

Here's a shot over the rail of Cairns' pedestrian walkway, known as the Esplanade. (Actually, the Esplanade refers to the walkway, and it's also the name of the street.) It's not exactly a white sandy beach below. In fact, they had signs that warned about crocodiles. We didn't see any.

If you follow the left fork of the Esplanade walkway, you'll run smack into the saltwater swimming lagoon.

Traveler's Tip: Looking for the Reef Fleet Terminal? That's where you'll catch the boat for your Great Barrier Reef adventure. And you absolutely must have a Great Barrier Reef adventure when you come to Cairns! Walk south on the sidewalk on the east side (seaside) of the Esplanade. Keep going until you cross its one and only crosswalk, then turn left (Spence Street). The Reef Fleet Terminal will be on your right.