Happy Birthday to Me Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

As I'm writing this I have every intention of this being the final part of what is apparently a 4-part series to tell you about a weekend from 2 weeks ago! Honestly I didn't mean to drag it out but...it happens.

So, we're almost up to the most exciting part of the trip which is...The Great Barrier Reef.

After surviving our day in the Daintree where all manner of deadly creature is lurking around every corner we took it easy that night and went to bed early because we knew we had a long day of snorkeling the next day to gear up for.

Getting up way way too early on Sunday morning we found our way to the marina, got ourselves fitted for some sweet wetsuits, which if you've never been in a wetsuit are like spanx for your whole body...very flattering...and boarded our boat to head out to the reef.

There are several different boat options when snorkeling on the reef, the boat sizes range anywhere from fitting 12 people up to over 200 people at a time. We opted for a smaller 30 person boat and we were not disappointed.

You can also snorkel the inner reef or the outer reef, the inner reef, as the name implies is closer and you can make more of a half day experience out of it or you can go to the outer reef which takes almost 2 hours to get to and is thus more of an all dayer.

We opted for the outer reef, mostly because the inner reef is dying and we wanted to see all the prettiness. And you know, participate in the killing of the outer reef so that it can eventually be like the inner reef ;-) Seriously, they made of point of telling us at every turn how we were killing the reef and is all I could think to myself was "Then why are you taking us out there?!" They also informed us that the reef will no longer be there in 30-40 years time...and not from us going out there and killing it with our fins but because of global warming...and if that's the case then why are they bothering to protect ANY of it? WHATEVER. Glad I got the chance to see it because apparently my grandchildren will not be able to.

Moving on.

It just so happened that the weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire weekend that we were there, which the crew was rather ecstatic about seeing as how the day before we arrived in Port Douglas they had 25 knot winds and people were getting sick left and right, vomit everywhere. We had no such difficulties...it was all smooth smooth smooth.

Now, I'm going to call myself out and give props to Dom here. I DID NOT WANT TO GO SNORKELING. I thought to myself, this is MY birthday and I've been snorkeling plenty of times in my life why do I want to go snorkeling for my birthday, this is a Dom birthday present not a Jesica birthday present. We were also up way way too early and we had to wear wetsuits. None of this was appealing to me on Sunday morning. But Dom insisted since we were already up there that we HAD to go snorkeling on the reef because we'd regret it if we didn't. I agreed, it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I would forever regret if I didn't do it.

And as soon as we left the marina and we were out to sea in the warm warm sunshine I remembered how much I like being out on a boat and started to get excited that we were about to go snorkeling on The Great Barrier Reef, which in all honesty I never thought I would ever do because I never thought I would ever visit Australia, much less live here.

So, off to the reef we went. The weather stayed beautiful, the sea was warm and inviting and the reef was pretty spectacular.

So, thank you Dom for putting up with your bratty birthday wife and her less than enthusiastic approach to snorkeling, I'm glad we did it =)

Now, mind you we were out on a boat, or in the water for about 8 hours that day and my dear husband burns in the shade with sunscreen on. So, in an effort to keep him light pink rather than bright red I kept reminding him to put sunscreen on, which he did, he put it on his face, on his head, on his arms....everywhere except his legs. Which when I asked him if he put sunscreen on his legs, his response was "No, but I never burn on my legs".

LOL

Next time I think he'll put sunscreen on his legs.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you. The other reason I did not want to go snorkeling...

THERE ARE SHARKS.

Granted reef sharks apparently don't eat people, but I DID NOT want to encounter a shark...especially after we'd survived the day before without seeing anything that could kill us...I didn't want to push it. We luckily saw no sharks, but guess what we did see.

Nemo =)

Sea Turtle

A ridiculously huge ugly and very friendly fish that LOVES the snorkel boats

Crazy colors that you don't expect to see in the ocean

And lots of other pretty fish and coral

All underwater pics taken by Wavelength

And I hate to do it, but I'm gonna put off finishing this AGAIN! Apparently my 4 part series just turned into a 5 part. Next up I'll tell you about the croc farm!