Great Barrier Reef

One of the main attractions for Cairns (pronounced Cans – don’t ask me why) is that’s it’s a great jumping off point for the Great Barrier Reef.  The reef is more than 3,000k in length  but much of this is far away from population centers. 

From Cairns it’s about a 2 hour voyage to Russell Island.  Matt and I both got sea sick, although we weren’t the only ones.  The staff must have anticipated this and had garlic tablets ready and waiting along with barf bags.  We were instructed that once we used these we were to drop them over the edge of the ship (they were biodegradable) and the fish would appreciate the food. YUCK!!  It was a rough ride.  I’m not sure if the ocean was choppy or that’s just how the ship was.  We were just never so glad to see land (both coming and going). 

Russell Island is a tiny ----tiny spot in the middle of the ocean.  It’s mainly a bird reserve.  Cruise ships are allowed to use about a 50 foot by 20 foot patch of beach for the passengers to use as a base for snorkeling.  From the beach the reef is only 20 feet or so away. 

 

There were hundreds of birds on the island.  Maybe even thousands, we weren’t allowed to climb up the hill or walk around.

 

While waiting for the boat that would take us to shore the crew kept the passengers busy with this fish feeding.  It’s funny how both the fish and birds have learned that when the ships pull up it’s feeding time.  Before we had even dropped anchor the fish were circling.  The seagulls hoped to be fast enough to grab a bite of bread before it was snatched up by the fish. 

I’ve snorkeled before but having not done it for years I felt like I needed a refresher course.  Matt was also a bit nervous about it since he’s not a big swimmer.   So the first thing we did was get a snorkeling lesson.  Once this was done we were off to explore.  It was great.  Here’s a few of the pictures we took.

 

This giant clam was about 6 feet wide.  You could see it breathe.  it was so cool!

If some of the coral looks dead it probably is.  We were told that in order for new coral to grow coral eggs (seeds?  I’m not sure what he called them) had to land on dead coral.  The experts figure about 30% of the Great Barrier Reef is dead and that makes it a vary healthy reef. 

I thought this was interesting also, once you get past about 2 meters things start to lose their color until they eventually are grey and then black.  So if you see pictures of the reef in really vivid colors, they are likely taken with special lenses. 

 

Just before leaving we saw this sea turtle.  He seemed to be alone.  He also seemed pretty vulnerable out here in the middle of nowhere. 

 

 

It was a wonderful memorable day and by the time we got back on board to head home we all felt like this. 

 

 

 

It wasn’t until we got home that we realized how sunburned we had gotten.  We’ve been suffering the last couple of days and now the itching has started.  We’ll survive and even given this setback it was well worth the trip.