Part 3 ..... Goodbye Cairns

We had to be up early the next day. We were going snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef!!! It was a beautiful day and we headed up north to get our boat. We chose a smaller tour of about 50 rather than the 800 that usually sign up for these deals. They took us to the outer reef. We took our sea sick tablets and thank goodness because it was kind of rough.

About 1 hour later we reached the middle of nowhere. It was time to snorkel. I wasn't sure how I was going to go since the last time I tried to snorkel was in a Hawaii a few years back and I wasn't very successful. Something about not getting the breathing down without thinking I was suffocating. But I was determined to give it a go. I was ready. I was pumped. And then they gave us the briefing. Here are the hand signals you need if you find yourself in trouble. Stay close to the boat if you are unsure. We will have someone on watch the whole time on the roof of the boat so we can see if you get in trouble. If there is a shark or a stingray, don't swim away from it. just be calm and swim towards it. WHATTTTTT. I am not going in. NO WAY. But then I would have been the only one on the boat. Pride won over fear.

We were then told we might need to rent a wet suit to avoid being stung by jelly fish. Those wet suits are really confronting ....... this time pride lost over fear.

This was the first of 3 stops we were making. I didn't do so well on this leg but it was a start. Everytime I went underwater I saw how close I was to swimming with the school of fish. Amazing and terrifying at the same time. Not a good time to have a conflict of emotions in the middle of the ocean!

The last stop was right at the edge of the continental shelf and the reef and I thought the boat was going to turn over. I didn't want to go in but it was safer in the water than in the boat so off we went.




The ride back was the worst ever. There was a storm and we were all headed back and there were quite a few sick people on this trip. Lucky it was none of us.

What an awesome trip. We did some things we will probably never have the chance to do again and the fact I swam with Nemo and his friends really made the trip worthwhile!

Thanks girls. I look forward to our next adventure.