The Passions Of Paradise catamaran.
In the Coral Sea.
A parrot fish.
A giant clam at least a metre across.
The bird sanctuary of Michaelmas Cay.
Feeding time.
Thursday,
June 30th
I
was up early for a trip on the Coral Sea to the Great Barrier Reef. I
drove into town and parked by the harbour where I signed in and
boarded the large catamaran Passions Of Paradise. There were about
fifteen companies and boats at the dock that could acommodate
hundreds of people Some of the boats take a couple of hundred people
The one I booked is one of the last locally owned companies and only
takes 80 people. We sailed for two hours to the outer reef. The sea
was not too rough and no one got seasick. On the boat I got talking
to two middle aged guys who are traveling with their families. They
are both in education as well and we talked about lots of things as
we sailed. One guy, Mark, is a Collingwood footie fan and the other
guy, Andrew, barracks (Australian for roots for which has a very
different and rude meaning here) for Melbourne, mortal enemies of
Collingwood. I explained how Cassie left me a Collingwood hat and
that I've been insulted about it several ties on my travels. Andrew
said give it back.
Before
we got there one of the guides told us “Don't to touch anything
because we are in Australia afterall and it may harm you or you could
hurt it”.
When
we got to the reef some people did diving and the rest of us had two
hours to float and swim around the formations. There were lots of
different kinds of corals and fish. I had a digital underwater camera
and took lots of photos.
We
boarded the boat again and had an excellent buffet lunch with lots of
salads fruit and a chicken or vegetable curry and rice. Then we
motored for a half hour to Michaelmas Cay. The boat moored off the island and
we snorkeled to it following the reef to the beach and seeing the
variety of fish and corals. The island is a bird and turtle sanctuary
and we are only able to walk on a small part of it but I did take
photos of the birds and their chicks. There were a few brown gannets
there too. Then I snorkeled back to the boat. We saw a large nuber of
large fish under the boat who went crazy when the crew threw some
food overboard for them.
As
we were sailing back one of the guides gave a great presentation
about some
of the creatures of the reef,
the fate of sharks and the state of the reef.
The
reef is still beautiful but there is no doubt that it is in trouble
like reefs around the world. There were sections of bleached coral
and areas that appeared dead or dying. The cause of this is the
change in water temperature
cause by global warming. Although there were lots of fish I didn't
see the large schools I thought I would and I saw none of the big
creatures I was hoping to see: turtles (which nest of the island),
rays, sharks, groupers, etcetra.
The
Cairns Colonial Club Resort is a really interesting place. It is like
an all inclusive Caribbean resort complete with palm trees, tropical
plants and pools, except, it is not on the ocean. It is just outside
of Cairns in a suburb called Manunda. It is a large confusing complex
with many blocks of rooms. There are lots of Asian here who are on
package tours. I found my room eventually out it the far corner.
I
finally heard the song of the kookaburra as there were five of the
sitting on a TV antenae. It does sound like a laugh similar to a pack
of hyeana. Then I went to the restaurant for the cold buffet of
salads after which I sat in the lobby typing up my journal, e-mailing
and putting up a couple of posts on the blog because the internet
doesn't work in my remote room.
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