Day 3 was Snorkel-Day! We were booked on an all day trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
The weather was a little overcast, which was a shame, but the sun came out before long and overall it was a great day.
We were the first to be picked up by the bus and then we headed down Macrossan St and picked up a few more people from various hotels around Port Douglas - before driving to the Port which turned out to be about a 5 minute walk from the place we stayed!
Before we got on the boat they collected all our shoes and put them in a crate on the dock. I have no idea what they did with the crates but this little detail will crop again towards the end of the page ...
The boat was pretty nice and we had a driver, obviously, who welcomed us aboard and gave us the itinerary for the day. There were also two Dan's on board. Dan was a marine biologist and Dan was Marine guide. They came with us when we went snorkelling and taught us a bit about the reef at the same time.
We had three stops for the day. The first was probably the second best overall. Lots of fish and the reef was pretty nice but the morning was still overcast so a lot of the colour was missing. We had an underwater disposable camera so hopefully we got some good shots however there was no flash so some of them might be a bit dark.
The second stop was okay but it was in much deeper water which suited me. We had a bit of a tour and saw some interesting bits and pieces but because we were all sticking together to hear what Dan had to say, there was a lot of kicking and getting kicked going on. Masks don't have rear-vision mirrors so people tended to forget they had people behind them.
The last stop was the best. The called the place Turtle Reef or Turtle Bay or something Turtle-like and the reason became obvious pretty quickly. After the Dan's gave us the standard disclaimer that there was no guarantee that we would see one of the big turtles, we all started getting our gear on and jumping in. One of the Dan's was first in and he was scouting for a turtle. He'd probably gone about 15 metres from the boat before he called out to the rest of us.
All up I saw 5 turtles - or possible the same turtle a couple of times but there were at least two because we saw them swimming together at one stage. Hopefully at least one of the photos turns out because I dived under one and, I hope, got a picture of him looking at me! :)
After that stop we headed back to shore. The trip home was much quieter than the trip there! Everyone was pretty much knackered.
When we got back to the ship the Cap'n gave us the thanks and hope you enjoyed it speech and the Dan's got everyone's shoes out and laid them out on the dock - when I say "everyone's shoes" I mean almost everyone's shoes! There were three pairs missing including mine. Now my thongs went into the same crate as Bel's thongs and hers where still there. I, however, had to go barefoot along with two other girls.
The Dan's and the Cap'n were gobsmacked but there wasn't much they could do. The guy that drove the bus took action though. He dropped everyone off and then told us to wait for him and he'd take us shoe shopping. I thought he was joking but I went downstairs and waited. After a while I figured I was right and he was just joking so I wandered into a shop near The Newport to get some sunglasses. I was in the shop for about 30 seconds when I saw a bus pull up outside The Newport and the driver got out and headed for reception! So I wandered over and we went and bought some new thongs!
Pretty nice I thought! The driver reckoned it was the first time in 7 years that someone's shoes had gone missing during a trip and the last time it was the captain that had to go barefoot on their return.