I have come so far that I feel obliged to take a second tour
of the reef. This time I have chosen a bigger boat, Reef Encounter, which is really a floating hotel. To get to it I
boarded the Reef Explorer in Cairns,
which departed at 8:30 am, and by 10 am heaved to parallel to the Reef Encounter so we guests could walk
from one to the other. There are probably 20 of us, but already at the ship were
a school group of 40 teenagers, plus another 20 assorted passengers, so for a moment
there we were in complete chaos. But these folks know what they are doing, and
pretty soon I was changing into my swim suit at my shared cabin. My cabin mate
Sid and I have a window as well!
Our first two swims were at Hastings Coral Gardens, which is
a tiny reef as seen from deck (a bommie, in Aussie). Once you are in the water
the reef seems enormous and with an infinite variety of nooks and crevices.
Added to the many wonders I have already seen, the sunlight reflected from the
sandy bottom and the colorful corals to create a brilliant background for the fish,
who proudly paraded their incredible colors for us visitors. Unfortunately I
was having problems with both my mask and my snorkel, which kept being flooded
with seawater. I tried to tough it out, but after 45 minutes of swallowing salt
water I turned back. Lunch was very good, but I could have used a second
portion.
The second swim, still at the same mooring, was a repetition
of the first. I managed to keep the mask from flooding, but the snorkel kept
giving me grief, even though I had switched to the other side of my face.
We then moved to the Saxon Pyramids reef, where sharks and octopi
had been recently sighted. Once again I gave it a try, and once again ended
drinking too much seawater. I am bummed. Perhaps it was a mistake to try to reproduce
the success of my days with Coral Sea Dreaming.
No sharks, not octopi.
No comments:
Post a Comment