Day Four - The Great Barrier Reef

Well we didn’t need to set so many alarms. Mom and I were fully awake by 4 am. We laid in bed for a little while discussing additional activities for the next day since the rainforest tour doesn’t start till 1:30. I had heard that the Kuranda Koala Garden was really cool, and upon further investigation…allows you to pat a koala. Well that’s settled. I made arrangements and then we decided to go ahead and get up and ready for our big reef day!

We headed out a bit early to see if we could find some real breakfast on the way to the island transfer boat. We walked along the esplanade and found a little cafe right before we got to the marina, and got a ham and cheese croissant and a chocolate croissant for us to split. We weren’t sure where the dock was so we got it to go and kept walking (a long way) to the dock. We got there right on time and sat down to split our croissants while we waited for our 8 am boarding time.

We boarded the boat around 7:30 and found some seats while we waited on everyone else to arrive. Right at 8 am the boat pulled away (much to the chagrin of five latecomers that ran up right after we pulled away…). It was a 45 minute ride to Fitzroy Island, located just outside of Cairns, right on the reef.

It’s the island getaway of our island getaway!

The weather was beautiful. We found our meet up spot and took a glass bottom boat tour around the nearby reef (we even saw a turtle!)

Shark Fin Cove is named after this fin shaped rock

After we got back to shore, we picked up our snorkeling gear and stinger suits (full body suits to keep from getting stung by jellyfish) to go do a little snorkeling. The boat driver had said there was some good places to snorkel between Foxy’s Bar and Nudey Beach, so we started down the path to Nudey Beach to find a place to get in.

Despite the name, Nudey beach is NOT clothing optional currently. It got the name because it used to be a popular place to…embrace the sunshine. It was a bit of a hike through the rainforest on the island to get to the beach, but it was gorgeous. A beautiful white beach made of coral and sand with clear blue water that drops off into the coral reef.

Mom and I took turns going out and getting reacquainted with the snorkeling gear. I got out John’s Go Pro (thank you, Dagen!!!) and got some video and photos.

We headed back down the path to Foxy’s Grill, and settled down for a bit of a rest (and burgers for lunch!). Then we went back to the recreation center to wait for our snorkeling tour. Around 1 o’clock it was only me and mom waiting on the tour, and the guide came out to tell us we were the only ones signed up, so we were going to get a private snorkeling tour! We got back on the glass bottom boat and headed back to shark fin cove and got in the water this time :)

The water was crystal clear and there were schools of fish everywhere. We got to spend 45 minutes just paddling around the cove and looking a coral, fish, and TWO turtles. It was a lot of fun and I got a lot of pics and videos by the end.

Turtles!

We returned to the island and went through the miserable process of extracting ourselves from the stinger suits, which clung to us like a second skin. Seriously. It took more effort breaking free of those suits than it did the entire afternoon snorkeling.

We dried off a bit and then went to sit at Foxy’s Bar to wait for our ride back to Cairns. I downloaded the movies and photos I had taken on the Go Pro to my phone and we spent the rest of the time going through and looking at the footage, including the turtles!

The boat pulled up at 4:30 and we all loaded on and got seated. They had an All Blacks rugby game on so we watched that for a while until the signal cut out. It’s just as brutal as I recall, and the All Blacks are as good as everyone says. Unbelievably tough and fast.

We got back to Cairns at 6, and decided to go find a place to eat. We both looked pretty bedraggled after a long day, and after looking at the menu of several restaurants (Including one blasting music so loud my ears hurt) we settled on a bar on the way back to the hotel, and ordered some fish tacos and calamari.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and washed all the salt water out of our hair. It was still too early to go to sleep so we decided to watch First Goal Wins, a movie about the American Samoan soccer team, before going to sleep. Long day!