SATURDAY, 14 MAY 2011 DEB’S BUCKET LIST: SNORKEL ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF-CHECK! NOW, WHERE’S THE ALOE GEL

The boats that take people out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel leave at 7:30 AM, our apartment is half an hour drive from the wharf in Cairns, which mean we had to get up at 5:30, but we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. Can you see the three planets?

The ride out to the reef took about an hour and a half. There were 70 plus people on our boat one of which was a former student of Jim’s.

We took a “private” tour with the onboard marine biologist who would bring things up for us to see and hold like large sea slugs!

Blue parrot fish could be seen swimming among the reef from the boat

The varieties of coral and fish was innumerable. Just when you thought you saw everything a new one would pop up.

                                                   Giant clams,

These fish mate for life, and if one dies the other will soon follow.

Gil!!!

It really was an incredible experience. The only bad thing was I follow in Kristi's footsteps, and did a poor job of applying sunscreen to my legs and fried my lower thighs! It was worth it though!