4/3/14 - The Great Barrier Reef

This is the day we were really looking forward to in Australia - Snorkeling near the Great Barrier Reef!

We boarded a huge Quicksilver catamaran and after a safety presentation we departed from the Marina Mirage at 10AM. We arrived at the Outer Great Barrier reef platform at 11:30 AM for hours of reef activities at the Agincourt Reefs.

Photo by Quicksilver

First we got ready to snorkel. Because of the animals, we were covered head to toe including our hands. We got into the cold water and encountered our first surprise - current was dragging us away from each other and the area marked off for snorkeling. Then we encountered large waves some of which made it difficult to swim.  We saw coral, exotic fish and other animals/plants.

Diane stayed in about 40 minutes and wasn't able to get too many good pictures due to the tide and waves pushing her and the fish around. Bill stayed in about the same amount of time. Next was a buffet lunch which was a welcome site after expending energy snorkeling.

View of Platform from the water.

Instead of going back to snorkeling we rode in the semi-submersible boat where we had the opportunity to view the reef and fish. We enjoyed this better than the snorkeling as we weren't thrown around by the waves so much.

We didn't have time to do any more snorkeling but we felt satisfied we'd seen a lot. We arrived back at the Marina Mirage in Port Douglas around 4:30 passing small islands between the reef and land.

We saw some more wildlife on our walk to and from dinner at the resort.