AUSTRALIAN REEF AND RAINFOREST – APRIL 2015

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Also, check out more in depth reflections on Bali & Borneo by clicking here

Since my last post on ZWT, we wrapped up our Australia leg at the legendary Great Barrier Reef.
After our extensive driving tour of the Southern Australian coast, we flew from Sydney to Cairns, North Queensland. During our week.. Headquartered mostly in Port Douglas…we took a historic circa 1800’s train through rainforest and made the return trip in a gondola gliding over the canopy. The sky was bejeweled with bright blue Ulysses butterflys. Sadly, I never was able to capture a picture of the stunning Ulysses. When they are not fluttering, you can only see the black underside of their wings. We spent one day walking through Mossman Gorge rainforest and another at Cape Tribulation.. Actually where the Great Barrier Reef begins and rainforest extends to the beach. We decided a little adrenalin pumping was necessary, so we signed up for the jungle zip line in Cape Tribulation. The climb to the first platform was typically steep— the ‘pay before you play’ concept’— then we had to literally run on a hamster wheel to generate momentum for the first line. It was quite a workout to begin,but rewardingly thrilling by the end.
The climax to our time in N Queensland was our excursion to the outer Great Barrier Reef. It seems like there are lots of companies which promote their GBR snorkeling/diving expeditions.
However after a little research one company (despitehhogbbbbbh the differently names)Kiu and concentrate on snorkeling. Weather is key to having the ultimate reef looooooolooooooooololexperience. We met an unlucky visitor who’s trip to GBR was unfulfilled because Yusuf the ocean too rough to send boats out. His family returned to Chicago without seeing the glory of the Reef. We waited out several days on the advice of the company counting on the high winds to subside.
At the start of the chosen day of our snorkel venture, the weather report was promising. We were assured  as the day went on conditions would improve. The crew encouraged everyone on board to take the sea sickness pills they were providing. Bobby and I gladly accepted. Let me tell you, within the first 1/2 hour, the boat was dramatically rising and crashing with the waves on our way out to the reef. Several people already vomiting… The ones who didn’t take the pills! For nearly the entire 2 hour journey to the Opal Reef, it was a wild ride! Wavelength crew focused on ecology and education. The onboard marine biologist  was a young woman from Costa Mesa Ca.
She was a graduate of Mater Dei HS (actually a former classmate of our close friend’s daughter)and UCSD. Her name was Taylor and she swam with the grace of a mermaid. She led the snorkeling excursions and offered informative lectures and photographed the sea life we saw that day. We went to three different reef sites… Snorkeling about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs per site. We saw beautiful diverse types of coral and fish  in every color and design possible. The absolute highlight of my day was swimming next to a sea turtle! I kept thinking: ‘this must be a dream…’