Last day in Cairns

So after yesterday's disappointment I decided to try and have another go at snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. I booked myself onto a half day snorkel tour for this morning. I got up at 6:45am and headed off to the marina for a 9am departure. The boat wasn't full but I was one of the only young people on it. Everyone else appeared to be Asian families. It was obviously a tour with a large Asian clientele as everything was also written in an Asian language (I don't know which).

The boat took us to an island called Green Island. I was beginning to fear the snorkeling with be the same as at the island yesterday as it was also a large sand island. This island was slightly different however as it had a hotel and lifeguards and cafes etc, rather than just being uninhabited. On the journey I was unfortunate enough to be sat next to the one lady who was throwing up. I had to try really hard to just tune it out as I am not good with sick.

When we got to the island at around 10am we were basically dumped and told to be back by 11:50am.  Some people went on a glass bottomed boat,  some were doing snorkeling, some were doing other things. I had to take my whole bag with me as the boat was leaving to collect other people but I had been told there was lockers on the island. These lockers were minimum of $7 for 4 hours and I was only going to be there for 2 hours and I did not want to pay $7. I had already had to pay an extra 8 to get a stinger suit which they tell you you need. Instead I just risked leaving my bag slightly hidden and prayed no one stole it.

The people on the boat had said there was two sites to snorkel; one was supervised with lifeguards and the other wasn't. I sort of went between the two, trying to decide where to go to see the best of the reef. The information office dude said the coral was better at one but the animal life was better at the other. I tried both but decided that with my swimming ability in the sea, given how far I'd have to go out, it was best to go to the supervised area.

The sea was very seaweed-y and I had very low expectations and was beginning to regret the money I'd paid. The first couple of times I went out all I could see was sand. I spoke to one of the lifeguards who pointed me in the direction of the best place. It was really far out and I was a bit concerned about swimming that far but I set off anyway, as there were floating rest points along the way. I saw some basic fish and a couple of non-harmful jellyfish at first which wasn't that impressive. Then I saw (what I assume was) a sting ray which was pretty cool. I made it to the first rest point a bit down heartened. But I put my head back under and kept going. Then I saw a small shark, about as long as my arm and thin. I had a mini panic and headed back to shore. I spoke to the lifeguard and they told me it probably was a shark. They assured me it wouldn't hurt me so I headed back in. I saw more sharks swimming around a little bit of coral which was pretty cool and then I saw a turtle swimming pretty close. Seeing those animals made me so glad I did it, although I was a bit disappointed I didn't see much coral reef like you see on the photos but I was happy to see the different animals. The water wasn't that clear though so unfortunately I didn't get any good photos.

I got back to the mainland at around 1pm and met Lauren, who had spent the morning chilling by the lagoon. I really like the lagoon here. You can lie on the grass and have a swim and it's near the shops and it's so calm and lovely. We stayed there until around 5pm then headed back to the hostel to get showered and ready for the hostel's Aussie BBQ.

The BBQ was really good. We made friends with our roommate and ate crocodile, kangaroo, emu and barramundi, along with pasta, potatoes and normal salads. (I did have some salad.) They were surprisingly un-exotic in taste. I expected the crocodile to be green for some reason but it was actually white.

After the food there was a didgeridoo competition that contained a lot of innuendo about tongues. It was a really fun night. Tomorrow we are flying to Melbourne so we had a chilled evening and packed up our stuff.