Winsome Whitsundays

The Great Barrier Reef was always one of the things we wanted to go and explore on this trip.  We had been thwarted by bad weather up in Cairns and had to scout around for other options further down the coast.  When we turned to look at departures from Airlie Beach, I wondered why we hadn’t considered this option earlier!

The cruise ship took us close to some of the Whitsunday Islands, stopping at Hamilton Is. to pick up the bulk of our passengers for the day, cruising between Whitsunday and Hook Islands, before going into the glassy open water toward the reef.  This central section of the Great Barrier Reef takes longer to get to than up on the northern shelf but it has the famous heart shaped reef as part of its grouping.  We went out to a special pontoon and the boat was moored on that all day.

We started with snorkelling and I partnered Mark, Zac and Stevie went together, and Andrew went with Adam.  Unfortunately, the two “A”s managed to dodge the official photographer on the day so I don’t have shots of them to put up.  The other family members seemed to take to the snorkelling straight away and were diving further below to get closer to the reef bed and sealife.  Mark and I struggled somewhat.  I am not a water girl at the best of times and struggled to adapt to the snorkelling technique and Mark was just wearing himself out.  At the end of the first session, we came back in and got lifejackets on, and that helped.

Straight after lunch, provided on board, we went in the glass bottomed semi sub for half an hour and had a marine biologist explaining different aspects of the reef to us.  Those who wanted to do the add-on activities of helicopter rides or scuba diving, did so at their leisure.

Then, there was enough time left to go back in for one more round of snorkelling.  This time, I got a mask and mouthpiece that fitted better and I found that I had no problems staying down and taking in the underwater world.  For the first time in my life I was actually enjoying having my head down and being wet! I really did not want to get out and could have stayed for an extra hour.  I think we all felt like we could have had more time out there but, we had a 3 hour trip back.

So, get to the Reef when you can - it is well worth investing the time and money to see it for yourself.