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Australian Vacation
August 7th - August 8th, 2005
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Sunday, August 7th
The Great Barrier Reef
Sailing to Upolu Reef on the
Sailing Vessel Ecstasea
| Sunday morning, just as the sun was
coming up, we boarded a bus to take us to
the Sailing Vessel Ecstasea, a 60 foot
luxury yacht. |
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| This sailboat takes a maximum of 20
guests...but since the weather was just
beginning to improve, there were only 8
guests and 4 crew members, so we got lots
of personal attention. |
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| We went on board and set sail for
Upolu Reef, leaving Cairns in the
distance. |
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| The atmosphere was slow and relaxed.
Our skipper, Stewie, was so relaxed that
he was steering with his feet! |
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| Ben (the comedian of the
crew) demonstrated diving procedures
for those interested in diving. |
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| During our sail out to the Great
Barrier Reef, we were served coffee, tea
and bisquits. |
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| Our destination was Upolu Cay, 30 km
off the coast of Cairns. Here you can
just see a white mound of sand
(approximately 30 feet across by 50 feet
long). We were told that due to the
currents, although Upolu Cay may move
slightly, it never washes away. It was
the perfect place to begin our snorkeling
adventure. |
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| This is another sailboat anchored
nearby. |
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| The dark areas in the
water above are the Reef. The
snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was
so amazing! The water was warm and SO
clear! The fish swam right along with you
and right up to you. The colors of the
reef itself were brilliant and we came to
realize what an amazing, fragile, unique,
living being the reef really is. After a
truly amazing snorkel around the reef, we
returned to the boat for a sumptuous
buffet lunch and cold, refreshing drinks.
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| While we ate our lunch and relaxed in
the sun, Stewie sailed to the other side
of the reef...the outer reef...for even
better snorkeling! Here, instead of
riding the dingy to the cay and beginning
our snorkel from the beach, we jumped
into the deep water off the side of the
boat and swam out to the reef against the
current. It was a hard swim, but once we
reached the reef, we could simply glide
along the reef with the current, letting
it bring us back around to where the boat
was anchored, stopping only for a closer
look or for a detour to get a better
photo of some fascinating fish. |
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| This is Shelly, our personal marine
biologist, who helped us identify what we
were seeing on the reef and swam along
with us. |
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| Ben, Shelly and Mike (the crew clown)
raised the sails for the cruise home. On
the way, we were served fresh fruit
(oranges, pineapple, watermelon,
cherries...yum!). |
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| Good thing, too, as all that swimming
and sun gave me a tremendous appetite! |
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| It was time to say goodbye to the
greatest snorkeling I have ever done! 2nd
to NONE! I think I could snorkel EVERY
day! |
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| On the way back to port, one of the
crew members spotted a whale! I was
really hoping to see one as I have never
seen a whale and I had been told the
humpback whales come to these warm waters
inside the Great Barrier Reef at this
time of year to mate and give birth.
I could not take my eyes off it,
but quickly set my camera on autodrive
and pointed in the right direction and
just kept shooting....but never looked
through the camera, for fear I would not
see the whale myself! I did not get a
single good photo, but my mind will
forever remember seeing the whale blowing
water in the air and then treating us all
by breaching...where the whale jumps
playfully out of the water and lands with
a huge splash! |
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As the sun began to
set and Cairns came back into view, we were
served white wine with cheese
and crackers to say our farewells. It was a truly
perfect day. It was sad to leave our new friends
at the end of the day.
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Monday,
August 8th
The Great Barrier Reef
Trip to Green Island
| Today was a totally different
snorkeling experience. After a leisurely
breakfast, we were picked up from Ellis
Beach and taken to the next beach south,
Palm Cove, where we boarded the Reef
Rocket, a fast catamaran, for the trip to
Green Island. |
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| The Reef Rocket was beautifully
appointed, air-conditioned and much
more formal than our snorkeling trip the
day before. |
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| Here Fred is settling in for our
cruise to Green Island. |
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| Unlike our leisurely 90-minute sail
the day before, sailboat heeling over as
we sliced through the water, this trip
took only 45 minutes and you could barely
tell you were on a boat...the ride was so
smooth. Above is our first view of Green
Island. Green Island is an idyllic coral
cay where you can relax on the beautiful
white sandy beach or explore the walking
tracks that lead you through the emerald
island rainforest of the National Park. A
coral cay is a build up of rubble and
sediments from thousands of years of wave
action surrounding the reefs. Seeds and
spores carried by the wind and birds have
fertilized the island and enabled the
growth of plant life.
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| Green Island offers much more than we
could do in a single day: shops, surf
skis, fresh water showers, canoes,
sailboards. shade umbrellas, beach lounge
chairs, beach volleyball gear, a nautical
museum featuring live crocodiles and
tropical marine aquariums, a gallery
collection of rare Melanesian artefacts
and historical displays, glass bottom
boat tours and a "yellow
submarine" (semi-submarine) tour,
parasailing, and Oceanwalker helmet
diving. Our day started with
lunch served on the "Big
Cat"...a large catamaran and our
base for the day.
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| After lunch we went to the beach for
some snorkeling. To be honest, the
snorkeling here was not as good as the
previous day on Upolu Cay, but the
facilities and activities were great. |
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| Here, is someone parasailing (not us
this time!). |
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| After snorkeling, we returned to the
"Big Cat" for a cold drink. Can
you tell who had a bit too much sun the
previous day? |
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| In spite of SPF 30+ I became my usual
lobster red (burn and peel) while Fred
just turns brown...not fair! |
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| Next we left for a ride in the
"yellow submarine"...the
semi-submarine tour. Below decks on this
cute little boat we sat on benches with
glass all the way around. A guide helped
us identify what we were seeing, however,
I am not sure how many of the fish we saw
I can identify now without looking them
up. |
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| Above is a "sucker fish"
who attached himself to the glass of our
windows and hitched a ride as we motored
out to the reef. |
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| This huge fish (I don't know what it
is) seemed to be along for the ride,
too. He swam along right next to my
window the whole way...in fact, he became
annoying by blocking a lot of my photos. |
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| Here you can see how very much alive
the coral reef is! The orange coral in
the foreground is called
"spaghetti" coral, a type of
soft coral. It moves and undulates in the
water. The brown coral behind it is a
form of hard coral. It take hundreds of
years to grow and we were warned many
times how we must never touch the coral
as it is so fragile, it would kill it. |
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| This fish has a razor sharp line from
it's tail to it's midsection...as sharp
as a scalpel. This is a defense mechanism
so any fish trying to eat it will end up
with a larger, sliced open mouth! |
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| In these photos you can see many
Sargeant Majors....the striped
fish....apparently so named because they
have the same number of stripes as a
sargeant major in the army. |
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| As we were awaiting departure from
Green Island at the end of the day, we
noticed this small plane taking off from
the surface of the water! |
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Another day....another beautiful sunset.
Tomorrow we plan to have a quiet day at home
....packing and preparing to return to Brisbane
for our flight to New Zealand.
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