March 10, 2019 – Cairns, Queensland, Australia
We arrived at 8 am in Cairns. There will not be anytime to visit this city today. We have a tour leaving at 8:30 and it is an 8 hour tour to the Great Barrier Reef.
We grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed down the ramp and off the ship. This is the last HAL tour we have scheduled. The third party tour at this location did not fit our scheduled time here is was too risky with timing the return.
Our catarman was docked close to the ship. We walked a few hundred yards and boarded. Soon we were off with 82 other folks from the ship. We noticed the ship slowing down about 30 minutes into our 90 minute ride to the reef. Soon we heard, “ladies and gentleman, we are having trouble with our engine and we don’t know if we can continue on”, blaring over the loudspeaker. At this moment I was glad we paid double the price for this excursion through HAL because of the guarantee we have getting back on the ship. We tossed in the waves for about 15 minutes and then received the news that the issue was repaired and off we went. MacGyver must have been aboard.
We arrived at our snorkeling location at 10 am. We had our own gear but the tour offered full body lycra suites to protect from jelly fish stings. They also gave protection from the sun as the UV factor was high here.
We suited up and also decided to do a “snorkel safari” with a marine biologist later in the day. Another upcharge for this but we felt it was a good value.
Getting off the boat was effortless. The reef was spectacular. I had the GoPro with me but the video is difficult to upload from the ship’s slow wifi so I grabbed some photos.
The images only can provide a glimpse of what it is like to be on the reef. There are tons of fish and other creatures to see. We were required by the tour operator to wear a life jacket and this made it impossible to dive down but parts of the reef were nearly at the surface.
This is really a “bucket list” thing to do. Something not to be missed and something that anyone can do. The description of the tour by HAL folks listed this as strenuous. It is strenuous for most of the folks on this tour but for the average person it is very doable.
We spent about an hour out on the reef and came back in for lunch. This were most HAL folks excelled. There was non-stop eating until we got back into port. It has to be hard to sustain some the weight these folks carry around and I can understand the non-stop eating.
After a quick lunch we went with our guide back into the ocean. There were only 4 of us on this tour and I was allowed to take my life jacket off. Michael was the marine biologist and he took us out on the little motorized “Cousteau” raft. It was raining but that mattered little. We went in backwards over the edge a la Lloyd Bridges in “SeaHunt”. (maybe it was only me)
Michael had a life ring that we could grab and he would describe something and then go down to the ocean floor and point it out or pick it up and bring it to us. He must of drank gallons of sea water as he spoke and waves came crashing in but he took it all in stride. I had a few gallons myself as I treaded water and listened to him.
An hour went by very quickly. We came back in to the ship and stowed our gear. More eating was taking place. I think some people came on this excursion to ride one of the glass bottom boats while they had muffins.
We arrived back at the ship at 5 pm. All aboard was 5:30 pm and the whistle blew at 6:00 pm as we left Cairns. It looked like a very nice city to stay in if a visit to the Great Barrier Reef is on your list.
Dinner and back to the room. We were exhausted. I think Terri started a movie? I was out.
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