North Queensland – Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

After months of waiting, Corey and I were finally going to visit the Great Barrier Reef! We were so excited about the opportunity that we booked a 2 day 1 night live aboard adventure. Why visit the reef only for the day when you can stay for two? Neither one of us have ever stayed overnight on a boat before, but what better place to do it then on a world heritage site?

Cairns (pronounced CANNES) is touted as the gateway to the reef, but even the gateway required approximately a 2 hour speed boat ride to the outer edge. Sure it sounds fun on paper, but during those 2 dreadful hours on the choppiest waters known to mankind, we prayed that no one (including ourselves) would fall victim to seasickness and regurgitate his or her breakfast whilst on the boat!

Shorties or stinger suits were provided on the boat, but we brought our own full wetsuits. After watching many hours of the Discovery Channel, I wanted to make sure we took all the proper precautions against the deadly Irukandji and any other poisonous sea creatures that may be lurking in the Great Barrier Reef. Keep in mind that we are living in a country where even a cone shell can kill a human!

It was amazing snorkeling in the outer reefs! We saw tons of unique creatures and coral life just within our few hours of snorkeling – cuttlefish, green turtles, giant clams, sharks, parrotfish, pipefish, manta rays, and countless other species that only a marine biologist could properly identify. I was (and still am) slightly upset that we never ran into schools of larger than life fish during our snorkeling adventure. Maybe my expectations were set a bit high by the zillions of pictures of various snorkeling/diving websites containing people posing among groups of potato cods or wrasse.

After 2 snorkeling trips on Sea Quest (our first boat), we were transported to our overnight boat which is permanently docked in the Great Barrier Reef. It was actually much nicer than I expected, and the boat was fairly clean for a boat! The one thing that absolutely disgusted me was our in cabin bathroom. It looked clean, however, emitted the foulest smell that I breathed through my mouth every time I had to enter the facility.
We embarked on 2 more snorkeling trips whilst on the second boat – an afternoon and early morning “brekkie” trip. There was a night dive in between which was mainly targeted at diving with sharks (although it is just advertised as a night dive), but we decided to opt out. A full day of swimming in fairly strong currents and constantly pulling on and off a full wetsuit had pretty much worn us out! But what an adventure it was!