We Found Nemo!

Hello!

The only other trouble with these pre-booked tours (apart from Sly-Sid of Travelbagdom's grey hair fetish) is that when you finally come round to going on them, you have no idea what to expect and it become a serious case of await-your-magical-tour-tomorrow-at-[insert pick up time].

Today's mystery tour collected us at the more respectable time of 9:15 (Darren shouts hooray). We boarded the Quicksilver at 9:30 for our outer Barrier Reef Cruise and arrived at the pontoon at 11:30. Meanwhile, we were informed that out ticket included a helicopter ride over the Great Barrier Reef. What?! You're kidding?! Well Sid, for all our whinging, you really have pulled it out the onion bag in Port Douglas.

As we journeyed out to the pontoon, we were also sold on the Scuba Diving Into upgrade, which allows non-certified scuba divers (like Darren and Myself) to do a little more than snorkeling.

It didn't take long for the Supervisor to sniff out my asthma and promptly informed me that it would prevent me from diving in Queensland (and thus the GBR) as regulations are very strict in this part of the world. (I have since found out that you can take a diving medical exam at the surgery down the road and are permitted to dive a certificate to prove your lung capacity bla bla bla. Grr.)

I insisted that Darren did it anyway and I joined the back of the Guided Snorkeling Tour.

After the most impressive helicopter flight I have ever experienced (I can say that now I've done 2!) We grabbed a quick bite to eat before donning our Stinger Suits (I can't remember if I explained this already - We're in stinger season so you have to wear tight Lycra suits to stop you being attacked by a jellyfish) and heading to our respective meeting points.

Can you imagine it? ME! Scaredy-Sharky-Pants-Louise - Actually going snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef!! Something I NEVER thought in a million years I would do! But there I was, boarding the boat with several other snorkelers and 2 marine biologists. Jumping out of a plane rids you of many fears it would seem! Agincourt Reef 4 was 10 minutes away and the snorkel tour was MUCH better than I expected. I even got to see a shark!!!! ...... only a small reef shark that wasn't the slightest bit interested in taking a bite out of me but still!! And I saw real life Nemos!!!!

Darren also had an awesome time diving and obviously got to watch things for longer than me but the reef where he was diving was a lot deeper so I'd like to think that our experiences were equally enjoyable.

Better still were the DVDs we got to watch of ourselves looking silly on the trip back to land!

We're still battling with the backlog of photos to upload so keep checking them! We also bought 2 underwater cameras so we mights scan a couple of those in when we're back home for you to look at!

Seeya! Lou x