The. Great. Barrier. Reef!!!

Day 2-Port Douglas: We both woke up the next morning with one thing on our mind: MUST BOOK GREAT BARRIER REEF TOUR. After an $11 coffee break :P, we went to the office of Wavelength tours to try to work up a deal. We got that and a free t-shirt!! (Sorry-- just got distracted by a mobile ice cream cart driving across me here on the beach!! Must resist!) Anyway trip got booked for Tuesday. Yeah!! We spent the rest of the day at the beach. It's a beautiful beach but the only con is swimming is restricted to a netted area due to the (DEADLY) jellyfish stingers... Bummer!! It's hard to be a mermaid when you're contained to one area.. ;)) We both still enjoyed the water and the warm weather though. The sand is very fine here.. Unlike any other beach I've visited.  It was superb to just relax!! Took it easy that night in prep for the following day! Just cooked some fish to eat for din-on the couch and watched some more TV- still on the couch. PM's kinda night!! 

Day 3: Excited out of our minds as we got ready for G.B.R!! We got picked up at 8am for the boat and after a brief orientation- we were on our merry way to the Opal reef! There were about 20 other people with us so it was a fairly big group. The marine biologist team urged people who experience motion sickness to take Demadryl but we passed b/c Plamen and I have both never had a bad experience with boats. Phew!! It was a rough 1.5 hr. ride out to the reef but we made it to our 1st site- Beautiful Mooring. 

It was amazing to see all the reef around us-- it made us SO ancy to jump right in!! After getting our (tight & hilarious) shorty wetsuits and snorkel gear on.. We waited our turn to get in. The water was chilly (low 70s) but it was alright b/c we were at the GREAT BARRIER REEF!!! Adrenaline warmed us up quick!! Plamen was extremely worried about my swimming abilities but I managed to impress him.. & myself. I must give credit my wetsuit and fins!! I actually thought I'd have to rely on a noodle to help keep me afloat but nope! I'm a big girl now!! We had an hour to explore so we made our way around the reef and saw many striped, neon and colorful fish.. Among them were parrotfish and butterfly fish. Some rain began to come down but it was only sprinkling and definitely didn't put a damper on things! PM swam around with the underwater cam and snapped lots of good shots!! 

We got back on the boat and after a short tea break, we were shuffled to our 2nd site: Bashful Bommie. This site especially stood out to me because I got to see a beautiful BLUE starfish. 2 of the guides on the tour also gave tours around the site. He showed us a clam (I think) that releases a mucus that can be used as a sunscreen. It's 300 SPF+++ Wow!! The rain also really started to come down on us here!! An hour later, we got back on the boat for some lunch. The lay-out was good! It wasn't the standard pre-packaged food that's typically provided on tours. It was fresh bread, spreads, deli meat, chicken and some kind of oriental noodles. Yum!!! It definitely re-fueled us hungry snorkelers. During lunch, we were given a "course" about the reef by Peta, one of the 3 friendly attendants. Some tidbits I picked up from it is that 50% of the reef has disappeared over the last 27 years. How terrible is that?? Unless they can figure out how to help it, it may only be around for another decade. :( She also showed us a shell of a Cone snail that's the 2nd most dangerous organism in the Reef. It releases a toxin that's so poisonous it can kill you!! It looks like a pretty shell and people tend to pick up not knowing it's harm!! I also learned there's about 1600 species of fish & organisms inhabiting the reef. After lunch and a short rest, we powered away to to our last snorkel site which was about 10 mins away. I got to take a mini-nap!! The last site was called Sno and was especially exciting. Apparently, Nat. Geo has claimed it's one of the best parts of the reef they've ever seen! They were absolutely right- it was a marvel.. Reef everywhere and it was so close to the water surface- you could just swim right on top of it. I tried hard not to step on the coral but it was difficult not to. :/ We were told to look around the edges of the reef at this site. Many more fish were around there!! About 45 mins of exploration, we were summoned on the boat to head back to the dock. There was fruit and cheese to nibble on. Plamen really wanted to sit on the top deck so I followed him up. It began to get rocky so I headed down to avoid going overboard after such a lovely day! The stairs down weren't so smooth for me and the wind was blowing my cover-up UP!! So as I hurried down to avoid flashing my friends for the day, I skipped a step and fell back into a the fruit waste bin after a bump in the water! If that wasn't enough entertainment, I managed to turn around right into a pole! Maybe I should have just stayed upstairs?!? 

After finally settling into a seat, I stayed put! As the boat went on, I couldn't stop thinking about every fishy I saw at the reef and how incredible it was to be swimming right next to them. I felt SO alive and grateful for my existence! Plamen wouldn't describe it like this but I'm certain he felt the same! Smiles all day long. It was a one of a kind thrilling experience and another check off our long bucket-list!! We walked back to the hotel after the boat docked and got ready for a night out! We went to Salsa Bar & Grill and got lucky with a table near the front. It had a great view of town and the water. We ordered a Caesar salad and Tuna Tataki starter and a couple cocktails. Super good!!! We were excited for our Main course. P ordered a Kangaroo meat dish and I went with Pork belly. Side note- appetizers are called Entrees here. The waitress and I went back and forth with each other over this.. I was in need of some clarification! She was clearly annoyed hah!! 

Our mouths were watering when the Mains came out. Plamen devoured his meal and I worked through mine slowly. It was very filling! I tried his and have to say Kang meat is good!! It's texture is different from other meat and it's taste is also distinctive. If I had to describe it, I'd say the closest comparison is beef. Although that's not really it. We worked through some more cocktails and hit the town! I don't know what kind of excitement we were looking for but either way, we didn't get it. The vibe of the town was dead so we just hit a bar for some Peroni's (on tap-- yum!!) and headed back for bed. That's all for now- gotta get back to soaking up the sun!!! :))) Thanks for keeping up & loads of love to those back home!!