Day 26 - 29 - Under the Sea

Cabbage Coral - hard as a rock - Photo by Patricia

Today started with a free morning in Cairns. That's pretty much all we have to say about that. We actually got to sleep in a bit before our morning explore. It rained a bit all morning with the sun shining,you know -sun showers. We went out for breakfast, checked out of our hotel and had to kill 3 hours until the bus for the dive boat picked us up. So we went to lunch and briefly walked to the seaside. Went back to the hotel and spent 2 hours using their free Internet while we waited. We each took our small suit case and camera stuff on the dive boat. We left our big bag and our new UGG boots in their own separate bags at the hotel. The day before we had free time as well - this can be a very dangerous thing for us. Our casual walk generated several purchases including UGG boots. We learned way back in New Zealand that UGG is a type of boot and that an American company stole the name because it cannot be copyrighted (not going any further than that.) and that the boots we know in America as UGGs are made in China and are not the "real thing." Anyway we now have real Australian ones and we need to carry them through passport control in Sydney make our purchase for use outside the country legal. OY!!!!!

We were picked up by the dive company, filled out all the necessary paperwork at their office,
and were taken by bus to the dive boat. There are only 12 other people on a boat that holds 32
so it was going to be nice and comfortable. The group was us, a family of four from California, a couple and two young women cousins from Canada, 2 from France, 1 guy from Sweden and another guy from New Zealand but lives in Sydney, so a well rounded group. We of course brought the age level up considerably. All pretty young but a nice group, very into diving which neither of us really is. Maddi is a new diver, and although Pat has been certified and diving for years she has fewer dives than the two kids on the boat, way fewer.

Anyway, we were put in a twin cabin at the bottom of the boat that the two of us could not be in at the same time, unless one was on the bed. More importantly, the facilities were up a flight of steps and out on the dive deck. We were thrilled! Luckily, there was an empty en suite cabin on the top deck, which they upgraded us to. Turns out they upgraded some others as well but ours was a bit more complicated. (Somewhere down the road someone is probably going to pay for it, but that is somewhere down the line.) This was the second time our travel agent screwed up.

Photo of Patricia and a Sea Cucumber (looks like a loaf of bread)

A word about the on board food. Scrumptious!!!!!!!! The chef was French and had a way with a small kitchen not to be believed, fab-u-lous!!!!!

Great Barrier Reef - Photo by Patricia

The diving was pretty terrific with different corals, different fish from what one sees in the Caribbean. We don't know a lot of the names but cuttlefish, yellow snappers, shark, cod and a gazillion others. One of the dives called Steves Bommie was amazing. Several very experienced divers on the boat said it was one of the best they ever saw. There were 10 dives in total, we each did 4. Pat's underwater camera does not take the best underwater pictures but we are attaching a couple so you can see we were really there. We arrived back in Cairns and almost immediately left for Port Douglas, about an hour up the coast where we will be spending the next few days.

We arrived at our hotel and the reception clerk was wonderful. She booked a couple of tours for us and we went out to get some food for breakfast and see the annual Carnivale parade they have when the wet season is officially over. There is absolutely nothing more to say about the event!

We have internet so look for us regularly the next few days.