April 10, Oh the Great Barrier Reef!

For me, the strangest hotel experience we’ve had so far – not the worst, but the strangest – has been the Peninsula Boutique, here in Port Douglas. I say this for these related reasons. One, when we arrived last night, the reception desk was closed. The driver who brought us from the Cairns airport told us how to find our room key. A guest who was waiting for his shuttle to leave told us how to find our room. There was a sign on the reception area door that said we had to register today, otherwise our key would stop working. (Stick with me.)

So, we started the day early and in a hurry. The shuttle for our reef snorkeling tour was scheduled to arrive at 7:25pm. We woke up shortly after 6am, worked on our Wordle puzzle together – this has become a regular routine that we enjoy together. Thanks David and Cheryl for introducing us to Wordle! – then dressed in our swim gear, got our other items together, and headed to eat breakfast, which did not open until 7pm.

There was no one at reception desk when we made it to breakfast, and we are trying to adhere to their warning about the necessity to register. I asked the barista, whose station in the kitchen was immediately adjacent to the reception, how do we register. She replied that they will open at 8am. In turn, I stated that we would be gone by then, since our tour for the day began at 7:30. She said matter-of-factly that they will be here when you return.

When we returned from the reef adventure, shortly after 5pm, the reception desk was again closed. We and a few other guests wondered (a) whether our room keys would work and (b) whether they might stop working when we were gone for dinner in the evening. The hotel did not serve dinner, so there was no getting around the fact that we had to go out to eat. Once again, the keys worked to let us onto the property and into our rooms.

We leave in the morning, and there is a good chance we will never have been seen by anyone at the reception desk. It’s advertised as a hotel, but this holiday weekend, it seemed to be more like a VRBO.

Anyway, we rushed down our breakfast in about 10 minutes and finished just as our tour shuttle was pulling up in front of the hotel. There were several others waiting as well. We all piled in and headed the short distance to the pier, where the Sailaway Snorkeling Tour boat awaited. We got our tickets at the office, walked to the end of the pier, waited in line for about 15 minutes, then finally boarded the boat.

We received our safety briefing. “Here’s how to put on a life vest,…and in the event we have to abandon the ship, there are two life boats that hold 65 people each. There are only 51 of you, so no need to be anxious or fight for space. Plenty of room.” Then we departed for the day.

The crew took us out to the Mackay Reef. (Contrary to what you might imagine, the Great Barrier Reef is actually a system of over 3,500 reefs closely connected. The various reefs have slightly different characteristics, despite their proximity to one another: subtle, but noticeable differences in fish species, coral types, etc. In addition to the more than 3500 reefs, there are about 350 cays (“keys”) or sand bars scattered throughout the extent of the GBR system.

The plan today was for us to: 1st, visit one reef area (as a part of the Mackay Reef system); 2nd have lunch; 3rd, briefly visit a nearby cay; 4th, visit another nearby reef system (to see the differences, despite their proximity); then 5th, to call it a day and head back to the pier and town.

And that is just what we did. On the way out to the first reef, we received a lecture on how the Great Barrier Reef came to be. It is only about 8,000 years old and was made possible by the way the last ice age shaped the continental shelf in the area. We were told about the various species beginning with understanding corals (which are animals), their symbiotic relationships with algae (which are plants), and the sand and substrate, upon which they form themselves. Then we learned about the various types of fish which are dominant in the coral reef systems, and eventually the sea turtles, sharks, and cetaceans (whales and dolphins) that frequent the GBR.

(The Great Barrier Reef is larger in size than the country of Japan.)

Next, we had the talk about snorkeling safety and how to use snorkeling gear. Finally, we were cut loose to get geared up and hop in the water for our first round of snorkeling. The morning round was set for 60 minutes. However, Patrise returned to the boat after about 20 minutes, and I returned after about 30-35 minutes. I wish I had had an underwater camera, in order to provide you pictures of the many wondrous corals and fish we saw. Alas, that was not to be.

(Prepping for the first snorkel adventure)

Everyone was called in after the allotted 60 minutes was over. We stowed away our gear – fins, masks and snorkels, and skin suits (a marvelous, but necessary creation, to minimize the potential for jellyfish stings) – and then ate lunch. Mostly simple fare, but we were hungry, so no one complained and munched it down heartily.

(These are after lunch smiles!)

After lunch, the crew took us in shifts to the nearby cay (see pictures below). After everyone had an opportunity to visit, we moved on to a new reef system for the afternoon’s viewing.

Initially, Patrise and I were not going to go back into the water – mostly, due to the challenge of getting back into the skin suits. Yet, our table mates prevailed and convinced us to go in again. Throughout the afternoon, we had interesting conversations with our table mates: Eric and Jane from The Netherlands (near Amsterdam) and Mark and Audrey from London, England. The two couples are pictured here:

(Eric and Jane from Amsterdam)

(Audrey and Mark from London)

We were so glad we did. It is hard to put into words all of the differences we observed, but we could indeed see some subtle differences between the afternoon reef and the morning reef. Both of us felt the water was warmer; we saw more starfish (little blue ones); we saw different fish species dominant among the corals, even the coral colors, although similar, had different mixes of blues, purples, bright greens than the morning reef. The most impressive thing we both saw was a giant clam. I estimate it to have been the size of a decent size breakfast table. It was HUGE, and it had this bright purple algae all over it. The picture below is not it; the picture was shown at our morning lecture. Still, the clam looked a lot like the photo shown below, although the picture cannot begin to give you a sense of the enormous size of the creature.

Both of us stayed out longer for the afternoon snorkel, probably closer to 40-45 minutes. Eventually, everyone packed it in, and the crew made the way back to port. On the way back to the port, I was zonked. I tried to sleep twice, but was unable to successfully do so.

Once in port, our shuttle dropped us off at the no-reception-open hotel. We made our way to our room. Got showered. Played 500 gin rummy – Patrise beat me by quite a comfortable margin. I worked on getting the pictures downloaded for yesterday’s blog edition, so that we could publish it before or shortly after dinner. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Zinc, then returned to the hotel to get ready for leaving tomorrow.

(Patrise looking at her cellphone while waiting to eat at Zinc.)

Tomorrow we begin the last leg of our tour in Australia. We head to Sydney and will be there for three days, until we board our cruise ship on April 15th. But for now, good night!