We got no troubles life is the bubbles
Under the sea!
My very first contract on the flagship we stopped in Cairns (in the rain, a lot of rain) and in the course of my souvenir shopping I came across a backpack patch for the Great Barrier Reef, there were quite a few people who were puzzled as to why I didn’t purchase it at the time, but my reasoning was quite simple
I can only say I’ve been to the Reef once I’ve snorkelled it…
For me patches are like Girl Scout badges, you have to earn them.
And so I waited nearly three years for the opportunity to arise to lay claim to that particular badge. Even when the flyer came out saying that there were spaces open for the crew to go on one of the Great Barrier Tours I was leery, it’s a lot of money, but there are some things you just have to do because you really don’t know when you’ll get another chance.
This is the first time I have been on a tour of any kind that did not involve a bus; instead we were directed right off the ship onto the two deck catamaran that would take us to the Marine Park pontoon. It was a long ride out – an hour and a half each way – and I had been warned that it could get rough, but considering that I was the kid who once scared her mother to death by riding the ferry wake in a tin speedboat…I wasn’t exactly concerned. Besides, the trip was very smooth considering we were in open ocean. That said, there wasn’t much to see until we actually got to the pontoon.
Since it’s jelly-fish season in the area most of us rented a lyrca skin suit before venturing anywhere near the water (side note, Lyrca = automatic superhero jokes), then the certified divers headed off in one direction and the rest of us donned masks and fins and struck out into the waves for snorkeling.
Oh. My. Goddess.
Hang on…trying to find the right words here.
I’d never really snorkeled before this, not really, not when there was actually anything to see; I mean I’d splashed around a bit at the beach in Fiji last season and seen perhaps …one fish. But snorkeling the Barrier? It’s like entering into a totally different world, a beautiful, grateful, alien universe that is almost impossible to reconcile with the insanity of the world above the surface.
And most wonderful of all for me? It’s almost totally…utterly…silent. Blissfully, refreshingly noiseless. It’s really hard to describe how much I needed that quiet these days.
Even though visibility wasn’t at its prime today (it actually rained just as we arrived), the sun did eventually burst out from behind the cloud cover and showered those of us in the water with glittering shafts of sunlight that spotlighted the electric blue stag coral and the fleeting, reeling, schools of tiny silver fish that would surround you out of nowhere.
And the colours! You’ve never seen such colours! Colours that no artist could hope to truly replicate, blues and purples and sunburst yellows that you’ve never set eyes on before except possibly in the worn pages of National Geographic.
I cannot for the life of me understand why some people chose not to even go near the water…even in one of the glass bottom boats or the semi-submersible (both of which were included in the cost of the tour). Those crew members who were fortunate enough to be along for the ride (there were only about ten of us in total – alas, this isn’t a cheap tour, since we had to pay PAX rate, and since it was a full day excursion it would have been difficult to schedule for a lot of people), clambered out of the water only long enough to eat something before slipping back in again.
This would be one of the many days I have been exceptionally grateful that I chose to buy an underwater camera!
There was only one unnerving moment; since snorkeling doesn’t always give you the best idea of where you’re going, especially if you’re somewhere with strong currents, it’s surprisingly easy to get disoriented. There’s a sense of rising panic when you surface and realize you have absolutely no clear picture of where you are! Thankfully it turned out I wasn’t too far away from the landing platform and I was within hailing distance of the lifeguard who was only too happy to point me in the right direction. After that I learned to make note of the underwater landmarks to avoid getting myself turned around again.
I was once again reminded of the old Open Ocean exhibition we used to have at our museum back home, and the grainy out-of-date film that proclaimed,
Look around you, what do you see? The ocean right? Well…not really…that’s just the top.