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Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef | Cairns Day 1

Had a hard time sleeping last night and I don’t know why. Maybe I was anxious about the snorkel trip? I suspect it’s because I didn’t want to sleep through my alarm. I was up at 5:30 even though my alarm was set for 6. It was great that I had an opportunity to eat some toast and a few sips of coffee. Also put on my sea sickness patch and took 2 Bonine.

I was on the road by 6:20 as planned. The drive was scheduled to be an hour and 15 minutes and I had to be at the dock by 7:45. The ride to the dock in Port Douglas was really beautiful. And scary. It reminds me of the drive along the windward side of Oahu whereby you are riding along the ocean. The road though was a bit treacherous. Not only was it 2 lanes, the lanes were really narrow and the road was very curvy. I was terrified I would try to avoid an oncoming car and end up in the ocean. There was also a lot of traffic because of the construction. There were at least a handful of times the traffic came to a standstill because of only 1 lane being open. But I made it on time with no real issues.

I didn’t realize it but the snorkel tour/company I chose was a “luxury” one per their advertisement at the dock. Explains why it cost $600 AUD! I thought the high price was due to the fact it was the Great Barrier Reef or something. But I didn’t compare tour companies as this one was VERY highly rated and they only take small groups of 12 people plus 3 naturalists and a skipper and a captain. Each naturalist had a snorkel group of just 5 people. A few people went scuba diving. I got paired with Pam who was AWESOME! Super cool and very informative and helpful.

The cruise out to the first snorkel spot took about 2 hours. The boat wasn’t as fast as the other day plus we went out really far. I was sharing a table on the deck with 3 other women. A mom (Maria) and her daughter (JoJo) from Houston and a girl from New York (Cat). All were super friendly and we spent the time chatting. When we got to the stop to snorkel at, we put on our lovely stinger suits. I felt like a sausage in all that Lycra!

We were in the water for about an hour and a half. It was insanely amazing!!!! Saw so much living coral of all types and colors!!! Plus the fish were so abundant and there was a huge variety. Pam was leading us and gave us SO much info about what we were seeing. Sometimes it got annoying because I had to lift my head out of the water to hear her. But she was a rockstar and dove down several times with my GoPro to get really close to the fish. Hopefully the pics and videos came out amazing as the camera was stuck on a wide angle the whole time. I think one of the great highlights was seeing the giant clams! They were HUGE! They grow only 1 centimeter a year. These must have been ancient!

She dove on top of the clams so we can see it close itself up. Fascinating! And I spotted a lobster hiding that I pointed out to the group. The whole thing was amazing but I started to feel not so great with the ocean conditions. It was pretty choppy imo. And all that movement was making me queasy. I was definitely ready to get back to the boat when we finished. And thankfully the ladder was really easy to climb. The ladder from the Whitsunday snorkeling gave me huge bruises on my knees. In order to climb up that ladder they suggested we kneel on the lower step. That step was hard AF and I got bad bruises. So I was relieved this trip won’t be that way.

We then cruised to the next location-about 15 minutes away. The crew passed out orange slices and some pastries but I couldn’t really eat anything as I was on the verge of sea sickness. The boat was really rocking too. I was contemplating for a second of not going back in the water but realized that was stupid. Of course I’m going in! I took a ginger pill from Maria and hoped for the best. I was so glad I went back in!!!

I think the fish here were even better. And bigger! I saw a HUGe fish. I’ll have to tag the name when I upload the photos. I’ve never ever seen a fish that big in person before while diving or snorkeling! And then the pièce de résistance happened! SHARK!!!! One of the group members spotted a white tip reef shark! It was just swimming and couldn’t really care less about us. I wasn’t even scared! Well, not until the shark started literally coming straight towards me! I hope the pics of this encounter came out! It was wild! And this wouldn’t be the last white tip we saw! I saw a shark at least 5 other times on that snorkel stop! Each shark was about 4 feet long? Wow. I also saw more clams, sea cucumbers and amazing more fish and coral.

We got out of the water about an hour and a half after jumping in. And I can confidently say I was very satisfied and but still a little queasy. But it was worth it! And once we got back on the boat we could take the stinger suits off. That was a huge relief too. They served wraps for lunch but I had no appetite. Ugh. As the boat took off for the 2 hour trip back to the dock, I put my head down. I figured if I could lightly snooze I would avoid getting sick. Well apparently I passed out completely because the next thing I knew, we were at the marina! I felt a lot better at that point but definitely wasn’t complaining about being on dry and stable land.

I wish Cairns was closer but I made the drive back without incident. I immediately jumped in the shower and heated up some of my leftover pizza from last night’s dinner. My appetite was back! I chilled for a few hours, made a late dinner reservation at a different Italian restaurant and will chill some more before I pass out for the evening. I have another adventure planned for tomorrow. Thankfully I don’t need to be out the door until 9:30!

I’ll upload all the pics and videos soon!