Tuesday 12th May 2009

You cannot come to Queensland without a visit to the Great Barrier Reef - reputedly the only living thing that can be viewed from space. We went there yesterday on a dive boat out of Port Douglas. It took one and half hours to get to first of three dive sites on the edge of the Coral Sea(see photo). Paul was able to achieve a personal wish that he has had since completing a scuba qualification in 1994 - to dive here. Kate went out with the snorkel group and we think both of us saw some amazing fish - reef shark,grouper,stingray,wrasse,enormous crayfish and moray eel as well as thousands of multi-coloured fish (including clown fish - real-life Nemos!). We went on to further sites in the day our pleasure in what we were seeing was assisted by there being a very enthusiastic scandanavian marine biologist on board who was able to explain what we were seeing in great detail after each dive and also leading Kate and others on a 'snorkel safari'. The only downside of the day was the weather was cloudy so the sea colours were not as brilliant as anticipated and the sea was choppy on the trip to/from port. Today our last day in Port Douglas has been spent looking at the historical sites in the town in the sun (at last) and walking on the town's Four Mile Beach. Tomorrow we fly from Cairns to Uluru (Ayres Rock).