Swimming with Nemo and Dori

Wow---this seems to be the only word that comes close to describing all the sights and experiences we have had in Australia so far--WOW WOW WOW. As Kris talked about in an earlier post, we went out on a sail boat yesterday with a total of 18 people, including us. We sailed out from Port Douglas, passing Crocodile Island (totally looks like the hippo from the Hungry Hippo game) and out further into the ocean.

We sailed for a glorious two hours, enjoying the sun, at one point we did question whether our sunscreen as going to be strong enough, thankfully it was! The crew fed us fruit, biscuits (cookies) and beverages and promised a lovely bbq at lunch. The Aussies do know how to eat!

We anchored at a place called Bats Tongue Reef--a part of te Great Barrier Reef. After a short intro to snorkeling we were ready to go. I was a wee bit nervous about snorkeling. The only time I have snorkeled before was in Eilat, Israel and I managed to inhale a whole lot of water. So, after getting instruction, I bravely put on my flippers, mask and snorkel and eased into the water.

I was so excited--I didn't take in any water and was just fine breathing through the tube. It is so hard to describe this experience, other then to say I had chills the entire time (ok the water was a bit chilly too) but you'd been swimming along and see the most incredibly beautiful fish--bright yellows, blues, greens and well you were in your own world so you couldn't really tell anyone else--they were all doing their own venturing.

Several times I saw a fish or an incredible piece of coral that made my heart skip a beat, soooo amazing and I kept saying to myself "I am snorkeling at the GREAT BARRIER REEF!!!" Oh my g-d!!!! This is sooooo incredible.

For my niece, Aiden Rose---I saw Nemo and his dad, who do indeed live in a sea anemone!! They were swimming around in it and I saw Dori--she swam by me a few times.

Along with the loveliness came some terrifying bits where the water was so shallow that the reef was literally a few feet away---so scary to feel like you might touch it and hurt it. The captain emphasized that it can take a full year for the reef to grow even an inch and with some flipper kick you could destroy 30-40 years of growth!!

Talk about pressure. Several times I had to furiously try to back up so as not to hit anything.

The other incredibly scary part was two huge black bat fish that were swimming around the ladder that you needed to get back into the boat. The crew had made the timing mistake of letting the passengers feed them prior to allowing us to go back out for a second snorkel so they were hanging out by the ladder.

When I was going out for my second trip they were nipping at my flippers as I tried to get them on, thinking they were food I guess? By the time I got back from snorkeling they were still circling the ladder. One of them came at me directly with his little white teeth showing---eeek!!! I couldn't get out of the water fast enough! They probably would have just nibbled but oh boy I started having flashes of the movie Jaws!! So irrational ;)

After snorkeling we just lounged around for another 2 hours for the trip back to Port Douglas---truly a lovely lovely day!!