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Australia Trip

Day 10 of 22

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Wednesday, October 18th
Muggy Muggy Beach

At breakfast, by the toaster was a big slab of honey -- a honey comb taken from a bee farm. Other than that, it was pretty much breakfast as usual. Eggs, meat, pastries, fruit. They had a person available to make omelets on the spot. French toast was pretty good.

After breakfast we stopped by the activities center to pick up some snorkeling equipment for use in the lesson in the pool. Today would be our trip to the reef, and we wanted to try snorkeling for the first time. It was a bit strange for me at first, as I kept getting water in my snorkel because it wasn't at the right angle, and I was putting my head too far down. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty fun. Of course, snorkeling in a swimming pool is much different than doing it in open water. I've never even gone swimming in open water -- only in swimming pools, and Jean's not a very good swimmer, so I was a bit apprehensive about the day.

Muggy Muggy Beach

Other people stayed for scuba lessons, but we knew that wasn't for us. We still had a while before our boat arrived, so I went on a short walk out to Muggy Muggy Beach. It was only about 700 meters away, a short 10 minute walk from our room. There's not much there. There wasn't anyone else there when I arrived, although a few people started filtering in later. The beach has a bunch of vertical rocks which are interesting to look at for a minute or two. It's also interesting to note that there are a lot of sea shells here -- more than on Coconut Beach, even. While I was there I saw a plane come in. Just before I was about to turn around, I saw our boat dock. That meant we had about an hour to get to the dock, so I turned around and headed back to our room.

Plane landing on Dunk Island

We started walking toward the dock, and started walking faster as we realized it was quite far to walk. We made it in plenty of time to spare, however, as it took a while for everyone to get situated on the boat. The Quick Cat is a large boat, probably sitting a hundred people. It was probably about half full for this trip. We sat on the top deck, in the shade. Others on the top deck sat out in the sun, while the rest sat down below. One thing we noticed was that a lot of people were sunburned and didn't seem to mind. They just accept it as part of life. Bill Bryson wrote a book about Australia called "In A Sunburned Country," and I'd have to say that's completely appropriate.

I've been on boats before, of course. We'd just been on three river cruises. But sailing on the ocean is a different story. We headed north until Dunk Island disappeared and we could only see water in every direction. Along the way I felt horribly sick. I've felt mildly sea sick before on a San Francisco Bay cruise. But I'd never felt so nauseated for so long before. It got worse to the point where I just wanted to step on dry land. Or even jump in the water to feel better.

We arrived at Beaver Cay, where we'd set anchor for 3 hours. The cay is oh, about 20 feet wide and 40 feet long. A tiny little island in the middle of nowhere. We were free to choose between a glass-bottom boat, semi-submersible, snorkeling, scuba diving, laying out on the cay, or eating lunch on the boat. Staying on the boat was not an option for me.

Jean on Beaver Cay

Jean got a little something to eat, but I was in no shape to eat. We took the glass-bottom boat over to the cay. After sitting down for a few minutes, I was ready to try out snorkeling. We put our gear on and went into the water. Now, the person who dropped us off warned us not to step on the reef, because some of it might puncture our fins and pierce us with a poison that would ruin our day. So, that being said, we went cautiously out toward the reef. As soon as I put my head in the water, I saw fish swimming around. It was quite fun seeing them swim all around us. Unfortunately, as we went a little further out, all we could see was dead reef. It'd been eaten by some creature called the Crown of Thorns, which lacked any remaining natural predators. The result was a sea floor covered by gray and black.

Fish near Beaver Cay

Make no mistake, we were in the middle of the ocean. Occasionally the waves would fill our snorkels with nasty salt water -- it was as if someone took an entire salt shaker and put it in a single cup of water. Okay, maybe not that bad, but pretty bad. In any case, the correct response is to blow into the snorkel as hard as you can to expel the water. Unfortunately, that has the side effect of forcing you to breathe in afterwards. And if you haven't expelled all the water (as I hadn't), it's a very disconcerting feeling. My reaction was to pull off my snorkel and stick my head above the water, sputtering. At the same time, I was very aware not to step down, since we were still in shallow water, so I ended up flailing around back toward the beach until I could put my foot down in pure sand. I did this several times, probably looking like an idiot each time.

Jean looking for lunch

Meanwhile, Jean's not a very good swimmer, so even though we were both wearing life jackets, we didn't venture very far. Soon enough we'd had our fill of snorkeling, having mostly circumnavigated the small cay. We took the glass-bottom boat back to the Quick Cat. Along the way we could see some of the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, as we saw actual live reef, as opposed to the dead stuff we'd seen near the cay. We saw bright blue fish and starfish. I wanted to go snorkel here, thinking that since it was deeper, it might be better since I wouldn't have to worry about stepping on anything.

Coming right at me!

Unfortunately, I'm a big chicken. Jean didn't want to go since she's not a good swimmer, and I was too chicken to go by myself. Plus, after getting back on the boat I was beginning to feel sick again. I went downstairs to check out the food, but couldn't bring myself to eat anything. I went back upstairs and just sat and tried to conserve my energy and not move at all. I just sat there the rest of the time and all the way back. At least I managed to sleep a bit on the trip back.

Meanwhile, they did a fish feeding right before we left. One of the crew stopped by to check us off on a list to make sure they didn't leave anyone behind. And then we were on our way back. After the hour ride back, we disembarked and took a walk along the beach back to our room.

That night was BBQ night by the pool. But we decided we'd avoid all the crowds and have a quiet dinner at EJ's again. We had fish and chips, which turned out to be quite good and quite huge. Chris and Camile were replaced by another duo who weren't nearly as good.

After dinner we decided to do our laundry. We managed to stay awake long enough to put the clothes in the dryer, but fell asleep before we could take it out. That would have to wait until the morning.


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