Two days at sea and ready to set foot on terra firma. On Wednesday, November 12th around 5:50 a.m., our ship rounded Cape Kimberly from a southwesterly course. Approximately 2 nautical miles from land, we dropped anchor in Port Douglas, Australia. Around 6:40 a.m., the Diamond Princess was ready to commence tendering passengers ashore from the ship's docks.
This unique place is the perfect jumping off point to some of the world's most exciting scenery. This far northern portion of Queensland offers a gateway to the Wet Tropics Heritage Area, a dense primeval collection of national parks and rain forest that is one of the oldest in the world. Then there is the Atherton Tableland, a lush inland plateau with wonderful lakes, waterfalls along with picturesque villages. But most popular of all, and why we were there that day, is its accessibility to...
the Great Barrier Reef. This famous World Heritage reef is, by many standards, a bucket list dream. It was formed over 10,000 years and is a vast, complex web of more than 2,000 reefs and 71 coral islands. The waters support over 1,300 species of fish. We would be snorkeling over a very small piece of a very large reef comprised of over 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometers).
"Moments" as we cruise towards a day on the reef.
Along our way, the staff aboard the Quicksilver provided instruction on snorkeling (for beginners), informed us of "stingers" (jellyfish) and familiarized us with the floating pontoon we were headed towards. This pontoon would be where we would launch our snorkeling excursion from. The pontoon sounded enormous and offered not just snorkeling but diving trips and submarine rides, along with a luncheon included in the tour.
Yup, the pontoon was big! It was three stories tall and had layers of activity.
We descended a platform of stairs into the water. The cool, crystal water was astonishingly clear. Large fish swam around our legs as we readied ourselves for our snorkel adventure. All things "check" then we swam out into the remarkable shades of aqua and blue.
There were tether ropes attached to floats for holding onto, or you could free-form it. Frank and I worked our way out via the rope.
It was an incredible feeling to actually be experiencing a natural wonder like this. The water was deep and the shades of color shifted with the sunlight. The coral below us was a home for a myriad of oranges, purples, yellows, blues and reds.
After our snorkeling adventure, we decided to take a submarine ride to further explore the depths and see more brilliant sights.
What a memorable day! By mid-afternoon, we were tuckered (Aussie for "exhausted") as our Quicksilver catamaran took us back to Port Douglas. The pontoon grew smaller in the distance as we cruised towards shore.
As the sun was setting, so were we, one at a time.
The sky ended in bursts of orange and yellow before the sun rested it's head.
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