Great Barrier reef and weather
Friday, May 8th, 2009I arrived in the tiny settlements of Agnes Waters and 1770 during a downpour of rain, thankfully my hostel was across the road from the bus stop, I still got soaked however. My only reason for stopping here was to take my first day trip out to the great barrier reef, unfortunately there were high winds out at sea so the boats weren’t running any trips the day I was supposed to go, or the next day. I decided to wait the 2 extra days instead of canceling. The only problem with that is these towns are tiny, just one small supermarket, a couple restaurants, another shop and some tourist offices in addition to the hostels and resorts here. Nothing to go do except chill on the beach or at the hostel. Fortunately the hostel was a good one, and they put on good movies in the lounge at night, something to keep me from going insane. They also had a French chef backpacker staying there cooking $5 meals every night!
When I finally got to go out to the reef the ocean was still not calm, just not rough like the previous days, lets just say after the 2 1/2 hours it required to get to the reef no one on the boat was feeling too good except possibly the crew. The site we went to was just off this coral island, not a bad site.
The reef, or the bit I snorkeled on anyway, looked pretty similar to the Ningaloo reef out in WA I snorkeled the other week, some more colourful corals and some different fish but overall similar. (They both look like reefs!) I saw a couple sea turtles from the boat surface for air but none while I was in the water, and no sharks this time. I did find nemo, and a bunch of his friends though. Cool stuff. I don’t have underwater pictures since this boat didn’t have a photographer with us. Reefs are awesome, just laying there floating in the water and looking at stuff, never really gets boring, some new school of fish will appear or you spot cool different coral!
The boat ride back was slightly faster then the way out, but with a higher swell. Meaning more holding on and more getting wet. The weather wasn’t particularly sunny or warm either so by the time we got back to shore, around sunset, everyone was pretty cold and wet. I had just enough time once I got back to the hostel to have a shower and get the hostel dinner before I had to catch my night bus. The bus ride was 9 hours, I arrived at Airlie beach at 6:30 in the morning and had the whole day there before my next night bus that night, onto Cairns, the result of me staying an extra night in Agnes Waters waiting to go to the reef. It rained on and off the whole day, making me glad I didn’t book a Whitsundays sailing trip, it would’ve been miserable. As it was I just had a day to kill trying to stay dry, but firmly on dry land.
Perfect day for a island sailing adventure eh?
I only have 8 days left in Australia now and the good weather seems to have deserted me. Since I left Noosa it has been unpredictable and fast changing, I’m hoping it sorts itself out for some nice warm sunny days once I’m in Cairns and the rainforest, I’m firmly in the tropics now and todays British weather is not very tropical! I’ve got 3 major stops left here before I go to South Africa, how time flies!
Adam