A day on the Reef

After breakfast at the hotel (the usual display of breads and cereal) we packed our bag and made our way to the Marina: our boat, the T6, was docked at the Marina, Finger E. We were greeted by the Tusa Dive crew which gave us all the information we needed, including the do's and don'ts for the day. Shortly after we were all given our equipment: masks and snorkel, flippers and lycra suit (to avoid getting stung by jellyfish). In case you wonder, you look as good in a lycra suit as you would in a wetsuit..mmm mmm sexy (NOT).

The first stop was at Hastings, one of the most popular reef sites: while the group doing scubadiving got all prepped up, us snorkelers just jumped in and went our merry way. The reef is incredible: we snorkeled a bit with a marine biologist on staff and she pointed cool things around us: the most colorful fish you can imagine, weird corals and...drum roll please: giant clams. And I mean GIANT: the looked to be almost 4 ft long, 2 feet wide and 2 or 3 ft high. The picture you see here doesn't do it justice...they are enormous. And if you go near them and pet then, they ...well, clam up.

We spent over one hour at this site, then the crew  got all of us back to go to the second site, called Dungeons and Dragons. They told us it's very rare to be able to go there because they weather has to be absolutely perfect, with calm winds and all...and we were so lucky. This is were you might see sharks and bigger fish: sadly we didn't see sharks, but we saw turtles and the fish was just as amazing.


After that, we went back to the city and back to the hotel for a very much needed shower: it was such a sticky hot day, that by the time we went out again for dinner the good feeling from the shower was long forgotten: holy crap it was hot up there.
We ended up going to a bar/restaurant called Gilligan's: the T6 crew was there as well (at least a few) and we had dinner and few beers: it turns out the place has a deal for the crew memebers so we had free beer for the evening. We also experienced a peculiar game night: Bogan's Bingo. For those who don't know, a Bogan is the equivalent of a redneck and the 2 guys hosting the game were....well... bogans complete with mullets. Everyone warned us "Queensland" is a whole different world....and it sure was. Needless to say the Bingo game was hilarious, offensive, and funny as heck.

At 10 we were back at the hotel: tomorrow we leave to go back to Melbourne.