Cairns, The Great Barrier Reef, Left Side - Right Side - please pass the barf bag!!

As mentioned yesterday, we are in Cairns ( pronounced Cans ). We have an apartment here in Yorkies Knob, a very nice apartment very close to the beach. It has a pool which we hope to use if we get time lol.

We walked along the beach last night while doing some laundry to freshen up more clothes.

You can swim up here in a special designated area on the beach which has life guards and a section roped off to keep the jellyfish away. It is a bit rougher than we would like so the pool will be just fine, but the walk along this almost deserted beach was wonderful.

Okay now about todays title. We have rented a car. I'm now driving from the right side, on the left side of the road. The turn signals are on the right side of the steering column, the wipers are on the left, completely backwards from back home. So every time I go to signal, the wipers come on. Somebody honked their horn at me today, but we do have a Canada flag taped to the back window and a very clean windshield!

Today was a milestone day, our main reason to come up to Cairns was to see the Great Barrier Reef. We took a tour recommended by our Sydney friends which was awesome. 

Okay back to todays title. The ride on this catamaran took us out to Moore Reef, a 90 minute ride on the boat to get to a platform near the reef. So on this journey the boat was going left, right, up and down, much worse that our cruise ship.

We took this picture of the crew who were watching everyone carefully. They have sickness bags in their hands and many, many people on board needed them. The garbage can was full by the time we reached the reef.  BARB AND I WERE JUST FINE, we are really used to the water and had no problems.

It was a windy, bumpy ride.  Barb has never snorkeled in her life, she really cannot see without her glasses.  I encouraged her to try and a crew member said they had prescription masks.  Also we are out in the middle of the ocean, but again everyone was given a life vest and they even had pool noodles.  We had to wear full wetsuits to ensure the stingers could not bite us. She was nervous but here she is ,in the middle of the ocean, full wetsuit and mask, just amazed at the coral and fish we were both seeing while snorkeling. It was awesome, we stayed in the water for about an hour.

On this platform, there was an underwater viewing area, we took a glass bottom boat ride, they have scuba diving and even helicopter rides. So many things to do, we stuck with the snorkeling, viewing the coral and fish.

It was an awesome day! More adventures tomorrow!