Great Barrier Reef

On the Monday of our last week in Australia, Rachel and I caught a Virgin Blue Airlines flight from Sydney to Cairns to visit the Great Barrier Reef.
We booked a tour to the Reef itself from Port Douglas on the Poseidon. It is the smaller of the two main tour companies but came highly recommended by Tim and Liz because they actually move their snorkeling areas based on where the views are the best. The other tour companies used fixed unloading platforms, so they unload in the same place every day regardless of conditions.


When we headed out to the reef, there were storms in the area, and the water was pretty rough. Several people on the boat were issued biodegradable vomit bags, which they used and hurled over the side repeatedly. It was about an hour ride out to the reef. Luckily, Rachel and I took Dramamine that morning and handled the choppy water just fine. In this picture, you can see the reef underneath us, as well as the water breaking where the reef is shallow further out.
We made three stops where we snorkeled for an hour each. The fish were absolutely beautiful, but it was difficult to swim at times due to the rough water. We saw a 6 foot long reef shark about 20 feet from us, but our guide assured us that he was not interested in bothering us. After a long day, we floated back into the dock area and unloaded.
We stayed at the Sheraton Resort in Port Douglas. It was really nice and had a very cool pool lagoon area. Unfortunately, the choppiness of the water on our cruise to the reef and the perennial cloudiness we experienced while we lounged by the pool were due to the fact that we decided to visit the Great Barrier Reef during the wet season. It is a rain forest after all. We couldn't justify visiting Australia and not going to the reef, but if you have the opportunity, visit in the dry season.
Port Douglas itself was a really cool little town. It had lots of cool shops and several restaurants that were pretty good. We enjoyed a couple of good nights in the town. There were lots of crimson rosellas in the area, so we were able to watch them play around while we ate dinner. Wednesday night, we left Port Douglas and headed back to Sydney for our final day with Tim and Liz.