> Yippeeee!! Got on the Reef Experience boat...our 1st choice & also Trip Advisor's 1st choice. They served us a good breakfast & then of to the Great Barrier Reef; Hasting Reef to be exact. Took us a bit over an hour full throttle on a huge catamaran. Spectacular, gigantic, glowing, gorgeous!! Wish they made a box of crayons that could capture the vibrant & varied colors of the coral. And the variety of fish--amazing. Even the black ones looked fantastic with such a beautiful background. I loved watching the tiny fish weave in and out of the waving coral. I could almost touch the huge fish gliding by. Couldn't get enough of seeing the various shapes of coral. So thrilled to see it looking so healthy! The Australian Gov't is trying hard to protect reef by not allowing any boats in most of the GBR. The reef is as long as Calif! I had high expectations...and the GBR surpass them!!!
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> Here's Rog's take on the GBR:
> Spent the day on the reef. The boat was a big catamaran
> that rode very nicely (no one got seasick!). We go to to go out snorkeling on the reef for as long as we could last. That was over an hour each time. We saw beautiful colors of coral in all shades of pink, violet, blue, green, gold and more. The fish were very plentiful-Jane even spotted Nemo! All kinds of clown fish, angelfish, parrotfish (yes,they have a beak mouth). Just one shark and he was not interested in us...he quickly swam away. The crew reassured us that the on the reef are not considered to be a danger to us! So, why did they all stay on the boat?
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> Four hours of snorkeling wiped us out...we'll sleep well tonight while visions of coral & fish dance in our heads...
