Port Douglas

We left the wet weather behind when we left the Tablelands.  We had a very leisurely trip to Port Douglas, it was a very pretty drive.  We arrived very early - 9:30, the stores were just opening.  We wandered around town, it is a very nice place, not very busy yet.  We checked out all the stores, made a reservation for a snorkel cruise for the next morning.  Had some lunch and Dalton went and got his B12 shot at the Medical Centre.

We stayed at a really nice park the Tropic Breeze Van Village, and just as the name says, only Vans are there so no big rigs or backpackers.  We stayed for 2 nights.

We were booked for a snorkel tour with Aristocat Snorkel Tours, they picked us up at 8:10 and delivered us to the wharf where we boarded a 100 passenger Catamaran - there were only 65 of us, so there was lots of space.  They took us to the outer reef, supplied us with "stinger suits", these are lightweight suites that cover you from head to toe in case there are any jellyfish in the water that might sting.  This is the end of the season for that, we think it was a liability issue, however, they were very easy to wear and it was also a protection from the sun.  We were in the water for 3 1/2 hours all together.  We went to visit 3 different reef sites.

They provided coffee, tea and muffins for breakfast, they had a lovely buffet lunch with an afternoon snack of fresh fruit and cheeses.  You could have hot drinks after each dive, however, the water was so nice we certainly didn't want anything warm.  There were hot showers for after it was all over, but we used the cold ones anyway.  The ocean was warmer than the swimming pool at our park.  We were delivered back to the Van Park when we arrived back to the wharf, we thought it was pretty good service.

We also met a nice young couple from Germany, Jan and Sondra.  They want to come to Canada to visit us next year.

We rented an underwater digital camera and Dalton took 91 pictures, here are a few:

It is just a different world under the ocean

Beautiful fish and very different looking coral

The fish are beautiful colors, all different shapes and sizes

Isn't that an interesting looking clam!

It's a real shame that the reef is dying, this further up than the oil spill that happened two weeks ago. 

The tips of these spiky things were the most vivid blue.

The color in this one was very vivid.

Yes, it's me in my lovely stinger suit.  Actually it's very slimming, I'm thinking of getting one for home...hahaha!

How would you like to look down and see this fellow looking up at you...he has several rows of very sharp teeth.  Lucky for me he had already been fed.  I think I scared him off by the terrified look on my face.

Now we want a pool in our back yard!!!