Snokelling...

Hi Everyone,
I've had an AWESOME day!!!!!!
We got up well early... like 6.45am - not fun.
We headed down to the marine and found (finally) the reef daytripper boat! Where we I had a coffee and signed forms etc. When we set off we were introduced to the crew on the boat. Ingrid, Mark and the skipper Mark, really really weirdly it turned out that Mark and Mark both come from Harpenden!!! How odd it that - they knew where Ware was!!!!! And Hertfordshire... noone ever knows where Hertfordshire is! lol!
Anyways, we headed out for about 2hrs (about 19 miles) off the coast of Australia in to the Pacific Ocean (if anyone doesn't know). We were told not to touch the coral when we got out there or not to pick up certain shells, not to stand up and to avoid stingrays and sharks. Although the biggest you would get would be reef sharks and they're often seen but are reasonable harmless and small!
When we got there, I was well scared! I didn't want to see a shark or go near a stingray! It turned out that Steve Irwin had died on the reef next to the first one we went too! That didn't really help my fear! lol! Anyways, when we got there I decided I should just go for it and not hang around on the boat... EVEN THOUGH I WAS WELL SCARED!!! lol! I also decided I would go around with Mark the first time so that I knew where to go etc. So I jumped in and set off! It was soooooooo incredibly beautiful! There were the most amazingly colourful fish and the coral quivered when the tide hit it. I snorkelled for about an hour, Mark picked up a blue star fish and I held it! It was so weird it looked like a balloon stuffed with sand! lol! It slowly started to close itself while I was holding it! I missed the turtle though and I would have loved to see that! I saw lots of Nemos of course! As well as the most ridiculous array of fishes and clams and coral!
Then we headed back to the boat for lunch, this was bread and meats (so glad it wasn't fish! lol) and salad, it was well nice! So nice to have something lighter, the food here is quite heavy!
Then we headed for another part of the reef, this was shallower and by this point the water was so clear you could see right down to the bottom from the boat! I swam around on my own here, it was so beautiful! While we were moored at the reef (well not moored but attached to pre-existing moor points so as not to harm the reef - its a conservation area!) Batfish were constantly swimming around the boat! They were so huge like 30cm tall and a little longer! They were looking for food, they come really really close to you in the water! Also when you're under water the fish just swim in such perfect packs together moving like they are one fish! Its was amazing! If you swim through them they split into two perfect packs of what looks like exactly the same number of fish! After a while I headed further out with Rob but I only went about a minute out and I saw a HUGE blue spotted lagoon stingray - http://animalworld.com/encyclo/marine/sharks_rays/images/bluray07.jpg
It wasn't fully grown but it was about 2 meters down from me and was about a meter or so long, hiding in a rock inlet thing! I turned around and swam really really fast away from it towards the boat! lol! It scared the crap out of me! But it was really really cool to see. I don't know what Steve Irwin was doing but the ray was hiding from me, and I don't think unless I proded him or tried to annoy him he would have come anywhere near me!
I was asking about Jelly fish, as many of you know I'm not a fan. Apparently they don't really bother swimming anywhere they are just pulled by the tides. You can't swim on Cairns beach at this time of the year because there are LOADS AND LOADS of Jellys and Crocs. This includes Box Jelly fish which if they sting you will kill you. I was soooooo pleased that I didn't see any Jelly's out there at all, I saw them on the boat on the way back though! I was talking to Mark before we went in the water and I was like, "Ow I don't really like the sea that much cause I got stung by a jelly fish when I was younger", he was like "where" and I said "Walton on the naze", he seemed to find this really funny, I think he thought it would have been at a more exotic location! lol!
On the way back we relaxed on the boat, had a glass of wine. I had a long chat with Mark about the goings on in England and Hertfordshire!
Its been such a FANTASTIC day, I'm going to head back to the hostel and try and add photos!
Hope everyone is ok! If you ever get a chance to snorkel on the barrier reef... DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is Cape Tribulation!
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx