SaltKist

G’day! We arose early to make it to our boat, the SunKist, which would take us to a larger boat, the Kangaroo Explorer, where we would be staying for a night. The Kangaroo Explorer would also be our home base for two days as we snorkeled and went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.­ As we walked to the marina, we learned a few things about Cairns, which we hadn’t yet really explored:

(1) They have massive bats by the hundreds here, too. They might be nocturnal but they were jabbering away at 7 am and still making their rounds of the city square.

(2) They have some great street art.

(3) Many of the tourists are still wandering around drunk at 7 am.

(4) Cairns is really hot. Even at sunrise. It’s like in central Vietnam where you would wake up at 5 am sweating and feeling like it had to be midday already.

We reached the marina a bit early, so we dropped off our bags on the boat and took a stroll around. The sun was still rising over the mountains, casting everything in that beautiful dawn glow. 

We meandered, laughing at silly boat names, only to discover a boat from Wilmington, DE! Geez, I can’t imagine going halfway around the world on a boat. Clearly, though, that boat was up to the challenge.

At last, it was time to leave and the SunKist scooted out of the harbor. Bouncing gently on the waves, we made our way past islands and out into the open water. Josh thought the whole thing looked like a scene out of Moana.

After a couple of hours and a stop, we finally reached the Kangaroo Explorer, which stays further out by the sections of reef. The view was incredible.

Thus began our snorkeling/scuba adventure. Just after lunch, we went out to snorkel on a section of the reef. The whole thing was so colorful! While I had expected color, I think I had more jewel tones in mind, not the neon rave that greeted us. There were colors I didn’t realize could be neon until I had seen them, like light purples. And that was just the coral. The fish were a riot of color, as well, often with dozens of colors of scales on a single little swimmer. I’m pretty sure most of the crazy colorful ones were wrasses, but I can’t be sure. We also saw some Dorys and some Nemos; the clownfish were rolling in the anemone fronds, just as you’d expect. Later in the afternoon, we got a chance to scuba dive on the reef. The boat moves periodically throughout the day, so this was at a different site. We were led by Joey, a dive instructor on the Kangaroo Explorer. Given that I’d only gone diving once before, I was surprised how quickly I settled into it again, isolating my breathing to my mouth and understanding that I didn’t have a snorkel that would fill with water if I turned my head too far. It was incredible how much more we could see when we scuba dived… or, at least, how much more we could see of the things that we had identified. We swam by sea stars languorously draped over rocks, pulsating giant clams with their snaggle-tooth mouths, and timid brown-and-white-speckled fish retreating into crevices before inching to again. The boat staff had said that the fish were used to divers, but I was still struck by how close they would get. Schools of fish swam by and around us, their synchronous darting somewhat hypnotizing. We were sad when Joey told us to return to the surface. The time had flown by; I was glad someone else was monitoring our oxygen tank levels.

We had hoped to do a night dive, but we learned that was only for certified scuba divers. Still, the day had worn us out and we fell asleep within minutes of lying down in our cabin.

Spotted: Apparently, to people who live in Australia, kangaroos are just "roos". As in, "We passed a whole lot of roos on the way over here."

Overheard: Our hilarious foul-mouthed Australian ship companions parenting their children.

Mom (tripping over something): S***

Daughter: Mom!

Mom: I said "Shivers", I swear!

Daughter: I want to be a marine biologist!

Mom: And to think, at her age, I wanted to be a firetruck. Not a fireman, but a firetruck.