Thursday 11 November 2010

Great Barrier Reef

8th of November was an early morning start:It was an awful day with rain and wind but we were told it's an ok day for our trip to the Famous reef.We had a catamaron with 240 passengers taking us to the Pontoon at Hardy Reef(we were picked up from where the ship was anchored near Hayman Island.Not a ride I expected lot ofpeople were sick and I felt the jerks going up and down the sea with huge waves:lasting an hour! Anyway it calmed for a mile before the Pontoon and we got off still in the rain to view the Barrier Reef corals and sea life inside a half submerged submarine for ten minutes and through the Viewing Chamber in the Pontoon itself: Lack of sun didnt help to see the various colours of the corals but we made the best of a bad day.Coming back through the Whitsunday passage to Hamilton Island was even worse lasting an hour and a half!!Lot of us felt worse and complained to the Tour operators. The captain gave some lame excuse but after a day of constant barrage of complaints,they acknowledged that they should have warned us about the bad weather and given us the choice to go or not:so they were going to give us back half of the fare we paid for the trip!!
Next day we anchored near Yorkes Knob near Cairns and we had a fiasco with Tender boats to take us to the Shore!! We couldnt go till after midday and so missed the trip to Cairns. Anyway we took the tour to Yorkes knob,visiting the Kuranda village and saw the Aboriginies with their spear throwing,boomerangs and traditional dancing.Travelled in the old WWII Army ducks through the rainforest and the lake and got back around 1730 for us to set off the long voyage through the narrow Reef past the Northeast edge of Australia,south of Papua New Guinea towards Manila.
We now have five lazy days at sea to chill out enjoy the warm weather.
Edwina Currie and her husband(an Ex Flying Squad Policeman) are both on board giving talks about their professional life.Les Dennis the comedian on board too:but his first show was disappointing!

1 comment: