SCUBA: Snorkeling in Cairns--an Underwater Blast in Australia--Day 10

This was yet another rainy, cool morning, but I was excited, so I didn't care...today was the Great Barrier Reef!!  We made a quick stop for Graeme to grab the tickets and we hit the gift shop.

Dr. Schaake handed out ginger tablets to help with seasickness.  I decided I would be fine...wrong.  The first ride wasn't bad and we got to check out Green Island and take a crash course in introductory SCUBA diving, but the next boat we got on was NOT such a good experience.  I started out on the back of the upper deck, but brownies lured me downstairs and then I went to see the majority of the group sitting in the worst possible place:  bottom front.  Then we decided to rent an underwater camera and split the cost, so I ran upstairs to talk to the others and by the time I made it back, I was done for; the seasickness got me.  I took a seat, closed my eyes, and hoped the pontoon we were headed for would show up ASAP!  We finally made it and I gladly went from our boat to the slightly more stable, permanently-anchored pontoon.  We elected to go snorkeling before our dive since we didn't know how much time we would have afterwards.  It's a good thing we did!  It's hard to learn to breathe solely out of your mouth...specially when you have periodic salt water-filled gasps!  We finally got the hang of it and grabbed some lunch before heading over and getting into our wetsuits, weights, and tanks.  Then we headed down to prove to our guide we had indeed mastered breathing and we were in!  It was one of the most amazing things I've seen--to be able to get within inches of fish that I've only ever seen on tv (and Nemo!) was unreal!  We even saw a small shark!  Eventually we came back up and got rid of our heavy tanks and weights so we could snorkel some more.  I got tired and came back to relax right before we had to board the terrible boat again and head for home.  Thank goodness I quickly found a seat, planted myself in it, and slept for the remainder of the trip all the way back to Cairns!  Back on dry (and stationary!!) land, we all made a beeline for the showers in our hotel rooms to get rid of all the salt that had dried on from being in the Pacific Ocean.  Then we walked downstairs for another new experience:  Churrasco barbeque.  The waiters walked around our table and sliced meat onto our plates from giant skewers.

There was beef, pork, chicken (breast and heart), lamb (my first taste of the stuff despite all the Australians claiming to love it), and even pineapple!  I was quite surprised at how tasty it all was.  Then it was time to pack and get to bed for a couple of hours before our 3:30 am departure.