Friday 8th November 2002

Up at 7 AM, another early morning, but not so bright today ... Clouds hanging low, looks like rain. JJ heads into town early to get some breakie and he decides to get another of those underwater camera's, some extra photofilm and have our pics developed (1 hour service).

Rain, not today, please! We are scheduled for a pick-up at 9.20 for our Great Barrier Reef adventure with the Quicksilver 'Wavepiercer' catamaran towards their platform at the 'Agincourt' outer reef.

After waiting around for more than 20 minutes the coach finally arrives to bring us to the Marina. They still need to do a few pick-ups along the way, but we soon arrive at the Marina, where we quickly need to exchange our voucher for boarding passes. The caramaran is much larger than we expected. We are a bit dissapointed. This is mass-tourism. At least 200 or more other passengers embark on this, what promisses to be a dreary day, for a 'shallow' GBR experience.

Around 10.00 we departed from the Marina. The trip toward the outer reef is pretty rough 'n bumpy. There is a lot of wind and nasty waves are testing our 'wavepiercers' limits. Many passengers start feeling 'queezy', some get 'full blown sea sickie' (For some peculiar reason, Japanese people seem to be especially sensitive to sea sickness? This is not a bad joke. It's a fact. Weird but true.) JJ and I are spared from this discomfort and are amused by the scenes of Quicksilver staff running back and forth with their rubber gloves, handing out wet towels, minty smelling paper bags and cups filled with ice ... hehehe (sarcastic bastards that we are ;-)

After this 2 hour ardoues trip we arrive at the platform. It has 3 decks: one underwater from which you can observe the coral and stay dry, the main deck where you find the restaurant/bar area where the lunchbuffet is served, a little souvenir store and lots of tables and chairs. You can also go snorkling and diving from the semi-submerged area's or sunbath (not today you won't!) on the top deck.

While most people immediatly hit the snorkling area, we first took a look from the submerged deck, had lunch (we had to take our plates onto the boat because most of the tables were 'taken') and went on a semi-submerged boattrip around this part of the reef. When JJ finally wanted to go snorkling, there were no more masks available ... Also, I decided to stay with our stuff (cameras), because there are no lockers provided. People just leave their personal items scattered around the tables and on the catmaran. Not exactly safe with 200+ people around. (Ok, so Radica was not that unhappy about staying on deck, because it was too freaking cold and windy for 'miss tropo' to go snorkling anyway ;-)

Don't get me wrong. I know it all sounds pretty negative ... It is all well organised and worked out ... but very unpersonal. You get the feeling you have to rush from one activity to the next. Better make the most of it right? Too many people wanting to do the same thing at the same time ... Too touristy for us. We wanted to do the helicopter flight over the reef, but with the high tide and the wind we didn't want to make the extra expense because it wouldn't be as spectacular as on a sunny day.

When JJ takes to the water there is still a lot of wind and therefor a lot of waves ... and it's high tide. This kind of spoils the snorkling experience. You need to skin dive (dive down with your snorkling gear) to get a closer look at the reef. Meanwhile, from the platform the Quicksilver staff are feeding the reeffish to attract their attention. A little school of batefish swims around, and lots of other marine life, some of them rather large and toothty ;-) Nonono, no sharks! Some sort of tuna like fish ... JJ has one of those underwater camera's with him and takes pics under water ... while I stalk him with the digital cam from the upper deck.

After the snorkling, JJ got dressed, wrapped himself in some towels to stay warm and we went back onto the boat for a little snack before departure.
At 14.15 the ship's horn is blown to signal that all passengers need to return on board. After a 'quick' passenger count, we set off, back to Port Douglas
The same scenes as this morning. Staff running up and down, back and forth, ... People getting seasick.

Around 16.30 we are back in Port Douglas' Marina, where the coach takes us back to the Rydges Resort. After a quick shower we head back into town and drop off our latest photos for developement and print (1 hour service). We have another stroll around Macrossan street and towards the Marina and decide to make reservations for diner tonight well in advance (not like yesterday mate!). We pass a cosy looking place called 'Salsa Bar & Grill' and decide 'this is the place'.
This is the place indeed! We later find out it is the hottest bar/restaurant in town. Former US president Bill Clinton was having his dinner here on september 11 last year, when he was informed about the terrorist attacks. (Yo Bill, wassup with that? We go to the US and you just happen to follow us around a couple of states ... and now we are down-under and you are somehow in the picture again. ;-) Also Aussie pop queen (love her or hate her) Kylie likes the Salsa's cuisine and the Port's relaxed atmosphere ... And actress Heather Graham (Austin Powers - From Hell) was going to delight Port Douglas in the coming week.

We are treated to: smoked barramundi spring-rolls, grilled tuna fillet, seven spices kangaroo, mango and Macadamia Parfait, chocolate mousse and praline tart.

Last day down under tomorrow...