THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

We woke up at 4:00 AM and called the front desk who came to pick us up in a golf cart. Very kind man who handled all the luggage (something I am getting use to). Our boat shuttle was waiting so we boarded and said our goodbyes. The captain took it very easy until we got out into the ocean and then he opened up the 200-horsepower engine. It took 30 minutes to the port where we were met by our driver who took us to the Nadi airport. We got all checked in for our 8:15 am flight and had a great flight over to Brisbane, Australia where we captured our bags and then went back through security and eventually boarded another plane for Cairns. Met our driver who drove us to Port Douglas where we checked in to the Shantara Resort.

Port Douglas is a town with a population of 5,000. The parallel beach that runs next to it is four miles long. There is a netted area for swimming that keeps the jelly fish out. Apparently – you can get sick and die from a jellyfish, so they take it very serious. No one is swimming in the ocean except for in the netted areas.

The Australians take short cuts with their language. For instance, they call their sunglasses “sunnies” and their umbrellas “brellies”. Breakfast is called “brecky”. I love it as it saves time.

The next morning a shuttle bus picked us up at 8:30 am and we then boarded a boat and proceeded out 30 miles from Port Douglas to the Great Barrier Reef. The area in which Jane’s video was filmed was called Opal Reef.

Jane was a pro and I did snorkel, but didn’t get too far from the boat. We wore protective suits so the jelly fish couldn’t sting us. We went in at three separate locations to enjoy the sites. The temperature was close to 90 degrees with very warm water. It was a wonderful day on the water.