Monday, June 23-
We woke up at 6:30am!!!! (Must I remind you that Fi and I stayed up until 4am the night before?) Ok, didn’t think so…. We were hurtin’ pretty bad, but the sea was calling my name, so I was up and at it!! We left Fiona’s house at 7:45am to head to Port Douglas. This is where we ported out of to head to the Great Barrier Reef! We went to what is called the outer reef. It is the furthest out, as the name suggests. It was a little choppy, so we took seasick meds just in case. It was a 90 minute ride the outer reef. The sea was so blue. It was chilly, so we didn’t spend anytime on the deck while traveling out to the reef.
We arrived to the outer reef at 11am. Once we got there, we unloaded onto a large pontoon boat platform. This is where we would stay the rest of the afternoon. We were going to go snorkeling but decided to go scuba diving instead! When the instructors were explaining everything, Mom was a little leery. I told her to pretend she was in her 20’s with no worries and she would be fine. She reluctantly agreed. I, however, was the one who almost chickened out in the end! As we sat on the platform and listened to the instructor as he gave us safety tips, I thought, “Safety? Why do we need to know safety stuff? You mean, this isn’t already safe?!?!? Uh, where is the closest exit!!!” No kidding, it was a bit scary. I was fine until we went all the way under the water with only the tank supplying us with air. I had a little anxiety. I popped up out of the water and the instructor graciously talked me through it. He said most first timers are ok after about five minutes. I thought, “Five minutes, that’s a long time when you are frightened!!” Anyway, I took a deep breath and just went for it. While sitting on the platform, I just ask the Lord to show me his beautiful sea and asked for him to calm me down. He did. After all, I had Jesus and my mom right there… what more did I need? :o)
Once we made it to the bottom of the ocean, I was fine. This HUGE fish swam right past me. It was the size of my torso. I forget the name of this fish, but it was bigger than any fish I had seen before. It was turquoise blue and had big ol’ lips. We saw NEMO too!!!! We also saw huge clams. I probably could not fit my arms around one if I tried. We saw all sorts of sea life. I would have to look it all up to tell you what they were. Mom and I bought a video of our experience. Hopefully I will be able to share that with you sometime. We saw a lot of coral reef. It was beautiful. All different colors and shapes. There was soft coral and hard coral. I held a shell that had a big crab instead. I liked that. The shell was as big as my hand. We were about 30 to 40 feet down. I sat on the ocean floor. The sand was white. What an amazing experience! It was everything I thought it would be. I am ready to go again! If I lived near the ocean again, I would get certified to dive more often. We stayed down there for about 45 minutes, but I could have stayed much longer.
We ate lunch after our dive. I was exhausted from my experience, so I just hung out on the boat and enjoyed the sun and beauty of the scenery. It really looked like all the post cards I have seen. Amazing! We headed back to the mainland at 4pm. We were once again exhausted from our day, so we got some Chinese take out and went home. Mom, Uncle Bruce, and I were scheduled to leave Fiona’s house the next morning, so we spent the evening packing and spending a last bit of time together. This was good time together. I learned how my grandmother made it to The States for New Zealand. I also learned the difference between shrimp and prawns, very educational! We got to bed around 11 or 12pm. Nothing but travel and rest for the next two days.
All my love to you,
Priscilla
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