Green Island

A slow start still has us fed and packed and checked out by 9:30. The young German girl on the desk is excited to learn we are from Canada. She wants to see a bear!

The ferry arrives and we board with mostly Asian tourists. Lots will get off for the day on Green Island the rest will go to the Pontoons.

It is only just after 11 but the rooms are ready. We are in 6. We discover we have been upgraded to a reef suite. A larger, split level room located more privately along the reef side of the resort. The island suites are located around the pool area, either ground level or above. How lucky are we....I wonder if it because we booked so long ago.

Our luggage arrives, we settle in and go to explore. We get free use of the stinger suits, snorkel gear, beach chairs and the guests only pool. The beach is quiet but gets busier so we go to,have a snack and sit around the pool where it is very quiet. We meet some travellers on a tour. They are from England and Ireland. The weather drizzled for a bit, but the sun came out in full force again. We will wear stinger suits. While many do not they have found some of e deadly ones on the Cairns beaches.

We take the rain forest guided walk and learn so much. The island resort was built by a Japanese man. Later another Japanese man came to sail. He bought the boat, he then bought the resort so he had some where to stay......we looked at our green ants....the guide picked one up and licked its bum. Kind of sour. He said if you boil their nest it is like lemon aid.

The group on the walk are all from the group lead by the tour leader we met at the Shangri La. The nightly monsoon has moved in and we can hear thunder, but we will go for the fish feeding anyway, then drinks by the pool and dinner. Only one place is open for dinner, the Emerald. There is also a walk in the dark.....we may or may not go on that one.....we will see how hard it rains, but we do have our Olympic capes and they supply torches. So it is wet and humid, but not overly hot....or maybe we are just getting used to it.

The night is wet, but the next day dawns beautiful and stays that way all day. The day starts early...our fire detector goes off at five and they don't get it shut off until six. No worries, we get up early and check our internet before taking a walk around the island. By they the buffet is ready and we enjoy a very wonderful brekkie. Lots of fruit and we'll it's a buffet.

We watch the ferry come in and think maybe we will take a,kayak out, but end up taking the glass bottom boat instead. The reef just off the island is nice and we see turtles and the usual suspects. By now we need to get ready for our trip to the pontoon. Another hour by ferry and we dock at the pontoon. The ship...is full of Japanese and Chinese tourists and the occasional English speaking tourist. Roger figures out where we are getting off and we make our way there as we approach the pontoons. We are the first off the boat and the first in the water. We are officially snorkelling on the outer Great Barrier Reef.

We have quite a large area to explore and what can I say.....amazing. When we get tired we head in for lunch and chat with a couple from the US, doctors, one from India and one from Canada of Indian descent now living in South Carolina. Then we chat with a couple on a tour from Shanghai, they get two days in Cairns, two days in Brisbane and one in Sydney...that's it.

We get back in the water....again...wow. Then we get out to catch the last ride on the semi submersible, we get to see the reef a little way from the pontoons....again....very cool.

Back on the boat we. Chat with another couple of Indian descent that now live in San Fran. They are delightful and we exchange contact info.

After we get dropped off we enjoy a shower, a swim in the pool and are offered a snorkel trip tomorrow for our disturbance this morning with the fire detector....very nice,... But the day isn't over. There is still the fish feeding, drinks on the beach where we meet a couple from outside of Edmonton and a couple from Germany. Later we will go down the the jetty for the evening wildlife walk.

Ohhhh, we walk out in the jetty and shine our torches in the water. We see turtles and we see long toms being chased by trevally, no sharks and a few others. The stars are bright and we watch the lightning on the mainland. What a great way to end today.

Another couple days in paradise. The snorkel is excellent. The waves are bigger, but no worries. We see so many varieties of fish, but the coral is better when we snorkelled the Whitsundays. The clams that measure 4 feet across are pretty cool. We swim up to a barracuda, a black tipped reef shark, we see more turtles, a different type of sting ray......

Time to leave...we catch an earlier boat because my tooth is bothering me and I can see a dentist at three. Turns out something is stuck under the edge of my tooth. The dentist got it out and it's feeling better already.