6 Weeks in OZ!: I FOUND NEMO!!

And tons of other creatures in the Great Barrier Reef.

OMG! Wait wait wait... OH MY GOD!!! Carly and I just got off our overnight trip to the Great Barrier Reef and it was so much fun! We got on the boat at 7am not knowing what to expect. The crew was very professional yet super welcoming and fun. They assigned us our beds and where to put our stuff then we all met on deck for a overview of the trip. It took us around 3 hours to get to the reef. This is when everyone suited up to go diving. I can't go underwater so I just got my snorkeling stuff and watched Carly get ready for an introductory dive lesson. Then I took my noodle float and kicked on out to the reef. HOLY COW! Words cannot describe the feeling of swimming over many different colors of coral and TONS of fish. I am so setting up a saltwater tank when I get home. Everywhere I looked there was something to see. Carly joined me on the reef after her dive and we found Nemo (clown fish). They are so cute swimming in and out of the anemone. We also were lucky enough to see a reef shark. It swam right underneath us and was a fairly large. Really cool shark. I was also cleaned by a cleaner fish. Apparently I was dirty or something. He stayed on me cleaning for awhile. Then we swam back to the boat and had a fantastic lunch.

We got to meet a bunch of people on the boat. The nice part about this boat was that there were only 16 people max allowed plus the 5 crew so you got to know everyone. We moved to another reef and went snorkling again. Just as pretty and awesome. Snacks after this snorkle and more socializing. Then we moved to another reef. This one was more sandy but had GIANT clams. I was lucky enough to see a turtle. I tried to swim with him but he was like hell no and took off. Then we had a fantastic dinner and watched the sunset. The sunset was probably the best sunset I have ever seen. The crew said they haven't had a sunset like the one we saw in like 4 months. Then a couple people went for a night dive while we just chilled on board and got to talk and such. After the divers got back our captain gave us a talk about the reef.

Our captain was named Jason Sparrow. And he totally could have been Capatain Jack Sparrow's brother or cousin or something. He gave us the talk while drinking straight rum out of a flower print plastic cup. He knew what he was talking about so it was really interesting and informative. The best part was when he was talking about how the reef reproduces and a creepy man from Germany keep asking questions. To keep this blog PG, let's just say they went on a reef reproduction rauncy banter for about 5 to 10 minutes. The German guy was being serious and Jason was being as sexual as possible. Great fun. Carly and I called it an early night and went to our bunks. We woke up at 6:45 for a morning snorkle at a new location. This reef was just as pretty. The waves were bigger so I couldn't stay out too long because it was stressful trying to keep my ear dry. We had a great breakfast (can I just stress how good the food was on this boat.... it was so freaking good.) They moved the boat to our last snorkle location. I went out to finish up our waterproof camera and to see what this reef was like. I think this reef was my favorite because it had huge gulleys and many different levels. If the waves weren't so choppy I would have stayed out there a long time.

We then spent the afternoon eating and sunbathing. My legs are finally tan after years of never seeing the sun. Then we had a long boatride back to shore. Tonight we are meeting the crew and people from the boat for free pizza and beer at a resturant courstesy of Captain Jason. He is crazy but really nice. Tomorrow we are going horseback riding then celebrating the 4th of July!!! Cairns has been really fun even if the city isn't all that fancy.

Carly getting ready at the sink in our hostel room... it was so small we had to take a picture.