Day 8

Need to move forward 8 hrs

So day 8 saw us hit the Great Barrier Reef for the first time, and it was an early start to board Ocean Free, a two master yacht that was to take us snorkelling then visit Green Island.

The outward trip was very Roy and as we were sat at the front it provided us with a vast amount of splashes from the sea. At some points it was hard to tell if we were in the sea or outside the sea!

On arrival at the spot just off Green Island, we donned flippers and goggles and off into the sea we went, as an early jumper, I was very lucky to swim with a green turtle, much to Amanda's annoyance! Amanda was a good snorkels too however and in no time we were zooming around, checking out the fish and coral and on our way back to the boat for lunch, we saw a reef shark too.

Lunch was very nice, although brief (and the green turtle re-surfaced as it appeared to be on a vendetta against Amanda, and we were then off on the tender to Green Island, which we walked around and enjoyed the very exclusive resort on this island. Back to the boat for some more snorkelling then a nice calmer sail back to port.

Back in port we realised just how burnt we were, but a lot of after sun later and then some nice dinner at the local pub (steak, yum), it was back to the hotel and bed, our Last night in a real hotel for 10 days!