Port Douglas is a cute little beach town, somewhere between Ocean City and maybe Passe Grille, Florida. It's family friendly, has lots of coffee shops and restaurants, ranging from wood fired pizza to Mexican, Thai to 'upscale'. It has the requisite beach shops, some high end fashion and a few art galleries. Accommodations range from campgrounds to motels to resorts to posh apartments. The beach is named Four Mile Beach...in a country that uses kilometers, go figure. There is one spot to rent chairs and umbrellas and two beach cafes. You really can't swim here in November, not because the water isn't warm but because the Killer Jelly fish have descended ( no, really, killer jellyfish....).
So to keep you coming in stinger season, a big playpen net is erected and you can swim inside...thank heavens because it's too hot to sit on the beach without getting wet.
But really, no one comes for the town or the beach.....it's all about the reef, 'bout the reef, 'bout The Great Barrier Reef. Of course, you don't just show up and head out. Before you even get here you've read every review of every boat. You decide, Low Isles or Outer Reef. Half day or all day. Big boat to a reef platform, small boat to beaches or catamaran and drifting.
We picked the Wavelength IV, a smaller catamaran (it doesn't sail, all motor) with 30-40 guests, all snorkel , no diving. Most boats do both, but I figured the snorkelers may get the short shrift with staff tied up with tanks and such. We choose to go to the Outer Reef, not just for the better snorkeling but for the 90 minute ride up and then back again. I'll take a three hour boat ride any day. We booked for Saturday, which had the best forecast...low chance of rain and light winds hopefully providing great visibility and calm seas.
7:50 A.M. We are in the van on our way to the wharf. We board to hot coffee and coconut cakes, a safety talk about life vests and abandon ship calls, and the day's itinerary. Ninety minutes to the reef, three separate snorkel stops, tea and coffee, lunch and the promise of a great time. We've got three marine biologists on board with lots of expertise to share. The ride out is smooth as glass, the sun is shining. We've all been given snorkels, fins and a full body hooded lycra suit. I see size 0 all the way up to size 8 and everything in between, with a great variety of shapes not all easily being squashed and shoved in and zipped up. You can guess why not many people were taking photos!
Now we have been snorkeling before, sometimes where seeing two or three fish is all you get and sometimes where it's really good, like in Bonaire. We've seen coral reefs and turquoise waters. So this is not totally new for us.
We get to Opal Reef and jump in. And put our faces in. And see....more coral and more colors and more fish in one hour than we have seen in all our snorkel trips put together. The colors and shapes and sizes and types of coral are mind boggling. You quickly realize that it is not all about the fish. There are soft coral and hard, they are glowing lavender and bright lime green. They look like old forest mushrooms and futuristic Star Trek planets. And there are millions of them, they stretch on and on forming caves and holes and walls. You are floating over them, maybe two meters between your flippers and the coral, so close you can't go upright. It's Alice in Wonderland. They are smooth and metallic, they are fuzzy and alive. And as I am skimming over all of these amazing colors, it occurs to me....one of the only colors I haven't seen is the one we call Coral, what sense does that make???
And the sea life. We saw a turtle, we pet a pineapple sea cucumber, we saw Hamish the friendly meter-long boat loving fish. We found an electric blue starfish, a spotted ray and more parrot fish, tangs, and crazy colored swimmers than I ever expected. And a few giant clams which look nothing like those boring beige shelled things we eat. These are big and wavy and green and blue and dotted and their mouths are always open, not in a typical bivalve sort of way. The sun was shining and lit the sea and the life below at all three stops we made. Lunch on board was advertised as 'deli' so our expectations were somewhere between low and we won't eat a thing. It turned out to be fresh rolls and cheese, hard boiled eggs, salad, fresh roasted thickly sliced chicken breast, grilled eggplant and roasted peppers...not a Deitz and Watson package in sight.
And of course, we chatted up a lovely German couple on their five month camper tour of the entire continent, seeing Australia from Darwin to Alice Springs to Sydney, and New Zealand bottom to top. They made our two month journey look positively puny. And after you hang out for a few hours, a dinner date comes next and so even this early on in our trip we are making new friends...Holger and Silke.....just imagine meeting someone who is a horse dentist! Traveling always brings the best surprises.
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