We are both of a certain age which means that we cannot sleep thru the night with at least one visit to the toilet. You wake up to spend a penny surrounded by huge fish so are totally distracted and hypnotised by the whole experience.
We both woke up early for the sunrise, it was amazing. Well worth getting up for. Then we both went back to bed for about 30 mins before breakfast at 7am. This was granola, yoghurt and fruit plus sausage, bacon, scrambled egg, garlic mushrooms. Pam also tried Vegemite which was amazing and tasted very similar to Marmite
Then we went back to our room to see more fish and change into our swimming costumes ready to snorkel (this time on our own) This was short but sweet. The water was warm but the strong winds made it difficult and we didn’t get far.
At 10am we given drinks and pastries and we had to check out of our room and into the tents that the on deck sleepers used. The reefsleep tent stored our belongings in and we used it to relax in until we boarded the ferry back between 2.30 and 3pm.
At 10:30 the other pontoon (we went there yesterday evening to start of reef safari from) got a set of passengers. The passengers were from the Arcadia cruise ship on a shore excursion. We couldn’t see anyone due to the distance but hopefully they had a good time for the 4 hours they were there.
Whilst trying to view our old shipmates we spotted 2 sea turtles (it could have 1 making 2 separate appearances over the course of an hour).
The boat containing the day visitors, and will take us back, arrived just after 11am. It was a bigger boat than yesterday so hopefully will be a bit more stable.
Lunch was served at 12.30 - Salmon with mash and asparagus and a creamy and raspberry dessert with berries and nuts. Again, a lovely cooked meal and the 14 overnighters all ate together.
After lunch at 1.30 we went on the observation submarine and saw more coral, fish and George (the picture we posted in yesterday’s blog) .
Then we boarded the ferry and said goodbye to Aitor (our head host) and Danielle and Charlotte (our servers). They did such a great job and Charlotte has only been onboard a few days but we have had loads of chats with as she is from the UK travelling and working in Australia.
Onboard our snorkel instructor Remy came and thanked us for visiting. We thanked her. Our individual snorkel attempts were pretty poor but she literally dragged us round the reef and showed us so much that we such fantastic memories that would not have happened without her.
The boat ride back was horrendous - more choppy than the day before - and unfortunately there were people being sick around us but we managed to hold it together. We had taken sea sickness tablets just before we left which I am sure helped. On the way back we passed Arcadia.
We arrived back in Airlie beach just after 6pm having had 2 of the best days of our lives. We then completed the short walk from the marina to our hotel to pick up our stored luggage and check in again. They are some lovely boats and houses on this short walk.
We finished our day with a bit of shopping in Airlie beach and dinner at a restaurant called The Deck. We both had seafood (Pam with pasta and Mark with salad that turned out to be warm veg). Then more packing and rearranging of our gear plus some essential internet work and off to sleep to dream of fishes.
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