Green Island
Dear Adventurous Reader,
It would appear that I get travel sick. My weak inner ears fail at determining balance when on a boat, I even felt close to seeing some of my breakfast. I am not sure if I turned green, but a I felt it.
Everyone else traveled fine as we took a catamaran over the lumpy waves out to Green Island. A nice, peaceful island about an hour out of Cairns, by boat.
The sand is yellow and the water is a nice turquoise blue, with white peaks forming by the steady wind. There is a resort somewhere behind the rainforest that has grown from the island cay. This is the only island that is on the Great Barrier Reef that has a rainforest on it.
We walk the boardwalk through the trees to find a nice snorkeling location and let the fight begin to find who will be first to use the snorkels.
The boys swim in the warm sun, in the wonderful waters of the Great Barrier Reef. I sat in the shade, watching the Buff Banded Rail fight over the food scraps; they are a small ground-bird hell bent on taking food scraps and biscuits that may be in your hand. One leapt toward my face to try and absconder a biscuit I was snacking on.
Jacqui, Levi and Zeke went for a long dive, spotting fish and a little bit of grey coral. The rest of us took a walk along the boardwalk, past the crocodile house, through the forest.
Glass Bottomed
Below the waters, under the glass bottom boat the fish swam in great numbers. Flowing in and out between rocks and coral. Huge clams sat on the bottom of the sea bed. Small fish of electric blue, swam together with huge fish of black with yellow fins. They all had names that I cannot recollect.
Spaghetti coral waved as the wind blew above the surface. The small boat rocked back and forth and we all looked below, peering through the glass in the bottom of the boat. It was not as pretty as Vanuatu, but it was pretty amazing - like with the desert, it helps if you look long enough to see the creatures that make there homes where we do not.
The guides at the rear of the boat threw some food into the water, bringing fish and seagulls to the surface. Large tropical fish took the food in a frenzy which we couldn't see, the seagulls squawked and took what they could - we were not sure who got the most food out of the fighting animals.
Return Journey
A strong wind and rough waves made for a lumpy ride home. The boat rising and falling as the waves moved below, sometimes taking a leap from the water and crashing back down. I sat at the rear of the boat while Jacqui and the children got a tour of the wheel-house.
"Roughest seas we have had for a while." The skipper said.
They got back to the seats at the front of the catamaran in time for Adeline to vomit from the sea-sickness. They all joined a very unhappy father, who had tried to sleep, at the rear of the boat for the rest of the way home.
Sea sick, or not, we all enjoyed some expensive and all-to-greasy fish and chips for dinner on the Cairns waterfront. Soon the dark clouds rolled in and we drove back down to our free camp to retire and recuperate.