The amount of noise flying foxes can make is incredible! I had taken them for silent creatures that navigated by ultrasound. Not the ones that live in Cape Tribulation though! So after a night with little sleep we were rather quiet at the breakfast table
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Pick up was 8 am at our Lodge for a short drive down the road to “Ocean Safari” where we checked in with the tour guides. Australia is a bit like Germany when it comes to doing things the correct way. We had to sign waiver forms with every tour we went on so far stating that we went at our own risk. This time we also had to answer a lot of health questions like “Do you have a heart condition?”, “Do you have allergies?”, …
The last question I took to be a joke: “Do you know how to swim?” This could only be a joke by someone who enjoys a good laugh, right? Well, it wasn’t. The girl at the counter told us there are actually people who sign up for a snorkeling tour to the Great Barrier Reef without being able to swim! The day before, she told us, they had five people out of twenty five who were not able to keep afloat…
But since we all knew how to swim and were healthy enough to participate we were given wet suits and went off to the beach on a short walk over wooden planks through a mangroves swamp. Our boat was waiting close to the shore. We put our flip flops (thongs) into a box and waded through thigh high water to get on board.
The daring ones were allowed to sit on the rubber sides of the vessel and had to hang on tightly to a rope to not fall off as the captain sped off in big curves to make people screech with delight. K was one of the first to volunteer for one of those seats.
In the morning the water was really calm so apart from the curves the captain went into on purpose it was a smooth half hour ride to the reef. (If you take a tour from Cairns it takes a few hours to get out to good snorkeling sites we were told).
On our way we got to see the fins of two dolphins and a bit further on of two whales but unfortunately they decided to dive deep again after a few minutes.
Close to the Mackay reef the captain stopped the boat over a sandy spot and the anchor was lowered to the ground. We jumped in as quickly as we could. The water was quite low and we had to take great care to not touch the corals.
But what a sight! Right under the surface there were enormous corals that were surrounded by the most colorful fish, blue sea stars, huge clamps with sparkling brims. We saw little fish that seemed to glow like sapphires in the water, black and white striped fish, parrot fish that had all the colors of the rainbow, …
When we got out about an hour later we were freezing despite the wet suits but were very, very happy.
A quick ride aournd a sand bank took us to the other side of the reef. Apparently we were really lucky because this place you can only explore when the water is calm. Already we could feel the currents to be much stronger on this side than on the first spot. Here the water was also a bit deeper.
We paired up and B went with her father while K stayed with me. The fish were bigger on this side of the reef and we saw large groups of different fish in one spot. Just minutes into this snorkeling trip K spotted a gray fish about a meter in length laying still under a corral. A shark! When I told her what she had discovered K got a bit scared at first but then she noticed that the shark was not at all interested in us. So she decided to alert the rest of the family to her find.
As the shark would not move even a tiny bit we continued on and saw lots of sea cucumbers, gigantic clamps (“They eat a snorkeler a day”, the captain would later joke about them with me) and small barracudas, and lots of beautiful fish I wouldn’t be able to name and am at a loss of words for.
I could have stayed in the water forever if it hadn’t been so cold. Already my fingers were tingling and getting numb. So we reluctantly left the water after about 45 minutes.
On the way back B and I took seats at the side of the boat. What fun! I spotted a dolphin on the way back but again it disappeared quickly.
Once again the trip with this small tour organization (Ocean Safari) was fantastic! Instead of being on the reef with thousands of other snorkelers we were only 25 people on the boat (that’s their max) and we were all alone out there. (And no, I’m not being paid to write this. We are just very happy to be on tours with small groups and enjoy staying at eco- friendly lodges.)
Back on land we decided to share two buckets full of french fries (called “chips” here just to confuse our kids) before we were dropped off at our lodge again.
K headed into the hot shower while the rest of us decided to jump into the natural pool first.
To conclude our days in Daintree we went to Whet for dinner. The terrasse had a big tent roof and was illuminated by torches. Again, this place is self- reliant with its own water supply, sewer system and they even recycle their garbage themselves.
The restaurant lived up to it’s name which was explained on the menue:
whet: /Noun/ A thing to stimulate appetite or desire. /Verb/ To excite or stimulate someone’s interest, appetite or desire.
The kids menu had a very tender steak with gravy and salad on it. F chose a salad with chicken and I had the most delicious, crusty pork on a green papaya Thai salad with a caramalized chilly sauce. Sounds mouthwatering? Oh yes! But dessert was even better: hot chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. Definitely not a menu you’d expect in the jungle.