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| Fun fact: Did you know that clownfish has one dominant female? If that female dies, the remaining males fight to be alpha and turn into a female! |
It had all caught up with us. We couldn’t muster ourselves
to get up for the sunrise dive, our exhaustion out-trumped the Asianness of
squeezing everything out of something we’ve paid for as well as MOFO.
We caught up with Amy over breakfast and made a plan for the
our last day on the boat. Mal and the children completed the rest of the
required skills session over the next two dives whilst I enjoyed leisurely snorkels. Although to be honest, leisurely was somewhat of a stretch as I always felt tired after each session! After lunch, the diving paperwork was finalised and voila!
We now have 3 certified divers in the family!
We made up for our lack of Asianness in the morning with
some bargaining with the boat photographer. Mal was delighted with his success
and we were fortunate that he did as we discovered later that we had problems
with our own footage (keep reading).
Our rental camera was pot luck. Half the time we couldn’t
see the footage we were taking, and we couldn’t take the SD card out of its
waterproof casing to check on the laptop. We were very excited to see the videos
and photos that we took only to find out after we had arrived at Port Douglas
that we couldn’t read the SD card! At least we had the professional photographer’s
photos thankfully.
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| Waffles with maple glazed bacon...mmm |
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| Last two dive sessions |
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| They are certified!! |
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| Lunch - beef schnitzel burger. It was really good! |
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| Farewelling the amazing Amy. We never tip but we did this time! |
We packed and waited to transfer across to the Reef
Experience at 1430 to take us back to the mainland. We arrived back at the
Marina at Cairns well before 1630. Once there, we apparently picked an uber
that took the longest time just to drive 1.5km…we finally got to East Coast Car
Rentals to pick up our Kia. The kids said it was so small it could have been a
go-cart. Too bad, it was the only car that didn’t cost a fortune…
Our drive to port Douglas was only 56 min but felt long
because we were so tired. We ditched plans to visit Brian & family and checked
into the Pullman Sea Temple Resort. Our 2-bedroom apartment was lovely but the
reviews will have to wait until tomorrow. Although Mal and I were so happy to see a King bed...lol..how we miss a BIG bed!
We had a dinner reservation at Zinc at 8:15pm. By this stage
everyone was grumpy. We were fortunate to be able to dine earlier and we were
out of there by 8:15pm. The general mood was considerably lifted by the sight
of green and gold Aussie fruit loops, and creamy honey oatmeal at the
convenience store next door. So much for the wagyu steak, salmon carpaccio,
squid salad and seafood linguine we just had!
Thank you Reef Encounter for our phenomenal experience at
the Great Barrier Reef. We would definitely recommend it if you are interested
in diving.
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| Our "go-cart" |
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| Driving north to Port Douglas |
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| Only have time to take a photo of the bedrooms... |
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| Dinner at Zinc. Please make a booking in advance if interested |
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| A very well made seafood linguine. Just wanted something familiar and comforting |
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| Yeah...this was what made everyone happy. Sheesh! |
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