The Great Barrier Reef

Well Thursday dawned and much to my relief the weather was great. ...There is a cyclone to our North in the Cape York Peninsula and one to the south at Brisbane and the sea here was flat calm! We went to the reef via a huge catamaran and it quickly became apparent that we were not alone.....of the 450 passengers I think 400 were Chinese. It's Chinese new year at the moment and they do enjoy going abroad to celebrate it....what's wrong with staying at home to do it? We hadn't gone the 20 miles to our pontoon on the reef before Nik had a word or two with them about general manners.....oops!
Anyway we disembarked onto the floating pontoon which was massive......The weather was great and we went up in a helicopter to get a birds eye view. Then it was lunch......We were surprised there was anything left after our oriental friends had attacked the buffet! A trip on a submersible thing viewing the reef followed and then I had a scuba and Mrs C had a snorkel. It was great but tinged with a bit of regret that we couldn't take it all in at a more leisurely pace and without the crowds.
Then it was back to Port Douglas and home........off on 4 hour flight south tomorrow to Melbourne and the big city life...We would love to stay at Thala Lodge a bit longer but maybe we will return there on day..........