Great Barrier Reef Australia

 After an early breakfast, we piled into a tour bus and went from the hotel to the port to board a boat to take us to the Great Barrier Reef.


It took over an hour to sail from the port out to the reef.  The reef people have anchored a semi-permanent platform out by the reef to provide easy access to it.


One of the experiences they provide is a ride in a “submarine”.


Which is not so much a submarine as a boat with below-water windows. It is very narrow, with just enough room for two to sit between windows on the left and the right.


And it provided a pretty good view of the reef, from below the water.


Then we moved to a different part of the reef and put on wet suits, masks, snorkels and flippers to swim around in the water and see the reef up close.


After an hour or more of this, we had lunch and headed back into port, returning to the hotel by 3:30.

Later in the afternoon, we had a talk from a lecture on the vemenous animals in Australia and how studying them can provide possible medical treatments.

And then we were off to dinner.  For dinner, the tour provided $100 in Australian dollars and let us loose to eat in our choice of the many good restaurants in Port Douglas.  Linda and I ended up at Melaleuca and had a very good meal.



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