Swimming with Nemo

Cairns is a nice place, great parks, friendly, accessible, but there is one main reason why it is a popular place for tourists from Australia and around the world. The Great Barrier Reef. (The rainforest would rank 2nd)

So today I swam with Nemo. For a double whammy of some poor planning on my part and a chunk of bad luck, I anticipated having access to a waterproof digital camera, but that didn't happen. And I knew from previous experience what poor pictures the underwater throw away cameras, so sadly, I am left with just a few above the seas pictures.

It was spectacular! And, no, I am not scuba certified, but you could do first time dives with the company I went with. At both locations we went to, I got to dive for an hour. I loved it. I think perhaps I should look into getting scuba certified. I also snorkeled any time I wasn't diving. As for that hideous blue suit, it's not a wetsuit, it's a stinger suit. It protects you from things like jellyfish, which it's jellyfish season here (I saw one too). For me, albeit it ugly, it likely prevented me from getting seriously burned.

I saw so many lovely fishies (we swam with several schools of fish on the dives), some stingrays, a huge turtle, and coral of every color imaginable! Not a great picture on the left, but they fed the fish at the end, so you can make out just a taste of what I swam with.

If anyone is every traveling to Cairns, contact me and I will tell you about the company I went with, as I highly recommend them (thanks to Sheila for telling me about them). We then sailed most of the way back in, which was also fun.

Once again, God amazes me with His creation! The more places I go to, the less imagination I think the people at Disney have---they simply travel more! (Along those thoughts, apparently buried in the credits of Avatar is a thank you for Skyrail in Cairns, Australia, they inspired the tree in the movie--I'll be on that tomorrow)