The hostel mini-bus delivers us to the Marina at 7.30 where we join a couple of dozen others on board Ocean Free, a two-masted sailing boat heading out to Green Island. This is about the closest point of access to the reef from Cairns, which is just as well as charming as it is, Ocean Free is probably the slowest vessel making the trip. As we leave the harbour, high speed catamarans and launches power past us heading to the outer reef. For those in a real hurry there are helicopters and seaplanes passing overhead. We motor serenely out towards Green Island, are given tea and muffins and sit happily watching the world pass by for a couple of hours.
We moor at a buoy a few hundred metres from the island over an outcrop of coral. A few people are diving but the rest of us take snorkels and set out from steps at the side of the boat. I’m not much of a swimmer and haven’t really snorkelled before, so I feel slightly nervous. The minimum depth is around 3 metres and over the edge of the reef I can’t see the bottom, but it is such a colourful new world down there that I soon forget to worry. That’s when I stick my head too far under and take a mouthful of water down the snorkel tube – even so after a bit of spluttering I carry on.
(Sue). I was particularly pleased to spot a fair sized ray, which I thought was very exciting, and as instructed in the Reef Teach talk, I knew to give it a wide berth.
Eventually we are called back to the boat for a lunch of cold meats and salads, and afterwards watch as some large fish and a couple of reef sharks are fed from the boat.
We are ferried to the island. Sue and I do a circuit of the beach which takes no more than twenty minutes. It’s a very small island, but beautiful. We see turtles swimming just off the shore, and from the jetty watch 2 metre (harmless) reef sharks swimming below – and the reaction of a couple snorkelling when they come across them (panic).
After a quick swim from the beach we are taken back to the boat and have time for another go at snorkelling before heading back to Cairns.
(Sue) The colours were absolutely fabulous. White sand beaches, crystal clear waters in varying shades of turquoise. We both agreed that it was reminiscent of the Scilly Isles.
