7 Great Barrier Reef

November 4th, Wednesday.

Wednesday we were up early and went to Airlie Beach with Margie and Tricia for a Thundercat (catamaran) tour of the Great Barrier Reef. We met out boat and crew at 9:00 and took a highspeed Cat to tour the islands and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. On our first time in water, we saw many, many colourful fish. The most impressive was the Groper, it must have been 3 feet plus. These fish were not afraid of us and were bumping into us in the water. The water was lovely and warm but when we got back on the boat, we were shaking all over. Second stop was to view the coral and another lovely beach. Last stop was Hilltop Lookoff overlooking one of the most beautiful beaches. The sand was almost all silica and was pure white. We had time for a swim before returning to the boat with a nice lunch on the boat.

The Mackay region has a great deal of sugar cane. It seems the parrots love the sugarcane that is trucked to market. When I asked about all the parrots chattering in the trees at the gas station, the attendant told me the birds eat the fermenting cane and get drunk. Hence the very loud part chatter in the trees.

Thursday November 3rd was a marathon drive back to Brisbane with Tricia. We left at 5:00 AM and arrived at Springfield City Train Station about 9:15. PM. We took a city train in to the Central Station at Roma and were able to walk about 100 metres to out hotel across the road. Not much sleep as we were up at 3:45 for our 15+ -hour train trip to Sydney. The platform 3 for our Sydney trip was directly across the road from our hotel. That was a great connection. The train trip was great, lots of leg room and we were able to watch the spectacular Australian countryside go by. Say groups of Roos bounding through the fields and so many cattle. We were able to easily navigate the 900 meters from Central Station to our Hotel, The Vulcan. Tomorrow we will be on the Hop On Hop Off Bus discovering Sydney.