The Whitsundays & The Great Barrier Reef

July 10, 2013:
The thing you have to remember about Gravol is that it knocks you right out. I took one before we boarded the ship for our Whitsundays cruise, and the waves were really choppy, but I struggled more against the need to pass right out than seasickness. It didn't even occur to me that it was the Gravol. I couldn't keep my head up.

We were spending the day at the Great Barrier Reef and the girls decided to try out scuba diving , which I find terrifying and thrilling as a concept, but I wasn't able to participate because of my chronic sinusitis. When I saw the doctor, the only thing he said to me was that I wasn't able to scuba dive. I was okay with doing my own thing, so we all got dressed in our suits and pulled out our underwater cameras. I snorkelled the end of the Knuckle Reef which is 10 km long and 3 km deep. Each reef has "bommies" which was the Aboriginal term for underwater sea mountain.

The first time we all went out together, it was disappointing. I couldn't really see anything. We went back in so that the girls could get ready. I went back out on my own, and I followed the buoys out to one point and as I was attempting to get to another point, I found myself above the reef. It was incredible.

I saw a Nemo fish in an anemone! It was so calming to float with the waves back toward the ship.

We had lunch when we all got back and I watched the windows of the semi-submarine and learned about coral. The ride back was a nightmare of choppy waves and feeling ill, but we made it, checked into our OWN ROOM with FOUR BEDS in the pouring rain, went for dinner and talked until bedtime.

July 11, 2012:
Our overnight stay was at Long Island. We started the morning at the beach which I was perfectly happy with - tanning (or burning, in my case), relaxing, enjoying the views. We had a reprieve from the rain of the last few days, and we were on an island. Bliss.

But apparently there were things to do... including an 8.8 km hike to "Sandy Bay" which was a misnomer, we would come to find. Because we were doing a three-day trip out the Whitsundays, I had left my hiking books in the van so that I wouldn't have to carry them around with me. I completed this four-hour in Birkenstocks. It was excruciating. To be fair, the hike might have been shorter for everyone else if I hadn't tagged along. I was miserable. The "Bay" ended up being the ugliest thing I think I've ever seen (maybe my mood influenced my memories of it??). Just picture the ugliest little wet chunk of sand with a view obscured by the ugliest mangrove trees you've ever seen, all broken off and awful. The only thing we liked about this cove was a tiny crab who hid between a few rocks. If only they'd left me behind!

NEVER GO HERE

When we got back, we self-medicated with Tim Tams and 10 minutes of Internet access ($12/hour!!!). We went to "Dave's Trivia" under the pseudonym "The Wilhelms (from Canada)" (pronounced Vilhelms) and came in fourth place (Canadian bronze!). Pretty impressive considering we guessed Germany as an answer to any question we couldn't hear (we got it right once)!

July 12, 2012:
We woke up to pouring rain once again. All of the tour guides assured us that this is very unusual for this time of year - this is more rain than the East Coast of Australia has seen in July for 70 years! Very comforting.

We scrounged up some ponchos in the hotel reception while we waited to be taken by glorified golf carts to the ship.

Just our luck that in this awful weather, we were taking an enormous sail boat. By the time we had moved from one harbour to another and ridden a dinghy out to the sail boat, all the seats inside the central area of the boat were taken. I was not happy. I'm not proud of my attitude, but it was one thing after another. We were onboard with a large group of extra-obnoxious Americans. The only salvation was the food. My travel companions made the best of a bad situation and decided to sit in the trampolines outside in the rain.

I was feeling seasick already and hadn't worn my bathing suit, so I stayed inside where I met Orlaith (pronounced Orla) from Ireland who I talked to for most of the day.

The attraction of the day was Whitehaven Beach. I was hesitant to get off of the ship - it was still raining really hard, but at the last minute I changed into my bathing suit and wetsuit and felt a million times better. Since I was late, one of the crew gave me my own personal ride to the Beach. He looked like Viggo Mortensen in Lord of the Rings (which I was really okay with). The sand on the beach was so fine, it could be used to polish jewelry. We gave ourselves some spa treatment. I'm glad I changed my mind. And the day kept getting marginally better. Lunch was delicious. We went snorkelling in Hook Passage, but it was no comparison to the Great Barrier Reef.

I was still so relieved to make it back to Airlie Beach and the "comfort" of the Jucy van. Looking back from the privileged position where I now I find myself (dry, in my dining room, almost two full years later), I can say that I am glad I went and that those experiences taught me things about myself in a bad situation. I generally think of myself as flexible and adaptable, and I like to think that I maintain a positive outlook even when things don't go my way, but it turns out that I have limits and I have the power to keep myself in a negative attitude that affects others. I hope that I've grown since then, and that my flexibility has improved, but we'll see if that's true beginning July 10, 2014 when I leave for Kunshan, China for four weeks.