Today we're booked on a tour out to the Low Isles to go snorkelling. We've decided to cancel Wednesday's tour as it was too similar to the Daintree Tour we're doing on Thursday. The Low Isles are two low islands that we can see from Port Douglas. One has a lighthouse on it.
A bus picks us up at 7:45 am to take us to the Marina (it's only a couple of blocks, we could have walked) and we go on board the Sailaway IV, a catamaran with two tall sails. Our shoes are taken from us as we go on board, and we assemble up the front of the boat (is it a bow if it's square, not pointed?) for our safety briefing. The forecast is for 25-30 knot winds, so the water outside the marina may be a bit rough. It's about an hour's journey to the Low Isles.
The crew start handing out flippers, masks and snorkels. Pete tries on flippers but they give him cramps, so he decides not to swim, and the crew help him move up to sit next to the boat's captain, which is more comfortable than sitting on the deck. I get a pair of optical goggles so that I can see fish when I'm not wearing glasses. It's interesting sitting next to our captain. We find out that the catamaran was built in France and sailed out by a retired couple who deliver one boat each year around the world. The trip took them 8 months.
As we get closer to Low Isles the scenery becomes clearer and we can see the lighthouse which is on the smaller island. It's encircled by a beach. The other island is bigger and covered with mangroves. A glass bottomed boat ferries us ashore. Some people are snorkelling, others are doing a boat tour of the reef, and some people are just swimming and lying on the beach.
Sue and I are snorkelling. Our guide explains how to demist our goggles and put on our snorkelling gear. We follow her into the water and head for the first marker. Not far out from shore we start to see coral, and then fish. Because the sky is overcast and the waves have stirred up the sand the colours are duller than I expected, compared with Hawaii, but it's still beautiful. Our guide stops frequently to talk about features of the reef and point out fish and coral. I see two green turtles, and our guide says there's another one that's almost a metre across that hangs around here. They feed on the seagrass near the other island. There are lots of different tropical fish, and large clams. Our guide leaves us to explore on our own. It's so beautiful and varied that I stay in much longer than I'd expected, but eventually I return to shore for a rest and to see what the others are doing. Sue is still out there. I walk to the Lighthouse and around the island, which takes about 10 minutes, and then go back to snorkelling.
At 12:30 we re-assemble to return to the boat for lunch, which is cold meats, prawns, salads and fresh fruit. Those who don't want to snorkel after lunch can have alcohol, and Sue and I decide champagne wins out over getting back in the water. It's very pleasant sitting on the boat watching the scenery after lunch. We throw our prawn shells overboard to feed sucker fish and a bat fish. Sometimes they also get small sharks coming up for a feed - they didn't tell us that before we got in the water!
On the way home the water's a bit rougher and the people sitting on the bow (most of our lot) get thoroughly soaked. There's one girl sitting at the stern with us who is seasick, and her husband hands her a brown paper bag. which gets tossed overboard when she's finished.
I'm writing this several days later and I can't remember what we did about dinner. No doubt the boys went to the pub; I think we might have had pizza again.
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