I am awake at 5:45. Our ride to the reef trip doesn’t pick us up until 7:05 but I guess I am anxious; plus, there are many birds in camp and they all get up happy! We are on the bus by just after seven to begin this much awaited trip. As we board, we are each handed flippers, snorkel and mask, and a very “attractive” bright blue stinger suit. I can’t wait to model that! It is a bit choppy with higher winds forecast by afternoon so we are glad for the largish catamaran that rides very smoothly as we head about 30 miles off shore. The boat comes to a stop and we and probably another 80 people patiently sit through safety and promotional talks then we are off.
Snorkel 1: Hastings Reef – it is considered one of the closer-in reefs. We don our gear and head for the platform. The reef is beautiful and there are lots of brightly colored fish. Seas are quite calm and we both wore lifejackets so it’s a lazy swim and float just to watch it all below us for over an hour. Awesome.
Snorkel 2: Saxon Reef – we move to an outer reef area. It is less frequently visited and claimed more

pristine as a result. We suit up and slide into the water again. It is significantly rougher and we ride the swells as we move over to the shallow reef. There are not quite as many fish but the coral is definitely

more perfectly shaped and more colorful. How amazing!
Besides all the great snorkeling I go for the glass bottom boat ride out on the reef. Snorkeling is better but that is pretty cool too. Plus, we have a wonderful lunch and wine and cheese as we head back in. We had a great day with Reef Experience.
We are home and to bed early after a full day of sea and sun. No sunburn we are happy to say.

So that is what sounds like monkeys (there are no monkeys here)
It is a laughing kookaburra bird. He visited us in camp and I got a pic, well sort of. He is a tree-kingfisher. They call him a perch and pounce hunter that takes small rodents and whatnot on the ground but he looks a lot like our kingfishers that actually catch fish. It is a different place.