Day 8 - The Great Barrier Reef

WHAT A DAY!!!!  That is all I can say!

We had about a 2 hour boat ride out to the Knuckle Reef - one of the many reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef.  The water was a bit choppy, but none of our students got sick.  The crew was surprised.  Before we left on the boat - the crew offered the teachers a free soda if we could guess the first three students that would get sick.  I guess our students have iron stomachs.

Once out on the reef, the students all quickly changed into their wetsuits and were fitted with snorkels, masks and fins; then into the water we went.  Everyone caught on easily to mouth breathing pretty quickly and we were off to swim to the reef.  The reef was truly spectacular.  The massiveness of the coral cannot be explained in words.  One thing that the students learned was that the sunlight loses colors when it hits the water and so when we look at the coral it looks brown although it is many different colors.  We saw many different types of fish, coral, clams, and other sea creatures.  We even found Nemo!

One of our students was recognized today for overcoming her fear of snorkeling and being unsure of her swimming abilities.  Miss Jadra first went out with the group and within a few minutes took in a mouthful of sea water (yuck - salt water) and wanted to go back to the pontoon boat.  We brought her back in and within 15 minutes she was ready to try again.  Our marine biologist, Crystal, took her out one-on-one and Jadra took to it and in no time she was snorkeling on her own.  When we all had to get out of the water - she was beaming from ear to ear - you could tell she was proud of herself and we were so proud of her - along with all the other students.  I'm not sure I would have had the guts to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef in the winter at 11 or 12 years old.  What an accomplishment for them.

Back onto our boat for our 2 hour ride back to the hotel, the weather and seas were not as kind as going out and the water was quite rough - but once again our students were troopers and only 1 student got a little queasy.   On the way back in - we were treated to a spectacular site - 2 pods of humpback whales.  On of the students, Wills, was able to catch a good picture of one of them that I will post when I can since they have all gone to bed now.   We also had a rock/paper/scissors throw down - Texas v. Florida....Florida won - Texas, of course, is going to demand a rematch.  :-)  Florida won so heavy-handedly, they even got Tex (The Texas delegations mascot) in the kitty. 

Once arriving back at our hotel, we washed up to get all the saltwater off and headed to dinner.  We were going to watch an outdoor movie tonight under the stars, but the students decided they were too tired and just wanted to relax for an evening.

 We did try Skyping a few times, but the internet here (and throughout Australia in general) is just not what we are used to and calls were being dropped all over the place.  Some students were able to make some connections to home and we are glad they did.  We will keep trying when we get to Brisbane.

We will be heading to our farm stay bright and early tomorrow morning and we will not have internet access and probably no cell signal at all until we get to Brisbane in a few days.  I will post as soon as I can we are back and catch everyone up.