I must admit, I wasn't entirely sure about taking 3 little kids out on a boat to the barrier reef, especially a cat. I'm so glad we did though. It was an amazing day. The tour operator, Quicksilver was sensational. The crew were all so friendly and there were plenty of them to make things run smoothly and quickly, there was plenty of information, a marine biologist on board to teach us stuff and a beautiful clean boat.
I also can't believe how good that iphone photo of the island above is.
The journey across was pretty flat with the only one who felt a bit seasick being Connah when we sat inside. There were heaps of kids on the boat, so this one must be the one to take for kids. They did particularly like the biscuits available when we got on the boat and we liked the tea and coffee they'd made for us. The Low Isles is in the Inner Part of the Great Barrier Reef, only about an hour from Port Douglas.
Once there most of the boat went off for a snorkel from the island but we hung around and went on a glass bottom boat ride, the only way Bianca was going to see anything. Although my photos are rubbish, you could see a fair bit better. The best view of fish was actually from the boat, saw some huge ones and a black tip reef shark (also around for snorkelling but fortunately I didn't see him).
we saw loads of turtles, which was Toby's key requirement. The coral was huge, especially the boulder coral. Jake was very interested in the briefing and was front and centre for it. More on snorkelling in the next post.
