AFK from WoW - Eclipse 2012 Day 2 - The great barrier reef

Quicksilver runs trips to the outer reef (they have their own platform there for activities) and has won multiple awards in Queensland and Australian tourism - also it has large comfortable boats, which means that we'd have a smoother ride to the reef /fingers crossed.

Image courtesy of Quicksilver cruises

The kids were excited to see the boat.  Unfortunately, it was a slightly choppy sea, so we had lots of people getting seasick (including Uncle S, and I felt a bit queasy too - reminder to self, don't try to read when feeling seasick), and one of the engines was not working so the trip to the outer reef took 30 minutes longer than scheduled.

Once we got there, the hard part is choosing what to do!  You can snorkel, scuba dive, do a helmet dive (which is like those old fashioned divers where you wear a fishbowl on your head and they fill it with air), or go on the glass bottomed boat.  We took the kids on the glass bottomed boat and they really enjoyed that.

There is also an underwater viewing area on the platform.

And you can take a helicopter ride around the reef as well for a bird's eye view.  I was tempted!

One of the things I thought was interesting was that they encouraged everyone to wear lycra suits to minimise sunscreen use - I guess sunscreen would pollute the water, so that was a fabulous idea.

Port Douglas markets which were on every night until the eclipse (normally they are on Sunday).  There are heaps of handicrafts stalls at the normal markets, but these all day ones seem to have mostly food and a few local stalls, as well as some rides and some live entertainment.

Tomorrow, the Daintree!