Cruising on the Great Barrier Reef

Our next adventure is on board the Coral Princess II for a 7 day cruise. There are about 42 passengers on board, the youngest being Jake who is 10 and with his Grandma (who is probably the eldest on board having served in the WRAF in Singapore in 1948!). There is a wide range of nationalities, Australian, Canadian, 4 newly-wed Italians, Lithuanians, English, American.

So we are eating lots of lovely food, being looked after and relaxing as we head north to Cooktown, where Captain James Cook managed to hit the reef in Endeavour on 17 June 1770. We stop in Cooktown for a look around and visit the museum which is home to the Endeavour’s anchor and cannons. We then head north stopping off at Two Isle where Matthew and I have a go at diving and do some snorkelling. But the highlight of stopping on this very small island was seeing a turtle swimming close to the water’s edge and coming up for air - it was magical to see it so close to us.

Our next stop is at Lizard Island. We start the day at 5.15am in order to start walking (actually more like a climb) at 6.30am to the top of Cook’s Look which is 359m above sea level. It is where Captain Cook headed in order to be able to get a good view of the surrounding reefs in order to get the Endeavour out of them and home again. It is a hard climb to the top and back down again but (I think) it was worth it!!

We spent the rest of the day diving again and then more snorkelling on the fringing reef No.9 which meant we saw some fantastic fish and coral and finally Nemo hiding in the anemones!!

We do one more dive on Reef no.3 and more snorkelling and this time spot a white tipped reef shark hiding in a hole in the coral. They aren't dangerous but it was still a bit strange to be able to get that close to it!

Matthew and I spot another, larger turtle off the side of the boat - again, amazing to see.

After 4 days at sea we head back to Cairns and off the boat for a few hours (and back to McDonalds to try to get emails again) while they turn the boat around for the next lot of passenger. There are 6 of us that are on for the whole 7 day trip and we have another 26 passengers joining us for the last 3 days. We head off and make our way south this time and head our to Thetford Reef and Nathan Reef, another dive, more snorkelling and more coral and fish.

By now we have completely settled into life on the boat and got our sea legs. Matthew gets to play chess with Jake and we watch classic films like Finding Nemo and Australia!!!!

We visit Dunk Island which has an exclusive resort on it and spend a bit of time sitting by their pool and wandering along the beach before our transfer back to the boat and off again. On Sunday Matthew and I get invited to join Captain Peter at his table for dinner (who would have thought it!!!!) so we put on our smartest clothes (me - dress, Matthew - shirt and jeans!) and have free wine (me - obviously!) and a lovely meal. We have met another couple from Canada and end up being invited to visit them !!

We are nearing the end of our cruise and feel a bit sad that we will be leaving this great place. It has been nice not having to think about finding somewhere for breakfast/lunch/dinner/sleeping and have somewhere else organise us for a few days. We would highly recommend this cruise for anyone wanting to experience the Great Barrier Reef, lovely food, excellent service and a great way to spend 7 days.

We arrive in Townsville at 10am and decide to get a car and head south straight away.......