The Reef

Yesterday was great; we went out on the Great Barrier Reef, which was really cool. The boat we went on was a big catamaran called Reef Magic that left from Cairns. It was a long trip (1 ½ hours –Ed) to the outer reef, and I felt a little sick as it was choppy. When we got to Moore Reef and the pontoon moored there, the first thing we did was to get our wetsuits, goggles and flippers – we looked really cool – not!  Then we got into the water to see the reef fish and coral.  It was easy to float around in the wetsuit.  There was a large dude of a fish called Wally (see photo) that hung around the pontoon at Marine World and was happy for people to touch him.  After about 2 hours in the water I came out for lunch on the pontoon. There was also a submersible boat and a glass-bottom boat that took you further away from the snorkelling area to see other cool stuff like sharks. Yo Chicken  Jo – Lachlan.

Chantal was lucky to meet up with Cassidy Stephens from St Joes on our cruise yesterday – what a small world ! They had a ball together and were inseparable all day, doing everything from snorkelling, to the glass bottom boat and submersible, and a good dose of talking in between! Today was spent mostly at the beach, boogie boarding and body surfing. We’re all starting to get some colour, some parts more pink or red rather than brown! Tomorrow we head off north, no idea where we will be staying but we’ll head to Mossman, Cape Trib etc. Cheers Chris

Now if you’ve been having trouble believing my blog entries, here’s a recital from Ray (Louise’s dad) which is another outlook on what’s been happening up here over the last week! - Now that Chris & Louise, Lachlan and Chantal are leaving us at Clifton Beach it would be opportune to recount the week here at Odyssey Apartments.  We arrived on the afternoon flight from Melbourne last Monday.  The Kleps had settled into the apartment on the third floor and Lachlan and Chantal settled into the walk-in wardrobe on their camp stretchers.  The apartment overlooks the beach at Clifton Beach.  The weather was overcast for most of the week but no rain to speak of, and that was overnight anyway.

The big decision was deciding when to go out to the reef and that was not made until Friday for Saturday.  The prediction for that day was the calmest but there were still 15-20km/hr winds which made the trip a bit choppy.  All had a good day and Lachlan’s Blog tells all.

Thursday was Karanda Day and Jan & Ray hired a car and drove up the mountain to Karanda and after lunch drove up to Port Douglas.  Chris’n’crew will be travelling that way to the Cape so they stayed at Karanda.

Today, Sunday, was busy with the best surf so far with Lachlan and Chantal.  Lachlan is beginning to surf quite well and it will not be long before he is ‘out the back’ with Grandpa.  Chantal is fearless on the board and will not shirk the big ones.  Grandpa broke Lachlan’s board so we are restricted to Chris’ big board and Chantal’s much worn board.

It has been great having a week with the family at Clifton Beach and a bit of a break from camping for the Kleps.  I am sure they will enjoy the rest of the trip and we look forward to having them back in Melbourne for summer. Cheers Ray