#25 The best day ever !!!!!!!

As a surprise for Meykel, I booked a tour to Moreton Island on February 19th. Until we arrived at the Brisbane harbor, Meykel had no idea what would happen on that day.

Upon arrival at the harbor, we met our skipper. He gave each participant a liability waiver for snorkeling. From that moment on, Meykel knew that we would go snorkeling, but he still didn't know where, and that was the surprise highlight.

We boarded the large motorized catamaran and enjoyed some coffee and a good amount of Australian lamingtons and cookies. As you know, we always take whatever we can get, and there was a lot of it :-)

After filling out the liability waivers, we received instructions on how to behave while snorkeling and the most important hand signals were explained to us. Then the ship set sail.

On the way, the skipper spotted a pod of humpback dolphins. But since we had already seen this species enough and even had the chance to feed them, we weren't particularly impressed. It was about as spectacular for us as when a local Australian sees a kangaroo.

Contrary to the next creature we saw. Just before arriving at Moreton Island, we were able to observe a dugong (sea cow) in the shallow, clear water. The captain slowed down the ship, as it was not an everyday sight for him either. The dugong was not distracted by us, swam around, and popped up to the water's surface from time to time. Since neither of us had ever seen a dugong before, we found it very impressive. Unfortunately, we didn't have our phones ready to take pictures.

After about 1.5 hours, we arrived on the island, and Meykel saw for the first time what makes the island famous: 15 shipwrecks that lie pretty close to the beach in a row and serve as an artificial reef. That's where the snorkeling tour took place. The surprise was a success!

We were divided into two groups. For the first group, including Meykel and me, it was time to change ships. We were taken to the wrecks on a smaller ship. There, we also received our snorkeling equipment and another brief introduction.

Then we jumped into the COLD water. We somehow hadn't expected that. So far, the sea had always been warm wherever we were. But we had to go through with it.

First, we swam to the best-preserved wreck, which is still clearly recognizable as a ship. A large part of it still protrudes from the water, but we were still able to swim inside.

We put on our diving masks and snorkels and couldn't believe our eyes when we put our heads underwater. We had both snorkeled before, but we had never seen such an underwater world. It felt like we were surrounded by hundreds of different fish and corals. The fish apparently had no fear of humans and swam just inches away from our bodies.

We snorkeled around the wreck for 2 to 3 rounds and then swam to the next one. The subsequent wrecks were not as impressive as the first one, but we still couldn't get enough of it. However, at the last wreck, we saw an estimated 1 to 1.5 meter long shark, which cleverly camouflaged itself in the sand and was very difficult to spot.

Overall, we were in the water for an hour, even though after about 20 minutes, my lips and fingers were slightly blue. The water was really cold, and we moved slowly. But because everything was so breathtaking, I never thought about getting out of the water earlier.

When the second group got off the ship, a lunch buffet was waiting for us. And as you and we know, we indulged in it until there was nothing left.

After lunch, the skipper took us to the beach in a small motorized inflatable boat. There, we relaxed until the other group returned from snorkeling.

Back on the ship, we saw 3 sea turtles up close. I managed to take a photo of one:

The skipper raised the anchor and sailed past the wrecks again.

The last point of the excursion was "Fish Feeding". Near the wrecks, the crew threw overboard all the leftover croutons, and hundreds of fish swarmed around them.

Then we headed back to Brisbane. To our delight, the captain spotted a few bottlenose dolphins. Those are the ones that many know as Flipper. And the best part was that they followed our ship for a while. They swam incredibly close, right next to us, and we lucky two were standing directly above them.

Since pictures don't come close to expressing how great it was, there is a little video about it. Unfortunately, we don't have the best underwater camera, so the video quality isn't great, and especially the underwater wrecks are hard to see. Please click on the following link to start the video:

https://youtu.be/Eo5VzzXaGkU

All in all, it was more than a successful day and the best excursion we had done up to that point. We recommend everyone who comes to Brissie to take this tour.

>>> Follow me on Instagram for more information: annikatailor