Adventure Cairns - Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

After spending Easter at the festival in Byron Bay and the following two days in Coolangatta with some of the team, Tom finally convinced me to fly to Cairns. So we finished work on Tuesday and flew to Cairns on Thursday evening. Upon arrival, we took a short nap and on Friday morning we were picked up from the hostel at 6:45 am to start our snorkeling trip.
On the first boat (the shuttle) we spent about 3 hours, the waves were enormous and it felt like a three-hour roller coaster ride. I - already super seasick - was eventually so sick after staring at the horizon for 2.5 hours that I needed one of those magical bags that were advertised at the beginning of the trip. Just before that, I was almost happy that I wasn't the only one who didn't feel well on boats... that was obviously the punishment for my schadenfreude.

Arriving on the snorkel boat, we had to go to the top deck first, because that's where it usually rocks the least. Well, the snorkeling trip was enhanced with side effects for me.

About snorkeling itself: what we could see underwater was amazing. When you swam from the boat towards the reef, it looked like a wall rising in front of you. And when you were up close, you weren't sure if you could swim over it because it looked like it reached all the way to the water surface. Maybe it was just me. But before I swam over it for the first time, I swam around the outlines three times as a precaution.
The corals were within reach, mostly just 1 meter below the surface, and there were lots of small fish to see and also a few bigger ones. From the second snorkel, we were allowed to take a GoPro with us to photograph and film our experiences. Tom was told by the photographer that you should always see the water surface.. so most of what you see in the videos is water -.- :D. But I wasn't much better, as I was tossed around a lot more due to my life jacket, and my videos included corals and fish, but also a lot of shaking.
The life jacket was quite good, as you could float and look at the reef without any effort. But swimming was a bit more tiring because you offered a much greater resistance.
In conclusion, a one-day snorkeling adventure would have been enough for me.

Back on the mainland, we looked for a more central accommodation. We even got an 'upgrade' with an ensuite shower. It looked like there was a shower cabin next to our bed.

Since Cairns is quite small and besides an Asian-oriented night market and a lagoon (public free pool), there is not much to see, we drove north with the rental car to Cape Tribulation and visited the Daintree Rainforest and the beach of Cape Tribulation.
Since we had already seen rainforests frequently before, it didn't blow us away, but it was nice to see and we can check it off our list.

Last Tom mishap: we had just handed in our bus tab-on card when I was asked where the tickets were.. (Tom had put all 4 tickets in his passport)
After my answer that he had the tickets, there was immediately a panicked reaction, telling me not to fool him.. He had forgotten again where he had put the tickets.. well, his memory is like a fish's :p

And now we're sitting on the plane to Sydney, eagerly waiting for our second adventure. After 12 hours of flight time, we will arrive in Santiago 20 minutes before the departure time. 👍 Like getting younger while flying :D