For any fellow travellers trying to decide what trips to do in the Whitsundays, I thought I would share my experience on the Cruise Whitsundays Outer Reef trip. Feel free to comment if you enjoyed/hated the trip! Enjoy!
The day started with an early morning check-in onto a large catamaran. The reef gets farther away from the coast the further south you travel, so we had roughly a 3 hour ride to endure before we would finally arrive at Hardy Reef. To the credit of the tour company, that 3 hours felt incredibly short, as they filled it with hilarious commentary and emergency instruction. Seriously, the staff managed to make me bust a gut simply through their “how to scuba” instructions, and even the speaker could barely get through her presentation she was laughing so hard at the antics of the crew. Altogether a fun and fast ride out, with stops at Hamilton Island to pick up additional passengers before heading out to the reef.
Fast-forward 3 hours, we were pleasantly full from our morning tea (featuring delicious biscuits and fruit at no cost) and ready to hit the reef. The snorkelling itself is done from a small pontoon, which was great for the more novice snorkellers among us (ahem Caroline) as it gave a sense of security and a solid base to swim back to if anything goes wrong. The pontoon had an underwater observatory that was covered with thousands of little herrings, and one large Queensland Groper that swam with them until he felt hungry, in which case he still swam with them, just with his mouth open to catch the less fortunate herring. As well, the pontoon had a large deck area to sunbathe in, if that is really what you spent your money coming out to the reef to do. The pontoon also comes loaded with snorkel and dive equipment, though we brought our own.
The first thing we did (after a quick visit to the observatory) was to get straight into the water! They have semi-submerged platforms to snorkel off of, which was quite convenient for both entering and exiting the water. They also offer a fantastic mask de-fogging spray that legitimately worked, and I recommend always getting a good spray before entering the water. From the platforms it is a quick swim to the Hardy Reef; a stunning coral wall full of colour and life. Unlike other snorkelling we had done, this reef wall was exactly like the pictures suggest, and was absolutely covered with points of interest. From the Giant Clams, to the enormous Humphead Wrasse, to the incredibly coloured Parrot Fish, the reef was so full of life swimming around it is truly remarkable. But the truly indescribable part was the coral. It is amazing how much there is, and how varying each piece can be. They say that there are no two snowflakes alike, and I am convinced the same hold true for coral, as each section was entirely different than the last in shape, color, size, and texture. Hardy Reef doesn't have a lot of soft coral in comparison to other sites we visited, but the display of hard coral was just incredible.
After our first snorkel trip, we headed back to the boat for lunch. This is something that I find most tours don’t do right, and I wasn’t disappointed here. The lunch was incredibly average, consisting of cold chicken, prawns, and salad. But hey, no one attends these things for the lunches!
After lunch we went on a short tour on the semi-submersible offered in your ticket price. Honestly, I was very pleasantly surprised with this tour, as it brought you out farther than you could swim, and really showed you the reef from a different perspective. I just think that there are elements you lose when you are in the reef itself, that you can gain from taking a step back and looking through the window. I would always choose to snorkel if I had to pick one, but the tour was definitely worth doing. The guide was knowledgeable and friendly, and was amazing at pointing out little things that I would have never seen on my own. We even saw a turtle!
We then went back into the water for our afternoon snorkel. This was equally as amazing as the last, showcasing the wide scale of vibrant colors glistening on and around the reef. Endless numbers fish floating by, matched by the endless pillars of coral to support and sustain them. Here I have to mention probably the biggest problem I had with the tour: The company restricts experienced snorkellers. Now I wouldn't call ourselves “advanced” by any means, but we've gone on our fair share of snorkelling adventures on this trip, and we are pretty good at manoeuvring our way out to the best spots and finding amazing chunks of reef “off the beaten path”. Doing that we are able to snorkel for hours and hours, losing track of time and just getting lost in the beautiful surroundings. As amazing as the reef was around the pontoon, they limited exactly how far out you could go with big boundary ropes, regardless of your experience. I understand why they might have guidelines in place for those who aren't the most confident, however there should be options to leave the provided snorkel zone “at your own peril”; I’d even be fine signing a waiver if that makes things easier legally. But getting yelled at every time I was chasing a fish and happened to cross the boundary got old really fast, and because you could only snorkel a limited section, it was harder to spend hours and hours as things got slightly boring as you lapped sections you've already seen for the third or fourth time. I should note: they have a large area sectioned off, and I think most people were happy inside of it. But if you are slightly more experienced, know you will be restricted (and yelled at).
Back to the happy stuff: we had a magnificent afternoon snorkel as we perused the section of the reef multiple times, and then headed back to the boat. I will say that despite the restrictions placed on snorkelling, I felt that there was a very good amount of time out on the reef. Any shorter, and we would have felt gypped. Any longer, and we would have been way too tired/bored. They had us out there for a good amount of time!
We got pulled out of the water at around 3:30, and had 30 minutes to shuffle off the pontoon and back to the boat. We had left all of our stuff on the sun-deck for the day, so it was nice to not feel rushed and take a couple last photos of the gorgeous reef before we headed off. Finally (sadly) we pulled away from the pontoon and waved goodbye to the Great Barrier Reef. This should be our last snorkel on the reef, and as awesome as I am sure other reefs will be, nothing will the the Great Barrier Reef, if only because of the way it has been built up in my heart and mind. With all of the environmental concerns surrounding the future of the reef, I am extra thankful we had the opportunity we did to travel out there for a really amazing day. And while all experiences are slightly different, I think the trip as something for everyone, and while I wish they would allow experienced snorkellers leave the safe zone, it was altogether a fantastic day and an amazing trip out to the reef.
I would definitely recommend this trip to absolutely anyone, especially anyone who was slightly underwhelmed by other reef trips. I thought that the colours and life were astounding, and the snorkelling/semi-sub were exciting and fun. Despite an average lunch, the morning/afternoon teas made-up for it, and the fun crew made the experience worthwhile. We loved it!
*This is not a paid review!
0 comments:
Post a Comment