Reef Encounters

Our days on 'Reef Encounter' were definitely some of the most memorable of our trip so far. Diving at the Great Barrier Reef was amazing - I could wax lyrical about diving through coral tunnels and the numerous sea animals that we saw but doing around four dives a day over four days means we have a lot of stories to tell. For me the diving highlights were seeing sharks, night diving and seeing a Morey eel swim past me and by far the best experience was swimming with a giant turtle. After diving we would jump straight into the outdoor hot tub, particularly nice after a night dive when the sky would be a blanket of shooting stars. Of course our life of luxury could only last so long and at 1pm on the second day the work part began. Whilst we were passengers it hadn't seemed so bad - 6 hosties and about 25 passengers to look after, potentially easy life we thought, until we started that is. The number of hosties fell to 5, there was a sudden surge of bookings, doubling the passenger numbers to nearly 60, oh and the ships air conditioning completely broke down! Working from 5:30 am till 9:30pm, in tropical humidity, in a kitchen with no air con was definitely an experience. As Shona - the 41 year old hostie, self-confessed 'intellectual snob', who knew everything, had done everything you had done only better and who never went in the kitchen to pot wash once - said, when she stuck her head round the kitchen door to see me and Ed literally dripping with sweat, "people pay hundreds to lose the body weight you're losing right now". Thanks for that Shona, now fuck off back to your oh so arduous napkin folding (I'm still bitter). The truth is that the work was actually fine, in fact it was the first few honest days work that me and Ed have done in around 7 years - as Ed commented, it made defrauding the nation seem like a walk in the park. Also the people we met out on the boat were fantastic, a big shout out has to go to Jilly, the 29 year old, non-lesbian, rugby playing P.E. Teacher from Worcester, who when drunk would suddenly start doing push ups and star jumps before performing the most amazing David Brent dance impersonation. It was a pleasure to sing Tammy Wynette's 'Stand By Your Man with you'! So with a tropical skin disease under his armpit and my blocked inner ear causing deafness, Ed and I left the ship very happy, if not a bit unstable on our feet.

Next we travelled North to Cape Tribulations - the Northern most point on the East coast of Australia accessible by a sealed road. Here the rain forest literally meets the reef, as it grows right onto the beach. A spectacular place where our stint of wildlife spotting began. Going on a night walk through the oldest rain forest in the world, we saw numerous spiders, water dragons and a 3 metre long python.

Hungry for more we then drove South to the Atherton Tablelands - an area around 1000 metres above sea level. We have had a very chilled out time here, walking Petersons Creek we have spotted platypus, gone to the famous Milla Milla waterfalls and swam at Lake Eacham, a beautiful lake formed from a volcanic crater. It has involved lots of stunning drives and walks - we are both feeling very lucky to be doing this right now. Continuing the David Bellamy theme we are about to head to Magnetic Island for koala spotting and lazing on the beach.