Snorkeling in the Low Isles

Mom got sick in the middle of the night, the same thing happened to her when she recently took a trip to visit my brother, so at least she knew what to do about it.  In the morning she was still feeling bad, so I ran down to the shop to pick up some supplies for her.  By the time we had to leave for our afternoon snorkeling trip, she was feeling pretty good, so we went ahead.  We got on this nice catamaran and sailed from Port Douglas to the Low Isles, and everything was fine until about 1/3 the way out in the boat, when she stared to feel sick all over again, and not sea sick.  She still marched on like a trooper, since it wasn’t quite as last night, but we were only in the water for about 15 minutes before she had to head back to shore and relax on the not-soft-in-the-slightest sand.  

Sick as she was, she still looks adorable!

We wore Lycra "sting suits" to protect us from any jellyfish.  We didn't see any, but it was just a precaution and protected us from the sun as well.  When you had your mask and fins on, the only skin exposed was a little bit of face.

I continued on the snorkeling tour, and saw some amazing things, even though the water was a bit murky.  In addition to the normal corals and fishes, which are amazing in their own right, I saw a giant snake sea cucumber, and sat and studied him, fascinated, for a bit.  That was definitely my favorite part, even though I guess that seems a little strange, I think it was the novelty of it I loved, and being able to sit and watch how he used some appendages around his mouth to grab bits of dead coral, like an elephant grabbing hay with his trunk, and bring it up to his mouth.  Then I could watch the contractions in his body as he passed the food through.  He kind of looked like a 5 foot piece of intestine,with markings like a caterpillar and I imagine intestines move in the same way.  

We snorkeled from the beach of this small island.

I also go to see a giant mollusk.  Our guide pointed it out, but I had trouble seeing it at first.  When I finally saw it, I did a double take.  It wasn’t at all like I was expecting.  First of all, it was huge, I think it could have easily closed around me.  Second, it wasn’t empty in the middle, like you imagine it would be after seeing the painting of Venus.  It had a membrane/muscle that filled edge to edge, with a couple of stovepipe type holes that he uses to pull water in and out.  Lastly, it was so colorful!  Turquoise and white around the edges, purple and black on the inside.  It was beautiful.  

The ride back was awful for Mom from start to finish, and she spent most of it with her eyes closed.  We picked the afternoon trip specifically because we were supposed to cruise back during sunset, but that’s pretty hard to enjoy with your eyes closed.  Just as well because there were too many clouds to see a proper sunset.  It did, however, create some really cool shadows that one cloud would cast on other clouds, and some lovely light beams shining through.  

It was just coming on dark as we pulled into the marina, and it took me a second to realize that the big birds flying overhead in a massive group were not birds at all, but bats!  The captain confirmed this for me, he said they live in the bushes and come out at night to hunt in the nearby rainforest.  There were so many of these things, there had to be millions.  I stood and watched and clouds of them just kept coming and coming and coming, and were still coming with no end in sight when we docked.  I thought it was pretty awesome and sad Hubby missed it, as we are both bat fans and it’s hard to take proper pictures or video of that kind of thing at night.

Best shot I could get of the bats.

Tomorrow we have another snorkeling trip planned.  Let’s hope mom wakes up feeling better, like she did last time this hit, so we can go out and enjoy it together.