Cairns or 'cans' as they say out here - Great barrier reef

You know it's going to be good hostel when you are greeted at 0530 in the morning by nothing more than a ginger cat proudly sat there on reception to check you in.  Fraser is his name and turns out he is a biter.

Having walked to 20 mins to the hostel through a very serene Cairns past their lagoon, much like Airlie Beach,  I am promptly delivered on a free bus back to where I came with my snorkeling kit (the wet towel, bikini and shorts from yesterday and factor 50) to join my exclusive..... 75 people... boat to head out to the great barrier reef.
The shoreline here in Cairns is like that of the Whitsundays and you can begin to imagine a mountain range,  now long submerged,  that extended south.  It's an hour out to the reef and on the way I am briefed on my try dive.
Remember to breathe- now this is tricky as I like to hold my breath under water
And actually that's the only thing I can remember and decided it was the most important.
I have always wondered about diving and previously done a swimming pool try dive,  where I am fairly sure I held my breath for most of it.
The two things that always concerned me were one my really bad gag reflex,  for those that have every witnessed me discover a bit or gristle or bone on my food or if your Sam Davies and don't like the cubed meat in the freeze dried and spit it out you will know how I react. After my mornings snorkel and 2 near vomits I was no less concerned.
The other factor being my ears and equalising them.  For some reason I have this sold sorry of my ears not being equalised and a piercing noise in my ear drum and then bang it pops blood dribbles out my ear and I am deaf.
Amy was my dive guide and after I toddled and stepped off the edge of the boat she was very good at looking after me.  I am fairly sure I was gasping my way through the air from 170 to 150 whatever that means and frequently breathing out my nose.  All in all my first dive experience was more about that than what I saw! But it did spark my interest for my next trip to Galapagos!

What about the reef I hear you cry or in fact start clicking close as I drivel on. Am I allowed to say I wouldn't use the word great in the sense I think of it.  In the sense the Australians do it means big apparently .... Then sure it is.... but I was slightly disappointed.  I was expecting to be overwhelmed by the coral colours and the number of fish every which way I turned but that wasn't the case.
The guide even said you are expecting bright colours more vibrant,  yes for sure there has been some colour leeching over the last 20years due to human kind and pollution.  There were many people on the boat that were back after 10 or more years and they first hand said the colour had faded.  There are also clear areas that are dead which is quite sad and even though people are told not to touch they also have no spatial awareness especially when you have added flippers to their feet and I have no doubt people regularly accidently kick the reef.
It was also suggested that many of the photos are photoshoped that you never had that large an expanse of brightly coloured reef. Either way there is still a vast amount of coral that is very much alive that lives and breathes creating oxygen rich waters that fish thrive in.  It sways and moves in the current and the fish all align in the flow at times. The giant clams never fall to amaze me.
You'll have to wait until I get home to see those pictures as they are sick on my camera, and don't worry there will be plenty of showings I don't want anyone to miss out
Our first stop is a sand cave they call it,  definitely no cave but as the tide goes out a little sand island appears in the middle of the ocean and you can gently shuffle out over a fringing coal reef.
The two spots we saw had loads going on and to be fair I never tired of it driving down and feeling like you were right there in finding Nemo territory.  How the fish had their hide outs, their channels,  their play areas.

Then there was Barry the Baracuda who just filled us and apparently had been there everyday now for almost 3 years.  He looks like he has been in the wars and just sits off the back of the boat about 1m maybe from you and started at you with his gnarly looking teeth. I think he is smart,  I am on an eco-for and they are one of the few toys allowed to feed the fish but slowly not enough for him to survive on alone. I reckon he is trying!
A snorkeling trip like this highlights one of the problems travelling by yourself....applying suncream to your back. When snorkeling this you do not want to get wrong, but who do you ask.
Picking the right stranger to rub your back,  not all that straight forward
Pick a bloke,  one they will put it on like a bloke (that's a bad stereotyping sorry)  but you are probably better off having your own hand prints burnt in your back.  Two their girlfriend might find it awkward or if they are a bunch of 18year old lads then turns out they do.
Ask a girl but they are usually too busy sorting themselves out or nagging their boyfriend/husband.
The result is two red triangles one bigger than the other where I am clearly more flexible on one side than the other! I faired much better than some though.