On both Monday (1/2 day) and Tuesday (full day), we were so fortunate to be able to enjoy Great Barrier Reef snorkel outings. From our base of Hamilton Island, our tour company (Explore) took us to Saba Bay and Bait Reef Stepping Stones, which were both amazing reef snorkels.

Saba Bay was home to some of the largest coral we have ever seen. It gave new meaning to “coral gardens”, with coral of incredible colors, shapes, and sizes. We didn’t see as many or as much variety of fish as we have in other snorkels, but we did see a few turtles, some dolphins (on our return to the harbor), and a bunch of tiny baby fish. We saw coral shaped like flowers, like lettuce, like brains (the aptly named “brain coral”), like fireworks… it was amazing. A few pictures from our snorkel boats:

Our full day snorkel took us to the incredible “Stepping Stones” in the Bait Reef section of the GBR, so named because the giant coral “bommies” (an Australian colloquial term for a large, isolated outcrop of coral or rock on the seabed, often rising to just below the surface) look like giant stepping stones thru the ocean when seen from the air. Here are some samples of the bommies!

On the full day snorkel, we saw several white tip reef sharks, a bunch more fish and coral, sea stars, dolphins, turtles, giant clams, and so much more! It was everything we ever dreamed that snorkeling the GBR would be. Here is a little taste of the things we saw:

Hamilton Island Wildlife Center

Other highlights from our last two days: more time spent at the island Wildlife Center, and this time Jenna and Connor got to pet a koala! Wally and Paul (the koala we pet back in Kuranda) are going to be best friends as soon as we figure out how we can get them back to the States. 😬😁

Critters!

Beach walks at low tide gave us more critters to discover, but this time we did NOT touch anything. 😂 We also saw a bunch more wallabies and kangaroos around the island, including this mom and her Joey in the pouch!

Sunset

Tonight we headed back to One Tree Hill for our final sunset on Hamilton Island. Once again, there was live music, a bar cart, and general frivolity as the sun sank over the mountains. Managed to get some great shots of J and C at sunset. 😍🥰

Christmas in November

We concluded tonight with a round of early Christmas gift giving, complete with Christmas music, since we won’t be together in December. Given that this amazing Australia trip was our present to each other, we made a rule that our gifts for tonight had to be something we did not spend money on. We had a fun gift swap of rocks, leaves, and pilfered household items such as condiments, clothes from our suitcases, and even toilet paper 😂. Tomorrow we leave this paradise and head to Brisbane, but happy that we will all still get a few more days together. Thanks for adventuring with us!