Brenda's GBR experience

Well, overall it was an experience I will never forget. I got to see beautiful fish 🐠. We had lots of time to explore. However, the area we could explore felt a bit limited with all the people (over 100). I got to see two sea turtles 🐢🐢 , although I guess it could have been the same one the second time. I was hoping the coral colors would be more spectacular but the fish colors made up for it. It had been about 15 or more years since I snorkeled so was a bit nervous. I managed to get my wetsuit on ok and my fins and mask (even remembered to spit in the mask). The first few breathes in the water were weird and scary because you don’t feel like you are gonna get enough air, so it is a little like a suffocating feeling. Then once I could relax a bit the breathing came easier it ended up being easier to breath under water with snorkel than above. David agreed to be my snorkel buddy which is why there are a few pictures of this good looking guy in my photos. Speaking of photos. David suggested I do a vertical panoramic shot shafting from under water to above. Tried it several times. Put one of them as pic 1 of Norman reef footprint. My phone did great in its underwater case. However it was tougher to operate it. It often got stuck in a certain mode which I couldn’t get out until I was above water to see better. I also had to have it on full brightness and in camera mode the whole time. Battery ran out fast. Didn’t help that sometimes I couldn’t tell if a picture took so I would take another. Then there were times I thought a picture did take and it didn’t ( like with the turtle). ☹️ Overall, pretty cool thing we just did.
We were pretty beat by the end of the day. Oh, and we get to get up before the butt crack of dawn tomorrow to catch our 5:10am flight to our next adventure.Read more