Australia stops for a race

Today, in Australia, is the Melbourne Cup and the whole country stops for this horse race. It is a Holiday in Melbourne and there are Cup lunches everywhere in the country. Not sure which horse won.
Originally we were going to go on a Rain Forest Tour but we decided we were toured out and were going to have lazy day enjoying the sun and the resort. So we cancelled it.
Last night we met up with Ted and Kim Dickman from BKD and Matt and Patti Snow from DHG. Both are firms in the USA and part of our affiliation. We had found out this summer all 3 couples would be in Port Douglas this week and we agreed to meet for dinner to celebrate Kim’s birthday.
During dinner they invited us on a private boat charter to go to the Low Isles of the Reef.
This morning we slept in a bit and I went for a long swim. After my swim, Celeste and I went for a long walk on the beach. The humidity is very high here.
We met our friends at the pier at 1:00 and went out for a 4 hour boat charter and snorkel trip.
We had a great day. As part of the trip we went on a glass bottom boat and we got to see the coral and fish from the boat. We saw some green turtles.
I went snorkeling for an hour and saw lots of fish and coral. We saw some juvenile black fin sharks. They are about 3 feet and came within 2 feet of us.
I saw a big school of barracudas and some other big fish. The area of the reef had variety of small fish.
We snorkelled right off of this small coral island. The island was made from coral deposits over thousands of years. When you snorkel or dive you must wear these Lycra suits as the jellyfish fish stingers are extremely dangerous and if you get stung you will probably die.
Afterwards we had a lovely dinner before we said our goodbyes.
It was a great day.Read more