Carins Colors so much color

Colors so much color

Today started with the dark blue sky turning to white,
yellow, orange and pale blue as the sun rose over the
Pacific along the Esplanade at Cairns.

Mountains behind me, to my left, to my right and on
them rainforests. In front of green, so green ocean
water for as far as I can see.

Then a short walk back to my hotel and an "Aussie
Breakfast": eggs, English muffin, sausage, bacon,
cereal, mango juice, orange juice. Then a short wait
for my bus pick up to take me to the Down Under Dive
boat to the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

I was scheduled to snorkle and SCUBA dive. I had
never done SCUBA because of my cleft palette. The
crew called a local doctor who said I should be able
to.

Went through the verbal part of the training and the
physical demonstration. I was assigned to Group 4.
So I put on my wet suit, goggles and snorkle and
jumped in for 30 to 45 minutes of snorkling among the
coral. It wasn't long before I realized that no way I
could SCUBA. I had to hold my nose just snorkling.
As a kid I snorkled often with a "full face" mask.
Not with goggles.

So instead of swimming among the fish and coral 3 to
10 metres below the surface, I swam above them and got
a refund good enough to take myself out for a great
dinner or buy lots of sunburn lotion. If I need it
that is. I kept covered up most of the time and the
wet suit covered me from neck to ankles.

Imagine floating in cool water watching a cineramic
display of hundreds of natural shapes called coral,
each possessing their own geometry. Much of the coral
was tan to medium grayish brown with a few scattered
brightly colored multiple shaped color: yellow, varied
shades of green, blue and an occasional purple or
lavender. Add to that are fish ranging in size from
1/4" to perhaps 24". Multi-colored, almost rainbow in
design, black with red tails, black with white tails,
striped-horizontal, striped-vertical. Mother nature
loves to play with most of the colors in her 96 color
Crayola box around coral reefs.

Then we moved to another reef that made the first look
like the opening of the Wizard of Oz (black and white)
and it like the entrance to Oz (full color, full
intense colors).

Floated for awhile over a giant clam shell, about 3 ft
by 2 1/2 ft. I floated long enough when other
snorklers left to see it open its mouth and saw a
small black fish enter its cavernous mouth. Watched
the black fish swim casually back and forth in the
huge mouth and waited for it to slam shut. Alas 3
French snorkblers swam down to it to take a picture
with it just as it was probably going to make its
catch of dinner or at least a small orderve
(spelling).

The sky was brilliant blue with a necklace of whipped
cream-like clouds sitting on the horizon most of the
day. The water was so ocean green and mostly clear.
Not exactly crystal clear. The waves were about a 3
ft most of the day and churned up the sand below us.

Now off to enjoy the evening in Cairns one more time
and off to Brisbane at the other end of the Great
Barrier Reef tomorrow afternoon.

Wandering Alan

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