Finding Nemo

If you come to far north Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef, it helps to bring big wads of cash, because so many of the activities are very expensive. It is also reasonably hard to sift through what's available and decide what's best for you. There is no official tourist information bureau north of Cairns to help get unbiased information, so you are at the mercy of word-of-mouth and the overtures of the commercial operators.

We chose a day trip on the Reef to the Low Islands. Many of the reef trips are for keen snorkellers and divers. Our group had one enthusiastic snorkeller (me), one non-snorkeller and one keen to gove it a go. The trip we chose turned out to be perfect for all of us.

And yes, we snorkellers saw all of the critters above, which are - top left "Nemo" - a clown anenome fish, top right - sea turtle, bottom left - giant clam, bottom right - Regl Angel Fish. My favourite was the angel fish - we saw some very large ones in a large group, all hungrily feeding amongst the coral. I also have to confess that I did NOT take these photos - they were available on a CD. I didn't have an underwater camera (but they can be hired at a pretty high cost).

Below: The coral island we visited.