- Hey guys, we're ready to jump in the water.
Snorkelling near Great Barrier Reef.
We're gonna see some sharks, aren't we?
(relaxed music)
- Good morning, world.
6:43 a.m., 7th of March 2019.
We're waiting outside our accommodation here in Cairns.
What is it called again?
Cairns Palms,
The Palms, City Palms.
Right there.
And robynwhale.com
in the house. - Good morning.
- We are actually waiting for a bus pick up to go snorkelling
off Port Douglas, so we're actually getting,
a van's coming to pick us up and drive us to Port Douglas.
I think it's, like, a one hour drive.
I've never done the drive before,
but apparently it is the next best road
after the Great Ocean Road here in Australia to drive.
And then we're gonna get on a boat
and then we're gonna head out to the Great Barrier Reef.
To the, I think the Ribbon Reefs from memory,
but I'll throw up a little map so you can see the itinerary.
We'll spend five hours out on the reef
doing some snorkelling to give you an idea of what it's like.
We'll give you the cost details,
we'll give you the whole thing.
We'll bring you in so you can see what the adventure is like
if you decide to come out here yourself.
(relaxed music)
End of the bus trip,
time to get our ferry ticket and jump on the ferry
and head out to the reef.
(relaxed music)
Hey guys, we're ready to jump in the water.
Snorkelling near Great Barrier Reef.
We're gonna see some sharks, aren't we?
We've had our four hour briefing
- This is us facing another fear.
- Yes, she wants to--
- I faced the snakes, now--
- She wants to touch a shark.
- Are you mad?
- She's gonna touch--
- I'm not gonna touch it,
I'm just gonna swim next to it.
- And touch it.
- No.
- Or a whale shark.
- Can we please go in?
- Go, go.
- The Great Barrier Reef
Robs-y's first time.
- Hello everyone.
I'm about to go swim with some sharks.
Look at his tactic, look at him.
Look at his stylish little outfit there.
(screams)
(relaxed music)
- Too many people here,
it's too crowded.
I keep hitting everybody.
(relaxed music)
How do you feel little Robs-y?
That first dive.
Not thrilled.
Talk about that later.
(laughs)
Not thrilling, not thrilling.
I think you should have been spoiled.
- Wow.
- Raja Ampat, Indonesia, Philippines.
They do put on a good spread here.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, what have you got?
(Robyn laughs)
The whole lot.
- I'm so hungry. - Everything.
- I'm really hungry.
- Good evening, everybody,
20 past six, 7th of March 2019
We're back in the city of Cairns,
we've just returned back from Port Douglas,
a day adventure,
snorkelling slash scuba diving
at Ribbon Reef the outer Great Barrier Reef
here in Cairns, and we're both very tired,
so I apologise in advance but this is just a few minute
debrief of our experience.
First things first, it was a big day,
it was five days, ah five days, five hours of (laughs)
I'm off to a good start.
(laughs)
The food was amazing,
like the lunch they provided was incredible actually.
I'll show you what that looks like.
Really, really nice.
They had tea, coffee, all that sort of stuff
all included in the price.
The staff are friendly.
The briefings they gave for the scuba diving
and the snorkelling were thorough,
which is great 'cause some places don't give a briefing,
like in Mexico there's no briefing,
in Thailand it's like a little briefing,
Indonesia there's like no briefing,
they just send you off into the reef
and if you're not experienced,
some people just destroy the reef.
One thing I didn't like about it,
I'm just gonna be brutally honest,
is that it was too crowded for me.
It felt a little bit like a sausage factory
of like, just churning out tourists.
You know like, there's 80 people on board
and we're in off season now,
it's not even like peak season right,
the boat was crazy, there's people everywhere,
and like we're all getting into the water
and everyone's, it was just crowded
and to Robyn's point before like, they basically
said there was an area that we could snorkel
within a very constricted area
that we could snorkel within.
I understand they've only got so many crew
and they need to watch everybody, I get that,
but it just made it very congested
like, you're swimming around,
you're getting flippered in the face. (laughs)
Robs got head butted twice. (laughs)
You're just looking at the fish and boosh,
you get smashed in the face by another snorkeler.
So I wasn't a fan of that, I didn't like that,
I think we've been spoiled from like, Indonesia,
Raja Ampat, Wakatobi,
just being out, sort of in the wilderness with nobody
around so not a big fan of that.
Yeah, and I found that, it is off season,
just to make it very clear if you're looking
at coming here, it is off season,
it is the wet season
and it is cyclone season,
so today was a cloudy day with every now and again
a little bit of sunshine,
and it just means if it's a cloudy day
you're not gonna really see the reef,
it's gonna be a little bit murky,
the visibility, it's gonna look not good.
The current was strong so I'll throw up clips
of exactly what the first dive site,
Three Sisters looks like.
Very murky, no filters, just straight from the camera,
no BS, no marketing, just exactly what we saw.
I wasn't impressed by it to be honest with you.
The second dive site, I'll show you some clips of that.
Saw a shark, that was cool,
swam after the shark for a little bit.
I found that was probably the highlight
of my trip, actually.
So the company is like, super like,
they've got their shit sorted, like everything's running
like a well oiled machine.
I give them super credit for that
and the fact that like, everything is organised.
- Yeah you'd feel safe.
- You feel safe, like, never done diving before,
do it with these guys.
For me it's just the crowding and that's it,
that's my only issue.
Just too many people.
(laughs)
Alright guys, we're gonna go and get dinner.
We'll end off this video with some clips of our dinner
at a place where you can eat here in Cairns
and we'll continue the vlog tomorrow.
See you tomorrow.
(relaxed music)