Our first family holiday in Tropical Northern Queensland was to be for a week. I started wandering on the flight from Brisbane whether one week to see and do all of Port Douglas would be possible. Judging however the energy expenditure of our two year old son and his intolerance of sitting in transit, I quickly started to believe it could be quite long enough.

My first visit to the kilometres of the flora and fauna of the Barrier reef was several years ago. Sailing the Whitsunday Islands had been an unforgettable experience that had ever since given me dreams of bright coloured fish and coral, swimming in warm water and memories of calm, serenity and tranquillity.

Destination outer reef from Port Douglas however, was to be a family vacation. On the morning of departure, we passed various boats of all shapes and sizes, snapped scenery shots and trundled our son in his buggy to where we’d been directed. A huge cruise size motor boat vessel awaited us as did the fairly long arrival queue of other passengers.

We sense quite early on that this was gong to be a full on day out. It was partly the size of the boat and crowds boarding as well as the way our son was running up and down the boat with several newly acquainted toddler friends, that gave this fact away. This particular tour (Quicksilver) was a family friendly trip in every way; room for buggies, room for children to run, tolerance for noise and plenty of activities to do to cater for all ages and abilities once landed at the reef station.

Listening to all that was on offer, as we sped through the water toward the reef station, we started to plan our tactics. We realised it was going to be a go-go-go kind of a day if we wanted to see and do all that was on offer and a strategy would be needed. Swim, lunch and glass boat trip all within four hours.

The reef station did indead have everything; dive tutoring and diving tours, helicopter take off points, semi-submersible glass boats, snorkelling and swimming areas, observation platform, underwater ‘laboratory’ and huge buffet lunch and bar. It was an all singing all dancing permanently erected reef techno station.

In some ways preparing for our swim on the reef could be likened to a bit of a cattle market. There was a mass stampede toward the swimming area, herd like following toward the equipment queues, civilised fighting over flippers and snorkels, followed by much grunting and stomping as we squeezed and stretched ourselves into our lycra swim suits.

It was stinger season, hence the lycra. The Lycra stinger protection outfits came in one colour to suit all but fortunately in several sizes. A simple stretch to fit protective garment was not too unlike pantyhose (which for the record would do just as well). Not to be put off by our chic disguise as blue whales, and after a fair amount of tittering at the sight of ourselves in the suits and echoes of “smile” for the camera, we headed for the snorkel launch pad.

Needless to say, no self respecting stinging jelly fish would be seen dead showing off it’s magnificent reef home. Who would share amazing coral, plant life and crystal clear waters with a loony bunch of tourists like us? As we splashed, swam and spotted fish, I was a little suspicious by the absence of the said feared jelly creatures and did begin to wander at one point, if all this lycra was just for the amusement of the crew and reef fish.

Having satisfied ourselves that the reef and fish are amazing we quickly headed back up onto the landing deck. Off with the lycra and only a short sprint to the buffet table. Dripping in our seats we were assured there will be plenty to eat and drink and still time to do the semi-submersible glass boat before heading back to port.

The semi-sub was therapeutic; with glass windows all around us, it was like sitting in a tubular gold fish bowl. From our peaceful seat we were taken on a tour with a commentary, that allowed us to look in close range at the coral sea floor. What a fantastic family friendly way to see the coral and reef fish.

At the end of the day we were exhausted (us, not our son) and in agreement that it was worth skipping a siesta for. Still seated in our soggy swim wear and salt rinsed hair we returned to port to contemplate what next? Swimming in chain mail with sharks maybe?

Sarah Jacquet works in B2B, B2C, print and web-based media communications within the local, national and international market place. www.writeup.com.au Email:contact@writeup.com.au

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