Day 5 Great Barrier Reef

We again arose early to catch our bus to head to the Great barrier reef. 

One of Australia’s most remarkable natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is blessed with the breathtaking beauty of the world’s largest coral reef. The reef contains an abundance of marine life and comprises of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays and literally hundreds of picturesque tropical islands with some of the worlds most beautiful sun-soaked, golden beaches. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world, and pulling away from it, and viewing it from a greater distance, you can understand why. It is larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing on earth visible from space.

The day was overcast and cool. By the time we arrived at the platform it had warmed up, so it was very pleasant.  We decided to first go to the semi-submersible and see what it all looked like in the dry! The submersible was a platform with and underwater portion that we rode in and viewed the ocean floor. A nice ride that gave us a great view of the plants and fish without getting wet. After the semi-submersible we headed to the area to pick up our lycra suits. The suits are like a dry suit but stretchy  and they cover your head and hands. This is to guard against jellyfish stings.
They do have nets up, but occasionally some will get through the net. Boy were they fun to put on and a joy to get off! All suited up, we went to the platform stairs to the ocean, put on our flippers, donned our mask and snorkel and went into the water. I also wore a life vest just to be and feel safe. In hindsight I probably did not need it and could have used a noodle. This was my first time snorkeling, so at first I was tentative and not sure of myself, but as the minutes ticked by I become more comfortable. It was a little windy and there were some waves so it was a little difficult to stay in one place. The view was wonderful and they were feeding the fish near the entrance.

After snorkeling we bellied up to the buffet for our lunch. We were hunger after all the struggle to get dressed and out of the suits as well as the snorkeling. after lunch the boats horn blew and we boarded the trip for our return trip.

Tomorrow would be another long day and
we will take a train ride to Kuranda village and the rain forest.

G’day mates

This entry was posted in Blog. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *