Great Barrier Reef

We are now in Cairns (capital of the tropical state of Queensland) on the north east coast of Australia (almost exact opposite end of the continent from Perth in the southwest of the very dry state of West Australia). We spent an awesome day on the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded the boat at 8 am and it took 1.5 hrs to get to our 1st snorkeling spot on the outer reef. We had to wear Lycra suits to snorkel because it's jellyfish season and some are deadly (the box jellyfish) but luckily it's early in the season and we didn't encounter any. It was incredible - the colours, shapes and textures of the coral reef and all the amazing fish that live in it. We saw giant clams, sea cucumbers and bright blue starfish. After lunch we went to the second snorkeling spot which again was so beautiful. There we saw unicorn fish and a couple of sharks - a whitetip reef shark (about 5ft long) came up on my left about 10 ft away and swam by, it was a little unnerving! The water was so clear and warm (~27C). It's a magical place!Weiterlesen