The Great Barrier Reef
Michele and I took a week off over the Christmas New Year and went north to the Top End… is that Cairns, or Darwin..? Anyways, we went to Cairns and Port Douglas. The prime attraction there is of course the Great Barrier Reef. We spent one day in the Outer Reef, where the true beauty of the ocean is. Sure, we’ve all seen the photos, and docos and whatever else that shows us the gorgeous reef, with all its colourful corals, thousands of species of marine life, clear green and blue water, but its not until you’re out there, in the water and snorkelling/diving that you realise how amazing it really is. It was rather surreal, seeing everything for myself rather than through the TV screen or books.
We went along with a boat company that takes about 50 ppl just like us. Well maybe not just like us cos about half of the passengers on the boat were certified divers. We joined it for the intro dive, for ppl who’ve never dived before (that’s me!) or have only done it a few times. We stopped at 3 sites, and at each you can either dive or snorkel. Well Michele and I thought its prolly best to get the diving out of the way first. He did, I didn’t. Turns out, I do fear something (ok ok I fear a lot of things, the dark, scary movies, frogs etc but never thought I’d be scared of these sorts of adventures type thing). It was quite unsettling for me to try breath with the oxygen tank under water. I just panicked a bit and started to hold my breath- which is a big no no cos, well, we need air. So I chickened out and got my dive money back. But, I snorkelled and it was very good too. We got to see all the corals in details, all sorts of very colourful fish, and thanks to one of the crew who is a marine biologist, I also got to touch a starfish, one that is just like, or maybe, is a sea cucumber. It’s a species of starfish that doesn’t have any arms, so it just looks like a slug. When I said “thanks to the marine biologist”, its because if it weren’t for him being around, we were not allowed to touch any thing- the corals, the fish, nothing! I think it’s the least we humans can do to respect the superb natural habitat of the reef.
So I went on to snorkel like a fish at all three sites and each time still equally amazed at how beautiful everything is.
We went along with a boat company that takes about 50 ppl just like us. Well maybe not just like us cos about half of the passengers on the boat were certified divers. We joined it for the intro dive, for ppl who’ve never dived before (that’s me!) or have only done it a few times. We stopped at 3 sites, and at each you can either dive or snorkel. Well Michele and I thought its prolly best to get the diving out of the way first. He did, I didn’t. Turns out, I do fear something (ok ok I fear a lot of things, the dark, scary movies, frogs etc but never thought I’d be scared of these sorts of adventures type thing). It was quite unsettling for me to try breath with the oxygen tank under water. I just panicked a bit and started to hold my breath- which is a big no no cos, well, we need air. So I chickened out and got my dive money back. But, I snorkelled and it was very good too. We got to see all the corals in details, all sorts of very colourful fish, and thanks to one of the crew who is a marine biologist, I also got to touch a starfish, one that is just like, or maybe, is a sea cucumber. It’s a species of starfish that doesn’t have any arms, so it just looks like a slug. When I said “thanks to the marine biologist”, its because if it weren’t for him being around, we were not allowed to touch any thing- the corals, the fish, nothing! I think it’s the least we humans can do to respect the superb natural habitat of the reef.
So I went on to snorkel like a fish at all three sites and each time still equally amazed at how beautiful everything is.
posted by S-n-O-o-P-y at 2:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home