Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living organism in the world. It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is visible from space. It stretches along Australia's north east coast some 2600km. Cairns is one of the main hubs for visiting the Great Barrier Reef and it was also here we booked our cruise. We settled for a one day snorkel cruise which we got for a very good price. I was first led to believe that it would include a free introductory dive, but it turned out we only got the snorkel trip. I wasn't unhappy long thought. Some of the other passengers had the introductory dive included, and they said it wasn't that great. Only 20 minutes and you had to go four and four together holding hands. In the end me and Annina had more time to snorkel which was just fine.

Because neither of us have a camera that is water resistant we rented a underwater camera before we went on the cruise. It had a special underwater photo mode and we could take unlimited photos and videos. When we delivered it back they simply burned all the content we had made onto DVD's and gave us. Taking photos underwater is a totally different chapter than over water. It's harder to aim and also almost impossible to look at the LCD screen to see if you took a good photo or not. Anyways, of the 300+ photos we took, I have uploaded the ones that were decent or better. Check out the photo album at the bottom of this post.

The cruise turned out to be really good. The first reef we visited was called Oyster reef. Here we anchored almost right next to the reef and we could just swim from the boat and a few meters to it. All snorkeling equipment was included in the trip so we geared up and headed for the ocean. Since I have never snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef before it's hard to compare it to something else. But we did snorkel on the west coast of Australia at Ningaloo reef so that's what I will compare it too. The biggest difference is obviously that the Great Barrier Reef is out in the ocean and the Ningaloo reef is right next to the beach. This did not really make much of a difference in the snorkeling experience. The corals and fish also looked more or less the same. I think the biggest difference was that I saw much bigger fish at the Great Barrier Reef. Probably because it was further out. It was still amazing to snorkel up and down the Oyster reef and look at all the different fish, corals and huge oysters. The easiest way to show how it was it to look at our photos.

After we were done snorkeling at Oyster reef we had buffet lunch on the boat and sunbathed on deck while the boat sailed over to the next reef called Upolu reef. I mentioned in my previous blog post that the weather the last couple of days had been gray and raining. Now the sky was blue and the sun was shining again! It was really beautiful to look out over the ocean with the reef coloring the water turquoise and the hills around Cairns in the distance.

Upolu reef was in my opinion even better than Oyster reef. The water was clearer, there was more variety of corals and the colors were stronger. There seemed to be more different fish as well. Annina saw a Nemo (clown fish). Sadly I didn't. We didn't have as much time at Upolu reef to snorkel but for me it was okay. I was getting quicker cold from the water so I was content. The reefs we visited are both inner reefs. Some people say that the outer reef is more pretty. If it's true or not I am not going to speculate. We both had a great time at the Great Barrier Reef and were both happy with the cruise and boat we choose. The Great Barrier Reef is a must see destination for anyone going to Australia and I am happy I had the opportunity to go there.


Great Barrier Reef: 27. June 2010http://picasaweb.google.com/fatsheep/GreatBarrierReef