Day 159 - The Great Barrier Reef

Right, I know I gush about stuff all the time - "it was AMAZING" or "that was unreal". BUT, in my defence, we're getting to some properly special stuff ALL THE TIME. So, in an attempt not to gush so much all the time, all I will say about the Great Barrier Reef was that it was PROPERLY AMAZING. seriously. there are no words.



Here's the deal. You pay 200 bucks (which is about 80 quids i think - still not sussed the conversion yet). You get put on a swish catamaran. You bomb it into the pacific for an hour until you can't see any land. Just ocean stretching for miles. The sun is burning down, the spray from the water soaking our clothes, the salt crystals forming on our wind buffeted skin. Then you stick a wetsuit on (that was fun, wasn't it Sam?) and don some flippers. And you jump in.





I was pretty nervous. I get nervous about deep water, and about dark water. Fear of the unknown, that sort of stuff. So yeah, I'm pretty nervous. Sam drops in, flaps around a little, then attempts to smile through her mask. The waters cold - not the glorious temperatures we were led to believe. But it doesn't matter. I dip my head under, and the bottom is miles away. And these big nasty looking fish are swimming around miles down. Its scary. For me at least. But one look up, and in the distance I see some coral. And we start swimming.



Its about 10 metres deep where the coral is, and its unbelieveable. The colours are bright and rich. The shapes are confusing and sculpted. The light shimmers against the fish which are SO beautiful. Massive fish, the size of my thighs (yep, massive) swim around, and Sam's mental, chasing them to see closer and I'm backing off because they're pretty intimidating. Shed loads of tiny fish just seem to ignore us as I dive down and swim through them. In the distance I can see the scuba divers (anthony included) down deep, inspecting the multicoloured neon corals. For an hour, sam and I would swim 10 metres apart, then back together to point at stuff. It was like being on another planet, and I loved it.



Oh, and I don't have any photos, but I held a sea cucumber,which was mental. It was huge - like the size of my thigh. again. and all red and sucky. that was special. and sam and I saw a stingray (about the size of my head) scuttle along the bottom. urgh, it was SO GOOD.



Anyway, i can gush all day about this stuff. photos DON'T do it justice. fact. If you think these look good (I never took them - stock photos, sorry, my camera doesn't like the reef), you'd LOVE the real thing. Its unreal. We saw all this stuff - no just photos of things that look good. it was like this. but better.



anyway, we hit 2 sites either side of an amazing (of course, amazing) buffet lunch. Sam spent the whole day swooning at the deck hand (who later wrestled a small shark the size of his arm) while I just kept myself underwater in total awe. Anthony loves the whole diving thing, so he was cool. And for our return journey, Sam bought herself a bottle of champs to celebrate one of her all-time highlights.



Anyway, back on dry land, we drove our way back to Cairns, booked into a hostel, and chilled out with The Bourne Supremacy before hitting the sack, exhausted. What a day. I loved it. Did I already say that?