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Great Barrier Reef
It the dark parts under the water.Today, I went snorkeling for the first time (other than in my high school swimming pool of course) and despite a rocky start, I loved it. So much so, that I am trying not to spend more money to go out again (it gets pricey!)
I signed up for an all day trip with snorkeling at three sites. The waters were rough and they advised everyone to take motion sickness pills. I took the ginger tablets and did fine on the hour-and a half long trip out to the first site. As soon as the boat stopped and started rocking, I started to feel bad. Luckily, I could just jump in the water and solve that problem. Leave it to me to start feeling sick when the boat stops. I tried snorkeling, they recommended using a noodle (long, Styrofoam floatation device) even for those who knew how to swim. My first time out was a disaster. I felt like I could either focus on swimming so I wouldn’t be swept away or focus on looking what was under the water. I couldn’t get used to breathing through that tube either. Basically, I began to feel overwhelmed decided to can the snorkeling and just play in the water. As I was sitting on the end of a boat, I felt a sharp pain at the end of my ribcage on my left side. I was wearing a full-body lycra suit that prevents stings (and more importantly in my mind, sunburn) so I didn’t think I could’ve been stung. After the snorkeling guide came in, I asked her if it was possible to get stung through the suit. She said it was pretty rare and odds are it wouldn’t happen. I showed her my side and found out that I beat the odds. Too bad it wasn’t powerball. She sprayed vinegar on it and told me not to rub it so the tentacles wouldn’t spread.
Needless to say this first experienced sucked. I am not a big beach/ocean persona and one of the main reasons I went snorkeling on the GBR was to avoid the question “What do you mean you didn’t go out on the reef?” for the rest of my life. At this point of the trip, I felt my doubts about snorkeling were justified. However, because the trip cost a boatload of money I decided to give snorkeling a second chance. Also, I just like being in the water. After that second try, I can honestly say viewing the GBR while breathing through a tube is completely worth getting stung by a jellyfish (Unless it had been one of those poisonous ones, that would’ve been a real downer).
Just like everyone says, the colors of the coral and other sea life are amazing and I still can’t believe how many different types of fish are down there. There are so many different patterns on the tops of the coral. One of the corals reminded me of the geometric patterns you would see on the wall of a mosque. I saw a fish about two feet long and every color of the rainbow. There were schools of fish that were all black with iridescent blue spots and schools of tiny fish that were all shiny blue. One fish was all green with red markings that looked like made it look like an aboriginal painting. I saw a leopard printed sea cucumber and a 5-inch in diameter jellyfish that I quickly swam away from. Sadly, I didn’t see any turtles or shark (the harmless kind), but I did find Nemo and a gray stingray with blue dots, which I was told, was rare to see. They practically had to pull me out of the water and I can’ wait to go again some day.
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Mark P.
non-member comment
Yea! She lives!