The Great Barrier Reef

---

---

One of the greatest natural wonders of the world - the Great Barrier Reef is truly magnificent and spellbinding. Yesterday our visit to the reef started at 08.00 and an hour and a half boat ride out to the reef. A reef tour is best done from Cairns because the distance from shore to reef is shortest there, as you start moving down the coast the reef moves further away and it takes longer to get there hence less time on the reef.

Our first stop was on the edge of the reef and while I snorkelled for almost an hour and a half, Poonam went scuba diving after a while – check her profile picture out on Facebook – Awesome!!! Snorkelling over the reef is so… cool (an understatement!) As soon as you get down there you won’t stop looking around. The reef themselves are amazing and it’s like stepping into a National Geographic documentary. All those things you see on television are right there in front of you. The slight disappointment was that we didn’t see the schools of fish that National Geo has. We still got to see loads of different fishes and it was amazing; would definitely do it again in a heart beat!

Poonam’s dive was a great once in a life time experience. She’s dived before but never seen such amazing marine life along with Nemo. While underwater it’s like you are in your own little cocoon and no one else around you except the natural beauty of the exotic marine life, corals of weird and wonderful colour and the gorgeous blue waters. You can swim around for hours and it seems like only minutes have passed. Then, a photographer turns up asking you to hold a placard saying “Great Barrier Reef” so that he can take a photo of you and make some more money by selling it as a souvenir. It’s as if you haven’t paid an arm and a leg for the experience in the first place but of course you do buy it! We also hired an underwater camera which was worth every cent!! The experience was priceless though. When technology allows I’ll get the photo’s up.

The second dive sight was a turtle hotspot but unfortunately they didn’t turn up. I sat this one out but Poonam went snorkelling again and got some great movie shots. The rest cannot be put into words so I’ll let the photo’s tell the story.

---