The Great Barrier Reef

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The Great Barrier Reef

Saturday 24th January 2009

We made it! Last year when we were deciding where to go on our travels we both agreed that we wanted to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. This was the dream and the reason we came to Queensland and today that dream was realised. We thought, due to being here in the wet season, the recent cyclone and the abundance of Box Jellies, we might not get the chance but we did! Today all the weather gods worked in our favour, it was the perfect sunny day out on the reef for snorkelling and we discovered that the Box Jellies haven’t been seen out there for over five years so we took the plunge! I did get stung, however, by a Blue Jelly, but more of that later…..

The day started pretty grey and misty and we thought, as we arrived at Clump Point Jetty just north of Mission Beach at 9 a.m. as arranged, that we had wasted our money (we had to pre-pay when we booked). The sea was grey. The “Quick Cat IV” headed first to Dunk Island to pick up a few more customers and a weak sun started to break between the clouds. By the time we had covered the 35 kilometre trip (just over one hour) out to Beaver Reef Marine Reserve on the Outer Reef, the sun was shining and the sea was blue, green and turquoise and the coral clearly visible under the water. This was real picture postcard stuff, especially with a few white sandy cays dotting the reef, although the postcards one sees taken under water are always taken at night when the coral stops giving off algae and can be seen in its brighter colours.

As soon as we dropped anchor we got the gear on and jumped in. The verdict on the water conditions by one of the crew, after diving fully clothed off the side of the boat and re-surfacing was “This is fair bloody beaut mate! “ Conditions haven’t been this good for several weeks due to the weather, so we were very lucky.

We were offered wet suits but didn’t bother with them because the sea was warm. In retrospect, suits would have been a good idea to avoid harm from nasty things in the water. We did put on life vests so that we could snorkel around effortlessly and cover as much of the reef as possible. There were no deadly jellyfish able to poison the system, but we were warned about small blue ones with long tentacles (we also saw white ones with no tentacles that are completely harmless) as well as sea lice that sting like mosquitoes but do no lasting damage and sea leeches. We got a lot of lice stings but after a few minutes they stopped to itch. I got a 12 cm long sting on my upper arm from the tentacle of a Blue Jelly after about half an hour in the water (which hurt a lot and stung for a couple of hours afterwards despite one of the crew putting anti-sting cream on it) and John ended up with a bloody graze on his forearm where he picked up a leech; you can actually see the shape of the mouth on his arm and it is quite a nasty open graze. Considering that some younger fitter folk didn’t venture in, we were quite proud of our “battle scars” and the ONLY way to see the beauty of the reef is by getting in the water and looking under the surface. In fact, we stayed snorkelling longer than we ever have before because the coral was so fantastic and the variety and abundance of marine life was awesome. Check out the photo of the big Grouper fish! It was the experience of a lifetime! I saw a fair sized green turtle (but didn’t have the camera) and John saw a big reef shark, about 2 metres long. He got a photo of it but the head is chopped off in the photo so we haven’t included it in the blog. Having said that, he is dead proud of himself for staying in the water and taking the photo because as our family know, John doesn’t like the idea of sharks much; actually, he didn’t have much choice about staying in the water, being quite a long way away from the boat at the time!

Many of the fish we haven’t photographed. Permanently looking through the lens denies the pleasure of seeing so much. So there are no photos of shoals of blue neons, angel fish, parrot fish, tiger fish and a whole host more. We have quite a few different ones, however, enough to remind us of this colourful and exotic underwater world. We also saw giant clams, opening and closing their mouths and big sea cucumbers (slugs) on the coral beds. The water wasn’t as clear as when we snorkelled in the Dutch Antilles last year but that is because there is so much coral giving off algae. What is sad is the fact that the coral isn’t anything like as good as it once was. One of the crew said that the first time he snorkelled on Beaver Reef, when he was just ten years old, the bright blue “spider’s web’ coral, of which we only saw a small amount, covered a huge area; but that was twenty years ago. The tropical storms wash vast amounts of soil in to the Coral Sea and bring with it chemicals from the plantation farming on the Tablelands. Over time this kills the coral.

We stayed out on the reef about three hours altogether (not in the water all of the time, we ate lunch and had some beers) and then it was time to head back to land. If money were no object we know that we could spend a serious amount of time snorkelling in tropical waters. It was hard to leave, knowing that we wouldn’t be here again. A fellow passenger (Japanese) who we got chatting to told us that Malaysia was pretty good too, so we still have that to look forward to, as well as Indonesia and Thailand. It was a very special day and one that we feared we wouldn’t get; more treasured memories!

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Photos

Made it!
About to start snorkelling on the Outer Reef

9 a.m. at Clump Point Jetty
"Quick Cat IV" in the gloomy misty morning!

Dunk Island
One of the Barrier Reef islands. Weather still a bit dull.

A sandy cay on the Outer Reef
Beaver Reef Marine

Grouper fish
Gentle giant!

Coral
Some blue at the bottom of the photo