Have you ever dreamed of swimming among corals and colourful fish? And to top it off, all that in the Great Barrier Reef in the land “Down Under”, Australia. Being the world’s largest reef, it left me dreaming ever since I was a young girl. It comprises over 2900 individual reef and stretches for over 2300 kms along Queensland.
May the journey begin. Hop on our friends’ brightly painted Toyota van for an 8-hour drive to Yeppoon North of Brisbane. After a long’s night drive we arrived just in time for sunrise over the Coral sea. Summer here while it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere. What a funny feeling. Shortly after our arrival it started raining real hard so we ran and hid at a cafe. What a saddening sight! Luckily for us fresh pastries were welcomed for breakfast with a warm cup of coffee. We patiently waited, unsure about getting on a catamaran to Great Keppel Island. Though not going would feel like such a waste of time. Some locals convinced us to still go before all that rain could reduce the water’s visibility.
A rocky half hour boat ride brought us to Fisherman’s beach at the Southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Yay, no more rain finally. I climbed down the ladder onto white sand. Almost our own private island. Seems like the rain deterred people. A plus for us.I followed a narrow trail through the forest.
A brush-tail possum stared at me with its two big round eyes from inside a hollow branch. He looked more dry than us.
Monkey beach stood ahead, peaceful and empty with a few cows strolling on the rolling hills. A couple showed up later in the afternoon. Mask on and fins in my feet I wobbled into the water and swam away. Dark clouds cast some shade and left the corals’ colours more plain. This lead to an incredible day since I had never seen that many sea turtles and stingrays all at once. As if everyone of them was just out and about. Great Keppel Island, one in over 900, that composes the Great Barrier Reef was revealing all its treasures to me.
A clown fish colony was quite entertaining to see. Whenever I would approach, tiny red fish with white dots would pretend to attack you. Two foot long stingray would dart away seemingly flying like angels. Kristi handed me a foot long sea slug. Weird texture. Cods swam around us with a rich diversity of bright fish as rain pounded my back.
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Cory, Andrew, Kristi and I sat on the beach and devoured sandwiches before jumping back in the Coral sea. Sea turtles were valsing around us. And all of a sudden my heart skipped a beat. Merely twelve feet below me lay a giant bull ray, half covered in the sand. Pictures of Steve Irwin’s death (AKA Crododile Dundee) flashed through my head. This animal could kill me! From its snout to the tip of its tail it must have been a good ten feet. Froze in time I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the stingray. This was by far the most awing encounter of my day.
I traded my flippers for my sandals and headed back to the beach. Streams now flowed down the tail. Some fruit bats said goodbye as we got onto the catamaran. What a wild adventure! If you are interesting in more snorkeling destinations click here.
Live Wildly Intrepid!
Carpe Diem
Alex
