Great Barrier Reef!!

Ok, without heading more north we needed to see the Great Barrier Reef. Since we only had a few more days in Australia we needed to go for a day-trip. We could go by bus a few hours up north and head out with a boat, that would leave us with just a couple of hours on the actual reef. Or, we could head out from Hervey Bay where we stayed and then get a lot more hours on the reef. Hm... once again choice... BUT it turned out both of them were the same price!! So, after talking to Mark at Next Backpackers(thanks Mark!) we decided to go for the a day-trip with a flight to the most southern island of the Barrier reef: Lady Elliot.

At 8.10 in the morning the small plane took off:

We were six people in the plane, plus the pilot. The flight took about 35 minutes and it was amazing!! We flew over scenic blue water and saw Hervey Bay from 1500 feet distance... cool!!!


Although we had beautiful weather when we started it was pouring down when we got to Lady Elliot... Well, well.. at least you do not need sunshine to snorkelling right?! So, we were booked on a glass boat at 10.45 which included snorkelling on the depth. So, we had time to do the first snorkelling in the lagoon! We got changed and as we walked with our fins and mask the heavy rain started. Vikings as we are, we just put our towels under the rain-coats and got in the water!

But what an amazing feeling!! The water is so blue, and since it was raining, it was so much warmer than on the beach and what a sea-life!! The most amazing fishes and corals... unbelievable!! And as we swam through the water we happen to just run into a sea-turtle, can you believe it. It just took a rest by the corals and there we were, face to face... it was sooo big and did not seem scared at all... just a meter from two pale swedes... God, wonder what he thought...

We went for the glass boat and the rain just wouldn't stop... but once we got out at bit and got into the water it was again amazing.... warm and blue!! And the scenes under water were fantastic!!!

Then we got some nice lunch and got ourselves dry and pretty warm. Then we went for the reef-walk with a guide. She spotted strange creatures in the reef: sea-hare, anemones, "sjo borre"(sorry, don't remember the english word), sea clams, sea cucumbers and more.

Sea hare (sjo hare)

Sea cucumber (sjo gurka)

After the reef walk we got some left over time to go snorkelling again, and the rain had stopped. So we headed for the "Coral garden" and got to the edge of a reef and got into the blue beautiful sea. And again... amazing views of tree-looking corals. By the end of our time we came once again close to a BIG sea-turtle and got to swam with it a bit... Oh, my god what a feeling!! We met a couple there that had a under-water camera and they would send us some pictures.. we will upload them as soon as we get them!!

When we finally got back to our hostel we were still so amazed with our experience we could hardly find the words. But we made some noodles, got a beer and fell right asleep... Great Barrier Reef tires you out!!

Now we are in Brisbane after one day in Noosa. Noosa was a nice little town with a lot of surfers. (not as good hostel as in Hervey Bay though...). On Friday we are heading to Singapore and I can't wait to see a "new" culture and maybe have some warm days! (So far, Australia has been the coldest country, who would believe that?? I even think that it has been warmer back in Sweden the last weeks...).

Catch ya!