The Great Barrier Reef

Hello Wonderful People!

When you think of Australia, The Great Barrier Reef is going to be up there, swimming around in your little head as something completely synonymous with that big country down under! So, obviously it was one of the things I was dying to see while in Aus and it truly was stunning.

As we were running out of time and money in Australia, we decided to go to the lowest point of the barrier reef, as we were in Noosa and couldn’t afford to spend too much on transport. Our chosen destination for the reef was Agnes Water/ 1770, which was a teeny tiny little town on the coast. We booked on a trip to visit Lady Musgrove Island, a coral island 3 hours off the coast.  The whole trip cost just under £100 and included transport to and from your accommodation to the port, lunch, tea, coffee and biscuits and a boast trip to the island and a tour of the reef surrounding it.

I had no idea that it would take so long to reach the reef itself. As I had little knowledge about the barrier reef, I assumed it was located relatively close to shore. Oh how wrong I was. It took nearly 3 hours to reach the island and I didn’t think it was possible for so many people to be sick in such a short space of time. Trust me, if you easily get sea sick, then you may want to give this trip a miss. Four whole bins were filled up with sick bags – I know this may seem like too much information, but I really have never experienced rough sea like this. Apparently we were lucky too, as the crew said this was nothing compared to some days! The waves were also so big that they came crashing over the front of the boat and soaked everyone sitting outside at the back. Hence why we had to wear bright yellow rain coast! When we finally got to the calm waters of the reef, there were several green faces and a huge amount of relief that the floor beneath out feet was now reasonably steady.

 

If this hasn’t already put you off, then I can assure you that the rest of the day was amazing and so worth the hellish 3 hour boat journey! We took a ride in small groups on a glass bottomed boat across the reef to Lady Musgrave Island. The island was beautiful and we were given an excellent guided tour by a member of the crew, who explained about the history and creation of the island. If you really wanted a ship wrecked experience you could camp on the island! However there is no electricity or running water and you have to bring all you own food and supplies with you. After exploring of the island we headed back to the glass bottomed boat for a quick tour of the reef. The coral was stunning and we were lucky enough to see loads of turtles swimming under and next to the boat. I've also never seen such amazingly clear, blue water. It really was stunning!

 

 
After the boat trip and explore of the island, it was time for lunch (my fave part of any day) and a cracking spread was put on! As a veggie, I’m always wary of organised trips like this and what sort of food will be provided. I had already stated that I was vegetarian when I initially booked and they’d said it wasn’t a problem, but I was still apprehensive. The food was lovely and all prepared fresh on the boat. There were different salads, rice, cheese, bread, veggie quiche, pasta and a selection of meats. There were also several choices of cake for pudding, which is always a winner.

I never really thought I had a phobia before, and I don’t know if you can really class this as a phobia, but I bloody hate fish. Alive fish that is. It’s only since I’ve been travelling that I realised I had this fear, but they really freak me out. The thought of going for an innocent swim and then a  little slimy fishy body comes and rubs up against you makes me want to vom. It’s just not natural. I think the thing that set off my fear was when we went swimming in jungle waterfalls in Thailand. There were loads of those fish that you get in the foot spas, the ones that nibble your dead skin, except they were a billion times bigger. I’m not even exaggerating; some of them were longer than my foot. And the little buggers chomped away at you as soon as you touched the water. So, thanks to my new fear of fish I was really struggling with the thought of going snorkelling in the reef, as there we SO many fish there. However, I manned up and though YOLO (cringe, but true), I was only going to get one chance to swim in the Great Barrier Reef, and I wasn’t going to let some little stinky fish stop me. I lasted around 10 minutes and didn’t even bother snorkelling as I couldn’t face seeing so many fish around me. So I happily kicked and splashed around for a while (to scare any fish that came near me) then decided it was too nippy and got back on the boat to eat biccys and drink hot chocolate.

It was soon time for the dreaded journey back to land, which I spent inside with my eyes closed, pretending I was somewhere else. It kinda worked. When we were nearing dry land, a member of crew came round with cheese and biccys, which went down very well. I may have gone back for seconds (and thirds). As we were coming into the bay, there was the most beautiful sunset, which proved to be an amazing end to an amazing day experiencing the joys of The Great Barrier Reef.

S'laters everyone!