Her Highness: Great Barrier Reef

We were always a bit skeptical about the Great Barrier Reef. One of the reasons is that to snorkel on the Reef, you have to book an organized tour, which makes the experience an expensive one. It is also less adventurous than snorkeling on fringe reefs, which you can access from a beach and explore at your own pace and for as long as you want.

Moreover, we heard a lot of mixed comments from other adventurers. We talked to people who snorkeled with us at some of our favorite places, such as Fiji and Coral Bay in Western Australia, and a few said that the Great Barrier Reef was still the best place, but some others found their experience in Fiji or Coral Bay better.

After some deliberation we decided to go and see for ourselves. Well, let me save you the suspense: it was sooooo worth it! It is true that it was very touristy, that we had to share our experience with 50 or so other people, but on this one day we saw all the fishes we saw at the other reefs and more.

The corals were at least as amazing (if not more) as in Coral Bay, and the fishes more plentiful and even more varied. Our four most special encounters were the following:

1. A huge Napoleon Fish (on the first picture). It was almost as long as me (over 1.5m length) and massive but at the same time playfully colourful. It looked to me as if somebody took a colourful little aquarium fish and blew it out of proportion.

2. Three reef sharks we saw swimming around and chilling out. I watched them for a few minutes and then went closer to the boat, just in case. Marc took on the responsibility to put sharks in pictures as a proof of our encounter (I should stress that reef sharks are not at all dangerous to humans, I was fleeing only because I couldn’t handle the psychological pressure).

3. Some brown turtles that let us swim with them for a long time before they decided to go away (and if a turtle decides to go away there is no catching it in the water).

4. Ubiquitous parrot fish, which are very pretty and colourful. But the most impressive thing about them is that you can actually hear them before you see them – they snack on the coral in a very loud manner! (the picture will be posted later on Picasa)

And on top of it all, we got to try diving for the first time in our lives. It was already included in the price of our trip, so we thought: why not? After listening to the briefing and safety instructions, I almost decided against it. But I’m very happy that I fought my fears and decided to try. It is true that during our dive (and it is probably true for diving on the Great Barrier Reef in general) I didn’t see much more than when I was snorkeling. But the distance between me and the marine life felt much smaller. Instead of watching the spectacle from above I was in the middle of it. Quite an exhilarating feeling!

Marc and I strongly suspect that an experience on the Great Barrier Reef largely depends on the trip one chooses. Some trips only visit the inner reef, which is closer, which in turn makes the trip cheaper. But the inner reef is usually more affected by the high number of tourists and greater proximity to the shores. Therefore there is less marine life and coral to be seen. We chose an outer reef excursion, which is more expensive, but worth every penny.

Even though we have now seen Her Highness The Great Barrier Reef, we are still looking forward to snorkeling in Bali, Thailand and, especially, Egypt. And if I gather all my courage once again, maybe we will even venture for another dive some day :)