One of the “must-do’s” when in Northern Queensland, is visiting the Great Barrier Reef. It is the world’s largest coral reef system, stretching all the way along the north eastern part of Australia’s coast line. It may look like plant material, however, it actually consists of millions of coral polyps, which are small organisms. Coral reef only grows in warm water – in the tropics – and only under water, but no deeper than about 150 m (ok… that’s about 490 ft for the UK…), as it needs sunlight for its growth. Due to this rather shallow depth, it can be easily seen, both from above the sea, as well as when snorkeling or diving. Apparently, it can be seen from space even, but I didn’t check that…

The reef itself is already rather colourful, and so are the fish living there. Besides, there are sea turtles and reef sharks: much to discover…

Visiting the Great Barrier Reef

There are different ways to visit the Great Barrier Reef: most companies offer a boat ride out to the reef, and then people can jump off the back of the boat for a swim and/or snorkeling. A more diverse way is what I did: take a boat out to the reef, where this particular company has an “activity platform” from where the reef can be seen and/or visited in many different ways.

So, on to a boat, leaving Port Douglas behind…

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Activity platform at the reef

As said, an activity often associated with visiting the reef, is snorkeling (photo on the left). I must say – I didn’t do that… guess I’m just rather over-cautious, and hearing about reef sharks and just all sorts of animals creeped me out a bit… so I didn’t gather enough courage. However, what I did do, is look round the “underwater observatory” (a tunnel under water with glass walls), and take one of the “semi-submersible” (middle photo; basically a boat with a deep keel with glass walls). I even splashed the cash on a helicopter ride to see the reef from the air- that was really great fun!

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Some fish of the reef

One thing I wouldn’t have been able to do if I had gone snorkeling, is take photos. So I guess that would be another good excuse for staying dry… Still, the photos don’t really justice to the colours, as they are taken through glass, so just imagine everything a lot brighter and even more colourful.

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The reef from the sky

And here is the evidence of my helicopter flight. Well, at least if you believe that all pictures shown here are mine (which they are!)… I really liked this view of the reef!

Feeding fish

Just after lunch time they fed the fish. Just a little, as they weren’t pets, so needed to forage for themselves, but enough for the visitors to admire them. Some of the fish were so keen that they nearly jumped out of the water to get their food…

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View from semi-submersible

Finally then some photos from insight the semi-sub, as it is also known as. Top photo shows some coral reef – I think the big round flat ones are known as “plate reef” (“bord-rif” for the Dutch). And doesn’t it look like a plate…? And then a few more different fish… Real shame that these photos look so much duller than what I could see through the glass myself. You’ll just have to imagine how it looks like in real life. Or go yourself…

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And that ends this day already. It was really great to see this impressive wonder of creation. And if/when I go another time… I promise, I’ll really try and may even do some snorkeling…