The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living thing on Earth, and it’s even visible from outer space. The 2.3000km-long reef is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The total area of the reef is a dazzling 344.400km². To give you an idea: that’s similar as the size of Germany. It consists of thousands of smaller reefs, islands and hundreds of hard and soft corals. It’s home to millions of colorful fish, starfish, turtles, dolphins and sharks. So where to start? You can dive here every day of your life and still not see the entire Great Barrier Reef. You can access the reef from many places along the north east coast of Australia and every part of the reef has its unique spots for you to discover.
I dove and snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef at the end of 2015.
Exploring the Great Barrier Reef!
The beautiful coral of the Great Barrier Reef
Cairns has become the gate way to the Reef and is therefor the common choice for the majority of the crowd. I choose Cairns as well as my base to discover the Reef. I stayed at Dreamtime Travellers Rest which was one of the best hostels I stayed in during my Australia trip. Shay was such a great help to sort out my Great Barrier trip. There are heaps of dive operators to the reef who all offer something slightly different than the other operators. I told Shay what I wanted to see and do, and he arranged the right operator for me.
When we arrived at the harbor it was chaos. So many people, so many operators, so many boats! Although it looked chaotic at first, the check-in went pretty smooth and within an hour we were sailing towards the Reef! Oh wow, the water is so blue! The operators all go to a different part of the Reef so you will not see any of them during the day.
We made our first stop and it was time for my first dive after roughly 1 year. All geared up and off in the water. Within 10 minutes I already saw my first turtle of the day! Turtles are wicked, period! If I could choose what I wanted to be when I grew up then it would be a Ninja Turtle! We were diving through beautiful coral formations and saw plenty more colorful fishes.
During the second dive we were lucky and saw a shark! Not the Great White one, but its smaller far flung cousin. Diving makes you hungry and we were rewarded with a delicious lunch after our second dive. I decided to snorkel during our third and last stop. More beautiful coral and tropical fish. The coral is healthy and they look after the Reef pretty well! A video says more than words, so enjoy below for your viewing pleasure 🙂
So does the Great Barrier Reef live up to the hype? Yes! Why? Because it’s the Great Barrier Reef to start with. And second there are countless spots for you to explore. Maybe 1 spot is better than the other one, but it all depends on what you’re looking for. And with the big fish it’s always a gamble. Some days you’re lucky and some days not and you will not see any fish at all. But that’s the beauty of the underwater world, you will never know what you will encounter.
