The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living thing in the world. It can be seen from outer space. And, if that's not enough, it is home to 1,500 species of fish! Today, it was my mission to see as many of the different species of fish (and all of the amazing different types of coral) in the Great Barrier Reef as I could on a snorkeling tour.
The boat that we took to the Great Barrier Reef was huge! The company had a base boat in the Great Barrier Reef that had a WaTeR sLiDe, snorkeling equipment, pool benches, and two small boats. My friends and I took the submarine boat, where we walked down a staircase in the actual boat! Another boat that we took was a glass bottom boat, where I could just look down and see the coral and species of fish. And we spent the rest of the time snorkeling!!!
At first, I thought it would be hard to see the reef since I would be snorkeling on the top of the ocean, but the section of the Great Barrier Reef where we were swimming was shallow. It was a couple of feet deep in some places (and others of course were deeper-probably around 20 feet!) It. Was. AMAZING. I saw some of the coolest fish, some that were around 3 feet long! And I also saw a baby octopus! I particularly enjoyed seeing the hard coral and soft coral and the HUGE clams.
My friend and I kept swimming. . .and swimming. . .and swimming until the crew blew their whistles at us because the boat was about to leave. Being stranded 2.5 hours from land was not first on our list, so we quickly headed back to the boat. On the way back to the base at the Whitsunday's, I learned a very important fact: THERE WAS A SHARK WHERE WE SWAM THE DAY BEFORE!!!
I can't decide if I am happy that they waited to tell us this important news until after we spent a couple hours swimming, or if it would have been better if they would have warned us! :)
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