Wow! This past weekend was truly the most amazing experience of my life. My friends and I went on a 3 day trip up north to the Great Barrier Reef with Sunset Safari tours. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was to see one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Friday:
It all started very very early Friday morning when our taxi picked us up at 5:15 in the morning to bring us to Surfers Paradise which is where we took the first bus to Brisbane. Once we got to Brisbane we transferred buses and met our tour guide, Harry. He was an awesome tour guide and was so helpful and nice. We drove about 6-7 hours more north to the Town of 1770-Agnes Waters. We arrived there around 2:30 in the afternoon. We checked into our hostel and my friends and I headed into the town of Agnes Waters. We sat at a coffee shop for a few hours before heading back to our hostel. When we got back to our hostel we got back on the bus and headed up the road a little. That is where everyone on the tour ate pizza and we watched the sunset over the water. There are only a few places in Australia where the sun sets over the water and we got to watch it in person. After watching the beautiful sunset we went back to the hostel and just played some cards before heading to bed. The next morning we had to be up for breakfast at 7 and at the boat by 8 to sail out to the Great Barrier Reef.
Saturday:
Saturday morning we woke up at 6:30 in the morning got dressed and ate breakfast. We then boarded the boat, Lady Musgrave. On our way out to the reef, we were briefed about how to scuba dive. The boat ride out was also super rough and not a smooth sailing ride, but I did not get sick thank goodness! After about an hour and a half boat ride we arrived at Lady Musgrave Island, which is the second most southern point of the Great Barrier Reef. It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! The water was so blue that you could see right through it. Pictures do not even do it justice with how beautiful the reef really is. Once the boat docked on the pontoon the captain did the one fish feeding a day. All these fish were swimming right up at the boat and that was so cool to see. After the fish feeding we were allowed to go snorkeling. My friends and I put on our flippers and masks and went snorkeling for about an hour. We took pictures with our underwater cameras and we saw some of the coolest underwater life ever. At around 11:45 Hayley and Chris got their wet suites on and went scuba diving first. Then at 12:30 Sara and I went scuba diving. Lot me tell you, scuba diving was by far the coolest thing I have ever done. I saw so many different types of fish and I was so close to all the coral. I was a little nervous to scuba dive but it was so awesome and I would easily do it again! The instructor was so calming and extremely nice and she was so close if anything would go wrong. We got to scuba dive for about 30 minutes and after we dove, we took another boat to Lady Musgrave Island here we had a tour. On the island I got to hold a sea cucumber. It was not what I expected but I learned some fun facts about them. They have a livings fish inside them that get in through it's but, and this sea cucumber squirts out this sticky liquid that Aborigines used to put on the bottom of their feet so that they could walk on the coral without hurting their feet. After we went back to the pontoon we snorkels for a little more and then headed back to the Town of 1770. On the boat ride back we all sat up top and fell asleep with the sun shinning down on us. It was extremely relaxing!
When we got back to the land, Harry picked us up and he took us farther up the road to this monument. This monument was where Captain Cook landed and found Queensland (the state of Australia I am in). Harry also told us about koala bears and that their name means "without water". These animals don't drink water and only eat of eucalyptus trees. Although there are over 400 types of eucalyptus tress in Australia they only eat of 7 of them. Also they way that their body processes the trees makes them seem drunk which is why they are constantly sleeping and very lazy animals. I also learned that the word kangaroo means "I don't know".
After looking at the monument we went to the top of the road to this lookout place and we could see the sun starting to set and it was absolutely beautiful. We finally headed back to our hostel where Harry had a BBQ for us with hamburgers, sausage, chicken, pasta salad, potato salsa and many other delicious foods. After dinner my friends and I played cards with some of the other people on our tour with us. There were 4 Americans (me and my friends), 2 French people, one guy from Chile, one woman from Canada, and 2 people from Ireland. Everyone was extremely nice except the people from Ireland. After a few games of cards we all went to bed.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we woke up to have breakfast at 7 and then after hanging out for a little a bunch of us walked into town to buy some postcards. We ended up leaving Town of 1770 around 10 in the morning. Around 12 we stopped at this really good Chinese place for lunch and also stopped to get the most delicious ice cream I have ever had. It was homemade ice cream with real cream and macadamia nuts. It was DELICIOUS! We then got back to campus around 7:30 at night and ate dinner here.
After an extremely long and amazing weekend I was exhausted and just went to bed after dinner. I will never forget this weekend I just had. It was absolutely amazing and I am so thankful that I got to experience and see everything I did. Our next trip that we are planning is going to Sydney for Mardi Gras.
Take a look at some of the pictures from my weekend at the Great Barrier Reef. It was the best time of my life!
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| Watching the sun set at Town of 1770 in Agnes Water. |
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| Lady Musgrave Island |
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| sun set-Town of 1770 |
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| My favorite fish! Beautiful multicolor fish. |
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| Great Barrier Reef |
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| Great Barrier Reef |
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| Sara and I getting ready to scuba dive. |
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| All geared up! |
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| Me ready to dive! |
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| Breathing under water! |
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| Great Barrier Reef |
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| View from Lady Musgrave Island |
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| Top of the boat |
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| Monument where Captain Cook found Queensland. |
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| Sun shinning on the Ocean |
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| Hayley, Chris, Tour Guide Harry, Me, Sara |
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| Sun Set from the Outlook with the bus driving away. |
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| Tour group (Left to right): Hayley, Woman from Ireland, Sara, Harry (tour guide), Chris, Me, French couple, Canadian Woman, Guy from Ireland, guy from Chile. |
