We left at 11:15 Thursday night and took a loooonngggg overnight bus ride and ferry ride to get there, finally arriving at 1 pm Friday afternoon. Food was obviously first priority and we had a delish lunch prepared by Maggie, the heinous tyrant of the kitchen who barks at you for taking too long in the sandwich line and watches to make sure you don't take two slices of cake. Maggie is terrifying but she makes a mean ravioli. After that we immediately went snorkeling. Mind you I have been snorkeling precisely one time and that was in 8th grade (TCS '03 what up) so my skills were rusty. After a few failures in the realms of breathing (the mouth is hard when I'm used to the nose), seeing (my mask kept filling up with water), and swimming (flippers can be tricky), I was good to go and we floated around.
Saturday was by far my favorite day. We went out on boats (I thought I was going to fly out and never be seen again) to a spot that was in the deep part of the ocean. It was AMAZING. Every two minutes I would think about what I was doing and kept coming to the conclusion that this was the most incredible experience of my life. We were snorkeling in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. The GBR!! Unreal. We saw tons of animals: rays, sea turtles, sharks, and heaps of bright, colorful fish. It is crazy seeing a completely different world beneath the surface of the water. It's just so vast and open and natural. Definitely in the top 10 days of my life.
Definitely not in the top 10 days was Sunday's night snorkel. Okay, I am not a super scared person, and I'm generally fine in water but OH MY GOD I was terrified. We were in the middle of the ocean, at night, with only a wimpy little flashlight guiding us. Reasons for terror: my mask wasn't tight enough and I could not see (partly because it was filling up and partly because it was NIGHT). Then I started hyperventilating (blatant lie, I just started breathing harder) which caused me to worry that I was having a panic attack (I clearly was not). Then every time a flipper would hit me (and this happened quite frequently as we were all in a tight bunch) I was absolutely certain it was a shark because it was NIGHT which, conveniently, happens to be shark feeding time. Basically, I was freaked out the whole time and didn't actually see many cool things because I was entirely focused on: not drowning, not being stung by jellyfish, and not being attacked by a shark. I think I'm gonna stick with day snorkeling from now on.
Oh yeah, we were actually there in the name of "education," whatever that is... our project was measuring the sizes of poop that came out of sea cucumbers. Science at its finest. We worked really hard for one day and then rewarded ourselves with several trips to the beach to lay out.
Have I mentioned how intense the sun is here? You know, the whole lack of ozone deal. Yeah, well, little miss I-never-get-burned-so-I'll-just-put-on-a-little-sunscreen here learned a valuable lesson. I am no match for the Australian sun. My face got burned, as did my legs. And my knees. The knees were the worst. You can't really see the burn but I assure you it is there. I have newfound sympathy for people who go through this regularly. I generally just assume people are wimps who can't handle a little sun exposure but holy crap it was painful. I now have ridiculous tan lines and will be coming home a full three shades darker.
Now I am back in Brisbane and not looking forward to the rest of break because it is full of nothing but schoolwork, aka the one thing I do not want to be doing right now. I have four papers and an online debate for the next two weeks, which is a lot of work in any place but seems extra horrible in Australia. I just... don't want to.... but alas, it will all get done after I stop complaining.
Bottom line: if you have the time and the money, you must visit the GBR. Seriously incredible. And if you need a snorkel buddy, I'm your gal. Daytime hours only, please.
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