A boat trip is fun

Today, as announced yesterday, we visited one of the wonders of the world. And it was soooooooo amazing.

For days, it has been quite windy here, and we noticed that during the 1 1/2 hour boat trip on a catamaran to the reef. I would say a quarter of the passengers were sitting outside with vomit bags.

We were among the others 😃.

But first, a few smart facts:

The Great Barrier Reef is 2,300km long and extends from Australia to Papua New Guinea. It was discovered by our good friend Thomas Cook, who ran his ship "Endeavour" onto the reef (why do we actually say "run onto a reef" - ships don't run, they float). But anyway, the ship was damaged and he had to swim 30km with his crew, because that is the shortest distance from the mainland to the reef.

The reef is home to a large number of colorful fish, sea turtles, over 600 species of hard and soft corals, as well as dolphins and probably sharks.

And as you can see from the "probably", we didn't see them. By the way, we didn't see any dolphins either.

But the rest. Even a sea turtle, it was so amazing. The colors and shapes of the corals and thousands of fish in all sizes and colors. Simply beautiful. Like in the movie "Finding Nemo". I went snorkeling, Carsten ventured into the depths. It was his first dive and after heli-skiing, he says it was his coolest experience. So cool that he did a second dive right away. By the way, Carsten found Nemo.

We've been snorkeling in Key West, Florida before, but it wasn't nearly as beautiful and fish-rich as here 🤩.

For snorkeling, I bought a long-sleeved swimsuit with UV protection 50. I noticed the net applications when I bought it, but didn't think anything of it - until today. We wondered what the manufacturer was thinking. I'll write to them and complain. Thanks to the net inserts, I now have 4 stripes on my back.

The sun in Australia is said to be very intense, that's why we brought sunscreen with SPF 50 and of course used it. You probably thought I'm a little silly, bringing something and not using it. No, I properly applied sunscreen from head to toe. Unfortunately, I didn't think that 5 hours in the water would make even the best waterproof cream fade. The 4 small stripes from the swimsuit on my back are a minimal redness compared to my butt. A baboon fades next to me.

I won't let the sun touch me in the next few days, you can believe that.

And tomorrow we're heading to the rainforest.