Finally arrived in Cairns, we started the first day quite comfortably (almost overslept) and then went straight to the hospital to get Simone ready for the trip! Everything went smoothly and the nurse Mark gave us some cool local tips for our road trip. In the afternoon, we had really good fish and seafood and took a look at Cairns Pier. Finally, the vacation could really start.
Great Barrier Reef
Our planned trip to the Great Barrier Reef started on Thursday at 8:00. With the Coral Sea Dream Crew and 10 other participants, we set sail towards the reef. After an introduction to the ship's rules and snorkeling and diving equipment, we made ourselves comfortable on deck and admired the clear water. After a short time, we saw dolphins swimming in front of us.
But there were still many highlights waiting for us in the next 2 days...
A Dream Comes True - My First Dive
Arriving at the first coral reef called 'Wave', my absolute highlight began. The water here was even bluer and you could already observe some fish from the ship. When I heard that we could also try diving on this ship, I immediately knew that I wanted to do it! And there I slipped gracefully 😅 (if you've ever worn a wetsuit, you know that it's not that easy) into my wetsuit. And Kris, my 'diving instructor', took me on my first dive 🤩
After I had mastered the skills I learned on land in the water, we descended meter by meter towards the reef - which was so colorful and vibrant that it's hard to imagine. After about 5 minutes, when I had gotten used to the calm breathing, I could relax and enjoy this magnificent underwater world!!!
Using sign language, Kris showed me special fish like 'Nemo' 😁 or a large clam, and then came the sign for shark - a small shark was chilling 10 meters in front of us on the seafloor. During the first dive, I also briefly spotted 2 stingrays just before resurfacing - so cool. After resurfacing, I couldn't stop smiling, it was such an amazing feeling and I had never experienced anything so impressive!!
For those of us who didn't dive, we went snorkeling in the meantime to admire the small and large fish and corals!
We continued to the next docking point, where we would spend the night. The second dive was about to begin and of course, I wanted to get back in the water (I think I've discovered a new sport for myself 😉). Much more relaxed, I was able to truly enjoy the dive and discover more and more of the shimmering fish and corals in all colors. The highlight of this dive was definitely a giant turtle that I got within 10cm of, such a chilled creature gracefully floating through the water - breathtaking!
A Sunset Like No Other
After dinner, we all gathered on deck to watch the upcoming sunset, which did not disappoint. But pictures speak louder: After the sunset, the next highlight awaited me. I had the opportunity to do a night dive! It felt a bit strange to jump into the water with a flashlight, but I couldn't pass up the chance to see big fish turning into predators at night!! So here we saw another shark and in the beam of our flashlight, we also spotted a moray eel. And another great thing about night diving is that when you resurface from the dark ocean, you discover a huge starry sky above you. When we were sitting on deck again and saw the dark red full moon rise on the horizon, I was just overjoyed that we could experience and enjoy something so wonderful! In the morning, after breakfast, we went into the water again to observe the many fish waking up, and even before that, I thought we had seen a lot, but in the morning, you see even more fish and the corals are so colorful! I didn't want to resurface, but at some point, you run out of air, but even while snorkeling, you can still see this second world so well! Before we returned to Cairns, we went to the last of our stations, the Rief 3 Sisters, which surpassed all previous ones... so many colors and so many fish that it's hard to believe, and if the most important rule wasn't ALWAYS to breathe, I'm sure I would have held my breath in astonishment 😁 Turtles, stingrays, Nemo and Dory, giant colorful mussels, 2 more sharks, and much more! All the colors of the rainbow were represented in the reef - simply incredibly beautiful!! With a big grin on my face because I was able to experience all of this, we returned to Cairns. By the way, it's about 30°C here, and the water temperature is about 26° 😁 So if you ever come to Queensland, you should definitely go snorkeling or diving in the Great Barrier Reef - for me, a dream has definitely come true, and I won't forget this experience anytime soon!
Wow das klingt alles wirklich sehr aufregend! Soo toll, dass du das Tauchen für dich entdeckt hast!! Siehst wirklich glücklich aus 😘♥️
Steffi
Ich wusste das wird dir gefallen. 🐢🐳🐟🐠🦈🐡Die Unterwasserwelt ist einfach unbeschreiblich schön....und jetzt hast du sie gesehen...das ist so schön zu lesen, dass es dir so gefallen hat. Mir gings genau gleich. Dein Grinser ist MEGA. Es freut mich so, dass es euch gut geht....😍😙😙tolle Bilder...
