Reefing - Great Barrier Reef / 29.10.18

The blankets in the Mad Monkey Hostels are really sh*tty. They are made of plastic, so the body heat doesn't escape and you sweat as if you were jogging in the sun at 33°C during the day. And when you remove the blanket, the air conditioning is so strong that you almost get chills. Well, other than that, it's cool here.

Today Linni's alarm clock went off really loud. At 6. So not only did we wake up, but also the others who were sleeping here, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

We only had spongy toast and dry cornflakes for breakfast because the good breakfast doesn't start until 8, and finally we walked to the harbor where the Passion of Paradise boat was already waiting. We met Alice, the Swedish girl, at the check-in.

The first reef we visited was the Norman Reef, where our dive was supposed to take place. On the slightly longer boat ride, we already learned the diving rules, the most important ones:

1. Breathe

2. Equalise your ears

When I was descending, I couldn't equalize the pressure in my ears, so unfortunately I had to go back up after only 1 and a half meters of depth and give up my diving equipment to go snorkeling instead, because the risk was otherwise too high. That was really unfortunate, but I also had a pretty good view of the reef below us from above, which was quite impressive, but not as colorful and vibrant as I had imagined. It was pretty damaged and the colors were more grayish, but there were some big colorful fish called parrot fish that reminded me of my childhood and the rainbow fish.

At the second location, after a very delicious lunch on the deck of the boat, the Hastings Reef (fun fact: the Great Barrier Reef is actually not just one big reef, but consists of over 3000 smaller reefs - the inner reefs are almost completely destroyed), we also saw a great big starfish that was deep blue and looked super beautiful. We were also hoping to see some turtles or even sharks, but since the turtles are just returning from their mating season and sharks are still being overfished, we didn't see any - although a few were apparently spotted by others.

We arrived back at the harbor around 5 pm and when we got back to the hostel, we noticed that we had some new roommates - the two cool English guys Ollie and Harry, both 23, who came from Bali and now want to travel down the East Coast in a rental car.

Since the opening of the new bar in our hostel was tonight, there was free beer and pizza, which we indulged in together and had a fun evening.

Song of the day: Deep Water by American Authors, because Alice showed it to me and it's awesome and has to do with water.