The Great Barrier Reef, Qld.

I visited another planet yesterday. We left Planet Earth in a twin-hulled silver aluminium catamaran from Port Douglas that took us to a moored pontoon some thirty kilometres off the Australian coast to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. There I donned a stinger-proof Lycra body suit (hardly flattering), a snorkel, mask and flippers, and I entered another world.

The pontoon where we explored the Great Barrier Reef, and the view from the submersible viewing..

We had three hours out on the ocean on a floating pontoon that provided easy access into and out of the water. Anne had a good go at snorkelling before exploring more of the available options on-board the pontoon – a stationary underwater observatory and a semi-submersible boat that roamed around the reef while you sit comfortably below water level watching life beneath the waves. As for me, I couldn’t get out of the water, other than to visit the toilet, and I explored an area no larger than a couple of football fields for hours. What I saw blew my mind.

I was swimming amongst coral gardens and schools of fish of every imaginable size, shape and colour. A cloud of maybe a thousand tiny iridescent blue fish were hanging over a large bright yellow piece of brain coral. A dozen bright orange angel fish were darting in and around some blue tipped branched coral. Parrot fish that glided over a red plate coral were coloured green but had orange stripes along their body as if trying to impersonate a souped up GT Torana from the early 1970s. A green sea turtle swam by, fossicked for algae on a large round boulder coral before slowly rising to the surface to gulp some air just in front of me and disappearing into the distance. A white-tipped reef shark (less than a metre long) then came into view and sauntered by, not the least bit interested in me nor the fifty-odd other snorkelers and scuba divers in the vicinity.

Such life went on for the entire three hours I was in the sea, and it was fascinating, wondrous and thrilling. All this activity was happening in the few square meters that I explored, but this particular reef (Agincourt) is one of 3,000 individual reefs along 2,300 kilometres of the east coast of Australia. The sheer scale of this other world is beyond my comprehension. But there it was, and we saw a tiny bit of it up close. It was a memorable day.

A crocodile on the Daintree River, having a midday snooze.

At the other extreme that is from the watery world of the coral reef, was the terrestrial world of the Daintree Rainforest. There are so many ways to explore the Daintree, from an easy stroll by boardwalk to a serious 10 kilometre bushwalk. We stuck to the former but we still experienced some spectacular rainforest, waterfalls and views. We also explored a small section of the Daintree River with a guy called Bruce Belcher who took us looking for crocodiles. We saw several, in their own habitat, as well as a tree python, a colony of fruit bats and a frogmouth (type of owl).

One of the wondrous sights of the Daintree rainforest.

After The Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree National Park, and all places and beaches in between, we’ve made it to Cooktown. This is significant for it is as far north as we intend to travel. Beyond here are the rough off-road tracks up to Cape York Peninsula. For us, we will head south and retrace our steps to Townsville and then stick to the coast to eventually reach Melbourne and our ferry home. However, there is still much of this country to explore before then.