Great Barrier Reef – 4 Days in Cairns – Study Abroad Australia

Great Barrier Reef – 4 Days in Cairns – Study Abroad Australia

Great Barrier Reef – 4 Days in Cairns

Report by Valeria F.

G’day lads!

If you happen to think about whether or not you should go visit the Great Barrier Reef, let me stop you right there and tell you that, when in Down Under, it is an absolute MUST-SEE! It is the biggest coral reef in the world, one of the seventh world wonders and who wouldn’t want to see sea turtles, clownfish (=Nemo) and, for the more adventurous, sharks?

It was a Thursday night when eight of us left for Sydney Domestic Airport to board a flight to Cairns. We had a stopover in Brisbane, but other than that there were no delays and the flight was actually relatively pleasant. I can recommend Virgin Australia, the airline we were flying with, because it also offered us complimentary snacks and drinks. However, it is also more expensive than the cheaper airline Jetstar. We arrived in Cairns, Queensland, at around ten at night and a shuttle, which we booked beforehand, picked us up and brought us to our accommodation. We stayed for one night at the “Globetrotter International” hostel, where most of the rooms are air-conditioned and breakfast consisting of cereal, toast and coffee or tea was included. It also had a pool and a garden with a few hammocks in the back. If you guys don’t want to spend much money but want to have an accommodation with good quality, this is the place to go.

The next day was the day we would go on a boat and stay overnight in order to have two days to explore the Great Barrier Reef. The company that we booked is called “Deep Sea Divers Den” and it picked us up at 7:30 in the morning directly from the hostel and drove us to their diving shop first. There we were checked in and left soon after for the harbour, where we set foot on a big boat that easily fit thirty people. We set off for one and a half hours and 16 km away from the shore and that is where we dived for the first time. I had become a certified diver shortly before that trip and I was able to dive with a few of my friends or with people we met on the boat without guidance. However, if you are too unsure for the first time diving on your own, you can book an additional guide for $15. There were a total of seven dives scheduled for two days, including a night dive or a fluorescent dive that we could take during the night. In both dives you would get special flashlights in order to see under water. Diving soon became addictive. We saw so many fish and sea turtles and even a small family of sharks! They were not aggressive. Actually, they are usually very shy. We rented a camera from the boat and took several pictures and videos under water. It was one of the best times I ever had, although it was relatively exhausting because we kept going in and out of the water and lifting and changing out of wet suits and their equipment (and let me tell you, the equipment is heavy and you have to contort your body in ways you can’t imagine to get into a wetsuit… but it’s worth it!). The weather was beautiful and the water was warm and clear. Overall, these were excellent conditions for diving. However, what the reporters are saying is unfortunately true: the Great Barrier Reef really is dying. Grey and white, bleached corals surrounded us for the most part and only very few of them were colourful. It makes it easier to spot all those bright fishes, but it was very saddening to see how much the greatest, most colourful living thing on this planet has changed. We were brought back to land in the late afternoon on the second day and we spent the rest of the day going grocery shopping and having dinner in Cairns. On our third and last full day in Cairns we rented a car and went to the famous Daintree Rainforest that is two hours north of Cairns. We spent the whole day hiking and exploring the forest and must have drunken gazillions of litres of water because it was very hot and humid. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at Daintree Village and ate burgers in a small restaurant. It was at five in the morning the very next day when we boarded a plane back to Sydney, this time with no stopovers. We arrived safe and sound and returned to our lives at university, fondly thinking back to this trip.