My May 4 Blog Entry: Another World

Since the first day that mankind got its footsteps on the moon, people wonder and dream about flying to the moon, to a different planet, exploring another world. Today I did explore another world, a precious and wondrous world! Neither did I have to be an astronaut nor travel through space. I just took a boat off Hamilton Island and got into the water at the Great Barrier Reef. What a colorful and exciting world is waiting there to be experienced! I saw blue-green chromsis that change their color from blue to green and green to blue – the name gave that away, didn’t it. But not only did I see fish in all imaginable colors, I also admired corals in the most funny and beautiful shapes.

Let’s throw in some numbers here: 1.500 species of fish, 400 species of corals, 4.000 species of invertebrate and six of the worldwide seven kind of sea turtles have their home at the Great Barrier Reef. It is the world’s largest living eco-system and – as we were talking about out of space earlier – you can actually see it from out of space. Time went by so fast and seriously, I cannot believe that it is autumn here at the Whitsunday islands, the water was so warm. What impressed me the most at Fantasea Reefworld, which is the company that took us out there and is operating the platform by the reef, was that it really is a trip for the whole family.

If somebody is inexperienced in snorkeling or gets distracted from all the magnificent under water world like me, there are ropes placed in the water that help you find your way. At the same time you can have a great time on the platform and feed the fish. The semi-submersible is not only great for grandmothers and little kids to look at the reef without getting wet, we were all so excited when we saw giant trevallies and floated along the wall of the reef.

After a great morning of snorkeling and getting our footsteps – or should I say flippers – in another world, we took a sea plane to take a bird’s eye view of what we saw earlier. Our plane took us over the Great Barrier Reef, now we could see the different coral colonies and how huge it really is. The pictures give a good idea of what I saw from out of the plane, but I also want to call out some numbers again. I know that is sometimes boring, but not if they are as impressive as these: the Great Barrier Reef stretches 2300km along the north-east coast of Australia and it is 348,700 km² big.

But our trip did not end there. The water plane took us right to Hayman Island, a private island destination situated in the magnificent Great Barrier Reef. We had a stroll on the beach and tried the en

tire world’s food at the resort, which has everything to offer up to a pool that fits as much water as seven Olympic-sized swimming-pools.

All of us had such an awe-inspiring day that the trip on the boat back to our hotel on Hamilton Island was filled with showing each other the pictures we took, being excited about all the different fish we saw or just enjoying the breeze and the memories we all were so lucky to put in our personal jewelry boxes.