The Great Barrier Reef - Miracle in The Paradise

Early morning at the Marina, you can smell fresh coffee in the air from nearby restaurants.
Sun rays so nicely warmed ours faces.
Yes, we are in the tropics but when you get used to temperatures like 35 degrees Celsius
than 18 is not that warm anymore ;)
So we enjoyed an every portion of that heat.
Yachts were calmly drifting on the water standing in docks.
One of them was waiting for us :)

Half-awake We waited for call to get on the board. When it finnaly appeared last thing to do was to find ourself on the list.
When my friend booked that trip for me she combines my name with her surname,
apparently my polish one is too hard to spell :D that's why I couldn't find myself on the list, but anyway - WE ARE ON THE BOARD!

The adventure begun.

You cannot be in Australia and not to see these few things:

• Sydney Opera House + Hourbor Bridge ( checked ;) )

• Urulu ( not yet )

• Great Barrier Reef -> So let's go there!

( Actually there are houndreds of things too see, but this is a topic for whole another article,
a book or even a series of them... )

This is where we are and where We were gonna go:

First half an hour was exciting! Waves, Views, Sun, Wind, Fun!!

but then: Waves, Waves, Waves... give me a bag, quickly!!

Unfortunetelly my stomach wasn't as strong as I thought it is, but I felt sorry for those whose suffered sea-sickness even worse than me

First Stop: Garden

I've seen coral reef before from Green Island ( next to Cairns ) but I think here is better.
By better I mean:

• more different kind of corals to see,
• closer to the surface of the water ( I don't need scuba diving to have a close look )
• with the guide ( if you don't want you don't have to follow him ) who's explaining everything you can see underneeth you

By better I don't mean:

• more colourfull!
  If the reef is amazingly blue, yellow, pink, etc etc It's mean: It's dying!
  Vibrants colours of a reef indicate that reef is in stress and soon can die.
  next stop after that is bleaching. and we don't want that!

The Garden is located flat on a large area, with sand paths. You literraly feel like you are walking in the garden! Before first jump to the water,
We had a brief talk about species living in the coral reef, how to act next to them and how to not scared them.
Photos of reef are not in the order they are from different times, I picked the best one given to me
by my friend who works there for one of local companies

After that we had nice warm coffee and some sweets. We chated and shared what We saw there.
And We saw a lot! Unfortunetally no sharks :(
Yes : unfortunetally!
The only ones which swim there are harmless, smaller than human, little sharks.
Between this and another spot I had time for some pictures. So I walked from one part of the boat to another,
tried to capture beauty of nuture at its purest form - far away from people, in the middle of nowhere.
In such a places like that one, you feel really tiny, meaningless. And that is beautiful.

From time to time everyone should climb a mountain, go to the forest,a desert,an open sea -
to not feel like he's/she's a centre of the world. You are just a dust, deal with it!
live your life and let the other people live it the way how they want to.

Next stop was cliff
I went alone there, my friends were to tired and cold after first one and they had a little nap on the boat.
Group is devided into 3 smaller one - each of them have own guide. Of course you could swim without him/her,
but I'm here to learn something too.
I picked the last group, where we were going to do it fast and intense insted of swimming around.
My group had only 3 members and guide, so the lessons were more 'in person'.
We talked about what we were seeing beneeth us and what we could expexct there. We were still hoping for a shark, but he didn't want to appear.
The guide explained us how the dead coral looks like (and he even picked one from the bottom - it was like 6m down! and after he put it again on its place )
What fishes We were seeing there. And We even touched pineapple sea cucumber!! Of course thanks to kindness of our guide

After 30min We went beck to the boat. Tired, Cold, but Happy :)
This time buffet, coffee and fresh fruits were waiting for us. Oh Dear God, I needed that!

The Last stop was comming.
That one is called 'the mountain' and it's quite precise name. the bottom of the see formed kind of mountain covered by corals.
We had to be very careful to not to destroy any of them, because there are very close to the surface, some of them stick out of the water!
Another 40min swim We were really exhausted! But Trip was worth every cent

One girl from the crew explained us what we could pissible saw during the trip, and what is more important:
she told us about all the threats to the reef. Second year in row We can notice big bleaching of the reef,
whhich is very dongerous, because the reef hasn't got enough time to rebuild itself. if that will hapen again and again -
next generation will know about The Great Barrier Reef only from photos and stories...

And if nothing will change in peoples' understanding all the reef wil look like that:

It's a privlage to be able to live here and I appreciate every second i've been given. You never know how much time you have left.
There are two ways to live your life:

1. Live like everything around you is a miracle.
2. Live like nothing is a miracle.
   I choose first one. Don't skip things, feel them.
   Sometimes they happened once. Enjoy your life

That trip was amazing and I don't know when/if I will go there again. I simply enjoyed it.
If my English hurts you eyes, I'm sorry. It is my second language and I'm still exploring it ;)