It was a hot summer’s day. The sky was a bright blue with fluffy-looking clouds high above me.
I was sitting on the edge of a pontoon floating next to the boat that had brought me and (what seemed like a couple of hundred tourists) to experience the magic of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
With my legs already submerged in the cool water, I put my face mask over my eyes and placed the snorkel into my mouth. After a couple of practice breaths, then I rolled forward into the water for my first ever snorkeling experience.
I spread my arms and legs to make it easier to float on the surface and almost forgot to breathe as I marveled at the incredible scene, I was viewing below me.
It was like entering an Art Gallery blindfolded, then removing the blindfold to have your senses attacked by a wall full of all the brightest colors you have ever seen.
Below me were hundreds of fishes of different shapes and sizes and colors, and below that the coral reef which was even more colorful.
This was nothing like walking through an indoor Aquarium where many sea creatures are crammed inside a glass tank that you can move underneath.
Those experiences are well worth the price of admission but seeing the real thing in the real environment is 1,000 times more spectacular!
The Most Magical Place on Earth
I’ve been to Disneyland, but this was far more impressive because of its natural wonder.
It is difficult to describe the beauty and magic of what I was seeing.
If you have seen the Disney animated movie Finding Nemo which is mostly set in the Gerat Barrier Reef, what you see is similarly vivid in its color. But when you are floating or swimming in this amazingly colorful environment, you become part of the magic.
The Great Barrier Reef really must be seen to be believed.
While my visit was a day trip surrounded by hundreds of other tourists, one of the best ways to really discover and experience the Great Barrier Reef has to be to charter a yacht with 12knots.com.
The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It is larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing on earth visible from space.
Where is the Great Barrier Reef?
The reef is in a marine park stretching over 1800 miles almost parallel to the Queensland coast of Australia.
The reef is as close as 9 miles to the coast and as far as 93 miles offshore and is around 40 miles wide in some parts. It is a gathering of brilliant, vivid coral providing divers with the most spectacular underwater experience imaginable.
The coral gardens that make up the reef are home to many astounding underwater attractions. These include over 400 kinds of coral, plus coral sponges, mollusks, rays, and dolphins. It is home to more than 1,500 species of tropical fish, 200 types of birds, and 20 types of reptiles including sea turtles and giant clams that can live for more than 120 years.
Sailing the Reef
With 20 islands in and around the reef, you are never far from civilization as each island is like a tourist resort.
Most of the year the weather is beautiful, but being offshore from a rainforest area, there can be heavy rains and storms from time to time, so keep an eye on the weather reports.
The big advantage of sailing the reef is your ability to set your own schedule and set your own pace, plus you can go to spots where the large tourist boats never go.
Sailing the Great barrier Reef in Australia and taking time to discover the magic of this environment is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
