Beaches, barriers and Islands.

Its been a while ago that I wrote something on my blog. I have seen a lot and traveled to brisbane at the moment. But I still have to tell about my experience at the great barrier reef. This unique under water world. Before I was in Australia diving never had an attractive force to me. but I had ti do it at least once in my life. So I went to the great barrier reef with two dutch girls (Eline and Martine) I met at the hostel in Cairns. Me and Eline decided to go for an introduction dive. Martine stayed with snorkeling.

For this dive we had to practice a couple of easy to do moves. This was needed so you could grab the oxygen hose if you would lose it from your mouth. After this we went to the first spot from the great barrier outer reef, to take are first dive ever. We got into the water showed that we could do the oxygen hose grab and started diving. During the dive I was afraid that I could not repressurise my ears. Luckily it was no problem at al. While diving I saw alot of different types of coral and of course fish. But the main attraction was the sea turtle that we saw. After the dive I reminded myself that I had a fear of swimming in the sea, its because you never know what's under the surface of the sea. There might be a shark!? But then when you go diving you are able to see everything under water and that probably cancels out that hidden fear of swimming in the ocean. But also the surrounding you are in, there is so much to see. Its such a wonderful feeling to be like a fish among the fish. This was the reason I wanted to dive for a second time right after I was so excited I really wanted to see a shark or a manta ray. This was why I had to go again but no luck. After this experience I'm not sure if I want to get a diving certificate (PADI). It was an amazing experience and I have no regrets at al for doing this. But will I still enjoy it after ten times? On the other side I hope to dive with a reef sharks, nurse shark or manta rays sometime. Next to that I'm definitely going to snorkel with whale sharks at the west coast.

After cairns I went to Mission beach for one night just to see the surrounding, I could have gone for a skydive but I wanted to save that jump for new Zealand after Mission beach I went to Magnetic Island, for three nights. I stayed in a hostel that was literally on the beach. Here I met a Couple of great people called Uwe, Antje and Marco with whom I did a sunset hike and a hike in the center of the island. We saw here a wild koala with a baby in her pouch. After magnetic I wanted to go with Antje and Marco to Whitsundays Island tour but it was fully booked for the following ten days. Uwe left a day before us towards an other tour at the Whitsundays. Me Antje and Marco where in the same hostel until they had to leave for the tour. Before they left we BBQ at the beach. They got like free BBQs to use everywhere here in Australia.

Because I had to stay for a long time in Airlie beach I tried to find a cheap way to stay there. That's Why I decided to camp after I stayed at an other hostel where I spoke to two swedish girls that I had met before in Cairns. They had to wait for the tour to but even five more days. When I spoke to them about camping they thought of camping to to save money, but they first had to buy some stuff for camping. During the days that I stayed at Airlie beach I did some hikes chilled at the lagoon, went out and met new people. I also saw like almost everyone I met before I got to Airlie Beach. After this I could finally go on the tour with a dutch guy I met just a couple days before the tour left.