The Great Barrier Reef

I want to apologize *cough aunt Dede and Uncle Mac* for not writing for nearly two months! So now…where to start?

Let’s begin with the Great Barrier Reef…

So we flew up to Townsville, Queensland and hoped on a ferry to get to magnetic island. I stayed in a town house right on the water with 6 other people- it was a lot of fun. Most days we hit the beach or walked around the island. It was tropical a very tropical climate. It was hot and humid; I felt sticky all of the time. We cooked our own meals- it was like we were real adults.

I bought a fishing pole in the hopes of catching a barramundi. When I went to the tackle store and asked the two ladies at the front how I would go about catching one, they looked at each other and laughed. Apparently the barramundi is the hardest fish to catch. They suggested renting a chartered boat, yet even still it would be unlikely that I would catch one. Oh joy. So I went out on the rocks and fished…I didn’t catch a thing. I had no idea what I was doing. Hopefully the next person to rent out the townhouse will have a better go.

We found these HUGE boulders to climb over to get to this secret beach. It took about an hour to climb them. That was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was beautiful, hot, and breezy; my kind of weather. So some of my friends were talking to some locals and told them where we went swimming. The locals said “wait, where did you go swimming?” My friends replied “that beautiful secret beach where nobody goes to and has no public access and the only way to get there is an hour climb over boulders or down a steep hill filled with prickers and poisonous foliage”. You would have thought the description alone would have given us a clue. They gasped “Oh my gosh. That beach is invested with man-o-wars and Box jellies” Duh. It all made sense. We went back anyway.

There were little kids that put out crab traps every morning. As I was walking by one morning, My friend Dave and I noticed all of this motion near the traps. It looked like a big fish near the traps. But we soon realized that they caught something unordinary. We lifted up the trap, and it was a HUGE sting ray. He must have been really hungry because he we completely smashed up against the walls. I have no idea how he even fit! Fortunately Dave found the kiddos and they successfully released him back without getting hurt.

Magnetic Island is beautiful place. There were so many types of cockatoos and lorikeets and it has the largest reserve of Koalas in the world! Unfortunatley I didn’t see any because we didn’t go on any bush walks. But we did see rock wallabies! They lived in these rocks right next to our house! They would just pop out and stare at you. I also saw a baby shark as I was taking a walk along the beach one morning. The current was strong, and something started splashing to get out of the waves and back out to the deep. I couldn’t tell what it was. I thought it was a big fish but then I saw its tale- maybe I’m crazy, but I’m 99% sure it was a small 3 foot shark. Random fact: Did you there are over 800 different types of Eucalypt trees in Australia? You can smell them everywhere.

OH! And I almost forgot about the Reef trip. It was a four hour boat ride out and another four back in crammed boat and it was pouring rain. Let’s just say it wasn’t a pleasant experience. On top of that I was soooooo seasick. I couldn’t even eat lunch. Even when I was snorkeling, I was feeling woozy. The sun didn’t come out until 45 minutes before leaving, so the reef wasn’t as bright and clear as it usually is. Nevertheless, it was absolutely beautiful. There were so many gorgeous fish and coral. There were lots of parrot fish, wrasses, and clownfish. I even saw a sea turtle- she was so slow and graceful; not a care in the world. Some people in the group saw a (small) shark! It’s safe to say- we all made it back safe and sound.

Overall it was a great trip. It was nice to see another part of Australia and another part of God’s glorious creation.