Great Barrier Reef

From Adelaide I flew to Cairns, spent a whopping 18 hours in Cairns, then jumped on a bus for 10 hours to arrive at Airlie Beach where I went on a tour of the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef.  The bus ride was a long but interesting one.  For starters the route went through some of the hardest hit areas of Cyclone Yasi:  Innisfail, Mission Beach, Tully.  The damage that still remained one month after Yasi was impressive to say the least.  Twisted, uprooted trees, houses destroyed, shorelines, sidewalks, and roads washed away.  Looking out into the hills the hills are brown where the trees have died.  We drove through fields of sugarcane that resembled fields of corn back home.  One nice thing about the bus was there were in-bus movies; 3 to be exact.  2 were pretty good, an Australian movie called Charlie & Boots, The Constant Gardener.  The other movie, Weekend at Bernie's, wasn't too good. 
The tour itself was by far the highlight of my trip.  I went on a tour with 17 other people, mainly Europeans though there were 2 Canadians.  It was an awesome experience.  I had a great time.  The other guests, the crew, the food were all fantastic.  Everyone got along really well, everyone, crew included, was very laid back.  We all wanted to have a good time, so we did.
The day we left it rained most of the day and was windy, which made for some fairly rough seas.  The rain let off in the evening and we dropped anchor in a cove off of Hook Island.  That night the sky cleared and the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud were easily seen.  On the water there were tiny bioluminescent creatures congregating around the anchor chain and they were also seen when waves would break.  It was the only light seen on an otherwise black ocean.  The next day we stopped at Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island and did a very short walk through the woods to Betty's Beach.  On the beach at Tongue Bay there was coral, much like the coral that can be found in fossils back home.  I found that interesting, to see how little coral has changed in 220 million years.  On Betty's Beach, however, was the whitest of white sand I have ever seen.  The sand is composed of over 95% silica and it reflects most of the sunlight striking it, leaving the sand cool under foot.  We were fortunate to have beautiful skies and sunshine when we were on Betty's Beach and even more fortunate to see a sea lion when we returned to the boat.
After that we drove for a couple hours to our snorkling stop, Mantaray Bay.  The views while snorking were indescribable.  There were so many different colors and shapes of the coral, heaps of fish of different sizes, shapes, and colors.  There were fish smaller than my pinky finger to fish bigger than a small child.  The water was very warm, almost 80 degrees, and blue-green in color.  The rain from the previous day stirred up a little silt, but the visibility was still good.  It truly was a surreal experience.  The soft coral was dancing in the current like grass on wind.  There were so many layers in the reefs as well.  The bigger fish were above the reefs with smaller ones near the coral and still smaller ones within the coral.  There were times when I was literally surrounded by fish.  They were so close I could see individual scales on them, yet they were still untouchable.  It was as if the fish knew that I was going to reach out to them before I even made the motion.  I bought an underwater camera and quickly used all the exposures.  We shall see how the pictures turn out.
The last day was bitter sweet as it meant a return to Airlie Beach.  The whole experience was well worth it and is something I would not hesitate to do again.  It should definitely be one everyone's bucket list.