Gagabber: Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays

The Great Barrier Reef has always been at the top of my bucket list, so I insisted that we had to see it. I had no idea what a huge variety we would see. The pictures paint a much better picture of this part of the trip so I'll (try to) keep the commentary short. We spent a few days on Heron Island which used to be a turtle canning facility and has now turned into a turtle conservation sight.

We saw a lot of green sea turtles and a huge loggerhead turtle. Loggerheads are endangered and this guy had 2 tracking tags on his fins. He looks small in the pictures, but he was massive and our guide guessed he was about 80 or 90 years old! He was swimming around, eating clams, and generally not too concerned with the snorkelers stalking him.

Munching on clams

Spotted eagle rays

Keep the ocean clean

This lemon shark sure got our adrenaline pumping!

Stingray

As if the sharks swimming around weren't enough, the ocean floor was packed full of stingrays, cowtail rays, and shovelnose rays. There was a few times when we were snorkeling along and realized we were completely surrounded by huge, scary fish.

Next we headed up to Airlie Beach for a sailing trip in the Whitsundays. We stayed on a beautiful boat and had a blast sailing, snorkeling, drinking wine, and relaxing with 3 other couples on board.