We first saw it on the flight from Brisbane to Cairns along the east coast of Australia. Hundreds of lemon-green polka dots, on a rich green-blue sea, outlined in white. The Great Barrier Reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland. Later we were to see its template in Townsville in an exhibition called reefHQ, the world’s largest coral reef aquarium. 2.5 Million litres of water that the guide told us is about the size of 50 family swimming pools.

  We saw 130 coral species and 120 types of fish, hundreds of sea stars, sea-urchins, sea-cucumbers, star fish, and sponges. This re-creation of a coral reef was impressive but nothing could compare to the real thing.
  Bathing suits on under clothes, skin coating sun creams and we were away on the big Quicksilver boat from Port Douglas. We were going to The Great Barrier Reef with its 2,900 reefs among 940 islands and cays, stretching 2,300 km. along the Queensland coastline. I looked this up - the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is 345,000 square kilometres!  Larger than Britain and Ireland combined. The reef is incredible in its diversity with 1,500 species of fish, 359 types of hard coral, one-third of the world's soft corals, 175 bird species, six of the world's seven species of threatened marine turtle and more than 30 species of marine mammals including vulnerable dugongs. (I looked this up too). The dugongs (sea cows) are large grey mammals that spend their lives in the sea. Fully grown, they are three metres long, weigh 400 kilograms and look like the manatees of the Florida Everglades. Add to this extraordinary marine life 5,000 to 8,000 mollusks (ranging from minute snails and clams to large organisms such as squid, cuttlefish and octopus). The reef has thousands of sponges, worms, crustaceans, starfish and sea urchins.  

We signed up for the scuba diving option. Husband Jim had done it once before and I was game. Water and me are simpatico. I love to be in the sea and to be dropped into a living aquarium was going to be incredible. Being weighed down with a ton of lead bricks, learning to signal that I have no longer have life-supporting air and smiling for the ubiquitous camera did nothing to deter the joy in the beauty that I saw: the colors of real live Nemos, the huge clam that our guide encouraged me to put my hand into (the clam snapped closed, but only moved a few inches, much to everyone’s amusement including me). How do I relate the beauty, surrealness and tranquility of the Great Barrier Reef? No wonder it is listed under all four natural World Heritage criteria for its outstanding universal value. With summer almost year-around (during our November stay the temperatures was about 28 Celsius), you can dive 365 days of the year. We were told we took our trip at the best time of year. It was the best time of my life.

Lian Couper