At first, I wasn't sure what to expect from the Great Barrier Reef. I was both excited and a little concerned. For one thing, when we arrived I noticed I hadn't brought a towel or a bottle of sunscreen. Plus, since I know I burn easily I knew I needed to borrow some. Another thing was that my mouth was dry the whole day and I thought my mind would be more on that. The shaky boat ride didn't help much either. But when I first laid eyes on the amazing sight of the reef, I knew there was much life to be explored, and I would be the one to do it. I started to get ready by getting all my snorkeling gear together, took a couple steps in the cold water, and set off. My mind was taken over by how cold the water was, but that quickly blew away when I took a good view at the beautiful ecosystem and vast amount of fish to explore. I enjoyed picking coral to swim around and watch the varieties of fish, big and small, take up the reefs and turn the area into an amazing artistic pallet. It was neat to see that the reef was partly what I expected (from my experience of exploring reefs), I was also reminded of coral bleaching and the buildup of dead coral walls for room for new coral as from what I learned from my notes and blog assignment from class. Overall, the day went quite well for me, despite a blood-shot, salt watery eye; I was astounded by what the Great Barrier Reef had to offer.
Like I said, most of the day we spent touring the Great Barrier Reef. I got to see allot of fish and get up close with them, one that really caught my eye was this massive green fish that was at least 5x4 ft. It mostly stuck to the bottom and shady areas, but I liked following it around and watching other fish stick to it for protection. Another thing was that there was a caged area on the boat where we could step into the water and throw fish food in so fish would swim around our ankles in a frenzy and we could feel them. There was also a touch tank on the boat filled with sea cucumbers and a starfish they catch that day and then throw them back in. At some points when swimming I found myself swimming in shallow areas around the coral, and since they didn't want us to harm it and I saw a group of fish that seamed dangerous, I decided to turn back. Then I got out of the water and went inside the boat for lunch. But when I went back out, the exposed coral coming out the water told me that low tide came in for the day. Since it looked kind of dangerous to swim in, I decided to stay out. Then soon enough we went back to the boat to go back to Cairns. During the ride, Mrs. Titus and I played a music guessing game that we started playing a few days ago in Sydney, but then it became more of a discussion of music between a few more of us. Then after a long bus ride back to the hotel, we got into groups of six to go out and check out the town again. This time I hung out with some different guys, lucky too, because they made plans with Alec to meet up after dinner so he could get us into an outdoor bar to watch the State of Origin rugby game on a giant monitor. This area was off limits to anyone under eighteen, even without the intention of drinking. But Alec got us in because he had a friend who worked at the bar, this was another amazing highlight of my day. The game didn't start off well for the team we were routing for (New South Whales), and we had to head back to the hotel during halftime to regroup and go back to our hotel rooms. But later that night when we were watching the game, NSW had taken the game by storm and won 18 to 8. We were all thrilled about the game, but it turned out that good new was enough to brace us for the what was coming, because one of the teachers told me that due to some accident that I had to switch room mates with someone else for the night. It was bad for all of us since we got to be such good friends over the trip, but we all sucked it up and dealt with our new room mates. This interesting day had its ups and downs, but I'm glad to have experienced it.
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