Finding Nemo and Other Large Fish in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

I flew in to the small city of Cairns. It is a fairly quaint place in the north by the sea and is famous for its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. It has few high rises and many of the smaller buildings have those balconies and pillars round the outside like you’d find in New Orleans, with a few pedestrian walkways lined with trees and smaller park areas it feels like a peaceful place.

I did the essential boat trip out to the Reef while I was here. The Reef itself is simply awe-inspiring, even if we did end up in the ‘touristy and damaged’ part of it. The colours of the coral were so varied and beautiful and the sea-life was plentiful and so interesting to see. Unfortunately, due to the heavy tourism the Reef is getting damaged by snorkelers standing on it or flippers hitting the coral. That is something that stayed with me, the phenomenal site being killed by its own beauty.

I snorkelled for the most part, the reef came up so close to the surface of the water, you didn’t necessarily need to scuba dive as many people from my boat were. I did a dive in the morning (my second ever) but was ultimately left disappointed, holding onto a metal horizontal pole for 20 minutes underneath the boat while I waited for the rest of my group to work out whether they could actually do it, some couldn’t equalize (pop their ears, essential when diving), some were too scared. So I bobbed up and down 3 feet below the surface, jealously watching other divers swim off to the explore the beautiful coral below. When we were all sorted, I saw Nemo (a clown fish) and one large blue fish, photos were taken and we were brought back to the surface. I know I’d only ever dived once before in my life at this point but I could tell that was a shitty experience. I’m so glad my afternoon of reef snorkelling made up for it!

I went on an overnight trip further north to Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest. I had no idea Australia had the climate for a rainforest so I was completely blown away when I arrived. The trees were slim and giant, creating the traditional rainforest bright green canopy above our heads. Vines and ravines surrounded us like spider webs, connecting the vast exotic plants and bushes together.

Our accommodation for the night was dorms in log cabins in the forest. It felt like a much more tropical version on Center Parcs in England. Except I don’t think Center Parcs would ever house the ginormous spiders I saw here. Situated in the worst place… the walkway leading to the loos… the webs were high up, but low enough so that your face (if you were 5ft or above) would definitely find the middle of that web if you didn’t see it coming.

The spiders themselves (there were two not far from each other) had a leg span that was easily bigger than my head. There were a couple of close calls when I momentarily forgot they were on that walkway but I’d remember in the nick of time, backtrack and go the long way round. I was anxious for the person who wouldn’t remember. I don’t mind spiders generally speaking because NORMALLY you can scoop them up in the palm of your hand and chuck them out the window. These spiders knew they wouldn’t be scooped up in any way. In fact, I’d say there was strategy behind their positions –they were just waiting for a big juicy human head to prey on.

I met a couple of lovely German girls on this tour who were great company as we went crocodile watching down a river and got to partake in an Aboriginal Smoke Ceremony. It was interesting learning about the Aboriginals who lived in this part of Australia and their way of life around the forest area. We were told about their old medicines, remedies and tribal colours all made up from the natural resources that surrounded them.

From Cairns, I continued down the East Coast. I visited many towns that had sea, sun and surf. I enjoyed the first two without question…but couldn’t bring myself to try surfing. I’m not great at balancing and holding myself upright when sober and on land so I saw adding water to the equation a pointless exercise. Undoubtedly hilarious for an outsider watching, but not so much for me.

I focused my attentions on enjoying the two main East Coast experiences. The Whitsundays sailing adventure and the Fraser Island 4x4 experience.

For sailing, you set off from an uber cool little town called Airlie Beach. There’s good nightlife, an awesome man-made lagoon with great views of the sea, surrounded by palm trees and of course, lots of boats.

I was booked on to a two night sailing trip on a catamaran called the Tongarra. The idea is it takes you around the most beautiful islands Australia has to offer with pristine white beaches, amazing snorkelling and epic sunsets. I was not disappointed.

I climbed aboard with about 20 other backpackers, a group that was relatively small compared to the other tours available. It made it easy to get to know people but it didn’t take long to find my faves on the boat. There were two other girls who were solo travellers, Leah from the US and Christina from France and another chatty Cathy who constantly cracked me up, Kendall, who was the girlfriend of the Captain of the boat, Henry. She came along on the trips sometimes for fun. Henry’s brother, Charlie, had also come along for the ride. I felt comfortable with these guys immediately. We actually got on so well (ripping each other apart, naturally) others on the boat had assumed we had all been travelling together for a while.

So we had a wonderful few days sunbathing on the boat and the beach (it squeaked like Koh Rong!) and snorkelling. The fish were manic, colourful and large in number and the coral was more impressive to me than what I saw in the Great Barrier Reef. It was all overwhelmingly beautiful and we were surrounded by it. Henry had vast knowledge of the area and somehow managed to captivate the whole group of backpackers into listening to details of its discovery and of the prominent sea-life. It probably helped that when quizzed if we got an answer wrong we had to eat a spoon of Vegemite (Australia’s answer to Marmite), this is how I discovered I wasn’t a fan...

Whitehaven beach is the beach that makes all the others along the East Coast jealous. Even NASA rates the sand so highly it uses it for cleaning purposes (apparently). It’s whiter than white and the sea is the most gorgeous turquoise, when you stand looking down at it from viewpoints it looks insta-filtered- the colour is actually that extreme (see above).

We made our beds by finding a mattress, sleeping bag and space on top of the catamaran wherever you could find one, there would be an awning pulled over us to protect us from the wind and rain. It rained only for a bit during the night but enough to have some people wake up very soggy. Fortunately I was not a soggy one, and I woke up in time to see the beautiful sunrise.

...Only to be spoilt by some horrifying news... I’m not sure how I got so far around the world without it being brought to my attention sooner. Christina was the one who sat down and broke it to me. I think it was especially poignant because the night before I’d been raging to anyone who would listen about the suffering that had been inflicted upon me at various points throughout the journey.

We’d just packed away our mattresses and sleeping bags down in the bunks of the catamaran, some feeling hungover and others (like myself) feeling smug and refreshed and excited for more snorkelling.

‘How did you guys sleep?’ I asked the girls, stretching and smiling.

‘Eli- you SNORE!!’ Christina told me bluntly, laughing with incredulity.

I snore?! III SNORE??! I was so ashamed; I was a part of the annoying snorers backpacker club! Bitterly and secretly hated by travellers the world over, for sleeping in dorms of 4 or more and inflicting sleepless nights on others while we slept soundly without a care. I wanted to go around and quiz all my previous travelling buddies for confirmation – 5 months in without knowing this?! How could this be?! Oh well, I guess I’d try not to sleep on my back from now on…

These girls though <3

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