So, just arrived back at the hostel after a wonderfull(!!!) day out there on the Great barrier reef. The name fits so well, it truly is GREAT!! I went to the terminal at 7am this morning and we headed out in the boat. I was sitting on the sun deck, talking to people about expectations and whatsoever, and then suddenly we were there at the first reef, the Saxon Reef. We had got equipment and was ready to jump in the crystal clear water - it was 25 dergree(imagine to come from the danish sea and go in to 25* blue water). I jumped in nearly as the first one(they were standing there at the edge as if it was cold???) I put my snorkeling gear properly on and put my face under water - BANG! Hundreds of small shiny fish-steams right in front of my googles!! Got a shock, but after a while I got used to the idea of swimming among so many fishy animals, and I started to really see them, see the corals, the colours and the whole thing- this enormous living organism out there far of the seashore. It was absolutely breath-taking. No wonder that this reef runs under the list of the 7 world wonders. The sun was shining and I swam around in amazement until we got called back for lunch. The meal was great and much appreciated after all this water splashing, and I ate a lot of the good stuff!:) Well, I have to admit that I had some troubles with this snorkelig business - I used to swim a lot and it is somehow stored in my brain how to do it. The problem is that with snorkeling you have to breath both in AND out of the mouth, and keep the nose-breathing-business far away. But I did it over and over - to breath out of my nose, which causes the googles to steam and you can't see a thing, or the airpressure pushes the googles away from your face and the water comes in to your nose. Great difficulties to control my brain to breath in and out of my mouth, and everytime I saw something really exiting, like the big sea-turtle ever, I forgot and had to "clear"my googles again and again. Well, with practice comes the champion, and I managed the second reef, The Hastings Reef, with no problems at all, and WOW it was amazing. So incredibly beautiful!! Well, I had a scuba-dive in the morning, but since my trouble with my breathing-tecknique was pretty inconvienient for going 8 to 10 meters down(in case I should forget to concentrate and breath with my nose), I wouldn't take the chance on it, and so I was a chicken and said no. Next time, I had a great day snorkeling! And then I happened to be back on the boat at the right moment, because I got "secretly invited" to join the excluive Glass-bottom boat ride around the beach, where you sit down under the boat and have a fantastic view of the reef. It was a great trip where the guide told a lot about the reef and showed things and pointet out different fish or coral-arts along the way. I even saw a cave with clown fish(Nemo) and some clams. It was great, great great. But then the time was over, and we started to head back. The sun was shining, waves pretty co-operative and I shared some champagne and fruit with a guy on the sun deck. Perfect day, really, so much worth the money!!

I am now meeting with Janina and Henrik and we will pack the car and hit the road tomorrow morning. I am so exited about it all at the moment, its just great down here. And I am getting brown(er)..Hihi. Take care! Your Angie