First time seeing Great barrier reef

Tuesday, I got up at 05:30am, had breakfast and headed down to the harbor. I was at the harbor at 07am, where I met up with an American couple that was going on the dive trip aswell, but just for snorkeling. We tried fins on and got a suit, we sailed at 07:30am at 08am we picked up some more people from magnetic island. Now we just had a two hour sail out to the reef. I was seasick from 08:30 to 10 and I threw up three times within 30 minutes. But it was all worth it, when I got out to the reef and into the reef there was no problem. I saw a small blue spotted ray and the Cots were everywhere eating the corals our guide had a stick to poke them off the corals and down to the seabed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures because of technical issues, but it was a good experience.

I didn’t get seasick on the way home, so it might have been something that I have eaten. I got back to the hostel at 05pm. I was so tired, I just fell into my bed and relaxed for the rest of that day. I had a new roommate who was singing in the shower, ahahah… my roomies went out to party, but it was ok because it was my weekend, so no worries.

The Harbor in the morning

On our way to the Great Barrier Reef

A day in the city

Sunday, we had a lot of rain. We did the most necessary cleaning and feeding, we were all soaked from top to bottom by 9am.

Monday, we got a text from Kate at 7:30am she wrote “if Dave haven’t already picked you guys up you have a day off, since Kimberly is ill(sick) today.”

So, I figured what I have planned to do Wednesday I could do Monday instead. I changed clothes and went for a walk to the other side of the bay to see the “Maritime war museum”. When I got there, it was supposed to be 5$ entry but the lady said that due to technical issues I could have free entry, Jubiii. There was stories and models of everything from the flight war between Australia and japan to the history of “SS Yongola” a ship wreck I hope to dive soon. It was pretty cool and just next to the sea with a view over the bay.

On my way back, I got acai bowl for lunch and went out for some local shopping, I dropped off the couple of things I bought at the hostel and went to see the Reef hq aquarium. I saw a giant grouper (a fish species), reef sharks, nurse sharks and much more. They had a whole arear telling about how the Great barrier reef is dying, with the climate change and so on... One specific species in particular is really bad, “The Crown of thorns starfish (also known as cots)” which diet consists of corals. So far it has eaten 40% of the reef, and because of the increased nitrogen level in and around the reef there is an increased amount of plankton which means an increased number of cots that survive till adult stage. That is really bad, right now they don’t know how to react, other than collecting them and spray vinegar directly into the starfish to kill it. But they only do this in certain arears, they can’t do it in the whole reef.

Once I left the aquarium, I did some necessary grocery shopping and chilled the rest of the day at the hostel to be ready for diving Tuesday. I hung out with Kenzo and Carolina, they got an idear, if I could get a day off Monday we could go for a day trip. I was ready, just had to ask for a day off, but I had to do the waterfall trip on Saturday, but I will ask anyways to see.

Ship Bell from SS Yongola

Picture of SS Yongola Ship Wreck on the Seabed

A Model of SS Yongola

The View From The Museum

A Giant Spider in the middle of the street

A Dusky Grouper and a Nurse Shark

Crocodile Babies

We had really nice weather with a lot of people in the park.

We did our morning feeding and cleaning, while during food preparation Kimberly came running into the kitchen that the Crocodile eggs were hatching. We all went into the reptile room to see them hatch. The rangers helped them get a larger hole in the shell and they just popped out of the eggs like small rockets. The rangers put them straight into a container of water. It was amazing, first crocodile hatching all well done :).

After lunch i got to help with the reptile show, there were a lot of people at the reptile show.

When i got there Jess and Pio were already in the middle of the show. Jess were handling and telling about the Large Burmese python while Pio showed me how to hold and present the Blue thong lizard. So i got a hold of the lizard handling and now i just had to give it to Jess so she could tell about it. After the show we had a touch and hold session where the visitors can try to hold three different reptiles, a large python, a small crocodile and a blue thong skink which i was presenting :) but the crocodile was still in the cart and Jess were holding the skink so i had to hold the python so that Pio could take out the crocodile and swap with Jess. I got the lizard afterwards, it was such a rewarding thing to present the animals to the kids and some of them tried to hold them. What a great day in zoo :)

When i got home i had new roomies again a english couple and an english girl, the english couple went to bed early because they had to leave in the middle of the night to go to the casino and watch WM in Cricket (England - Wales) So i got waked up at around 2am and again at 4 or 5 am when they got home :/ long night.

I have booked a tour to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef on Tuesday and i have found out that the local Yacht club have a 10$(50kr) join for an evening sail every Wednesday so i will join them this Wednesday. Today (Monday) Kimberly has unfortunately got sick so we can't be picked up and we will have an extra day off, so i might go to the museum or aquarium today, but i ill see what i do.

Crocodile Eggs

Rangers helping Babies out of the shell

What a Cuteeeee <3

The crowd at reptile show

Niels, Tommy And Öjvind

When I got home Thursday I got a beer with Niels, Tommy and Öjvind before they headed out to the city with their class mates from university.

They told me they were going to billabong tomorrow with the class, so we might see each other. We were in a rush Friday morning, we been told there was coming 108 students and they were all booked for a guided tour. We just did the necessary feeding and cleaning and then went straight back for a 10 minutes morning tea before the bus full of students arrived. Me and the other volunteers had to do all the food preparation and washup because all the rangers were on tours. I only bumped into Öjvind and Niels for a minute when they were on their way back to the university.

When we cleaned out the Avery we gave Skimms a bath with the hose :)

Even though we skipped a lot of things we were still running late, because of all the guided tours. We got home at 18pm so that was a long day. I made some rice and Beef sausages mix for dinner, i had something for spare that i could have for tea the next day. Friday was my last night with the Norwegians.

Skimms having a shower

The 5 foreigners Gang

Exciting new people! Tuesday (my Saturday) the Indian girl moved out of the hostel and into her apartment early. I got down to the kitchen and had breakfast with Carolina the Spanish girl, Kenzo the Japanese guy and Cansu the Swiss girl. We met a new girl from South Africa, Candis while we were having breakfast. She was pretty cool and we all got really good along together, so we decided to meet up for lunch aswell. When we were having lunch none of us really had any plans, so we figured that we could go to the cinema? Great there was a movie at 1pm. Unfortunately, Carolina and Candis couldn’t come. So, I went out to the cinema with Kenzo and Cansu, pretty close to be the same name, ahah… We thought we were going to see a comedy, it was a bit funny, but it turned out to be more of a family movie which was alright. After the movies we went back to the hostel to chill for a couple of hours before meeting up all together again. So, we decided to go out for dinner together. It was TACO Tuesday, tacos for 3$ (15DKK) we ordered a couple of tacos each and shared a large basket of fries with gravy. After approx. one and a half two hours in the “Court Yard” we decided to go back to the hostel and have some wine or beers and go out after that. It was really funny we had such a great time listening to music and just chilling at the hostel. The clubs opened at 21 and we headed off, we went to “The mad cow” and took a good round of Pool and a couple of drinks :). For a Tuesday we hit the right day there was a Rome costume theme party the same night, so everybody was dressed out with linings over their chests, luckily, we weren’t the only once that haven’t heard about the costumes, all the once in costumes came from the university. Later on, we went out dancing on another club, we got a good group picture on the dance floor. We talked about going out for Acai bowl for brunch tomorrow, everybody wanted to go. But next morning it ended up being only me and Cansu going because the other had to work. It was really great anyways, I have never tried Acai bowl before, so it was kind of an experience.

A Spanish, a Japanese, a Swiss, a South African and a Dane having dinner :)

Group Picture on the dance floor