Great Barrier Reef: Trip of a Lifetime from UK Telegraph

From the Telegraph newspaper in London yesterday afternoon, they have this headline: "The Great Barrier Reef, Australia: Trip of a Lifetime" with these highlights: "Mark Chipperfield offers a guide to experiencing the Great Barrier Reef, from the hedonism of Cairns to diving on the pristine outer reef."

Here are a few summary points/items for this part of Australia: "Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a place that generates superlatives – but instantly transcends them. Rated as one of the seven wonders of the natural world, it stretches for 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) along the Queensland coast – from Bundaberg to the Torres Strait. In addition to being the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, this World Heritage Site is also the planet’s largest protected marine area, supporting 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc. Apart from a phantasmagoria of tropical fish, the reef is also home to whales, dugongs, turtles, reef sharks, dolphins and is an important bird habitat. For the past 50 years, the Great Barrier Reef has been a magnet for divers, sailors and people who dream of finding their own South Sea paradise. The reef, therefore, has a remarkably well-developed tourist infrastructure. A number of islands, such as Lizard, Bedarra and Hayman, have their own self-contained luxury resorts – others offer little more than a tent and hammock."

For our Jan. 12-16 period in that area, we will have three full days there. This timing is not perfect as the southern winter (June to August) is best when water temperatures are a pleasant 70F and the days are clear and sunny. In this tropical area, there are two seasons: the wet and the dry. The wettest part of the year is from January to March and this is also the cyclone season. We will also be there during the Australian school holidays when things are more heavily booked. Marine stingers are a big problem between November and March. Stinger suits need to be worn during this period. We knew these challenges in advance, but feel it is worth the risks to experience the rewards.

Two couples from Central Ohio in our group are planning to be with us in Port Douglas during this period. Here is one dining suggestion from this article for this town near the key coral and rainforest areas:

On the Inlet, Port Douglas: "Located on an old wharf, this well-established seafood restaurant couldn’t get much closer to the water; it even has a resident giant groper fish that visits every evening. Nothing too sophisticated, but great value for money – try the local mud crabs, freshly shucked oysters or pan-fried coral trout. See portdouglasseafood.com."

Any other suggestions for doing the Great Barrier Reef area prior to or after our Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014 Solstice cruise? There were several pictures shown with this article, plus many other details to consider for this exciting area. Below are three pictures from this area to share.

Full story at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/trip-of-a-lifetime/10148532/The-Great-Barrier-Reef-Australia-Trip-of-a-Lifetime.html

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 111,432 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Here are three interesting visuals in connection with the Great Barrier Reef. This includes a couple of people snorkeling in these scenic areas, then an aerial view for how the boat from shore docks near one of the coral areas and then an underwater shot showing a turtle swimming. These are from the Bing.com website. Very dramatic and exciting area!!:

Terry, I always enjoy your posts.

Keith

Yup

As a recent snorkeler to Opal Reef, that's what it looks like.

Two points. We didn't take a large vessel out to the reef site. The small group (35) did not disrupt the sea creatures as much as a few hundred bodies in the water would. In fact my DW and I went opposite to our gaggle of 33 and saw many more fishies.

Second, the snorkelers shown are not wearing those body suits. Nice. We were requested to wear them.

Overall the best excursion on our 30 day visit to Australia. Hope you have good weather.

Which vendor did you use for you Opal Reef experience? :rolleyes:

Yup. As a recent snorkeler to Opal Reef, that's what it looks like. Two points. We didn't take a large vessel out to the reef site. The small group (35) did not disrupt the sea creatures as much as a few hundred bodies in the water would. In fact my DW and I went opposite to our gaggle of 33 and saw many more fishies. Second, the snorkelers shown are not wearing those body suits. Nice. We were requested to wear them. Overall the best excursion on our 30 day visit to Australia. Hope you have good weather.

Appreciate these two key points. Very helpful from our friend in Florida. Yes, doing this trip in a smaller group has its advantages. That's our plan/hope. Also, we are also expecting at this time of the year to need to do a body suit to avoid the stingers. Better than alternative!

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 134,898 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

Which vendor did you use for you Opal Reef experience? :rolleyes:

We used Calypso out of Port Douglas.

We used Calypso out of Port Douglas.

Thanks - that's the vendor I was looking at. They responded to me within a couple of hours of sending them an inqjuiry.:cool:

We did a 3 or 4 cruise out of Cairns on the Coral Princess II run by coralprincess.com.au (google Oceanic Discoverer as a short cut so don't get the big Coral Princess). We went out to the further reaches of the Reef and had a dive master and a marine biologist with us who would help us snorkel and would bring live sea creatures up in like a petting zoo:rolleyes: They have a wonderful back deck lift that allows you to go on and off the swim deck without crawling or pulling yourself up a ladder/boat etc. They also have a glass bottom boat that allows you to float over the Reef and see the "scenery" while still dry. It was such a marvelous trip that we promised ourselves we would go again and are taking the same company on a cruise of the New Zealand fiords in Feb 2014.

When snorkeling in open ocean/deep water we learned on this trip that the shortie wetsuit helped your body temperature stay stable and kept MY skin from burning or itching from sun and salt and a snorkel vest makes you more stable in the water and you can look down at the wonderful fish for many more minutes than when swimming/snorkeling without the vest. The reason most good companies demand the vests is that they are dayglow colors with reflective tape patterns that indicate if you are "right side up" and allow the spotters to easily identify their swimmers. We did not see another boat for the whole 3 days unless the captain wants to put in at Daub Island (probably wrong name but they have the single blue butterfly as their symbol) for afternoon tea at the resort.

Highly recommend this pretty expensive 3 day package but it is like nothing else I have ever done in my travels. It truly is amazing and worthy of all the wonderful descriptive words you can find in the dictionary and still you could not describe the experience.

http://blog.queensland.com/2013/07/17/22-surreal-scenes-australia-great-barrier-reef/

Just FYI some nice pics of the Reef's :)

From Silva on our roll call, she has shared this wonderful link to a long series of very nice pictures from the Great Barrier Reef. To encourage others to go to that website and check out the great "eye candy" there, here are three samples that I pulled off and am posting below. Go and see this web link!! Getting excited about being in and around the Reef there Jan. 13-15 before going to Kangaroo Island and then starting our Solstice cruise boarding on Jan. 20, 2013 Fun pictures!!

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 113,025 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Here are just three of those wonderful visuals from the website that Silva shared.:

To me the very most fascinating thing of all. were the giant clams that stood in the reefs with hundreds of "creatures" molecules of food floating by looking exactly like stone walls with delicate red lips. When something alerted the clam or a particularly tasty morsel I guess, the two lips would clash together almost instantly. HUGE clams and sea cucumber like animals and more colorful fish than you could even count. We had tanks of saltwater fish in our den at the time so knew some names of types but never had we seen so many and so large/lively. The hardest part is to not drown when you try to yell " looook there" "look at THAT" with a snorkel in your teeth:D:D The 4 day cruise with snorkeling twice a day was just a top memory.

Don't know that we will do much snorkeling in NZ this trip but I can guarantee that we will snorkel in Moorea and Tahiti in the stopovers coming and going.

There was a wonderful all inclusive resort out in that area of the GBR. Can't remember the name but their symbol was the huge blue butterfly. The afternoon we spent walking their gardens and butterfly house was lovely and would make a great place to spend a few days. Port Douglas not so much and Cairns either. Do have a gambling casino down by the docks.

I don't know what to say. American Navy bombed the reef!

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/us-navy-set-to-recover-bombs-on-barrier-reef-20130721-2qcqt.html