I HAVE always wanted to dive deep into the ocean to see the wonderful colourful world of the underwater corals and fishes.
And where is the best place to experience that than in the world's largest coral system – The Great Barrier Reef in Australia!
Opportunity to travel to the Great Barrier Reef came suddenly when I had to travel to Sydney for a business trip for two weeks in April two years ago.
Although Cairns, the gateway to the world famous Great Barrier Reef is 2400 km away from Sydney, we're lucky as there was a long weekend that I could utilise.
On that Friday night when I took a flight to Cairns from Sydney airport, I was already on vacation mode.
The first night at Cairns was spent by taking a stroll in the beach area in Cairns. There were not many people on the beach.
I saw some Australian Pelicans. The pelicans have the largest beak of any birds in the world. When they spread their wings, they look majestically beautiful.
I also spotted a few fruit bats or flying foxes as they are called. They are the largest species of bats in the world.
You can imagine batman covering the moonlight to put a shade on the ground which is not very small!
When Captain Cook's team first encountered these species while exploring the northern part of Australia, they must have been very frightened!
Next day morning after breakfast I went straight to the jetty to wait for my boat to take me to the Outer Reef area of the Great Barrier Reef.
After a 90-minute boat ride, we arrived at the area where magnificent corals are found. The staff gave us equipment for snorkelling and scuba diving and gave some instructions.
Then, it was time to explore the underwater world. It was just as I have imagined or seen in many programs of National Geographic or Discovery channel.
I was navigating through various passes between corals and came face to face with many fishes of different colours and sizes and many other aquatic animals. There were clownfish and anemone as they are often seen together in pictures.
There were some great moments that will be with me till my last days.
Time went by so fast that all I knew it was time to return back to shore. Tired from the trip, I decided to rest for the rest of the day.
Next day morning I went to explore the jungles near Cairns. It is worth to mention that the forests around Cairns area are part of rainforests of Queensland which are considered to be one of the oldest rainforests in the world.
Many rare species are found only in this part of the world and nowhere else as Australia was isolated from the rest of the world for a very long period.
The Australian continent was surrounded by ocean for many millions of years, and so the plants and animals on that very large life-raft were able to evolve in distinctive ways.
Next day it was time to return back to Sydney. I wish I had more time to explore the surrounding areas.
There are many scenic places around Cairns. And of course, the sea never gets old, you can just pass hours after hours looking at it.
But after exploring the undersea world – I will never look at it in the same way!
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